Swiss Media Research Day 2017: Who Can Still Be Trusted?

Credibility and trust are the foundation for sustainable customer loyalty, successful negotiation situations and interpersonal relationships. But how do you establish credibility? Who can we still trust? And should we protect our data better?

As part of the Swiss Media Research Day 2017, the Wemf for Advertising Media Research invited experts to the Kursaal in Bern to discuss these questions. In the keynotes and panel discussions, no one had definitive answers ready - but some observations and impulses. The Advertising Week listened to the speakers and panelists and picked up a few quotes:

"We are all paying Google with the oil of the 21st century, our data."

Markus Spillmann, journalist, moderator and owner of Spillmann Publizistik, Strategie, Management.

"Trust is knowing where I stand."

Leo Martin, Ex-Secret Agent.

"We are very careless with our data. I myself sometimes get insanely upset, and shortly afterwards I send my fingerprint to Cupertino via my iPhone."

Stefan Nünlist, Chief Communications Officer, Swisscom.

"Long before there was personalized advertising, we got used to using the services that were free at the time. Now we continue to use them because we stick to our patterns."

Thomas Friemel, Professor of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Zurich with a focus on media use and media effects research.

"Trust is good, control is better. Miss it or forget it is my motto."

Alexander Theobald, Managing Director, Blick Group and Head Human Resources, Ringier.

"Journalists, when they report, demand that everyone should evolve and change. But when it affects them themselves, they don't want to, then that's the most conservative class."

Alexander Theobald, Managing Director, Blick Group and Head Human Resources, Ringier.

"The key is transparency in communication: saying where you stand, regardless of whether it's bad at that moment. People aren't afraid of difficult times, they're afraid of not knowing where they stand."

Monica Dell'Anna, she heads the Business Media division of the NZZ Media Group.

"Trust is good, cooperation is better. Switzerland is too small to engage in trench warfare."

Christian-Kumar Meier, Managing Partner, Mediaplus.

In addition, WEMF CEO Marco Bernasconi, in a double presentation with Marcus Föbus, Project Manager "Swiss Media Data Hub", used the occasion to provide information on the next steps of the "Swiss Media Data Hub" project. As a result of increasing mobility and technological development, new media offerings are emerging and the media brand as a whole is becoming increasingly important. The changed market conditions require corresponding adjustments on the part of monetary research. Mediapulse and the WEMF launched the "Swiss Media Data Hub" project in 2016 to meet these challenges together. (pd/akk)

In the print edition of Werbewoche 18/2017, you can also read an interview with ex-agent Leo Martin. In it, he explains the extent to which journalists and advertisers could use intelligence methods to make people trust them.