ComImpact 2018: "Communication with Impact"

"The demands on communication managers are higher than ever, with this conference we want to provide orientation and impulses," emphasized/ Cyril Meier from the HWZ.

In the opening presentation, Prof. Dr. Ansgar Zerfass, University of Leipzig and most renowned German-speaking expert in the field of communication management, outlined the latest state of research. "The most important contribution of communication in a company is to anchor the strategy with the most important stakeholders. This achievement is still far too little considered and realized."

The importance of strategic goals was also reiterated by Melanie Gujan, Axa, in her joint presentation with Alex Herrmann, Hotz Brand Consultants: "Communication and brand management cannot be done in isolation from strategic goals."

In the second part of the event, participants had the opportunity to visit two of the four labs on offer: Silvia Schnidrig, Head of Corporate Communications at Swica, immersed participants in communications management at a health insurer; Thomas Cantaro, SodaStream Switzerland, explored data-driven content marketing in digital channels; Nicolai Reuland, Swisscom, illustrated how Wingo monitors its marketing campaigns; and Pavo Prskalo, Swiss Software, provided insight into communications controlling in an SME.

In the closing presentation, Tobias Zehnder, co-founder of Webrepublic, surprised the audience with his thoughts on ComImpact: "It's not about finding a metric that proves you were right. Rather, it has to be about radically striving to be better. Test, measure, dare. This doesn't require an inflation of tools, but the right culture. For the communications manager of the future, however, data excellence is an indispensable trait!".

A summary of the presentation by Professor Zerfass as well as the slides of the presentations by Gujan/Herrmann and Zehnder can be found at here.

More photos of the event can be found in the upcoming Advertising Week 12/2018 of July 13, 2018.