SBB Smart Emma opens its doors on February 3 in the Passage Löwenstrasse in Zurich HB. For four months, the pop-up store will treat visitors to products and services from mainly local suppliers - just like Aunt Emma used to. SBB commissioned the communications agency Partner & Partner to design and implement the key visual and advertising materials.

An online vote was at the heart of the campaign. Interested parties were given the opportunity to decide on the SBB Smart Emma offer. There were 64 providers from a wide range of sectors to choose from (culinary, fashion, jewelry, decoration, handicrafts, art, etc.). The suppliers with the most votes will now operate SBB Smart Emma in parallel for two weeks each. The result is a varied mix and a diverse offering.

Over the past 15 years, Marcel Schlatter and Marco Stücheli have developed communication strategies, advised executives, cultivated media relations and faced challenging situations in terms of communication on the side of public authorities and companies. They now offer their experience to organizations and persons of public interest. "A strategic and technical basis forms the foundation for successful communications work," says Marco Stücheli, and Marcel Schlatter adds: "We help clients meet the high internal and external demands with our experience and outside perspective."

Thanks to their wealth of experience in the private sector and in government, the two communications professionals say they are very familiar with the internal and external processes of an organization. This is an important prerequisite, particularly in critical situations, in order to tackle the most urgent issues. In the event of an incident, Schlatter.Stücheli therefore provides support in communicative management.

Schlatter.Stücheli, based in Zollikon (ZH), was founded in March 2018. Previous clients have included a globally active hotel group, a federal office, an intercantonal psychiatric group, a city of Zurich hospital and a Zug municipality.

Marcel Schlatter shaped the external communications of the Zug police and public prosecutor's office for almost a decade. Later, he led communications at Kuoni Switzerland for the restructuring and rebranding of the former traditional Swiss company.

Marco Stücheli built up professional corporate communications from scratch at the Children's Hospital Zurich, worked for the Hirslanden private hospital group, and was ultimately responsible for communications at the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital (LUKS), one of the largest center hospitals in Switzerland, for three years.

After months of blockade, the publisher Tamedia and the unions Impressum and Syndicom have reached an agreement on the modalities, as they announced in a joint communiqué on Wednesday. A framework has been defined so that the process can move forward and a quick success can be achieved for the people affected, it said. 

After the exit of Le Matin in July, the employees and the publishing house were unable to agree on a social plan. The Code of Obligations (Article 335j) then provides for the appointment of an arbitration court to decide on a binding and effective social plan, explained lawyer Michel Chavanne, who represents the interests of the employees, to the Keystone-SDA agency.

This tribunal will consist of three persons. Each party - employer and employee - will appoint one person, and these two "arbitrators" will jointly select the third member who will chair the panel. Subsequently, there will be an exchange of documents and possibly hearings. "Our hope is to reach a result within about six months," Chavanne continued. (SDA)

The illustrator Stephan Walter, from the Varoom! Magazine dubbed "Architect of Images," lives and works in Zurich. For ten years, Walter has been running his one-man studio and creating work for internationally renowned clients, such as Vodafone, LA Times, Wired Magazine, Skullcandy, Time Out, Sony Mobile and Volkswagen.

He repeatedly creates posters for cultural institutions and has worked and continues to work as a freelancer for various studios such as Sagmeister & Walsh or Karlssonwilker in New York. His works, which have won various design awards, bear an unmistakable signature, which Walter says he is always trying to develop further.

You want to contact? This is how you can reach the illustrator:

Stephan Walter
Pfingstweidstrasse 31a
8005 Zurich
[email protected]
Stephanwalter.ch
Instagram: @stephan_walter_ 

On January 9, 2020, the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) - the Olympic Games for young athletes - will begin in Lausanne. Rivella is supporting the young Swiss athletes on their way to Lausanne. And not only financially, but also emotionally: with a broad-based social media activation. This will start a year earlier on January 9, 2019.

The goal of the entire activation is to generate as much support as possible for the young athletes. The heart of the campaign is therefore a dedicated Facebook group (SOYT2020)where supporters of the "Swiss Olympic Youth Team" can meet and exchange ideas. To publicize the group, numerous posts are created to attract as many new members as possible. The athletes themselves and former top athletes play a central role in this.

The campaign, developed by Notch Interactive, communicates not only Rivella's commitment but also the most important values of Swiss Olympic: top performance, friendship and respect. It also gets fans (and those who want to become fans) in the mood for the Games with entertaining videos. All in all, this creates a versatile campaign that will be continued within the Facebook group. Within the "SOYT2020" group, there are numerous activation measures and competitions to get the community excited about the games - for example, the "Fan of the Month" is sought every month. There are also a number of surveys and smaller "Win Games". In this way, the involvement of the SOYT fans is increased and thus the greatest possible support for the Swiss athletes is ensured.

The Deutsche Bundesbank is Germany's central bank with its headquarters in Frankfurt. The so-called main building is of great architectural and historical importance, but is now in need of renovation. As part of the Campus project, the Deutsche Bundesbank is renovating the building and is also planning further buildings to bring all employees in Frankfurt together at a single location.

Seed created the corresponding project film. The Deutsche Bundesbank wanted a new tonality in its communication. The information was to be conveyed in a playful and entertaining way - and yet still be comprehensive. The two-minute film will be used at events and presentations as well as online. The film was directed by Adrian Wisard.

Editor-in-Chief Larissa M. Bieler with Deputy Editor-in-Chief Reto Gysi von Wartburg in the foreground, the two new members Dale Bechtel (left) and Patrick Böhler (center).

"With Patrick Böhler and Dale Bechtel, SWI's product development, from the preparation to the presentation and distribution of editorial content, will be bundled and strengthened. This will enable us to focus even more consistently on the needs of our international target markets," says editor-in-chief Larissa M. Bieler in a statement explaining the move to expand the editorial team.

Canadian/Swiss Dale Bechtel has worked for SWI Swissinfo.ch for more than 25 years. Bechtel started his career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where he produced for the leading radio cultural program. In SWI's early years, Dale Bechtel pioneered online work in cooperation with BBC: live coverage of a re-enacted historic mountain expedition in the Swiss Alps. He also developed community projects when social media was still in its infancy. He expanded the English editorial team of SWI Swissinfo.ch and established it as the central production unit for international Swiss news. He also designed the online communications strategy for the Bern-based International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation UIAA.

In the SWI editorial department, Bechtel will be responsible in particular for the development of market-oriented formats and multimedia storytelling.

The team is also completed by Patrick Böhler, who joins SWI. Böhler has covered Asia for the New York Times, Dow Jones, Bloomberg News, the South China Morning Post, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and several other media outlets. At the New York Times, he was involved in the digitization of reporting and editorial processes. His reportages have won several journalism awards. Born in Vorarlberg, he previously worked for the Austrian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Defense. He also taught at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, Asia's leading journalism school. Böhler holds a doctorate in political science.

As Senior Editor for Audience and Innovation, Böhler's task will be to bring Swissinfo.ch's content and formats closer to the needs of international users.

Larissa M. Bieler, Director and Editor-in-Chief, is looking forward to working with the strengthened team and developing SWI further. Reto Gysi von Wartburg will continue as deputy editor-in-chief of SWI.

Marguerite Meyer will leave SWI at her own request at the end of March 2019. She had joined SWI in January 2017 as head of the new multimedia team. The editors-in-chief wish her all the best and every success in her future projects.

This is confirmed by Evernote's European head Beat Bühlmann to the Handelszeitung: "At the headquarters in Redwood City, it was decided as a new strategy to pursue the business globally, but to dispense with all regional representations." Offices in Japan, India and Switzerland are now falling victim to this decision. As recently as 2017, it was considered a foregone conclusion that the company behind the app, which helps organize all documents across devices, would expand its Zurich location.
 
Bühlmann can understand the decision, but regrets the closure of the Zurich site. "Europe is Evernote's most profitable region," says the manager, who also sits on the boards of Rivella and Pax Insurance. Around 25 programmers, developers, sales, marketing and HR people are affected by the decision, he said, adding that by the end of January the Zurich site, which was also responsible for Evernote's operations in Africa and the Middle East, will be completely eliminated. New jobs have been found for almost all employees, Bühlmann said.

To distinguish between excellent and average communications experts, the survey participants first had to assess themselves. They were asked how they rated the success of their respective corporate communications and how this compared to their competitors. According to the answers, the study authors divided the respondents into two groups: "basic PR experts" and "communications elite.  

According to the survey, the communications elite rate the importance of corporate and product image (reputation) significantly higher than the basic PR experts. Measuring image values is important for 87 percent of the outstanding PR professionals. By comparison, the figure for average PR professionals is only 61 percent.  

Excellent communicators also have an all-round view of their target groups. In addition to customers as the most important contact group, all other stakeholders such as employees, shareholders or the public are equally important to the communications elite (45 percent). Among basic PR experts, only 28 percent have this 360-degree perspective.  

There is also a big difference between excellent and average communications with regard to cooperation with the board. While the PR elite sees itself primarily as a business partner of the board (48 percent), the PR rank and file tends to set its own goals (17 percent) or derive them from the corporate strategy (27 percent).  

Internal network communication, which largely does without hierarchies, is also much more pronounced in the companies of the communications elite (59 percent) than among the PR grassroots experts (36 percent).

As Bern Welcome announced on Tuesday, the previous deputy Sven Gubler will take over as interim CEO until the development of Bern Welcome has been completed. Gubler is well known in the city of Bern as managing director of the city centre organization Berncity.  

Bachofner's position will be re-advertised. Bachofner came to Bern from Gstaad Saanenland Tourism in September 2017. Gubler will remain interim Chairman until the end of 2019 at the latest.  

Founded in summer 2017  

Bern Welcome was founded in summer 2017 as a holding company that unites all location marketing activities under one roof. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is the Bernese lawyer Marcel Brülhart. The Executive Board, which Bachofner previously headed, consists of six people.

Bern Welcome describes itself as a pioneering organization in Switzerland and abroad. It is modelled on an organization called "in.Stuttgart", which was set up in this German city.

Since then, the City of Bern, the former Bern Tourism Association, the former Bern Incoming GmbH, the Berncity associations, the Bern-Mittelland Hotel Association and GastroStadtBern und Umgebung as well as other shareholders have been organized under the umbrella of Bern Welcome.

The Bern-Welcome subsidiaries Bern Tourismus AG and Bern Meeting & Events AG are responsible for the "frontline work" in tourism. The latter is the former Bern Incoming GmbH. When Bern Welcome was founded in 2017, Bern's politicians hoped that the new structure would give it more clout.

Bern Welcome writes in Tuesday's press release that, following the start-up phase, it is now a matter of consistently implementing the strategic direction, involving all key interests equally in the work from the outset and consolidating the internal structures.

Against this backdrop, the Board of Directors took stock of the situation and came to the conclusion to part ways with Bachofner. The decision was preceded by several discussions between Bachofner and the Board of Directors.

In an interview with Radio SRF's Regionaljournal Bern Freiburg Wallis, Marcel Brülhart said that the Board of Directors had realized over the past few months how challenging the management of Bern Welcome is. It was necessary to reconcile a wide variety of interests.

The Board of Directors will "certainly" adapt the requirements profile for the new Managing Director.

Holistic concept of tourism

In October, Bern City Council approved a new service agreement between the city and Bern Tourismus AG and Bern Meetings & Events AG. A majority of city councillors welcomed the new direction set out in the contract: Bern's tourism should be sustainable, authentic and environmentally friendly in future. Instead of mass tourism, local tourism will be promoted.

As Bern Welcome itself writes, the term tourism is understood holistically. All key interests - gastronomy, the hotel industry, trade, culture, the population and politics - are to be given appropriate consideration.

"Information, services, offers and products should, wherever possible, also benefit the population and take their needs into account. (. . .) The positioning of the City of Bern is primarily achieved through products and services. Marketing has a complementary function." (SDA)

"With a big focus on local news," explained Facebook manager Campbell Brown on Tuesday. The move follows accusations from the media industry that large internet companies such as Google and Facebook are putting massive pressure on publishers and their business models. "We don't want to make publishers dependent on us, we want to support them," US broadcaster CNN quoted Brown as saying in a conference call.

Google had already launched a similar program for media and journalists. In March 2018, the internet company launched the "Google News Initiative" (GNI) as a global umbrella. It is essentially based on the work of the "Digital News Initiative", which the company used to promote development projects in publishing houses at European level, for example. At the time, Google also announced an investment of 300 million dollars to support the project over a period of three years. (SDA)

This means that the premium subscription, which allows you to watch series and films on four devices at the same time, costs 15.99 dollars. In Switzerland it is 19.90 francs. This means that Netflix is still a quarter more expensive in this country than in the USA or Germany.

The announcement was well received on Wall Street. Shares rose by 6.1 percent to a three-month high of 353.25 dollars. Netflix has more than 130 million viewers worldwide.

The price increases will be implemented in the coming months and apply to new customers with immediate effect. Netflix is currently shouldering high investments. The company is investing billions in new series and films as well as global expansion, partly to keep the competition at bay.

The booming streaming market is attracting more and more providers. Disney and the media group Warner Media, which belongs to AT&T, are planning their own offer for a monthly fee by the end of the year. Apple is also said to be preparing to enter the market. On Thursday evening, the Group will provide an insight into the past quarter. (SDA)