"We were commissioned to redesign the brand, align it internationally and position it accordingly," explains Charles Blunier. "In this large environment of suppliers, we didn't just want to advertise another piece of shelving furniture, but to use the endless possibilities that this system offers as a USP and therefore as a platform for artists and creatives."

As part of the branding assignment, a new CI, a new website, a magazine and a campaign were implemented, which can currently be seen at Zurich's main railway station, among other places. In addition, a custom System4 font was developed in collaboration with New York-based Scott Vander Zee. The face of the campaign is Swiss top model Ronja Furrer, who was staged by Larissa Hoffmann.

In March 2024, the furniture manufacturer will also open its first flagship store in Zurich's Niederdorf district.

Responsible at System4: Esther Streng (CEO), Felix Fischer (Artistic Director), Celestino Möhr (Head of Marketing & Sales), Lucas Stebler (Marketing Manager E-Commerce). Responsible at Charles Blunier & Co: Charles Blunier (overall responsibility and Creative Director), Romy Strasser (Art Director), Annika Hänni (Design Direction), Till Kammertöns (Website Development), Chanel Kah Yin Liang (Lead Digital Visual Communication), Simon Tellenbach (Managing Director), Lena Staeheli (Head of Editorial & Projects), Barbara Kallenberg (PR & Communication), Tree Stones (Technical Implementation) Red Plant (Interactive 3D) Larissa Hoffmann, Claudia Knöpfel, Dominik Hodel (Photographer).

Dachcom has supported the SMGV in its digital transformation, including the new digital platform Smgv.ch built. Based on Pimcore, a future-proof solution was created that can be flexibly expanded. For the digital relaunch, the entire structure of the site was revised and geared towards different user journeys. At the heart of the new site is the high-performance live search, which is designed to make the site a real experience for users. Other features include the advertising module for marketing, a clear download center, a member login via SSO and various authorization groups, controlled via the central user administration. AI tools such as the DeepL bundle from Dachcom were also used.

The digital transformation at SMGV also affected the printed industry magazine Applica. The trade journal has been restructured and given a fresh design for the future. It has also been linked even more closely to the digital SMGV world. The magazine is still published in print. However, the content was comprehensively digitized with the relaunch of the association's website and integrated into the online presence. Subscribers have access to extended digital content.

In addition to the website and the magazine, Dachcom has also redesigned and launched its marketing.

Responsible agency: Dachcom.

Pure mineral water has been bubbling out of the spring in Bad Knutwil for over 560 years. With its redesigned brand image, Knutwiler is now entering a new era with a reduced, modern, fresh - yet familiar - look. As part of the new look, MRB has designed a new logo and updated the appearance of all products.

During the two-year process, the new design was developed in line with Knutwiler's brand strategy and is intended to preserve the core values of the family-run company. Knutwiler positions itself as a mineral water from the heart of Switzerland that stands for quality, familiarity and sustainability.

The new brand identity is pared down to create transparency and appear more modern and self-confident. With the new design, Knutwiler also wants to emphasize its commitment to sustainable growth and focus on mineral water as a precious natural product and differentiating feature. The brand identity is strengthened by this design, and in future the umbrella brand will be presented even more prominently on all products to emphasize their special features.

The new design will be applied to a total of 47 Knutwiler products and will also feature in all future communication measures.

Responsible at Mineralquelle Bad KnutwilStefan Suter (CEO), Linda Schwenk (Head of Marketing), Marion Walther (Brand Manager). Responsible at Metzger Rottmann Bürge Partner: Silvan Metzger (CEO), Roman Steinacher (consulting), Frederick Rossmann, Conny Eiwanger (creation), Fabian Zahner (text), Bruno Breitenmoser, Ursula Trottmann, Giacomo Wyss (realization and production).

Don't you know it? Not so bad. The acronym stands for "Large Language Model". It is often used when someone wants to prove that they know more about artificial intelligence (AI) than their counterpart. AI is used quite excessively in small talk these days. In the topic ranking, right behind "How are you?" in second place, regardless of the person's school-leaving qualification or job. It is used to bluff, brag and bluff by talking about what AI would already be used for and what implications it would have for our everyday lives. It is then usually said: "Your industry will certainly be massively affected." And they always mean the other person's industry.

The impact on their own industry is skillfully downplayed because AI/AI has already been in use there for a long time. As our industry in particular is known for always sailing close to the wind of buzzwords, the abbreviation LLM is used to distinguish it from the AI/AI babble that has become commonplace. But what are LLMs?

Highly complex and yet child's play

LLMs are the basis of AI/AI. Large, so-called language models that have been trained on huge amounts of data. These are transformers that process entire sequences of queries in parallel. And with hundreds of billions of parameters. In everyday language: If this, then this. In educational language: If the hotplate is hot, don't put your hand on it. This process, also known as deep learning, uses interconnected nodes or neurons in a layered structure that resembles the human brain. Sounds mathematical and sophisticated. And it is.

Why is everyone talking about it anyway? Because nobody wants to be one of the diehards, the left behind or the losers whose jobs will fall victim to artificial intelligence. And because we tend to overestimate the impact of a technology in the short term and underestimate it in the long term. Those who constantly use the acronym are also overestimating. It would perhaps make more sense to talk about the learning progress of our own children and grandchildren in order to understand how learning works and how intelligence is created. Children learn to understand basic things such as grasping, crawling, walking, talking, languages and other things through self-learning and are able to practice unsupervised.

So here's a tip: behave like a child and ask the next person who uses the acronym LLM to explain it to you in detail. "What's that?" - you'll be amazed. Those who simply pontificate or parrot will stammer, and they themselves - as children are - will quickly turn their attention to something else because of their evasive answers. Those who have paid more attention in STEM subjects and are most likely to understand something about it will explain the underlying transformer to you in such detail, consisting of a series of neural networks made up of an encoder and a decoder with a self-observation function, that your mind will also be somewhere else. Just like when you read this sentence. So there is still a lot for us humans to learn.

* Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He has been eavesdropping on the industry for over 30 years, discovering words and terms for us that can either be used for small talk, pomposity, excitement, playing Scrabble, or just because.

LEP is becoming increasingly important as a method for the structured and interdisciplinary documentation and evaluation of healthcare services, not only in German-speaking countries but also in Europe and beyond. LEP's range of services is constantly evolving. In order to do justice to the company's ambitious vision for the future and its expansion targets, Dachcom's entire brand identity has been realigned.

Based on a sound strategy process, Dachcom has supported LEP in positioning itself as a digital solution provider and as the "language of digitalization in healthcare". The new claim is intended to express LEP's claim to leadership and its importance for the entire healthcare sector. The same applies to the various concise core messages. LEP is the language of carers, the language of healthcare facilities, the language of data, the language of quality.

The conceptual idea was packaged in a concise visual appearance with a new brand logo, independent typography, striking color scheme, authentic images and a memorable tectonic speech bubble element that refers to the idea of language.

As part of the rebranding, the website was also Lep.ch completely overhauled visually, structurally and in terms of content. An optimized user experience, a well thought-out information architecture and fresh corporate design elements should ensure a coherent overall picture. Services such as training, e-learning, seminars and knowledge videos are prominently bundled in a separate section. Thanks to Pimcore technology, content can be flexibly expanded in the future. The informative website is intended to make the language of digitalization in the healthcare sector tangible online and clearly set LEP apart from the market environment.

In addition, the new LEP brand identity will be used on trade fair and moving image elements, brochures, business stationery, social media content and online marketing measures.

Now in its eighth year, Capture Media is expanding its presence in Switzerland, following branches in Vienna and Munich. To this end, Guillaume de Grave has been appointed to the position of Commercial Director Francophone. In this role, he will be responsible for marketing activities in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and neighboring regions and will sustainably develop and strengthen Capture Media in these regions.

De Grave has more than 20 years of experience in the media industry, most recently as Head of Publicis Media Lausanne, where he managed the agency's French-speaking Swiss office and was responsible for the media fortunes of various international advertising clients.

Despite the growing interest in sustainable tourism, only around ten percent of travelers are willing to offset the greenhouse gas emissions of their flight and certified offers receive little attention. Fairunterwegs.org aims to provide environmentally conscious travelers with a comprehensive information platform so that they can close this gap between intention and action.

The website offers consolidated information and advice on responsible travel that would normally have to be painstakingly sourced from various sources. It is aimed at anyone who is committed to sustainable tourism and provides answers to questions about the most environmentally friendly travel options, fair business travel and sustainable transportation.

The responsive website runs with PHP and JavaScript without any frameworks. Only two JavaScript libraries were used. This approach ensures a fast loading time of the website and also enables the smooth functioning of the Country page with an interactive map of all countries. The concept and design were developed by Kargo, the technical implementation was carried out by Glunz. Both from Bern.

The new platform was successfully relaunched at the end of 2023 and is currently in a consolidation phase until mid-2025.

Responsible at Fairunterwegs: Jon Andrea Florin (overall project management), Sabrina Haase (PM). Responsible at Kargo Kommunikation: Christoph Balsiger (Creative Direction), Simon Aline Thurnheer (AD, Screen Design & PM), Nicole Balsiger-Gerber (Accounting). Responsible at Glunz: Dino Meyer, Christian Heiko Wüthrich (programming).

There is now a BCM cube to be won in the two free additional categories "Best of AI" and "Best of Content Efficiency". "Including AI in the award as an important disruption in the history of content marketing is as obvious as it is without alternative," explains Daniel Kaczynski, Swiss board member of the BCM organizer Content Marketing Forum e.V. "Making the opportunities that lie in it for the industry visible by means of excellent examples and awarding those who are pioneers in the concrete application of the technology is a particular concern for us as an association that stands for Best of Content Marketing."

The same applies to content efficiency, to which a special award is dedicated. "We consider increasing efficiency and effectiveness in content marketing to be vital for service providers and internal content departments during the economic crisis. With the award for particularly efficient content campaigns, we are setting an exclamation mark at this point," explains Götz Teege, Member of the Board for Content Business in the association. Entries for the aforementioned special categories can be submitted free of charge, in addition to a normal submission in one of the 39 categories of the competition.

Switzerland is BCM efficiency champion

Not yet in content efficiency, but in submission efficiency, the Swiss content marketers at the BCM Award has been the leader for years. Regina Karnapp, Managing Director of the Content Marketing Forum, comments: "Swiss submissions have had the best rate for years. No other country receives so many BCM Gold Cubes in relation to the number of submissions. Last year, the most successful submission ever came from Switzerland: the Zurich watermarks of Zürcher Kantonalbank won three cubes with just one submission - Gold in the submission category, Best of Print and a Grand Prix for the overall excellent rating." With the new special categories, this could even be topped at the BCM Award 2024 - at least mathematically.

The Best of Content Marketing Award (BCM) highlights the best of the best from all relevant works of content-driven communication in German-speaking countries. The judging process focuses consistently on content. The jury process and the evaluation criteria are transparent. The awards are decided by expert juries with a total of around 200 jurors.

The deadline for submissions this year is April 30, and the shortlist will be published on June 18. The BCM event will take place in October.

With this step, Meier wants to establish a closer connection to flight operations, as stated in a press release. "As an aviation enthusiast and private pilot, I would like to open up to new professional horizons and contribute to the safety of flight operations in the future," she is quoted as saying. She will continue to work part-time for Keystone-SDA from August 2024.

"Nicole Meier is held in high regard throughout the industry. Together with her editorial team, she has ensured that our clients have been provided with up-to-date, high-quality content on a daily basis over the past few years," says Hanspeter Kellermüller, CEO of Keystone-SDA. "We are delighted that Nicole Meier will remain with the agency and look forward to continuing our collaboration."

According to the press release, the search for a successor has already begun.

Founded by Natalie Gijsbers in 2014 as a one-woman business, the company has MisSpelling has since developed into a strong full-service online marketing agency, according to a press release. 13 employees and one apprentice help the wide range of clients to achieve conspicuous visibility on the Internet. The agency sees its particular strengths in the design and programming of meaningful websites and their findability through effective SEO and SEA. Creative social media management, relevant content including newsletter marketing, blogs, translations and proofreading as well as photography and videography round off the Lucerne agency's portfolio.

The size of the agency has prompted Gijsbers to distribute the management tasks among several people, according to the statement. To this end, the 49-year-old is relying on female power: she has recently been joined on the management team by Michèle Maurer (48) as a member of the Management Board and Team Lead Content, Dania Schaad (44) as Team Lead Web Design, Jessica Häfliger (24) as Team Lead SEO/SEA and Daphne Zamboni (34) as Team Lead Social Media.

Feminine purple and lots of personal customer service

Customers would notice that women are in charge at MisSpelling primarily from the brand color purple, which symbolizes femininity, as well as from the special support. Customer care is the agency's top priority; they should always "feel at home".

Although the MisSpelling crew is predominantly made up of women, the four men are indispensable in the company. Together, they ensure an "incomparable team spirit".

Children and young people must no longer see advertising for tobacco products in future. This was written into the constitution by the people and the cantons in February 2022 with the popular initiative "Children and young people without tobacco advertising (tobacco advertising ban initiative)".

The Federal Council wants to implement the initiative with a comprehensive ban on advertising, for tobacco products and also for e-cigarettes. The Council of States weakened the bill last fall - to the displeasure of the left-wing initiators.

On Thursday, it was now the turn of the National Council. The debate, which lasted more than two and a half hours, was lively and the differences between the political camps were great - in the end too great to find a solution that could command a majority.

Parliament, not the Federal Council, has a duty

In the overall vote, the large chamber rejected the bill by 121 votes to 64 with 5 abstentions. The SVP, SP and Greens almost unanimously said no. The reasons for this varied.

The SVP already made it clear during the entry debate that the Federal Council's draft went too far. "We want a sensible law that can be implemented in practice and that implements the initiative, but no more," said parliamentary group spokesman Andreas Glarner (AG).

Glarner and his party colleagues referred to the free market economy. It should not be the case that publications such as the Balance or the New Zurich Newspaper tobacco advertising should be banned in future. "I don't know any minors who read these press products." The planned ban on sponsorship for tobacco companies would also mean that many events would be on the brink of collapse.

However, the large chamber rejected the referral motion by 126 votes to 59 with 2 abstentions. The majority was of the opinion that Parliament, and not the Federal Council, should make changes to the Tobacco Products Act so that it could be approved by a majority.

"As liberal as possible and as restrictive as necessary"

An hour later, however, it was clear that this goal could not be achieved. In addition to the SVP, which wanted to weaken the law with various motions, the left wing of the Council also failed with proposals that sought to achieve the opposite. In the end, the advertising restrictions for the tobacco industry went too far for the SVP and not far enough for the SP and the Greens.

Various points are controversial: Among other things, opinions differ on the question of which press products should be subject to a ban on tobacco advertising. The rules for sales promotion, the sale of tobacco products by mobile staff in publicly accessible places and the sponsorship of events are also the subject of controversial debate. The conservatives are arguing for several exceptions. The Left wants a comprehensive ban on advertising.

Commission spokesperson Lorenz Hess (center / BE) pleaded in the entry debate for an "adequate and rapid implementation" of the initiative. The majority proposals would largely meet the demands of the petition for a referendum. One hundred percent implementation of the initiative could probably never be achieved.

On behalf of her parliamentary group, Regine Sauter (FDP/ZH) pointed out that the initiative does not provide for a comprehensive ban on advertising. Tobacco advertising should only not reach minors. Adults could buy tobacco products legally. It must therefore also be possible to advertise to this target group. "Let's be as liberal as possible and as restrictive as necessary," said Sauter.

Question of constitutional conformity

Parliament was about to violate the constitution, stated Manuela Weichelt (Greens/ZG). This was also confirmed by a report drawn up by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and consolidated by the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ).

Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider also referred to this report. It is up to Parliament to implement the initiative in accordance with the constitution.

Melanie Mettler (GLP/BE) pointed out on behalf of her parliamentary group that many questions regarding the implementation of the initiative could not be answered clearly. "There is no black and white." It is undisputed that children and young people must be protected from tobacco advertising.

The bill now goes back to the Council of States. If it also rejects it or the National Council rejects it a second time, the matter is closed. Parliament would then have to start implementing the new constitutional article on field one. (SDA)

The cost of a subscription does not appear to be the main obstacle to the lack of interest, as can be seen from the government council's response on Thursday to a postulate from the SP. In many cases, parents even have a newspaper subscription in their household.

The "Newspaper at school" project has also been in existence for some time. In this project, students and teachers from more than 20 classes receive the Messenger of the original Switzerland.

From a media policy perspective, the Government Council is not primarily concerned with promoting the purchase of subscriptions. Rather, high-quality media content must be developed in the formats used by this age group, as it goes on to say. However, this is the task of the media.

The government also states that the media are covered in the Schwyz curriculum. Political education would also be addressed in several subjects. Learners would also be sensitized to use established media as a safe source of information instead of social media.

SP cantonal councillors Martin Raña and Alex Keller had emphasized the importance of local media for democracy in a postulate. Young people should discover the personal benefits of paid-for local newspapers with a one-year free subscription to a title of their choice. The postulate was also intended to support the local media.

The Government Council proposes that the postulate be declared irrelevant. (SDA)