Around 300 Ringier employees moved their lunch break to the Zurich Kunsthaus last Monday. With the help of his avatar, Marc Walder presented the annual figures to the staff in 19 countries - and introduced them to the metaverse. The CEO also announced the Sports Media Group.
It was a show like one imagines in Silicon Valley. Dimmed lights, loud music, a countdown showing the last minutes until the start. Of the approximately 6400 employees, spread across 19 countries, around 300 accepted the invitation to the employee event at the Kunsthaus in Zurich. The rest had the opportunity to follow the event online. Instead of Marc Walder himself on stage, his avatar appeared on the screen and welcomed the audience on site and online. At this event, the avatar symbolises the focus of the event: the metaverse. The leap there is the next big step, says the CEO.
"Hello from the real me," says Walder and steps onto the stage. He jokes about his avatar: "Avatars often look different and younger than real people. Mine is both."
73 percent from digital business
After the welcome, Ringier CFO Annabella Bassler - or rather her avatar - takes the floor. The annual result for 2021 is presented. It was a record year because the result had never been better since Ringier committed itself to the digital transformation in 2008.
An important figure for Marc Walder, as he later emphasised at the background discussion with various journalists, remains the share of profit from digital business. Last year, this figure was 73 per cent. Anything above 70 per cent is very good, he adds.
First GL meeting in the Metaverse
Marc Walder also sees a lot of potential in the metaverse, as he mentions several times during the day. At the Speak, the CEO calls on the employees to gather their first experiences in order to prepare for the future. As an example, the CEO sounds the dial-up tones that could be heard in the 1990s when people dialled into the Internet. He says, "This is where we are today in terms of the metaverse." What will happen here in the next few years is "super relevant" - especially for a media company.
Walder talks enthusiastically about the first Ringier management meeting in the Metaverse (see picture above). The point was to experience what such a meeting felt like, how one listened, how one spoke. He did not mention any concrete projects. However, a presence for Ringier would be suitable for real estate platforms, for example. The viewing of an advertised flat could take place in the Metaverse, for example. Blick, on the other hand, would be seen and consumed within the digital world.
For publisher Michael Ringier, the Metaverse avatars are still "somewhat childish little figures", as he says on stage in an interview with Steffi Buchli, editor-in-chief of Blick Sport. He can't quite imagine yet whether it will really work, but is happy to be convinced otherwise.
Source: Personal
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