Machine learning and AI could make classic market research increasingly obsolete. This is because it will make it possible to efficiently analyze user-generated content (UCG) such as online reviews, blogs and social media postings. One in the Journal Marketing Science According to a published study, it is actually faster and cheaper for brands to find out what customers want - and possibly better than, for example, through traditional surveys.

As more and more people shop online and also share opinions about and experiences with products, a UCG data mountain is emerging that is massive in many areas. "On Amazon alone, there are over 300,000 reviews of health and personal care products," says Artem Timoshenko, a marketing doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and lead author of the study. If this freely available data could be used to efficiently identify customer preferences, this would be very attractive for consumer brands. However, many marketers still have doubts as to whether this can be done efficiently enough.

Timoshenko and marketing professor John R. Hauser have therefore looked at whether this can be done with the help of machine learning. The researchers are using a hybrid approach: a learning system discards garbage and duplicates in Amazon reviews to deliver only relevant data. An expert then analyzes this data to identify customer needs.

The team tested this approach for oral hygiene products and compared the results with those from traditional face-to-face surveys.

"Ultimately, we found that UCG does at least as well as traditional methods that rely on a representative group of consumers," Hauser says. That's because the machine-learning approach has actually meaningfully reduced the review data mountain to a selection that a human expert can work well with. However, technology is unlikely to replace humans entirely in the foreseeable future. "Face-to-face review remains an important final step in the process, as professional analysts are best able to assess the contextual nature of consumer needs," says the marketing professor. (pte) 

Graphic: Manfred Steger via Pixabay

Surer was active as a driver in various racing series in the 1970s and 1980s. His greatest successes include winning the Formula 2 European Championship in 1979. In Formula 1, the Arisdorf native contested 82 Grands Prix. His best results in the top class of motorsport came at the 1981 Brazilian GP, where he finished fourth and set the fastest race lap in a technically inferior Ensign, and at the 1985 Italian GP, where he finished fourth. After his active career, the now 67-year-old first worked for what was then Swiss television and later as a Formula 1 TV pundit in Germany for around 20 years.

Commenting on his new role as an SRF pundit, Marc Surer says in a statement: "At the end of my racing career, Swiss television allowed me to commentate. That was the start of a new career for me. I'm glad to now be working again for the broadcaster that once gave me this opportunity."

Dani Bolliger, Head of Live at SRF Sport, is delighted about the addition: "Marc Surer is one of the most high-profile Formula 1 experts in the German-speaking world. I'm delighted that he will be contributing his immense experience as a racing driver and observer to our live broadcasts in the future."

On February 14, it's that time again - the lovebirds of the world celebrate Valentine's Day. It's time for big feelings and small gifts, a romantic dinner or at least a few flowers. But time to talk about money?

Bank Cler and home: yes, absolutely. After all, an open approach to money and mutual trust in financial matters are unmistakable signs of a mature relationship. 
And yet: sharing an apartment, getting married, having children - these are the relationship-related romantic perennials. The decision to set up a joint bank account, on the other hand, still lives a shadowy existence as a milestone of togetherness.

To change this, Bank Cler is launching an online film produced by Heimat Zürich just in time for Valentine's Day, in which love and money finally come together. Kitschy to the point of heartbreak, a hobby bard proposes to his beloved, or to be more precise, asks her to open an account. While the target group's aesthetic sensibilities are put to the test, the message should be clear: Fine words alone are not enough in the long run; the true proofs of love are quite pragmatic.
 

5G is the next big step into the digital future of our country. As a recognized provider of the best network in Switzerland, Swisscom is building the 5G network and has already tested it in various locations. In order to build on this perceptual advantage in the public eye and to occupy the 5G topic area for itself, Serviceplan Suisse was commissioned with a campaign to bring the multifaceted benefits of 5G technology closer to the target group.

"With a quick and striking appearance, we want to sensitize the target group to the complex topic," explains Executive Creative Director Raul Serrat "and make the benefits tangible with appropriate stories." This is how the memorable headlines with five "G "s such as "GAMINGGGG", "OMGGGGG" or "ERTRAGGGG" were created, which in combination with benefit-specific images emotionalize the topic. A matching story for Swisscom's own channels was developed for each advertising subject. 

The campaign will appear nationally from February 5 to 24 as print, banners, native ads, social media, owned media and on Swisscom's content hubs.
 

In this year's Connect network test, Sunrise's network also received an "outstanding" rating. The telecom provider is thus following up on the successes of recent years - like its brand ambassador Roger Federer. In a charming commercial, Sunrise draws parallels to Federer's achievements. Unlike in the films of last year's campaign, Sunrise is now compared directly with the tennis god. The latter responds in his usual modest and polite manner: with a congratulatory message to the voice-over artist.

The film can be seen throughout Switzerland starting this week and will be used both online and on TV.

The seminar hotel Hof de Planis is located far above the valley floor of the Prättigau at 1280 meters. In the middle of the Grisons mountains, you will find generously designed rooms, a professional seminar infrastructure, warm hospitality and, last but not least, the necessary distance from the hustle and bustle of the day. The best prospects for successful seminars, conferences, workshops and events.

Ruf Lanz is drawing attention to this with a new campaign: Magnificent natural landscapes have been created from typical elements of PowerPoint presentations to advertise business seminars in the Grisons mountains.

Rudolf Florian, who runs the de Planis farm together with his partner Carmen Rickhoff, has this to say: "Every group has different needs, which we address individually. For companies from the city who want to get off their hamster wheel for a day or two and work in a focused way, our offer is attractive. We would like to increasingly address such guests with Ruf Lanz's new campaign."

Three different subjects will be featured on ads, postcards and social media starting in February.
 

"The final projects of the various project teams have shown that the 27 talented individuals have made great strides forward, both strategically and creatively, over the past few months and have more than earned the certificate," said School Board President Peter Brönnimann.

UBS was won as a sponsor for the final project. In the briefing, the students were asked to develop a new positioning and campaign for the "UBS Kids Cup". The teams, consisting of creatives and strategists/consultants, presented their final projects to the jury of the Ad School Board and the UBS representative. The winning teams will be awarded the coveted dice at the ADC Gala on March 23, 2019.

Silver

Campaign: "Everyone's on the Start Line."

Team: Jonas Brändli (Farner Consulting), Linda Egloff (Publicis Communications Switzerland), Tiffany Lüthi (Rod Kommunikation), Thomas Schibli (Mediasign)

Bronze

Campaign: "Success begins with opportunity."

Team: Marleen Diener (Eyeloveyou), Cedric Fuchs (Marti Communications), Gianin Walter (Content and Form), Ingrid Zumkehr (Republica)

Sonja Kingsley-Curry, marketing executive director at sponsor UBS.

Cyril Meier, Communication Specialist HWZ.

The 27 graduates of the Ad School 2018/19:

Course with specialization in strategy:

Flavio Alraun, Jonas Brändli, Laura Brechlin, Nuria Büchi, Marleen Diener, Daria Lötscher, Tiffany Lüthi, Manuela Marty, Samuel Wetzel, Debby Zarriello, Ingrid Zumkehr

Course with specialization in creation:

Rahel Aeschbacher, Linda Egloff, Kimberly Fasser, Cedric Fuchs, Gianin Walter, Anouk Karrer, Tizian Lienhard, Michelle Mancina, Marc Perler, Sarah Rüegger, Noemi Russenberger, Thomas Schibli, Oliver Spalt, Nadja Tandler, Carolin Widemann, Kevin Zysset

The award-winning theses and teams

Gold

Campaign: "Big dreams move ..."

Team: Anouk Karrer (Freelance Copywriter & Concept Designer), Daria Lötscher (Raffinerie), Oliver Spalt (Metzger Rottmann Bürge Partner), Kevin Zysset (Y&R Group Switzerland)

Looking at the overall interaction numbers on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter platforms, 2018 has a clear winner: Energy Switzerland was able to claim first place among the media in Switzerland with a total of 32,090,198 social media interactions.

Somewhat behind is View in second place with 10,404,839 interactions, just ahead of the Tamedia media brand 20 minuteswhich brought it to 10,396,277 interactions in the previous year.

#1: Energy Switzerland Energy Switzerland can boast more than 208,000 fans on Facebook, 149,000 followers on Instagram and 10,000 Twitter subscribers. The best performing platform for Energy Switzerland is still Facebook, but Instagram is gaining in importance.

#2: View View is present on the same platforms and can claim a total of 263,400 Facebook fans, 10,000 followers on Instagram, 249,000 Twitter subscribers. Despite the high number of Twitter fans, Facebook is still the most important social media channel for View.

#3: 20 minutes 20 minutes boasts an impressive Facebook following of 513,700 fans, making this social media channel the title's top platform. In addition 20 minutes still 393,300 Twitter subscribers and 38,700 Instagram followers.

The top article of 2018 in the category Media in Switzerland with 108,467 interactions was won by 20 minutes claim for itself. The Article, published in August, is about the introduction of test sections with 140 km/h speed limits on Austrian highways.

Pictures move people and say more than 1000 words, in this case a picture from Evening view 75,318 interactions in July. A picture of a dream beach in Bali is shown with the call to tag friends who would like to fly there.

RTS (Radio Television Suisse) claimed the title of the most successful video of 2018 with 330,528 interactions in April. It shows the concept of an energy self-sufficient ship that is being developed to free our oceans from plastic waste.

Volg stores are located where people live: in the middle of the village. Here, the village store is often more than just a place to shop. It is a meeting place where people exchange ideas and where some customers even tell the Volg employees about their lives. Shopping in a Volg shop therefore stands not only for geographical proximity, but also for personal closeness. Hardly any other Swiss brand operates closer to the Swiss population than Volg.

Volg at home in the village over 580 times. "For the love of the village" is also the core message of the new Volg advertising campaign, which was launched these days.
Just as every village is unique, every Volg has its own special features - not least because of the different people who shop here. Each of them has their own story to tell. 

Village stories thus form the linchpin of the new integrated overall presence, which in an initial phase will be seen on posters, in advertisements, in TV spots or moving images, with content in the company's own media and with a variety of measures in the stores.
 

Lena is programmed to analyze the voting data from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and produce automated reports from it. The robot relies on text templates provided by journalists. 

Around 2200 each Messages in German and French on all municipalities were created in this way on Sunday afternoon. As with the votes in November 2018, the municipal reports described the result of the only national proposal, the urban sprawl initiative, and classified it if there were any anomalies. 

In addition, the German-language municipal reports now also showed the outcome of the most important proposals at the cantonal level and the position of the voters in the municipality. Individual municipal results were also included. This provided the reader with all the important information on voting Sunday in a nutshell, tailored to one location. 

Basic service as a foundation 

In the cantonal and municipal area, the Lena texts were strongly oriented to the Keystone SDA text service, for which around two dozen journalists were on duty throughout Switzerland. They followed the votes and elections in their cantons, compiled the results as quickly as possible and used their local knowledge to weight the results. Lena relied on this.

Thanks to the in-house development Lena, it is possible to offer customers overview reports on each individual municipality, which was unthinkable until recently, Keystone-SDA wrote in a statement on Monday. The technology opens up new possibilities in the news agency's service portfolio. Jann Jenatsch, head of content, says: "Robot-generated reports are part of everyday life at many news agencies internationally. In talks, we now want to find out where we can support our customers with our know-how, be it in the next elections and votes, but also in other areas."

However, the use of Lena and Co. is also being driven forward internally, for example to increase speed. "Tools like Lena should support our journalists in their daily work. For example, they can help our people to be even faster," says Jenatsch. 

Using the programmatic platform Dr. Banner, Neo Advertising enables its customers to focus their out-of-home advertising campaigns on specific geographical areas such as cities, municipalities and tourist attractions.

Thanks to the high-quality digital advertising inventory of the most important Swiss publishers, Neo Advertising's clients can target their campaigns to very specific audiences within a defined geographic area, in a digital format that is a perfect complement to traditional out-of-home advertising space.

Christian Vaglio-Giors, CEO of Neo Advertising: "We are very excited to launch our new combined OOH & Mobile product with Dr. Banner. Geographic targeting options, the banner creation service and control over the distribution area are all advantages of our new offering. We have already achieved very convincing results with the first campaigns, even in small geographical areas."

The two authors demonstrate the courage to be thematically consistent and also have a sense of humor, as they advise their readers at the beginning of the slim book to first leaf through it carefully. Then they should decide whether it can be helpful or is just a waste of time. Chapeau! Anyone who decides to read it can really benefit from it, because many people complain about problems with self- and time management.

The book by Martin Kleinmann and Cornelius König not only provides an understanding of the stumbling blocks that repeatedly get in the way of time management, but also presents practical techniques to significantly improve self- and time management. All tips and suggestions are based on scientific findings. So it's not superficial advice fare. The style is appropriate - and unfortunately sometimes rather poorly understandable and dull. getAbstract recommends the book to all readers who want to simplify their lives and make them more efficient.

Self and time management

Author: Martin Kleinmann and Cornelius König

Publisher: Hogrefe, 2018

Pages: 146

ISBN: 9783801714949