The Bern-based digital agency Ads&Figures won a pitch and has been in charge of BVZ Holding's digital performance marketing for the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn and Gornergrat Bahn since January 2025.

Ads&Figures is taking over the areas of social media advertising, programmatic advertising, search engine advertising (SEA) and data & analytics with the aim of significantly increasing the online visibility of both platforms in the Swiss and international markets in order to further increase the number of online bookings.

The Press Council announced on Monday that it must at least state how many people were surveyed and whether the survey is representative. If the survey is representative, it is also necessary to name the area of error. The editorial offices must also inform the public of the central content of the questions in the opinion poll.

Labeling of advertising

The revised directive on the "separation of editorial content and advertising" will also come into force in the new year. This is primarily aimed at publishers who acquire advertising, it added. The Press Council is aligning itself with the Swiss Commission for Fairness and the Swiss Media Association, which have previously taken a stricter line. In future, all three organizations will demand the same principle.

The Press Council now also requires that non-editorial articles that appear in the context of editorial articles are clearly marked and have a recognizably different design. Previously, only one of these two measures was required.

According to the Press Council, these guidelines are existential for the media and the credibility of journalism. The latest research has shown that it is not enough for advertising articles to be labeled "Paid Content" or "Publisher's Supplement", but otherwise do not differ from the editorial pages in terms of design. (SDA/swi)

The author of the report published in October 2023 NZZ-The author of the article wrote that SRF broadcasts have been sounding the alarm for many years, although there is no scientific basis for this alarmism. Two complaints were received against this article, the Press Council announced on Monday.

One complainant considered the sentence "Science still sees no trends towards more extreme events" to be a violation of section 3 (omission of important information elements) of the Journalists' Code. The Press Council came to the conclusion that debates in science are part of the knowledge process. However, it should be noted that the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is considered the gold standard in climate research.

According to the Press Council, journalists may and should critically examine and question a generally recognized state of research. However, if they disagree with this, they should also provide evidence or at least state that it is a minority position.

Baden free newspaper also criticized

The Press Council also rejected a complaint against the free newspaper Baden Week City because of the mixture of advertising and editorial content. The first text was a completely uncritical questioning of the new Lexus car model and its advantages. According to the Press Council, the front article is obviously public relations and not journalism. Such a report should have been labeled as advertising or should have stood out from the rest of the newspaper due to its layout.

The immediate proximity of text and advertisement in a second text about a private learning workshop in Olten SO also suggests an inadmissible combination of paid advertising with a pleasing report, according to the Press Council. Section 10 of the Code of Journalism prohibits journalists from using any form of commercial advertising in their professional activities. (SD/swi)

Just a stone's throw from Regensdorf railroad station is Switzerland's tallest timber high-rise, "H1". The 75-metre high, red residential tower comprises over 150 apartments and has tree-like protruding solar panels.

In order to highlight the special features and give future tenants an impression of the residential feel, the Zurich agency Schroten has developed and produced a series of content formats. At the heart of these is a film in which architect Roger Boltshauser explains his thoughts on the design of the building on the Zwhatt site.

In other stories, Schroten shows how Swiss innovation not only allows timber buildings to grow to completely new heights, but also creates sustainable, diverse and adaptable living space.

On behalf of Pensimo Management, Schroten has been providing communications support for the development of the new "Zwhatt" urban quarter since the beginning of 2023 and is responsible for the content on Zwhatt.ch responsible.

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Responsible at Pensimo Management: Ana Alberati (Deputy Portfolio Manager AST Pensimo), Bruno Fritschi (Portfolio Manager AST Turidomus, Portfolio Manager AST Adimora). Responsible for grist: Adrian Schräder (overall responsibility), Nicola Brusa (editorial office), Leonie Moeri (project management), Adrian Huwyler (application). Photos: Désirée Good. Film: Mattogrosso GmbH, Benjamin Weiss (Producer & Director), Marc Bachmann (DOP), Annika Fausch (Editing).

The State Chancellery announced on Friday that the basic obligation to obtain a permit for temporary billboards should be maintained. This is primarily intended to prevent billboards from endangering traffic or disfiguring the townscape and landscape.

Illuminated and moving advertisements, advertisements on roads and advertisements on natural or cultural monuments are therefore generally subject to approval, according to the press release. The approval procedure is a simplified procedure without a public requirement.

However, according to the government council, anyone wishing to erect a permanent advertisement must go through the building permit procedure. This applies, for example, to fixed advertising signs at the entrance to a town or free-standing advertising signs.

Time restrictions for permit-free posters

Election, voting and event posters are to be exempt from the permit requirement. The prerequisite is that they are rectangular and their surface area does not exceed 3.5 square meters.

There are time restrictions for advertisements that do not require a permit. According to the government council, they should be erected at the earliest seven weeks before the date and must be removed within a week afterwards.

The totally revised ordinance is also to include a ban on advertisements that violate public order, decency, morality or human dignity.

The current Advertising Ordinance dates back to 1989 and the aim of the revision is to clarify which advertisements are subject to a permit requirement. In addition, new forms of moving and illuminated advertising are to be regulated. The consultation period will last until March 28, 2025. (SDA)

In the ruling published on the Friday before Christmas, the judges in Lausanne confirmed an earlier decision by the Federal Administrative Court. Around a year ago, following an appeal by a company, the court ruled that the degressive tariff structure did not comply with the constitution. It recommended to the Federal Council that the company levy should be progressive or linear.

The Federal Supreme Court also rejects the appeal by the company and the Federal Tax Administration. It first states that the radio and television levy for companies, like that for private households, is a special-purpose tax.

The degressive structure of the tax structure for companies, which is graduated according to turnover, violates the principle of equal taxation in accordance with Article 127 of the Federal Constitution. In addition, the various tariff levels are not in any reasonable proportion to each other when considering the system as a whole.

Tariffs remain unchanged for the time being

Furthermore, the Federal Supreme Court, like the Federal Administrative Court before it, came to the conclusion that, for reasons of legal certainty, the current tariffs remain applicable until the next amendment to the ordinance. First of all, the Federal Supreme Court points out that it does not have the authority to set the tariffs itself until the Federal Council acts.

In addition, the abolition of the corporate fee would limit the possibilities of satisfactorily fulfilling the important tasks associated with the production and broadcasting of radio and television programme services. Furthermore, the absolute deviations in the tariff structure are relatively small, especially in the lower areas of the scale.

Depending on turnover

In Switzerland, not only private households but also companies with a turnover of more than half a million francs per year pay a fee for radio and TV. The Federal Council redefined the rates for companies in the Radio and Television Ordinance at the beginning of 2021 in 18 revenue-based tiers.

The tariffs range from 160 francs (turnover of 500,000 to 749,000 francs) to just under 50,000 francs (turnover of 1 billion francs or more). (SDA/swi)

Starting January 1, 2025, Burgdorf will publish official announcements regarding public matters—such as referendums, construction projects, or decrees—online on the portal ePublikation.ch. This was decided by the Burgdorf City Council, according to a statement released by the city.

The report went on to say that people who do not use digital media can have publications printed and picked up at the counter as needed. In addition, starting in January, the voluntary publications will be available on demand in the newly created section of the newspaper The Region appear.

According to a statement from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the ePublikation portal is operated by SECO. In addition to SECO, the organization is supported by several cantons and the Swiss Association of Municipalities. (SDA)

APG|SGA celebrates 125 years of formative history and continuous innovation in OOH and DOOH in 2025. Founded in Geneva in 1900, the company, which has been listed on the stock exchange since 1904, has established itself as a relevant player in the Swiss out-of-home advertising industry. Today, APG|SGA and its subsidiaries in Serbia and Switzerland offer a broad portfolio with a total of 150,000 digital and traditional advertising spaces that help international, national and local advertisers to reach their target groups effectively.

"The 125th anniversary of APG|SGA is not only a reason to celebrate, but also an opportunity to thank our customers, partners, shareholders and employees for their trust and long-standing support," says Markus Ehrle, CEO of APG|SGA. "We look back on our history with pride and at the same time are full of drive to continue shaping the future of out-of-home advertising with innovative solutions and technologies. This symbolizes our golden anniversary logo for the year 2025."

As part of its 125th anniversary celebrations, APG|SGA will be holding a series of events and campaigns to demonstrate its commitment to outdoor advertising, customers, partners, the general public and employees. APG|SGA will communicate the activities on an ongoing basis via its communication channels and on the anniversary landing page.

House of Influence implements the national influencer campaign for Miele. The campaign focuses on the sustainably produced T-shirt for the "Miele x Mode Suisse Award for Positive Impact". This was designed by Maison Blanche founder Yannik Zamboni.

In their Instagram post, the influencers from the fashion and lifestyle sectors draw attention to the good cause and collect donations for the umbrella organization "Frauenhäuser Schweiz & Liechtenstein". Among other things, they integrated l.kiassumbua, Harmoniekmatthey and  Melanielaura one of the limited edition T-shirts in their Instagram reels. All posts will go live in the week before Christmas and will also be promoted through ads to increase reach and further boost sales for the good cause.

According to Cheyenne Steiniger from House of Influence, the campaign is not just about raising awareness for Miele: "This campaign is a wonderful example of how brands like Miele can take real responsibility for sustainability." This is because consumers today expect brands not only to sell products, but also to drive positive social change.

For Andy Oehrli, Director Marketing at Miele Switzerland, the success of the project is paramount: "The 'Shirt for Positive Impact' is an exclusive item of clothing that is more than just fashion. It is a statement of solidarity. For Miele, sustainability and social commitment are not a trend, but a conviction - visible in every detail of this project. "

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Responsible at Miele: Lea Fallegger (Brand & Digital Activation Manager). Responsible at House of Influence: Leila Schmid (overall responsibility), Tanja Herrmann (strategy), Cheyenne Steininger (project management support).

In his new position, 41-year-old Benedict Neff will strategically develop foreign reporting and further strengthen the NZZ's position as an "indispensable voice for well-founded analyses and assessments", the media company writes in a press release. "Benedict is one of the leading journalistic forces of the younger generation. Under his leadership, the NZZ features section has cemented its reputation as a leading voice in cultural and intellectual discourse", says Eric Gujer, Editor-in-Chief of the NZZ. "With his journalistic expertise and strategic vision, he is the ideal person to continue the NZZ's foreign reporting at the highest level and develop it in a future-oriented manner."

Benedict Neff has extensive journalistic experience and a deep understanding of international contexts. After studying history, German and religious studies at the Universities of Zurich and Vienna, he began his journalistic career as a media journalist in 2012. He then worked as an editor for Swiss politics and later as Germany correspondent for the Basler Zeitung. In 2017, he moved to NZZ, first as editor for Nzz.de, then from 2018 as political Germany correspondent. From 2020, he honed his strategic skills as Chief of Staff in the CEO Office of Axel Springer SE. Since 2021, he has been head of the NZZ's features section, where he has established himself as a journalistic pioneer and leader.

According to the press release, the successor for the head of the feature section will be appointed in the coming weeks.

m&k: Jason Romeyko, You are one of the most successful creative directors of your generation. Why did you return to Publicis?

Jason Romeyko: First of all, Publicis Groupe 2024 is very different from "my time". I spent 23 years at Saatchi & Saatchi, which was and still is an independent network within the company as a whole - of course, the formal affiliation came about at the start of the new millennium, but we were still a long way from "The Power of One". Now, in 2024, Publicis is "united" - a "supergroup" of global talents, across numerous disciplines and regions, with different brands. That's why the whole thing feels less like a return and more like a new beginning. Under Alex Haldemann's leadership in Switzerland, something very innovative and fresh has emerged, but humanity has not fallen by the wayside. I very much appreciate how he, Switzerland CFO Edgar [Magyar, editor's note.] and the entire team do that.

 

So you didn't join out of nostalgia.

No. At Serviceplan - the last stop in my career - I led a German agency to international creative excellence. Now I wanted to get back to building brands and culture ... and of course I had UBS on my mind because I had been following the Credit Suisse takeover. Then everything fell into place: I met Alex Haldemann, John McDonald [Group CMO at UBS, editor's note]. and Winfried Daun [Group Head Brand, Creative and Innovation at UBS, editor's note].I took a closer look at what was happening at the bank - and thought: "Wow, that's really exciting!" (laughs)

 

Where did you start your work for UBS?

We are fortunate to be able to work with the fantastic claim "Banking is our Craft". UBS elevates banking to a "craft" in the best sense of the word because the institution has 160 years of experience, 100,000 experts worldwide and a great clientele. It connects people, cultivates relationships and relies on technology and innovation.

Many things can thrive on such fertile ground. We can create "above-the-line communication" that reaches people; that shows them what we are capable of - and at the same time report on the successes of our customers.

In a second step - as soon as people understand what UBS does, how good the bank is - we strive for communicative excellence. We want to create advertising that transcends the financial bubble! Of course, we need the right colleagues for this: Filipa Mauricio, for example, our Creative Director, who brings an unerring sense of style to campaign artwork. Or Jonas Poehlmann [Managing Director at TeamUBS of Publicis Groupe, editor's note]who masterfully orchestrates organizational details and structural subtleties.

 

You seem enthusiastic when you talk about your plans.

I am too! I'm really looking forward to making the UBS brand known far beyond the world of financial services. The biggest challenge and the greatest conceivable success would be to make the bank the institution with the most creative awards in its segment ... to develop a "pull effect", arouse interest and then show other agencies or - at some point - my successors in TeamUBS: "You can also talk about banks like this." If that works, it would be fantastic.

 

Speaking of which, you have just added new elements to the UBS campaign that you are leading. Would you like to tell us something about it?

We went live with the audiovisual work "Crafted for You", which shows the successes of international UBS clients in four stories. You can see what ambitions they have and how the bank's experts help them to realize these ambitions. We wanted to evoke a "premium feeling" around the brand, which is why we collaborated with cinematographer Eduard Grau - he is known for his work on Tom Ford's "A Single Man" or Pedro Almodóvar's "A Room Next Door", which was recently awarded a Golden Lion in Venice. Normally, Edu Grau hardly does any advertising, so he took a certain risk ... as did we (laughs) - But the colleagues from Radical Media balanced this out perfectly with their experience. The atmosphere on set between the client, agency, director and production company was phenomenal. I would say you can see that when you watch "Crafted for You".

I am very grateful to our partners at UBS - especially the aforementioned John McDonald and Winfried Daun, but also Cici Steinmetz - for giving us the trust, the constructive input and the tools to capture "Banking is our Craft" on film.

 

In your career, you have won more than 700 awards for your creative work. When you think back, which award makes you proud to this day; which work do you remember most fondly?

When you win awards for creative ideas at festivals, the prizes actually belong to the agency, the clients and the team - they never belong to a single person. And to be honest, awards aren't that important to me. I always think: "We're only as good as our next idea". Although, of course, official recognition helps younger colleagues in particular to get noticed in the market ... which makes me happy for them.

However, if you explicitly ask me to look back in time, I would say that on a professional level, "Life is for Sharing" for Deutsche Telekom is one of the most significant pieces of work I have had the pleasure of working on. At this point, my best regards to Hans-Christian Schwingen [Head of the Deutsche Telekom brand until 2020, editor's note].because we did this project together. "Life is for Sharing" was revolutionary in many ways, created on the eve of the omnipresence of social media - in addition to Hans-Christian and myself, Kate Stanner's [Global Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi, editor's note]., Paul Silburn [former copywriter at Saatchi & Saatchi, editor's note]. and James Griffiths [Global Client Lead at Team UBS of Publicis Groupe Switzerland, editor's note].with whom I am now able to work again. A great time and a result that will stand the test of time.

 

You are talking about a professional level - what about the personal dimension?

On a personal level, the work on the Vangardist "HIV Magazine" means the most to me. It's a magazine that we printed with the blood of an HIV-positive man and that is now on display at the MoMa in New York City - it has become a piece of contemporary history, a piece of culture.

I was also in the lounge at Zurich Airport the other day and saw that BMW still uses the name "Bayerische Motorenwerke", based on a campaign that I managed at Serviceplan back then. That made me incredibly happy. We "elevated" the brand by writing out the abbreviation again - and thus emphasizing what the brand stands for. It's wonderful that this continues to work in one of the most fiercely competitive premium markets.

 

To describe your methodology, you have coined terms such as "Uber-Creativity" and "Explosive Creativity". What do these terms mean - and how are they reflected in the work that you and your team do every day?

When I developed the term "Uber-Creativity", I had just become the global creative director of Serviceplan International. The agency had offices all over the world, the "Houses of Communication", and there was media, creation, design, et cetera everywhere. But there was no real sense of solidarity across departmental or even national borders. Some colleagues had the feeling that they were only managing, but not contributing to the creative vision of the company. I saw - and still see - things fundamentally differently. Bob Isherwood, the Australian advertising icon, once said: "A good idea can come from anywhere." And I take my cue from that.

 

So for "Uber-Creativity" this means...?

...that everyone who works in an agency contributes to the creative product. Even the colleagues in the finance department or at reception. Everyone is part of a collective quest for innovation - when I think about it, the effort for "Uber-Creativity" is what I now see realized in the Publicis "Power of One" (laughs).

 

And "Explosive Creativity"?

I can tell you an anecdote about this: in 2004, when I was Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi in Moscow, we were asked to pitch for the global Campari account. In Russia, I didn't have the creative resources to handle such a task. So I brought together colleagues from different countries and cultures in Rome and we brainstormed for three days - in what we called a "tribe". Incidentally, the "tribe" concept still exists today and Publicis continues to practice it.

 

How does the "Tribe" concept work?

You get a briefing, and after twenty minutes people have to come back with their initial reactions. Then you go into a second round for forty minutes, people come back with new ideas, present; another forty minutes, present; another forty minutes, present. At the end of the first day, you have about eighty to one hundred ideas - and you start to recognize different motifs, commonalities and topoi.

"Explosive Creativity" condenses the creative process from several months into just a few days. The search is not for perfection, but for "diamonds in the rough". Everyone is allowed to say everything, no one has time for "overthinking". In normal everyday life, ideas are often "overthought", categorized as "good-bad-good-bad". When you work with "Explosive Creativity" in the "Tribe", things happen in quick succession - and instead of "good-bad", you suddenly ask yourself: "What if...?" You overcome barriers that you previously had in your head and crazy, but often quite brilliant things happen.

 

Since we are talking about variations of creativity: Are we still working with "big ideas" enough in our industry? Or have we lost our courage - and data is more or less the only thing that counts?

You know, data is everything and data is nothing. It always depends on what you do with it. We used to get consumer insights in briefings that were generated through research with rather artificial focus groups. Today, thanks to digitalization, we can see people's behaviour in real time - and without the filter of social bias that you always have to think about with focus groups. This behavioral data allows us to delve very deeply into certain processes and makes programmatic advertising et cetera possible in the first place. But for excellent creativity, for leading ideas, the "small details" are not enough. We have to go to a higher level. In the end, it all comes down to interaction and balance, as always.

 

What actually inspires you?

I travel a lot - both professionally and privately. I've always been an "observer" - the type of person who stands away from the crowd and looks at what others are doing. I look at how people interact with each other. I think about what a person's day was like, or when I see a stranger on the street, I like to imagine what they looked like as a child, what their dreams were. This helps me to remain empathetic.

 

What is the best way to develop your own creativity?

When I want to think - really think - I go for a run. It's my source of energy and mental clarity. I work best in the early morning, so I get up at five o'clock when my head is not yet "fogged" by the messages of the day; I lace up my running shoes - and sit down at my desk after a round of exercise. This is also how I connect with my subconscious and get ideas that I might not otherwise get.

I also read a lot - five publications in different languages, every morning. And I have fantastic friends and a wonderful family with whom I can talk - sometimes about very mundane topics. And then I suddenly have an inspiration. You know, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that sometimes the best ideas are born out of simplicity.