With a surprising text idea, the VBZ and the Ruf Lanz agency communicate that the VBZ takes people comfortably from A to B and back again after the event - ABBA, in other words. Like the band that is one of the most successful in music history and whose musicals and revival shows also celebrate successes in Zurich.
 
The latest motif of the VBZ campaign is used on advertisements, posters, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and in animated form on e-boards and e-screens.

Every second day, an accident leads to spinal cord injury. The Swiss Paraplegic Foundation supports people with spinal cord injuries and helps them to lead a self-determined life with as much autonomy as possible.

The agency Epiqe from Lucerne is responsible for the new membership film. The brief for the commercial was clear - the motives for joining the membership were to be communicated to potential supporters in an emotional way. In addition, various short versions in 3 languages, including music and voice-over, were to be produced from a director's cut for banners and online advertising slots.

The result is a commercial that is taken directly from life. A girl tells the story of her father from her own perspective and draws parallels with today's society.

The entire campaign was implemented in German, French and Italian and advertised on the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation's website and social media channels.

UBS mobile banking solutions are more secure than many e-banking offerings. Sir Mary has launched the "Security Check" for UBS in order to provide clients with even better information on security issues and to raise awareness of important behaviors.

The online tool comes with appealing illustrations and becomes a personalized guide to safe online behavior for every user within a few minutes. It covers not only topics such as online banking, but also a wide range of applications such as online shopping, password protection, and device-specific tips.

"User behavior plays a crucial role, because it is not uncommon for cybercriminals to try to obtain sensitive data with targeted attacks on the human factor. This
We counteract this fact in a targeted manner with our digital security modules and ongoing education. We see the Security Check as an important part of this," says Stefan Brunner, Head of Digital Banking at UBS.

As a playful online quiz, the Security Check fulfills several tasks: "With a personalized evaluation, the Security Check raises awareness of actual dangers and communicates simple measures with which Internet users can make their behavior safer. At the same time, the check also helps to reduce security concerns through education by showing that a great deal is being invested in security technologies and reducing false preconceptions," says Tino Elsener, Account Director at Sir Mary.

Sir Mary is responsible for the conception, user interface, evaluation mechanics as well as design of the online
Tools responsible. The tool was launched on January 31, 2019 and received positive feedback. Furthermore, an additional version has recently been launched, specifically targeting SMEs and aiming to raise awareness of safe behavior in the workplace.

Kopfus Klopfus and Fiebrus Plagus, together with their colleagues, make the little complaints in everyday life visible and Verfora has a remedy for them. Memory cards are available to take home in pharmacies and drugstores. With an accompanying AR app, you can have the little pests bounce around in 3D and then take a selfie with them.

In addition, every selfie has the chance to win a prize in an online competition. At the POS, incentives to play along will be provided with displays and competition cards. The new Verfora app will also be activated with a national digital campaign featuring banners and movies.

Around 150 agencies, individual members and companies that award advertising contracts are members of the WCO. Through its own research, the club has now discovered over 100 more "creatives" in Eastern Switzerland and located them on the map. The map was programmed by Goeast.ch.

The presentation increases the visibility of the communications industry, which is also important for Eastern Switzerland. With the website Kreative-ostschweiz.ch The aim is to signal that the region of Eastern Switzerland as a whole is a creative and forward-looking location.

WCO members are marked in orange on the map and are linked directly to their website; non-members are marked with a black dot showing the location of the respective company.
 

With Matthias Gerber and Dan Deutsch, Bold is bringing two online-savvy communications professionals from the client side back into agency life. "Dan and Matthias are both experienced doers with enormous know-how. This diversity is exactly what makes our team strong. As an agency, we remain small and agile, but in terms of expertise and service, we can keep up with the big boys," says Philippe Hansen, Managing Director of Bold.

Before joining Bold, Matthias Gerber (pictured left) led a consulting team in the marketing and communications department at Swiss Post. There he was also involved in the development of an updated marketing communications system and was jointly responsible for the umbrella campaign for brand positioning. On the agency side, the lecturer for brand communications and online marketing worked for around six years as team leader for consulting at Maxomedia, among other things. Matthias Gerber's love of hands-on brand communication in a digital context has now prompted him to switch back to the agency side: "After an exciting and instructive assignment for one of Switzerland's most established brands, I'm keen to contribute and deepen my knowledge in a broad-based, dynamic agency environment."

Dan Deutsch (pictured right) has 20 years of experience as a producer and art buyer in the international media and advertising industry. His career path took him from Vienna via Tel Aviv to Zurich, where he expanded the Motion division for the Federation of Migros Cooperatives from 2015. He also successfully implemented various digital projects for various Migros brands such as "Aus der Region" and "Migusto", as well as for the Migros subsidiary LeShop. It is thanks to his interest in agile workflows and end-to-end product management that the finished products are just as impressive as their development processes. At his new employer, too, the how is at least as important to Dan Deutsch as the what: "At Bold, the focus is on user needs and user experience - that suits me. I like to think projects through from different perspectives and look for the optimal solution for all sides. The fact that my skills in the areas of film and digital products are equally in demand here is, of course, an absolute stroke of luck for me."

A total of 1,500 German adults were surveyed in spring 2019 on the ownership and use of smart speakers. 933 participants in the study stated that they owned at least one voice-controlled assistant. This group of people was examined in more detail with regard to various usage patterns.

Those who choose a smart speaker also use it: 82 percent of those surveyed said they use the voice-controlled assistance on a daily basis. This high intensity of use obviously takes place in more than one room - because over 60 percent of the study participants own at least two smart speakers, and every fifth user even owns four or more devices. Amazon clearly stands out: three quarters of respondents own at least one smart speaker model from the American company.

The topics of data protection and privacy in particular are often discussed in Germany in connection with voice-controlled assistants. Apparently, even the users of smart speakers are undecided about how to evaluate this: More than one in five see a high or increased risk to privacy - and as many as 35 percent of owners still consider the devices a medium risk. Looking at the high intensity of use, however, this risk does not seem to matter in the end. The places for smart speakers in the home, also do not indicate any special precautionary measures: Bedrooms (44 percent), bathrooms (21 percent) and even children's rooms (10 percent) are also equipped with the devices.

Four areas of application stand out among the German smart speaker users surveyed: Most users use them to activate their streaming services, ask their voice-controlled assistant various questions, control their smart home in this way or organize themselves. What the devices are hardly ever used for in this study is shopping: 87 percent of users say they have never made a purchase using voice control - and most of them even say that this type of shopping is out of the question for them (64 percent). In other markets such as the USA, voice-controlled shopping is still a small area. However, current studies assume that this segment will grow - to the extent that voice control of devices is increasingly becoming a natural part of our lives.

Experts leave no doubt that the market for smart speakers and voice-controlled applications will continue to develop rapidly4. And the Beyto study also shows the growth potential for this market segment: of those surveyed who do not yet own a smart speaker, 8 percent are already planning to buy one, and another 48 percent can at least imagine doing so. German Economics Minister Peter Altmaier is also certain that companies have recognized this: "In one or two years, all devices will be operable by voice control."

Over 100 couples of different sexual orientations symbolically said yes to each other in the Allianz Pride Wedding Chapel during Pride weekend. With the action, Allianz wanted to expand its commitment to diversity and inclusion. "We can write diversity on our banner, or we can live it. In line with our claim 'Courage means doing', we decided to do it," explains Thomas Jost, Head of Brand Management and Sponsoring at Allianz Suisse.

Sir Mary developed and implemented the idea of the Allianz Pride Wedding Chapel. "The fact that this campaign should not only inspire Pride visitors was part of the concept: With a PR value of around 750,000 Swiss francs, we made it editorially into various radio and TV channels as well as various daily newspapers," says Iva Bozovic, Senior Communication Strategist at Sir Mary, happily.

Roland August, a priest widely known in the United States and a trained theater actor, performed the weddings and has had a special relationship with the LGBTIQ+ community for years: "When it was still illegal in the United States, our chapel was one of the only ones that did registered partnerships of couples of all sexual orientations. These people were turned away elsewhere; we accepted them. People marry for all kinds of reasons, but couples who don't do it for family or taxes do it for pure love. That can't be a bad thing! This action has also shown how much people long for marriage for all. I think it's fair to say, Switzerland, you're ready for same-sex marriage."

There was also a consistently positive response to the Allianz Pride Wedding Chapel on Pride social channels.

Urs Hügli (Chairman of the Board), Imre Sinka (Client Service Director), Nathalie Hämmerli (Senior Digital Project Manager) and Raphael Bienz (Chief Executive Officer) (from left).

The merger creates a digital marketing agency with around 40 employees in the areas of consulting, strategic planning, search engine optimization, content marketing, performance marketing (paid search and social, programmatic advertising), social media marketing, analytics, UX and visual design, and in the conception and implementation of web projects.

With its deepened competencies and expanded range of services, the agency aims to meet the ever-increasing demands on the performance and creativity of online marketing initiatives. "We are deepening our core competencies and gaining one of Switzerland's richest pools of experience in the conception and design of successful online presences. We will thus be able to provide our customers with even more holistic advice and support in the future," says Raphael Bienz, Chief Executive Officer of BlueGlass. The merger will drive forward technological developments and also fuel innovation and creativity.

Dotpulse employees will move into BlueGlass before the end of July 2019 to tackle customer projects with combined expertise in the future.

BlueGlass Interactive remains owner-managed and independent under Raphael Bienz. The current Dotpulse owners Imre Sinka and Nathalie Hämmerli are new members of the BlueGlass shareholder base and remain operationally active as Client Service Director and Senior Digital Project Manager. Imre Sinka also complements the BlueGlass Board of Directors with Urs Hügli.
 

Coca-Cola is teaming up with Netflix for the third season of "Stranger Things" and, in addition to a social media campaign, is launching a limited edition can that is upside down in the spirit of the hit series. Consumers can also use the QR code on the cans to immerse themselves in a virtual world in which strange things happen and from which they ultimately have to free themselves.

"'Stranger Things' celebrates an iconic style with its 80s look, which is being revived by younger generations and brings back childhood memories for older generations. The 80s are also a formative time in the history of Coca-Cola. That's why we're all the more pleased to make the journey back in time even more tangible for 'Stranger Things' fans with our limited edition," explains Stefan Rothenbühler, Senior Brand Manager at Coca-Cola Switzerland.

The limited edition Coca-Cola cans were produced exclusively for the Swiss market and are now available in retail outlets.

Özcan (pictured left) has held management positions in sales and project management for ten years. Before Virtue, the 33-year-old worked at IPG Mediabrands in Zurich as Client Service Manager Digital. There he was responsible for and advised clients such as H&M, Patek Philippe and Zurich Insurance on digital planning and strategy. With the new appointment of Öczan, the Swiss Virtue leadership team is complete. Virtue in Switzerland is led by Managing Director Florian Sonderegger (pictured right). In addition, Aras Özcan, Radwan Atwi as Creative Director, and Christian Brütsch as Client Service Director, are now part of the local management team.

Florian Sonderegger is delighted: "We are delighted to have Aras Özcan as a new member of the team, someone who knows the Swiss market extremely well and at the same time shares our vision: To give brand communication in Switzerland a new color. Only when agencies and their partners show attitude does communication create value and reach its audience in a real and sustainable way. In a world that is changing rapidly, this is how we pay attention to business goals and not just short-term KPIs like likes."

Aras Özcan: "The agency and advertising industry is undergoing a transformation and needs to redefine itself. Virtue is an agency that has already entered the new agency age and dares to take paths in communication that no one has taken before. I want to help shape change in my new role and look forward to working with an excellent team."
 

Since the beginning of the year, the basic psychiatric care of the Winterthur and Zürcher Unterland IPW regions has been an independent institution under public law of the Canton of Zurich.

Dachcom's task was to present this independence visually through the new brand identity. The new branding is intended to position IPW as an innovative and competent institution that is actively committed to the well-being of people with mental illness. The communication is consistently geared towards the needs of the stakeholder groups, which include referrers, specialists and potential employees, patients and relatives.

The independent color scheme, the diverse imagery and the personal content put people at the center of the presentation.

As part of the rebranding, all communication measures, business stationery, service documentation and the entire building signage concept were updated.