The Bündner Medienhaus, which once included the Advertising Week announced on Monday that it plans to set up larger structures in Chur within a short period of time. They would allow Swiss mountain railroads, tourism destinations and hotels to "professionally address relevant source markets in and outside of Switzerland".

The Austrian company Speed U Up focuses on future technologies, social media and campaigns, according to the statement. In this way, the company has been driving digitalization in Alpine tourism for more than four years.

With around 20 employees and over 60 clients in Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, Speed U Up is the fastest growing digital agency in the Alpine tourism segment. The company's current projects are in the areas of social media, guerrilla and performance campaigns, content production and distribution, and Amazon Alexa Skills. (SDA/swi)

The Vaud tennis star announced the launch of the new filter on Monday and invited his followers, tennis fans, social network contacts and friends to compete with him on a virtual tennis court. The AR filter is available on the Instagram account @VaudoiseAssurances available.

With your head to match point

In collaboration with the agency Buzz Brothers, Vaudoise Insurance has developed an interactive Instagram filter that allows users to playfully compete against Stan Wawrinka. The racket is moved with the head so that there are as many rallies with Stan as possible. Participants can win a shopping voucher for sports equipment or goodies signed by Stan. They can do this by sharing their score on Instagram and tagging @VaudoiseAssurances.

The campaign with Stan Wawrinka is part of Vaudoise Insurance's 125th anniversary celebrations. The first part of the advertising campaign with the Swiss tennis player was launched at the beginning of the year in collaboration with Inhalt und Form (Werbewoche.ch reported).

Przemyslaw Gacek is co-founder and CEO of Grupa Pracuj, a recruiting solutions provider and one of the fastest growing technology companies in Central Europe. Grupa Pracuj includes Poland's largest recruiting platform Pracuj.pl as well as Robota.ua in Ukraine. Przemyslaw Gacek succeeds Thomas Gresch, who has left TX Group, on the JobCloud Board of Directors.

Also new to the Board of Directors is TX Group President Pietro Supino. He succeeds Christoph Tonini, the former CEO of TX Group.

The current Board of Directors of JobCloud is composed as follows:

• Robin Lingg (Head of International Marketplaces, Ringier), Chairman
• Olivier Rihs (CEO, TX Markets), Vice President
• Pietro Supino (President and Publisher, TX Group)
• Marc Walder (CEO and Managing Partner, Ringier)
• Michel Kaufmann (Head of Marketing & Growth, Picstars)
• Przemyslaw Gacek (CEO, Grupa Pracuj)
• Fabian Kienbaum (CEO, Kienbaum Consultants International)
• Axel Konjack (Head International Marketplaces Unit, Ringier)

From November 1 to 3, the entire population can take advantage of over 300 physical and virtual events on the topics of digital change free of charge. The national action days include a variety of formats such as keynotes, nationwide exhibitions, startup battles, discussion rounds, live demos and entertainment. In addition to the more than 20 venues throughout Switzerland, the multifaceted Digital Days TV program can be followed at will.

What, when, where and with whom and by whom is organized can be found in the central calendar of events at Digitaltage.swiss which Update has further developed on behalf of the organizers, having already implemented an initial version in 2019. All livestreams can also be followed via the website. The website design was developed in collaboration with Scholtysik & Partner, while the technical implementation was carried out together with the agency Ownbit based on the content management framework Processwire and the JavaScript framework Vue.js for the event area.

The CMS also serves as the administration center for all physical and virtual events. All Digital Days partners have a personal login that allows them to manage their content simply and easily. The security and availability of the platform is guaranteed via Amazon's CloudFront.

For the survey, Coople asked Swiss HR and management staff about their knowledge regarding the rights of flexible workers, their assessment of the current situation on the labor market, and their use of flexible workers. Surprisingly, it turns out that 80% of the respondents do not know the rights of flexible workers. 51 percent are not aware that external flexible workers are entitled to vacation compensation. 56 percent are unaware that there is a right to sick leave benefits. And only 18 percent are aware that external, temporary employees have a right to continuing education.

"When employees are hired via flexible platforms, they enjoy equivalent social security compared to permanent employees under the Swiss Code of Obligations," explains Yves Schneuwly, Managing Director of Coople Switzerland. This is tailored to the needs of people working flexibly, he says, and the benefits range from insurance and retirement provisions to financial participation in further training.

Digitization has established Flexwork  

Digitization has transformed flexwork from a stopgap solution into an established, because contemporary, form of work for employees. They can create their online profiles themselves and constantly improve them through good evaluations.

"Flexworkers are not second-rate employees," Schneuwly emphasizes. "They are often very ambitious and use flex work to create opportunities for career advancement." Personnel are sought for both short- and long-term staffing assignments, he says.

Importance of flexibility increases

Fifty-nine percent of the companies surveyed said flexibility was important to very important. Whereas before Covid-19, planning was most likely four to 12 months in advance, now it's more likely one to three months. That's a planning timeframe that often can't be met with new permanent hires - flexible work is needed. "The trend toward flexible working has been accentuated significantly by the Corona crisis - similar to digitalization. Flexible work means best opportunities in good times - and in bad times it has become essential," Schneuwly says. And: "By 2025, companies could employ more than a third of their workforce as flexible workers."

With regular winnings of over 100 million, Euromillions is "the lottery with the biggest jackpot in Europe". This international positioning, which is binding for all participating countries, is now to be anchored even better in the minds of the Swiss with the help of an image campaign by Komet.

In keeping with the zeitgeist of the "sharing economy," all of its advertising material asks the public what can be done with so much money and happiness. Keep it? Invest it? Or share it? With every headline and every trivialized million, one gets a small inkling of the size of the winnings at Euromillions, which becomes a certainty at the latest with the new claim: Europe's biggest jackpot is enough for more. An unusual campaign for lotteries that encourages self-reflection and at the same time fires the imagination of potential winners.

The campaign will be deployed over the longer term throughout German-speaking Switzerland and in Ticino.

Furrerhugi and its partner agency Evenjo from Bern - both members of the Comfederation communications group - planned, created and implemented the new festival on behalf of the organizer, Canton Schwyz. The Covid-19 situation forced the organizers to forego the actual conference day with several hundred visitors this year. Instead, around 60 invited guests took part in a networking dinner on Wednesday with input from well-known figures from the AI scene and attended the presentation of the first national AI award.

Implementation in teamwork

Furrerhugi was responsible for the concept, event content, media relations and social media activities and created the overall graphic design. Evenjo provided the event planning and coordination as well as the event architecture and technology. The website Ai-con.ch was realized by the agency Neofluxe from Biel - which until recently was called Cubegrafik - implemented. Another important partner was Digitalswitzerland. The umbrella organization sees AI as a central element in positioning Switzerland as a leading location for research and innovation.

The festival shows the future 

Over the next few years, AiCon will show where the journey in the field of AI technologies is heading and what role Switzerland can play. AiCon is organized by the Canton of Schwyz in collaboration with the Mindfire Foundation, Digitalswitzerland and the Canton of Zurich.

The latest BFU campaign is dedicated to the topic of visibility. Because more visibility in road traffic demonstrably means more safety. Especially in the dark or in poor visibility, colors and details are difficult to see. But even during the day you are safer on the road if you make yourself visible - with bright clothing and light elements.

Ruf Lanz has created an illuminating metaphor for this. Luminous pens are used to mark what is particularly important. Concise subjects have been created for different target groups.

The campaign has been running since Saturday until mid-November, just in time for the darker season. The main advertising medium is F4 posters along the roads throughout Switzerland - wherever the target groups move. These are flanked by a safety kit, small posters and social media measures. A practical giveaway was also created for police campaigns around the national Day of Light on November 5, 2020.

The industry survey, conducted between September 30 and October 4, 2020, reveals a tightening situation across Switzerland. The coming months will be significantly more challenging for the lodging industry than the summer.

Tourist recovery only sluggish

The summer season was significantly worse than the previous year for the vast majority of businesses across Switzerland (66 percent). Although more Swiss nationals vacationed in rural alpine areas, massive losses were recorded in some cases. In particular, establishments in the Bernese Oberland and Valais were short of international guests.

In the coming months, hotel businesses are expecting clearly lower occupancy rates as well as a large drop in sales. Across Switzerland, 70 percent of establishments expect a worse winter season than in the previous year. The assessments from urban areas are particularly alarming. 90 percent of respondents in urban areas see a significant deterioration in the situation. In the vacation regions, 57 percent expect the winter season to be more negative.

Unclear, inconsistent travel regulations slow down tourism

Respondents see the inconsistent travel regulations in Europe as a particular challenge. Currently, the recovery of travel is being massively slowed down. 63 percent of respondents are in favor of harmonization. Furthermore, 61 percent would like to see rapid approval of rapid tests and the adjustment of quarantine regulations. Association President Andreas Züllig therefore calls on the Federal Council to "advocate harmonization of travel regulations and adapt quarantine regulations as quickly as possible".

The current rules would jeopardize the economic viability of operations, increasing the risk for unnecessary plant closures. Often, entire teams of employees are quarantined. In addition, travelers are deterred from coming to Switzerland.

Investments are suspended, skilled workers reduced

Due to the Corona-related liquidity problems, two thirds of the hotel companies (67 percent) will postpone their planned investments in the next six months. This means that significantly more establishments are taking this measure than in the June survey, where the figure was 55 percent.

More than a third of respondents (37 percent) will have to give notice in the coming months. The rate is particularly high in the cities (59 percent). Thus, the situation on the labor market remains worrying. The option of short-time work will therefore remain an important pillar in the fight against mass unemployment in the hospitality industry in the coming months.

Probability of bankruptcy increases

Due to the significantly gloomier outlook, the hotel industry again estimates the probability of bankruptcy to be higher. Whereas in June around 3 percent of hotel establishments had indicated a bankruptcy probability of 60% or more, 6 percent now anticipate such a high risk of bankruptcy. Urban establishments are particularly affected: A bankruptcy probability of 60 percent or more threatens 12 percent of establishments in the city hotel industry, especially in Zurich and Geneva. Extrapolated to the entire city hotel industry, around 142 establishments are currently at risk of bankruptcy.

The association is therefore calling for prompt repayment of simple Covid loans in hardship cases and a zero interest rate for the entire term. These measures are necessary to combat liquidity problems and investment backlogs and to preserve jobs and competitiveness in the long term.

Sportal Media was founded in 2003 and focuses on the production of sports content and the marketing of digital media offerings. Under the Sportal brand, sports content is aggregated and curated for fans and brands on various social, digital and TV platforms. With Sportal HD, the company has programming expertise. The production unit creates and distributes sports and lifestyle original programming as well as branded content. Sportal designs engagement strategies for sports communities on digital platforms and social networks.

Sportal operates the aggregation platform Sport.ch and supplies young, digital-savvy fans with their daily dose of sports in the form of live tickers, highlights, videos, news and streams. Sportal also includes Sportalhd.com, the only German-language sports streaming service that combines live sports highlights with exclusive talk and original programming. The streaming program includes, for example, the soccer talk show "The Soccer Lounge," which has been highlighting events around the Raiffeisen Super League with players and experts on a weekly basis for six seasons. The portals record over 1.8 million visits per month.

Synergies through integration

As part of the acquisition of Sportal Media, the 13 employees of Sportal were taken over by Ringier Sports as of October 1, 2020 and integrated into the Digital Unit. Alexander Grimm, former founder and CEO of Sportal, now holds the position of Chief Digital Officer and joins the Executive Board.

The situation of undeclared domestic workers has become even more difficult during the sanitary crisis than it already was. How do you make the voices of these people, whose rights are often not respected, heard more? The awareness campaign from the Swiss Coordination Service Check aims to address this very problem. "Clean! Registered?" aims to ensure that all persons employed in the home economics sector are registered with the social insurance funds thanks to the Service Check and its simplified procedures.

The creative concept proposed by Trio is aimed at the general public by modifying the well-known expression in Switzerland "Clean, all right" into question form. The campaign includes social media measures, a website, an animation in French and German, and a broad PR operation, and puts both the quality of the work (clean!) and the status of the employee (registered?) in the foreground at a glance.

First of all, on Cheques-emploi-suisse.ch united the various regional entities of Service Check under one roof. Following a refresh of the website, a short, dynamic animation was created to convey a clear portrait of Service Check.

To draw even more attention to the important role of the Service Check, an eye-catching guerrilla campaign was launched throughout French-speaking Switzerland. Around a thousand door hangers with the campaign slogan and a QR code to visualize the animation were placed at strategically important locations - such as editorial offices, associations or administrations.

"When social media users are honest, they don't just show the good sides of their lives and admit when they are having a bad time. If they receive positive feedback, this confirms their true self. Praise for an embellished portrayal only leads to more deception. However, there are also people who only write about negative emotions and thus seek pity. Authentic users must express exactly what they really feel," recommends Stefan Caduff, Managing Director of the Lucerne-based media psychology institution Sapia in an interview with Press release.

The researchers examined 10,560 Facebook profiles. From the likes and status updates, they defined their personality traits according to the psychological "Big Five" model. It turned out that authentic openness and life satisfaction are related.

Idealized representation harms

In addition to the Facebook profiles, the team conducted an experiment with 90 students. Over a period of one week, the test subjects either had to post authentic content or maintain an idealized self-portrayal. The scientists then analyzed their state of mind in surveys. Here, too, it was shown that an honest attitude on the social web makes people significantly happier. "Whether using a platform helps or hurts depends on how you express yourself on it," explains study co-author Erica Bailey. (pte)