Thomas Benkö started as a digital editor at the Blick Group in 2000. After building up the Abendzeitung Today In 2008, he became a page turner at the Evening view and later also deputy editor-in-chief there. Since 2018, he has been leading the online presence of Blick.ch as Teamlead Digital.

"With Thomas, we are not only gaining a digital expert for this fundamentally important topic area of the future, but we can also build on the know-how of a colleague of many years who knows the newsroom, the colleagues, the processes and the challenges very well," says Sandro Inguscio, Editor-in-Chief Blick.ch & Blick TV, about Benkö's new role.

In his new role, Thomas Benkö will identify areas of application for AI and develop possible applications in collaboration with the digital and product team. He is also responsible for raising awareness and training journalists in the use of AI.

"I like to be where innovation meets journalism. Like the Internet, AI is not a fad that will eventually disappear, but a technology that has come to stay," says Benkö. "AI offers a lot of potential, and I'm happy to help make my colleagues' jobs a little easier in the future - so they have more time for creativity and research."

To protect children and young people from smoking, a ban on tobacco and e-cigarette advertising in printed media is expected to come into force in Switzerland from 2026 onwards (Werbewoche.ch reported). This is what the Federal Council wants. It also wants to ban the tobacco industry from sponsoring national events to which minors have access.

With these measures, the national government wants to implement the initiative "Children and young people without tobacco advertising", which was approved by the people and the cantons in February 2022. This calls for a ban on all tobacco advertising where it reaches minors. A dispatch on the amendment of the Tobacco Products Act now goes to parliament.

Not all the proposals of the Federal Council were well received by the Committee for Social Security and Health of the Council of States (SGK-S). It decided by 6 votes to 5 with 2 abstentions that advertising in the inner section of press products, the majority of which are sold to adults via subscriptions, should remain permitted, as the parliamentary services announced on Wednesday.

Tobacco advertising in public places should also remain possible, provided that it is neither visible nor accessible to minors. The Commission would also like to regulate the sponsorship of events in the same way. In addition, the reporting obligation for advertising expenditure by the tobacco industry is to be deleted from the bill.

Implementation with a sense of proportion

The majority of the commission justifies its decisions by saying that the popular initiative must be implemented "with a sense of proportion". The partial revision of the Tobacco Products Act should not go beyond the demands of the initiative.

Last year, the Federal Council sent its ideas for implementing the popular initiative out for consultation. There, they met with harsh criticism from the advertising industry and the tobacco industry. The proposal to impose an obligation on the tobacco industry to report advertising expenditure, sales promotion and sponsorship was particularly rejected.

The bill will be debated in the Council of States in the fall session. (SDA)

According to Media Focus' Advertising Market Trend, advertising print so far this year is 5.9 percent below last year's figure, closing with a gross volume of 3,412 million Swiss francs.

Advertising pressure in the overall market

Development of advertising print as of July 2023 in millions of gross Swiss francs.

Financial sector well above 2022

The ranking of the sectors remains virtually unchanged in July. Only Cosmetics & Toiletries and Events swap places.

The financial sector is performing remarkably well so far in 2023, generating almost a third more advertising impressions. While it ranked sixth in the same period in 2022, it is now moving up to second place. However, in July, it recorded only the fourth largest increase (+15.1%). Tobacco products (+363.7%), cleaning (+74.6%) and telecommunications (+21.3%) can record even more significant increases in July.

Summer slump more pronounced in twelve sectors

Compared to 2022, the lower advertising spend in the summer is clearly noticeable in 12 of the 21 sectors. As in June, the energy sector (-37.2%), fashion and sports (-28.2%) and construction, industry, furnishings (-27.9%) show the strongest reductions. These three sectors still recorded significant increases in July of the previous year.

Top Advertisers & Products

The top advertisers and most advertised products and services (excluding assortment image advertising and collective categories) in July.

Media Mix for the month of July

Who still remembers when it was possible to simply muddle along? Without a concept, without consideration of the costs and without a strategy. Those were the days. Just have a slick idea and implement it. Design something beautiful and you're done.

Today, that is no longer possible. The world is more complex, faster and more unpredictable than it was a few years ago. Of course, strategies are needed. But please not for everything! Is nevertheless the meaning of the word according to dictionary an exact plan of the own proceeding, which serves to reach a military, political, psychological, economic or the like. Goal to reach. One tries to calculate those factors, which could play into the own action. Sounds complicated. It is. That's why it's surprising how inflationary the word is being used everywhere.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating

Everyday life is full of strategy meetings in which strategy consultants present strategy papers on strategy change, which are then to be strategically implemented by the subordinates. Preferably by proceeding strategically. This can then be quite exhausting for everyone. After all, it is not everyone's cup of tea to think or act strategically. So why not just do it and try it out, instead of waiting until the strategy is developed or adopted.

Because then it might be too late for action. So be careful the next time you hear the word. And you should be skeptical of people who call themselves "strategists" and pronounce it in German, not only because they torture the local understanding of the language. The German words for this are Stratege or Strategin.

Speaking of English: According to the Oxford Dictionary, the term was "strategy" first mentioned in 1616 in John Bingham's "The Tactiks of Aelian - art of embattailing an army after y Grecian manner". A frequency measurement from the same source confirms that the use of the word first increased before the First World War, then before the Second World War, and since the Cold War it has been used continuously more and is currently experiencing the biggest boom ever. So it's statistical evidence, not anecdotal evidence: strategy has become the buzzword.

No wonder, because there are now strategies for everything, even if they are not strategies and even where they are not needed. It would therefore be desirable if more creative trial and error were to characterize our everyday life again than strategies. After all, we are not at war here, but only in marketing.

* 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.

A new Swiss startup wants to get in on the AI market. AlpineAI "has a vision to redefine work in companies in the face of monumental advances in technology and society, while upholding the role of humans," according to a press release. Among the founders are representatives from several AI labs, including the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW.

One of the founders is Pascal Kaufmann, CEO of Mindfire and founder of the AI center Lab42. "We want to strengthen innovative companies and cutting-edge research in Switzerland," he says when asked by the Web Week and admits that the name AlpineAI is not coincidentally reminiscent of the US company OpenAI: "Artificial intelligence is too important a technology. We shouldn't just leave this field to the US and big tech companies."

SwissGPT should display sources of information 

Among the first products AlpineAI will offer is SwissGPT - a service that is "compatible with Europe and Switzerland," according to the announcement. SwissGPT is based, among other things, on Falcon, a novel large language model (LLM) with roots at EPFL, Kaufmann said in response to an inquiry from the Web Week explains. Unlike ChatGPT, with SwissGPT the source of the result produced can always be traced, he continues. In addition, the data at SwissGPT should remain in Switzerland.

In concrete terms, SwissGPT can be used in companies of almost any size, for example, to support e-mail correspondence: "For this purpose, LLM evaluates the language used in old e-mails and then suggests new e-mails based on this, depending on the topic," says Kaufmann.

Asked when AlpineAI will start offering the service, he says: "As of now. We're already running a few customer installations now. The results are good, so we can offer the service to other companies."

What else SwissGPT can do and what goals AlpineAI is pursuing beyond that, the founders plan to announce at a press conference on Monday in Zurich. (René Jaun/jor)

This article first appeared in the Web Week.

The survey shows that all entrepreneurs - regardless of their age - are aware of the impact of a well-designed website on their business. In fact, 79% of respondents agree that their website has a positive impact on sales. Similarly, 38% agree with the statement that the company website serves as a catalyst for sales on other channels. In addition, 43% of respondents emphasize that their website gives them access to new target groups.

When it comes to the use of marketing tools, Gen Z in particular shows a clear affinity for technology and automation: 79% of respondents from this age group use automation tools for their marketing, compared with 63% of Millennials and just 40% of Gen X.

Investing in social media marketing

In terms of marketing activities, more than half (54%) of the survey participants would like to invest in social media advertising, while 49% of the respondents prioritize switching to responsive web design. Another 47% are planning SEO optimization to increase their online visibility.

"The survey shows that young entrepreneurs in Germany have a great desire to take a hand in building and growing their own business," sums up Alexandra Anderson, Marketing Director at GoDaddy Germany.

The survey "GoDaddy Data Observatory. of website and domain provider GoDaddy was conducted in March 2023 by Advanis in Brazil, Colombia, Germany, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and the USA. The respondents were owners of small businesses with a maximum of 50 employees. A total of 4,682 entrepreneurs were surveyed for the study, including 480 in Germany.

Women are severely underrepresented visually in Swiss imagery, according to a joint statement from Ringier and Keystone-SDA. According to a 2019 study, half of the ten best-selling stock photo categories contain less than 40 percent women. It also said people are confronted with stereotypes on a daily basis. For example, female kindergarten teachers are more likely to be visually represented than male kindergarten teachers, while a management position is mostly male.

You can't be what you can't see

This realization, he says, motivated EqualVoice and Womenbiz to Launch "EqualPYXX" photo challenge. In cooperation with Keystone-SDA, role images of people that entail traditionally anchored gender roles are to be opened up.

All photographers are called upon to take pictures that break down gender-specific stereotypes and counteract traditional gender roles. The pictures should show women and men authentically in an everyday situation - for more reality in the Swiss visual world.

Submission in three categories

The challenge started on Wednesday. Until September 22, interested people can submit their pictures in three categories. The picture taken should belong to one of the categories.

The "New Role Models" category is looking for images that show people in extraordinary, inspiring and authentic situations. People who courageously go ahead, take others by the hand and pave the way. The pictures should show new perspectives and encourage unconventional ways, so that others will have it easier one day.

In addition, the "Leadership" category is looking for images that show that a leader does not only have to be male, western, middle-aged and in a suit. New and refreshingly genuine visualizations of people with great responsibility, leadership qualities and drive are in demand.

Further typical clichés are to be counteracted with images that can be submitted in the third category "Break the Bias". The aim is to photograph people who are still considered unconventional in society by simply being who they are. Gender, origin, ethnicity, appearance, sexual orientation or religion should not play a role - and these pictures should make it clear that society's (un)conscious ideals have long been outdated.

An internal jury and a subsequent public online vote will select the best picture in each category. The three winners will then be announced and the selected images awarded prizes at an EqualVoice event.

The digital information platform was realized with a novel headless CMS approach and launched in spring 2023. It serves as a central point of contact and is intended to reflect the motto "We build bridges between town and country".

A website to achieve the company's goals

To achieve LID's ambitious strategic goals, the project team set itself the task of significantly improving findability, usability and user experience with the new website.

In a first phase, the needs and interests of all relevant target groups were identified. With the insights gained, a user-centered access concept was created.

In close cooperation between LID and Campfire, solutions are developed to display the extensive content and helpful offers in a findable and accessible way. As a basis, all content and offers were tagged with an extensive tagging concept. Thus, content can be used and output dynamically, systematically and flexibly.

Brand values visually revived

The existing corporate design underwent a digital rebranding based on the company's values. With a new, flexible design system, future adjustments are to be made efficiently and consistently.

Modern technologies, short loading times

The platform was implemented using the headless CMS approach in Umbraco with modern technologies and frameworks, which enables short loading times. This performance is a key factor in further expanding the perception and use of LID's content. The headless approach also enables the LID to provide personalized content on other channels in the future.

A technical separation of the content - in the CMS with the headless CMS Umbraco - and the presentation form in the frontend enables flexibility and independence in content entry and simplifies the further development of the information platform.

Seamless integrations of other systems

The platform is connected to the Swiss newsletter tool MailXpert and offers seamless integration of various third-party systems, such as Infogram. Media professionals also have the option to copy and reuse editorial articles with one click. Dynamic topic pages and a user-friendly search and filter function round off LID's digital offering.

Responsible at LID: Markus Rediger (Managing Director), Jonas Ingold (Editorial Manager and Project Manager online), Daniela Carrera, Andreas Reichmuth (Project Managers Schools), Stefanie Mancini (Project Manager Communication). Responsible at Campfire: Nico Erb (Research), Dirk Unger (Design), Daniel Vasile, Patric Martin, Pius Caduff (Development), Damian Kunz (Strategy).

The streaming platform has been working for many years to provide a platform for reliable health-related content, according to a YouTube statement on Tuesday. Based on previous findings on how to most effectively combat medical misinformation, YouTube is therefore simplifying its own approach to creators, users and partners.

To do this, YouTube is unifying a variety of existing YouTube medical misinformation policy along the three categories of "prevention", "treatment" and "denial". These guidelines are applied to content on specific health conditions, treatments, and substances that contradict information provided by local health authorities or WHO.

To determine whether content falls under these guidelines, YouTube evaluates publicly available recommendations from health authorities, verifies whether content poses a high risk to public health, and whether misinformation frequently circulates on the subject.

The goal of YouTube's actions is to make the rules more understandable and the framework for deciding whether certain diseases or health conditions fall under the guidelines more transparent.

As part of this, YouTube will immediately begin removing content that promotes cancer treatments that have been shown to be harmful or ineffective. It will also remove content that discourages users from seeking professional medical treatment.

For more information on the topic, see the blogpost  "A Long-Term Vision for YouTube's Medical Misinformation Policies.".

What are Switzerland's current election intentions? What political positions do the candidates take, and how pronounced is their support for the concerns of the population abroad? These and similar questions are addressed in addition to the ten-language online portal the app for swiss:abroad "SWIplus"which was revised in terms of technology and content this summer. With news, analyses, party checks, election guides and the "Let's Talk" video debate, the app bundles the relevant information for the 800,000 citizens outside Switzerland.

Promote interest and participation in Swiss democracy

The app reflects the relay function that SWI assumes between Swiss Abroad and Swiss democracy. It brings together all the content that is relevant and useful to them in a clear and concise way, so that Swiss Abroad have round-the-clock access to information that concerns them and Switzerland - in German, French, Italian and English. Those who live in another language region and would like to inform their environment about Swiss events will find the majority of the publication on the web portals of SWI in the other six languages Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese.

The Street Parade is a celebration of love, tolerance and respect. Nevertheless, sexual assaults occur every year. With the action "Give you Skin a Voice", a joint action of the city of Zurich and the Bar & Club Commission Zurich BCK, now also at the biggest techno party in the world a sign was set against sexual harassment.

At the parade as well as in various Zurich clubs, removable tattoos with strong statements for self-determination, tolerance and awareness were distributed, drawing attention to the problem where it makes the most sense: on the naked skin.

This with success, according to content and form. How already at the "Caliente! Latin Music Festival the campaign initiated by the Zurich agency was also very well received at the 30th Street Parade. Numerous visitors confidently raised their voices against sexual assault with temporary tattoos, making one thing clear: sexual harassment is out - respecting boundaries is in.

Sexual harassment can be reported anonymously and securely on Zuerich-looks-at.ch.

Heinz-Werner Schmidt has extensive professional experience in the building services industry, especially in the field of heat generators - and also experience at Stiebel Eltron: from 2009 to 2014, he was responsible for the German subsidiary Tecalor. Most recently, he was CEO for all brands of the Dutch BDR Thermea Group represented in Germany since 2018.

"The fact that Heinz-Werner Schmidt had already worked for our company for a number of years made the decision easier for both sides," says Managing Director Kai Schiefelbein, who is responsible for technology, customer service, finance, purchasing and human resources. Schmidt has also been active on the board of the German Heat Pump Association for almost 20 years.