On March 1, 2021, Watson launches its presence in French-speaking Switzerland. Watson.ch/fr offers marketers the opportunity to increase their interregional awareness and visibility. Both with language-regional and with cross-country campaigns and communication measures.

"Our analyses show that the combination of German and French-speaking Switzerland is very often booked by advertisers," explains Tarkan Özküp, Chief Commercial Officer at Watson. "I am therefore extremely pleased that with Watson Romandie we can finally offer Swiss brands a national advertising inventory as well."

Christophe Théodoloz new in the sales team

The four-person sales team at Watson will be expanded with Christophe Théodoloz as of February 2021. He was most recently Head of New Business for 20 minutes Advertising and is now moving to Watson. Théodoloz will serve French-speaking Swiss advertisers as Account Director Sales/Marketing from Lausanne.

At the end of October, there was a management buyout at the crisis-ridden Bern region gazette. The majority of association delegates agreed to this solution.

The previous Managing Director Christof Ramseier is thus taking over most of the business areas and outsourcing them to a new company.

The new company undertakes to publish the official gazette in printed form until the revision of the cantonal communal law has come into force and digital publication of official notices is therefore also possible. This is expected to happen in 2022.

Köniz does not agree with the strategic direction taken by the association of municipalities, in particular the management buyout, as the municipality writes in its press release. The municipality also refers to the possibility of digital official publications in the near future.

There is therefore no longer any reason for the municipal council to belong to the Anzeiger association. It is proposing to Parliament that it leave at the end of 2022.

Since 2006, the city of Bern and 16 municipalities in the agglomeration have formed a municipal association for the publication of a joint gazette. The publication of official notices is a statutory duty. This concerns, for example, building applications, changes to regulations, elections and municipal assemblies.

Formerly a goldmine

The Bern Region Scoreboard is published weekly with a circulation of 150,000 copies. It used to be a goldmine. In recent years, the Anzeiger has regularly produced deficits that the municipalities have to cover with taxpayers' money.

The managing director was also criticized for promising better results every year and then failing to deliver. In June, the delegates rejected the loss-making accounts to the Executive Board. The President then resigned.

At the end of October, the association decided on its exit strategy with the management buyout. (SDA)

Was 2020 the year of content marketing? There is a lot to be said for it, because the Corona pandemic placed special demands on corporate communications that were and are difficult to meet with advertising mechanisms. "We have therefore decided to introduce an additional category, Corona Communications, for BCM 2021, in which we will award projects that have mastered the communications challenges of the pandemic in an outstanding way," Peter Matz, vice chairman of the board of the award organizer Content Marketing Forum, was quoted as saying in a statement. Every project that has been submitted in one of the BCM categories and deals with the pandemic in terms of content can additionally be entered for this category free of charge.

Revised categories

As a further innovation in the competition, the BCM team of the Content Marketing Forum has comprehensively revised the submission categories. The main new categories are digital categories such as social media community management and video platforms.

The increasing importance of media in the context of content marketing is taken into account by the new strategy category Content Distribution. In addition, the core disciplines of the competition remain unchanged: Magazines, annual reports and digital content platforms are just as much a part of this as the now established areas of Conferences&Events, innovative technology applications, podcasts and the diverse variants of moving image content.

Implementation also digital in 2021

The BCM team is once again going digital for the 2021 competition: "The digital jury sessions have proven their worth," explains Regina Karnapp, Managing Director of the CMF. "If the Corona situation allows, we will hold jury sessions for the print categories in small groups at different locations. If not, we can reproduce that digitally in the usual quality." The awards ceremony is also planned virtually as an interactive live event.

Silvana Guanziroli, Head of Video News at 20 Minuten, has fully staffed her team - just in time for the launch of the new news format "20 Minuten Now!" - as of the beginning of November 2020. The eleven-strong team is made up of experienced video journalists stationed at 20 Minuten's Basel, Bern, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Zurich locations, who go out whenever something happens in Switzerland. They report live on location or from the studio in the 20 Minuten newsroom, which started operations at the beginning of November. According to information from 20 minutes to Anna Kohler, the journalistic director of Advertising Week and m&kthree more video journalists are to join the eleven-strong team as of April 2021.

Till Burgherr has been appointed chief of staff by Tele M1. 20 minutes switched. The designer with a degree in visual communication previously worked for the Aargau TV station as a video journalist and outside presenter. Lena Wilczek joins Video News from Blick TV as a producer and presenter. The Basel native holds a master's degree in New Media Journalism and learned the journalistic craft at Tele Basel, where she worked as video journalist and
producer was active.

Video journalists are also on assignment for 20 Minuten: Frrok Boqaj, who previously worked in the sports department of the Tages-Anzeiger, Michelle Brunner, who joins the team from Tele M1, Salvatore Iuliano, who returns to journalism after a detour into public relations, long-time Tele Bärn journalist Marc Gerber, Philip Salzmann, a trained multimedia producer who was previously with TeleBielingue, and Thomas Sennhauser, who joins the team from FM1 Today.

On March 1, 2021, Stefan Lanz will also join the video news team as a federal house correspondent and producer. He currently works as chief of staff, producer and video journalist at Keystone-SDA.

As already communicated Nicole Ulrich, who previously held various positions at SRF, Tele Züri and the production company Mediafisch, is deputy head of department.

20 Minutes Now! with a very good start

With "20 Minuten Now!" 20 Minuten launched a news format at the beginning of November that is completely designed for mobile use. The most important news is presented in a compact format and each article can be skipped at any time.

Gaudenz Looser, Editor-in-Chief of 20 Minuten, is satisfied with the launch: "We are convinced that with our user-centric approach we have found the right kind of video reporting for 20 Minuten. This is shown by the very positive feedback and the development of user numbers."

Since October, the digital and print marketing unit Ringier Advertising has been operational under the leadership of Managing Director Thomas Passen. The launch of its own website continues the integration of the marketing of the print and digital portfolio at Ringier announced in February 2020, while Admeira will henceforth focus exclusively on TV marketing.

At Ringier-advertising.ch, advertisers, agencies, and other interested parties can find all important information on advertising opportunities for Ringier media titles and the print and digital inventory of external customers. The additional presence in social media with accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn is intended to enable holistic communication across all platforms.

New brand world

A new feature is the access via the superordinate brand world, under which the various advertising options are then divided into print and digital. All information about Ringier Advertising's offering is freely accessible, from current media data and bookable advertising formats to prices and rates. There are also explanations of the online booking tools for print and digital, targeting options and programmatic advertising. In the login area, registered users will still find the familiar toolbox, which also includes the Mediacompass.

In the study, Elaboratum and Trusted Shops identified and ranked the top frustration factors. More than 1,200 German and Swiss online shoppers rated the frustration factor, reasons for abandonment and absolute no-gos when shopping online based on 15 situations. They wanted to know from the store operators how they assess the frustration potential of their customers.

No frustration tolerance for product availability, promotional emails and returns processes
Across all respondents, poor product availability, a large number of promotional emails and customer-unfriendly returns processes emerged as the three biggest frustration factors when shopping online. In contrast to Germany, a lack of contact options is a major frustration factor for Swiss online shoppers, which not only annoys them but also causes them to avoid the relevant stores. Unclear websites also cause greater annoyance in Switzerland than in Germany.

Descending ranking of the top 10 frustration factors, based on the survey of 1,200 consumers. (Source: Elaboratum/Trusted Shops)

Overestimated and underestimated frustration factors

In general, the store operators in the study are very reflective and self-critical: they rate most situations as frustrating from a customer perspective to a higher percentage than the online shoppers themselves, with loading times and extended hotline numbers among the factors overestimated by the store operators. While loading times do not play a significant role for consumers, they are in third place for store operators. The top frustration factor from the store operator's point of view is insufficient contact options, although this is less important for consumers and is particularly criticized by the over-60s target group.

Significantly, however, store operators underestimate the frustration factor of promotional emails and a customer-unfriendly returns process, i.e. the customers' top frustration factors 2 and 3. They therefore fail to see the customer's pain at these crucial points. Elaboratum Senior Consultant Saskia Roch sees this as an expression of the fact that process excellence in e-commerce is still partly misjudged: "While the focus in recent years has always been on new functions for the customer, the results of the frustration barometer herald a new era: Store operators should focus more on excellence behind the scenes, such as smooth processes and efficient data management."

Store operators underestimate this. Descending ranking of the top 15 frustration factors, based on the survey of 1,200 consumers and the assessment of customer frustration by 500 store operators. (Source: Elaboratum/Trusted Shops)

Blind spots in trust 

Store operators also underestimate the relevance of trust-building elements such as seals and ratings. Almost every second consumer (47%) avoids stores without a seal, while store operators estimate this proportion to be just 30%. For 44 percent of consumers, reviews are crucial when shopping, while store operators do not identify this as a critical issue. "It is interesting that the study results underline exactly what we advise store operators to do every day: Use seals and reviews. They are confidence-building elements and promote frustration-free shopping," confirms Britta Kristin Agel, Director Inbound Demand Generation at Trusted Shops.
 

Based on the results of the study, how can companies improve the customer experience when shopping online and reduce frustration? Elaboratum and Trusted Shops offer five tips.

1. mastering process excellence

Maximum transparency is the motto here. If goods are unavailable, the customer must at least be informed of this and also be aware of the ongoing status of their order. If everything takes too long, goodwill can make up for it: an information e-mail with a voucher code and a request for patience will often appease even the most annoyed customers.

2. consider relevance in the address

If I'm going to receive promotional emails, then please send them with added value for me - that's what customers expect today. Companies should therefore send newsletters and promotional emails with caution. The segmentation of customer groups and the relevance of the approach should be checked and the frequency scrutinized.

3. avoid customer resistance and risks

If the return slip is missing to make the return unlikely, the frustration can be alleviated by the "pseudo-justification" behavior pattern: Experience has shown that the customer accepts the pseudo-justification that a returns bill is only available for download for environmental reasons, so that the situation is perceived as less negative.

4. create trust

For new online stores and unknown brands, seals and reviews from other customers give first-time buyers the necessary level of security. They are also effective for long-established stores, as they positively influence the purchase decision through their authority when positioned correctly.

5. take demographic differences into account

The target group should be the focus of all efforts, but it does not always tick in the same way. Insights into differences between genders, age groups or country comparisons provide valuable input when it comes to designing user flows and customer journeys for the respective target group.

Klarsicht was founded by Somm and other investors. Thomas Engeli, the previous owner of the Nebelspalter, will serve as publisher. He will take a stake in the public company and join its board of directors, as Nebelspalter Verlag announced on Thursday.

Konrad Hummler will take over as Chairman of the Board of Directors, while Marco Ratschiller will remain in charge of the editorial department.

Klarsicht wants to Nebelspalter digitally, according to the press release. Around sixty investors will inject "considerable" funds for this purpose. The digital edition will go online in spring 2021. The print edition will remain unchanged until further notice.

In November, the Handelszeitung written that Somm is planning to Nebelspalter to take over (Werbewoche.ch reported). (SDA)

The Swiss pharmacy landscape is a heterogeneous field. Most independent pharmacies benefit from joining forces in the areas of purchasing and marketing in one of the approximately 15 Swiss groupings in order to profit from synergies.

Excom Media bridges the gap between many of these groupings for healthcare advertisers. With Rotpunkt, Excom Media is expanding its POS network to include another large grouping. The Healthcare & Beauty Channel currently connects around 500 medium- to high-traffic pharmacy and drugstore locations throughout Switzerland.

A strong presence at the point of sale is essential, especially for healthcare products, because most OTC products are purchased exclusively here. The advertising content serves as an impulse generator shortly before the purchase and sensitizes the consulting staff to the advertised products on a daily basis.

The Tschuggen Hotel Group was honored with the Myclimate Award for pioneering sustainability in the premium hotel industry. "The Tschuggen Hotel Group has integrated sustainability and climate protection holistically into its operations. Awareness-raising measures and the offer to commit to climate protection reach both employees and guests," said Stephen Neff, CEO of Myclimate, explaining the choice.

Leo Maissen, CEO Hotel Operations of the Tschuggen Hotel Group, together with Christian Klein, CEO Finance & Property of the Swiss hotel group, received the award from Stephen Neff on Monday. The handover took place at the Tschuggen Grand Hotel Arosa, which opened the 2020/21 winter season on Friday.

After the Tschuggen Hotel Group had already been implementing measures for the most sustainable operation possible since 2013, the hotel group with properties in Ascona, Arosa and St. Moritz launched the cooperation with Myclimate in 2019 and has been operating completely climate-neutral since then. To offset the unavoidable CO2 emissions, the Tschuggen Hotel Group has chosen one Myclimate project in Switzerland and one in Rwanda.

In the fall, the "Chambre Séparée" was open for 30 days at the Hotel Ambassador - and met with a lot of positive feedback from the guests (Werbewoche.ch reported). The company now wants to build on this success. "Chalet Séparé" tie in.

"The situation for the restaurant industry and guests remains tense. Essentially, we don't want to bury our heads in the sand, but continue to create opportunities for casual encounters in a Covid 19-compliant setting," said Eugen Brunner, CEO of Aroma and co-organizer.

Sarah Hartmann from the Camino restaurant was quickly convinced by the idea of the "Chalet Séparé". The guests are offered a winter magic ambience, served with winter dishes, for example a fondue by the Maître Fromager Rolf Beeler.

"'Bridge' wants to build a bridge from the supermarket to the gastronomy and to the event," says project manager David Böhler when asked by the Handelszeitung. In the area of about 2000 square meters, 320 seats are planned in six to seven seating zones.

With its "Bridge" concept, the Migros Zürich cooperative is interpreting the international trend of merging retail trade and gastronomy. The "Food Lab" is also a new supermarket element. "Here, small and medium-sized groups can rent space and cook for themselves. Or courses are offered on 'bridge,'" Böhler tells the Handelszeitung. "Bridge" is not so much a blueprint for fundamental expansion, but a "Migros learning field," Böhler adds. "Individual parts of it can certainly be multiplied if successful."

What impact do CEOs' ME brands have on the success of a company? What happens when brands start telling stories instead of just advertising? The Watson CCO Tarkan Özküp would like to answer questions like these and more as part of the free webinar answer

The webinar will take place Dec. 10 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and will feature SMF partners ÖKK, Watson News and HWZ Hochschule für Wirtschaft Zürich.