The 20-metre-long "plastic monster" with which Greenpeace reminded Nestlé at its headquarters in Vevey in April 2019 of the global problem of single-use plastic packaging polluting the world's oceans (Photo: Miriam Künzli, Greenpeace Switzerland).

The potential of social media to achieve organizational goals is well known. The power of a hashtag has been demonstrated by the women's movement with #MeToo. Organizations use social media to make themselves visible to the public, build trust and improve brand awareness. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are increasingly being used by NPOs for fundraising and mobilizing volunteers. But how many followers do NPOs in Switzerland reach with social media?

The rating compiled by the communications and branding agency Consign for the second time since 2018 shows the ten most successful Swiss non-profit organizations with the most "followers/likes" on the channels they operate. The respective user numbers are consolidated for social media platforms in various Swiss national languages. Strikingly, the WWF is the only NPO with a presence on Facebook and Twitter in three Swiss national languages.

The three musketeers among Swiss NPOs are the organizations WWF Switzerland, Greenpeace Switzerland and Terre des Hommes, each with over 100,000 "followers/likes".

However, smaller NPOs are also well on their way to the top: according to analyses by Pluragraph.de, Public Eye has seen an outstanding percentage increase of almost 80% in its community. Terre des Hommes and Amnesty International have recorded almost 70 percent more "followers/likes" compared to the previous year.

A comparison with the 2018 ranking shows that Facebook is still the most popular platform for NPOs. However, the number of "followers/likes" has increased on all channels, and almost all of the organizations surveyed now have an Instagram account. The Swiss Paraplegic Foundation will also be represented on the popular image and video platform in future. However, the number of users is still low compared to Facebook. This is despite the fact that Instagram has great potential to share meaningful and emotional content with a community. With this platform, goals such as volunteer recruitment, event promotion or fundraising can be implemented even more successfully, writes Consign and advises: "If Swiss NPOs want to achieve their organizational goals, they should invest more in Instagram in the future."

Investors reacted with delight to the return to user growth. They sent the share price up sharply at times in after-hours US trading.

Business was also better than Wall Street had expected. Snap's revenues climbed by almost 40 percent year-on-year to 320 million dollars thanks to a strong increase in advertising revenue. It also managed to reduce its loss by 20 percent to $310 million.

"We delivered strong results in the first quarter," Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said happily. He held out the prospect of increased investment for long-term growth. (SDA)

Lars Schnidrig, Sebastian Iffert, Lorenz Beringer and Maximilian Lothamer (from left)

"We help Swiss companies accelerate brand building across national borders," founder and CEO Lorenz Beringer explains the reason for the expansion in a statement. In particular, the connection to the offices in Munich and Shanghai enables Lobeco to already provide premium customers with international strategic-analytical advice on all relevant social media platforms. With the new location in Zurich, Lobeco is also a reliable partner for the development of active communities, the implementation of planned measures and the insourcing of know-how for its globally active customers.

Together with Lorenz Beringer, Lars Schnidrig will take over the development of the Swiss office. Since 2016, the Swiss-born consultant has advised numerous clients and been responsible for several six-figure budgets. Now he is looking forward to the new challenges: "Together we want to implement digital projects with our clients and strengthen their social media communication. Whether in the creation and implementation of analyses and strategies, in performance marketing, in the conception of campaigns or in the supervision of operational tasks: I'm looking forward to passing on my expertise and bringing it to bear in my work with clients."

Lobeco was founded in May 2014 Lorenz Beringer and today employs around 70 people in Munich, Shanghai and Zurich.

More than 400 CDs, ECDs and CCOs from 65 countries have been selected as the Grand Jury for the shortlists in a two-stage online voting process. The finalists, including TBWA\Zurich with its award-winning Big Mac anniversary campaign, will be judged in New York by the Executive Jury, which includes global CCOs, and the winners will be chosen. The winners will be announced the week of May 13. The points from the New York Festivals Advertising Awards can be counted towards the creative ranking of Advertising Week.

To this end, users have the option of having their identity verified by Higgs. According to the announcement, this verification process goes beyond the clear name requirement of other media. However, the verification of user profiles remains voluntary - anonymous participation in discussions is still possible, but verified profiles will enjoy more credibility and trust in the community.

In addition, Higgs is the first online medium in Switzerland to make the scientific competence and expertise of its users visible to others. Verified scientists - who already make up a remarkable proportion of users - can be recognized as "Scientists" in the comment columns of Higgs. "We are thus further expanding our pioneering role in the fight against fake news and in bringing society and science together," says Beat Glogger, founder and editor-in-chief of Higgs.
 
The growing Higgs community should benefit from this innovation. The creators are convinced that, in contrast to anonymous comments, verified users enable a more natural discussion. "We are moving away from mere expressions of opinion towards real discussions that people can otherwise only have offline," says Michael Baumann, co-founder and Head of Development at higgs. "With our in-house development, we are sending out a clear signal in times of fake news - especially on social media," says Community Developer and Social Media Manager Sandro Bucher. "With this innovation, higgs offers its users the opportunity to take part in high-quality discussions."

For generations, the traditional family business Steiner has been able to create products that appeal to and inspire a wide audience through honesty and attentiveness. The center of the company is always the pastry and accordingly the redesign of the premises at the Zurich airport should be restrained in appearance but still contemporary and cosmopolitan. This required great skill and sensitivity in the design expression of the space program in order not to appear arbitrary but independent and authentic.
 

The dark color in the room perfectly stages the naturalness of the baked goods in their beauty and makes a clear statement. Together with the wood, which partially runs through the entire restaurant, a warm and cozy atmosphere is created, where you like to sit down and enjoy. Seen in this light, the new look of the Steiner Flughafebeck stands for freshness, urbanity, authenticity and the craft itself.

The city's property management confirmed to the Newspaperthat it had wanted to acquire the land as a strategic land reserve in a development area. The city needs such land for the construction of schools, kindergartens, day nurseries or crèches, but also to increase the share of non-profit housing.

But in the bidding process, the city had not been able to compete on price. The city's offer was 40 million francs. The Swiss Life Group, on the other hand, put 81 million francs on the table for the site, i.e. 12,717 francs per square meter. The insurer wants to use the site primarily for the construction of apartments.

As SRG's head of communications Edi Estermann explained to Sonntagsblick, the liquid funds were urgently needed: "Without the sale of the property, SRG would have had to report a loss in 2018." (hae/SDA)

"Friends wanted" is the name of the 360 campaign launched by McDonald's and the Cossette agency in Canada. The concept is simple but fresh: good friends are encouraged to apply together in order to be hired and work together. The aim of the campaign is to position itself as a modern employer that is attractive to young people. An employer that offers a workplace where fun is not neglected and camaraderie is writ large. Whether this corresponds to reality would probably have to be judged by a McDonald's employee. Nevertheless, the approach of recruiting friends in a double pack could point the way to the future for some industries.

The aim of the Informatiktage is to make the multifaceted world of informatics accessible and tangible for everyone. Companies, start-ups, universities and other hosts in the greater Zurich area will open their doors on the last weekend of March 2020 and offer young and old, laymen and professionals alike, personal encounters and unique insights into their everyday work and research.
 
The Information Technology Days are organized by the city and canton of Zurich, ETH Zurich and Ergon Informatik and are a project of the eZürich cooperation network, in which representatives from science, politics and business work to promote Zurich as an ICT location. After an agency evaluation, those responsible decided to work with Ruf Lanz because the agency had "proven many times that they can bring complex topics to the point in a pointed, concise and popular way." The first results will be seen in fall 2019.

The annual advertising pressure is 1,760.6  million gross francs, which corresponds to an increase of 7.1% compared to the previous year. This growth is still attributable to the surprisingly strong January.

Advertising pressure in the overall market

Development of advertising pressure as at March 2019

Leisure, gastronomy and tourism remain at the top

Looking at the annual advertising pressure of the individual sectors, the picture is similar to that of the first two months of the year. Leisure, gastronomy & tourism is in first place, practically on a par with the second-placed service sector. Third place again goes to the automotive industry. Fashion & sport is now just ahead of the food industry. Beverages and transportation, as well as the cleaning and media sectors swapped places.

Small changes within the sectors

In March 2019, gross value added in most sectors showed little change compared to the previous year. This is also reflected in the low growth of 1.6% across all sectors. The largest year-on-year increase was recorded by the political campaigns product group (+27.2%), although this did not prevent the slight reduction in advertising pressure from initiatives and campaigns. The energy sector (+7.5%) and the vehicle sector (+4.9%) also saw a slight increase in gross advertising pressure. Despite the two most advertised products of the month, the telecommunications sector only increased by 6.3% overall compared to the same month last year.

Media sector remains weak

The media industry is continuing its downward spiral. As in January and February 2019, it also reduced its gross advertising pressure in March, this time by a whopping 30.8% compared to March last year. As a result, it slipped one place behind the cleaning industry in the rankings. The tobacco industry also reduced its advertising pressure in March by 31.6% compared to the previous year and remains in last place in the industry ranking. Personal care (-23.8%) and fashion and sport (-20.7%) also lost ground compared to the same month last year.

Advertising printing in the industries

Advertising pressure in the sectors with year-on-year comparison

Top 10 of the month

The top 10 advertisers and most frequently advertised products and services (excluding product range and image advertising) in March

Media Mix

The integration of search data, desktop (January 2017) and mobile (July 2017) into Media Focus's advertising statistics has led to a significant increase in the internet's share of the media mix. Since January 2018, search data has also been collected for French-speaking Switzerland (share of search: 85% DE/15% FR).

Thomas Schlickenrieder, Managing Director of the Elternsein Foundation, publisher of Fritz+FränziThe publishing house and editorial team were previously housed in different premises, separated by Dufourstrasse. The constant jumping across the street, from one office to another, has kept us fit, but we agreed that we could improve work processes and communication even further if we were all in one place."

To ensure that fitness is maintained in the future, the Fritz+Fränzi at the new address at the top of the sixth floor. In addition to modern workstations, there is a coffee machine, a few chairs, a beautiful view and a team that is always happy to welcome visitors.

More than 100 years ago, the writer Carl Spitteler was already dealing with current issues in our society. The understanding of democracy, the conditions in Switzerland, xenophobia and also homeland folly were already at that time the subject of his reflections, which was partly the reason why Spitteler was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1919. The agency eyeloveyou has accompanied with various measures the celebrations on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his award. 

The central information medium is the website Spitteler.ch, which provides extensive information on the life and work of Carl Spitteler. In addition, it also serves with the daily updated agenda as a dynamic information portal for all events and celebrations that take place throughout Switzerland within the framework of the anniversary and are partly accompanied by the agency directly on site.

Additional measures in the form of business stationery and a reading booklet on the anniversary year were realized on the basis of the freshly developed branding. A deliberately Swiss color scheme and typography with dot drawings of historical photos are intended to emphasize the visual recognizability.