Dry January" is a worldwide movement of millions of people to have a January without alcohol. The concept originated with the British non-profit organization Alcohol Change UK and is promoted in Switzerland by the Federal Office of Public Health, among others.

The challenge, he says, was to promote something that initially sounded like fun and indulgence. In the younger target group, educational speeches and raised forefingers rarely work, and drinking is usually more socially acceptable among friends and colleagues than not drinking.

That's why Wunderman Thompson decided to go down a path that didn't focus on the disadvantages of alcohol, but rather on the advantages of non-alcoholic beverages. The result was a colorful, light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek headline campaign that promotes all kinds of beverages - just not alcohol.

The slogans, written in the style of country wisdom, were adapted to all kinds of advertising media, so that even partners and sponsors such as the Alpamare adventure pool or the Rope Park Bern, for example, each received their own variants.

They also cooperated with influencers such as Gülsha Adilji, the dialect band Kunz, the rapper KT Gorique, Lisa Christ and the cooking blog Ana and Nina. All of them published sayings on their channels since January 1 to encourage their followers to join in themselves. The goal was and is to create a sense of community under the hashtag #DryJanuaryCH like the big role models Veganuary or Movember.

Those who would like to participate themselves and advertise for the good cause can find on Dryjanuary.ch Dozens of casual sayings to share on your own social media channels.

The basic idea of the campaign was to create a key visual for several years. As Benno the dog has been a popular figure at GVB for many years, he was given a leading role in the distribution of profits: in the campaign by the Erdmannpeisker agency, he pulls a ladder wagon full of the surplus, which is paid back. Benno thus becomes an eye-catcher with his ladder wagon. In addition, the repayment with the down-to-earth name "Gwinn-Teilete" is intended to make the event appealing.

The direct mailing included a competition in which participants could win a Sennenmutschli. GVB reports a response rate of over 35% and many positive reactions by e-mail and post - and concludes from this that there are just as many satisfied customers.

In 1996, the 150th anniversary was celebrated in a festive manner in the Kursaal in Bern. This year, however, the 175th anniversary of the independent newspaper for agriculture is being celebrated with theme-specific extras. Swiss farmer special themed inserts in an addressed bulk run to more than 54,000 farmer addresses in the scope of 12 to 16 additional pages. This production is supported by gold partners and advertisers .

In 1846, no one would have dared to hope that the modest "Wochenblatt für Landwirtschaft und Gartenbau" (Weekly Bulletin of Agriculture and Horticulture) would, 175 years later, become an extensive and colorful Swiss farmer as the most subscribed trade newspaper in Switzerland, can celebrate its anniversary as one of the oldest newspapers in Switzerland.

The Schweizer Bauer is published twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and goes out to around 30,000 farming subscribers, as well as upstream and downstream farms, associations and organizations. The newspaper offers relevant information that will serve Swiss farmers for generations as a guide, even in difficult times, to take on the manifold challenges on the farm and in society under constant change and to find solutions. The Swiss farmer wants to continue to be involved and educate Swiss farmers as a helper and advisor.

The anniversary supplements appear in January on the subject of health, in February on "Education";, in March on "Mobility", in May on "Around the House", in June on "Farmers' Markets", in July on "Alpine Cheese", in August on "Swiss Wine", in September on "Sustainable Agriculture", in October on "Farm Energy", in November on "Building and Living" and in December on "Selling Digitally". In April, on the occasion of the general assembly of the publisher OGG, the history of Swiss agriculture and Schweizer Bauer is the focus of a tabloid as a supplement to the newspaper.

Wirz has chosen "absolute nutritional tolerance, where no one is excluded," as his strategy. Embrace instead of exclusion, diversity instead of dogma "And that with a vegan and vegan brand. In addition to meat fans and butchers, even competitor Coop is making it thanks to V-Love with a mention by name on the posters and megaposters of the new Migros campaign. The agency wants to stand out in the highly competitive plant-based advertising environment with the platform that loves everyone, without pointing the finger at meat lovers.

To support the idiosyncratic character of the brand, the agency developed its own font exclusively for the brand, making each implementation unique. With various subjects on all channels from megaposters to moving images, posters and social media to digital ads, the loud, unconventional announcements of V-Love are spread throughout the country. Not only is the desire for varied nutrition to be stimulated, but also the discourse around the topic of plant-based nutrition in all its facets.

V-Love is broadly positioned with plant-based alternatives to a wide range of products from butter, milk and yogurt to schnitzel and burgers. Together with Wirz's campaign, which has been active since January 1, Migros aims to make the plant-based lifestyle accessible to the general population during Veganuary, true to the Migros claim "simply live well".

Suzanne Rouden (left) hands over the office of President of the PR Suisse Audit Commission to Corinne Druey (right).

After 25 years of service, including 13 years as president of the PR Suisse examination board, Suzanne Rouden (NPRG) will hand over her post to Corinne Druey as of January 1, 2021. Druey is the owner of the Syntagme agency and head of education at SAWI in Lausanne. She thus brings with her many years of up-to-date industry and training experience with corresponding networking.

During her term as President of the Examination Commission, Suzanne Rouden, in addition to her regular official duties, helped to design the revision of the professional examination and the higher professional examination and accompanied their introduction, and helped to develop the personal certificate according to standard SN EN ISO/IEC 17024 launched by the Association in 2017.

Successors for Paulsen and Würsten

The outgoing members Barbara Paulsen and Sylvia Würsten are replaced by Regula Gerber and Alex Josty (both BPRG). Both members bring excellent experience in the communications industry as well as in the area of continuing education and have successfully completed the personal certificate "Certified Communications Consultant". In addition, another member from the French-speaking part of Switzerland will join the examination board in 2021.

Retail sales in Switzerland rose by 1.0 percent year-on-year in November, adjusted for calendar effects, the FSO wrote on Thursday. In contrast, sales fell by 2.4 percent (seasonally adjusted) compared to the previous month of October, according to FSO data. In October, retailers had achieved significantly higher sales both compared to the previous year and to the previous month.

The recovery in the retail sector was thus dampened in November. This is probably also due to the tightening of measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus. In western Switzerland in particular, store closures were ordered in the fall to reduce the number of infections, for example in the canton of Geneva.

Mixed start to Christmas business

The start of the Christmas shopping season at the end of November, with the discount battles on "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday", apparently provided little support. Non-food sales fell by a nominal 1.7 percent compared with the previous year and by as much as 3.2 percent compared with October.

There were major differences between the various non-food categories. Sales in internet retailing, for example, increased by 15 percent compared with the previous year, while sales of information and communication technology equipment soared by 36 percent.

Sales of the household appliances, textiles, DIY and home furnishings category also developed well (+5.3%). By contrast, sales of publishing products, sports equipment and toys in over-the-counter retail slumped by just under 9 percent and those with "other goods" by 10 percent.

Growing food sales

Food was a mainstay of the retail trade in the Corona year - also in November. Sales of food, beverages and tobacco products were up 8.3 percent on the previous year. Closed restaurants and concerns about Corona infections may have prompted many people to cook more of their food on their own stoves.

In view of the strong growth in food, Credit Suisse economists expect retail sales to increase by 5.2 percent in 2020, as they outlined in a study published on Wednesday. The FSO presents the annual statistics on retail trade on February 1.

For 2021, however, the CS economists expect retail sales to decline by 1.7 percent. Rising unemployment figures, stagnating wages, and a likely continued decline in migration are likely to put pressure on retailers' revenues. And if normality returns to Corona, more Swiss people are likely to travel to neighboring countries to make purchases. (SDA)

In order to raise the morale of the population a tiny bit, the Zurich agency Salz & Water and the St. Gallen agency Texterbande joined forces at the end of 2020.

"The Corona pandemic is not a fun topic," the two agencies wrote in their joint communiqué, explaining, "Some are getting information fatigue, others are losing their nerve, and the next are just wishing for a quick return to their former normalcy."

Christian Schickler, Managing Partner Salz &Water, defines the goal of the joint action as being "to give people something to smile about in public spaces, while much seems uncontrollable and hopeless."

The campaign ran on selected APG DOOH screens at the end of 2020.

On a total of six subjects, for example, giant insects were associated with 2021, the safest way to hug was revealed, and the pajamas of investment bankers were pondered.

40 percent of Swiss companies use at least one technology in the area of "marketing automation," as the study reveals. Compared to surveys from previous years, this proportion has grown. Marketing automation is used particularly frequently by companies that are generally successful in achieving their online goals. The corresponding figure is 72 percent compared to just 18 percent of less successful companies.

Importance will continue to increase

Examples of marketing automation include personalized newsletters, whose content is automatically tailored to the interests of recipients, or "lead nurturing," in which potential customers receive automated information and product recommendations. "Instruments of this kind will play an increasingly important role in marketing and sales as digitization accelerates, especially when resources are scarce," says study director Darius Zumstein.

42 percent of the companies surveyed also expect marketing automation to become part of their overarching digital strategy in the future. For around half of the companies, the central advantage of corresponding technologies is the time saved on repetitive tasks, for example through the rule-based, automatic sending of e-mails. Just as many companies see it as a tool for more personalized communication with customers. For 45 percent, marketing automation also increases efficiency and return on investment.

Lack of expertise as a challenge

"In order to exploit the potential of these technologies, however, companies must first create the necessary conditions: Among other things, this includes maintaining high-quality customer and usage data and building up the necessary expertise," Zumstein explains. A lack of internal expertise is seen by 33 percent of the companies surveyed as an obstacle to the introduction of marketing automation. The insufficient quality of existing data is a problem for around one in four companies. Also for about a quarter of the companies each, the use of marketing automation is not a priority or the necessary budget is lacking. "Small companies in particular face these challenges. They also generally use fewer marketing technologies and have some catching up to do in terms of digitization," adds Zumstein.

Aldo Rampazzi has stepped down as president of Ticino Turismo at the end of 2020 for health reasons. During his five years in office, important projects were initiated and implemented. At the same time as he took office in January 2015, the new Ticino Tourism Law came into force, heralding a restructuring of the tourism organization in the Italian canton of Switzerland in response to the changing needs of the sector. The years were marked by extensive tourism marketing of the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel and the introduction of the Ticino Ticket, the rebranding of the tourism destination, the nomination of the new director Angelo Trotta and, last but not least, the challenges of the Corona crisis last year.

The Board of Directors of Ticino Turismo has unanimously appointed Simone Patelli as its new President. Born in 1975, Patelli is a qualified banker and brings with him many years of experience in tourism. He has been working at Campofelice Camping Village in Tenero since 1996. There, he first took care of accounting, then personnel, marketing and property management until 2019, when he took over the position of vice-director of the facility. In 2012, he was appointed president of the Ticino Camping Association. That same year, he joined the board of directors of Ticino Turismo as a member and was elected vice president in 2019. He has now taken office as president of Ticino Turismo on January 1, 2021.

"One of the most important concerns for me is to intensify the cooperation of all players in Ticino tourism," Simone Patelli was quoted as saying in a statement from Ticino Turismo. "Right now we have a high potential to generate synergies. Because the commissioning of the Ceneri Base Tunnel will bring our regions within the canton even closer together and thus offer new scope for the tourism offer." The experience gained from the Corona crisis will also be incorporated into the strategic orientation of Ticino Turismo, which Director Angelo Trotta is currently further developing together with the Board of Directors. "It's not an easy year behind us, and we don't yet know how long the crisis will last," Patelli said. "But we have learned in 2020 that new guests have visited Ticino and regulars have remained loyal. The potential for our tourist destination is great. And our climate, nature and gastronomy are travel reasons that set Ticino apart from the rest of Switzerland. We would therefore like to position ourselves more strongly as a "Green" destination, focusing above all on sustainable tourism that contributes to the added value of the entire region."

The name of Martin Hug's company, "Enmira", comes from the Romansh language and means "to set your sights on a goal and achieve it together". That's exactly what everything he tackles is about, Hug sums up his intentions. "Together with my customers, my team and my partners, I want to move forward and make a tangible difference in the process." In the future, the current president of the Bergbahnen GR industry organization will make himself available as a temporary manager, as a project manager, and for change management tasks and board of directors mandates in the tourism and mountain railway industry.

Martin Hug intends to use his expertise, leadership and entrepreneurial foresight as mayor in the future for the benefit of his place of residence. He is looking forward to following up his election promises with action and leading Flims into a sustainable future as a valuable residential and vacation resort as well as an economically attractive place to work for both locals and guests.

In his address to the meeting, which was broadcast live and in abbreviated form, Supino explained that not much remained of the former hope. The potential of social media had not been sustainably exploited. Instead, he said, they had become a danger to democratic societies.

By their very nature, social media undermine overall social discourse, Supino said. "Even worse, it is not uncommon for them to be misused for active manipulation." The fact that this danger was not addressed in the draft law on electronic media, he said, was "the most incomprehensible thing about the overall failed project."

Free riders disregard standards

As free riders and dominant players in the digital advertising market, social media also threaten the business model of media companies that invest in serious journalism, said Supino, who chairs the TX Group. But because they disregarded standards, he said, they also opened up opportunities for those who "follow the rules of the trade" - "which I believe is the only chance we have as publishers."

He added that it was also important to promote media competence, strengthen the infrastructure and help people to help themselves. These measures are better and more sustainable "than paying subsidies to media companies and thus inevitably endangering the independence of the media system.

Supino concluded his speech by announcing that a successor had been found for Andreas Häuptli. Stefan Wabel will succeed him as VSM Managing Director (Werbewoche.ch reported). (SDA/swi)

In the campaign, four lottery tickets from Swisslos' extensive range are animated in 3D in a funny and entertaining way. With a choreography, the lottery tickets dance their way into people's heads and are meant to remind them that scratch cards make good gifts.

The spots are used as e-panels, on passenger TV and at the POS. In addition, a key visual was generated on the basis of the spot, which was adapted to print media for POS or digital advertising media.