Previous successes on the market and in award shows, such as gold at Best of Swiss Web, SDV Award and Effie would have set the bar high for winning this pitch. In order to be convincing, the topic of performance marketing also had to be rethought from the ground up in the creative department.

A team of experts from strategy, art direction, copywriting, UX/UI, graphic and motion design, content creation, social media, technology and production worked together on the new vision for the CSS fall campaign 2023+. Artificial intelligence was also used, which will play a relevant role in 2023 not only in the area of playout or predictive advertising, for example, but also for creation.

"The AI-based creative approach convinces with its attention and takes personalization as well as automation to the next level", Sebastian Schönbächler, Online Marketing Manager at CSS, explains the pitch award to Notch, Webrepublic and Hutter Consult.

The new and programmatically bookable DOOH offer at Zurich Airport is now even more suitable for advertisers who want maximum flexibility and also plan at short notice, writes OOH marketer APG|SGA in a statement on Wednesday. Each offer can now be planned with the performance data or "viewed impressions" of the Airport Audience Measurement (AAM) system. Bookings can be made for as little as one day, allowing passengers to be precisely targeted with relevant messages. Based on the "viewed impressions" of AAM, the digital networks can also be purchased programmatically. In addition to other criteria, specific target groups can be addressed directly.

AAM is widely used and recognized internationally. It was developed in cooperation with the data specialist Veltys and JCDecaux Data Corp. Forward Keys provides the specific values for current calculations or forecasts for Zurich Airport.

While the first quarter of 2022 was still dominated by the measures to combat the corona pandemic, sales figures in the trade show and event industry literally exploded in the summer of 2022. At the end of the year, however, volumes fell again as energy shortages and the conflict in Ukraine put the brakes on business once more. This leads to sales figures which, although still only 70 percent of those before the pandemic, give the sector a more hopeful outlook for the future, as a survey by Expo Event Swiss LiveCom Association and the Swiss association of marquee builders and temporary structures Tectum shows.

Hype on digital events subsides

Due to the pandemic, digital events experienced a real boom, although this has now subsided slightly, as the surveyed figures show: Last year, an average of 80 to 100 percent of the revenues of the companies surveyed were generated by physical events, while the remaining revenue came in equal parts from hybrid and digital events.

This suggests that live events will continue to be preferred by the market, even though digital formats are here to stay and will continue to play an important role in the future.

Shortage of skilled workers and energy costs still key issues

Nevertheless, the industry continues to struggle with major challenges: Although the total number of people employed has increased slightly, the shortage of skilled workers is leading to higher wage and recruitment costs. Price increases of 15 to 20 percent are therefore expected due to the combination of persistently high inflation and massively higher material and energy costs. Whether and how this will affect the order situation is currently still open.

Christoph Kamber, President of Expo Event, nevertheless remains cautiously optimistic: "We are pleased and grateful that the figures and sales are pointing upwards again. Nevertheless, we still have some sticking points to solve in the future. It has been shown once again that uncertainty is poison for our industry and immediately triggers significant sales losses on the event organizer side. However, we are facing this challenge courageously, optimistically and, of course, with creative and convincing solutions. If 2023 goes by without any further substantial restrictions, we hope to return to pre-pandemic revenue levels."

Every creative measure is based on a sound strategy. In this respect, creation and strategy have always worked hand in hand. With the merger of ADC Switzerland and APGS, what belongs together is coming together again. The two organizations thus want to break down further silos and continue on the forward-looking path they have embarked upon. Moreover, some members of APGS were already members of ADC at the same time and vice versa.

"No creative campaign without a good strategy. It is the foundation and offers creatives an inspiring jumping-off point," says ADC President Thomas Wildberger. "In this respect, Strateg:ins are not only an asset for clients and customers, but also for our club. They represent the crucial preliminary stage where you can do everything right, but also everything wrong. We are interdependent. That's why it only makes sense to join forces organizationally. I'm delighted that 58 top strategists are now officially part of us."

At the last general meeting of the APGS, a vote was held in which a large majority voted to terminate the association activities of the APGS and to transfer all members to the ADC. This will take place with immediate effect. The former 58 APGS members will become ADC Members. The former ADC Members Professional will become ADC Jury Members, who can judge the best works once a year at the ADC Awards. Those of the newly added Strategists who would also like to do this can apply to the extraordinary Admissions Committee. ADC Switzerland now has 212 members.

Romana Schmidtpeter and Gordon Nemitz also hold seats on the ADC board. "Strategic planning is now an established discipline, not only in communications agencies but also on the corporate side," says Gordon Nemitz. "That's why the association's 20-year-old promotional mission toward the industry is obsolete. APGS has evolved into an education, exchange and networking platform, so it was the only logical step to abandon our own garden-variety thinking and join ADC. We are very much looking forward to actively shaping ADC and enriching the club with our strategic perspective."

With the entry of APGS, ADC Switzerland will also further develop its formats as well as the ADC Awards accordingly. With the newly created category "Creative Effectiveness", the measurable impact of creative works will be taken into account and honored. For their effectiveness, proof must be provided of the lasting impact the work has been able to have on the business. The category will be honored for the first time at the ADC Awards 2023. The well-known talk format of the APGS Coffee Cases will also be continued.

What moves Lenzerheide? What is behind the vacation region's recipe for success? Which players played which role in the past and today? What is happening at the moment? Where do we want to go? And how? What challenges are we facing? What problems do we need to tackle? The new podcast "Lenzerheide Backstage wants to get to the bottom of such and other questions and stand for an open culture of conversation and exciting discussions.

On the 1st Wednesday of each month, a new 20- to 30-minute episode is released, focusing on a personality from the region. The podcast appears in Swiss German on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts and is produced by Lenzerheide Marketing and Support.

First episode with Maurin Malär

Maurin Malär is the guest in the first episode of the new destination podcast "Lenzerheide Backstage". The 32-year-old has been mayor of the municipality of Vaz/Obervaz since January 1, 2022. In the podcast, he looks back on his first year in office and gives an insight into current burning political issues. He talks about the importance of tourism, the difficulties of cooperation in a cross-municipality destination, and upcoming major events.

More and more aspects of business life are taking place digitally. This is especially true for small and medium-sized enterprises, which can make their processes more efficient and reach and retain potential customers more easily thanks to digitization. At the same time, this increases the risk for SMEs of becoming victims of cybercrime. However, there often seems to be a lack of sensitivity to this: "SMEs or municipal administrations in particular lack a sense of their own vulnerability to cybercrime," said cybersecurity specialist Nicolas Mayencourt in a recent interview.

Orientation to the NIST framework

For this reason, the trade association Suissedigital supplemented its cybersecurity test, launched around two years ago and intended for the general public, with another online test that enables SMEs to self-rate and, over time, compare themselves with other SMEs. The association based this on the functions of the NIST Framework, an established set of policies and procedures for ensuring IT security: 1. Identify; 2. Protect; 3. Detect; 4. Respond; and 5. Recover. The Federal Office of National Economic Supply's ICT Minimum Standard is also based on this framework.

The new test is now online available in German, French and English.

The six factors "Product & Service," "Innovation," "Profitability," "Sustainability," "Management" and "Employer" shape the good reputation of companies. Among other things, a good reputation ensures new and loyal customers, attracts the best talents, increases social prestige and ensures broad support among all stakeholders. Information and communication in the media play a key role in shaping opinion. For the benchmark study "Reputation of Health Insurance Companies in Switzerland," more than 12,500 statements from Swiss media and online sources from the entire year 2022 were evaluated.

Twelve major health insurance companies analyzed

The benchmark study surveyed the reputation of the health insurers Assura, Atupri, Concordia, CSS, Groupe Mutuel, Helsana, KPT, ÖKK, Sanitas, Swica, Sympany and Visana. For the analysis, the performance of these companies was evaluated in the dimensions responsible for reputation. KPT achieved the top result with top scores in the areas of product & service, innovation and cost-effectiveness. Second-ranked Sympany was also convincing in Product & Service and Profitability and also achieved a top result in Management. Swica came third with very good scores in management and as an employer.

High visibility does not guarantee a good reputation

The reputation analysis was based on all publicly accessible Swiss media and online sources in the entire year 2022. It showed that the companies with the greatest media visibility -CSS, Visana and Helsana - do not automatically receive the best reputation.

"Good visibility only becomes a reputation driver in combination with a positive tone. That is why CSS, Visana and Helsana did not achieve good reputation scores everywhere despite their high visibility. KPT, on the other hand, is in the middle of the pack with visibility, but reaches the top spot thanks to high tonality scores," explains Lukas Zihlmann of Swissreputation.group.

"Innovation" and "blue-collar employer" as reputation drivers with potential

While topics relating to products & services, profitability, sustainability and management are relatively well represented, only 3.3 percent of the statements are assigned to the dimensions "innovation" and only 3.2 percent to "employer". KPT, Groupe Mutuel and Sanitas are convincing when it comes to innovation topics, whereas Helsana, ÖKK, Concordia and Assura have no media presence in this area.

When it comes to perception as an employer, Swica, Visana and Concordia stand out with the best scores. Sympany, ÖKK and Atupri, on the other hand, fail to achieve sufficient employer visibility in the media. "Due to the small number of innovation and employer topics, even a few communication measures in the two areas can have a comparatively large effect and consequently influence the overall reputation," concludes Zihlmann.

Sustainability as a topic not yet everywhere

Social, ecological and economic sustainability was the subject of 18 percent of the statements analyzed. This means that sustainability is the reputation dimension with the most mentions after product & service - a share of 40 percent of the statements. The ranking of the twelve health insurance companies shows, however, that the inherently good presence with regard to sustainability topics does not yet result in strong reputation values for most companies. The reason for this is the exceptional performance of Visana, which combines very high visibility with top tonality scores.

"Since the values in the individual reputation dimensions are always based on the best company in each case, the results of the other health insurance companies, despite good performance in some cases, recede somewhat into the background," says Luka Zihlmann. "Visana is the clear benchmark in terms of sustainability. And for some companies, sustainability is simply not yet an issue."

Reputation measurement using AI

According to the study authors, the analyses in this benchmark study were carried out using AI-based, customized and extensively "trained" software. As a data basis, all publicly accessible media and online mentions of the twelve included health insurance companies were collected in the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022: These include journalistic online media, news portals, forums and blogs, but also social media such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other sources.

An AI-assisted text analysis then semantically evaluated the collected statements and assigned them to the relevant reputation dimensions. Based on the number of statements and the assigned tonality (positive/neutral/negative), the reputation values of the six individual dimensions were determined. The overall reputation is calculated by adding the weighted individual values.

The complete benchmark study, which is subject to a fee, includes detailed results on the reputation of the 12 health insurers. Complete information on the overall study is available from Swissreputation.group.

The poster bears the slogan "Connecting the world. Protecting its future." ("Connecting the world. Protecting its future").

The reason given was that the message could easily be understood by consumers as if Lufthansa had already taken significant steps to reduce its impact on the environment. However, many of the initiatives launched by the airline would not show results for years or even decades.

Lufthansa had argued that the poster was intended to draw consumers' attention to the company's efforts to reduce the impact of flying on the environment. This was not linked to the claim of causing no damage whatsoever to the environment, and it was wrong to assume that the average consumer understood this to be the case.

The ASA is a self-regulatory body for the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. It has no coercive means to enforce its decisions. Nevertheless, they are considered binding. (SDA)

Rebekka Fricke will take on the new role of Chief People & Culture Officer CPCO at Digitec Galaxus on March 1, 2023. The 39-year-old has worked at the online retailer for almost 15 years and most recently headed People & Organizational Development POD. The art historian and philosopher launched her career in 2008 as a call center agent in Digitec's customer service department, where she gained her first leadership experience as a team leader. From 2011 to 2014, she was responsible for quality management in customer service and in the stores and then moved to business development, where she took over the operational management of various projects. In 2018, she moved to the newly founded POD unit as an organizational developer, whose development she shaped as head for the last three years.

"Rebekka Fricke knows Digitec Galaxus like almost no other and is very well connected within the company. She lives our values and is able to communicate our corporate culture across departmental and national boundaries," says Florian Teuteberg, CEO of Digitec Galaxus. "I am convinced that she will make a significant contribution to leading us into a successful future."

With the new organizational structure, Digitec Galaxus is uniting its HR topics under one roof and thus intends to give them even more weight at all levels. "For its next growth steps, Digitec Galaxus needs committed and qualified employees, reflective leaders, and flexible processes and structures. Because only the interplay of these elements results in innovation and great customer service," says Rebekka Fricke. Together with her teams in Switzerland, Germany and Serbia, she will be responsible for and develop all HR-related topics.

Swissdentalnews.com is aimed at the entire professional community in the fields of dental hygiene, dentistry and dental technology. With topics such as bleaching or articles on all aspects of oral health, it is also intended to appeal to the general public.

Fixed component of Swissdentalnews.com is the specialist journalistic podcast that also bears the name Swissdentalnews.com. The founder is Marion Gredig. The journalist and dental technician regularly talks with her co-hosts Professor Ronald Jung, Head of Reconstructive Dental Clinic ZZM University of Zurich, and with Dr.med. dent. Urs Brodbeck, Clinic Director Dentistry Zurich North, about current topics and trends in the industry. For example, which dental treatments will be taken over by robots in the future, why the continuing education program for dentists is being restructured, or how a dental laboratory, a private dental hygiene or dental practice can work economically in a challenging environment. In addition, the podcast also discusses so-called lifestyle trends such as Turkey Teeth, which are hyped in social media - and listeners are educated about the consequential damage.

In addition, Swissdentalnews.com regularly brings new editorial content from Swiss dental universities, live coverage of continuing education and trade shows, photo galleries and much more.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief Marion Gredig was seen and heard as a journalist on radio and television for ten years, including on Radio 24 and Sat.1. She then took over her parents' dental laboratory business and graduated from the Swiss Dental Technology Master School with a degree in Implantology and Fixed Prosthodontics HFZ. For the past ten years, Marion Gredig has combined her two professions and regularly writes specialist reports as a freelance journalist.

"On Swissdentalnews.com, the entire dental community is to exchange professional information. The fact that Swissdentalnews.com is supported by the dental universities in Switzerland shows that the time is ripe for this novel specialist journalistic media concept," says Gredig. "And with the podcast, it's 'back to the roots' for me. It's where the radio host of old comes out again."

bundeThe motion was penned by the National Council's Economic Committee (WAK-N) and relates to the so-called "Suisse Secrets". The large chamber approved it by 113 votes to 78. Representatives of the center and the SVP were against.

The opposing minority fears that the privacy of bank customers could be violated, even if there is no public interest for media research.

Neither research nor reporting would be made impossible or restricted today, said Martin Landolt (center/GL) on behalf of the minority. Clarifications had shown that Tamedia could have participated in the research without any problems.

The motion calls for immunity from prosecution for media work done in good faith. This is to ensure that media work on the financial center cannot be affected by deterrence or criminal sanctions if journalists and reporters act in good faith.

The Federal Council supported the motion. The freedom of the media guaranteed in the Federal Constitution is important to it, as it wrote in its response to the motion. It declared itself willing to carry out the requested examination and, if necessary, to propose the necessary amendments to the law.

No collaboration with "Suisse Secrets

The impetus for the motion was the "Suisse Secrets," which an international research network uncovered about a year ago. The reports accused the big bank CS of having accepted autocrats, drug dealers and suspected war criminals and human traffickers as clients for years.

Tamedia newspapers could not participate in the research network because of an article in the Banking Act. Swiss journalists face sanctions if they report on revelations based on stolen or leaked data. The penalty amounts to up to three years' imprisonment.

According to Irene Khan, UN Rapporteur on Freedom of the Press, the article in question in the Banking Law violates human rights and freedom of the press. In May 2022, Khan had said in an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger spoke of an example of criminalization of journalism.

The WAK-N had submitted its motion in the course of the debate on two parliamentary initiatives of the SP parliamentary group and Raphaël Mahaim (Greens/VD) on the topic. The WAK-N judged both to be too narrowly defined. The initiatives were withdrawn. (SDA)

Mobile operators are calling more forcefully for large online services to pay for using their networks. Every day, 55 percent of data traffic is generated by just five companies, the head of telecom group Orange, Christel Heydemann, said Monday. That costs European telecommunications companies about 15 billion euros a year, she said.

In recent years, 600 billion euros have been invested in networks in Europe alone, Heydemann said at the start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. But many mobile communications companies are finding it difficult to earn money with it. Consumers expect to pay less and less, and some of them are dealing with "outdated regulatory measures. Regulators and policymakers have a key role to play in balancing this "unsustainable" situation, Heydemann said.

For years, network operators have been demanding that companies such as Google, Netflix and the Facebook group Meta should contribute to the costs of the networks because they generate a lot of data traffic. The online heavyweights counter that their services are what make fast data networks attractive to consumers in the first place.

The mobile communications industry is now being listened to more by politicians than in the past. Last week, the EU Commission launched a public consultation on issues such as who should pay for network expansion.

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton said in Barcelona that a fair model must be found for financing the huge expansion costs. There is more at stake than a conflict between the interests of network operators and online services. The goal, he said, must be to prepare Europe for the next surge in networking and to make better use of the potential of the common EU market.

At the same time, mobile operators want to grow beyond their previous business as network operators. "It's no longer a telephone network. It is a decentralized and distributed supercomputer," said Telefónica CEO José María Álvarez-Pallete. To achieve this, the mobile communications groups wanted to create a common new standard - as they once did with the GSM networks that enabled the rapid spread of cell phones. (SDA)