"Do it yourself" has been around since the 1950s. For reasons of money, people tended to build things themselves back then. Nowadays, "DIY" is only a question of money, it can be a sign of independence and creativity. Corona has reinforced the trend: those who were not allowed to leave the house had time to optimize it.

This is also reflected in the sales figures for Galaxus' DIY store range in Switzerland. "The range has grown strongly," says Adrian Burger, Category Business Manager at Galaxus in Zurich. "The drawing card is the power tools. More and more frequently, by the way, the battery-powered ones, even in the professional sector." Customers are looking online for solutions for the construction site and home, no longer just in stationary DIY stores. "The large selection of brands and products is an advantage of online retailing over brick-and-mortar home improvement stores," Burger says. "If I need a new battery for my tool and I know the brand I trust, that's enough for me to make a purchase decision. I briefly check the brand and technical properties such as voltage and capacity, then the click comes."

According to the company, the massive expansion of its product range in recent years has made Galaxus the largest DIY store in Switzerland, ahead of the well-known stationary DIY chains.

B2B share increased to 25 percent

Online retailing with business customers has recently gained in importance, with more and more orders at Galaxus coming from corporate customers. Professionals in the DIY sector are also relying more heavily on online retailing and taking advantage of the increased selection and volume discounts.

25 percent of sales in the DIY sector at Galaxus come from B2B customers. "Craftsmen work under great time pressure. That's why batteries, drills or saws are ordered directly to the workshop by same-day delivery in an emergency," says Julia Gerwien, Portfolio Development Manager at Galaxus. "Many SMEs don't have their own purchasing department; procurement is handled by the owner or master craftsman. He or she likes to order just as conveniently as one is used to in private."

Almost everyone does it and almost no one talks about it - that's the sober conclusion of what is actually a sensual topic. Despite scientifically proven benefits such as higher resilience, increased self-esteem, and improved sleep quality, masturbation is nowhere near as socially acceptable as it should be.

"The shame associated with the topic means that masturbation is usually only discussed publicly in an ironic or amusing context," explains Isabelle Schmid, Head of Marketing at Amorana. "That has to change."

The beat makes the orgasm

Reason enough to give this topic the attention it deserves for a month and to break down fears of contact. Heimat Zürich designed a social media campaign around toys that can be connected to the favorite playlist via an app and vibrate in beat mode to the music. Those who recognized the vibrating song in the contest could win VIP tickets to OpenAir St. Gallen 2023. With further content on social media, in blog posts and in the Amorana Magazine the topic of masturbation was further de-tabooed.

Leading by example

To further emphasize the normalcy of masturbation, the company gave its employees an extra day off to masturbate during Masturbation May. The "offday of a special kind" was reported both in the national and international press.

The aim of Masturbation May was to establish masturbation and sex toys as something commonplace. In addition, the measures have shown that there are toys for everyone and every need.

Responsible at Amorana: Isabelle Schmid (Head of Marketing). Responsible at Heimat ZürichNico Ammann, Sandy Pfuhl, Jacqueline Villiger, Anouschka Tschudi, Lisa Hirt, Diego Cavalli (creation), Andrea Braschler, Adam Schwarz (consulting). Photography: Oliver Rust KO-photography+film via VisualEyes Artists. Sound: UKO Audio Suite.

In total, Fairtrade Max Havelaar 2022 turned over 913 million Swiss francs with Fairtrade products in Switzerland, as the organization announced on Thursday. Per capita sales were 104 francs, just one percent below the previous year's record figure.

At the same time, however, the Fairtrade Foundation had to contend with higher operating costs: At a good 10 million Swiss francs, these were 14 percent higher than in 2021. After deducting these expenses, the operating result was a clear minus of 626,000 Swiss francs. In the previous year, the same figure was still a plus of 509,000 francs.

High costs for advertising and wages

There were two reasons for the higher costs: First, the organization's marketing costs almost doubled, according to the annual report. According to Max Havelaar, this was due to the need to catch up after the corona pandemic and the brand's 30th anniversary. In addition, the foundation hired more people and had to increase wages due to inflation.

The bottom line was a loss of 947,000 Swiss francs. In the previous year, Max Havelaar had posted a profit of 671,000 Swiss francs.

After the record year 2021, the organization had deliberately planned for more investments and thus expected a loss. However, this was almost twice as high as expected due to losses in the value of financial assets, the report said.

Fairtrade cotton more popular than bananas

With the repeal of the Corona measures and the home office requirement, there were some changes in the composition of sales at the Fairtrade Foundation. Because people started going to restaurants more often again, sales in the food service sector recovered, according to the release. But also in the retail trade more products were sold than in the year before.

Alcoholic beverages, milk-based drinks, honey and rice were particularly popular. There was also a growth spurt in Fairtrade cotton products and sports balls. According to the press release, this was due to new products, among other things.

However, consumers were less likely to buy Fairtrade bananas, exotic fruits and vegetables, ice cream, quinoa and Fairtrade gold.

Fairtrade products provide farmers and workers in Africa, Asia and Latin America with a secure income and better working conditions. However, due to the current challenges posed by climate change and regulatory requirements, farms are affected by additional costs, it added. (SDA/swi)

The importance of on-site repairs has constantly declined in recent years, according to the press release. Instead of going to the store, more and more customers are sending their cell phones, tablets or smartwatches by mail to the central workshop in Rotkreuz. This has led to a decline in volume at the local workshops.

The company is therefore closing its repair shops in Basel, Bern, Emmenbrücke, Geneva, St. Gallen, Winterthur, Wallisellen and Zurich. Only the workshop in Lugano will continue to operate, it says. In addition, the company is strengthening its central repair shop in Rotkreuz, according to the statement.

According to a spokesperson, one employee per site was previously responsible for repairs. Accordingly, eight employees are affected by the site closures of the repair shops. However, most of them will be deployed in sales in the future, he explained.

According to the spokesman, the traditional cell phone repair business has been in double-digit decline for several years. One reason for this is the better quality of the cell phones sold today. Moisture damage, for example, is practically non-existent. What is increasing, however, is refurbishment, i.e. the reconditioning of used cell phones to give them a "second life. (SDA)

A total of 326 executives responded to the survey this year from March 31 to April 24, 2023, with 61 percent from companies with fewer than 250 employees.

As in previous years, NZZ and Kalaidos wanted to know what particularly concerns companies and how they think various factors will develop over the next twelve months.

The NZZ SME Barometer calculated from the expectations can theoretically take a value between -100 (one hundred percent of respondents expect a significant deterioration in all categories) and +100 (one hundred percent significant improvement). Only the responses from SMEs are included in its calculation.

For 2023, the overall index shows a slight improvement in the competitive situation with +0.7 compared with -4.1 in the previous year. This is primarily based on expected improvements in the company's own strengths. The business leaders surveyed are also less pessimistic about doing business with foreign countries in 2023 than in the previous year. "The fact that the majority of them expect a further deterioration in local conditions, on the other hand, should give Swiss policymakers pause for thought," comments Peter A. Fischer, Chief Economist of the NZZ.

Of particular concern are the continuing lack of personnel, legal regulations, the general conditions in Switzerland, including the unresolved relationship with the EU, and the currency situation.

Supply chains: No more problems expected

Supply chain reliability has not deteriorated as much as forecast for most companies in 2022. Hardly any new problems are expected either. A minority of just over one-fifth have adjusted their supply chains in the past 24 months by relocating back to developed countries (21%) and relocating to other emerging markets (28%). Only about one-third of the companies maintain business relationships with China. They see the country's importance as a production location declining, but as a sales market continuing to grow.

Adjustments needed due to AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now the field in which companies see the greatest opportunities. However, three-fifths of business leaders believe that the dangers and risks of AI are underestimated. An equal number believe that their companies will have to adapt their business model in the next five years because of it. 45 percent want to increase their own research and development efforts because of the emergence of AI.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ interviewed in cooperation with the Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences participants of the Swiss Economic Forum on their expectations and concerns. From the responses, it calculates the NZZ SME Barometerwhich provides information on the competitive situation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Switzerland.

The acronym "PIC" is currently rising in use at the same rate as the desire for what it means: a "Person In Charge". Every company, every organization and every agency dreams of having such a person in their own ranks or vis-à-vis. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "in charge" means "the person who is officially responsible for ... ", in German, the person who is responsible or takes responsibility for something.

A rare species. Especially when it comes to making decisions - which is often necessary in our industry. But even if something goes wrong, it would be nice if someone would take responsibility for it.

Taking responsibility should be learned

The bigger the company, the more people talk. That is an old adage. However, the more hierarchical or holocratic the organization, the more rampant collective irresponsibility becomes. Yes, you read that correctly. Hierarchical levels are often only assigned responsibility in salary negotiations and holocratic free spaces are rarely filled with responsibility.

And when these two organizational forms collide in the decision-making process, nothing usually works. But beware, it is not the case that agency equals cool and holocratic and customer:in equals bullish and hierarchical. Those days are long gone. Many companies have changed rapidly in the last ten years thanks to digitalization and the pandemic, while many agencies are still stuck in their toxic award, bonus, title and hierarchy thinking.

However, persons in charge are in short supply on both sides. Perhaps that is why the acronym PIC has become so popular. And not only in our industry. When things really go wrong in an even more toxic hierarchical organization, as was recently the case at the major bank that no longer exists, then a whole other industry, indeed a whole country, is desperately looking for the PICs responsible for this disaster. And those who cannot simply leave the picture must then regroup and wait for the new/old bosses to make up their minds.

On the one hand, this then affects frustrated employees who have to reapply internally for a position they already hold. Or, on the other hand, those whose employer no longer exists, which means they have to suck up to new PICs who were still their bogeymen until March 18, 2023.

But beware, even in holocratic or at least flatly organized companies, PICs are often in short supply. Responsibility is demanded, but then people prefer to take on responsibility only where it suits them. And this has nothing to do with age, as is often rumored. Young people simply want to know the reason, the goal or the purpose why they should take on responsibility. These would be picky PICs.

* 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.

The German Design Council's Innovation Award recognizes cross-sector projects and stories that improve lives and where a clear user focus and added product value are the two key differentiators.

According to the announcement, Fortius' vision aims to transform the event experience into an open marketplace designed to extend the customer lifecycle with a balanced B2B and B2C model. It will also enable rights holders to realize their full revenue potential.

Together, Fortius and Merkle have developed the first fully integrated white-label platform that enables event organizers to unlock entirely new revenue streams while improving scalability and adaptability, it adds. This innovation addresses the global challenges faced by event organizers in unifying multi-event commerce solutions. It will be used at many major sporting events.

Fortius is a sales agent and member of the 2024 Hospitality Experience Group, the official hospitality provider of Uefa Euro 2024 and the official sub-distributor of On Location for the sale of the official hospitality products of Olympia Paris 2024 in more than 50 countries.

The award recognizes Fortius and Merkle's innovative work in optimizing the user experience through added product value and reflects a commitment to future growth and increasing revenue streams for their customers, according to the statement.

The campaign thus picks up on a topical issue and aims to offer travelers the opportunity to benefit from this situation. The central message "Benefit from the strong franc with the Travel Card" is accompanied by a series of secondary messages designed to highlight the advantages of the Swiss Bankers prepaid card as an ideal means of payment for travelers. "Topicality in marketing increases target group relevance, which is why we have geared the campaign to this," says Basile Willi, Marketing Manager at Swiss Bankers.

The campaign will be used in June and July and will be broadcast with video formats via social media and DOOH, relying on a creative and entertaining visual language. "For the creation of the advertising material, we relied on the cut-out style to achieve a high entertainment factor," says Sandra Nein, Head of Videoproduction at Suchhelden. In addition to the main video "Strong Franc", the Suchhelden agency has produced six other videos, which focus on the individual advantages of the Travel Card and the "Order foreign currencies home" service from Swiss Bankers.

Responsible at Swiss Bankers: Basile Willi (overall responsibility). Responsible at Suchhelden: Nadine Sogl (Project Management).

The idea for the new visual identity is simple: the customized wordmark is a nod to the foundation of any property - the floor plan. The entire visual identity is based on the floor plan of doorways, as Wanner Immobilien symbolically opens doors for new property owners as well as closes them for sellers.

In addition to a new logo and associated design elements, the overall project also includes the definition of colors and fonts, the imagery, the letterheads, and the newly created claim "Menschlich anders" ("Humanly different"). The appearance is supplemented with a communication concept and a fresh social media feed.

Responsible at Wanner Real Estate: Carol Wanner, Christoph Wanner. Responsible at Asap | Alder Strässle and Partner: Ramon Alder, Nico Strässle, Ian Spahr, Manuel Eichmann, Cédric Freivogel.

She is thus responsible for the areas of employer branding, employee experience as well as team engagement and talent development for a total of 8,500 employees in Switzerland. Murith takes over her new role from Matthias Kutzer, who will be the new head of HR at McDonald's Germany, the fast-food chain announced Wednesday.

The head of corporate communications will go to Jae Ah Kim, who has been part of the communications team since 2019. With the promotion of Murith and Kim, the management of McDonald's Switzerland will soon include the same number of women as men, according to the statement. This means that the goal of gender diversity has already been achieved before 2025. (SDA)

With its statements, some of which were absolute, the world football association Fifa had created the "false and misleading impression" in its commercial communication that the World Cup in Qatar was already climate-neutral or CO2-neutral before and during the tournament, the SLK announced on Wednesday. The burden of proof lies with the advertising company.

In the proceedings, however, Fifa had not been able to prove the accuracy of these statements. It did state that it had already compensated for the 3.63 million tons of CO2 protected in advance. But it had not been able to prove this compensation and had not submitted a concept for any further compensation.

Even if the estimate should correspond to the final figures, it remained unclear to the SLK whether the promised compensation was at all realistic. It is also unclear whether the compensation measures comply with Swiss standards. These required, among other things, "a complete and permanent removal of CO2 from the atmosphere".

Recommendation for waiver of statements

The Second Chamber of the SLK therefore upheld all five appeals from Switzerland, France, Belgium, the UK and the Netherlands. "As long as there are no definitive and generally accepted methods to measure sustainability or to ensure its implementation," a company is not allowed to claim that sustainability goals have been achieved.

The SLK recommends that Fifa refrain from calling the World Cup in Qatar climate neutral in the future - unless it is able to prove all CO2 emissions of the tournament and their offsets at the time of communication.

Climate Alliance delighted

One of the complainants, Climate Alliance Switzerland, reacted with satisfaction to the decision. Among other things, it had criticized the fact that Fifa had not taken into account the effects of the shuttle flights from Dubai, Riyadh or Kuwait to Qatar in its calculations. CO2 emissions from the construction of the stadiums had also been ignored.

The ruling is therefore "a strong message to all companies that want to engage in greenwashing," it said in a statement. Companies and organizations such as Fifa can no longer avoid dealing with their actual footprint.

The Swiss Fairness Commission is a self-regulatory body of the communications industry. It issues recommendations, but no judgments that can be enforced by the state. The decision is not legally binding. (SDA)

The second EqualVoice Summit organized by Ringier was held under the motto "The Power of Images" and once again met with great interest from 250 top executives from the international business, film and media worlds. On Tuesday afternoon, Ringier CEO Marc Walder and CFO Annabella Bassler invited them to the Aura in Zurich for a constructive discourse on gender equality in the media and traditional role models.

Reduce prejudices

Images can develop an enormous force and thus power. The "Reuters Institute Digital News Report." shows, among other things, that news about world events now reaches young people more frequently via social media and thus via media with a visual focus. Those who know how to use the power of images can achieve a lot and do a lot of damage, can advance themselves and others or harm them. Says Annabella Bassler: "When selecting images and photos, we have a great influence on whether we serve role clichés and stereotypes or depict society and the world of work as it has changed in the meantime."

Depicting women in their diversity of roles creates reality. Showing men in their diverse role models breaks down prejudices. Media companies and picture agencies should contribute to taking the diverse society into account. That is why Ringier, together with Keystone-SDA, is launching the EqualPYXX initiative in the fall of 2023 to break through visual stereotypes as well.

Program mit Geena Davis and Anastacia

This year's Summit program included speeches and presentations by international personalities on the topics of gender equality and the power of images. Former Federal Councilor Micheline Calmy-Rey began with a political perspective. This was followed by a keynote address on the impact of images from a scientific perspective by Dr. Heather Cairns-Lee, Affiliate Professor of Leadership and Communication at the International Institute for Management Development IMD in Lausanne and Singapore. Afterwards, bestselling author Dr. Reinhard K. Sprenger shed light on the influence of gender on leadership within a company.

This was followed by the presentation of Ringier's EqualVoice initiative and a keynote speech by Carolina Müller-Möhl, President of the Müller-Möhl Group and the Müller-Möhl Foundation. As an Advisory Board member and partner of EqualVoice, she spoke about equality in culture as well as about her "taskforce4women", which aims to give women more visibility in culture and media as well as in business, politics, science and society in general.

In keeping with the theme of the Summit, "The Power of Images," Helen Hoehne, German-American journalist and President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association since 2021, as well as a member of the Golden Globes jury, spoke about equality in images and films. Dr. Léa Steinacker, journalist and co-founder of "Ada Learning," spoke about artificial intelligence and equality.

On the panel on "Equality in Media & Advertising," Marc Walder discussed with Dr. Maria Furtwängler, physician, actress and co-founder of the MaLisa Foundation, which advocates for a society in which all genders can fully develop their potential, and Ana Hanžeković Krznarić, Chairman of the Board of Hanza Media from Croatia, as well as with the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Politico Europe, Kate Day.

Geena Davis, the U.S. actress, film producer, two-time Academy Award winner, Golden Globe winner, and founder of the Geena Davis Institute, provided insight into the work of the institute she founded in 2004. It is the only global research-based organization working in the entertainment industry to promote gender balance, foster inclusion and break down negative stereotypes in family entertainment media. "The stories we tell in entertainment media send a specific message about who matters most in our culture," Davis said. "To create global culture change, it is especially important that children see diverse, intersectional representations of characters in the media to reflect the world's population - half of which is female and very diverse - and to avoid inculcating unconscious bias in them. Media have the power to educate, to shape people's minds. They also have incredible power when you see someone like yourself on the screen. We have seen from the beginning that data is the key to the

Defusing unconscious bias in the creation of entertainment media are. We take a very similar approach to the EqualVoice Initiative. Through data-driven research, education and advocacy, we aim to empower and inspire media professionals to reshape the media landscape to reflect the world we live in."
The EqualVoice Summit concluded with a concert performance by pop singer Anastacia.

AI in action at the EqualVoice-Factor

Media studies continue to show a persistent gender imbalance in news coverage, with women often underrepresented. Women often receive less visibility, fewer speaking roles, and fewer opportunities for leadership positions in news reporting and other forms of media coverage.

In November 2019, Ringier launched the EqualVoice initiative, which promotes equality between women and men in the media (Werbewoche.ch reported). The aim is to make women more visible in reporting and give them an equal voice. The core of the initiative is the EqualVoice Factor. The objective measurement tool analyzes printed and digital content with the support of a semantic algorithm.

In the meantime, Ringier has further developed the EqualVoice-Factor to also recognize images. Now it was announced at the Summit that EqualVoice-Factor can recognize the gender of people in moving images. According to Ringier, EqualVoice-Factor is thus the world's first semantic algorithm that can analyze the proportion of women and men in moving images.

Reach continuously expanded

According to Ringier, 32 media brands in seven European countries already actively use the EqualVoice Factor. "We are proud that the 32 EqualVoice media brands currently already reach 50 million users," said Ringier CEO Marc Walder. "Our goal is to break the sound barrier of 100 million unique clients as soon as possible."

The Hanza Media Group from Croatia is also a new part of the EqualVoice initiative. "Diversity and gender balance are indispensable for future-oriented journalism. That's why we want to drive this change through EqualVoice also in our media brands in Croatia," says Ana Hanžeković Krznarić, Chairman of the Board of Hanza Media.

The voices from the Summit

Anna Kohler and Beat Hürlimann from m&k advertisingweek.ch spoke during the second EqualVoice Summit with the two co-founders Annabella Brassel and Katia Murmann as well as with Dr. Maria Furtwängler, physician, co-founder of the MaLisa Foundation, also known as crime scene commissioner.