Following Nemo's sensational victory, the next ESC will take place in Switzerland in mid-May 2025. SRG has not yet announced which cities will apply. The current list of requirements for the cities is also not public, SRG announced on Thursday.

The cities, together with the respective hall operators and the cantons, have until the end of June to prepare their bid dossier on the basis of the so-called "City Bid Book". The host city should then be announced at the end of August.

A twelve-member SRG working group had already formed as a precautionary measure to prepare for the Nemo victory. Organizing the world's biggest music competition in just one year is a mammoth task, wrote SRG.

The European Broadcasting Union's (EBU) extensive list of requirements for the bidding cities has been "Swissized". At the same time, the working group is currently working on the final project structure of the ESC.

So far, Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern have expressed an interest in hosting the event. (SDA)

Restaurant Kle, which opened in 2020, focuses on exclusive plant-based menus using only local produce. As part of the rebranding, Zurich agency Wecatch designed a new logo to embody the restaurant's authenticity and craftsmanship. The focus was on creating an illustrative world that is playfully integrated into the visual and communicative language.

The photographs by Erna Drion are intended to visually emphasize the elegance and exclusivity of the Kle restaurant. Inspired by the Swiss forests, the color palette underlines the naturalness, freshness and relaxed atmosphere of the restaurant.

The close collaboration with the Kle team enabled the agency to understand the restaurant's philosophy and values and to harmonize the individual elements of the rebranding to create an appropriate and convincing brand identity. The rebranding included the logo, color scheme, illustrations, imagery, visual language, various printed materials as well as the menu, wine, cocktail and champagne lists.

Responsible at Restaurant Kle: Zizi Hattab, Marc Barrafon. Responsible at Wecatch Creative Agency: Delia Guerriero (Design Direction & Illustration), Patrik Ferrarelli (Design), Kevin Casado (Consulting). Photography: Erna Drion.

A third of our food is grown exclusively thanks to pollination by bees. However, as a result of urbanization, the use of pesticides and climate change, bees are losing their habitats and the balance of the ecosystem is becoming unstable. Half of the 600 or so species of wild bees found in Switzerland are threatened with extinction. They need a wide range of flowers and nesting opportunities to ensure their survival and thus enable a high level of biodiversity.

To combat the scarcity of bee habitats, BienenSchweiz and Publicis Zurich launched the first real estate platform for bees on World Bee Day. At Immobienen.ch, around 170 flowering areas throughout Switzerland, known as "Immobienen", are offered for sale or rent for as little as three francs per square meter.

The platform is structured like a traditional real estate portal. Among other things, interested parties can see the location of the "Immobiene", the size of the space in square meters or the standard of finish on offer.

By purchasing - or renting - an "Immobiene", customers finance the costs incurred by the area providers in creating the flowering area and procuring suitable seeds, as well as professional advice from BienenSchweiz. The purchase of an "Immobiene" is a one-off donation and the rental is a monthly donation.

Digital accompanying campaign

To draw attention to the new real estate platform for Swiss bees, an entertaining and informative digital campaign was launched, consisting of six online videos, various social media ads and influencer posts. At the center of the campaign is the motivated "Immobienen" trader Willie Blumenfeld, who informs target groups about the lack of living space and presents the online platform Immobienen.ch as a hard-selling solution.

"Many people, especially in cities, know the oppressive feeling of looking for a home. With immobienen.ch, we have created an analogy between people and bees in order to make the plight of bees easier for people to understand," explains BienenSchweiz President Martin Schwegler. "Moreover, we must not forget that bees are not only desperately looking for a place to live, but are also exhausted due to a lack of food when 'looking for a place to live'."

The online campaign can currently be seen on all relevant digital channels. After the campaign period, the Immobienen.ch online platform will continue to exist and will be continuously updated with new "Immobienen" or flowering areas.

Responsible at BienenSchweiz: Mathias Götti Limacher (Managing Director), Sarah Grossenbacher (Communications), Silena Wegmann (Fundraising & Partner Management), Martin Schwegler (President). Responsible at Publicis Zurich: Cedric Fuchs (Art Director), Henry Clarke (Copywriter), Maureen Wangui, Gvozden Milosevic, Dana Mazziotta, Celina Stadler (Graphic Design), Johnny Grubenmann & Gaston Filippo (Creative Direction), Rob Hartmann (Executive Creative Director), Alain Stocker (Strategist), Irena Igić (Junior Account Manager), Freyja Hablitz (Senior Account Director). Production: Farbfilm Studio GmbH (moving image), Tiago Dias (website). Media: Publicis Media & Bagels of Berkeley (Social Media & Influencer).

On Wednesday, the Presentation of the Digital Commerce Award At the StageOne in Zurich-Oerlikon, the best online stores in Switzerland were honored for the 13th time. Once again, 16 winners and one champion were chosen from 165 category applications. After previous years' winners such as Feey, Saviva, Coop, Brack.ch, Galaxus and Ex Libris, this year's title goes to the deal platform QoQa. This is the first time in the history of the Digital Commerce Awards that a company from French-speaking Switzerland has won the top award.

With attractive deals, unique projects and an honest community approach, Qoqa has made it to the top of Swiss e-commerce. "The beautifully designed deal pages with attention to detail and a witty, personal twist captivate customers and show the commitment of the employees to a bold and unconventional shopping experience. Qoqa breaks standards with its appearance and makes a special contribution to Swiss e-commerce," praised the 24 experts on the jury.

This year, the Digital Commerce Awards were once again preceded by the Swiss Retail Conference. "Score!" took place. A varied conference program with keynotes and panel interviews on the main stage as well as further deep dives in masterclasses and other formats provided a wide range of insights.

Digital Commerce Award 2024: The category winners

• Food & Gastronomy: Mahlerundco.ch
• Category Leader: Feey.ch
• Brands & Manufacturer: Feey.ch
• Omni-channel: Coop.ch
• Marketplaces & platforms: Hogashop.ch
• Small Business: Appenzeller-gurt.com
• B2B Usability & Content: Mybuhler.com
• B2B services & process integration: Hogashop.ch
• AI Integration: Globus.ch
• Mobile Experience: Qoqa.ch
• Sustainable Business Model: Mahlerundco.ch
• Sustainability Feature: Nikin.ch
• Commercial Feature: Brack.ch
• Customer Support: Brack.ch
• Start-up: Livom.ch
• Generation Z: Nikin.ch

Founded in 1985, Cent Systems claims to be one of the leading service providers in the field of input management services. For Cent Systems, 2024 is all about new beginnings - both at the site, which has been expanded and modernized, and in terms of its strategic direction. In addition to expanding its service portfolio and investing in modern technologies, Cent Systems intends to break new ground in the future with its newly founded Innovation Lab.

Dachcom has developed a clear and binding communication and brand strategy in order to make the transformation from a scanning provider to a comprehensive and innovative IT service provider visible to the outside world. The central guiding principles and the new, forward-looking corporate positioning were developed in strategy workshops.

The name "Cent" was the inspiration for the key messages and customer promises. Statements such as "100% digital into the future", "100% specializes in the digitalization of sensitive data" or "100% at the cutting edge of AI integration" are intended to get to the heart of the company's core competencies.

Cent Systems also received a visual redesign. In the company logo, the characteristic "C" of the brand name also functions as a defining tectonic element. Cent Systems' appearance is intended to impress with a modern and self-confident brand world, which is used in different forms and via various channels and means of communication - including the new web platform Cent-systems.ch.

Dachcom rebuilt Cent Systems' entire online presence. The basic content is continuously expanded via the cross-media reference and blog tool "Information Hub" and supplemented with relevant topic content. In addition to the concept, Dachcom is also responsible for the technical programming as well as the operation and maintenance of the website.

On Friday, the Grand Opening was held in Lohn-Ammannsegg, where the structural expansion and completed modernization of the company headquarters was celebrated and the new brand identity was presented - heralding a new era in the history of Cent Systems.

The World Media Festival - Television & Corporate Media Awards was held for the 25th time this year. A total of 844 entries from 32 countries were submitted.

For Seed there was "We have it in our hands" for Swiss Life Gold in the Internal Communications category, and the film also received a Grand Award for best film in its category. The film is aimed at employees and shows the extent to which they contribute to customers being able to lead a self-determined life. What makes it special: The film only uses close-ups of hands to get the message across.

Also awarded gold is the film "Shaping the future of teaching together" for the University of Zurich. The film encourages the teaching community, consisting of professors, lecturers, tutors and all other people involved in teaching, to actively contribute to the teaching community and learn from each other.

With these prizes, Seed has won a total of 175 awards since it was founded in 2007, including in Cannes, Los Angeles, New York, Vienna and Zurich.

The aim of the CH Media Academy is to prepare the new generation of journalists in the fields of TV, radio and online for the dynamic demands of the media landscape in the best possible way. As part of the new one-and-a-half-year training program at Watson three trainees learn digital news storytelling in all facets of the three channels site/app, SEO and social.

Six months of training each

The trainees work on each channel for six months. For the Site/App channel, the focus is on preparing news items for the website Watson.ch and the news app from WatsonThe focus is on learning the basics of journalism and how to work together in an editorial team. In the six-month SEO course, Academy participants learn to recognize trends and anticipate what the community is interested in and what moves it, as well as how to react to them. In a further six months, the trainees learn about the social channel, including graphic news preparation for the social media channels of Watson know.

Academy offer adds

"With Watson the CH Media Academy's range of courses is being expanded to include a valuable digital study program. The traineeship is a unique training experience that enables participants to discover their individual interests and strengths," says Dominik Widmer, Head of the CH Media Academy, with conviction.

Application possible until the end of June 2024

Training in this form will start for the first time in September 2024, when the CH Media Academy welcomes its third intake of 24 participants. There are now eight locations in German-speaking Switzerland, from Bern to St. Gallen. Applications for the new traineeship at Watson can submitted by the end of June 2024 be

The 54-year-old Laurence Mehl was elected to the Board of Directors of Somedia at last Thursday's Annual General Meeting. As a former CEO, including at the Handelsblatt publishing group, Noz Medien in Osnabrück and as Managing Director of Funke Mediengruppe and Managing Director of the market group, Mehl has successfully built up digital business models and agencies, as Somedia writes in a press release. In 2020, Laurence Mehl and his business partners founded the marketing and technology agency Think11, in whose Swiss subsidiary Somedia holds a stake. Today, Laurence Mehl is the managing partner of a hotel group and is active as an advisor and board member in various companies in Switzerland and Germany.

"For me, Somedia has the best prerequisites to become an even more successful company through digitalization. I am very much looking forward to working with the Board of Directors and management to strategically drive forward Somedia's transformation," said Mehl on his appointment to the Board of Directors.

The current members of the Board of Directors Silvio Lebrument (Chairman), Susanne Lebrument and Peter Lebrument were re-elected at the Annual General Meeting. Andrea von Rechenberg, a long-standing member of the Board of Directors, and Catherine Mühlemann, a member of the Board of Directors, did not stand for re-election. Hanspeter Lebrument is Honorary Chairman.

"There is considerable suspicion of unlawful advertising with percentage discounts and crossed-out prices as well as repeated advertising with offers below cost price and misleading information about the availability of the offers", said association director Dagmar Jenni at the request of AWP. For this reason, a complaint has been filed against the low-cost online retailer for unfair business practices.

The Tamedia newspapers were the first to report on this. The Swiss Retail Federation told them that on Temu's website and app, "even new offers are usually marked as almost sold out or with remaining quantities such as only 5 left etc.". However, Temu must be able to prove that this information is correct. According to Tamedia, a legal opinion is available to which the association refers in its complaint.

Numerous other organizations and associations have joined the complaint, including ASMAS Sportfachhandel Schweiz, Spielwaren Verband Schweiz SVS, Swiss Textiles, Handel Schweiz, Schweizerisches Konsumentenforum KF, Verband Schweizer Papeterien VSP and Verband Schweizer Spielwarenendetaillisten VSSD, Jenni said.

There is "a general public interest, both on the part of consumers and competitors in Switzerland, that Seco quickly clarifies, in the same way as the authorities abroad, whether Temu complies with the rules of fair competition in accordance with the Federal Act against Unfair Competition and the requirements for advertising with discounts in accordance with the Price Disclosure Ordinance", Jenni continued. If this is not the case, the association expects the authorities to "enforce the relevant regulations and penalties against Temu in accordance with the aforementioned legal texts". (SDA)

It was announced at the 6th Digital Summit that Andreas Meyer is to be elected as the new Digitalswitzerland President (Werbewoche.ch reported). He was confirmed at the General Assembly on Wednesday. He succeeds Sascha Zahnd at the beginning of June, who was the first president to lead the location initiative through the transition following the merger of Digitalswitzerland and ICTswitzerland.

New orientation for butchers

There will also be a change in the CEO position. After completing the operational integration of Digitalswitzerland and ICTswitzerland, Stefan Metzger is looking for a new professional direction. He will hand over to Franziska Barmettler at the beginning of November.

With a degree in economics, she has been working at the interface between business, sustainability and politics for 15 years. She has shaped developments in the field of innovation and sustainability at the Swisscleantech trade association, Migros and currently at Ikea. In addition to experience in association management and an understanding of future issues and change processes in the economy, she also has practical legislative experience as a politician.

Departures and additions to the Executive Committee

There were also changes to the composition of the Executive Committee. Following the departure of Anna Takihara, Jill Kümin and Philomena Colatrella, the Annual General Meeting approved the appointment of Christine Antlanger-Winter and Roger Süess as new members, with Colatrella remaining with the organization as co-lead in the area of digital health. Both the confirmation of the remaining members of the Executive Committee and the Steering Committee and the discharge of the governing bodies were approved in full.

NZZ will pay CHF 220 per share, as APG announced on Thursday. An agreement to this effect has been signed. The transaction is to be completed in the coming days.

NZZ would then be the new majority shareholder of APG. After completion of the transaction, JCDecaux SE will still hold 16.44 percent and Pargesa Asset Management SA 13.86 percent. Previously, they held around 30 percent and a good 25.3 percent respectively.

The two parties to the sale announced their intentions in February. The Board of Directors of APG then initiated a process to find a potential buyer for the entire company.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of APG, Daniel Hofer, who was previously employed by NZZ, is quoted in the press release as follows: "Over the past few months, the Board of Directors of the company has examined various options regarding the future composition of the company's shareholder base in a comprehensive process."

The acquisition of a 25 percent stake by NZZ from JCDecaux SE and Pargesa Asset Management S.A. is "a convincing result of this process" for the company and all stakeholders, said Hofer.

Accordingly, a representative of NZZ is to be elected to the Board of Directors of APG at the upcoming Annual General Meeting. (SDA)

Recent statistics show that 57% of employees quit because of their managers - and 64% of millennial leaders feel unprepared for their leadership roles. This leads to unhappy employees, high turnover and productivity losses - and costs the global economy over USD 8.1 trillion a year, according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace Report.

Wolfpak.ai aims to support managers in their day-to-day self-reflection and in being more successful with their teams. To this end, it measures individual skills using the scientific "Inner Development Goals Framework" and offers personalized training plans and an AI coach trained with content from the world's leading leadership experts. The aim is to equip Wolfpak customers with the tools they need to make decisions and navigate complex team dynamics.

"With Wolfpak's expertise and scientific assessment, we were able to strategically assess the composition of our team and set clear, actionable leadership goals. The partnership is of great value in shaping a promising future for our team," says Pascal Jenny, President of the Swiss Handball Federation and Wolfpak client.

The app was founded by entrepreneurs Diana Engetschwiler, former co-CEO of Digitalswitzerland, and Katia Murmann, formerly of the Blick Group. For the market launch, Wolfpak is cooperating with One Young World Switzerland and presented its product at the National Congress with 170 young managers at the Knie Circus in Zurich. Katia Murmann has m&k advertisingweek.ch about the motivations behind the management app.

m&k advertisingweek.chKatia Murmann, how would you describe Wolfpak in three sentences?

Katia Murmann: As a tool for good managers and a better working environment. WolfPak provides answers to the questions that managers have on a day-to-day basis. We support them in self-reflection and in being more successful with their teams.

What prompted you to name the tool "Wolfpak"?

Leadership used to be very hierarchical: the boss was at the top and led the way. Today, this has changed dramatically: The most important task of a manager is to build a good team. A team in which there is trust and in which everyone knows their role and responsibilities. This is also how the wolf pack works: the lead wolf relies on his team, in which everyone has clear tasks. He sometimes leads from behind, sometimes from within the team, sometimes from the front - and adapts to the situation. That's why we called ourselves WolfPak and why our logo features four wolf heads that are strong together.

Which target group would you like to reach?

We are targeting the next generation of leaders. We have seen and worked with over 500 young leaders over the last few months: They have a particularly large number of questions, but are often expected to already know all the answers. Figures show that 64 percent of all millennial leaders do not feel well prepared for the leadership tasks that lie ahead of them. We want to support them in becoming good managers.

What is the USP of Wolfpak?

WolfPak personalizes leadership training for users and companies: We use our scientific assessment to measure where the manager stands. Based on this data, a personalized training plan is created with videos, podcasts and articles from the best leadership experts in the world. Our AI coach not only knows the user's profile, but can also play out company content when it is needed.

You founded Wolfpak together with Diana Engetschwiler. How exactly did it all start?

We met at Harvard, where we were doing a management training course. There we realized that we were almost neighbors in Zurich and that we both had the same boss. But we had to travel to Harvard to get to know each other. We quickly knew that we wanted to build something together. Shortly afterwards, we started our initial research into WolfPak.

How do you and Diana Engetschwiler complement each other? What is your background?

Diana is a former professional athlete and was co-CEO of Digitalswitzerland. She played in the national volleyball team and brings a mindset from competitive sport that is also much more needed in the business world: The team is at the center, constant feedback to get better, the exchange with coaches. She is also a great networker and has top contacts, including internationally. That helps us a lot at WolfPak.

You are a media professional. What prompted you to take the step into self-employment?

I love challenges - and I always knew that I wanted to set up my own company one day. I had the best jobs in the media industry: I was allowed to Blick.ch as Editor-in-Chief, co-founded the "EqualVoice" initiative and then headed the product division on the Executive Board of Blick and Ringier Global Media. I had a great job with a great team. Then I was faced with a choice: either I stay there in my comfort zone - or I take the plunge. I opted for the latter and can now benefit from all my experience at WolfPak.

Why are you so interested in the topic of leadership?

WolfPak is a project close to my heart: with all the challenges we have in the world today, we need better leaders. I saw early on how much happier and more productive well-managed teams are - and that leaders are the key to positive change.

Can you give an example to illustrate this?

Let's take EqualVoice. Our goal is for women and men to be equal in the media, in business and in society. This is a leadership issue! We have the greatest leverage when diversity is the norm for managers and they live this as a matter of course in their teams. That's why it's important to me to lay a good foundation for young managers.

How exactly does Wolfpak work?

Very simple: companies can buy the tool for their employees. They download the app and take the assessment. They can then see where they are strong and can grow - depending on your skills, you are a certain animal that represents this strength. And then they can get started with the training and ask questions. If you want to test the tool, you can get in touch with me at [email protected].