The 40-year-old Michael Sorg brings the experience of eight years in Federal Berne to finesse: As media spokesman and co-general secretary of the SP Switzerland, he has experienced and shaped two election campaigns, 25 voting Sundays, 38 parliamentary sessions and 23 party conventions and delegates' meetings. Previously, he was Head of Marketing at Comparis. The Zurich native will now take up his position as communications consultant at Feinheit in mid-June.

Ilias Panchard has already joined the Feinheit team. The 29-year-old has been responsible for communications and media for the corporate responsibility initiative for French-speaking Switzerland for the past three years. Prior to that, he was involved in various national referendum campaigns - including the nuclear phase-out, the Gotthard referendum, and the scholarship initiative. Since 2017, Ilias Panchard has been a politician for the Green Party in the city parliament of Lausanne, where he also lives privately.

"All our growth engines are running at full speed," Sunrise-UPC CEO André Krause told news agency AWP on Thursday. "We are probably the fastest growing telecom company in Switzerland at the moment."

The combined company attracted 42,000 net mobile (postpaid), 14,400 Internet and 6,600 TV customers in the first quarter. Sunrise UPC had already increased its customer base in the final quarter. By comparison, top dog Swisscom recently reported significantly lower figures for the first quarter.

Hardly any more potential for prices

Revenue nevertheless decreased minimally by 0.3 percent on a comparable basis. The absolute amount was only given in the reporting currency of the parent company Liberty Global, i.e., in U.S. dollars. A conversion brings the figure to around CHF 770 million.

The price war in the Swiss telecom market is likely to have been a key reason why revenue stagnated despite the larger number of customers. "The promotions in recent months have shifted the price level a bit, but now there is not much potential downward," Krause commented.

He also attributed the revenue stagnation to a negative covid effect. In particular, the lack of international travel had had a negative impact on roaming revenues. "Without this effect, we would have already seen slight growth in the first quarter." Growth is then expected for the year as a whole.

Merger costs burden profit

Profitability declined more sharply than sales in the first quarter, as shown by the decline in operating profit (EBITDA) on a comparable basis. According to Krause, around two thirds of the 7.3 percent decline is the result of integration costs.

As is known, the company expects merger costs of 150 million Swiss francs in the current year. This also includes expenses for the planned job cuts, which will include around 600 jobs.

"Apart from that, we have invested a lot of money to grow faster - for example, in marketing and in the business customer area." For the full year, operating profit is now expected to decline by a low single-digit percentage.

From now on, synergies are expected to have a positive impact, and not only on the cost side. The company recently launched its first joint products. And there is still a lot of potential here, it was emphasized. Only one in three customers has a product that combines mobile communications, TV and Internet.

No details on new brand

Krause's goal is to get the integration over the line quickly. "We are currently moving forward with our integration plan a little faster than we originally thought."

A new umbrella brand is a next big step. "By the end of the year or the beginning of next year, this brand name should be fixed," Krause said. Whether the trend is toward Sunrise, UPC or a new name, he would not say.

However, it has already been decided that the company will rely on the new TV platform from the parent company Liberty Global in the future. This will still include a TV box, but it will be significantly smaller than the current one. "We want to launch this box in the fourth quarter, provided the current global shortage of semiconductors does not thwart this schedule," the CEO said. (SDA)

The Sport.ch platform, operated independently under the umbrella of Ringier Sports, supplies young, digitally-savvy fans with up-to-the-minute sports information in the form of live tickers, current highlights, video formats, news and live streams. The Sport.ch offering is complemented by the German-language sports streaming offering Sportalhd.com. According to Ringier Advertising, more than 500,000 unique users* use the Ringier Sports Digital offering every month. The portals record over 1.8 million visits per month. Journalists, bloggers, athletes, experts, and sports enthusiasts report on topics such as the Super League, soccer, ice hockey, tennis, and winter sports.

Major events such as the Uefa Euro, Fifa World Cup and the Olympic Games are also covered. The two integrated verticals Welovefootball.ch and Welovesnow.ch provide daily information and entertainment on Swiss soccer and snow sports.

"With Sport.ch, Ringier Advertising offers its advertising customers the perfect platform to reach a young, digitally savvy target group with advertising messages in a sports environment. The advertising formats include display advertising, video advertising and programmatic advertising," explains Roger Baur, Director Reach Sales & Marketing at Ringier Advertising.

In order to be able to continue to guarantee all customers the perfect user experience despite a rapidly growing order book, Campfire has brought an experienced UX/UI designer into the team in the person of Ash Sharifi. Born in Iran, Ash has already worked as a designer in Cyprus, California and Copenhagen before finding his private and professional happiness in Biel. "Ash is an experienced designer with an eye for detail and a focus on a fully comprehensive user experience. With him, we can guarantee our clients design with a constant user perspective and an even higher quality," enthuses Dirk Unger, UX Lead and Partner at Campfire.

Vedat Demiri also joins the agency at Biel's Barkenhafen harbor as a frontend development trainee and thus also complements Campfire's design department. "Frontend development and design have belonged extremely closely together for us for many years. The perfect user experience doesn't stop at design with a focus on user needs and the company's goals. Well-done and thought-out frontend design contributes an important part to the overall user experience through fast loading times and appealing interaction design with supporting animations," explains co-founder Pius Caduff.

"This strategic reinforcement strengthens our position as a full-service partner for digital and classic communication," explains Benedikt Skalsky, Partner and Head of Digital at Festland. "Paddy's conceptual, technological and entrepreneurial experience enables us to shape consulting and development, especially for complex e-commerce solutions, online marketing as well as the digitalization of business processes."

According to Festland, Paddy Gloor is one of the pioneers of the eastern Swiss digital market. Paddy Gloor has been in e-business since 1997, shortly before Festland also set up its own digital team, and founded the online agency Webstobe in Appenzell in 2001, whose growth he shaped as managing director for over twenty years.

The Landgasthof Leuen is a gastronomic institution in Uitikon Waldegg. So that even during the almost weekly changing Corona gastronomy rules do not have to do without the menu offers of the restaurant, the Leuen24 fresh menu vending machine is ready in Uitikon Waldegg. This means that customers can now pick up and enjoy freshly prepared meals from Leuen around the clock.

For the new vending machine, Schläfle Trittibach created a type campaign that draws attention to the offer in a pointed way. The subjects can be seen in daily newspapers and on social media.

Responsible at the Landgasthof Leuen: Remo Schällibaum (owner). Responsible at Schläfle Trittibach: Marcel Schläfle, Christoph Trittibach (Creative Direction).

In the game show, the candidates have to match the product benefits of a Wingo offer with their participation cards. A format that is remotely reminiscent of a popular North American-style game of chance. Apart from the - slightly modified - name, however, there is another crucial difference. Because with the very affordable mobile subscription, somehow everyone can call themselves a winner in the end.

The "Wingo Swiss Pro" offer will be advertised exclusively online - via various film versions for the popular social media channels and as a banner adaptation.

Responsible at Wingo: Michael Jakob (Project Manager Communications), Davide Pincin (Head of Campaigning & POS Communications), Sabrina Stalder (Brand Manager Wingo), Cyril Wick (Head of Wingo). Film production: Chocolate Films. Directed by: Gregor Brändli. Responsible agency: Home Zurich.

In 2001, MetaDesign assisted the then "International Music Festival" in its transformation into the "Lucerne Festival. Since then, the agency has supported the internationally renowned brand in a wide variety of communication-related issues.

Celebrating areas of tension

At Lucerne Festival, young talent meets established masters, tradition meets innovation, and Central Switzerland meets the wider world. This interplay of fields of tension is what makes Lucerne Festival special - and what drives it. This should now also manifest itself in the new brand.

Now the interplay of fields of tension can be rediscovered in a wide variety of brand elements. Basically, the new brand is intended to symbolize an inspiring clash of opposites that opens up new horizons and results in great things.

The result is an appearance that is intended to strengthen the Lucerne Festival's one-brand strategy. It supports the festival's great diversity - the fields of tension, the different offers, target groups and events - in a distinctive brand, to carry it to the outside world and at the same time to take a big step into the future.

"We don't want to passively wait and see, but actively shape"

Three questions for Michael Haefliger, artistic director of the Lucerne Festival.

Michael Haefliger, what motivated you to change the brand?

Michael Haefliger: We want to make the Lucerne Festival brand fit for the future. A "just keep it up" brand identity no longer reflects our vision. The market and needs are changing: if you want to continue to focus on entrepreneurial and cultural excellence, you have to recognize the signs early on and take action. We are doing this with our new one-brand strategy, with a new focus on three divisions: "Symphony," "Contemporary" and "Music For Future," and with new projects. The brand is a powerful instrument for making this strategy tangible. In this way, we are emphasizing that we want to continue to develop decisively as one of the leading international classical music festivals - and this requires a correspondingly bold step.

And why right now - in the middle of a pandemic?

Because we don't want to wait passively, but actively shape things. Today for tomorrow. We have been engaged in the discourse of change for some time now. And constantly thinking, developing and moving forward is part of our DNA. So this transformation was already on our minds before the pandemic - and will continue to be so afterwards. We saw the Corona crisis as an opportunity to drive the process forward. We used the time to sharpen our strategic profile for the future, to position ourselves optimally with new concepts and to show our colors with a new image.

What do you expect from this step?

We always have the future of music in mind and look forward to what is to come. We love and live classical music - and just as much the many possibilities to reinterpret it. We want to surprise, inspire and move. And that should reach "out there". We want it to be experienced and to move people. Of course, I hope that our charisma will continue to grow. Internationally as well as nationwide. We want to continue to convince our audience and at the same time give young people access to traditional classical as well as contemporary music - to reach them and inspire them. And I am convinced that with our new strategy and our new brand identity, we will achieve precisely these goals.

"Sharely fits perfectly with our sustainability strategy and the further development of Do it + Garden," says Marcel Leimgruber, Head of Division Do it + Garden at the Migros Zurich Cooperative, commenting on the Handelszeitung. This involves renting out exhibits or returned goods, which are to be put to further use in the sense of a circular economy. "We are now testing whether our offer is well received by customers, how handling works in the stores and how the technical and operational processes can be further optimized," explains Sharely CEO Lucie Rein. "In a further step, after the successful completion of our pilot projects with Migros, we will examine the rollout for the whole of Switzerland," says Rein.

In the partnership, Sharely earns 20 percent of the rental fee, with 80 percent going to Migros, according to the Handelszeitung writes.

Let fly

How to radically and consistently rebuild your business.

• Author: Hans-Dietrich Reckhaus
• Publisher: Murmann Verlag, 2020
• Pages: 184
• ISBN: 9783867746649

In Fliegen lassen, Hans-Dietrich Reckhaus tells the transformation story of his family business in a very personal way. The producer of insecticides, of all things, developed an entrepreneurial vision of insect rescue. In his book, Reckhaus describes both the numerous hurdles and the moments of success. His creative entrepreneurial spirit and drive for change toward a more sustainable economy are infectious. Inspiring reading for anyone who wants to make a difference.

Futureskills for Leadership

Setting sail for the future of leadership (Haufe Fachbuch).

• Author: Margareta Jäger and Michaela Flick
• Publisher: Haufe Verlag, 2020
• Pages: 168
• ISBN: 9783648138724

There is no question that digitization will fundamentally change the world of work and business. But in the midst of this transformation, people remain the "center of all organizations." Michaela Flick and Margareta Jäger show which competencies people of today should learn for the challenges of tomorrow. The two experienced coaches discuss eight "futures skills" that will be crucial for entrepreneurial success in the future, addressing executives in particular.

StoryBrand

How to convince your customers with strong stories.

• Author: Donald Miller
• Publisher: Vahlen Verlag, 2020
• Pages: 169
• ISBN: 9783800661633

No more wasting money on ineffective marketing campaigns - what business wouldn't want that? Donald Miller gives his readers a systematic and temptingly simple-sounding plan with which they can revolutionize their marketing. The author backs up his explanations with numerous examples and success stories, motivating readers to write their own marketing script from scratch. The book is suitable for all entrepreneurs and executives who want to convince their customers like Hollywood.

The Invincible Company

This is how you create a culture of innovation and transformation that makes your company invincible.

• Author: Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Fred Etiemble and Alan Smith
• Publisher: Campus Verlag, 2020
• Pages: 395
• ISBN: 9783593512563

How can a company exploit its existing business model while exploring new, promising models? The book presents numerous business model variants using well-known examples and shows how the change from one model to another can succeed. It is helpful to already be familiar with the topic, because sometimes you think you have the documents of a workshop in front of you, which you unfortunately did not attend. But assuming they have the relevant prior knowledge, readers will find many ideas here on how to further develop or exchange their business model.

Data has long since become the most important resource of the information society. They help companies analyze customer movements or support them in making decisions about new products and their marketing.

In times of comprehensive networking, data is generated in huge quantities and from a variety of sources, from production to traditional administration to social networks. If companies collect and analyze this data, they can launch targeted and personalized marketing campaigns on this basis - and largely automatically. This data-driven marketing is made possible by modern technologies such as cloud computing, real-time data processing and artificial intelligence.

However, data-driven marketing means more than just the use of technology. As a holistic concept, it has a lasting impact on the corporate culture and the entire value chain, which means that in case of doubt, it fundamentally changes companies. This makes it all the more important to proceed thoroughly when implementing the concept. To this end, there are the following five steps that can be taken.

1. formulate business case

Companies need a business case in which they define at which points which data should support their decisions. Not all data helps with all decisions, which is why it is critical in advance to describe the use scenarios and knowledge expectations in concrete terms. The next steps can be derived from the definition and use case.

2. focus on the quality

The fact that data is available in large quantities might tempt people to pay little attention to its quality. But the opposite is necessary: Data-driven marketing can only be successful with data that is available in sufficient quality. Ensuring the right quantity and the necessary quality is therefore an indispensable step on the way to data-driven marketing.

The preparation of data includes the consolidation of master and customer data as well as the inclusion of further information such as transaction data from ongoing business or external data from social networks. By providing "right data" or "smart data," the volume of data can be limited and the quality of the data improved. This increases the efficiency of their use.

3. provide the right technologies

Cloud-based databases can process large volumes of data quickly. But only artificial intelligence is capable of extracting new insights from them. Algorithms trained with machine learning, for example, are able to recognize correlations hidden to the human eye in large volumes of unstructured data very quickly and thus provide new insights for decision-making. Companies should start evaluating the use of AI as early as possible; the technology for this is mature and powerful enough.

4. build competencies

However, data-driven marketing is still a matter for specialists even when AI has already provided valuable assistance. For data-driven business models, every company needs the appropriate specialists: IT experts who collect and prepare data or model processes; data scientists who program and train algorithms; data specialists from the marketing department who ask the right questions of the data and draw the right conclusions from the AI-supported analyses. The technical expertise for these activities is usually already available; companies can build up the technical skills through internal training. In addition, companies increase the acceptance of data-driven business models and the use of modern technologies among their own workforce through such internal solutions.

5. define pilot projects

If you have the necessary data in good quality and qualified employees, it is best to start with a small, manageable pilot project in data-driven marketing, for example with a single campaign. This allows companies to gain experience, build and adapt the necessary digital infrastructure, and sharpen internal expertise. All of this helps companies with further projects, which they should plan for at the start so that they can roll out the proven technologies and methods for data analysis throughout the company. After all, it's not just marketing that will benefit from the initial experiences, but the entire company - all the way up to the boardroom.

"As well-intentioned as it is, traditional customer care with its conventional methods is no longer nearly enough, because the relationship between companies and customers has changed radically," explains Uli Wolter, Managing Director at Macaw Germany. "Customer demands have grown massively and competition is fiercer than ever before. Companies would do well to rethink their attitude towards their customers: they need to put the customer at the center of their actions and develop a proper customer culture. Data-driven marketing is an essential tool for this."

The Digital service provider Macaw supports large enterprises with solutions and services in digital marketing and e-commerce, data and AI, cloud and integrated enterprise applications. Macaw specializes in software solutions from Microsoft and Sitecore.

Following the success of the single-varietal Merlot, the Zurich State Winery is launching a new line with three regional single-varietal wines. On the one hand, Rheinau wants to respond to the increasing demand for single-varietal wines. On the other hand, the three new wines would impressively underline the diversity and quality of the regional grapes.

The Zurich agency Pikka is responsible for the look of the "Sortenrein" wine series of the Staatskellerei Zürich. The design subtly picks up on the values of the Staatskellerei Zürich - passionate, sympathetic, classic. Gamaret, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc are clearly recognizable as a family, yet each variety has its own vine illustration. This is shown off to particularly good advantage by the glossy coating on the matte label.