Notter & Notter advises companies and organizations on strategy development and the detailed conception of communication measures. The repertoire of the new company Notter & Notter also includes crisis communication and issues management, text creation and the entire spectrum of online publishing - from corporate blogs and social media to video production.
 

The company owner and managing director can look back on a long career as a communications expert. In the last one and a half years, he built up the new communications department at the Federal Administrative Court in St.Gallen, where he still works full-time today. Between 2011 and 2017, Andreas Notter was Head of Corporate Publishing at the insurance group Helvetia, having been responsible for corporate communications at Schweizer Radio DRS from 2007 to 2011.
 
He gained a great deal of experience in crisis communication as a media spokesman for the Thurgau cantonal police from 2002 to 2007. Andreas Notter also worked in industrial communications, between 1998 and 2001 at the Bühler technology group. He started his career in journalism between 1995 and 1998 as an editor at the Thurgauer Zeitung.
 
Andreas Notter, Swiss certified PR consultant, is an examination expert for PR conception at the Swiss Public Relations Association PR Suisse and for the certificate examinations for communication consultants.
 
Regula Notter (Administration) and Claire Notter (Finance) in the back office are responsible for doubling the company name.

With spring awakens not only nature, but also people. People repair, clean, care for, plant, and finally enjoy. And because people are people, things often don't go quite right. In precisely these imperfect moments, Coop Bau+Hobby's spring campaign proves in a charming way that its range of products is just that little bit closer to life. True to the motto: We help make.

"It was important to us that we set an accent and expand our leading position," says Zorica Jurkovic, Project Manager Advertising Coop Bau+Hobby. "Our brand is allowed to be a bit fresher than before. We are very satisfied with the result."

The cross-media campaign includes TV spots, social video, print, online and POS advertising media and has been on air since the middle of last month to coincide with the start of spring.

For some time now, so-called native advertising has been making its way into the Swiss media. This involves advertising content that is not intended to be immediately recognized as advertising; content, in other words, that seeks to deceive the readership about its true intent. In order to do justice to this new phenomenon, the Swiss Press Council specially revised its guidelines on the "Declaration of the Duties and Rights of Journalists," the Journalists' Code, in the summer of 2017.

Since then, Guideline 10.1 has stated unequivocally: "Advertisements, commercials and content paid for or provided by third parties must be clearly distinguished from editorial contributions in terms of design. If they are not clearly recognizable as such visually / acoustically, they must be explicitly declared as advertising."

Now, for the first time since the guideline was updated, the Press Council has dealt with a case of native advertising, partially approving a complaint against Blick.ch. A doctor took issue with an article published on the online portal in July 2018 entitled "Is IQOS less harmful than a cigarette?". the article described that more than 400 scientists in Neuchâtel were researching the "smoke-free future" for Philip Morris International.

Above the title, the following note was attached to a black banner: "Blick in Kooperation mit IQOS". Below the article, a footnote told readers what the article was actually about: "This is a paid article. 'In cooperation with ...' means that content is created on behalf of a customer and paid for by the customer. This sponsored content is produced by the Brand Studio."

In the so-called teaser linking to the article on the Blick.ch main page - a picture with the headline "High Tech am Neuenburgersee" and the title "430 Forscher tüfteln am Ende der Zigarette" (430 researchers are working on the end of cigarettes) - the logo of the IQOS company could be seen in relatively small letters at the top left and the text "In Kooperation mit IQOS" (In cooperation with IQOS) immediately below it. There was no indication that this was a paid contribution. Visually, the teaser did not differ from the other teasers on the page that linked to journalistic articles.

In its statement, the Press Council therefore comes to the conclusion that Blick.ch has violated Guideline 10.1 of the "Declaration" by publishing this teaser. The reference that the article is based on a cooperation is not sufficient, since the average reader will hardly know that such a cooperation is nothing more than advertising.

In contrast, Blick.ch did not violate the "declaration" with the publication of the article, since it is declared there - even if only in a footnote - that it is a paid contribution.

As a matter of principle, the Press Council recommends dispensing entirely with the word formations "In cooperation with..." or "Sponsored Content," which disguise the advertising character. These undermine readers' trust in journalism. Publishers should therefore always replace them with the unambiguous and accurate term "advertising.

Disney+ is to be offered from November 12 for a price of $6.99 per month, initially in the U.S., as the group announced on Thursday (local time). Later, the offer is to be expanded to Europe and then to other regions.

Customers will then be able to watch numerous productions from the entertainment empire on the platform, which also includes the Marvel superhero films, Star Wars and the animated film company Pixar. Documentaries from the National Geographic channel and offerings from the ABC channel will also be shown. All seasons of "Simpons" will also be available from launch - Disney recently bought the series.

Disney wants to use the service to compete with Netflix, which already has around 140 million paying customers. A number of corporations are increasingly turning to streaming: Amazon has its Prime Video offering, and U.S. technology giant Apple recently unveiled plans for its Apple TV+ streaming service. WarnerMedia also wants to get in on the market. (hae/SDA)

Burgdorf Castle presents itself with a new appearance in view of its reopening in April 2020. As part of a competitive tender in 2018, Kargo Kommunikation had won the contract for the implementation of the new appearance of Burgdorf Castle.

In addition to the conception and implementation of the new logo and the new website, an umbrella brand strategy was developed for Burgdorf Castle, which unites all future users, such as the museum, the Swiss Youth Hostels and the city of Burgdorf (wedding room). Thereby the areas "Museum", "Restaurant", "Youth Hostel" & "Events" get a self-contained identity.

Burgdorf Castle becomes a veritable melting pot of the finer things in life. Here, history meets modernity, the culinary arts shake hands with the experience and are accommodated with chivalrous hospitality. Kargo's goal was and is to create a brand design that makes all these offers and areas formally visible. In the future, all users will appear together under the umbrella brand Burgdorf Castle. 

Burgdorf Castle is still under renovation: Tailor-made offers for the castle experience, as well as individual overnight stays, can already be found on the website Castle-burgdorf.ch be booked for spring 2020. Likewise, bookings can be made via the Swiss Youth Hostels website.

300,000 customers are currently holders of the "myBenu" customer card. The name Benu is inspired by Egyptian mythology; it is the bird that represents the god of the sun and embodies the idea of excellent longevity. Based in Geneva, the media agency serves clients throughout Switzerland. With more than 15 years of experience, it now employs more than 25 people, both offline and online.

The collaboration between Benu Group and Mediatonic aims to develop and implement a media strategy that will enable the Group to optimize its media campaigns and maximize its return on investment.

SRG expects to be able to save ten million francs per year through the measures, the company announced on Thursday. The current head of TPC, Detlef Sold, must vacate his post by mid-year.

The production center of Swiss Television had been spun off at the beginning of 2000. However, the resulting company TPC, which today employs around 900 people, remained a wholly owned subsidiary of SRG. The re-integration is intended to simplify the organization and coordination of productions and save costs "especially at the management level," according to the statement.

Due to the integration of TPC into SRF, Nathalie Wappler, Director SRF, and Detlef Sold, CEO TPC, have decided by mutual agreement that Detlef Sold will leave the company at the beginning of July. Christoph Gebel, Senior Advisor in the SRF management, will take over the project management of the TPC integration and - together with the TPC management - will be responsible for the detailed concept to be developed. From July and until the start of the new organization in January 2020, Christoph Gebel will also take over the management of TPC.

SRG is currently implementing a savings program amounting to CHF 100 million. The reasons for this are the reduction and capping of fees, falling advertising revenues, restrictions in the digital advertising market and investments in the future.

In order to "conserve programming," measures would be examined primarily in the areas of real estate, infrastructure, technology, production processes and administration. According to Gilles Marchand, SRG is to be reformed in such a way that flexibility and efficiency can be improved while at the same time maximizing the program offering.

At its meeting on Wednesday, the SRG Board of Directors therefore further decided to create a new competence center for IT infrastructure and IT services, digital production and distribution by the beginning of 2020. This will be managed by the subsidiary Swiss TXT in Biel with 179 employees, and the internal IT and infrastructure unit Init with 100 employees will be integrated into it. A social plan is in place for those who have been made redundant.

On the recommendation of the SRG Executive Board, the SRG Board of Directors has decided to integrate the technical production center tpc into SRF for the first time. This is intended to simplify the organization and coordination of production between the enterprise units. The restructuring will enable costs to be saved, particularly at management level. The Board of Directors has commissioned SRG's Executive Board to draw up a detailed concept. Subject to the legally required consultation process, SRG aims to implement the new structure on January 1, 2020.

Due to the integration of TPC into SRF, Nathalie Wappler, Director SRF, and Detlef Sold, CEO TPC, have decided by mutual agreement that Detlef Sold will leave the company at the beginning of July. Christoph Gebel, Senior Advisor in the SRF management, will take over the project management of the TPC integration and - together with the TPC management - will be responsible for the detailed concept to be developed. From July and until the start of the new organization in January 2020, Christoph Gebel will also take over the management of TPC.

National Business Services will also be based at SRF by January 1, 2020 at the latest. These specialized services will comprise around 70 full-time positions in coordination, job planning and in the solution desks, as well as in operational audio, video and data transmission.

The Board of Directors has also decided to form a competence center for IT infrastructure and IT services, digital production and distribution. This competence center is to comprise the Biel-based subsidiary Swiss TXT (179 employees) and SRG's internal IT and infrastructure unit INIT (100 employees). Furthermore, Swiss TXT is and will remain SRG's competence center for access services. Subject to the legally required consultation procedure, this implementation is also to take place on January 1, 2020.

The measures adopted are expected to generate total savings of ten million Swiss francs per year. A reduction of around 40 full-time positions is expected, of which around 20 will be eliminated through redundancies and early retirements. There is a social plan for those affected, which provides for various cushioning measures.

As part of the reforms, the Board of Directors approved a number of other measures that will enable the General Management to make additional savings.

SRG Director General Gilles Marchand commented: "We continue to fundamentally reform SRG in order to optimize flexibility and efficiency while maximizing the programming offer. With the ongoing restructuring, SRG is reducing its costs, optimizing its production processes and downsizing the General Management to be able to focus entirely on the strategic management function."

SRG Board of Directors Chairman Jean-Michel Cina: "With these decisions, we are consistently following the path of the reforms announced on March 4, 2018."

The trade union Schweizer Syndikat Medienschaffende (SSM) criticized in a press release the "hopscotch policy of the SRG leadership". The SRG's reform and savings program consists primarily of postponements, cutbacks, outsourcing, re-integrations and restructurings, without any details of implementation being known.

The SSM called it "scandalous" that once again the employees were paying the high price for "the planning games of the SRG top management". It was time for SRG to reflect on its values and ask itself what and who constitutes a public service company. (hae/pd/SDA)

The conference was dedicated entirely to the customer journey in digital marketing. National and international speakers presented a program on digital marketing trends and innovative cases. The Digital Marketing Awards 2019 were also presented during the DEX.

The first DEX was opened by David Burst and Roger Bauer from IAB Switzerland: "The DEX conference is a Swiss market solution, behind which there is a lot of power and know-how. We are happy to host this industry event with more than 1,100 visitors and to develop it further in the coming years," says David Burst, President of IAB Switzerland.

Martin Radelfinger, responsible for Business Development & Innovation at Goldbach, was pleased with the successful launch of the conference: "In addition to the many exciting presentations, the open lounge area for networking and exchanging ideas proved particularly useful".

René Plug, Chief Data and Technology Officer at Admeira, was also enthusiastic: "As a partner of DEX, we are keen to promote digitization in Switzerland. The renowned speakers impart their know-how pragmatically and give the participants impulses that they can use for their digital strategy."

On the Main Stage, exciting keynotes and panel discussions alternated between national and international thought leaders and experts in digital marketing. Speakers such as Claudia Will- vonseder (IKEA Switzerland), Bertalan Moravanszky (Panalpina), Susanne Franz (Seat) and Sacha Berlik (The Trade Desk) highlighted current and future trends.

In her Opening Keynote, Claudia Willvonseder explained how an overarching goal can steer a company in its transformation. At the Closing Keynote, Oliver Risse, CEO and founder of Floatility, turned his gaze to Asia: "The future of mobility is digital and undergoing rapid change. This is exactly the same in Asia and Europe. One big difference, however, is the speed of implementation where many Asian countries have overtaken us left and right."

Additional inspiration was provided for visitors in the parallel workshops and master classes. These presented topics and trends in digital marketing that make the customer experience even more effective across channels and individualized with new technologies such as AI, voice, and chatbots. The partners invited to network in a pleasant atmosphere in the Experience Lounge. The after-party with visitors, speakers and partners in the backstage area of hall 622, rounded off the day.

Another highlight of the day was the 9th Digital Marketing Awards ceremony. In the categories Digital Marketer, Digital Agency and Digital Newcomer, exceptional projects and achievements by companies, organizations and individuals were honored. You can find the detailed report here.

Nominated for the Digital Marketer of the Year were companies that stood out with their digital advertising campaigns in the past year: both the range of measures used and the creativity played a role in the assessment. The nominated companies included Amorana, Audi, Brack and Lidl. 

In the end, Amorana took the award. In 2018, the company caught everyone's eye because they invested heavily in digital advertising and presented themselves to their target audience across all formats. Their advertising for erotic items is thoughtful and always created with humor. The decisive factor in the jury's decision was the video campaign for Amorana's Advent calendar.
 

Who used digital marketing measures sustainably and strategically across the entire customer and sales cycle to guarantee customers an advanced digital brand experience across all touchpoints? For the award Digital Agency of the Year the jury was allowed to make its selection from the following nominations: Dreifive (Switzerland), Havas Media, Hoy and MediaCom Switzerland. 

The winner was the Zurich agency Hoy: Hoy has invested a lot in know-how and technology in recent years and is positioning itself for Swiss customers as one of the important digital agencies that work very closely with their customers. Their high level of technical expertise additionally sets them apart. 

Our editorial team reached Hoy CTO Moritz Schneider directly after receiving the award. He says: "We are extremely pleased to have been chosen as Digital Agency of the Year. This is the most important award in our still young history. Since the founding of Hoy, we have been able to steadily build a name for ourselves in the digital advertising industry, through this award we will hopefully gain even more recognition. We would like to thank all our employees for their great performance and our clients and the agencies of the Mediaschneider Group for the great cooperation and trust."

Go to Digital Newcomer of the Year was Anna Sidorova. She achieved the best result in the final exam of the diploma course "Digital Marketing Basic Course" of the IAB Academy.

Voss bought the rights to the brand together with his business partner Hans Allmendinger. The previous owner was the Aargau-based investment company Oel-Pool, which also owns the De Sede hosiery label and the Ruedi Rüssel petrol station group.

Zimtstern is an icon in the Swiss brand world. The company was founded in 1995 as a brand for snowboarders. The first bike collection followed in 2011. Voss and Allmendinger, both from Germany, now want to specialize fully in bikewear.

The design of the new collection is "made in Switzerland". "Zimtstern should remain a piece of Switzerland," says Allmendinger. "The design language is developed in Switzerland." The country is also an important target market with a large fan base. "In future, however, we also want to sell the brand in the USA and Asia," says Allmendinger.
 

Bisnode D&B Switzerland is the European market leader in business information and data and analytics. Bisnode distributes the best risk platform on the market today, D&B Credit, exclusively in Switzerland. It gives customers access to up-to-date data and credit information on over 300 million companies in 240 countries worldwide.

The aim of the campaign: to raise awareness of D&B Credit among potential customers and motivate customers of the predecessor product to upgrade. The mailing ran under the motto "Fireproof". It encouraged the target group to try D&B Credit for free instead of burning their money senselessly. To illustrate this, the letter consisted of a non-combustible paper with matches attached. Online banners accompany the campaign. They lead the target group to the landing page bisnode.ch/feuerfest, where they can find more information about D&B Credit and order the test access.

The past year was dominated by the long and intense debate on the No Billag initiative, SRG announced on Thursday. Despite the clear victory in the referendum, the company announced a savings program of around CHF 100 million and - in connection with this - a reduction of 200 jobs.

The reason for the savings exercise was the upcoming reduction and capping of reception fees, declining advertising revenues and new tasks in the performance mandate, it said. In addition, SRG intended to invest 20 million francs in feature films and series as well as in the development of a digital offering.
 

Due to the costs of the fee system change, these revenues already fell by CHF 12.1 million last year. Added to this were 11.2 million francs for the social plan and 34.1 million francs for provisions to prepare the reform plan. A large part of the CHF 20.4 million increase in personnel costs was also due to provisions made as part of the savings program.

Advertising revenues fell by CHF 11.9 million, mainly due to the shift to digital channels and social media platforms. Finally, programming and production expenses increased by CHF 50 million last year. SRG attributes this increase to costs for broadcasting rights and production costs for major sporting events, such as the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang or the World Cup in Russia.
The sale of a piece of land generated a book profit of CHF 63.2 million for SRG. As a result, total revenues increased to 53.3 million francs compared to the previous year, ultimately leading to a slight profit of 6.846 million francs. This is 22 million less than a year ago.
Loss forecast for 2019

However, the real impact of the fee reduction from CHF 451 last year to CHF 365 will only be felt in the current year. SRG therefore expects a negative result for 2019.

The reform plan will continue to occupy SRG. But the company will try to keep the impact on staff and programming "as low as possible," SRG writes. In any case, the goal is to be able to present a balanced result again in 2020. (SDA)