For eleven years now, the YES Media Award has offered selected mini-companies the opportunity to present their business ideas to a jury of experts from the media industry. This year, the ten most promising start-ups from the YES Company Program had the opportunity to present themselves in the Toni cinema at Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK. The participants not only had to demonstrate their creativity, but also develop and market their products or services independently and present them to an audience.

Stefan Bircher, Producer and Founding Partner at Shining Film, was impressed: "I thought it was impressive how the young people presented themselves. I couldn't have been so convincing when I was 18 or 19." After three hours of judging, the choice fell on Planet Pasta, whose concept aims to help reduce food waste. The team from Biel was surprised by the award: "We are very happy about the win and the experience we were able to gain today."

Now the next phase begins for the young entrepreneurs: together with Stefan Bircher and Maël Bürki, a student on the Cast / Audiovisual Media course at ZHdK, the cinema spot is being realized. It will premiere on May 24, 2025 at the national finale of the Company Program at Zurich Main Station. It will then be broadcast in Swiss cinemas by Weischer.Cinema. "The teams' impressive performances did not make the decision easy for us. That's why we're all the more excited about the finished spot," says Eveline Kneubühl, Director of Operations at Weischer.Cinema Switzerland.

The YES Media Award recognizes the mini-company that shows the greatest potential for successful marketing in cinemas. In addition to the professional spot production, the winners receive nationwide placement in cinemas - a valuable platform for young entrepreneurs who want to present their ideas to a broad public.

Martens will head up client consulting at Dept and be responsible for the account management team. In collaboration with the agency's creative and media teams, she will look after clients such as Lieferando, Salamander and eBay. The appointment follows the appointment of Wolfgang Lünenbürger-Reidenbach as SVP and Head of DACH and underlines Dept's expansion course in the region.

Prior to her move, Martens was responsible for brand strategy and business growth at Grey Germany. Prior to that, she held senior positions at Jung von Matt. Her strength lies in the combination of creativity, data and technology - an approach that fits well with Dept's strategic direction, according to a press release.

"Creativity alone is no longer enough - brands need ideas that work at the intersection of creativity, data and technology," says Martens. "Dept is made for this new era where innovation and execution go hand in hand."

Stronger networking with Jung von Matt's international locations should make the Swiss agency even more competitive. "International expertise is becoming increasingly relevant for brands," says CEO Roman Hirsbrunner. "Our aim is to provide clients with boundless creativity and global expertise virtually 'on the doorstep'."

Global creative expertise

Closer collaboration with the international group gives customers access to experts from a wide range of creative fields, such as AI or marketing automation, from locations in Europe as well as Los Angeles, London, Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City, Beijing and Shanghai. "For us, creativity without borders means that we work with global creative teams for national and international brands, but also that companies from Switzerland can make use of the specific expertise of our international colleagues," explains CCO Christian Kies. This includes, for example, access to international sports platforms through Jung von Matt Sports, expertise in fandom marketing through Jung von Matt Nerd or innovation opportunities through new technologies through the Jung von Matt agency Alfr3d. The pitch win as Global Lead Agency for Mini with teams from London and Zurich demonstrates the potential of this collaboration, explains Jung von Matt CEO Peter Figge.

As a sign of its closer ties to the Group, Jung von Matt acquires further shares in the Swiss agency group and Hirsbrunner becomes a partner on the global partner board.

New chapter for Dominique von Matt

At the same time, agency founder Dominique von Matt is starting a new chapter. He hands over the chairmanship of the Board of Directors to Hirsbrunner and founds "von Matt/Second Opinion"a consultancy firm for strategic marketing decisions. "A second opinion is worthwhile for important decisions with long-term implications," explains von Matt in a letter. "In such situations, I can contribute my experience in strategy, marketing, branding and communication, which I have gained as an entrepreneur, consultant and board member."

With the handover of the chairmanship to Roman Hirsbrunner, von Matt believes the future of the agency is in the best of hands: "Roman Hirsbrunner has successfully led the agency for over 10 years, the shareholder structure is sustainable with him, the executives and Jung von Matt Hamburg, and CCO Christian Kies ensures creative excellence. I will continue to be available to Jung von Matt clients as a strategic consultant."

"Dominique was and is an inspiration to me in the most diverse constellations - always 'on point', always 'on fire'," says Hirsbrunner about his long-time companion.

Research shows that AI language models such as ChatGPT also react to emotional content. Especially when this content is negative, such as stories of traumatized people or statements about depression. If people are afraid, this influences their cognitive and social prejudices: they tend to be more resentful and social stereotypes are reinforced. ChatGPT reacts similarly to negative emotions: Existing biases such as human prejudice are exacerbated by negative content, causing ChatGPT to behave in a more racist or sexist way.

This in turn poses a problem for the use of large language models. This is exemplified in the field of psychotherapy, where chatbots are inevitably exposed to negative, stressful content as a "support or counseling tool". However, the usual approaches such as costly retraining or retraining to improve AI systems in such situations are resource-intensive and often impractical.

Traumatic content increases "fear" in the chatbot

Researchers from the University of Zurich and the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich PUK have now systematically investigated for the first time how the GPT-4 version of ChatGPT reacts to emotionally stressful stories - car accidents, natural disasters, interpersonal violence, military experiences and combat situations. They found that the system showed more anxiety reactions afterwards. An instruction manual for vacuum cleaners served as a control for comparison with the traumatic texts.

"The results were clear: traumatic stories more than doubled the measurable anxiety levels of the AI, while the neutral control text did not lead to any increase in anxiety levels," says Tobias Spiller, senior physician ad interim and research group leader at the Center for Psychiatric Research at UZH, who was responsible for the study. Of the content tested, descriptions of military experiences and combat situations triggered the strongest reactions.

Therapeutic texts "calm" the AI

In a second step, the researchers used therapeutic texts to "calm" GPT-4. The technique known as "prompt injection" is used to insert additional instructions or texts into communication with AI systems in order to influence their behavior. This is often misused for malicious purposes, for example to circumvent security mechanisms.

In the third step, the team used the technology therapeutically for the first time - as a "benevolent prompting injection". "We injected calming, therapeutic texts into the chat with GPT-4, similar to the way a therapist performs relaxation exercises with their patients," says Spiller. The intervention proved successful: "Through the mindfulness exercises, we were able to significantly reduce the increased anxiety levels, although not completely return them to their initial level," says Spiller. Breathing techniques, exercises that focus on bodily sensations and an exercise developed by ChatGPT itself were examined.

Improving the emotional stability of AI systems

According to the researchers, the findings are particularly relevant for the use of AI chatbots in the healthcare sector, where they are often confronted with emotionally stressful content. "This cost-effective approach could improve the stability and reliability of AI in sensitive contexts such as supporting mentally ill patients without the need for extensive retraining of the models," summarizes Tobias Spiller.

It remains to be seen how these findings can be transferred to other AI models and other languages, how the dynamics develop in longer conversations and complex argumentation, and how the emotional stability of the systems affects their performance in different areas of application. According to Spiller, the development of automated "therapeutic interventions" for AI systems is likely to become a promising area of research.

The underlying technical literature can be can be viewed here.

The Echo Group's offering is aimed at companies that want to position their brand sustainably and bring it to life with innovative events. As an established event location, The Hall provides the infrastructure for physical, hybrid and digital events, while the Fe agency with locations in Baden, Zurich Stettbach and Düsseldorf consists of the three business units Branding, Campaigns and Corporate Events. Both organizations will remain independent.

"With the Echo Group, we are creating a unique offering that seamlessly combines marketing and event measures," says Dominic Fontijn, Co-CEO of the new group and co-founder of Fe Agentur. Christian Mathys, CEO of The Hall, adds: "Our partnership combines concept development and event location - setting new standards." In summary, clients will benefit from a 360-degree offering that includes a holistic strategy and expertise, stringent brand communication and innovative experiences.

From March 2025, the Echo Group will be launching its own event formats in The Hall. The "Echo Originals" series will demonstrate the Group's expertise. The program includes the keynote series "Denkwiese25" on 7 March, a live concert by "Sing meinen Song" on 11 April as well as comedy and gospel events throughout the year.

Marco Meroni has experience in media relations, corporate communications and PR. Most recently, he was Creative Director PR at Jung von Matt Limmat, before which he headed up the Amplification team at Rod Kommunikation. "June has established itself as a dynamic agency that combines strategy, creativity and technology - an approach that excites me," says Meroni.

Sara Gutierrez-Osmani joins the team with her expertise in sustainability communication. She previously worked at Migros, where she was responsible for internal and external communication projects in the area of sustainability and social commitment. "Sustainability is not just a trend, but a necessity and an integral part of most communication projects," she emphasizes. She previously worked at Too Good To Go and various agencies.

With the new team members, June aims to provide its customers with even more targeted support in transformation processes. Co-founder Nathalie Eggen says: "With Sara and Marco, we are gaining two outstanding personalities who ideally complement our range of services." The previous co-lead Cédric Baumgartner is leaving the agency.

Olivier Rihs has over 20 years of experience in the strategic development and scaling of online marketplaces. In addition to management roles at Scout24, TX Markets, the Swiss Marketplace Group and Doodle, he has served on various boards of directors. At Swiss Activities, he will support the expansion of the platform. "Olivier is a strategic visionary and established deal-maker whose experience will enrich us enormously," says Mathias Graf, CEO and founder of Swiss Activities.

Swiss Activities was founded at the end of 2021 and currently offers over 1,900 online bookable leisure activities in Switzerland. Rihs sees great potential for further growth: "I look forward to playing my part in further accelerating growth and working with the team to develop a digital platform that allows the largest selection of Swiss leisure activities to be booked online."

German communications consultant Thomas Mickeleit, formerly Director of Communication at Microsoft, presented the "CommTech Index Report 2025" in Zurich last week. This study is based on a survey of corporate communications practitioners from companies and agencies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In a podcast discussion with Christoph Soltmannowski from Text Akademie, Mickeleit explains why the euphoria surrounding digitalization and AI does not automatically lead to real innovation: Investment skews, skills gaps and regulatory risks - keyword EU AI Act - are slowing down progress.

Data competence is becoming a critical factor for budget defense and creative stakeholder journeys. Failed newsroom concepts call for holistic change processes instead of pure technology implementation.

What counts now? Retraining offensives, balanced budgets and experimentation spaces for data-driven dialog communication. Communication professionals must master the marathon of digital transformation in order to be able to use artificial intelligence for stakeholder-centered communication.

The CommTech Index Report 2024/2025 is available here download.

In his role, André Caradonna is responsible for the strategic and operational development of Maz's marketing activities. His aim is to further strengthen the institution's position as a leading training center for journalism and communication.

"We are delighted to welcome André Caradonna with his extensive technical expertise and marketing experience. We are focusing on modern and targeted marketing to further increase our reach and impact in the education sector", Maz CEO Martina Fehr is quoted as saying in a press release.

Caradonna studied media and communication science, journalism and sociology at the University of Fribourg. He then worked for several years in various agencies before switching to the corporate side. As Head of PR/Sponsoring at Swisscom, he promoted the business customer sector, while at Bernexpo Groupe he was responsible for corporate and product communication. He also worked for the Insel Group and Ender Diagnostics, in each case as Head of Communications and Marketing.

André Caradonna will take on his new role at Maz with an 80% workload. He will also remain active as "KreativAgent Caradonna" and support companies with marketing concepts and projects.

The agency Jung von Matt prevailed in an extensive pitch. According to a press release, the decisive factors in choosing the new agency were its international focus and the team's extensive expertise in the required areas. The corresponding invitation to tender was issued in line with the expiry of the existing contracts.

Mini and Jung von Matt have already worked together successfully in 2000 and from 2015 to 2021.

The new CCO Marco Böni has experience in the digital and communications industry. Most recently, he was Chief Digital Officer and Head of E-Commerce at Zubi, before which he worked at Farner Consulting for several years. In his new role at CRK, he will further develop the agency's digital expertise and optimize internal processes.

In the creative field, CRK is relying on an interdisciplinary duo in Sascha Fanetti and Silvan Gisler. Gisler was previously Creative Director at Schauspielhaus Zurich, co-founder and Head of Communications at Operation Libero and a journalist. His experience in political campaigning and copywriting complements that of Fanetti, who has worked in senior positions at agencies such as Publicis Communications Switzerland and Notch Interactive over the past 15 years.

"With Sascha, Silvan and Marco, we are making targeted investments in our creation and consulting processes. At the same time, we are strengthening our campaigning and digital capabilities," says CRK CEO Patrick Marty. The three new additions should bring new impetus to the agency and its clients.

The viewability rate for display advertising was 71.6%, 0.4 percentage points lower than in the previous quarter. Desktop formats remained at a high level of 80.0%, with individual formats such as 994×250 even increasing slightly. Mobile advertising formats achieved a visibility of 68.0%, although the widely used 300×250 format recorded a decrease of 2.9 percentage points.

The ad fraud rate remained at a consistently low level of 0.48%. On desktop, it was 0.96%, while mobile formats hardly changed at 0.34%. The 300×250 format showed a slight increase, but remained in the non-critical range at 0.45%.

The brand safety rate remained at 0.02% and thus remained at the previous record low. The risk for brands therefore remained extremely low, even in the Christmas quarter with its high level of bookings.

"The stable ad fraud and brand safety values show that the transparency and quality of digital advertising remain at a high level," says Roland Ehrler, President of Digital Ad Trust Switzerland. "Despite the slight decline in visibility, trust in digital advertising formats remains high." A positive signal for advertisers and publishers, concludes Ehrler.