Small country, lots of potential. Cutting-edge research and numerous groundbreaking inventions have made Switzerland famous, and today our country is still considered an international innovation leader. This is also reflected in the start-up boom - every year, around 40,000 new companies are founded throughout Switzerland. Axa Winterthur is now looking for the start-ups with the most promising ideas in a new TV format on Sat.1 and ProSieben.

"Battle of ideas" - the show

The aim of the broadcast series is to show the diversity of the Swiss start-up scene and to give start-ups the visibility they need. To this end, the two startup insiders Sunnie Groeneveld, who set up the location initiative Digitalswitzerland (formerly DigitalZurich2015) in 2015/16, and Pascal Mathis, the co-founder of the successful startup GetYourGuide, travel across Switzerland - always on the lookout for the best idea. Each show, two to three start-ups pitch to the two industry experts for a place in the final show. There, the finalists present their inventions and products to a jury of experts and potential business angels - and get the chance to receive professional and financial support for their start-up.

Accompanying content marketing campaign

The broadcast is accompanied by a content marketing campaign developed jointly by Axa and Publicis, which offers the target group relevant added value in the form of checklists, infographics and tips and tricks. Using display advertising, native advertising, video and social ads on Facebook, Twitter, youtube, Xing and LinkedIn as well as POS posters at the various Axa agencies, attention will be drawn to the TV format and Axa's start-up package in the coming weeks.

Mélanie Gujan, Head Marketing Communication of Axa Winterthur, on the background of the campaign: "Innovation plays a major role in our company and we consider it our duty to make a strong contribution to the promotion of the Swiss start-up ecosystem in order to strengthen Switzerland as a center of innovation. With the TV format The battle of ideas and the accompanying content marketing campaign, we want to give innovative Swiss start-ups the chance to present themselves to the public and thus show the wider population how innovative Switzerland and its young entrepreneurs are."

Landing page: Fightingideas.ch

Responsible at Axa Winterthur: Melanie Gujan (Head Marketing Communicaton); Claudia Suter (Head Brand & Advertising); Sebastian Suter (Overall Project Management)
Robin Brügger, Franziska Wildi, Daniela Gerber (Content); Julia Wunsch, Annabel Klein (Social Media); Jochen Fuchs, Timo Fegeler (Youtube, SEA/SEO). Responsible at Xeit: Alexandra Baumann (Content); Andrea Iltgen (Head of Production); Tabea Leibundgut (Content Project Management). Responsible at Publicis: Johannes Raggio (Creative Director); Sandy Pfuhl (Art Director); Jan Kempter (Text); Elena Tzetanova (Social Media); Cathy Nyffenegger, Claudia Ziltener, Alain Götschi (Consulting). Responsible at Mediafisch: Björn Hering (Partner); Adrian Gnehm (Managing Director); Nicole Ulrich (Producer); Theresa Strack (Content). Responsible media agencies: Havas Media (display), Adringo & Capture Media (native advertising), Hutter Consulting (video and social ads on Facebook).

AdRingo is thus strengthening itself with an experienced expert for online advertising who is very well known in the industry. In the newly created position, the expansion and establishment of AdRingo in the Swiss advertising market will now be initiated. The 39-year-old Hohl began his online career at Cablecom (now UPC) as an Internet content specialist. This was followed by positions at Hewlett Packard and TradeDoubler, before he became entrepreneurial in 2012 as co-founder of the student and youth portal Toasted.

Julian Schweizer, founder of AdRingo: "Over the last 18 months, we have invested heavily in the technological development of our native advertising platform. With Philip Hohl, we now have the right person on board to establish our offering in the Swiss advertising market." The AdRingo Marketplace enables advertisers to place native ads directly in the mobile newsfeed of Switzerland's leading news portals.