Switzerland is facing a short but emotional referendum campaign. In just a few weeks, on March 7, 2021, voters will decide whether to ratify or reject the free trade agreement with Indonesia. It will be the first such vote in half a century. The referendum committee has already opened the debate - its representatives are generally opposed to globalized trade, but especially to the import of palm oil.

The Federal Council, business associations and members of parliament from the SVP to the SP see things quite differently. They argue that the agreement would not only benefit trade, but also workers and the environment - for example, because only sustainably grown palm oil would benefit from tariff relief. They say it is a treaty that clearly benefits all sides because it ensures a partnership of equals.

The cross-media campaign will start at the end of January.

In addition to its proven expertise in strategy, content, digital and performance, Helvetas was convinced by its approach to integrated and modern campaigning. "With the Rod team, we want to convince the Swiss public that poverty can be overcome and that it is worthwhile to work for a just world in which all people live in dignity and security and care for the environment," says Stefan Stolle, Head of Marketing and Communications at Helvetas.

The cooperation starts immediately.

Until now, the Tages-Anzeiger and the Zurich regional newspapers (The Land messenger, Zurichsee-Zeitung and Zürcher Unterländer) has been providing independent reporting on cantonal topics. Now, the cooperation that already exists in the mainstream departments is to be extended to cantonal reporting, as Tamedia, which belongs to the TX Group, announced on Tuesday.

The reorganization is expected to lead to the elimination of "individual full-time positions," as Nicole Bänninger, Tamedia's communications manager, told the Keystone-SDA news agency in response to an inquiry. As far as possible, the reductions are to be made through natural fluctuation, internal transfers or other follow-up solutions. Otherwise, a social plan will be applied.

According to Bänninger, the various editorial offices will remain unchanged. These are important for regional reporting.

The Zürcher Oberländer, in which Tamedia has a stake but does not hold a majority of shares, is also part of the cooperation. It is already part of the association of Zurich regional newspapers.

Implementation planned for June 1

According to the press release, Benjamin Geiger, who will remain editor-in-chief of the Zurich regional newspapers, will take over the management of the new Zurich newspaper group. Priska Amstutz and Mario Stäuble, the co-editors-in-chief of the Tages-Anzeigerare also said to be largely responsible for the project.

Detailed planning is to take place in the coming months with the involvement of the editorial teams. Implementation is planned for June 1, 2021. (SDA)

The startup Profital, founded in 2017, has also benefited from the changes in shopping behavior brought about by 2020. According to a statement from Profital, up to 450,000 consumers per month are said to have used the Prospekt app for their shopping planning - 40 percent more than in the previous year. The total number of digital brochures read thus increased by 65 percent to 33 million.

The number of retailers advertising on Profital has also increased from 75 to over 100. Among the new additions are customers such as Dosenbach, Mobilezone and McDonald's. In November, the Profital.ch website also underwent a relaunch.

Juan-Pablo schmid is the new Head of Sales

In the new year, the company intends to continue to drive growth. Juan-Pablo Schmid, who took up the newly created position of Head of Sales on January 1, 2021, will support the company in this endeavor.

The 29-year-old sales and communications specialist comes from Swiss Post, where he was previously in charge of key and business accounts. At Profital, Schmid is responsible for marketing the mobile marketing platform and supporting the more than 100 Profital partners.

In the current survey, some of the questions correspond to the global "Gartner Annual CMO Spend Survey 2020-2021" for the first time, which allows further comparisons to be made.

Media budgets reduced by 14 percent in 2020 

Before looking ahead to 2021, the two associations wanted to know from advertising clients what impact the coronavirus pandemic had on their communications last year. The answers show that budgets that had already been approved were reduced by an average of 11%, investments in agency services were cut by 15% and in media services by 14%. Covid-19 had the greatest impact on media planning, including shifts to digital channels. Message content also had to be adjusted and numerous campaigns had to be canceled and postponed.

More and more digital - also in 2021

Looking ahead to 2021, almost 62% of advertising clients want to invest more in digital compared to the previous year, 25% want to invest the same amount and only 11% want to invest less. The outlook is less positive for offline or traditional media: Only 11 percent of respondents want to invest more advertising money here, 33 percent the same amount and a whopping 52 percent less.

When asked about the breakdown of marketing channels, 32% still want to invest in offline media. More than in any other channel. This is followed by channels such as digital advertising (19 percent), website (11 percent), social marketing (11 percent), event marketing (11 percent), mobile marketing (8 percent), email marketing (8 percent), SEO (7 percent), digital commerce (6 percent), channel/affiliate marketing (6 percent) and others (21 percent).

Content/Campaign Creation and Brand Strategy in vogue

When it comes to the distribution of budgets according to marketing disciplines, four areas clearly come out on top: Content/Campaign Creation and Management (26 percent), Brand Strategy (26 percent), Sales Support (23 percent) and Marketing Operations (18 percent).

TV is ahead in classical music

What should interest Swiss media marketers is the demand from advertising clients in the traditional media mix. TV is clearly in the lead here in 2021 with a share of 41%, followed by print (33%), direct marketing (27%) and OOH/DOOH (26%). Radio (5%), cinema (2%) and other media such as events and POS (12%) only play a minor role.

Although most advertising clients want to invest roughly the same amount in traditional media as in the previous year, further losses are on the horizon for print media. Here, only a few clients want to invest slightly more, but a good 40% want to invest the same amount and almost as many want to invest less. In the other categories, investments remain roughly the same as in the previous year.

Programmatic in demand again in 2021

For the first time, clients were asked how they allocate their digital budgets to specific channels. Programmatic bookings (24%) were mentioned the most, followed by paid social media (20%), search AD (18%), GDN (18%), network bookings (16%), YouTube (13%), native AD (13%) and direct bookings (12%).

Marketing skills in Corona times

54% of the clients surveyed identified content creation and management as well as brand strengthening measures as their most important strategic capabilities for achieving their goals in the coming year. The new challenges brought about by Covid-19 have shifted the focus of advertisers in terms of key marketing capabilities. According to the survey, it was recognized that they need to respond to the challenges and opportunities in the customer journey and adjust the focus of messages and their activation.

This change is also reflected in collaboration with agencies: clients are investing more than 60 percent more in digital, around 50 percent in content marketing and around 25 percent in analytics and branding at their top 3 agencies in 2021 in order to successfully manage brand content and interactions with consumers.

Agency pitch still popular

Despite this time-consuming, often inefficient and costly method of agency selection, competitive presentations are still the most frequently used method of finding a new agency partner. However, some alternatives are catching up fast, such as the written offer, direct award or the chemistry meeting. This development is necessary because in the fast-moving communications industry, efficient and accurate selection procedures are needed to ensure a prosperous collaboration between client and agency right from the start.

Remuneration: Agile pricing increasingly in use

The changing forms of collaboration also have an impact on fee models: agile pricing is currently the most common model used by clients, followed by quotation/scope of work. Team hire, which is particularly suitable for long-term projects, is used less frequently. The percentage fee on the media volume continues to hold up well among media agencies, with roughly the same number of clients wanting this form of remuneration more or less. The success fee is still not widely used, although the measurability of campaigns is becoming increasingly important.

The director, who took over as artistic director in 2012 and overall director in 2013, succeeded in increasing admissions by more than 25 percent and strengthening the festival's importance, a communiqué said Tuesday.

Under her leadership, the festival has not only undergone a digital transformation and reduced its environmental footprint, but has also begun communicating in three languages and increasing the number of filmmakers, jurors and other staff involved.

The position of festival director has been advertised. (SDA)

Continuous development means constant adaptability to new circumstances and challenges, coupled with the ability to integrate new things into the corporate culture; change has always played a central role in Marie-Christine Dreyfus' field of activity, according to a statement from Serviceplan Suisse.

"In order to be sustainably successful as a company, lived diversity represents a central point for me," Dreyfus is quoted as saying in the release. "In a world in which complexity and unpredictability are increasing every day, we need a corporate culture that not only breaks new ground by uniting different perspectives, experiences and opinions, but also promotes innovation. In addition to openness, trust and courage, this requires mutual appreciation and a clear, shared understanding of leadership."

Dreyfus studied work and organizational psychology, business administration and communication sciences at the University of Fribourg. Her great interest in the development of people in an organizational context led her into consulting. Coaching executives and their teams is where she began her professional career, including as Head of Management Development at Swisscom and CEO of a German media group. In 2019, the Swiss by choice moved back home. She is the founder of the consulting agency Dreyfus Faude Partners in Zurich and now also Chairman of the Board of Directors at Serviceplan Group Switzerland.

Manuela Brunner has already been Executive Strategy Director at Jung von Matt Limmat since November 2020. Previously, she was a member of the GL at Freundliche Grüsse and Managing Partner of Foundry in Berlin. Manuela has over 15 years of industry experience, including at Serviceplan, Wirz, Saatchi & Saatchi and Scholz & Friends. She is passionate about brand and communication strategies as well as building and developing companies.

Nathalie Eggen is on board as Executive Empowerment Director at Jung von Matt Limmat as of January 2021 and returns to the agency with this step. She was already part of the dark green family from 2011 to 2017, most recently as Senior PR Consultant. Previously, Nathalie was Managing Director of Kids Creative Agency and, in this role, helped establish the Berlin-based agency in Zurich.

Eva Boretti is also Client Director at Jung von Matt Limmat from January 2021. Previously, she was Head of Digital Client Experience at Ewz and responsible for the development and expansion of the entire digital portfolio on the web as well as the development and professionalization of digital marketing and automation. As a further station, Eva headed Business Development Europe at the TV station Joiz. A native of eastern Switzerland, she has been working intensively for several years on how to build up and optimize the digital relationship between companies and customers in the long term.

"Eva, Manuela and Nathalie bring fresh drive, valuable experience and an open mindset. They will have a lasting impact on the future of our agency, both internally and externally," Roman Hirsbrunner, CEO of Jung von Matt Limmat, was quoted as saying in a statement.

In a playful workshop led by Pinktank, a common target image was created and the corporate DNA was developed. It quickly became clear that an analogy had to be found for the complex term "translational medicine".

The solution is a fractal pattern: the "abstract spiral vortex". The vortex stands for infinity - research can go on and on - and the spiral for energy - translational medicine should allow research to benefit patients as quickly as possible and in the highest quality. This story is intended to embody what Sitem Island is and wants to radiate: the courage to break new ground.

The Magic Pencil agency then added further elements to the story, such as the verbal and graphic language, which completed the new Sitem Island branding. The story was broken down into all of Sitem Island's communication media and brochures, factsheets, website and CI/CD were created.

Agence Trio's creative team had free rein to charge the information medium with electrifying titles, texts and graphics. The only condition was to present the content as dynamically as possible in the three most widely used national languages.

The varied use of colors and illustrations is designed to make you want to engage with the brochure's content - even if you might not be interested in the topic from the start. In a fresh, friendly tone, the ubiquitous theme of innovation is addressed on every page. The brochure was printed on environmentally friendly paper and specially designed to be mailed without an envelope to the country's nearly 2,200 communities.

The brochure "SwissEnergy for Municipalities 2021-2030" not only explains the political significance of the SFOE's financial support for municipalities, but also provides information that will enable them to submit their candidatures by May 2021.

The Picstars agency, in which TX Group holds a minority stake, specializes in data-driven and efficient influencer marketing, a communications discipline that continues to grow strongly and is important.

The 360-degree marketing mix with content playout on various media is not only intended to open up new target groups for customers. The connection of influencers with suitable brands gives an advertising message an authenticity that is more difficult to convey with striking forms of advertising, Goldbach writes in a statement. The company already covers a large part of the customer journey. With Picstars and influencer marketing, the company now wants to authentically address a target group that has not yet been clearly reached, especially one that is young and has a digital affinity.

Goldbach has already realized its first projects together with Picstars. These include a content marketing campaign lasting over two years, which Picstars implemented together with 20 Minuten Advertising for Feldschlösschen.

"We already had a challenging environment in previous years, but in 2020 we lost a third of our advertising revenue in one fell swoop," publisher Johann Oberauer wrote in a statement. Editor-in-chief David Sieber, who has been responsible for the Swiss journalist is therefore ending his mandate, the statement continues. During his time in office, he had significantly increased the circulation and opened up new readerships.

Reduction not provided

Unlike many other media houses, however, Oberauer wants to avoid reducing the scope and thus also the content. He says this is possible thanks to cooperation between the editorial teams in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The practice and international sections will be combined on 48 pages in a common core. The respective national topics will be bundled in a jacket of at least 36 pages. As in previous years, there will also be an extra 16 pages of journalists' workshops. In other words, a total of at least 100 pages of industry information for journalists every two months. "If unconventional solutions help to bridge extremely difficult times, we have to take them," Oberauer said in the release.

The Swiss journalist will continue to have its own editorial management, which will be responsible for Swiss content with a reduced workload. A decision on the appointment will be made in the next few weeks. (pd/swi)