Richy Hafner, founder and managing director of Polymorph Pictures, is handing over the reins to Maybaum Film after 18 years. Nevertheless, he wants to help shape the future of Polymorph, according to a statement. The friendly takeover by Maybaum Film fulfills the most important criteria for both sides. Hafner's main concern in the merger was the added value for his customers: "The quality of Maybaum Film's comprehensive service catalog perfectly complements the Polymorph offering.

In the future, Polymorph Pictures' customers will also be able to benefit from the 16-member Maybaum team, which is dedicated to strategy, conception and distribution in addition to traditional production services. Richy Hafner will remain as the contact person for Polymorph customers.

In the future, the company will be managed as a subsidiary under the name Polymorph Pictures - A Maybaum Film Company. Richy Hafner joins the three Maybaum owners on the new board of directors. Polymorph's premises in Zurich's Kreis 4 will also be taken over, providing Maybaum Film with a welcome expansion of its location. In Baden, they are pleased about the competent addition to the film family and the new "adoptive fathers" Michel Alraun, Laurent Ulrich and Michel Frutig are convinced that the takeover will open up new possibilities and additional flexibility for all involved.

It was kept secret for a long time, but on Wednesday after Easter, an explosive report ran across the news tickers of German trade magazines: the insurance group Allianz, it was reported, was reorganizing its agency network after a secret pitch phase. As first Advertise&Sell noted that Omnicom will in the future "develop creative solutions on a global and local level" as part of its global brand strategy. In addition, Mediamonks, part of Martin Sorrell's S4Capital, has been hired for content production.

In addition has Advertisingweek.ch learned on inquiry that a Swiss agency has also been able to establish itself in the Allianz portfolio: Sir Mary will support the insurance company as a global digital creative agency with immediate effect. The first implementations are "already in the works".

Sir Mary already manages Allianz's entire communications presence in Switzerland, both as a creative and media agency. The agency model and the overarching collaboration have arguably proven successful for Allianz and will now be deployed on a global scale.

In February, overnight stays in Swiss hotels fell overall by 40 percent to 2.00 million compared to the still relatively good comparative figures from the previous year, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Tuesday. Thus, the number of overnight stays in the months of January and February has almost halved to 3.3 million.

The worldwide travel restrictions, such as strict quarantine regulations or even border closures, are a heavy burden on tourism. After a good start to the year, the consequences of the Corona pandemic in 2020 brought the number of overnight stays in Switzerland back to the level of the early 1950s.

The lockdown months in the spring of last year, when business came to a virtual standstill, were drastic for hoteliers. In March 2020, about half of which was affected by the lockdown, overnight stays plummeted by 62 percent to 1.3 million. In April, only around 200,000 (-92%) and in May around 600,000 (-79%) overnight stays were recorded.

From this low base, rising numbers and positive growth rates in accommodation can be expected again with a view to the further course of 2021. However, the situation in the hotel industry remains tense, as the third Corona wave means that foreign tourists are not yet expected to return any time soon.

Burglary with foreign tourists

Swiss hotels are still frequented almost exclusively by domestic guests, with far fewer tourists arriving from abroad. This was also the case at the beginning of 2021. In January and February, the decline in overnight stays by foreign guests was almost 80 percent to 2.5 million. Still the most tourists came from Germany (-75% to 170,000) and from France (-50% to 117,000).

Somewhat surprisingly, Poland took third place with a strong increase to 60,900 overnight stays. By contrast, business with tourists from Great Britain (-94%), the Netherlands (-88%), America (-94%) or Asia (-95%) collapsed.

Business with Swiss guests is better, but here, too, the number of overnight stays declined. By the end of February, a total of 2.63 million overnight stays had been registered with domestic guests. Compared with the same period last year, this represents a drop of one fifth. In February alone, the drop was only 4 percent thanks to the skiing vacations.

Winter resorts suffer

The 2020/21 winter season is a season to forget for the Swiss hotel industry overall. This is shown by an evaluation of the AWP news agency. In the 100 or so winter sports resorts surveyed, overnight stays from December to February shrank by a good third to 1.45 million compared with the 2019/20 season.

Those tourist destinations in the mountains that are heavily dependent on foreign visitors have been hit particularly hard. For example, the number of overnight stays in Zermatt, Davos and St.Moritz fell by 41, 36 and 49 percent respectively. Arosa, Grindelwald, Saas-Fee and Crans-Montana also recorded declines of around 30 percent. In contrast, Andermatt (-12%) held up somewhat better thanks to the higher proportion of Swiss tourists.

Interlaken, which is popular with Asians, tourists from the Arab world and overseas, even suffered an 80 percent drop in overnight stays during the winter months. However, Interlaken is more worth a trip for tourists in the summer. (AWP/SDA/OG)

In job advertisements, the Migros subsidiary, which was launched at the end of 2020, talks about Switzerland-wide growth and ten new specialist stores per year. Migros itself specifies its plans as follows: "For our customers, we will initially expand our offerings primarily in the area between the metropolitan areas of Bern and Zurich. We will also be launching a presence in French-speaking Switzerland with Misenso." 

The claim "Climate protection - your goal is our mission" is intended to show the connection between the world of young climate activists and building technology - despite the high contrast. Suissetec launched one of the first CO2 consulting tools back in 2008, when significantly fewer people were still concerned with the topic of climate. The association is clearly committed to the Energy Strategy 2050 and advocates the CO2 law with conviction.

Suissetec's climate campaign is not only intended to draw attention to the association's commitment, but also to draw attention to the professional training opportunities in this future-oriented industry and make them palatable to young, climate-savvy Gen Z people. In addition, the campaign aims to promote the professional pride of building technicians*.

Best of both worlds

To clearly separate the world of the demonstrating climate activists and that of the building technicians on the one hand, but on the other hand to create a connection between the two, was the big challenge for Jim & Jim in developing the campaign. A connecting element had to be integrated that would make it clear that the goals of the two worlds, which are nevertheless so different, are ultimately the same.

The so-called "signature moves" implement this: Two main characters are portrayed in their professional and political environments, respectively, and perform activities typical of their everyday lives. During the execution, both make the same movements. Both situations have an identical framing and are shown with smooth transitions in the video. Thus, it stands out not only how different the two worlds are from each other, but also that there are similarities between the building technicians and the climate movement. The moving image was produced in various formats and lengths. The short and long versions are ten and 30 seconds long respectively.

Reach targeted

Various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat as well as online advertising spaces are used to broadcast the long version of the video. Jim & Jim also defined several customer journeys to reach the different target groups. On the one hand, young people who are on the threshold of their next educational step were addressed. Secondly, so-called influencers were targeted - those who can influence young people and accompany them on their life and education path. This targeting also includes already trained building technology professionals, whose professional pride is to be increased by the campaign.

In a second wave, the short version will be shown on numerous DOOH screens in Switzerland. In parallel, a national OOH campaign is part of the project, which can be seen in all major cities in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. The second wave is also supported with a static display and moving images of the campaign to generate more reach. This is complemented by social content produced in line with the campaign and published via the Instagram channel "Wir, die Gebäudetechniker". The campaign will be broadcast throughout Switzerland in spring 2021.

Responsible at Suissetec: Christian Brogli (Head of Marketing and Communications); Helena Montag (Project Manager Communications). Responsible at Jim & Jim: Fabio Emch (overall responsibility), Tim Kesseli (project management); Jacqueline Bentrup (co-lead); Virginia Waldburger (art direction), Fabio Emch, Tim Kesseli, Jacqueline Bentrup, Robin Steiner, Gabriela Balmer, Nadine Sperb, Marc Guerraz (idea and concept). Moving image concept and DOP: Federico Zanini. On-Set Production: Fabrice Göldi. Director: Andrea Müller. Sound: Bianca Stofer (Jingle Jungle Studios). Photography: Andreas Graber Photographer. Hair & Make-Up: Kim Steiner by kim joes. Color Grading: Colourwolf.

"Over the past year, we have consulted with our clients and worked on our plans, including the development of Cannes Lions Live as part of the new Lions membership platform," Philip Thomas, chairman of Lions, was quoted as saying in a communiqué. "We are now in a position to fully transition to this format for 2021 - which will provide all the celebration, inspiration and participation of Cannes Lions - to virtually unite the global community during Cannes Lions Live this June."

The live event, Cannes Lions Live, will feature live and on-demand content and experiences, as well as reveal, analyze and celebrate the Golden Lion winners. Access to the live event is included in the Lions membership fee.

Lions launches in May and says it brings together the world's largest creative network of people and companies to advance professional, personal and social progress through creativity. Lions members receive complimentary access to Cannes Lions Live as part of their membership. Annual membership costs €249, and all past and current Lion winners receive free membership.

Organizers plan to communicate more information about Cannes Lions Live in the coming weeks, including details about the experiences and talent that will be part of the week.

To actively meet the challenges of the market, ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE set the course last fall for a platform-independent entertainment company, according to a statement. The Seven.One Entertainment Group intends to consolidate all of the holding company's entertainment activities under one roof. Leaner structures, faster decision-making and closer integration are intended to create greater agility. Since then, entertainment areas have been transformed and more closely linked across companies, with content development, acquisition, playout and monetization to work together even more efficiently than before. The new corporate design and the new brand architecture with the correspondingly adapted names of the assigned companies and brands carry the new self-image internally and externally and make the transformation visible.

New business headquarters in Zurich

The merger of Sat.1 (Schweiz) AG and ProSiebenSat.1 Puls 8 TV AG into Seven.One Entertainment Group Schweiz as the acquiring company now represents a further step. The merger has already been entered in the Commercial Register. By operation of law, Seven.One Entertainment Group Schweiz AG has entered into all legal relationships of SAT.1 Schweiz and ProSiebenSat.1 Puls 8 TV, and the two companies have thus ceased to exist.

With this change Seven.One Entertainment Group Switzerland has definitely moved the business domicile to Zurich. The address is valid with immediate effect and all business correspondence will only be sent via this address.

No influence on existing contractual relationships

Neither the merger nor the transfer of the registered office would have any effect on the business cooperation with the Group, it is further stated. Therefore, existing contractual relationships and other legal relationships would also remain valid. The SAT.1 and Puls 8 brands will remain in place.

The French-language edition of Blick.ch is now present on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, where it primarily relies on videos and other content created specifically for the social networks. The French-speaking editorial team will regularly publish various video series produced by the video specialists of the "Creative Lab". It will also be in direct contact with its subscribers and aims to promote exchanges with journalists, particularly via Twitter and Instagram.

The aim is to build up a community and interact with it by the launch of the new online offering on June 1, according to a statement. "The social launch offers us the opportunity to establish an initial connection with our users and thus lay the foundation for Blick's French-speaking community in French-speaking Switzerland," Thomas Deléchat, product owner of Blick.ch in French-speaking Switzerland and head of the "Creative Lab," was quoted as saying in the release. "In order for us to offer content tailored specifically to social channels, our female journalists work closely with our digital experts. With the launch of our weekly newsletter 'Off Pol'', we are also taking the first step towards a thematic newsletter offering, driven by our Digital & Audience Manager Céline Pétremand."

Starting on Tuesday, the first free newsletter "Off Pol'" will highlight political topics from French-speaking Switzerland on a weekly basis, enriched with news from national political events. Off Pol'" is headed by editor Adrien Schnarrenberger.

Until the official launch of the new news platform in the French-speaking part of Switzerland on June 1, a special Website the social channels and the newsletter offering. For the first time, the complete 20-person team is presented there, which is divided into the three areas "Investigative Lab", "Editing Lab" and "Creative Lab" at the Lausanne site.

"We have built a strong team and we are particularly pleased that we have been able to attract as many women as men," said Michel Jeanneret, Editor-in-Chief of Blick.ch in French-speaking Switzerland. "Together, we will make Blick a strong voice in Suisse Romande."

Advertisers and agencies will also find on the countdown page the contact persons of Ringier Advertising, who are responsible for the marketing of Blick in Western Switzerland.

The 85-year-old Bernese is joining the takeover battle for Chicago newspaper group Tribune Publishing, which is in danger of being taken over by New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Together with Maryland hotelier Stewart W. Bainum Jr., Wyss plans to put up about $680 million to buy the group, Tribune Publishing announced on Easter Monday.

In addition to the flagship Chicago Tribune Around a dozen other newspapers, including the South Florida SunSentinal, the Hartford Courant, The New York Daily News or The Baltimore Sun.

Wyss recently explained his motives in the Chicago Tribune himself, "I don't want to see another newspaper that has a chance to bring more truth to the American people go down the drain."

Because this is what is feared if the hedge fund Alden, which already holds almost 32 percent of Tribune Publishing's shares, takes over the group completely. According to Alden Tribune known for drastically cutting costs at the newspapers it controls through its MediaNews Group subsidiary.

Wyss and his partner have now submitted a non-binding offer and outbid an offer from Alden. But whether the takeover will work remains to be seen. But the chances are good, they say. The current owners are open to talks.

Charitable donor since Synthes sale

Wyss made his fortune by selling his life's work Synthes. Around ten years ago, he sold his shares in the orthopedics group to the US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson for around ten billion dollars.

Since then, Wyss has regularly made headlines with generous donations. For example, he has donated several hundred million dollars for environmental protection in the USA. He has also donated tens of millions to the ETH and the universities of Zurich and Geneva, and to the Bern Museum of Art. Wyss is also a member of "The Giving Pledge. This commits him to donating at least half of his assets to charity. (SDA)

Pascal Schmitz studied journalism and organizational communication at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW and earned a Master of Advanced Studies in Applied History at the University of Zurich. The 35-year-old joined Radio SRF at the beginning of 2013, where he held various positions for seven years, including editor, presenter and service manager of "News", which is broadcast on all SRF radio stations, as well as editor and presenter of Radio SRF 3's background program "Input" and presenter and producer of the same station's news magazine "Info 3".

In May 2020, Schmitz moved from radio to the video editorial department in the newsroom at the Zurich Leutschenbach location. There, he works as an editor and producer and, with immediate effect, will additionally strengthen the anchor team of the "Tagesschau" midday and early evening editions.

Pascal Schmitz is filling in for Wasiliki Goutziomitros, who is taking maternity leave in early summer. He will make his first hosting appearance on Wednesday on SRF 1.

"But to be successful online, a magazine can't just take what it has in print and move it to the electronic realm. There isn't enough depth or interactivity in print content to overcome the drawbacks of the online medium." - From "Content is King" by Bill Gates (1996)

This quote from Bill Gates referred to the digitization of print editions in 1996 and, if you replace "magazine" with "event," couldn't be more apt for the event industry today. People have been talking about hybrid events for a long time, and there have certainly been successful implementations. But, if we're being completely honest, we're only in the beginning stages of developing hybrid event strategies and campaigns. And I'm glad, because being at the beginning means that we still have a lot of new things to discover.

How can I say that we are only at the beginning with hybrid events? There are several indicators of this. First, we need to take a trip into the world of virtual events. In the past year, we have all been allowed - and in some cases had to - experience a great many virtual events. Most virtual events were made by developing the dramaturgy for a real event and then filming it. The second indicator for my assertion lies in the fact that access to the subject is via the medium and not via the content. Many are satisfied when they have fulfilled the medium. And that is precisely a sign that the subject is at the beginning of its development.

This short excursion to virtual events is necessary because they are part of a hybrid event implementation. Hybrid means that a real event is supplemented by virtual elements or vice versa. But that is too simplistic and does not do justice to the potential of hybrid events. With hybrid implementations, you have to look at the event from two perspectives: the virtual and the real one. Both perspectives have very different needs. The virtual experiences the event with two senses, the real with five. The attention span is different, the desire, the motivation and then all the external factors like location, decoration and much, much more. The virtual perspective has to be designed and planned just like the real one.

But let's think big. What about the live mix, with all the measures that the target group may experience across the customer journey? In the future, this journey will have to be conceived as a hybrid. At Live Lab, we base this on the idea of a "seamless experience," an experience promise that is kept across all touchpoints - whether real or virtual. The target group - or let's call them the community - immediately recognizes who the sender is based on the experience.

If we take the Bill Gates analogy, we see that the successful digitized magazine only became successful when the focus was shifted away from the individual issue to a holistic approach. The magazine becomes an online portal with high interactivity, archives, moving images and much more. The monthly issue remains - even as print - but the editorial team still delivers, for example, daily newsletters, film features and whatever else comes to mind for the creative creators. The magazine's community is maintained and supplied with content. The communities can even fragment according to interests, and so, for example, themed newsletters are created - right up to contributions that the community has produced itself (user-generated content).

If you apply this analogy to the customer journey of a company, the potential quickly becomes clear. The events, which can be experienced both physically and virtually, give the company the opportunity to advertise specifically on a date and for a certain topic - the community is activated. Between events, the company has the opportunity to keep the community activated with smaller measures. These measures range from small events to training courses, video blogs, integration of social media and classic newsletters. There are no limits to creativity here. The community also does not have to be fed on a daily basis; here, it depends strongly on the strategic framework conditions (goals, target groups, etc.).

Digitization is taking events into a new strategic dimension in the communications mix. The development of hybrid individual measures into hybrid customer journeys promises to be a very exciting field. The focus is shifting away from individual events to the long-term activation of the community. The consistent experience across all touchpoints and thus the long-term recognition will make the difference. Customers will become a community that can be retained in the long term.

* Maximilian Souchay is Founder and Managing Partner at Live Lab. He studied marketing in Bern and cultural management and acting in Liverpool. Before founding Live Lab in 2015, he worked in various leadership positions in the event industry.

According to YouTube, the "Dislike" button will be adapted in the future so that the number of thumbs down is no longer publicly visible to everyone, but can only be viewed internally by the channel operators.

"Feedback remains important"

"Feedback from our viewers has always been a particularly important part of YouTube and will continue to be so in the future," said those responsible at the video portal in a post on the Google blog. However, they said they have heard from some content producers in their own community that the current way certain feedback is registered and displayed on the site can be a problem in some cases.

This is mainly about counting and dislikes, with which users can express negative impressions and opinions about a video. "Publicly stating dislike counts can influence people's well-being and motivate others to engage in a targeted dislike campaign. With the help of the new designs, we want to attempt to better balance the content creator experience while ensuring that user feedback still reaches the creator and is heard," the announcement said.

For small user group

According to the Google subsidiary, the new design will first be tested with a smaller group of users over the next few weeks. They can continue to click on the Dislike button as before in order to give their opinion on a post, but will no longer be shown a continuously updated number. Channel operators will still be able to view the exact number of thumbs down internally in the YouTube Studio. (pte)