New collaborations

The hesitant attitude of advertisers seems to be a thing of the past. Advertising agencies everywhere are working on new campaigns. You can find an initial selection starting on page 7.The Zurich University of Applied Psychology HAP and its practice partner, the advertising agency By Heart, have been conducting research over the past two years with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. The aim was to find out what brands do in the minds of consumers and what role they play in their lives. The two partners are now putting their collaboration on an entrepreneurial footing. Science and creativity do not seem to be mutually exclusive. Read more about the new company and its innovative brand analyses on page 9.In the media industry, the forging of alliances continues. The big players are securing their positions with cooperations and rearming their soldiers.Over the weekend, it became known that the managers of the "Thurgauer Zeitung" and the "Landbote" are currently negotiating a possible cooperation. A joint jacket section and a uniform layout of the two newspapers are planned. According to "NZZ am Sonntag," the media company Tamedia - which owns the "Thurgauer Zeitung" and holds 20 percent of the "Landbote" - is pushing for cooperation. The other side is not sleeping either: NZZ's Freie Presse Holding is behind a deal that seems to be more than a mere cooperation. The closing of ranks between the two titles "Neues Bülacher Tagblatt" and "Zürcher Unterländer" should rather be seen as a veritable takeover. We report on this on page 15.An IHA-GfK study provides initial results on Betty-TV, the interactive television. Around 6,000 people in German-speaking Switzerland are already using the new medium. For more information, see page 16.Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
pc.meier @ werbewoche.ch