To keep the symbol, individuals would have to take out the Twitter Blue subscription, which costs eight euros per month, it said in a tweet on Friday night. Twitter owner Elon Musk also pointed out that accounts associated with Twitter-verified companies and organizations would automatically get the symbol.

Twitter set the base price for verified companies and organizations in Germany at 950 euros a month plus 50 euros for each connected account. Twitter is struggling with declining advertising revenues after Musk's roughly $44 billion takeover and is hoping for subscription revenue.

Verification check marks used to be awarded free of charge by Twitter to celebrities, politicians or journalists. Musk claimed after the purchase of the service last fall that the previous awarding procedure was "corrupt". Instead, everyone should be able to get the subscription icon without a check.

Musk argued that authentication through payment services and app platforms sufficiently protected against misuse of the new system. But that didn't stop numerous users from creating fake accounts of celebrities and companies with verification checkmarks. Among others, sports stars, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and the fruit specialist Chiquita were affected. Twitter suspended the subscription function for several weeks after the chaos.

Subscription customers must meet several requirements

Since December, there has now been a procedure whereby subscription customers must also meet several requirements. Among other things, their account must be at least 90 days old and linked to a phone number. There is a gold icon for corporate accounts and a gray icon for governments and other organizations.

Musk had repeatedly announced that the previously awarded checkmarks would be phased out over time. The Blue subscription has been available worldwide since Thursday. Several holders of the old icons reported a warning in their profiles that they would have to take out a subscription in order not to lose the checkmark.

Twitter did not provide any information on how quickly the old symbols will be removed. Inquiries to Twitter's press office email address only received a response with a feces emoji, as has been customary for a short time. Musk had dissolved the press department. (SDA)

Among other things, work in editorial offices was affected, including the production of radio programs, as the Keystone-SDA news agency learned from editorial circles. It was initially unclear to what extent newspaper production was disrupted.

The operation should be restored quickly, CH Media announced on Friday afternoon. The problems had already occurred in the morning. The attack could have an impact on "market services and products," CH Media wrote. A company spokeswoman said at the request of Keystone-SDA, one can not yet make any concrete statements.

CH Media reportedly obtains various IT services from the NZZ media group and was thus also directly affected by the cyber attack on the NZZ infrastructure. The incident is being investigated together with the NZZ.

For its part, the NZZ company wrote in a statement that the attack had been detected and isolated at an early stage. The attack is being analyzed by NZZ's IT department, external specialists and experts from the National Center for Cyber Security (NCSC) and the Zurich Cantonal Police.

Attacks from Russia and North Korea

According to CH Media, this is a cyber attack by so-called ransomware. Hackers can use this to penetrate a victim's computer system and gain access to IT systems or data, or even block them. They can also lock out their victims with encryption technology and demand a ransom.

Recent victims of ransomware attacks include the German University of Duisburg-Essen, the British postal service and the Canadian children's hospital Sick Kids. Many ransomware groups are believed to be based in Russia.

However, Russian authorities deny that the country is a haven for these groups. Experts also believe that many ransomware attacks are undertaken from North Korea. (SDA)

Artificial intelligence is on everyone's lips, and corresponding technologies and tools are also making their way into marketing and communications at a rapid pace. With AI-gencyfinder.com the agency Heimat Zürich has now launched a platform that is intended to revolutionize the entire process of agency selection. Based on individual needs, the technology makes an intelligent recommendation for the most suitable agency within seconds. According to the agency, the tool is intended to save advertisers "time, money, nerves - and, above all, bad decisions with serious consequences.

Currently, AI-gencyfinder is still in a test phase, after which it will be available for use worldwide. Interested parties can access it free of charge. With this tool, Heimat Zürich would like to make a contribution to increasing the quality of advertising worldwide and simplify the everyday life of marketing decision-makers.

People with disabilities encounter numerous barriers in Switzerland when they want to participate in political life. As a result, they are underrepresented in politics. Although people with disabilities make up 22 percent of the Swiss population, only a few of them hold political office. That's why Pro Infirmis and Jung von Matt Limmat, together with people with disabilities, are calling for an extensive campaign: "Get used to it." People should get used to a society in which all people have a say and equal rights. And that people with disabilities also take their place in politics.

Disability session from Friday

On the one hand, Pro Infirmis is raising awareness of the issue, but it is also pursuing a very clear goal: electoral success for people with disabilities in the 2023 national elections. The campaign was developed in close cooperation between Jung von Matt Limmat, Pro Infirmis and a sounding board consisting of people with a wide range of disabilities.
Disabilities. The sounding board put together the agency "fully disabled".

The campaigns around "Get used to it" started already in December 2022 on the "International Day of People with Disabilities". At the annual Grittibänz campaign organized by Pro Infirmis, members of the National Council and the Council of States received a Grittibänz with a disability as a gift and were invited to the disability session on March 24, 2023. In addition, Grittibänze with disabilities were sold throughout the country.

Friday is the day: Switzerland's first disability session will take place, marking a highlight in the campaign year. 44 parliamentarians with disabilities occupy 22 percent of the 200 seats in the National Council. This corresponds to the proportion of people with disabilities in the Swiss population over the age of 16. The disability session will be broadcast via livestream on the Pro Infirmis website. In the evening, SRF's political program Arena will take up the topic. Shortly before the broadcast, the Manifesto film produced by Pro Infirmis and Jung von Matt Limmat will premiere.

A manifesto for inclusion

The film portrays people with disabilities who are testimonials for us to get used to their right to have a say and to shape an inclusive society together.

In addition to the actions and the manifesto, the campaign includes OOH assets, online banners, social media content and PR activities. This is intended to generate the greatest possible awareness in the long term. The campaign will run throughout the year, right up to the2023 national elections in the fall.

Responsible at Pro Infirmis: Annina Sele (Campaign Coordinator), Christina Tschopp (Co-Head of Communications), Fabienne Widmer (Co-Head of Communications), Roland Thomann (Head of Communications and Fundraising). Responsible at fully disabled: Lea Sandoz-Mey Responsible at Jung von Matt Limmat: Luca Schneider, Cedric Fuchs (Art Direction), Winfried Schneider, Brian Rossbach (Text), Pascal Baumann (Creative Direction), Christian Omlin, Romana Schmidtpeter (Strategy), Natascha Imfeld (Agency Producing), Marcel Walzl, Joëlle Mayenzet (Consulting), Annette Häcki (Managing Creative Director), Luitgard Hagl (Managing Creative Director, Agency Lead). Responsible at Jung von Matt Impact: Daniel Jans (Media Consultant), Ladina Baumann (Head Media Strategy), Dominik Habermacher (Managing Partner). Responsible at Blish: Chiara Killer, Jessica Kottmeyer, Jlona Kopf (media realization) External partners:inside: Farbfilm Studio: Giada Bossi (director), Flo Brunner, Laurent Arber (producer), Igor Smitka (director of photography), David Haisch Hunter (casting), Chris Zimmermann (editor), JingleJungle (sound studio), Great Garbo (music).

After the first five colors in spring 2022 and the subsequent color explosion in autumn, Ticino Turismo remains true to its pictorial core idea and once again presents the most beautiful sides of the canton in a reduced visual language in collaboration with the Pantone Color Institute. With five Pantone colors launching spring, the journey through the canton continues. More colors and surprising new implementations will be added in the coming months.

The implementation of the campaign focuses more strongly on the digital in 2023. On a website designed by Zimmermann Communications Landing page Ticino Turismo no longer wants to convince users only with colorful films and subjects, but now also with exciting content formats, color definitions and interaction options. Users can discover corresponding offers for each color and are entertained with a Colori-del-Ticino memory, which, according to the agency, has generated many leads in a short time.

The campaign is being played out in various phases in German- and French-speaking Switzerland on social media and via an online campaign. In a teaser phase, Ticino Turismo is once again sensitizing its target groups to the topic of colors and teasing the new colors of the season.

Various interactive elements on social media support the storytelling, and various short films are used online.

Target group-specific e-mail marketing, press relations, a collaboration with the magazine of the NZZ on Sunday and NZZ Bellevue as well as other activities round off the campaign. As in the fall of 2022, the campaign will also be used in the spring of 2023 in Baden-Württemberg, where advertising materials tailored specifically to this market will be played out primarily in social media, supplemented by various key account measures.

Responsible for Ticino Turismo: Manuela Nicoletti (Director of Marketing). Responsible at Zimmermann Communications: Christoff Strukamp (Creative Direction, Text), Sonja Zimmerli (Digital Art Direction), Florian Bieniek (Consulting & Project Management), Rolf Zimmermann (Overall Responsibility, Strategy and Media). Film production: Tuna Productions, Timo Stump (Shooting Director), Truecolorfilms, Alvaro Vogel (Producer).

In particular, the SFAO criticized the lack of transparency in the cost accounting for the procurement by the FOPH of a registration, enrollment and appointment system with vaccination documentation totaling 11.15 million Swiss francs.

Specifically, in the second half of 2021, the service providers - which took into account two companies that were initially affiliated with each other - would have charged for services amounting to approximately two million francs, the report says. The costs billed during this period were "incomprehensible" given the functionalities developed during this period. However, the FOPH did not question this disproportion between service provision and billing.

Billing practice not comprehensible

Over a period of several months, lump sums amounting to around half a million francs each had been invoiced - even though the services were contractually to be invoiced according to the amount of work involved. Here, too, the FOPH had not provided a comprehensible explanation for its billing practices, the SFAO wrote.

Moreover, it was not possible to check the content of the services invoiced because no work reports were available, although the suppliers were contractually obliged to provide them. "The FOPH has never requested these, so that de facto no audit of the content of the invoice has taken place."

The SFAO also asserted a conflict of interest. Because the position of Head of Digitization Covid-19 had to be filled at short notice, an external employee had been brought in as a mandate holder.

However, the latter was acquainted with the managing director of one of the two service providers. At the time of the audit, the two business partners were in third-party companies. It was not clear from the discussions with the FOPH whether this "apparent conflict of interest" had been disclosed.

BAG refers to urgency

In a statement, the FOPH acknowledged that, given the crisis situation and the urgency, their approach had not been in line with normal processes. The FOPH had therefore decided to award the contract by private treaty.

"With the usual procurement process, the system would not have been ready until about three months later," the FOPH wrote. The fact that a solution could be put in place quickly accelerated the vaccination campaign and gave many people rapid access to vaccination.

However, the authority rejected individual points of criticism. For example, the FOPH referred to a written statement by the former head of the Digital Transformation department, in which he confirmed that the client had already informed him of the networking with the managing director of one of the two service providers during the initial meeting.

The agency also said it does not share the suspicion that the FOPH has been billed for unaccountable services for the second semester of 2021.

During this period, the supplier implemented the adjustments from the vaccination recommendations during ongoing operations and implemented other commissioned elements, according to the FOPH. And despite a last-minute postponement of the campaign, all services were delivered on time and reliably, it said. "The chosen strategy thus proved successful, and operations were guaranteed at all times," the FOPH wrote.

The SFAO recommendations have already been implemented by the FOPH for the most part, it added. For future crisis management, it will be important to involve the experts for public tenders more closely in the crisis organization.

SFAO relativizes criticism

The SFAO did not comment on the FOPH's statement. However, it wrote in the report that the failures and weaknesses in procurement had to be put into perspective in the context of the extraordinary situation at the time, which was difficult to plan for.

Indeed, things had to move quickly when the FOPH initiated procurement and development in mid-October 2020. As early as mid-January 2021, the application developed was launched by the participating cantons and was productive.

In the meantime, the FOPH's contractual obligations have ended, as the authority points out. The cantons had the option of taking over the systems if necessary. (SDA)

On the basis of a study conducted by the market research institute Link Advertisingweek.ch In the past few months, we have already discussed trends and developments in the 2022 brand and advertising performance of brands from the Finance and insurance sector as well as from the Retail and consumer goods industry reported. Exclusive data on 25 brands in the telecommunications and entertainment industry is now also available. This results from around 13,000 interviews per brand and year.

Awareness score: Swisscom leads

The highest average awareness score in 2022 was recorded by the Swiss telecommunications company Swisscom at around 95 percent - but the highest absolute increase in awareness compared with the end of 2021 was achieved by competitor Quickline (+ 8.0 percentage points), followed by Prime Video (+ 6.9 percentage points) and Yallo (+ 6.7 percentage points). Over time, it can be seen that Quickline was able to crack the 30 percent mark in terms of awareness score in September 2022, which is in line with the Introduction of a nationwide subscription offer is likely to go hand in hand with this.

Consideration and trustworthiness: Swisscom dominates again, Netflix beats Disney+

After Swisscom leads in awareness, the brand also leads clearly in the next funnel stage, consideration, with around 45.5 percent and is in first place. In second place is streaming provider Netflix with 36.6%, which is more than twice as strongly considered as competitor Disney+ with 17.6%.

Swisscom also leads the list in terms of trustworthiness with 51.7 percent - this is particularly clear here, as second place, occupied by Netflix, is much lower at 15.3 percent. In particular, the direct competition in telecommunications, such as Sunrise (14.1 percent), M-Budget Mobile (13.6 percent), Salt (9.0 percent) and Coop Mobile (6.7 percent), perform significantly worse here. This once again underscores the special standing that Swisscom seems to enjoy among the Swiss population.

Media perception: Netflix reaches peak value regarding peaks

The picture is somewhat different for special customer satisfaction - i.e., satisfaction within the company's own clientele: Although Swisscom ranks fourth here with 58.5 percent, it is outperformed by its own sub-brand Wingo (first place with 76.6 percent) as well as Netflix (67.2 percent) and Net+ (66.9 percent). The two streaming platforms Sky Show (+ 9.5 percentage points) and YouTube Premium (+ 9.0 percentage points) recorded a significant increase in the absolute change in customer satisfaction, while competitor Prime Video, for example, posted a significant minus (- 9.1 percentage points). The latter could be related to the Increase in own subscription prices in July 2022 have to do.

In terms of advertising perception, Swisscom can again place itself as the winner: In terms of both digital advertising perception (23.7 percent) and offline advertising perception (22.8 percent), it takes first place in terms of average advertising perception in 2022. Sunrise (10.3 percent and 10.4 percent respectively) is the closest competitor here.

However, the media perception is particularly striking: Although the telecommunications company Swisscom scores significantly better in the awareness score and is thus better known than streaming provider Netflix, the latter records a significantly higher relative - in relation to awareness - peak in media perception with a plus of 14.7 percent (Swisscom: 11.2 percent). This peak is in May 2022, which coincides with the media coverage of the revised film law ("Lex Netflix"), which was voted on May 15, 2022.

About the methodology of the link study

• Population: Swiss resident population aged 15 to 79 years
• Total sample size: n= approx. 52,000
• Around 250 interviews per brand per calendar week and brand segment; for this annual review, rolling moving averages were formed over the last four calendar weeks in each case, i.e. approx. n=1,000 per data point and brand
• Confidence interval for total sample: max. +/- 3.1 percent (for 50% distribution).
• Research method: online interviews
• Quotation/weighting: by age, gender and region (interlocked)
• Random samples from the Link online panel, 100 percent of which is actively recruited through representative telephone surveys, reaching more than 97 percent of the relevant population; survey participants are excluded from follow-up surveys for at least three months at a time
• Survey period: 1.1.2022 to 31.12.2022
• Project management: Stefan Reiser, Managing Director Marketing Research at Link

People who have a high reach on Swiss social media channels have so far lacked guardrails for responsible communication and awareness of critical topics such as sexism, fake news or transparency. The Conscious Influence Hub now wants to close this gap with its Code of Conduct and the accompanying new tutorial. The Code of Conduct offers Swiss influencers and social media users ten simple and practicable guidelines for responsible and respectful behavior on digital media.

"When Anja Lapčević, the co-founder of the Conscious Influence Hub, asked me for the project, it was clear to me: I want to produce this! I have experienced some tricky situations during my social media time and set them in motion myself. The Code of Conduct is a step in the right direction to make our social media lives more pleasant and respectful. The fact that I can contribute to making it more tangible and understandable for users makes me all the more happy," says Ramin Yousofzai, former presenter of SRF's "Zwei am Morge.

In the nine-minute video, Yousofzai acts as a moderator and uses examples to guide the audience through the ten topics from the Code of Conduct. For example, he interviews sustainability blogger Anina Mutter, the former managing director of the women's organization Alliance F and project manager of Stop Hate Speech Sophie Achermann, and Racha Fajjari, founder of the family network Mamalicious, on topics such as sexism, transparency, and privacy protection. Anja Lapčević, Ramin Yousofzai and Simon Reinker were responsible for the production.

With the tutorial, the association wants to make the Code of Conduct more accessible and attractive for different users on social media. The tutorial is intended to inspire and make people think.

This is necessary to facilitate public access to such information, SYFC wrote in a statement Monday.

The campaign will lead to a summary of key IPCC findings via a QR code. This includes the current state of science on climate change, its short- and long-term impacts on the planet, and the solutions available to mitigate climate change.

SYFC has teamed up with the cities of Geneva and Lausanne, the Lausanne public transport company Transports de Lausanne, the Swiss clean energy developer Ennova, the advertising agencies Propaganda and Neo Advertising, and the printing company Uldry. The posters will be seen on billboards and public transport in Switzerland's biggest cities. (SDA)

Nothing is as important to a company's survival as the strength of its brand. Annual reports show how companies have performed in the past, but a brand shows the potential to continue doing business in the future. As John Hegarty once said, "Stop building businesses, start building brands!" When the going gets tough, too often companies forget about their own brand. This is usually not done consciously, yet there are mistakes that are made time and time again in the process.

Error 1: Have no fire at all

The biggest mistake companies can make is not to establish their own brand at all or to leave the entire responsibility for it to a marketing department. If a company's own brand takes a back seat, this is a structural problem, because branding is not just a marketing strategy, it is part of the business strategy.

Brands are only as strong as their weakest point of contact, which means that the brand must be cultivated as well as lived throughout the entire company. And anyone who wants to develop an appropriate strategy should recall Ducker's words: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."

If you have a strong corporate culture, your brand will be nourished by it. If you take care of your employees, you also take care of your corporate culture. Without a good corporate culture, you don't have a brand.

Mistake 2: Draw level with others

Either a company has to grow or stand out so that market share is not lost. That's why you're constantly looking left and right. What are your competitors doing? They are trying to do it right. They are trying to match your competitors. Probably this will work well. But you're actually destroying your own brand, because you're going to look just like them. As Malvina Reynolds said, "And they are all made out of ticky tacky, and they all look just the same."

Decide: How do you want to do business? Take a stand and lead by example. How can your own brand be special if you're constantly wondering what your competitors are doing?

Mistake 3: Using data for goals instead of telling stories

Brands are multi-layered and complex. They are made up of all kinds of impressions, messages, and experiences that customers associate with your company and that become embedded in their memories. Strong brands are stable. Weak brands are blown away by the wind. Strong brands give people a place to rely on and feel safe. That's why brands help with decision making, because not everyone has the time or capacity to understand every brand.

Consumers don't want more choices, they want clarity and certainty in their decisions. In the meantime, we have data that provides us with all the information and helps us to satisfy all customer needs. Wrong! Data can only be a basis to find and create stories, which are then realized in the brand.

The greatest stories, movies, books, songs, or even commercials speak to universal experiences that can resonate with anyone, anywhere. So it's not about the perfect target person, but about creative impersonality.

Mistake 4: Thinking that product details are important

The biggest logical mistake is that companies believe they are competing with their products. And not just now, when budgets are tight, but fundamentally. Companies tend to think that marketing and communications departments should focus on the features of an exceptional product. The "best product" is not necessarily the best product. It is the product you know best or the brand you are most familiar with. It's not about conveying product features, it's about intimacy, emotion and interest. You want to be seen as not only the best of the best, but the only one in the field.

Mistake 5: Reduce costs to survive

Every company wants to be known and get as much public visibility as possible. The logic is clear: the greater the share of voice, the greater the market share. During a crisis or recession, business usually runs in a different direction. Most companies cut costs, especially in communications and branding-related expenses. The math is simple: if all your competitors cut their communications spend, you only need to keep it at the old level to increase your Share of Voice and thus your market share.

Hold your budgets! Your competitors may lose their nerve and are vulnerable as a result. Ask yourself if you want to lose small or win big. Branding takes time, and a good brand gives you a huge advantage in the long run.

Don't be so hard on yourself

We should all remember that crises, recession, inflation and bursting speculative bubbles are part of the work we are in and not lose our heads. Branding is a long-term, never-ending project. If we throw our brand overboard on the first wave, we will never make it. We should always remember Shelly Lazarus' words, "If you can't be brilliant, at least be memorable."

* Can Gezer is a brand consultant at Laika Berlin and an expert in branding and digitalization who has worked for companies, consultancies and cultural institutions such as FutureBrand, Ogilvy & Mather or Unruly. At Laika, he leads brand workshops that bring a brand to life from the inside out.

Galaxus.ch now offers more than five million products. To show this enormous selection in a striking way, the in-house creation of Galaxus has once again counted in numerous product categories.

The inspiration for the reduced but typographically playful implementation of the subjects always comes from the idea of the product shown: Letters become leaves for a rake. Or a wind instrument blows the headline with a wry sound. A total of 28 subjects were created.

The current subjects can be seen from Monday to mid-April in DOOH, OOH, print and online throughout German- and French-speaking Switzerland.

Responsible at Digitec Galaxus: Martin Walthert (Chief Marketing Officer), Flurin Spring (Creative Director), Ursina Grimm (Head of Brand Management), Annina Müggler (Teamlead Creation), Madeleine Bello, Branko Nastic (Project Management, Brand Management), Ali Tseme (Concept), Severin Keller (Senior Digital Media Designer, Motion Design), Maggie Blaser (Junior Digital Media Designer), Sven Mathis (Senior Graphic Designer), Daniel Kobi (Art Director), Bastian Otter (Senior Copywriter), Christian Walker (Content Creator), Cédric Feusi (Digital Marketing), Luca Giugliano (Digital Marketing & Media Planning), Gesine Hauder (Senior Media Planner), Claudio Candinas (Teamleader Social Media & Community). External partners:inside: Cathrin Schön (photography), Detail (image editing), Nadim Elhady, Ozelot Studios (motion design).

"Let that sink in." With this tweet Elon Musk commented on his action when he deposited a lavabo in the lobby of Twitter's headquarters at the end of October 2022. With the gift made of porcelain, he PR-effectively trumpeted to the world that he had bought Twitter for 44 billion US dollars and taken over the leadership.

From the birdcage to the mammoth herd

After the takeover, the new boss ruled like a bull in a china store. Musk's decisions and layoffs unsettled many users and advertisers - and drove them in droves to Mastodon, the open-source platform launched in 2016 as an alternative to Twitter.

Mastodon's design and functions are very similar to Twitter. In keeping with the name, a mammoth instead of a bird adorns the logo, and posts are trumpeted instead of tweeted. The main difference lies in the radical open-source principle: Mastodon is not a closed platform, but a loose association of several providers who all operate their own Mastodon server.

The experiment: mainland.social

The question of whether to toot rather than tweet in the future prompted Festland to test the alternative. At Mainland.social the agency set up its own Mastodon server shortly after Musk's Twitter purchase. In the weeks that followed, Mastodon was added as a channel in Festland's content flow.

It soon became clear that the hype around Mastodon was dying down and the protest against Twitter was dying down - although Elon Musk continued to irritate users and advertising partners with confused decisions. But the Mastodon experiment made it clearer how the relationship between companies and social media works.

Low entry, high exit hurdles

The business model of Twitter, Meta, TikTok & Co. is crystal clear and tough: community for data. Without having to build their own platform, brands can tap into the big social media platforms as a channel and benefit from their reach, free of charge as owned media or (thanks to the cost-per-click model) cost-effectively as paid media.

The flip side of the coin: The larger a brand's content archive and community on a medium, the greater the barriers to exit. A current example is Switzerland Tourism: In January 2023, MySwitzerland discontinued its German-language Twitter channel with over 45,000 followers. Only a few hundred of them accepted the invitation to switch to the English-language channel.

But is one really at the mercy of big tech media? From the observations made by Festland on Mastodon, three virtues can be derived for emancipating oneself from the power of the platforms.

Virtue 1: Dare to experiment

The world of social media is evolving - and that's a good thing. As a brand, you can't close yourself off to this change. If you remain open to innovation and experiment with new types of media, you reduce your risk of being surprised, if not overtaken, by developments.

It's also nice that digital innovations are no longer rocket science. It generates little effort and is fun to explore new options. It took the Festland code team just two hours to set up their own Mastodon server. Running the Mastodon channel is even less effort. Because the same posts also appear on LinkedIn and Twitter, the additional publishing takes less than two minutes.

Virtue 2: Be patient

 Being curious does not mean acting hastily. Even if the dynamic development of the digital world creates a perceived pressure to implement innovations quickly and to constantly question decisions, there is no reason to switch hastily from experimenting to investing.

As a brand, you don't have to be a first mover to be successful in the digital world - even as a smart follower, you have every chance of participating in the media change. And you are protected from betting on the wrong horse. Just think of the Clubhouse app, for example, whose star burned out in 2020 faster than it had risen.

But patience does not mean doing nothing - experimentation pays off. The know-how gained through trial and error makes it possible to make more solid decisions and shorten the time-to-market of innovations. Those who are curious train their agility in change. If Mastodon should one day gain strong relevance, it will be easy for Festland to permanently anchor the test channel in content marketing.

Virtue 3: Show attitude

For all the convenience and reach that social media have: They are not an end in themselves. A presence on a channel only makes sense if and as long as this presence is in line with the brand's purpose, reaches the relevant stakeholders, and the content marketing is linked to clear strategic goals. There must also be a healthy balance between the achievement of objectives and the effort required for publication.

This strategy match has not only a commercial but also an ethical component. If, as in the case of Twitter, the corporate governance of a platform gets into trouble, this alone can be a reason to invest less time and money in a medium. Even if this means foregoing visibility and reach.