"The new Ford B-Max. Opens up new horizons." is the headline for the launch of the new vehicle. True to the motto, Wunderman Zurich has developed a digital campaign, as the agency writes in a press release. The campaign kicked off with prestitial banners on 20min.ch and fans now have the opportunity to win a car worth CHF 25,850 via Facebook for several weeks. To take part, they have to upload a photo that represents the big dream they would fulfill with the new car. The B-MAX itself forms the frame for their dream. The competition generated over 3000 new Facebook fans in the first three weeks. The Competition underway.

Responsible at Ford Motor Company Switzerland: Danijel Dzihic (Director Marketing), Marcello Varallo (Marketing Communications Manager). Responsible at Wunderman: Thomas Engeli (CD), Dieter Boller (text), Daniel Schranz (AD), Dominik Sigrist (screen design), Michael Höhn and Paolo Brocco (programming), Stéphanie Bertschi and Gabriel Szalai (consulting).

 

This move comes two and a half years after the AP's Swiss German office was closed. HQTA, to which the news agency DAPD belongs, justifies the redundancies with economic reasons, namely the loss of Tamedia Publications Romandes as an important customer.

Impressum was shocked by the "brutality" of the measure. "It simply results in the closure of an agency that plays an important role in the diversity of the press in Switzerland," the communiqué states. The union recalled the social responsibility of those involved. Every effort is being made to support the journalists affected in their job search.

Depositing the balance sheet

DAPD and six other subsidiaries declared themselves insolvent at the beginning of October and filed for insolvency at a Berlin district court. This affected 299 out of 515 employees. DAPD was formed in summer 2010 from the two news agencies DAPD and DDP. The two investors Peter Löw and Martin Vorderwülbecke, owners of Deutscher Depeschendienst (DDP), had bought the German-language service of the US news agency AP in December 2009 and merged the two companies to form DAPD.

DAPD has expanded rapidly in recent years. In May 2011, DAPD took over the press agency Sipa in France. For its part, Sipa acquired AP's French-language service in the summer of 2012, including the editorial office in French-speaking Switzerland. Sipa described this as an important step. In February 2010, the Swiss News Agency (SDA) took over the German DDP text services and the DDP's foreign news service (DADP) for distribution in Switzerland. In return, DDP received the license to distribute the SDA services in its markets (SDA).
 

The online display inventory on Local.ch, the leading Swiss search platform with the official telephone and business directory, is now being marketed via Publicitas' marketplace for premium media providers. An automated platform for buying advertising space in real time. On Oct. 23, 2012, Publicitas announced the creation of a premium inventory marketplace based on SSP technology from Improve Digital, a European leader in the field. In the future, Publicitas will also market the digital inventory of media providers using the real-time method and give advertisers the opportunity to buy digital inventory in an automated and data-driven way.

Local.ch will be one of the first companies in Switzerland to use Publicitas' real-time advertising solution, enabling it to monetize and manage its digital advertising inventory even better. As of Jan. 1, 2013, Publicitas will additionally receive the mandate for exclusive marketing of the online display inventory on Local.ch as well as on Home.ch, the real estate portal for residential and commercial rental and purchase properties. In addition to automated marketing, the inventory will also be made available to the advertising market via direct sales, under the responsibility of Dave Makay, Key Account Manager at Publicitas Digital. Sales opportunities can be maximized for local.ch and home.ch through the combination of personal selling and the new real-time advertising solution that Publicitas will offer publishers in the future.

Chris Morgan, Head of Digital at Publicitas: "We are delighted to be working with local.ch and home.ch. For the first time, alongside the Publicitas sales team, the advertising inventory of local.ch and home.ch will be marketed via a fully automated real-time advertising marketplace. We are convinced that this will enable us to further increase our marketing performance for our partners."

Riccardo Griglio, Head of E-media at local.ch: "In Publicitas, we have found a strong partner in the marketing of our online display business, with whom the collaboration also offers many new opportunities from a strategic perspective."

She grew up in the Basel region and, after holding various professional positions in the communications industry, worked for ten years in leading positions at AZ Medien, for example as publishing director of the "Aargauer Zeitung" and then as managing and publishing director of the "Basellandschaftliche Zeitung" and the "Solothurner Zeitung".

In June 2011, she launched the magazine "Welt der Tiere" as co-editor and took over as publishing director of SWS Medien AG Verlag. Galindo is handing over operational management of the magazine to her business partner with immediate effect. She will remain involved with SWS Medien Verlag.

The Wipf Group is an internationally active industrial company based in Volketswil. The group of companies includes: Wipf, Elco and Swiss Direct Marketing. The Zurich-based communications agency has developed a concept for the group's annual report that focuses on its employees. According to a press release, this is entirely in keeping with the cultural values of the Wipf Group.

"Authenticity is a fundamental attitude of the Wipf Group," says Carmen Schiltknecht, Managing Director of FBM Communications. This is why the agency attached great importance to the authenticity of the implementation. The employees were photographed at the various locations and in their usual working environment. The 2011/12 annual report is published in German and English.

Responsible at Wipf: Christian Wipf (CEO), Carla Heiniger (Assistant to the CEO), Karin Weidmann (Head of Marketing at Wipf AG). Photographer: Peter Ruggle. Printer: Selva Caro Druck. Responsible at FBM Communications: Carmen Schiltknecht (concept, various texts & overall management), Julia Trunkwalter and Nathalie Blumer (organization & quality assurance), Marianne Kieser (graphic design) and Daniel Käser (graphic design).

 

"The demand for professional press services in text, image and video is great. Now, even with large companies, service and cost awareness count all the more," explains the passionate pilot in a statement.

Eugster was head of marketing at Mobilkom Liechtenstein for ten years. After that, he worked as a media consultant for the Liechtensteiner Volksblatt and as a key account manager and consultant for Swiss telecom companies. At pressetext, he is responsible for the further expansion of the Swiss sales team and will also look after Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg. Eugster intends to place a special focus on agencies.

In 1976, the Basel media world shook: Basler Nachrichten and National-Zeitung merged to form Basler Zeitung - a shock for the interested public and the media scene in Switzerland that continues to have an impact to the present day. Despite years of criticism from the right and the left, the paper was successful. Walter Rüegg and his team of authors from the Seminar for Media Studies at the University of Basel - Christina Klausener, Rahel Walser and Dominic Wirz - take the "Basler Fusion" as the starting point for their book, take a look at the history of the two predecessor newspapers and document the "tragedy" whose final catastrophe they identify in the 2010 sale. What follows is a "comedy" about influence, power and monopolies, and it is far from over.

Rise and fall

In the nineties, the purchase of a publishing house with a printing plant allowed the group to grow rapidly, but numerous other holdings soon became a handicap. Recession and newspaper crisis left their mark, Basler Zeitung Medien was stricken, the company was sold to a bank in 2010 and has since belonged to a holding company with changing owners. Since then, questions that are crucial for a media company have remained unanswered: What is the backer up to? Is the paper to be instrumentalized for political causes? "Challenged" tells the eventful story of a solid family business that was endangered by excessive expansion and ultimately became the plaything of political interests.

 

"An educational play with great drama".

Together with the three young media scientists who completed their master's degree at the University of Basel this year, author Rüegg developed the project two years ago in collaboration with the Institute for Media Studies. He has been a lecturer in Basel for three years - but Rüegg has been dealing with the subject of the book for a long time: "As a former publisher of the Basler Zeitung and radio director of SR DRS in Basel, I have witnessed and followed the development of the Baz for many years. It is interesting because entrepreneurial decisions - or rather wrong decisions - and the structural crisis of the press overlap in an ominous way," he tells Werbewoche.ch. The motivation to write a book about the newspaper, however, has deeper roots: "The story of the Baz is a lesson with great drama. That speaks for the choice of this 'object of investigation'. But also the fact that the media company is based in the university city of Basel and its fate must concern the citizens of this city." With the exception of Christian Mensch's brief account, he said, no comprehensive account of the history of the Basler Zeitung exists. In addition, the Institute for Media Studies was interested in these specific issues on its own doorstep, Rüegg said.

No future forecast

When asked about the future of the Basler Zeitung, Rüegg does not dare make any predictions. He would like Basel to have a newspaper that is appreciated and respected by the majority of the population. "Basel needs a regional newspaper. Whether that will be the Baz in the future is open." However, Rüegg doubts that the Baz, as a "conservative-tinged daily newspaper," can gain a national appeal. Even if that would certainly be desirable from Christoph Blocher's point of view, he adds. But it is too controversial and weakened in its home market - and it would also require "quite a lot of money.

Satisfied with the result

Rüegg is satisfied with the book. What makes the work interesting is not only the well-founded and careful presentation of the newspaper's history, but also that of the entire company, which began before the merger. "The decline, documented with facts and figures, and its (background) reasons - none of that was available before," Rüegg told Werbewoche.ch. In addition, the diverse view of the Baz by the ten guest authors - including all four still living editors-in-chief - would complete the research of the team of authors.

Thomas Häusermann

Teaser image: Keystone
 

The focus of Switzerland Tourism's current winter campaign is on the special peace and relaxation that winter vacations in the Swiss mountains offer, according to a press release. The new winter advertisement, created by Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett and shot by director Michael Fueter, makes people nationally and internationally "gluschtig" for the Swiss winter, combining a funny story and breathtaking winter images: so that guests can really relax on vacation, all the clocks are taken away in a snow-covered mountain village. What remains is the perfect place for a completely relaxing vacation, pure winter idyll. Sebi and Paul, the two rustic mountain dwellers and ambassadors for Switzerland Tourism, once again play the leading roles in the cinematic winter mission.

Online wake-up attacks on Sebi & Paul

Online, too, there is an impressive demonstration of how relaxing winter vacations in Switzerland can be. In a kind of self-experiment with Sebi & Paul, the aim is to deprive them of their sleep - which is not so easy. Because anyone who enjoys relaxing winter days in Switzerland sleeps like a log at night.

Sebi & Paul sleep in their beds from 7 p.m. Swiss time, broadcast "live" from a webcam on Myswitzerland.com/winterhibernation. Visitors to the microsite can then decide via free text input how the two of them should be woken up: for example with an alphorn, an avalanche, by pulling away the comforter or other nasty methods. For the implementation of the interactive campaign, dozens of film sequences with different wake-up methods were realized, which are played depending on the input of the wake-up term. Anyone who manages to wake up Sebi and Paul will be entered into a prize draw for a winter vacation. The viral campaign in six languages was developed by the Zurich online agency Eyekon and directed by Patrick Karpiczenko.

Many other measures from Switzerland Tourism whet the appetite for winter vacations, winter hiking and relaxation in the mountains: the most beautiful winter experiences are illustrated with pictures and stories in the Schneeweiss vacation magazine. The "Winter" e-brochure, which is available in the Myswitzerland iPad app in the iTunes Store, provides an overview of Switzerland's varied winter holiday destinations. In addition, numerous inserts and online promotions round off the integrated winter campaign. The new "Swiss Winter Hike" iPhone app has also been developed, offering easy access to 36 selected winter hikes in the Swiss mountains.

Responsible at Switzerland Tourism: Jürg Schmid (overall responsibility/Director), Nicole Diermeier (Head of Marketing), Thomas Winkler (Head of Portal Management, eMarketing & IT), Christoph Brülhart (Online Marketing Manager), Karl Langensand (Product Manager Winter). Responsible at Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett: Peter Brönnimann (Executive Creative Direction), Diana Rossi, Simon Staub (Creative Direction), Niels Schäfer (Art Direction), Fabian Windhager (Text), Rebecca Krausse, Sylvia Kohler (Consulting), Suzana Kovacevic (TV Production). Winter movie - DirectionMichael Fueter. Production: Stories. Music: Spacetrain. Sound: Jingle Jungle. Responsible at Eyekon: Thomas Egloff (Creative Direction), Jonas Fahrni (Technology), Christian Flepp (Art Direction), Thomas Wirth (Text), Kaori Miyanishi Reitinger (Clientside Coding), Malte Spielberger (Serverside Coding), Falk Staudte (Consulting). Online wake-up movies - Directed by: Patrick Karpiczenko. Production: Seed Audio-Visual Communication.
 

This means that one of the world's most renowned communicators will chair the approximately 340 jurors who will judge the creative works submitted for the ADC Competition and the ADC Young Talent Competition at the ADC Festival 2013. With Jean-Remy von Matt, the Art Directors Club for Germany (ADC) e.V. has been able to win one of the stars of the industry with international appeal for the office of Jury Chairman.

"We are delighted that Jean-Remy has agreed to join us. With him, we have one of the most distinguished minds in our industry at the head of the approximately 340 ADC jurors. Our honorary member Jean-Remy von Matt is a controversial spirit, a creative benchmark and has long since become a brand himself: The perfect choice for Jury Chairman of Germany's most important creative award," said Jochen Rädeker, the outgoing ADC Executive Committee Spokesman, in a statement.

"Jean-Remy is Swiss and his agency is not taking part in the competition in 2013. We've never had this much neutrality before," adds Dr. Stephan Vogel, Head of Advertising and designated ADC Executive Committee Spokesperson. "We also want to signal that we don't see Jung von Matt's abstinence from the awards as being directed against the ADC, but against the current media ranking system."

"I feel very honored that the Art Directors Club has asked me to be Jury Chairman," says Jean-Remy von Matt, co-founder of the agency Jung von Matt. "The ADC competition is the most important indicator of creative performance in Germany and one of the five most important competitions worldwide. We are not questioning this with our own abstinence. I am already looking forward to the submissions, to the discussion with the juries and will do everything I can to ensure that we select works that represent the future of creation in Germany." The jury selection process for the 26 juries will begin in November. The complete jury and the jury chairs of the ADC competition will be announced early next year. The ADC Festival 2013 will take place in Hamburg in May.
 

This year, the NZZ Media Group acquired a majority stake in the organizer of the Swiss Economic Forum (SEF), thereby confirming its intention to strengthen its market position in the conference sector in the long term. The acquisition will open up new business areas under the IFH Interforum Holding umbrella, utilizing existing synergies, and the activities and holdings in other companies will be expanded in a targeted manner as part of a growth strategy, as the NZZ Media Group writes in a press release.

As part of this collaboration, the forces in the conference sector are now being pooled and placed under joint management. The IFH team led by SEF founders Peter Stähli and Stefan Linder will now assume responsibility for the NZZ Media Group's event business. The previous Head of Conferences, Björn Zern, had already decided some time ago to leave the company in February 2013 and set up his own business. The reorganization will lead to the reduction of four positions in the previous NZZ Conferences team.

IFH Interforum Holding includes the successful events Swiss Economic Forum, Swiss Innovation Forum and Swiss Energy & Climate Summit. The NZZ Capital Market Forum and the NZZ Equity event series will also be further developed within IFH in the future. In order to position the events for long-term success, IFH management will review the concept of the NZZ Capital Market Forum and the NZZ Equity Real Estate Days and hold them again in a revised form in 2014. The NZZ Equity CEO Dinners will continue to take place. The NZZ Podium, the NZZ Wine Seminars and the Tagblatt Medien and LZ Medien events are not affected by the realignment.
 

The website Annabelle.ch has been designed to meet the new needs of users, according to a press release. It has a clear and reduced design and offers plenty of space for pictures. In addition, the navigation is clearly structured according to the readers' favorite topics: Fashion, Beauty, Cooking, Travel, Love & Life, Contests and Horoscopes. In addition to the articles from the magazine, the online editorial team produces daily content from the entire lifestyle world, with a Swiss connection and great service character: Haute Lecture with prêt-à-porter content.

According to the announcement, the favorite site of the fashion victims should be the new fashion blog "Annabelle Fashion Daily" will be. The magazine's entire lifestyle editorial team will blog regularly about fashion weeks, special shoots, beauty news, home news, and even personal fashion faux pas. And Annabelle's editor-in-chief, Lisa Feldmann, will also have her say with personal lifestyle posts. In addition, the student Andrea Hug, who with her street style blog "Chic in Zurich" several times a week with stylish pictures from Zurich and the whole of Switzerland. In addition, Frenchwoman Virginie Peny, who has chosen to live in Berne, presents a do-it-yourself suggestion every 14 days based on the fashion section of the magazine. Furthermore, fashion-enthusiastic readers can test their knowledge in the label quiz. The popular section from the magazine "Now Open" is now supplemented online by a new type of local search, so that the featured stores, cafés and restaurants can be displayed directly in the vicinity.

The relaunch of the website is complemented by a big contest. Every day, readers can win a prize in the "Pop-up Goodies" section. The first prize is two VIP tickets for the Fashion Days in Zurich with exclusive styling! The new website was realized in cooperation with the web agency Whoisart and the graphic agency Abteilung für Gestaltung.

 

"Christmas business is becoming increasingly important for us. That is why we are also addressing this topic for the first time in our TV commercial. Our diverse range, consisting of fashion, shoes and accessories for women, men and children, selected designer fashion, sportswear, beauty products and items for a beautiful home, fulfills every wish. The Zalando letter carrier will bring the right Christmas gift for everyone, which will earn the biggest shout of joy," says Christian Meermann, Chief Marketing Officer at Zalando.

Zalando rewrites the Christmas story: Santa meets the Zalando mailman on the roof. But there can only be one who slides down the chimney with the parcels and brings the right presents. While Santa is still debating, the nimble letter carrier has long since disappeared down the chimney with the Zalando packages. Through the windows, Santa sees that the letter carrier's gifts are causing excitement among the family in the house. Last but not least, a chocolate Santa Claus is also exchanged for a chocolate Zalando man. This is too much for Santa. He has clearly lost the duel for the best gifts.

Dörte Spengler-Ahrens, Executive Creative Director at Jung von Matt is delighted with the result of the spot: "This Christmas is not big enough for both: Santa Claus and the Zalando messenger. The winner? Zalando, of course. They bring the gifts that really make people happy. Like this commercial!" Filming was done with a 40-person team directed by Rosey in Bucharest. Once again, Jung von Matt/Fleet was responsible for the concept and implementation of the spot.

"Christmas Duel" will have its TV premiere in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France on November 4. From December 6, it can be seen in the Netherlands and Belgium.