The newly opened Margarethen Clinic specializes in aesthetic surgery, dermatology and some areas of urology. It offers patients the ambience of a private clinic combined with the expertise and safety of a university environment. The aim of the opening campaign was to communicate this novelty to a wide audience.

To this end, Fünfstern developed a campaign that takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to somewhat sensitive topics such as breast operations or erectile dysfunction. The fruit and vegetable motifs developed evoke associations with the relevant topic in the viewer without actually addressing it.

The poster campaign was displayed at selected locations in the Basel region and supported with public transport advertising and online banners.

This year, the animal shelter is brought to the shopping center! Because every day hundreds of thousands of consumers bustle about in Swiss shopping centers, while in animal shelters numerous dogs and cats are waiting for a new home.

A few of the stray animals from the animal shelters Strubeli in Hegnau (ZH), Rosel in Brügg (BE) as well as Tierheim an der Ron in Root (LU) will be presented on large screens in over 180 Interdiscount stores and two Microspot.ch showrooms from September 16 to October 19. The aim is to showcase the topic of pet adoption in a novel way and raise awareness for homeless dogs and cats in Switzerland.

Donate with the purchase of products

In cooperation with Coop and the Swiss Animal Protection STS, Mars Switzerland promotes the adoption of animals. By buying products of the brands Sheba, Pedigree, Whiskas, Catsan, Perfect Fit, Dreamies, Cesar and Frolic you support the STS project "Adopt a Pet"which promotes the placement of animals from Swiss animal shelters. For every purchase, 10 centimes will be donated by Mars Switzerland and Coop.

People can help not only by buying products, but also by donating food. Food donation boxes for dogs and cats will be set up at the animal shelter in selected Coop-Bau+Hobby stores. These will remain in place even after World Animal Day.

International World Animal Day

The international world animal day is intended to draw attention to the suffering of animals caused by humans. It has been held every year since 1925 on the name day of the monk Francis of Assisi, who was considered to be particularly fond of animals.

In order for Serafe to report the incorrect or inaccurate household data to the population registries, Bakom, Serafe and the Association of Swiss Population Services VSED jointly defined the information with which to fill out the forms, Bakom said Monday.

Since January 22, 2019, Serafe has been the point of contact for households with questions regarding the billing of the radio and television levy. This measure has relieved the municipalities, which had received a large number of inquiries that concerned other than address issues and did not fall within their area of responsibility, writes Bakom.

However, Serafe was not authorized to make changes to the household data in the residents' registers. A monitoring group had therefore drawn up a feedback process to ensure that the complaints collected from citizens who fell within the remit of the residents' registers reached them.

Serafe would report back to the population registers all the data collected and intended for the population registers in a now specially defined feedback form. This process had been defined on July 30 between Bakom, Serafe and VSED. Bakom informed the cantons accordingly in a letter dated September 27 and asked them to forward this information to the municipalities.

The introduction of the new radio and TV levy had raised numerous questions and caused discrepancies. The VSED complained that Serafe had not sent out the January invoices according to the most up-to-date address data from the residents' registers. However, residents' services were also confronted with questions about deadlines, installment payments, exemption applications and other matters for which Serafe is responsible.

Serafe, based in Fehraltdorf ZH, has been collecting the fees since January 1, 2019 as the successor to Billag. The system change from a device-dependent reception fee to a device-independent household fee came into effect at the same time. Serafe's mandate runs until 2025. For the entire duration of the mandate, Serafe will receive CHF 123 million from Bakom. (SDA)

A bird's eye view of the EPFL - École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (Photo: Facebook/EPFL)

The ecological footprint of the digital currency Bitcoin is huge. The reason is the mechanism that is supposed to ensure the security of transactions, for example, to prevent a Bitcoin unit from being spent more than once. At its core, each transaction must be confirmed by a temporary central controller who controls the entirety of the Bitcoin network and has the authority to add the new transaction to the "blockchain".

For his performance, the central controller receives Bitcoin units, which is why the competition for this role is fierce. The winner is the one who solves a complex mathematical problem - which requires enormous computing power and vast amounts of energy. Experts also refer to this as "mining".

Presumption of innocence as a basis

However, a research team led by Rachid Guerraoui of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) proposes a different, minimalist approach that uses far less energy. "If it's just a question of whether person A is allowed to transfer a bitcoin unit to person B, or if they have already given that unit to person C, D and E, you don't need a central authority controlling the entire network," Guerraoui explained in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. It's a much simpler problem, he said.

Instead of placing all actors under general suspicion, the algorithm developed by Guerraoui and his colleagues, called "Byzantine Reliable Broadcast," assumes the principle of presumption of innocence, EPFL said Monday.

Sampling for assurance

The security of the system can be ensured through communication (or "broadcasting") between participants in the Bitcoin network, the statement continued. Instead of a central controller short-circuiting all participants, the exchange with a sample of other "players" is sufficient.

"If person A wants to pay with bitcoin, the system will not allow person B to accept the payment until it has been ruled out via a random sample of other players that person A has already spent the bitcoin unit," Guerraoui said.

The energy consumption of this approach would be about the same as that of exchanging e-mails, the researcher said. Only a few grams of CO2 would then be emitted for a transaction, compared to an estimated 300 kilograms for a classic Bitcoin transaction.

High security for simple transactions

In terms of transaction security, the new system is in no way inferior to the classic one, EPFL wrote. However, "Byzantine Reliable Broadcast" is not suitable for all applications that are possible with Bitcoin. For example, more complex transactions such as for smart contracts are not possible. Relatively simple applications such as a payment system for a bike-sharing service are conceivable, however.

The EPFL research team has already presented the concept in two publications at professional conferences and received great recognition from experts, according to EPFL. Guerraoui and colleagues plan to make the new algorithm available to the public as open-source code by the end of 2020. (SDA)

The campaign motif developed by Serviceplan Suisse for partners Emil Frey Lamone and Balerna, Garage Torretta and Garage Rivapiana is based on a simple but startling discovery. From a certain angle (and with a little image editing), the famous Ponte dei Salti reveals the outline of the iconographic BMW kidney - a real sight for existing and future BMW drivers.

Since September 2, the campaign motif can be seen everywhere in Ticino in daily newspapers and on billboards.

At the moment, a new motif can be seen on the display board in Zurich's station concourse and on other screens, which PAM developed as part of the ongoing campaign "BDP. Boring, but good" campaign. It features BDP National Councillor Rosmarie Quadranti - the factual politician - and SVP National Councillor Roger Köppel - the drama queen.

The once again provocative subject was picked up by several media outlets. For example Tele Zurich as a frontal attack, and the View believes that the election campaign is finally coming to a head.

The topic was also discussed on social media, including in a tweet by Operation Libero co-president Laura Zimmermann, who spoke positively about the campaign.

As SRF has already announced, the company will have to save an additional CHF 16 million in the short term for 2020. The first measures have already been named and partly also affect TV programming.

Now, for cost reasons, a strategic realignment of SRF 1's late-night programming is also taking place, initially for 2020. There will no longer be any in-house productions in the program slots from 10:55 p.m. onward. As a result of this decision, the talk shows "Schawinski" and "ECO talk" will no longer be continued on Monday evenings.

SRF Director Nathalie Wappler comments: "Unfortunately, we cannot achieve the necessary savings targets without impacting programming. That's why we've decided to do away with talk shows on late Monday nights and are planning to realign the slot."

Discussions are still underway with Roger Schawinski about the exact timing of the program change, whether to the beginning or spring of 2020. That also depends on the media entrepreneur's future career plans. It is therefore not yet clear when the last edition of "Schawinski" will be broadcast. Likewise, it is still open what will be shown in the future on the broadcast slot of the two talk shows. SRF will provide information on this as soon as the relevant decisions have been made.

A television story comes to an end

On August 22, 2011, "Schawinski" premiered late Monday evening on SRF 1. For more than eight years, host Roger Schawinski has welcomed one or sometimes several guests from politics, business and society each week for engaging, controversial discussions.

Roger Schawinski: "Returning to the SRF stage once again with a talk show was something I found both surprising and appealing at the time. Every new management wants or needs to change things. I understand that, especially because there is obviously extremely great pressure to save money. I wish Nathalie Wappler every success in her further plans."

SRF Director Nathalie Wappler: "Roger Schawinski has had a decisive and lasting impact on the Swiss media landscape. Whether as co-founder of "Kassensturz," as a private media entrepreneur or as a talk show host. His services to the media industry cannot be overestimated. I would like to thank Roger Schawinski for once again enriching SRF programming so much with his color in recent years."

With the realignment in late-night programming, SRF is also giving up the continuation of "ECO talk. The program was broadcast five times a year, with Reto Lipp discussing developments in the economy and their consequences for companies and people in conversation with business leaders. In the business magazine "ECO," however, the presenter will continue to present background information on economic events on a weekly basis on Monday evenings.

Facebook will also continue not to submit them to the independent fact-checking partners for review, explained the online network's head of policy and former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

However, Clegg emphasized that the special treatment of politicians' statements ends when people are endangered as a result. In addition, the exception does not apply to political contributions that are distributed as advertising. At the same time, advertisements are not available for the fact checks.

"Our role as Facebook is to ensure a level playing field and not to be a political participant ourselves," said Clegg. He used a tennis analogy to illustrate this: the online network ensures that the court is ready, but does not pick up the racket itself.

Facebook is under massive pressure from Washington in the USA, especially in view of the 2020 presidential election. President Donald Trump and his supporters accuse the online network and other online platforms of suppressing conservative opinions. (SDA)

The Obwalden newspaper in Sarnen (Image: Google Street View)

The head of the new editorial office in Stans will be Florian Arnold, who previously headed the editorial office in Altdorf, which is being downsized, as CH Media announced on Friday. The previous head of the editorial office in Stans, Markus von Rotz, is leaving the newspaper at his own request. The Sarnen office will be closed.

Staff cuts with redundancies were unavoidable. The image/photo, graphics and technical page production departments are also affected. It is hoped that the newly formed editorial team will provide stronger impetus in digital journalism, the statement continues.

The aim of the merger is to maintain reporting from the cantons despite dwindling resources. CH Media, a joint venture between AZ Medien and NZZ-Regionalmedien, which owns the three newspapers, announced last November that it would cut 200 full-time jobs over the next two years. (SDA)
 

Entertaining, entertaining, stimulating - that's what the marketing talks by MK Marketing&Kommunikation and Werbewoche are supposed to be. The third edition on Wednesday, September 25, showed that the innovative event format is increasingly fulfilling this maxim: A good seventy guests came to listen to futurist Georges T. Roos and digital professionals Balz Lendorff, Claudia Staub and Christian Reiter. 

Georges T. Roos, Switzerland's leading futurologist and founder of a privately funded futurology institute and the European Futurists Conference Lucerne, during his opening presentation

The event was kicked off by futurist and self-confessed future optimist Georges T. Roos. He founded a future institute in Lucerne in the early 2000s, is the author of numerous trend studies (most recently: "Megatrends 2038: Challenges for Switzerland") and an expert in scientifically based forecasts. 

In his presentation, Roos named, for example, demographic change, biomedical advances and artificial intelligence as megatrends of the near and medium-term future. With regard to automation, for example, he did not rely on scaremongering but on pragmatism: the world is changing, but people will learn to adapt. 

The musical interlude, which has already become a tradition, was provided by the Zurich band Paul (formerly Clandestine), whose lineup on stage could have easily filled a concert hall. The sound of the six guys is somewhere between folk-rock and singer-songwriter, the music written and produced with a lot of passion. 

In conversation: Balz Lendorff, CEO of Plan.Net Suisse, Johannes Hapig, Editor MK Marketing&Kommunikation and Werbewoche, Claudia Staub, Head Digital Brand Experience & Ecosystem at Allianz and Christian Reiter, CEO of Kingfluencers (from left to right).

The fireside chat covered a whole range of experts from the digital industry: Balz Lendorff, CEO of Plan.Net Suisse, represented the agency side; Claudia Staub, Head Digital Brand Experience & Ecosystem at Allianz, represented the client side. Christian Reiter, CEO of Kingfluencers, completed the panel as a social media professional. 

Balz Lendorff spoke impressively of the changes that the Swiss digital industry has undergone since 1995, when he founded his first company, Netvertising. Before the dotcom crisis, it didn't really matter how much a project cost ("Startups were already financed with 150 million. Money didn't matter!"), today's clients are getting their service providers with ever smaller budgets. Nevertheless - or precisely because of this - innovations should not be neglected: Lendorff brought along an example of how artificial intelligence helps to play out personalized car advertising at gas pumps. This is a pilot project that Plan.Net Suisse is currently experimenting with. 

Claudia Staub reported on the challenges she sees facing the digitalization of the insurance industry. A certain institutional inertia has led many companies in this area not to pay enough attention to digital development - this is a risk, but also a great opportunity. Allianz, for example, is currently testing how it can address customers individually at all digital touchpoints. But Claudia Staub warned: "Insurance is a very private and sensitive topic. That's why we have to build trust before we launch personalized advertising measures."

Finally, Christian Reiter took up the cudgels for influencer marketing: In times of automation, mass mailings and sensory overload, the micro-influencers typical of Switzerland are a trustworthy reference that can inspire potential customers for products. He didn't want to hear any more about influencer failures and black sheep in the industry, because cooperation between customers and their social media ambassadors has long since become enormously professionalized. Problems are the absolute exception. 

The guests and speakers then came together once again at the atmospheric aperitif in a club atmosphere. Until late in the evening, they exchanged their thoughts on the future - and enjoyed the present.

More pictures of the event can be found in Advertising Week 10 2019 (Text: Johannes Hapig; Photos: Thomas Häusermann, Sarah Willi)

The Zurich band Paul provided a successful musical interlude.

Lively discussions at the Apéro Riche in Kosmos.

Anna Kohler, Publishing Director MK Werbewoche, in conversation with musician Paul, keyboardist of the band Paul (formerly Clandestine).

Since June 2019, Promotion-Tools has been located at Wiesenstrasse 36 in Schlieren. The four-story building was built from scratch and offers space for Promotion-Tools, but also for the logistics company Leps and other partners, who are now all united under one roof.

"After more than two years of planning and construction, we are happy to finally have all parties in one house. This allows us to significantly increase our efficiency on a day-to-day basis," says Promotion Tools owner Marco Eberhard. "Together with the builders, we were able to design the building down to the last detail according to our needs. The move is an important step for our future."

The new location is just a few minutes' walk from Schlieren train station and has a modern infrastructure.

The image film "Thinking is the beginning of everything" for the ZHAW was awarded a golden dolphin in the category image films.

Graduates of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW should develop into mature individuals who make valuable contributions to solving key societal challenges. On this basis, Seed created the image film.

Seed received a silver dolphin in the Corporate Videos category for the music video "Real Master" for ETH Zurich. The clip is aimed at potential master's students all over the world.