The video spot plays on the meta-level and shows the fictional Allianz employee Chris, who has been given the task of creating a concept for an employer branding video. When Chris is pressed for time, he receives support from a benevolent voice-over. Together with Chris, she brainstorms the possible video implementations and how the versatility of the Allianz working day can be suitably presented.

"The unusual interaction between Chris and the voice-over gives viewers a completely different motivation to watch the video," explains Pascal Geithner, Video Director at Andy Was Right. "The mix of professional actor and Allianz employees also gives the video the authenticity it needs." As a contrast to everyday office life, FPV drone shots provide visually exciting perspectives.

The communicative umbrella of the video production is the tagline "Let's care for tomorrow" from Allianz Careers. The video is played out on various online platforms, including the Allianz Careers website.

Comparis CEO Steven Neubauer is leaving the group at his own request at the end of August to take on a new challenge. He had been CEO of the company, which also includes the internet comparison service Comparis.ch, since 2019. Paul Kummer will take over the management of the Group on an interim basis as Delegate of the Board of Directors. Steven Neubauer's successor will be announced at the beginning of September, according to the statement.

"Steven Neubauer has successfully transformed the Comparis Group under extremely difficult conditions and, together with the organization, created the basis for further growth," Comparis founder Richard Eisler is quoted as saying in the statement.

 

The TV industry is suffering steep advertising losses because of replay TV. It has enforced compensation for rewinding advertising. By the end of 2022, the industry wants to raise prices for replay TV or introduce compulsory advertising for time-shifted TV.

A survey by Comparis now shows that replay TV meets a great need among the public. Three quarters of the people surveyed have a rewind function on their TV sets. Of these, 85 percent use replay TV for missed programs.

Around 48 percent of respondents skip commercials with the rewind function. More than half are willing to use replay TV with forced advertising. Half are also willing to pay a surcharge for rewinding.

The study goes on to show that younger people under the age of 36, in particular, overwind commercials, while the older generations are more reticent. The young are not used to minute-long commercial breaks from YouTube and other channels.

Half of Replay TV subscribers are willing to pay a surcharge of up to CHF 5 to continue using the rewind function. The willingness to pay is highest among young people.

The market research institute Innofact surveyed around 1034 people in all regions of Switzerland on the topic of replay TV on behalf of Comparis in July 2022. (SDA)

If you want to reach potential customers emotionally with the right content marketing and help your own company achieve more success with the right moving images, you must not forget a few things. For the ideal implementation of corporate films to succeed, many things must be taken into account.

Tip 1: Rely on your recognition value

When it comes to producing corporate films, the primary goal of these is to attract attention, shine with innovations or achieve brand loyalty. This can only succeed if the special nature of the company is brought to the fore and what makes it truly unique is shown.

Tip 2: Arouse interest

With a video, it is possible to address customers directly. It is therefore important to use this communication channel as effectively as possible. Show what added value your company has to offer people, what philosophy stands behind your name - and be as approachable as possible.

Tip 3: Let pictures do the talking

If you want to lead your company into a successful future, use your moving images to tell stories that reach people emotionally. Convey the positive feelings that potential customers expect when they choose your product or service. Create storylines that everyone can relate to and address people's basic needs.

Tip 4: Pay attention to the length of the video

People today are almost constantly under stress and therefore it is important not to make corporate films too long. In fact, one and a half to two minutes is considered the optimal length that such a film should have. In this way, you ensure that the work is also viewed to the end and not already clicked away in between.

Tip 5: Work in a target group-oriented way

To ensure that the film achieves the external impact you envision, you need to focus on the concerns of the people you want it to reach. In addition, this way you can demonstrate that you have given serious attention to certain problems and issues.

Tip 6: Play on different platforms

Even though corporate film design is becoming cheaper to do lately, it's still an investment that should pay off. That's also why you should definitely share the film on several social media platforms. At trade fairs or in direct sales talks, these are also good for presenting your company in a perfect way within a short period of time or for showing who you are.

Tip 7: Make a concise statement

Corporate films give you the opportunity to reach people who you would otherwise not be able to convince immediately with your corporate concept. This is especially the case when an image change is to be accomplished. So think in advance what statement you would like to make and try to get to the point as clearly as possible.

Tip 8: the right equipment is the be-all and end-all

Of course, the quality of the film must not be left out, which is why you should definitely rely on the right technology. This includes, of course, the camera, the audio equipment, as well as the lighting.

Tip 9: Calculate the costs correctly

As mentioned earlier, the cost of designing a corporate video has become many times cheaper in recent years. Nevertheless, these must be broken down precisely so that no cost point is overlooked - and resources such as time as well as the manpower required for the design must not be forgotten under any circumstances.

Tip 10: Rely on professionals

If neither the necessary expertise nor the passion for creating creative content is available to a sufficient degree, it is in many cases better to place the project in professional hands. In this way, not only a lot of time can be saved, but in the end also money.

Corporate films that inspire: this is how you achieve the goal

Image videos are a powerful tool to present your company in an impressive way and to reach more customers. Let your creativity run free, stay authentic and always remember what message you want to send. With the tips presented here by Ekrem Engizek, the video will be a complete success and the company will be able to benefit from it all along the line.

The Locarno Film Festival wants to open up further to its audience so that they can discover its richness and its stories. With its first podcast, the event wants to Futurespectives to offer a retrospective that looks to the future and is intended to open up new horizons in the year of the 75th anniversary.

International film stars, emerging talents and industry celebrities will share their memories in the podcast their festival experiences and look back on their life journey. In the process, they will uncover new perspectives on the future of cinema, culture and society. Guests include Juliette Binoche, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Giona A. Nazzaro, Lucius Barre, Daisy Edgar-Jones and many more.

Gabby Sanderson hosts the first season of Futurespectives direct from Locarno75. She is a presenter, producer and journalist with ten years of experience at radio stations such as BBC, Apple Music Radio, iHeartMedia, RTE, Bauer Media and International Radio Festival.
The podcast can be listened to on the Locarno Film Festival website, on Spotify, Apple and Google Podcasts, as well as on other apps. Currently the first five episodes are available, the next ones will be released after the current edition of the festival.

For 20 years Open Doors an initiative within the framework of Locarno Pro, organized in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Open Doors promotes the development of film projects and creative producers from priority regions where independent film productions are particularly challenging to realize. The Open Doors program offers participants new networking opportunities, customized training and gives their films a forum for presentation to an international audience.

Zsuzsi Bánkuti has been part of the Open Doors team since 2020. She worked as Talent Development Manager and managed the year-round Open Doors activities. She also works as a consultant for international marketing strategies for Doha Film Institute, Torino Film Lab and Cinemart.

"Zsuzsi Bánkuti brings a spirit of innovation and energy to Open Doors, an initiative that has been an integral part of the Locarno Film Festival for 20 years," said Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival. "Her professional experience in the film industry, her vision and power to change, and her ability to lead a highly motivated and talented team are the best foundations for the new three-year cycle that will focus on Latin America and the Caribbean."

At Hotel Mamma with its Osteria Italianità is celebrated. Instead of a menu, there is a daily changing 5-course menu according to old recipes and with fresh ingredients. This is intended to appeal to connoisseurs who like to take their time for an extended, genuine Italian meal in a cozy atmosphere.

The new film comes as an introduction to the website and is intended to present the business and in particular the special restaurant concept - for guests who do not yet know the house. In addition, Hotel Mamma relies on various short and themed videos on Facebook and Instagram.

"We have already successfully used the film, which was shot in 2016, as an introduction to our website. It emotionally conveyed what guests can expect from us," says owner Charles Brun. "We wanted to top that - with a fresh video production - that is even more meaningful and explains our unique concept. As with the first film shoot, we contacted Motionfood in Zürch-Schlieren. The new video for website and social media was created quickly and without complications. We are very happy with the result and will now use it to play on our marketing channels."

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Motionfood: Why a hotel needs a video

• Great feelingsAmbience and mood can be conveyed much better in a film than through photos and texts.
• More information: A few seconds of film convey more information than ten or more images.
• Clear differentiation: A well-made video shows the difference to competitors faster and better than texts and photos.
• High attention: Videos reach a wide range on the web and social media.
• Longer dwell time: Users stay longer on videos than on images. This extends the time of use on the website, which is relevant for search engines and ranking on Google.
• Higher click rates: Videos influence purchase decisions and increase bookings.
• Multiple benefits: A film can be used in many ways and can be divided into different sequences, for example for use on website and social media or in the newsletter.
• Manageable costs: A video production is not necessarily more expensive than a classic photo shoot.

The Central Board of Swiss Athletics elected Roland Hirsbrunner as Head of Marketing and Communication on Thursday. The 40-year-old from Bern worked as Head of Media and later Head of Communications for Swiss Athletics between 2003 and 2010. After that, as Head of Communication, he was part of the management team of the 2014 European Athletics Championships in Zurich, shaped the communication of the Diamond League meeting Weltklasse Zürich for a good seven years and was involved in setting up the UBS Kids Cup.

Hirsbrunner is currently Head of Marketing and Communication at SwissSkills. He resigned from his position as a member of the Central Board of Swiss Athletics when he submitted his application.

Until Roland Hirsbrunner takes up his post at the beginning of January 2023, the Marketing/Communications department will be headed on an interim basis by Markus Lehmann, the designated managing director of Swiss Athletics.

According to statistics, 98 percent of Swiss young people are registered with at least one social network. For the team led by Janine Hohengasser, Head of Recruiting & Employer Branding at Lidl Switzerland, this opens up the opportunity to make new contacts as part of the current recruiting campaign to specifically address Generation Z via social media and to generate enthusiasm for the employer brand Lidl Switzerland. To this end, Lidl Switzerland is pursuing a new social-first approach together with the team from Lobeco Switzerland, in which content is first planned from the perspective of and for social media, and then prepared and rolled out for other channels in a second step.

The centerpiece of the campaign is a multifunctional video clip that is played out on the website, YouTube and Instagram. In order to be able to communicate on social media in a channel- and target group-specific way, additional clips were generated during the shoot and the short film concept was prepared in advance so that the individual sequences could be published as stories and reels. All elements function as independent content in their own right - but also in combination.

The main actors of the approximately two-minute film are the current apprentices of Lidl Switzerland. Since authenticity is considered very important for the main target group of Gen Z, this was the focus of the campaign planning, which is precisely what this integration is intended to ensure. The clip is intended to present the various facets of an apprenticeship at Lidl Switzerland in an entertaining way and to show the development opportunities and perspectives within the company without taking itself too seriously.

The target group-specific short video content pays tribute to contemporary communication via Stories and Instagram reels and speaks to Generation Z in their own language. To achieve this, Lidl Switzerland and the production team entered into an open exchange with the young target group and made use of the current trends on the platforms, such as sounds, songs and dance moves.

The aim of the recruiting campaign is to further increase enthusiasm for Lidl Switzerland as an employer among the next generation of learners. Directly addressing the relevant target group via platform-specific content is considered a success factor of the HR campaign.

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Responsible at Lidl Switzerland: Janine Hohengasser (Head of Recruiting & Employer Branding), Lorena Cicia (Manager Recruiting & Employer Branding), Steven Meier (Head of Vocational Training), Daniela Fischer (Vocational Trainer Retail Trade).

Now that everyone is slowly trickling back into work after what feels like endless summer vacations, it would be easy to give in to the temptation and dismiss the new buzzword "lakehouse" as a vacation memory or narrative - but watch out, it's not.

Even if summer vacations in the Swiss agency and marketing world are slowly taking on French dimensions, as described so beautifully and sarcastically by the author Frédéric Beigbeder in his 2001 novel "99 franc" (compulsory reading for young advertisers) and meanwhile last from the beginning of July to the beginning of September: You can't book a lakehouse on Airbnb, rather it will (hopefully) fundamentally change marketing over the next few years.

If marketing would finally team up with technology

A data lakehouse is a data management architecture that combines the advantages of a traditional data warehouse and a data lake. Data warehouses were developed as early as the 1980s as high-performance storage tiers that supported so-called business intelligence (BI) and analytics independent of an operational transactional database. Data Lakes then came into vogue in the 0s because they were a cost-effective storage layer for unstructured and semi-structured data.

A data lakehouse now offers help thanks to easy access and support for enterprise analytics found in data warehouses, with the flexibility and relatively low cost of a data lake. Got it?

If not, they are part of the majority of Swiss marketers. And this is exactly the problem why Switzerland is still a developing country when it comes to marketing technology (martech). This is a pity, because the right use of martech not only offers almost endless possibilities to be creative, but also converts this very creativity into business-relevant results for the client.

Our industry would therefore do well if agency strategists, CMOs and CIOs perhaps cut their summer vacations a little short next year and instead thought together about a data lakehouse. That way, existing technology solutions would finally be understood as well, helping to leverage the multitude of opportunities for marketing purposes, from digital asset management and marketing automation platforms to chatbots and social media monitoring tools. Managing separate systems, as is unfortunately still the case in many companies, means not only investment costs, but also horrendous ongoing operating costs on both sides, not to mention the administration of two systems. And no one can afford that anymore. A lakehouse, on the other hand, can.

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* 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.

• Agency name: Kontx Communication
• Establishment date: 2015
• Founder: Bettina Gebhardt
• Current partners:Bettina Gebhardt
• Number of employees: 8
• Current clientele: Merx, Aargau Services, Energieberatung Aargau, Eldico Scientific, Philips, Turm Kaffee, Alver, Dr. Muggenthaler, eurammon, Fitbit, Swiss Combi, VitalAire, Blumenhaus Frei, J+P Gruppe, Kreston
• Agency address: Schaffhauserstrasse 18, 8006 Zurich

Which campaign from the past twelve months are you particularly proud of?

Two top chefs and tower coffee - a dream combination: We used Tobias Funke, star and points chef at the restaurant "Gasthaus zur Fernsicht" in Heiden AR, and Rolf Caviezel, molecular chef from Grenchen, as brand ambassadors for Switzerland's oldest coffee roasting company as part of a broad social media campaign around the topic of quality around sustainability. We developed a story and marketed it via a broad-based social media campaign, including chef reels, video statements on how and by what you can recognize high-quality coffee, to show that coffee is more than just a pick-me-up. It was a lot of fun and we're continuing the campaign in 2023.

 

The most important campaign in agency history to date - and why?

For Philips Switzerland, we designed and successfully ran the "WG Challenge" twice in a row, in which we cast student or professional WGs. Two flatmates then competed against each other and had to test Philips products - shavers, epilators, kitchen appliances, household appliances, toothbrushes, etc. - for more than five weeks and integrate them into their daily lives as flatmates. Both WGs staged this via their WG social media channels - through cool actions, pictures, reels, posts. Involved each time was the media partner Watson, which supported the entire five weeks with native ads, reporting and competitions, as well as Swiss influencers who coached the WGs and accompanied and pushed them via their channels. We are really proud of this, because the idea was a bit crazy, but the implementation went extremely well and made a measurable contribution to the awareness of several product groups at the same time.

 

The most unusual place where your creatives retreat to be creative?

Zurich is full of good places to get creative. Recently we were at Kraftwerk to get our heads fei.

What do you do when you have thought blocks?

times working from St. Moritz, Rome or Munich.

 

What is your agency philosophy?

Advise, effect, enable! We not only want to make an impact, but also always ensure that the customer becomes smarter together with us.

 

Why should talented people definitely come to work for you?

Because the pace is fast here and you learn a lot, everyone is given responsibility very quickly and can contribute - and direct customer contact is the norm for every level.

How long do employees stay with you on average?

As long as they have the feeling of growing as a personality. Sometimes very long.

 

How old is your youngest employee, and how old is your oldest?

There is a generation between the two; but in our minds we are all still children.

 

How high are the wages you pay compared to the industry average?

As far as fixed salaries are concerned, probably just above average. Our training program should stand out. And with the exception of a single year, the agency has paid all employees a bonus since it was founded.

 

What is the ratio between the best and the worst paid employee?

Both get along very well.

Pay transparency: Do employees know among themselves who earns how much?

Bettina Gebhardt: I bet.

 

How much overtime do you work on average per week?

Almost none. Unless there's a pitch or a big customer event coming up. With us, everyone pulls together.

 

What benefits do you offer to compensate your employees for this overtime?

Not just for overtime, but on principle: to be able to work from Rome or Munich from time to time.

 

How long do you get maternity leave and how long paternity leave?

If the case occurs: certainly everyone! How long will be discussed with each other. Because we attach great importance to the compatibility of family and career.

 

Is home office allowed - and if so, how often?

It has been practiced in our country since before Corona and it has become indispensable ever since.

What is the current quota of women?

Not quite 100%.

 

Do you employ interns?

Yes, and with great pleasure. Preferably from three months. Gladly longer.

 

Do you organize team events?

Regularly. Just a week ago, we had our summer party at the "Terrace" near Bellevue. Before that, we held a full-day retreat to reflect together on the agency values and discuss how we can live them in everyday life.

 

Do you have an agency dog or other mascot?

Rumor has it we have a squirrel.

 

Where do you drink your after-work beer?

On the balcony of the agency.

As the main medium, an online film now complements the existing advertising tools. In it, an American couple tells friends about their vacation in Switzerland. The soundtrack suggests a picture-book Swiss vacation, but the scenes shown tell a completely different story.

Furthermore, the campaign will be extended digitally through DOOH, banners, social media, web and owned media, this time with a summer atmosphere in the city on the Rhine.

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Responsible at Basel Tourismus: Christoph Bosshardt (Deputy Director, Head of Marketing), Sarah Bruhin (Social Media & Online Manager), Aline Franklin (Text & Content Manager), Silvio Iacconi (Digital Marketing Manager). Responsible at Kreisvier: Alexandra Kellenberger, Joel Kettl (consulting), Amaru Eslava, Carmen Stähelin, Michael Schmidt, Johanna Buehler (creation), Dario Bonarrigio, Jessica Wernli, Sinia Brugger (interaction design). Responsible at Cover Media: Stefan Sommerhalder (Production Manager), Angelina Belintani, Michel Zürcher (Production), André Guadagno (Director), Tim Gibbons (DoP), Nathalie Kamber (Camera Assistant), Samuel Erdmann (Production Manager), Philipp Keusen (Hair & Makeup), Oliver Muff (Gaffer), Wendelin Schmidt-Ott (Set Sound), Randy Looser (Production Design), Rainer Ammann, Baschi Thommen (Sound Design), Christian Taro (Editing), Roman Schnell (Motion Design). Responsible at Gamned (media consulting, media planning and activation): Fabrizio Tudisco, Granit Sermaxhaj, Taulant Ramadani