At the same time, the company stressed on Wednesday that the reason was its own mistakes and not a weakness in the market. By the fourth quarter, Spotify wants to have up to 125 million paying users.

Subscription customers are extremely important for Spotify - they brought in 90 percent of the streaming service's total revenue of around EUR 1.67 billion. Revenues grew by 31 percent year-on-year. On the bottom line, Spotify was still in the red, but narrowed its loss to 76 million euros from 142 million a year earlier. Spotify shares lost a good two percent in pre-market US trading.

Most Spotify users still access the free version of the service with advertising and a limited range of functions. The total number of users rose from 217 to 232 million within three months, exceeding Spotify's predictions.

Spotify has recently invested heavily in expanding its podcast offering, and it's having an impact. The number of podcast users increased by 50 percent within three months and has doubled since the beginning of the year.

Spotify is the clear number one in music streaming, followed by Apple Music with a good 60 million subscription customers. The iPhone company does not offer a free version of its service. (sda)

The campaign illustrates what makes the job of train driver so unique: the best views of Switzerland's picture-postcard landscapes.

Director Eric Andreae and Shining Pictures are responsible for the filming of the campaign. The main clip will be used as a 42-second and 15-second clip in two languages on social media, in various online media, on Passenger TV and on eBoards.

All advertising material leads the user to a landing page where the profession of train driver is described in detail.

According to dpa information, the reduction was justified in an internal announcement late Monday evening with a reorganization of the marketing team. According to the latest information, Uber has a total of around 24,500 employees, almost half of which are in the USA.

Uber continues to make losses and went public around two months ago with a disappointing share price performance. There are still doubts on the market as to whether the business model of the ride-hailing service provider will work out and whether it will ultimately be able to turn a profit despite its traditionally high costs. At the same time, Uber is working on expanding its business beyond arranging car rides. For example, electric bicycles can now also be hired in Germany via the Uber app. (sda)
 

According to the Trend Report, just under half of those surveyed say they are struggling with too little budget (47 percent). PR experts are almost equally thwarted by a chronic lack of time (46 percent). Last but not least, employees are a scarce resource. Thirty-one percent of the media outlets and PR agencies surveyed complain of staff shortages.

Recruiting, on the other hand, is obviously not a problem: Despite the shortage of personnel, there are enough young PR professionals available. Only two percent of communications professionals complain about a lack of young talent. Salaries are also not a problem: only two percent of PR professionals complain that their pay is too low. However, the opinions of agencies and press offices diverge a little at this point: Among company spokespeople, virtually no one is annoyed about too little salary (one percent), while more do so among PR agencies (five percent).

1. Budget too low: 47 percent
2. Too little time: 46 percent
3. Too few employees: 31 percent
4. General distrust of information offers: 18 percent
5. Insufficient technical equipment: 12 percent
6. Black sheep that harm the industry: 16 percent
7. Users' lack of media skills: 11 percent
8. Legal framework: 9 percent
9. Too few offspring: 2 percent
10. Lack of earning opportunities: 2 percent

"Even and especially in times of digitalization, we still see 'making vacations' as a real craft. When it comes to vacations and hospitality, people and personal service come first. We are convinced that this requires not only the necessary technology, but above all great employees who are constantly striving for the well-being of our guests. Even in ten years' time, no technology or artificial intelligence will be able to replace this. Contact, sometimes over many years, is crucial. This is exactly what the campaign aims to show. The people, the faces, their passion and the craftsmanship behind them. In short: our employees. Your vacation makers," explains Baha Jamous, Chief Marketing Officer at Hapimag.

The OOH and social media campaign is accompanied by a Landing pagewhere individual Hapimag employees introduce themselves, and a competition.
 

Greta Thunberg is the international face of young climate activists - and the idol of an entire generation. In her appearances, the 16-year-old Swede calls for more action and less talk about climate change. She traveled by train from Stockholm for her powerful speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and next week she is expected to attend the "Smile for Future" climate summit in Switzerland.

In Zurich, 720,000 people are a little bit Greta every day by using streetcars and trolleybuses. This is because they use environmentally friendly electric energy to get to their destination. For comparison: a person on a streetcar produces around 60 times less CO2 emissions than a person in a car with average consumption and utilization. And it's not only good for the environment, it's also easy on your nerves in heavy city traffic.

The advertising presence was created by the lead agency Ruf Lanz. The latest campaign is spread across full-page advertisements in 20 Minuten, on posters on the back of drivers' cabs and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Internet users are likely to be faced with another consent click when accessing various websites. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Monday that website operators are jointly responsible for the collection and transmission of data via the Facebook Like button. However, Facebook alone is responsible for the subsequent processing of the information. In addition to the Facebook "Like" button, other similarly functioning plug-ins, for example from online advertising companies, are likely to be affected by the decision.

The Like button transmits the IP address, the web browser ID and the date and time of the call when the page is loaded, even if the button is not clicked or the user does not have a Facebook account. The consent requirement should also apply to Facebook's "Share" button, for example.

The judges in Luxembourg dealt with the Like button because of a dispute between the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Association and the fashion online retailer Fashion ID by Peek & Cloppenburg in 2015. The Consumer Association had argued that the use of the Like button violated data protection law - and filed an injunction against Fashion ID. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court then asked the ECJ to interpret several data protection provisions in 2017.

The ECJ argued that the integration of the button allowed Fashion ID to optimize the advertising of its products by making them more visible on Facebook. This was an economic advantage for which Fashion ID had "at least tacitly" consented to the collection of personal data from website visitors.

However, the website is not responsible for the data processing that Facebook carries out after the data has been transmitted. This is because Fashion ID does not decide on the purposes and means of these processes.

In addition, the ECJ confirmed the right of German consumer associations to take legal action in data protection matters at European level, even under the old European directive in force at the time. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which has been in force since May 2018, already expressly provides for the right of action for associations. (sda)
 

With offers such as unlimited data for Whatsapp and Snapchat or tailored rates for under-30s, Sunrise is doing everything it can to meet the needs of the younger generation. Sir Mary was tasked with anchoring the telecommunications company as a strong brand among the target group in the long term.

"The solution is not a typical advertising campaign, but an ecosystem of diverse content elements: From an entertaining post to a 3-minute IGTV documentary, relevant Sunrise topics are orchestrated into a story across different channels" explains Nicolas Hostettler, Strategy Director at Sir Mary. The digital branding measures include an increased presence on Instagram with a focus on moving image content, long-term media cooperations and influencer marketing.

In addition to the content offensive, Sir Mary is also responsible for the paid media area via the various channels. In this context, Gen Y and Gen Z are continuously guided to the appropriate products via data-based communication. For this purpose, a trigger concept was developed that reflects the specific needs of the target group, such as the expiring contract, a shattered screen or the lower age threshold of the competitor's youth subscriptions. A separate communication, including imagery and landing page, was created for each trigger. Using display programmatic and social channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, the ads are played out to the right target group using targeting strategies.

The resulting always-on strategy was developed in close collaboration with Sunrise. It allows Sunrise to communicate at eye level with the target group 365 days a year and to bind them to the brand with relevant content throughout the entire customer journey.

Twitter's growth figures exceeded analysts' expectations, and the share price rose by more than six percent in pre-market trading.

Twitter increased the number of daily users by 14 percent to 139 million within a year. The company now only counts users to whom it can show ads via its website or apps. Users who follow tweets via other sites such as Tweetdeck are not included in this figure.

In the current third quarter, growth will slow down, Twitter explained. The group expects sales of 815 to 875 million dollars - less than many analysts had previously expected. In order to further increase user numbers, Twitter is relying on live broadcasts of sporting events, for example. That's contributing to rising costs, as are growing expenses in the fight against hate comments. In the second quarter, costs rose by 21 percent to $766 million. (sda)
 

As the new Managing Director of the Spoundation Motion Picture agency, Christina Hanke will be responsible for marketing tasks for the ZFF on a mandate basis. In this role, she will work closely with Christian Jungen, the festival's Artistic Director and successor to Karl Spoerri. Christian Jungen will also assume the role of overall festival director of the ZFF as of the beginning of 2020.

As already announced in April of this year, the current co-directors and founders of the ZFF, Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri, will end their operational activities as of December 2019 and will continue their commitment to the Festival at the strategic level on the ZFF Board of Directors as of 2020. As part of the reorganization of the Festival's personnel, the tasks previously the responsibility of Nadja Schildknecht will thus be divided as follows as of the beginning of 2020: With marketing, Christina Hanke will cover sponsorship, marketing as well as event organization for the ZFF. She will be supported by Elke Mayer, Head of Sponsoring, who will become a member of the Executive Board. The area of finances will in future be the responsibility of Festival Director Christian Jungen.

"We are very pleased to have been able to recruit Christina Hanke to the SMP Executive Board," says Felix Graf, CEO of the NZZ Media Group. "In addition to her profound knowledge of the event and entertainment industry and her broad network, she has many years of management experience." Christian Jungen adds, "Christina thinks very internationally and brings with her the ideal prerequisites to further develop the ZFF in an economically sustainable way. Together, we want to strengthen the festival's position in Germany and the French-speaking world."

From 2014 to 2017, Christina Hanke was COO at the agency Swisscovery/Foxtrail, where she took over as CEO in 2018. From 2007 to 2014, she worked in various senior marketing and communications positions at MBT Footwear, Sonova and Odlo International. Prior to that, she worked for Microsoft Switzerland for five years, also in the marketing area. Christina Hanke studied International Relations at the University of Geneva and has completed further training in communication, international marketing, general management and leadership coaching. 

Swiss marketer Goldbach Audience is expanding its portfolio and now also offers Codevelop's online advertising format Videohead programmatically. The moving image format can now also be used on mobile devices. Advertisers thus have a large-scale multidevice advertising format with automated ad playout at their disposal, which has high visibility without being disruptive. 

The agency OMD Switzerland has implemented a corresponding test campaign for its long-standing client Seat and draws an initial positive conclusion: "As Omnicom Media Group, we see it as our responsibility to consistently drive technological progress and to elicit new, creative and innovative advertising opportunities for our clients and implement them in the market as standard. Especially in the programmatic environment, the potential is far from exhausted. That's why it's particularly important for us to act as a first mover and to move forward with courage and enthusiasm for development," explains Nina Schneider of Omnicom Media Group Switzerland. 

Nicolas Hobi, Head of Marketing at Seat, is also pleased: "We are always on the lookout for new, innovative advertising formats with which we can bring the driving pleasure and lifestyle of a Seat closer to the public. We have already had good experiences with this advertising medium in the past. It is all the more pleasing that this is now also available programmatically and that we can thus design the advertising print more individually." 

The video head is produced by Ads by Codevelop and offers various uses for moving image advertising, combining the features of video content and editorial websites.

On the dekstop, the video starts in maximum content width just above the editorial header of a web page. As soon as the viewer scrolls down - to the editorial section, for example - the video head zooms back smoothly to the wideboard size, staying in the visible area until the commercial is over. 

On mobile devices, the video starts as soon as the video head is in the user's visible area. The ad format remains visible until the video is finished. If the video head is swiped to the left or right, the video head disappears back to its original position. 

Goldbach offers Videohead on the entire available network. A continuous expansion of the reach is planned.

It was the biggest increase since Snap's IPO in 2017. Last year, the user base was stuck below 190 million, and that sparked massive concerns among investors about Snapchat's future prospects.

The app was once known primarily for its photos that disappear on their own and, with its popularity among young users in particular, was seen as a future challenger to Facebook and Instagram. But then growth slowed sharply and an attempt to attract more older users by rebuilding the app failed.

The now significant growth could be related to the fact that Snapchat was finally able to fix the permanent problems with its Android app. According to the company, however, they were also largely due to the introduction of new photo filters.

In North America, Snapchat increased its user base from 80 to 83 million, in Europe from 61 to 64 million, and in the rest of the world even more significantly from 49 to 56 million.

A high number of users is important for Snapchat - it helps to convince advertisers. Facebook's photo platform Instagram, which is considered a key competitor of Snapchat, has more than one billion users.

Snap increased its revenue in the second quarter by 48 percent year-on-year to $388 million. The bottom line remained in the red - but the loss of just under 255.2 million dollars was significantly lower than the previous year's loss of 353.3 million. Investors rewarded the progress with a share price jump of more than nine percent in after-hours trading. (sda)