Defining the right and realistic goals in media planning is like a map that shows the captain on the high seas the way to the port of destination. Without a map (and a destination), you will just drift around blindly, end up in uncharted waters or, in the worst case, be shipwrecked.

If the goals are unclear or unrealistic, the result will inevitably be unsatisfactory. It becomes fatal if the strategy is based on castles in the air that are impossible to achieve. Often too many - or, even worse, contradictory - goals are stated in the briefing. With the result that the media money fizzles out ineffectively.

Ask yourself questions

Every brand must define for itself where it positions itself and where it wants to position itself in the future. However, this also includes localizing where deficits exist. For example, in terms of brand awareness, image, likeability, buying interest, recommendation, loyalty, etc.

This is condensed in the question: "What do people think about my brand today and what should they think about my brand tomorrow?" This is formulated and visualized in a strategic brand and media plan that shows which measures can be used to achieve the path from the current situation to the target situation.

This question is essential information for defining communication goals and measures. In reality, however, many people give little or no thought to brands - or much less thought than some marketing managers would like to admit.

However, goals should also be set in such a way that they have a chance of being achieved. The best goals are of no use if I don't have the means and basic strategic considerations to implement them in order to gain a competitive advantage over my competitors.

A good communication plan is effective

Marketing and communication goals should therefore be conclusively argued in the briefing so that the media agency can derive comprehensible - and above all realistic - media goals from this. The clearer and more unambiguous the objectives are defined, the more effective the media strategy developed from them will be.

A good communication plan defines clear goals and places them in a realistic relationship to the competition and the available resources. In my experience, this should not exceed a period of twelve months. Anything else would be nonsense. A marketing strategy, on the other hand, should be much longer-term. Otherwise, you run the risk of so-called "marketing tactification" - also known as "actionism" - which is the opposite of a strategy.

Use SMART goals

Good marketers use so-called SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and scheduled. Above all, the fewer and clearer the better. Or as marketing guru Michael Porter would say: "A strategy defines what you shouldn't do." Of course, you can come up with a colorful bouquet of goals, but this is not expedient. With too many goals, you run the risk of getting bogged down or contradicting yourself. In my experience, unless you are P&G, Unilever or Amazon, a maximum of two to three goals work best for the overall plan.

The choice of the right channels, combined with the right message (creation), plays an important role here. In a good media strategy, each selected channel is assigned a justified role (task) in the mix - which does not always happen in reality. But the success of your media strategy and the use of your advertising budget depends on this.

More information about the The third white paper from TWMedia deals with the topic of "Goals" - with valuable practical tips for more media power.

After holding various positions at media and creative agencies and as head of marketing at an outdoor advertising company, he took over Oliver Schönfeld took up the position of Managing Director at TWmedia in Basel in 2018. He has acquired his knowledge through a great deal of curiosity, many years of experience and by studying marketing and psychology on the windy Baltic coast and in vibrant Manchester.

To the whitepaper series on Werbewoche.ch

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Deutsche Vermögensberatung, with its 18,000 financial advisors and around 8 million customers with a turnover of 2.2 billion euros, is the largest independent bancassurance distributor in Germany. In order to further expand the company's brand awareness, a pitch was held last year, which Wirz won.

"We're a little proud to have prevailed against the best German agencies and then to have worked with probably the most popular German on a major campaign for one of the largest financial services providers in Germany," says Livio Dainese, Co-CEO of Wirz. "So many superlatives are almost embarrassing for us Swiss. All the more reason for us to show what we can do. For example, using artificial intelligence profitably."

A soccer coach as an actor?

Jürgen Klopp has been a brand ambassador for Deutsche Vermögensberatung for many years. So it is hardly surprising that he should play the leading role in the new TV commercial. The outgoing Liverpool FC coach is regarded as one of the best football coaches - which doesn't necessarily apply to acting. He prefers to leave that to others.

And by using artificial intelligence AI, he was able to do just that. The TV commercial was created almost entirely without his involvement. All he had to do was sit on a chair, make a few faces and have his face photographed from all sides. With that, Jürgen Klopp's work was practically done. For the AI teams from Wirz and The Mayda Creative Co. from New York, the real work began.

Jürgen Klopp was no longer present during the actual filming. The film was shot with body doubles. It was only in post-production that their faces were replaced with Jürgen Klopp's using deepfake technology.

Klopp's face and voice digitized

Both Jürgen Klopp's face and his voice were digitized for the commercial. To do this, an AI was trained for days with various original sound recordings of Jürgen Klopp and the voice was synthesized from them. Klopp never recorded the texts for the campaign, but a professional speaker whose voice was only replaced with that of the football coach afterwards.

"With this production, Wirz has impressively demonstrated that AI is not just a buzzword for them, but a valuable tool that they are obviously very good at using," says Holger Zindt, Divisional Board Member for Marketing at DVAG.

The TV commercial celebrated its premiere on Saturday during the half-time break of the top match in the German football league between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC Bayern Munich on the pay-TV channel Sky and shortly before the ARD news bulletin and will be shown in various versions on German television commercials over the next two years.

Responsible at Deutsche Vermögensberatung: Marcus Assmuth (Chief Development and Marketing Officer), Holger Zindt (Chief Marketing Officer), Michael Rebstock (Marketing Director), Patrick Roelecke (Group Head of Marketing & Project Manager), Birgit van den Valentyn (Creative Director Brand), Luis Pena (Client Partner, The BlueGreenOne). Responsible at Wirz Group: Livio Dainese, Caspar Heuss, Patric Franz, Vanessa Lehmann-Spalleck, Erasmo Palomba. Responsible at Zauberberg Productions in cooperation with Feit Film: Andrea Roman Perse (Managing Partner & Executive Producer), Wiebke Feit, (Producer), Brian Papish & Eva Strittmann Power (Producer), Anna Andriutsa (Post Producer), Charly Siegrist (Production Assistant), The Mayda Creative Co. - Ben Smith & Carl Addy (Director), The Mayda Creative Co. (VFX), Zu Al-Kaidi (VFX Executive Producer), Georgie Castle (VFX Producer), Thomas English (DOP), Pete Fullarton (Party Editorial), Marko Strihic (Edit). Responsible at DubDub Studios: Gregor Rosenberger (Voice Recording, Sound Design, Mix), Sandro Palomba (Voice Casting and Producing). Responsible at Music Agency Sizzer: Koen van de Wardt, Peter Jelle Idzenga (Music Producer), Richard Aardenburg (Music Supervisor), Michiel Marsman (Executive Creative Director Music), Sander van Maarschalkerweerd (Executive Music Supervisor). Further production partners: Valeriano Di Domenico (Photography), Grotesk.Group (AI Voice Training), Harald Schaack (AI Voice Training and Cloning), Nelly Selcho (AI Sound Coordinator), Lorenz Wahl, Kuchynskyi Yevhenii (Image Processing).

Over 20,000 women and girls in Switzerland are affected or threatened by female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C). The canton of Zurich now also has a specialized contact point for those affected and their relatives, as well as for specialists from various fields.

The contact point was launched on the International Day against Female Genital Mutilation on February 6, 2024 with an information event in Zurich. Speakers included government councillor Natalie Rickli and Sara Aduse, ambassador against female genital mutilation.

Dachcom developed the new FGMhelp brand and the associated brand identity for the launch of the contact point. The new logo makes the core task of the contact point quickly tangible, while the abstract imagery with its wave-shaped elements also expresses the complexity of the complex topic of FGM/C on a visual level.

The website is divided into two color schemes - blue-green for professionals, reddish for patients and relatives - which is intended to reflect the different tonality and information transfer and will also be used on the planned web platform. In a first phase, FGMhelp is available on the landing page Fgmhelp.ch which contains the most important information and contact details.

For the launch, Dachcom also implemented initial communication measures such as roll-ups and social media content, which will be continuously supplemented with further elements in the coming months.

Responsible agency: Dachcom, Rheineck / St. Gallen team.

The Committee for Transport and Telecommunications of the Council of States (KVF-S) has approved a parliamentary initiative by former National Councillor Kurt Fluri (FDP/SO) by 8 votes to 3 with one abstention, as reported by the Parliamentary Services on Tuesday. As the upper chamber also voted in favor, its preliminary committee can now prepare a bill within two years.

Specifically, SRG is to be obliged to consider independent Swiss providers for commissioned productions and technical film services. The foundations are to be laid for them to receive a certain proportion of commissions in future.

A fair participation of the SRG in the audiovisual production market is important, was the tenor in the parliamentary committees. They are of the opinion that the SRG must be held more accountable when awarding contracts to the independent audiovisual industry in Switzerland.

According to the KVF-S, the current regulations put private providers in the position of supplicants due to the SRG's market power, which does not allow for negotiations on an equal footing. It also pointed out that a motion adopted by both councils in 2017 with the same objective had still not been implemented by the Federal Council. (SDA)

The world's airports exude a special charm. Being able to move around in front of and behind the scenes there on a daily basis is more appealing than a conventional office. This is the focus of the AAS ground handler recruitment campaign, which has been on display in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Vienna and Zurich since mid-January.

"Cruising around with 1360 hp. And earn money at the same time." is written under the picture of a ramp agent who is allowed to push back planes with his pushback vehicle. An ornithological comparison is used to promote the job of ramp loader: "Others feed pigeons. You feed the really big birds." And to refer to the position of Passenger Service Agents, who are responsible for processing passengers at check-in and at the gate, a glance out of the huge windows is enough: "New to the job. And already the office with the best view."

The campaign, developed by AAS and the Zurich-based agency Schroten and implemented by the Basel-based production company Jensen+Heitz, shows AAS employees at work and is also intended to portray the humor and challenger mentality that the owner-managed company demonstrates.

"The campaign shows who we are: A competitive company that does everything it can every day to ensure that its customers - the airlines - can concentrate on flying," explains Nevena Dragosavljevic, Chief Communications Officer at AAS. "And at the same time an employer that attaches great importance to a sense of community, empowering employees and having fun at work."

Potential candidates for the six different job profiles are encouraged by the widely publicized social media and poster campaign, as well as at job fairs and flyer campaigns, to visit the recruiting landing page developed for this purpose via Aas.aero/career to find out more about employment at AAS.

Responsible at AAS: Nevena Dragosavljevic (Chief Communications Officer), Nina Leibundgut (Communications Manager), Malush Sahitaj (Digital Marketing Specialist), Lia Nobili (Project Assistant Communications). Responsible for grist: Adrian Schräder (overall responsibility & text), Fabian Esslinger, Niels Schäfer (art direction & text), Adrian Huwyler (digital & media consultant). Media: Dama holder, Speed-U-Up. Film & Photo: Jensen+Heitz, Stephanie Heitz (Producer), Nicolas Heitz (DOP), Laurids Jensen (photo).

In the vote in February 2022, the people and the cantons decided that tobacco advertising, advertising for e-cigarettes and other nicotine products must not reach children and young people. However, the Council of States and the responsible National Council committee do not want to implement the initiative text word for word and allow exceptions, for example for sponsoring music festivals.

Before the bill is debated again in parliament in the spring session, the association behind the "Children and young people without tobacco advertising" initiative is putting pressure on it. "The current form of legislation does not correspond to what the people and the cantons have decided," said Hans Stöckli, former SP member of the Bernese Council of States, to the media in Bern on Tuesday. This is indecent. "Parliament must not make unconstitutional decisions."

"Clear dilution of the constitutional text"

According to law professor Thomas Gächter, father of the initiative text, parliament wants to enshrine an extremely narrow definition of advertising in the revised Tobacco Products Act. The constitutional article is clear: any advertising aimed at young people that could tempt them to consume tobacco should be banned.

The fact that parliament wanted to remove the ban on sales promotion and sponsorship from the bill was a "very problematic step". Gächter referred to a recently published report by the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ), according to which the parliament's previous decisions were not in line with the constitution. Overall, this is a "clear dilution of the constitutional text", said Gächter.

The initiative committee now wants to await the National Council's decision on the Tobacco Products Act. "If Parliament does not decide in our favor, we will make our further plans," said Stöckli. (SDA)

The advertising inventory of Arena Cinemas' seven multiplex cinemas will continue to be marketed by Weischer.Cinema Switzerland. This includes the cinema screens, DOOH cinema screens in the cinema foyer and special advertising formats such as 4DX and ScreenX.

Christof Kaufmann, CEO of Weischer.Cinema Switzerland, is delighted about the continuation of the long-standing partnership: "Arena Cinemas is the cinema group that is present in all three language regions and therefore offers an outstanding reach for advertisers. Our partnership with Arena Cinemas is characterized by mutual trust and reliability. We look forward to continuing to create innovative advertising solutions together."

Patrick Tavoli, CEO of Arena Cinemas, adds: "We are building on this success story. Together we not only share a passion for the premium medium of cinema, but also the ambition to offer technical progress and excellent service. With Weischer.Cinema as an experienced advertising partner, we are looking positively to the future and are confident that we will continue to market our advertising space extremely attractively."

Matthias Harsch, CEO of Leica Camera, is looking forward to the collaboration with Martin et Karczinski: "It is based on a deep common understanding that a brand like Leica has a potential based on its identity that is unrivaled on the market worldwide."

Martin et Karczinski started a holistic identity process for Leica. This begins with a comprehensive diagnosis of the brand and its codes, through direct experience at all touchpoints of the brand journey as well as through encounters and interviews with people in the global Leica cosmos. This should result in a holistic picture and deep understanding of the brand, on the basis of which the brand's target identity can be developed. To kick things off, the brand makers invited Leica addicts and professionals to a round table at their Munich premises.

The magic of the brand as a success program for its future

For the future of the brand, Leica's success story is to be effectively continued with a clear positioning: "Using our Be.yond method, we will work on bringing the identity and potential of the brand to life in the most effective way," explains Peter Martin, founder and CEO of the Martin et Karczinski Group. "This brand experience will be experienced holistically for Leica's 100th anniversary - and make the brand sustainable for the future."

With this partnership, CEO Patrick Gross wants to support Best of Swiss Web in promoting the quality of Swiss web ecosystems. "IWF Web Solutions is looking forward to forming a pioneering partnership with Best of Swiss Web that will not only drive innovation in our field, but also have a lasting impact on Switzerland's digital landscape."

The solution portfolio of the software company IWF Web Solutions, based in Pratteln BL, includes premium website solutions, mobile apps and complex business applications - based on sustainable open source industry standards.

Before the partnership with Best of Swiss Web, IWF Web Solutions had already successfully submitted projects itself and taken home two awards. Patrick Gross is also a member of the jury and scrutinizes web projects together with the other experts. "I am therefore all the more pleased to deepen the partnership with IWF as part of this sponsorship and thus make a positive contribution to the entire industry," says Seraina Frehner, Best of Swiss Web project manager.

Today, successful online advertising is almost impossible without programmatic advertising: the advantages include precise targeting, wide reach, effective budget control, automated real-time optimization and measurability. The crux of the matter, however, is access to this technology and the real-time bidding marketplaces where publishers' free advertising space is auctioned off. Only media agencies or advertisers with high budgets, specialist know-how and the appropriate ad technology have access to this.

However, according to Ewa Solutions, small and medium-sized companies with a regional reach and small budgets are particularly reliant on affordable and effective online advertising. With "Easy Digital Marketing" The aim is to democratize digital advertising, giving SMEs more opportunities to fight for awareness and sales.

In terms of applicability, the "Easy" in the name says it all. According to Sascha Knauer, advertising is still a matter for the boss at most SMEs and the campaigns are created directly by the advertising client in the self-service software. However, there are also some creative agencies that use "Easy Digital Marketing" for their customers.

This means that campaigns can be started easily and very quickly. The settings are said to take a maximum of ten minutes. Over 150 HTML5 banner templates are available as creatives, which can be adapted to the individual requirements of a campaign in just a few simple steps. White/publisher lists, remarketing options and third-party audiences are also available for experienced users.

"The positive feedback from international customers speaks for the success of 'Easy Digital Marketing'," says Knauer. The solution is available from 500 francs or euros per month.

The B2B sustainability conference attracted over 1000 guests and was captured by Corpmedia in an impressive evergreen content stock. The aftermovie was produced in just 72 hours and reportedly became a "bestseller within a very short time" and was celebrated on social media.

However, the aftermovie is only one part of the comprehensive Storyworld that Corpmedia has created. Over 100 short versions of the film, known as Storyworld modules, have been realized. They can also be put together at a later date in ever new combinations.

One highlight was the spontaneous opportunity to accompany Lyreco Managing Director Thomas Illi on the first test ride of the new sustainability streetcar, which brought guests to the event and is intended to inspire passengers to be more sustainable in the coming months.

Despite the tight time window of less than an hour, Corpmedia was able to recognize the potential of this content opportunity and produce a video that became the biggest viral video in Lyreco's history within a few hours.

The videos were also a success internally among the more than 500 Lyreco employees. "Corpmedia's work has had a real impact on our company and our employees," says Martin Schlittler from Lyreco Switzerland.

Corpmedia's Storyworld for the Lyreco Unboxed event aims to show how events can be used more effectively as content opportunities. Clever storytelling and visual content can help to strengthen companies and their messages and achieve a lasting impact.

This year, the content of more than 3,000 image posts was analyzed with the support of AI. In total, there were 19.5 million interactions from 4.8 million followers on 28,621 posts. The 15 fastest-growing accounts - also known as growth accounts - as well as the 15 accounts with the most engagement - the "engagers" - were analyzed in detail.

Powdience was able to derive various key takeaways and key learnings from the insights gained from the study.

Seven key takeaways at a glance

1. Even if you focus on commitment, you grow at an above-average rate.
2. If the account is to receive more engagement, pictures are more important than reels.
3. If the account is to grow, it is advisable to focus on reels.
4. Top engagement accounts post throughout the day, especially in the mornings.
5. When posting, quality is more important than quantity: two good posts per week are better than 3 to 4 bad ones.
6. For more engagement, it is advisable to use posts with individual people, events and sport. Products, too much text and advertising-like content should be avoided.
7. The image production should be medium to simple - not highly stylized. Emotionality, colors and strong stylistic devices are essential.

Pictures experienced a renaissance in 2023

Last year's announcement by Instagram to promote images again has come true. Accounts with the most engagement have focused on photos. In addition to a lot of engagement, there was also considerable growth. What was striking was that successful accounts posted less.

A comparison of top and flop engagers shows that successful profiles post more often in the mornings. Friday also seems to be an important day.

"UBS Kids Cup": lots of growth and commitment

According to the study, the fastest-growing Instagram accounts had around 13,318 followers in 2023 and grew by around 80 percent.

Their posting behavior was below average: On average, they made 2.3 posts per week, with slightly fewer reels (36%), a similar number of images (35%) and slightly more carousels (29%) than the average.

The accounts with the best interaction rates had an average of 6,141 followers and a growth rate of 41%. The average interaction rate was 10.4 percent - with ranking leader UBS Kids Cup being an outlier. If this account is not counted, the interaction rate drops to 5.5 percent.

Compared to the top growth accounts, the top engagers published even fewer posts per week at 2.2. If the Welovesnow account, which posted almost 10 posts per week, is not included, this figure drops to 1.6 posts per week. Reels usually receive fewer interactions because users simply watch them. Interactions are not relevant for the reach or virality of reels.

Radio Energy also stands out from the surveys. The account generated a total of 10.7 million comments, likes and shares - almost as many interactions as all other accounts combined.

What do successful accounts do differently?

Powdience used artificial intelligence to analyze 3,000 image and carousel posts from the 15 Swiss Instagram accounts with the most and least interaction. This showed that more people can be seen on posts from successful accounts - most frequently a person. People therefore generally generate more interaction, as well as emotionally appealing, colorful posts.

Across all the images analyzed, the ones that generated the most engagement were those that were classified as inspiring, dramatic, nostalgic, cheerful and humorous. It also seems to be important for the success of a post that the images are not too perfect in terms of quality - what is more important is conveying approachability and communicating at eye level.

The Instagram study was conducted in early 2024 by Powdience and written by Sandro Gafner and Mike Schwede. Further details and analyses of the most successful posts and Swiss Instagram business accounts can be found at Powdience.com can be downloaded.

A booklet on the study is available download here.