Michael tree (*1984) is a founding member of Stailamedia AG and has been CEO of the company since August 2010. He studied economics and media sciences in Munich and Mittweida. From 2008 to 2010, Michael Baum was Senior Sales Manager at the Adconion Media Group in Munich, one of the largest global advertising networks. There he was responsible for the strategic expansion of sales in Switzerland, Austria and Eastern Europe. From 2006 to 2008, he worked in online media sales for Creative Weblogging in Palo Alto, USA, and for Adviva Media (now Specific Media) in Munich. Further

DIALOG MARKETING The new flagship company in dialog marketing is the Federation of Migros Cooperatives. Five campaigns were honored at the SDV Awards. (more…)

Reto Baumgartner is the owner and managing director of MySign AG and is primarily involved in digital branding.In e-commerce, not a day goes by without new bad news about bricks-and-mortar retail. More and more sales of every conceivable item are shifting to the Internet. And more and more consumers are going directly to the manufacturer. Thanks to the Internet, they are much better informed and know exactly what they want. Manufacturers are also taking this into account and offering the option of purchasing their products directly from them. And not only if it is a local manufacturer, but also from the Far East. One example is the alibaba.com platform. There you can order all items directly from the Chinese manufacturer. Although there is a minimum order quantity, it is much cheaper than from a retailer. So what used to be the preserve of a few large corporations such as Dell or Apple is now becoming more and more widespread - because consumers want it and because it is of course interesting for producers in terms of margins, but it is not quite so one-sided. Of course, consumers benefit from much more transparency, comparability and direct communication options thanks to the Internet. But it all costs time - and that is ultimately a very valuable and scarce commodity. With a new car, it may make sense because a) it is financially interesting, and b) for many consumers it is probably an exciting debate. But what if I need a new ballpoint pen? Do I really want to spend my time trying to find a manufacturer for it? The same goes for fashion items: Many people need recommendations so that they can "find" the right ones for them in the endless mass of products, or just get them recommended. This is exactly where retailers will still have a legitimacy in the future: in pre-selection, in advice, in service. This will also be worth something to consumers in the future because it saves them time and gives them security.

CAMPAIGN Before a trip, you have to pack your suitcase. This is also the case with the new summer campaign for Migros Ice Tea.   (more…)

Online ticketing provider Ticketfrog brings event organizers and advertisers togetherThe new advance booking portalticketfrog.ch now offers event organizers a free online ticketing service. The highlight: advertising space on the tickets covers all fees, including transaction costs for credit cards, making ticketing free of charge for the event organizer and ensuring that 100% of the ticket revenue goes to the event organizer. MySign AG, an agency and software company from Olten, developer and operator of the new ticketing platform, wants to use this method to offer clubs, cultural institutions and smaller professional event organizers a financially attractive service for their ticket sales that is also very simple to use.Anyone who has already dealt with the issue of advance ticket sales via the Internet - for example as the organizer of a concert or theater, but also of a business event or a very simple club evening - will be familiar with the situation: The fixed and/or percentage costs of bringing tickets to the public via the Internet can be considerable for specialized providers (such as ticketino.com, starticket.ch or eventbrite.de). Sometimes even just setting up the online application is associated with fixed costs. These fixed costs, the fees per ticket and finally the credit card commission can quickly add up to 300 to 500 francs per performance (e.g. for the village association's theater with 300 tickets), even with a low-cost provider. For an association, this is an amount that not only makes up a large item in the budget, but can also quickly reduce the hoped-for profit. MySign's new provider ticketfrog.ch addresses this situation, which is usually complicated for small event organizers, and simplifies the issue: in future, ticketing should be quick, easy and above all free of charge for the organizer and therefore no longer a budget item. This is made possible by the idea that the print@home ticket serves as an advertising space. In the initial version of ticketfrog.ch, a total of six advertisements or vouchers can be placed on one ticket.Organizers benefit from more than just free ticketingEveryone involved benefits from this simple but new approach, from the event visitors to the advertisers and partners/sponsors of the organizer to - in particular - the organizers themselves. In principle, they already have the choice of whether they want to benefit at all from the possibility of placing advertising on the tickets. If they do not, they can take advantage of the usual pricing, which is still cheaper overall than that of the competition. However, if they choose the free option, where advertising space is made available, the event organizers benefit without having to make any further effort themselves. MySign takes care of acquiring advertisers and has already been able to sell advertising space thanks to its large industry network, meaning that free ticketing can be offered to event organizers in the initial phase. Of course, organizers can also offer their partners or sponsors attractive advertising space on their event tickets.Probably the most user-friendly room planner everA whole range of user-friendly features rounds off ticketfrog.ch's offering for event creators: the easy-to-use room planner enables an event plan to be designed individually and with precise seating. In terms of both usability and performance, the Ticketfrog room planner is probably the best of all ticketing providers at the moment, with any number of combinations of ticket categories, standing and seating areas, VIP tables, etc. And the best thing is that it can be created directly online by the event organizer - free of charge, of course, unlike some competitors - and the organizer also has the option of reserving any number of seats himself (e.g. for invited guests, for sponsors, for offline sales), printing out the corresponding tickets and selling them himself. Once the pre-sale has been set up, the tool can also be integrated into your own website or a short URL can be used for communication. Real-time statistics can be used to keep an eye on advance sales and their progress, allowing additional advertising measures to be taken if necessary. The organizer also receives free textile admission wristbands for the event and can print out labels for the seats sold via ticketfrog.ch. Last but not least, a big plus of ticketfrog.ch is that online ticketing can also be set up for free events, for example for a business event that is free but for which an admission ticket is required because the number of participants is limited or the seats are numbered.Great benefits for buyers and advertisers tooThose responsible at MySign AG are particularly pleased that they have succeeded in developing a new business model in online ticketing from an internal idea and, with Ticketfrog, in developing and operating the platform themselves. Reto Baumgartner, one of the initiators, explains: "We created ticketfrog.ch with its features especially for semi-professional event organizers because there is still no really satisfactory solution for this target group. We know that in most cases this target group has little experience in ticketing. The same applies to ticket buyers. That's why we have created an easy-to-understand and intuitive system." This is another reason why Baumgartner is convinced that it will also be well received by the public: "Advertising on a ticket is by no means something unfamiliar, it's more of a trend. The public has been aware of this at least since it has been possible to buy print@home tickets online to go to the movies. In addition, there is added value if advertisers use the space for coupons or vouchers, for example." Baumgartner also sees this possibility as one of the arguments for advertisers to place coupons on Ticketfrog tickets. Such coupons not only open up a promising first-try audience and new customers for advertisers, but also provide good measurability of the response rate and thus reliable information about the effectiveness of the measure. Additional arguments are the good placement of the advertising (a ticket usually remains with its owner for a longer period of time and is associated with many emotions and even ends up as a reminder on the notice board after an event instead of being thrown away) and good pricing: advertising customers can currently book a single advertising space on tickets from ticketfrog.ch for 30 centimes. This means that the costs are comparable to those for inserts or coupon booklets.