Marco Hiestand studied communication science and media research at the University of Zurich. During his studies, Hiestand already gained communications experience in various jobs. Among other things, he was responsible for reputation analyses of Swiss banks and insurance companies as a project manager at the Research Unit for the Public and Society (Fög) and was able to gain practical experience in communications at the communications agency Sensus Communication Consultants. After his studies, he worked as a key account manager at Cognita before starting his career as a key account manager at News Aktuell in sales in 2015. Previously, he was responsible for sales of the PR software Renteria at News Aktuell, and for the past year he has been responsible for cross-product sales. Marco Hiestand is currently completing a part-time MBA at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).

Manhart will use his expertise in financial communications to serve clients in the banking, asset management and pension sectors. After studying journalism at the University of Zurich, he first worked as an IT specialist before turning to journalism and working for some of Switzerland's leading German-language business and financial publications: from 2001 to 2010 in various departments at Finance and economy, then as deputy editor-in-chief at the investor magazine Stocks and from 2013 as an investment specialist at Balance. From 2013 to 2015, he managed an investment writing project for UBS as Product Specialist. Since then, he has led the investment department of the Handelszeitung.

"My experience in content management and storytelling on financial topics and the broad network I have built up over the past 15 years are something I can bring to my new role at Communicators in the best possible way. In addition, I am looking forward to now also being entrepreneurially active," Manhart comments on his job change. "Peter Manhart is the ideal reinforcement for our finance team. As a journalist of many years' standing, he knows what content is received by the media. In addition, as a former member of the management of a major bank, he knows the needs of customers. At 43 years of age, Peter Manhart ensures a sustainable succession solution in the agency and a continued high quality of services," emphasizes Christian Weber, Partner and Chairman of the Board of Financial Communicators, the finance division of the Communicators Group.

He strengthens the digital competence at the young creative agency. Walthard's digital track record begins at Nextron, an Internet agency from the very beginning, continues via Namics to Netzfaktor and finally to Day Software, one of the first providers of professional content management systems on the market. As senior designer and art director, he was involved in the further development of the globally successful application and was a member of the management team. After the acquisition of Day by Adobe Systems in 2010, Oliver Walthard was Senior Expericence Designer and co-responsible for the development of the Adobe Marketing Cloud as well as the Adobe Expericence Manager.

For Yellow, which manages client projects with agile teams, the reinforcement in the digital team is a strategic step. "With the expansion of digital expertise through Oliver, we can work on every task of our customers from the ground up in an interdisciplinary way," CEO Reto Meyer said in a statement. This would result in ideas that focus on effectiveness rather than advertising channels.  

Keystone-SDA's new corporate strategy aims, among other things, to expand its "Corporate" division for business clients, in addition to its core mission as a classic news agency. PPR's product range in the areas of "visual PR" and "classic PR" ideally complements Keystone-SDA's portfolio for business and contract clients, according to a statement on Thursday.

PPR is the market leader in the field of visual PR and has many years of experience in the contract production and distribution of content, it adds. In addition, the agency has an extensive client portfolio in the field of "public relations". In order to advance and expand the strategic development of the "business and commissioned clients" area, the Board of Directors of Keystone-SDA has decided to fully integrate the subsidiary PPR.

"The integration of PPR creates synergies, thanks to which the PR division can grow faster and customer needs can be covered even more comprehensively," said Rainer Kupper, member of the management board of Keysttone-SDA. Within Keystone-SDA, a new PR department will be created, which will be headed by the former managing director of PPR, Sebastian Schneider. The integration will be completed in mid-2019.
 

From 2019, the agency will support the cultural and educational institution on the Zürichberg in its promotional online presence for its extensive range of offers, attractive customer promotions and exciting projects. Pablo Koerfer, Managing Director at Rod: "We are all - and not least the children of our employees - very pleased that Zurich Zoo will be working with Rod in the future. Zurich Zoo is a strong brand. To be creatively active for them is a great honor for us."

According to a statement issued by Tamedia on Thursday, the employees affected will be supported with a social plan. They will also receive the best possible support in their reorientation. Attempts will also continue to be made to find follow-up solutions within the company, it added. 

According to Tamedia, the structural changes in the media industry, in particular the downward trend in print, have long required prepress services to adapt to the changed conditions. 

As part of the organizational changes in paid media and the introduction of standardized production systems, the media company has decided to reorganize Prepress Zurich and Lausanne. The aim is to find a future-oriented, process-optimized solution for each individual area of Prepress in order to secure services in the long term. 

Image processing for newspapers and magazines is transferred to the Tamedia Editorial Services division, which also includes image editing. Ad make-up will be integrated into Tamedia's in-house print service. This will enable closer cooperation with page planning. 

The product coordination of the magazines will be transferred to the Tamedia printing centers. Both internal and external solutions are being sought for graphics services. Advertising production, which is already largely outsourced, will be transferred to the existing partner, according to the press release. (SDA)

Wild worked as a communications consultant for twelve years in various advertising agencies, including Wunderman Cato Johnson (Y&R Network), for many national and international brands such as American Express, Bally, Die Post, Ford, SBB, Swissair, Swisscom.

He then worked on the client side for various companies. As Head of Communications at Swissair/Swiss, as Head of Marketing at Axpo for market communications and for the last three years as Head of Marketing Services at Jowa / Migros-Industrie. There he was responsible, among other things, for a repositioning of Jowa as well as for the conception of market cultivation and the development of product brands for third markets. He was also involved in central promotions and packaging solutions for the MGB and the cooperatives.

The fashion house wants to use it to reach targeted female customers, the majority of whom are activated by such advertising measures. Kyo won the pitch against other agencies and will launch the first of several planned campaigns in February. The micro-influencers used are already fans of the brand and have an organically grown community that responds to posts and stories at an above-average rate. Kyo is the first Swiss agency for micro-influencer marketing.
 

As a study shows, dark-skinned teens saw more than twice as many adverts for unhealthy products such as fast food, sugary sodas, sweets and snacks as their white peers in 2017. The authors call on companies to abandon their "disproportionately one-sided advertising practices" and focus more on marketing healthy products.

Figures confirm the trend

"About 86 percent of food and restaurant industry TV advertising in 2017 targeting African-American children and youth in the U.S. was about unhealthy foods. For the Hispanic population, the corresponding figure was 82 percent," according to a joint report by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Conneticut, the Council on Black Health at Drexel University and the organization Salud America! from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

"Our analysis shows how important these target groups are for the industry when it comes to selling unhealthy foods. However, if companies really care about these customers, they should be more careful not to try to tempt them into buying products that are bad for their diet and health," criticizes study author Amelie Ramirez.

Only three percent for healthy food

According to the report, the food and restaurant industry spent a total of almost eleven billion dollars on TV advertising in 2017, around 1.1 billion dollars of which was spent on African-American and Hispanic target groups. In the same period, only 195 million dollars was spent on healthy foods such as water, nuts and fruit - that's just three percent of the total spend.

"The food industry has unveiled healthier products and publicly affirmed its commitment to the well-being and health of its customers. However, eight out of ten dollars are still spent on advertising fast food and other unhealthy foods," says Jennifer Harris of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. (Markus Steiner/press release)

The Christmas spot, developed by Manor in collaboration with advertising agency BETC and production company Passion Paris, won over users on YouTube. "We are very pleased with the great success of our Christmas TV spot, which has gone viral," says Sandra Kottenauer, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer at Manor. "With Elfred as an identification figure and an exceptional storytelling style, we succeeded in inspiring even more people than a year ago and making Christmas something very special. This shows that storytelling via moving images is one of the most important tools when it comes to conveying emotions and messages."

The silver medal goes to Anibis.ch with the spot "We bring together what belongs together - Your marketplace". Says Sandro Jungi, Online Marketing Manager at Scout24 Switzerland: "The Anibis.ch spot was successful because we took an integrative strategic approach to achieve the best possible result. The principle of "channel follows content follows strategy" applied. The goal was to make the Anibis.ch brand even better known in specific regions. To do this, we chose an emotionalization approach: we gave the brand a likeable face with our mascot, the friendly octopus Alex Anibis. At the heart of the media planning was a very specific combination of geo and interest targeting, as well as a rapid build-up of reach in our core regions, coupled with detailed contact dose planning using video retargeting."

The other rankings include a wide range of brands, industries and social topics - most of which are presented in a humorous way on the YouTube platform. After the top 3, the other places in the Switzerland ranking are occupied by another Anibis spot "À chaque situation, sa solution - petites annonces gratuites" (4th place), the spots from McDonalds (5th) and (6th), Valais Wallis (7th), the Easter spot from Migros (8th), Postfinance (9th) and SBB (10th).

The top 10 commercials on YouTube in Switzerland in 2018:

1. MANOR Christmas commercial 2018 MANOR SPECIAL CHRISTMAS
2. ANIBIS.CH We bring together what belongs together - Your marketplace
3. SUNRISE The best net - paraglider
4. ANIBIS.CH À chaque situation, sa solution - petites annonces gratuites
5. McDonald's Switzerland Which Big Mac® does she need? (30")
6. McDonald's Switzerland Which Big Mac® does he need? (30")
7. VALAIS WALLIS The proof: Wallis is addictive
8. MIGROS Easter will be Jöö. | Smalltalk
9. PostFinance Supermom looks ahead.
10. SBB CFF FFS You are my SBB.

Switzerland's top 5 in Q4 2018:

1. MANOR Christmas commercial 2018 MANOR SPECIAL CHRISTMAS
2. SUNRISE The best net - paraglider
3. SWISSCOM Dancing connects. New technologies too.
4. SUNRISE Le meilleur réseau - Parapente
5. GALAXUS - Winter adventure without a view

The top 10 in 2018 in Europe:

First place in the 2018 Europe ranking goes to Immowelt, the only German representative, which also tops the 2018 Germany ranking. Google, Estrella Damm ES, Nike and Turkish Airlines complete the top 5. In addition to humor, celebrities and the topic of Christmas are particularly impressive across Europe.

1. Immowelt Listen to your inner voice! #fuerimmo | Full Version | immowelt.de
2. Google Home Alone Again with the Google Assistant
3. Estrella Damm ES "Álex y Julia", con Michelle Jenner, Oriol Pla y Dani de la Torre. Estrella Dam 2018
4. Nike Nike - Dream Crazy
5. Turkish Airlines The LEGO Movie Characters present: Safety Video - Turkish Airlines
6. John Lewis & Partners John Lewis & Partners Christmas Ad 2018 - #EltonJohnLewis
7. Sainsbury's The Big Night | Sainsbury's Ad | Christmas 2018
8. Clash of Clans Clash of Clans: Hammer Jam!
9. YouTube Music YouTube Music: Open the world of music. It's all here.
10. Samsung Galaxy Note9: Fortnite Supply Drop

The SRF program "10vor10" aired a report on the new punk exhibition at the Photobastei on Monday. It featured an interview with the Berlin artist Sven Marquardt. The camera panned across his pictures on the wall of the museum. According to the Photobastei press release on Thursday, Marquardt's pictures show "half-naked people in a post-punk aesthetic and also naked breasts and nipples". These are all elements that violate Facebook's guidelines. Because Facebook does not differentiate between nudity and art and because Photobastei posted this content, i.e. the SRF report, it is now being blocked. Requests for leniency have not yet been heard by Facebook. 

The Photobastei is considered a repeat offender, as it had already advertised the exhibition of the photo artist Karin Szekessy with a naked muse and published a report by the Züritipp posted on its own Facebook page. For Photobastei, the social media channel is the most important channel for distributing its content. The blocking therefore meant a "massive cut and a threat to its activities". 

Art and nudity 

"It's a problem that Facebook doesn't want to differentiate between art and nudity," Romano Zerbini, director and curator of the Photobastei, is quoted as saying in the press release. "A Botticelli can no longer be posted on Facebook today! But Facebook has the power to elevate the nipple over art and we are powerless. Facebook and China have more in common than we would like."

The Photobastei combines museum exhibitions with the skills of professional photography and a passion for photography on two floors. (SDA)
 

A guest article by Marco Senftleben, Director, Sales Engineering, DACH Sizmek

Just recently, another major brand - this time confectionery giant Mars - stopped displaying its advertising content on YouTube. Mars made the decision after the company discovered that its ads were being placed next to content related to acts of violence in London. At this point, it should be mentioned in passing that Mars' advertising budget for the YouTube channel alone is estimated at 5.7 million euros. Mars' decision therefore hits the video platform hard. Especially because the negative headlines are likely to alert other brands to the environment in which their ads are played out.

Even if Mars' swift action has avoided long-term damage to the brand's reputation for the time being, the incident demonstrates how difficult it is for companies in the digital advertising landscape today to ensure that their advertising content appears in a qualitatively appropriate environment. One of the reasons for this is highlighted by a recent study by Sizmek, in which 62% of the more than 500 decision-makers from the advertising industry surveyed confirmed that they believe the media landscape has become too complex. If an international brand like Mars has no guarantee that its advertising will be played out in a brand-safe advertising environment despite its considerable budget and extensive resources, how can other companies be sure that their ads will not be placed next to offensive or extremist content? Unsurprisingly, the study found that 85% of marketers place a high priority on improving brand safety. Playing out advertising content in a safe environment is therefore a concern for companies of all types and sizes.

The battle between brand safety and campaign effectiveness

Although an exemplary 61 percent of marketers stated that they already use third-party brand safety solutions, many of them are still unable to prevent their advertising messages from being displayed alongside inappropriate content. Furthermore, four out of ten advertisers are certain that their ads have already been displayed in inappropriate environments, despite the fact that it is still very difficult to definitively determine whether an ad has appeared on a website that is harmful to the brand.

Essentially, the biggest obstacle to brand safety is the concessions that marketers often have to make in terms of campaign effectiveness. While the ever-increasing volume of media spend (particularly in digital) has helped to diversify and innovate the advertising landscape, campaign results and conversions are often still heavily impacted by brand safety solutions. In fact, 64% of marketers said that their efforts to only serve advertising content in brand-safe environments negatively impacted the efficiency and effectiveness of their online campaigns. So what can marketing decision-makers do to ensure that they no longer have to compromise between advertising effectiveness and brand safety?

AI as a protective shield for brand safety

The fundamental problem in this debate is that marketing managers are unable to consistently understand the environment and context in which their ads are displayed. Artificial intelligence can be the missing piece of the puzzle here to make the display of advertising more transparent and ensure brand safety. By analyzing the content and context of a website and identifying advertising environments that pose a reputational risk to the brand, AI is a core component of an effective brand safety solution.

Alongside the increase in investment in digital advertising and programmatic, the use of artificially intelligent technologies is also becoming increasingly diverse and relevant. AI is moving noticeably - also in the eyes of the general public - away from the "black box" that makes decisions that are incomprehensible to humans and towards a trusted advisor that can provide information and analysis on where and why to book certain ads. In an age of almost infinite amounts of data in marketing, the real-time factor is just one of the key reasons why marketers should rely on the support of AI.

In the study, 84% of marketing managers stated that they hoped to achieve better results in the area of brand safety solutions in the coming year. In order to realistically achieve this goal and prevent their company from making the next negative headlines, I can only recommend that these 84 percent consult AI.

Picture: Depositphotos