The vacation destination of Grächen St. Niklaus is a household name, especially for families. For years, the destination has been consistently promoted for families with children under the positioning "Grächen a fairy tale".

From summer 2023, adult target groups are to be addressed in addition to families and ensure growth. At the same time, a start is to be made on building up strong event brands that are intended to boost occupancy rates in the future, particularly at the end of the season.

The new direction was preceded by an intensive analysis and strategy process and the development of a new marketing strategy based on market research data.

The Zurich agency Teil.ch creatively translated the new brand orientation. The Salzburg agency Elements.at was engaged for the complete relaunch of the destination website. Both agencies were able to prevail over national and international competitors in a multi-stage pitch process. In addition to the development of a new corporate design, the creative budget also includes a new brand logo and communication concept for a consistent target group approach.

Under the bracket "Time for Grächen", Grächen St. Niklaus wants to present itself harmoniously to all processed target groups from summer 2023. "We were looking for an emotional brand anchor that hits our target groups right in the heart. We are convinced that the Corona pandemic has made people much more aware again of the immense importance of quality time vacations," explains Christian Meyer, head of marketing and product manager at Grächen. "With our time dimensions, we want to emotionally present our brand promise of recreation for young and old and the offer linked to it."

The new brand logo features an abstracted sun, a reference to the 300 or so days of sunshine a year. "The sun is a central positioning element for us. It stands for almost all the brand attributes we stand for: Recreation, atmosphere, coziness, friendliness, etc.," Meyer summarizes.

Initial elements of the branding will be used on an ongoing basis, with the release of the new look planned for summer 2023.

Responsible at Grächen & St. Niklaus Tourism & Trade: Roman Rogenmoser (CEO), Christian Meyer (Head of Marketing & Products). Responsible agencies: Part.ch, Elements.at.

Dominik Meier already worked for Radio SRF in various functions from 2006 to 2019. After working as an editor at "Regionaljournal Aargau Solothurn," Meier moved to Radio SRF's domestic editorial department in 2008. From 2012 to 2019, the 44-year-old from Solothurn worked as a federal house correspondent for Radio SRF and was also presenter and team leader of the "Samstagsrundschau".

In 2019, Meier moved to SRF television and took over the moderation of "Rundschau" and "Rundschau talks" for three years. In the summer of 2022, Meier returned to radio and has since strengthened the Federal Parliament editorial team (Werbewoche.ch reported). From January 2023, he will also once again take over as Head of Conversation for the "Samstagsrundschau". In this role, he replaces Eveline Kobler, who will take over as Head Group Communications at Swiss Life (Werbewoche.ch reported).

The first issue of the Swiss Illustratedn was published in 1911. The 100-page special edition bridges the gap from yesterday to today. 11 events - one from each decade - which were SI were accompanied, serve as a hook for interviews with Swiss personalities. The interviews are accompanied by historical images from the SI illustrated.

In addition, political scientist Adrian Vetter has used the SI conducted a study on the popularity of federal councillors. For this, he evaluated more than 3,000 issues from over 60 years. Who tops the rankings and who received the most front pages before, during and after their term in the Federal Council is clearly recorded.

"Sometimes the Swiss Illustrated Sometimes she is criticized for being harmless, sometimes for being too aggressive. Everyone has an opinion about it - precisely because everyone has a relationship with it," says Monique Ryser, deputy editor-in-chief of the Swiss Illustrated, quoted in a statement. "With this special edition, we celebrate the achievements of our predecessors, revive highlights and give personalities of today a glimpse into the future. For once, we also chat a bit from the sewing box and present trouvailles from our archives."

The K trade fair in Düsseldorf is the most important industry event for the plastics and rubber industry. After three years without face-to-face global exchange, all industry players had high expectations for the trade show. With over 3000 exhibitors from all continents, the sponsors reported a turnout just below pre-Covid levels. This included the Swiss company Otto Hofstetter. With an export rate of almost one hundred percent, a presence at the packaging industry's most important trade show is a must for its managers. For this significant appearance, the company relied on the brand experience expertise of the creative agency Yellow.

Swiss craftsmanship enjoys an outstanding reputation throughout the world. Despite a high degree of automation, it also determines the quality of the products in Otto Hofstetter's tool manufacture. The creatives at Yellow saw these two factors ideally combined in the traditional Swiss shear cuts.

Yellow developed the key visuals for the trade fair appearance on the basis of templates by the silhouette artist Ueli Hauswirth from Zweisimmen. The motifs set the accent at the trade fair stand, which again consistently dispensed with exhibits and focused exclusively on networking. The adapted silhouette motifs by Ueli Hauswirth were consequently also used for invitations, social media and landing page up to the customer gift.

Responsible at Otto Hofstetter: Stefan Zatti (Head of Sales and Marketing). Responsible agency: Yellow.

At the end of the year, the European Marketing Confederation, together with its member Swiss Marketing, is launching a survey for Switzerland to ascertain the focus areas and projects for the coming year in marketing 2023 across Europe.

Every year, EMC produces the Europe-wide study, which maps the upcoming interests of the countries. This is intended to identify topics, trends and challenges in marketing and sales at an early stage and to shape solutions.

Until 20 December 2022 can take part in the survey online and contribute to the quality of the study. All participants thus help to position Switzerland more precisely in terms of marketing and sales.

Click here for the industry survey!

"Tumbler?" - "No, better hang up and save energy!" Or, "Cold as ass!!!" - "HAHA, then put something on!" With witty, yet serious dialogues, the canton of Basel-Stadt provides insights into the chat history of people exchanging views on the topic of energy saving. The agency responsible for this, Eyeloveyou, communicates simply and very close to the population in the energy saving campaign for Basel-Stadt. This basic idea convinced those responsible, which is why the Basel agency won the pitch.

The dialogs between the energy-conscious people explain how to save energy when heating, cooking, bathing or showering - without raising an admonishing finger. The message is made clear with the simple claim "Basel saves energy.

Internal communications for the Basel-Stadt administration focus on saving energy in the office. In a video, government councilor Kaspar Sutter, head of the Department of Economic Affairs, Social Affairs and the Environment, shows how it's done: The government councilor prefers to take the stairs instead of the elevator to get to the meeting on the fourth floor.

Translated into several languages

The chat messages about the careful use of scarce resources can be seen on posters in the Basel area, in print and online media, and on social media. The canton also had the campaign messages translated into several languages.

Basel-Stadt's energy-saving campaign strengthens the federal government's communication regionally. According to the Federal Office of Energy, the supply situation is still tight. Therefore, it is important that households and companies save electricity voluntarily.

Responsible at the Department of Economic, Social and Environmental Affairs of the Canton of Basel-Stadt: Sonja Körkel (Communications Officer). Responsible at Eyeloveyou: Rafael Dietschy, Christoph Merkt (conception, creative direction), Martin Sautter, Alain Fiechter (video & animation), Veronica Cartillone, Eva Kern (project management, consulting), Mike Krüll (text).

In the face of economic uncertainty, a third of German executives (34 percent) are planning to make cuts in marketing, according to a recent study by LinkedIn. This puts the area in second place on the list of cuts, directly behind IT. But before they start making cuts, company managers should pause for a moment and consider whether this is the right way to go. After all, companies pursue one goal above all with their marketing measures: to boost their sales.

Not investing less, but investing differently

That's why budget cuts should be well-considered: it's often more worthwhile to direct investments to where they will have the greatest benefit instead, in the short and medium term. More than a quarter of companies (27 percent) are already taking this to heart and planning new internal hires to reduce their dependence on marketing and advertising agencies. In the long term, this move can bring enormous benefits.

But even in the short term, there are opportunities for companies to make their marketing more efficient. Executives pay particular attention to key figures such as purchase intention (25 percent) - i.e., knowledge of when and why a buyer is interested in a product - ROI (16 percent) and brand awareness (14 percent). Accordingly, planned marketing measures should pay attention to these factors. For example, one in five companies (22 percent) plans to invest in brand marketing campaigns in the near future in order to remain visible to customers. A third (34 percent) also plan to work more closely with customers or partners to underpin the value of their products and strategies.

Despite all the uncertainty, companies can also see the current situation as an opportunity, use their data to find out which activities have the greatest benefit and focus on these.

Little optimism in B2B marketing

This applies not only to B2C but also to B2B companies. However, in another survey by LinkedIn, only one in two of their marketers (50 percent) is currently optimistic about the next six months. Just under one-fifth (18 percent) even fear a loss of importance for their department. This is not surprising, since a good half of the respondents (47 percent) also report that their budget has already been cut. At the same time, more than two-thirds (68 percent) are convinced that companies that do not cut their marketing spending in uncertain times will recover more quickly afterwards.

In order to avoid (further) cutbacks, B2B marketers need to better demonstrate to their executives the benefits of marketing. The respondents expect a lot from brand building in particular and are therefore planning brand marketing campaigns in the next few months that will support existing and new customer relationships and show their customers how the company is helping them in the current situation. Overall, four out of five respondents (80 percent) also agree with the statement that purpose-driven creative campaigns lead to effective business results in B2B marketing.

Balance between savings and creative freedom

However, the question remains as to how creatively marketing departments can work at all in the face of uncertainty and cost-cutting measures. Accordingly, in the eyes of the executives surveyed, the greatest challenge at present (40 percent) is that too strong a focus on ROI impairs the creative freedom of their marketing team.

"Companies need to be careful to strike the right balance in their savings plans, especially in marketing. Campaigns that actually make an impact need creative ideas and a we-try-it-now attitude," says Alexandra Kolleth, director of enterprise sales at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions (pictured). "But when business leaders only look at the numbers and limit the possibilities too much, especially financially, people become more cautious. The result: meaningless or even forgettable campaigns. This, too, helps no one. Therefore: save money yes, but not at the expense of creativity and courage!"

What if CO2 could be used to produce sustainable and climate-neutral fuel? This question is Aplhasynt and wants to contribute to the fight against climate change and excessive CO2 emissions with new technology. The basis for this is the methanation technology developed at the Paul Scherrer Institute, which has been embedded in Aplhasynt through a licensing and partnership agreement.

In short, it is a process that converts electrical energy into synthetic energy sources and feedstocks. If renewable electricity and non-fossil CO2 sources are used in the production process, the resulting synfuels or e-fuels are climate-neutral energy sources.

For the startup, Quade & Zurfluh created the claim "Renewable energy sources through CO₂-Upcycling" and designed and implemented the rebranding.

What was still advertised as Coop Bau+Hobby last year for the Advent season now operates at all locations - plus the "old" Jumbo locations - using only the blue Jumbo elephant. Naturally, Jumbo's expanded product range was to be shown off to its full advantage in the run-up to Christmas. Cover Media therefore implemented TV commercials for the DIY store, which has been part of the Coop cooperative since 2021.

The campaign is intended to convey that everything that makes a Christmas and the pre-Christmas season shine is available at Jumbo. With augmented reality, from the comfort of the sofa, the tree can be placed in the room as desired, which should answer the question of size and placement of the tree easier.

The campaign is used on TV and online.

Responsible at Jumbo: Zorica Jurkovic, Cecile Imhof. Responsible at Cover Media: Stefan Sommerhalder (Production), Michel Zürcher (Consulting), Baschi Thommen (DOP), Cécile Grieder (Production Design), Lars Wagener (Construction Stage), Manuel Freivogel (Set-AL), Oliver Muff (OB), Michelle Münch (Hair&Makeup), Bianca Kury (Script/Continuity), Roman Schnell (Motion Design), Rainer Ammann (Music Composition), Angelina Belintani & Atelier229 (Casting). Cast: Miya, Serap Müller, Andreas Daniel Müller. Voices: Andalus, Nicolas, Marco.

The Sihlcity shopping center's Christmas program ranges from a parcel service and a visit from Santa Claus to delicacies in the Winter Garden. In the course of the current image campaign, Karling has created a Christmas motif with a painting-like look.

The image, photographed by artist Gemmy Woud-Binnendijk, can be seen on posters, e-boards, advertisements and social media throughout the greater Zurich area during the festive season. Also as cinemagraph in the cinema with moving elements.

Responsible at Sihlcity: Gabriela Brönimann, Jessica Graf, Michelle Ferreira. Responsible at Karling: Daniel Serrano, Patrick Suter, Jeanne Sollberger, Ingrid Brun del Re. Photography: Gemmy Woud-Binnendijk.

If you point your smartphone at the calendar, you can discover a new story every day. 24 episodes tell how the Lindt-Teddy family experiences the Advent season. The focus is on the two children, who can hardly wait for Christmas and therefore do everything possible to make the time go by faster - until an incident occurs that dampens the Christmas spirit. By Christmas Eve, however, the problem can be solved - and there is a happy ending under the Christmas tree.

The AR Advent calendar is available for purchase in Switzerland, France and Austria.

In January 2022, Farner had announced a growth strategy across Switzerland and Europe (Werbewoche.ch reported). With BlueGlass Interactive, the foundation stone for a digital ecosystem is now to be laid, according to a statement issued on Thursday. Other digital marketing agencies are to join in the coming months to "form a leading platform in the Swiss digital market under the Farner brand". This growing team of digital experts is expected to provide a "digital boost" to clients from all integrated communications sectors.

Digital Teams join forces

The digital marketing agency BlueGlass was founded in 2007. "It is a great pleasure to join forces with BlueGlass to boost our existing digital offering to a new level," Daniel Jörg, Farner's chief innovation officer, is quoted as saying in the release. In the future, Farner's digital ecosystem will include "Digital Strategies", "Inbound Marketing, Performance Marketing and Digital Media", "Digital Customer Experiences" and "Data & Analytics".

BlueGlass in the Farner Management and Partner Circle

Raphael Bienz newly leads Farner's integrated digital offering in Switzerland as CDO and member of the Farner Management Board. "Being part of Team Farner, driving the offering from a digital perspective while building a growing ecosystem of digital agencies - this is a new challenge that my team and I are extremely excited about," says Raphael Bienz. As the former owner of BlueGlass, Raphael Bienz remains invested in Farner.

Anna-Lena Wohlschlag, Director Digital Strategy & Projects, and Nicole Treipl, Director SEO & Content Marketing, join Farner as long-standing members of the management team and become part of Farner's senior management. Urs Hügli, former CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Homegate and Search.ch as well as Chairman of the Board of Directors of BlueGlass, among others, will remain with the management team in an advisory capacity.