Messe Luzern organizes eleven trade and public exhibitions as well as two conferences. At the same time, the operator of the Lucerne Exhibition Center rents out its infrastructure and offers services for events of all kinds. It positions itself as the first port of call for trade fairs, corporate and customer events, general meetings, congresses and conferences.
In view of the constant change in the trade fair world, which is strongly based on relationships and encounters, and the dynamic development of the industry, the company recognized the need to reposition its brand. This process was initiated in collaboration with the Hi Schweiz agency.

Transformation process for a modern trade fair experience

Hi Schweiz supported the company in developing a new visual and communicative image. The aim was to align the brand, which is firmly anchored in the region, with the current brand behavior. The agency retained the core elements, developed them further and combined them with new components to make the brand more digital and approachable.

The lettering and logo elements have a new dynamic design and meet the requirements of a modern corporate design. The clear positioning of the individual communication measures and the self-confident appearance form the core. A holistic communication concept coordinated with the design is intended to make the messages and services of the trade fair visible.

The revised brand identity will be implemented over the course of the year.

Originally known for organizing various events, the agency Myi, which has been active since 2016, has since expanded its services to include creative concept development, digital campaigns and consulting in communication and product development in the gaming sector. The company has three offices in the DACH region. "We are a very young and ambitious team. For some time now, we have been looking for someone who can support Myi in our expansion and further establishment in the DACH market. We are delighted to have Thorsten on our Advisory Board, who not only brings an exciting backpack with him, but also shares our entrepreneurial spirit," says CEO Cédric Schlosser on the announcement.

Thorsten Unger is an expert, author and entrepreneur in the field of games and digital education. From January 2013 to December 2016, he was Managing Director of the Game Bundesverband der deutschen Games-Branche e.V. and spokesperson for the Film and Audiovisual Media section of the German Cultural Council. From 2012 to 2022, he was a member of the advisory board of the Federal Government's Competence Center for Cultural and Creative Industries for ten years. He is currently a board member for digital transformation at the NextMG e.V. business initiative. As an entrepreneur, he runs the Wegesrand Group, among others. With the Swedish Edyoutec AB, he is building a listed provider of playful learning technologies. With Texentium in Mönchengladbach, he runs a meeting place for all aspects of the digital society, creates advisory services and networks experts.

"Behind Myi lies considerable success, and ahead of Myi lies considerable growth potential in the very exciting corridor between games and communication. As a member of the Advisory Board, I am delighted to be able to support the highly committed team in the further development of the company with my experience, network and critical scrutiny," says Thorsten Unger.

Through the collaboration with Nvidia, full-stack supercomputers with generative AI (GenKI) are to be realized in Switzerland, Swisscom announced on Tuesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum WEF in Davos at the "AI House" there: "The GenKI supercomputers are being developed based on Nvidia solutions for accelerated computing and the Nvidia AI Enterprise software platform."

Through the cooperation with the US company, Swisscom wants to develop standardized, tailor-made and new AI use cases together with customers and also use them internally. "As a first step, we are creating a high-performance infrastructure on the basis of which we will develop trustworthy services," explained Swisscom CEO Christoph Aeschlimann.

As a result of the cooperation, Swisscom will now also become a reseller of Nvidia technologies, including the US company's DGX platform and graphics cards (GPU). This means that Swisscom now has the necessary tools to be a trustworthy partner for solving AI customer needs in Switzerland, according to the statement. AI solutions based on Nvidia technologies are also to be offered in Italy. (SDA)

The Andros brand has to assert itself in a highly competitive market, which requires a strong, clear and consistent brand presence. Franz&René therefore considered redesigning the branding, for example to highlight the packaging on the shelves and motivate consumers to buy.

By clarifying the brand platform and developing a corporate design, a stronger presence of the fruit can now be seen in most implementations. In addition, the brand can now develop further based on a coherent presentation and emphasis of the key messages. Measures implemented include new packaging, new fruit illustrations, revised bottle labels, a well thought-out product naming strategy and the definition of trade communication.

Responsible at Andros: Julien Rameau (Marketing Director), Rahel Zumwald (Consumer Dialogue Manager), Lara Horak (Marketing & Communication Coordinator). Responsible for Franz&René: Valérie Pecalvel (Strategic Direction), Luciano Gerber (Client Service Direction), Vincent Eichenberger (Client Service Direction & Digital), Eric Kohler (Art Direction), Audrey Grossenbacher (Graphic designer), Yannic Sommer (Graphic designer). Illustration: Annick Poirier (Colagene Paris). Website: Dept Switzerland.

After losing its largest indirect customer last fall, the company from Schmitten FR saw its sales plummet by almost a quarter, as Gilles Gautier, Chairman of the Board of Directors, told the newspaper La Liberté said. The company has been struggling with digitalization and competition for years.

Without revealing the identity of the customer, Gautier explained that the customer was planning a paperless future for environmental reasons. The majority of Schumacher's orders come from the watch and household appliance industry.

The bankruptcy will lead to the loss of 35 full-time equivalent jobs, without a redundancy plan, as there are insufficient financial resources available, the statement continued. The company was founded in Bern in 1840 and settled in Schmitten in 1969. (SDA)

Drop8 has implemented the first programmatic cross-channel campaign for the Swiss start-up 9 Meadows. Dry January was the ideal time for this.

9 Meadows has five different non-alcoholic cocktail alternatives on offer. The ingredients are sourced locally from selected farmers in the Alpine region. A renewable circular economy in the value creation process is a major differentiator for 9 Meadows - and with every sale, the startup is working with "Freethebees" to combat bee mortality in Europe. In the context of growing trends towards a more conscious lifestyle and the increasing demand for high-quality alternatives to alcoholic beverages, the startup is now also strengthening its presence in digital communication. At the same time, as a start-up, 9 Meadows has limited resources for digital communication. This makes it all the more important to apply the most efficient strategy possible in order to address the target group precisely.

The aim of the campaign is to make the brand known to lovers of non-alcoholic cocktails and those who want to become one. Clicking on the ad takes users directly to the 9 Meadows online store, where the secondary goal is to generate orders for the product. A mix of display and native ads is used. Due to the fact that a lot of content on the topic of "Dry January" is published in January, contextual targeting is also used to offer readers of Dry January content in particular a suitable alcohol-free alternative. Another part of the campaign will be optimized for "web store orders". The use of first-party data will also contribute to this. The campaign is rounded off with placements on selected DOOH screens.

Armina Demon, co-founder and marketing manager at 9 Meadows, is satisfied: "Just under halfway through the campaign, we have already seen an increase in orders in the web store and an increase in interactions on our social media channels."

What does it take for ideas to become a talking point at the coffee machine, make headlines in the media or go viral? For Jung von Matt Limmat, the answer is "creative amplification".

"Creative amplification ensures that ideas and campaigns can also unfold their full power in earned media and thus become the talking piece for brands," says Cyrill Hauser, Managing Partner at Jung von Matt Limmat. "This requires holistic orchestration: from the idea to storytelling to the campaigning strategy with multipliers to the story pitch and social push."

To this end, the agency has brought in reinforcements from the beginning of the year: Laura Zimmermann and Marco Meroni are part of the creative team and, as Creative Amplification Directors, are responsible for the PR amplification of the agency's creative product.

Zimmermann studied law in Bern and Paris. Instead of writing her dissertation, she became co-president of Operation Libero, where she led numerous political campaigns. Zimmermann has worked at Rod Kommunikation for the last five years. She also teaches at the ZHAW, HSLU and the Ad School and is a designated member of the Swiss Fairness Commission.

Over the past 25 years, Marco Meroni has worked in all the key disciplines for Creative Amplification. He has worked as a journalist, as a long-standing media spokesman and press officer for SRF and also as a member of the management of Rod Kommunikation. His campaigns for the Federal Office for the Environment, the Environmental Alliance, Betty Bossi, the Federal Office of Public Health, Swisscom and many more have achieved great media resonance.

Both new additions report directly to Stephan Fehlmann, who has overall responsibility for the DACH region. With the expanded team, Spitch aims to meet the rapidly increasing demand for AI-based systems for customer communication.

Michael Schlake is assigned to the Customer Success Department, which was set up in the middle of last year to support the surge in demand. He comes from Spitch partner NTT Data, where he most recently worked as Lead Consultant Customer Experience and was already involved in several joint customer projects.

Olaf Hansen has more than 35 years of experience in consulting and sales of complex IT systems. In his last position at Verint, he was responsible for sales and presales activities in the DACH region.

Last week, the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) awarded a total of 13 regional television licenses for the period from 2025 to 2034. The TV project Canal B from Cortaillod NE was awarded the contract for the Biel area. Telebieligue currently holds a license for this area and will continue to do so until the end of 2024.

The owners of the Gassmann Group, Valais entrepreneur Fredy Bayard and Bernese entrepreneur Stefan Niedermaier, said in an interview published on Tuesday that they had taken the weekend to carry out an initial analysis. They are now taking legal action and expect to have at least a 50 percent chance of winning, Niedermaier said.

"Castles in the air" built

Bakom valued castles in the air more highly than 25 years of experience of an operator, said Bayard. Telebielingue has been broadcasting from Biel since 1999. Bayard added that it was incomprehensible that Telebielingue was ranked lower than Canal B in the bilingual program award process. However, the Valais native also sees mistakes in his own dossier and believes it should have been "a little more offensive".

Telebielingue will continue to operate in German and French anyway, Bayard continued. Depending on whether the group receives a license or not, television and its structure will look slightly different in the future.

In addition to Telebielingue, the Gassmann Group also owns the local radio station Canal 3, which has been awarded a new license for the next ten years. The Group also publishes the daily newspapers Bieler Tagblatt and Journal du Jura and operates the news portal Ajour.ch. (SDA)

Using public transport is worthwhile: the public transport sector launched the new Half-Fare Plus for the 2023 timetable change. Frequent travelers can benefit from a bonus - highly flexible and without financial risk.

The new prepaid travelcard is aimed in particular at employees and trainees who work from home or part-time for one or more days, use public transport occasionally in their free time and already have a Half-Fare travelcard - in other words, a large number of people.

For this reason, a nationwide campaign for the Half-Fare Plus is being launched this week. Under the motto "Travel more, save more". "It is crucial for success that new products are packaged in the simplest of messages. We wanted to showcase the numerous advantages of the Half-Fare Plus with a fine sense of humor and clarity," says Matthias Bütler, Head of Marketing and member of the SBB Passenger Transport Market Management.

"A good narrative starts with the name," adds Sandro Borrelli, Head of Marketing. "With the name Half-Fare Plus. we automatically attract the attention of over three million Half-Fare travelcard holders. That corresponds to 95 percent of our target group. We preferred this advantage to a descriptive name such as ÖV-Guthaben. The campaign takes over this task for us."

The cross-media campaign covers the entire customer journey - from initial contact on TV or WebTV, for example, to the "Sign contract" button. It takes the various target groups by the hand and leads them to the Half-Fare Plus.

Responsible at SBB: Matthias Bütler (Matthias Bütler, Head of Marketing and Market Development and member of the SBB Passenger Transport Market Management Board), Sandro Borrelli (Head of Marketing), Andrea Nigg (Campaign Manager), Jasmin Lauener (Campaign Manager); Responsible agency: Contexta; Film production: Tuna Productions; Directed by: Michael Steiner; Camera: Pascal Walder; Sound: Gregor Rosenberger (dubdub); Media: Havas.

To mark the launch of Emmi Energy Milk High Protein Double Zero, Erdmannpeisker's "Yummy Power" TV spot for Emmi's Energy Milk is now in its third year and is being supplemented with an additional tag-on and a fruit explosion. The established milk splash is intended to ensure maximum recognition and welcomes the two new products to the Emmi Energy Milk family.

The TV commercial is complemented by an online campaign and social media advertising material.

Responsible at Emmi Switzerland: Oliver Müller (Lead Brand Management Fresh), Luisa Odermatt (Senior Brand Manager), Lisa Schmid (Brand Management). Responsible at Erdmannpeisker: Gabriel Peisker (CD), Selina Helbling (consulting), Christina Weisser, Jenny Ziörjen (art direction), Cyril Gfeller (motion design), Markenfilm Schweiz (TV spot).

The reason for the closure is the declining demand for print products, the loss of important orders and persistently high paper and energy prices, as the company announced on Monday.

Against this backdrop, economically stable future prospects are no longer guaranteed. Most recently, adjustments were made to the printing infrastructure in summer 2023 in response to the downward trend.

All employees would be affected by the closure. However, the definitive number of employees to be made redundant will not be known until the consultation process launched on Monday has been completed, according to the press release.

The employees would continue to be employed until the closure of the plant. Some of the job cuts could be absorbed by early retirement under the existing social plan.

Print jobs could go abroad

The company also wants to ensure that orders are fulfilled by the end of September. In addition, follow-up solutions for customer relationships are to be sought.

In addition to a national tender, an international tender is also being prepared for the Ringier and NZZ Group magazines. This is necessary because there will no longer be sufficient capacity for the production of magazines in Switzerland following the planned closure of Swissprinters.

"I very much regret the planned closure", Michael Ringier, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ringier, is quoted as saying in the press release. The media company can look back on 190 years of company history, which began with a print shop in Zofingen. The company still has its headquarters in Zofingen today and, according to its own information, employs 122 people at the site.

Swissprinters is owned by Ringier (70 percent) and NZZ (30 percent). The company prints magazines, brochures and catalogs. (SDA)