After a paperless registration process with personal identification, users receive access to a bank account without a basic fee and also a free Mastercard. The account is opened at Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and thus offers deposit protection. Neon is backed by four founders (see picture above) with many years of experience in the banking world, and the company employs a total of ten people in Zurich and Munich. 
 
Samuel Hügli, Member of the Management Board and Head of Technology & Ventures at Tamedia, said in a press release: "Neon focuses entirely on a simple and mobile banking solution that offers a high level of security despite its uncomplicated operation. The team has convinced us to support them in their further development and to invest in the idea. We are thus further expanding our fintech portfolio." 
 
Jörg Sandrock, co-founder of Neon: "There is still a lot of potential for pure mobile banking in Switzerland, and this is where we wanted to start. Neon is an independent bank account that is consistently geared towards use with a smartphone for all everyday needs. We are very much looking forward to working with Tamedia and their expertise in setting up and expanding digital platforms."

Neon was launched in March 2019, with Walder,Werber responsible for the launch campaign (Werbewoche.ch reported).

Nicole Meier Doka will join Kommpakt as a member of the management team at the beginning of May. Martin Perini, Managing Director of Kommpakt, is delighted about the upcoming collaboration: "Existing and new clients will benefit from even more expertise and the added value of integrated communication from a single source." Jörg Krummenacher, Creative Director and Partner, adds: "Nicole Meier is very well established and networked in the region - she is a perfect fit for our team".

Nicole Meier Doka previously worked for almost 14 years at the Zurich agency Farner Consulting, where she was deputy head of the "Public Affairs" division and, as a senior consultant, was responsible with her team for various national, cantonal and communal mandates with a particular focus on healthcare policy. "I am very much looking forward to combining my experience with the Kommpakt team and developing the best possible communication solutions for existing and new clients from Baden," says Nicole Meier Doka.

After a multi-stage pitch, Freundliche Grüsse was commissioned to manage the communications for the launch of the new brand. Thanks to features such as a dream car finder, price check, 360-degree view and free warranty, Car For You makes it easy and risk-free even for non-experts to find the right car for them (Werbewoche.ch reported). Under the motto "Find the car that suits your life", the promise is communicated in a broad-based launch campaign.

At the center of the campaign are two films by the young London director Charlotte Regan, who tells the life stories of the target group in all their facets in various Carlife moments: The story of a young woman who has just broken up with her boyfriend, only to throw herself fully back into her new life shortly afterwards, or that of a father whom we accompany through the everyday life of normal family madness - the car and the acoustic recognition feature in the form of the seventies hit "One for you, one for me" by La Bionda always remain the same.

The individual Carlife moments can be combined in a modular fashion to create a variety of communication assets, resulting in a dynamic campaign framework with which all channels can be used flexibly and contextually.

"The modular campaign concept meets our need as a modern brand to tell a compelling story to our fragmented target group on a wide variety of channels and thus build familiarity with the brand," says Evgenij Pisetsky, Head of Marketing at Car For You. Sarah Safri, Head of Marketing at Tamedia Marketplaces & Classifieds, adds: "Flexible creative concepts with a target group-oriented approach at brand and product level, combined with innovative marketing technologies, are essential in the competitive markets of online platforms".

The campaign can be seen online, on TV and in advertisements in German and French-speaking Switzerland since April 29.

Food/near food and non-food were down, while non-food markets performed slightly better at just -1%. However, the negative trend in the food/near food market is mainly due to the "Easter effect", as Easter was already in March in 2018 and falls in the second quarter of 2019 in April. March sales overshadowed the pleasing slight increase at the beginning of this year with the negative development compared to the previous year, which had a negative impact on the overall result for the first quarter.

Do-it and leisure are two non-food areas that are showing positive developments and are growing compared to the previous year, which can be attributed to spring-like weather in March. The Fashion segment remains the most negative, although the decline has slowed somewhat compared to previous quarters.

Nevertheless, the conditions for growth are generally in place, albeit somewhat cautiously. The Federal Statistical Office expects the national and international economy to gradually gain momentum in 2019. International demand for Swiss products is weakening and the export economy is losing momentum. The forecast for population growth remains positive at around +1%. In addition, the Federal Statistical Office is forecasting inflation of between 0.5% and 0.7% for 2019 and 2020; in March 2019, inflation was 0.7% compared to the same month in the previous year. In addition, the unemployment rate in 2018 reached a seven-year low of 2.6%. 
 

Geberit is an internationally active manufacturer of sanitary products. Events for customers and partners are an important communication measure for the company. This year, Geberit has chosen the motto "one step ahead, traditionally", with which the company wants to underline its innovative strength.

The opening film for these events, which tells the story of the fight against all-too-human odors in the toilet with a wink, was developed and realized by Seed on behalf of Geberit, .

The Franz Gysi company is a specialized trading, assembly and production company in the field of industrial valves, seals and fluoroplastic parts. For the public fair Pumps & Valves, the Suhr-based company was looking for a crowd puller. The agency Interpunkt could convince with a virtual tour. The assembly and training center in Suhr as well as the stamping plant in Rheinsulz are presented by means of 360° videos, with which the complex offer of Franz Gysi can be explained in German as well as in French within a few minutes.

The virtual tour was a success at the trade fair, so the production company has equipped its sales force with Oculus Go glasses, with which all customers can now get to know Franz Gysi virtually. The videos are also used for job interviews. The potential candidates thus get to know the Rheinsulz site without physically being there.

Franz Gysi is convinced: "The 360° films show our products and services in a simple and understandable way. We get a lot of positive feedback. The production was worth it!".
 

Evian announced last year that by 2025 all its bottles will be made from 100% recycled PET. Today, all Evian 1.5 L bottles worldwide are made from 50% rPET, while the average rPET content in Switzerland is already 45%. The handling of plastic is also to be fundamentally changed through cooperation with local as well as global partners and a circular economy for plastic is to be established.

To achieve this, consumers must also be further sensitized and motivated for the topic of PET recycling by means of various measures. Switzerland already occupies a strong position with a recycling rate of 83%, but worldwide only 14% of all plastic waste is collected and recycled. Evian is aware of this problem and wants to set an example with #flipitgood.

The goal of the challenge is to throw an empty PET bottle into the corresponding collection bin, record this on video and post it with the hashtag #flipitforgood. For each video posted, the NGO Plastic Bank will collect one PET bottle discarded in nature. Evian supports Plastic Bank's activities and enables the establishment and operation of a plastic collection point in the Philippines.

The NGO Plastik Bank is active mainly in Haiti, Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines. Their approach of paying people to collect plastic waste, which is then recycled, is very effective. Plastic thus becomes a hard currency, motivating the population to recycle, and creating many jobs.

In 2019, the Perikom fact check will be accompanied for the first time by a scientific evaluation by the HWZ Hochschule für Wirtschaft Zürich (Zurich School of Business) and will provide an accurate picture of the internal communications situation of large Swiss companies. 

The communications and HR managers who took part in the study affirmed the increasing importance of internal CEO communications over the past five years (52 percent "tend to agree", 30 percent "completely agree"). When asked whether its importance will continue to increase in the future, the percentages of agreement are similarly high (56 percent "tend to agree", 31 percent "completely agree"). Only a minority disagrees with this assessment (4.5 percent "strongly disagree," 7.5 percent "strongly disagree"). 

What content will be more important in internal CEO communications in the future? Here, mainly strategy and goals as well as values and attitudes are mentioned. Content relating to facts and figures is considered less relevant. 

As many as 63 percent of respondents agreed with the thesis that transparency as a sign of trust will become even more important in the future. It helps to promote trust in management. In contrast, only 13 percent of the company representatives surveyed agreed that their CEO also talks to employees about failures. Furthermore, 25 percent affirmed - without reservation - that a strategy for internal CEO communication existed in their companies. Further analysis of the study will also show which channels and instruments are mainly used for CEO communication.

The initiator would like to enshrine in the Radio and Television Act that the SRG "in the area of information in the German-speaking region produces audiovisual offerings primarily in Zurich and audio offerings primarily in Bern". This passage should then also be included in the new Federal Act on Electronic Media (BGeM).

The KVF rejected the idea by 12 votes to 1, as the parliamentary services announced on Wednesday. The decision was made after a discussion with a representative of the SRG. It acknowledged "that the SRG is taking responsible account of the challenges of digitalization".

The Commission also appreciates "that SRG is concentrating its cost-cutting efforts on infrastructure and administration in particular and not on the journalistic offering". It therefore sees no need for political action to ensure decentralized programme production. (SDA)

Accordingly, they do not want to offer the 28-year-old Australian a platform for spreading racist and terrorist ideas.

50 people were killed in the attack on two mosques in New Zealand in mid-March. Australian Brenton Tarrant - a right-wing extremist and racist - is on remand in the country's only high-security prison in Auckland. He is charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 counts of attempted murder. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment. There is no date yet for the trial.

The declaration is supported by Radio New Zealand, various newspapers and the online portal Stuff, among others. It states that they want to "limit any coverage of statements that actively promote theories of white supremacy or terrorist theories". This also includes not distributing or broadcasting any images showing the defendant with racist gestures or symbols. (SDA)

After TeleRätia and Valaiscom, the two private DVB-T networks in Switzerland, have already shut down their operations, SRG is now following suit and will switch off its DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial) on June 3, 2019. SRG, which announced major cost-cutting measures last year, will be able to save around CHF 10 million a year from 2020 as a result.

With DVB-T, a TV set without Internet or cable access can receive the TV signal "over the air". All that is needed is a small, simple antenna that is plugged into the TV. In the future, this network-independent reception option will only be possible via satellite. The satellite signal offers many more stations in higher quality, but reception is technically more complex.

In the country as a whole, only 1.4 percent of households are affected. To avoid uncertainty, SRG has been providing targeted information on the DVB-T channels since the beginning of 2019 by means of inserts in the current program. These can only be seen by viewers who need to respond. SRG also operates a hotline and provides assistance in switching to a different reception mode. (hae/SDA)

According to the press release, Erdmannpeisker was able to convince GVB with a clearly structured and independent visual world that fits in with the company's values and can be used in all areas of communication. The new GVB website will be on display from spring 2020.