In French-speaking Switzerland, the newly founded agency will continue to be represented by its previous partner, FTC Communication, in Lausanne, according to the announcement. K Comms currently employs seven people and was previously a local partner of the Ketchum Pleon network.

For Robert Phillips, CEO and President Edelman Emea, the expansion of the presence in Switzerland is an important strategic step: "We are pleased that with Alexander Fink's team we can now serve our existing international Swiss clients even better and thus offer national and international know-how from a single source." Alexander Fink, CEO of Edelman Switzerland and as of now new Practice Leader Corporate for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, is pleased about the integration into the Edelman network: "This is a milestone in the development of our agency and opens up new and attractive perspectives for clients and employees."

Note: Common technical measures to make advertising effective are met with skepticism and rejection by many media professionals and therefore by large parts of the audience. Only radical transparency can help.

So far, there are hardly any signs, especially in Switzerland, that the online advertising industry has recognized the signs of the times. In particular, anonymous behavioral tracking using cookies repeatedly triggers diffuse fears. If these are not addressed, the industry runs the risk of politicians seizing on the issue in a way that attracts public attention and enacting unwelcome regulations. Because the matter is actually simple and obvious: There is countless free content on the Internet because it is financed by advertising. In other words, consumers pay for this by paying with data about themselves and their behavior instead of money. This is nothing new. If it was and is done on paper, it is called direct marketing, without much offense being taken. Online publishers should make no secret of the fact that they market their content in this way. Nor should they make a secret of the fact that they can achieve better returns by collecting behavioral data.

Radical, honest transparency is needed to reveal these methods and make them understandable. Because they contain nothing forbidden or objectionable, which can also be communicated in this way. If consumers can see and accept the advantages for them, a lot has already been gained. Consumers should consequently be offered the choice of avoiding online advertising altogether - and paying for it. (When used in this way, paywalls can make sense.) And then a further step can follow: Anyone who makes unfounded arguments against online advertising or avoids it (using ad blockers etc.) should be branded a pirate (or at least a free rider) in the eyes of public opinion, just as the music and film industry has been doing for years with its anti-piracy campaigns. (cjw)
 

Gubser plays Inspector Reto Flückige, Bodin an elegant guildsman. But he would also have played a corpse, the advertiser told Sonntagsblick. His 19-year-old daughter Coco is said to have helped him get the gig. Her father once said in passing that it was his wish to take part in this crime series. So before his 50th birthday, she pulled out all the stops to give him this experience.
 

Customers in an electronics store in Greenville were "astonished to shocked" (we add: positively surprised to joyfully excited), according to Spiegel.de: While shopping in the TV department, they had suddenly been confronted with the image of a "copulating couple". Scandal! The local TV station, which was of course on the spot in view of this mishap, is said to have spoken to a shocked customer. The image shown was "extremely, extremely pornographic", she said. If she thought about it more carefully, the word probably didn't even describe it sufficiently. Well, that really must have been an extremely pornographic, if not ultra-pornographic picture, oh dear! Although she had never personally seen pornography before, so she didn't know what she was looking at - she certainly felt "very violated". Poor lady, you could almost feel a little sorry for her. Well, you can understand her a little, after all, she was with her son and his children in the electronics store when the drama happened. Even though she was probably the only one of her little gang who had never seen such a picture of a "copulating couple".

Incidentally, the nasty prank was made possible because modern TV sets are not only internet-enabled, but are often also equipped with Wi-Fi modules.

The Champions League match between FC Basel and FC Bayern Munich, which ended with a 1:0 win for Basel last Wednesday, was watched by a total of 945,000 people throughout Switzerland - across all language regions. The market share was 40.6 percent in German-speaking Switzerland (SFzwei), 25.5 percent in French-speaking Switzerland (TSR2) and 15.1 percent in Italian-speaking Switzerland (RSI2).

10 million saw the winning goal

The match also achieved top ratings in Germany, where 7.46 million people watched the victory of the "small" team over the "big" FCB from start to finish on Sat.1, a market share of 22.9%. In Austria, too, people were interested in the footballing clash: 464,000 people sat in front of the television and enjoyed the game on ORF1. The market share was 17 percent. However, as the Austrians only count people aged 12 and over as viewers, while Switzerland and Germany count children aged 3 and over, the figures are not entirely comparable. Nevertheless, at least 8.9 million people watched the game in the three countries mentioned. A few more watched in the second half, so that a total of around 10 million people saw Jacques Zoua's perfect pass and Valentin Stocker's winning goal in the 86th minute.

Opportunity for Basel Tourism?

In view of these ratings - especially in Germany - the question arises as to whether Basel Tourism took the opportunity to promote the city on the banks of the Rhine in the run-up to or during the match. Were commercials placed on Sat.1 to draw attention to the "Morgestraich", BaselWorld, the ART art fair or the BaselTattoo? Or are they planning something like this for the second leg? And how about an original presence in front of or inside the Munich stadium?

None of this has been realized or planned, as a request to Basel's city marketers revealed. Basel Tourism only has a budget of 1.6 million francs per year, so TV commercials before or during such a match are out of the question, said Daniel Egloff, Director of Basel Tourism. A stand campaign in Munich is also not being considered. Something like this had already been tried once - without success. Cheap accommodation offers on the websites of foreign fan clubs have also remained completely without demand.

Constant dripping wears away the stone

Apart from that, Munich is too far away anyway. Basel Tourism is primarily working on two "target groups" with its advertising: on the one hand, people who live a maximum of two hours' drive away from Basel - and on the other hand, new markets such as China and India. However, this is only being tried indirectly... We are not actually targeting end customers," says Egloff. Rather, we are approaching tour operators and travel media. We invite them to Basel, even to an FCB match. This is cheaper than advertising directly to the end customer. However, no tickets were available for the FCB v FCB match, he adds.

Isn't a top match like this important for Basel's city marketing? Yes, says Egloff, but only in the long term: the further FCB progresses in the Champions League, the more widely Basel becomes known among football fans. Gradually, this term will become firmly established in people's minds - and at some point, perhaps in conjunction with further input from Basel, one or two people will be tempted to travel to the knee of the Rhine, at least sooner than if they had never heard of Basel. In this respect, FCB is definitely important as an ambassador for Basel.

Markus Knöpfli

Last July 6, at 7.30 p.m., the main edition of the Tagesschau on French-speaking Swiss television reported on the International Festival of Fantastic Film in Neuchâtel. The report focused on the "gore" genre of horror films, with excerpts from various particularly gory works being shown.

In its deliberations on Friday, the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) has now partially upheld a complaint lodged against this. In the opinion of the UBI, the images were likely to endanger the development of minors. According to the UBI, the decisive factor was the time of the broadcast and the fact that insufficient reference was made to the upcoming images. At the same time, the UBI stated that the reportage neither glorified nor trivialized violence. The UBI's decision can still be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.

French-speaking Swiss television was astonished by the ruling. TSR's chief lawyer Patrice Aubry said after the ruling that he had expected the case to be dismissed in its entirety. He could not say whether the broadcaster would lodge an appeal: "We will examine the written judgment and then decide," he told the news agency SDA.

The UBI is an extra-parliamentary commission of the Swiss Confederation. It consists of nine part-time members and is responsible for determining, in response to complaints, whether radio and television broadcasts were correct. (SDA)
 

Hearing aid specialists from a wide variety of countries were drawn into an adventure to demonstrate the benefits of Nano, as the agency explains in a press release: Geoffrey Hardcastle, Head of Investigations at Phinkerton Detectives, asked them to help solve the case of «Star Conductor Herbert von X»—specifically, to determine whether the aging star conductor wears a hearing aid or not.

The report goes on to say that, in the initial phase, they deliberately chose not to identify Phonak as the sender. This kept the suspense building right up until the Nano’s launch date. To help clarify the case, hearing care professionals in Phonak’s most important global markets received a comprehensive mailing from Phinkerton Detectives containing various documents: evidence photos, handwritten notes from the investigating detectives, and a surveillance report, all of which were intended to assist the hearing care professionals in preparing their expert assessments.

Using a personal code, about a quarter of all hearing aid specialists who were contacted logged into the Phinkerton Detectives intranet and submitted their expertise electronically. Everyone who actively contributed to solving the case could expect Phinkerton Detectives to show their appreciation—for example, with a pair of binoculars for true-blue detectives or an Aston Martin for a weekend.

To resolve the «Herbert von X» case, all hearing care professionals received a second letter from Geoffrey Hardcastle. This time, it included a thank-you note for their support in this difficult case and an X-ray of the star conductor’s head. It was only thanks to this extraordinary piece of evidence that the hearing aids, which were deeply embedded in the ear canal, could be made visible. An enclosed advertisement revealed that these were Phonak’s new Nano hearing aids and that they would soon be officially available.

Responsible at Phonak: Ora Bürkli (Vice President of Product Marketing), Sonia Torre, and Reto Sigrist (Marketing Communications Manager). Responsible at Metzgerlehner Worldwide Partners: Michael Rottmann (CD), Patrick Meyer (Copy/Concept), Janine Aebischer (Art Director), Annette Vetsch and Katja Kurzweck (Graphic Design), Mark Berger (Metzgerlehner Digital), Silvan Metzger and Anna-Lea Michael (Consulting), Jonathan Heyer (Photography).

Jung von Matt/Public Relations was honored at the 2012 German-language PR Report Awards with Obermutten for Graubünden vacations and Tecmania.ch for Swissmem with three shortlist placements. Both projects are therefore in the running for the coveted PR trophies, which will be awarded in Berlin on May 19, 2012.

The Obermutten campaign is one of the finalists in the "Innovative PR Strategy" and "Social Media" categories. The young talent campaign Tecmania.ch was nominated in "Public Affairs". The expert jury received a total of 330 entries in 22 categories. The 54 finalists were announced yesterday. The awards ceremony for the 10th PR Report Awards will take place in Berlin on April 19, 2012.

In close cooperation with Intertime, manufacturer of seating furniture, the Zurich brand agency Scholtysik Niederberger Kraft has developed a new brand strategy in recent months and implemented the brand identity across all online and offline media. With the redesign, Intertime is bringing to bear the significantly sharpened design focus that has been a lasting feature of the sofas, armchairs and loungers from Endingen since the generation change in 2001, the agency said in a statement. Today, the focus is on the search for the perfect form, the combination of simple, timeless aesthetics with an intelligent interior and perfect workmanship.

"The Academy would be delighted to have Sacha on the show," a spokeswoman said on Thursday: "We have let him know how we feel about using the red carpet for a publicity stunt and are waiting for his response." Earlier, there were reports that the star of Borat was planning to attend the awards ceremony in disguise to promote his new film The Dictator. The comedian stars in Martin Scorsese's film Hugo, which has been nominated eleven times for an Oscar.

Baron Cohen is well known for his outrageous appearances. To promote his film Borat about a fictional Kazakh television reporter, he appeared at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival in a cart pulled by a "peasant woman". At the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, he let himself down from the ceiling dressed as an angel and landed in the lap of rapper Eminem. His indignation later turned out to be premeditated.

The Dictator will be released in cinemas in the USA in May. In it, Baron Cohen plays the leading role of a full-bearded ruler "who risks his life to ensure that democracy never comes to his so devotedly oppressed country". (SDA/AFP)

(Image: Keystone)

"Our main concern for the new website was to make a visitor want to come to our travel agencies right from the first page contact and to find the important information quickly. The site's content management needed to be extremely efficient and streamlined. Divio found the perfect solution for this," says Thomas Reichenbach, Manager E-Commerce, Hotelplan Suisse MTCH. But that's not the only reason Divio opted for a one-pager: the visitor always stays on the same page and is not interrupted in his vacation feeling by the loading of a selected subpage.

Like every website implemented by Divio, the Globusreisen.ch completely editable and expandable. The multilingual function is also a matter of course here.

Of the 102.9 million Swiss francs, 12.3 million Swiss francs were spent on job ads (-26.1 percent). Real estate ads (3.4 million Swiss francs) were down 5.7 percent compared with January 2011, and commercial/other ads (78.2 million Swiss francs) were down 7.2 percent. Brochure inserts (9.0 million Swiss francs) recorded a decrease of 2.4 percent.