On November 9, Ikea opened a new furniture store in Rothenburg near Lucerne. On 18,000 square meters and in over 50 showrooms, there are living ideas to see and buy. And the campaign for the opening started two months earlier: at the beginning of September, Ikea placed small advertisements in central Switzerland looking for space for the many new ideas. Within just under two weeks, over 300 people applied with their homes: they were all prepared to leave their own homes for up to six weeks so that Ikea could completely refurnish them. The reward: they were allowed to keep the furnishings. A jury selected four apartments and the redesign began. The changes could be followed live via webcams. The finished showrooms were digitized so that they could be viewed online at www.IKEA.ch/Rothenburg, similar to Google Street View. In addition, the opening and the private showrooms were advertised with posters, advertisements and on the radio. All of these measures were implemented together with the residents. Targeted PR measures also bore fruit: Central Switzerland's private television station Tele1 broadcast two special programs entitled "homeview". These featured exclusive reports on IKEA's "Space for new ideas" campaign. Blick am Abend, 20 Minuten, the Luzerner Zeitung and other media also reported on the campaign. pan

WW: You've been involved in the Zurich poster business for eleven years. Do you know every single poster site?
Bernard Liechti: (laughs) Not every one, but a lot, because I'm often out and about in the city.

When we talk about the city of Zurich - which area are we talking about exactly?
From the largest and economically strongest Swiss city with about 390'000 inhabitants on 88 square kilometers (without lake share) with twelve urban districts.

How are the posters distributed over this urban area?
An estimated 6'000 sites are located on private land, and around 2'100 on public land. The latter were put out to tender in 2006, and the contract ends on June 30, 2013. 2100 fixed poster sites on public land comprise 460 cultural poster sites in F4 format, and 414 F12, F200, and F24 poster sites for commercial national and international campaigns. The rest are F4 format billboards mainly for national and local commercial and non-commercial advertising.

These are the same figures as in 2006.
Yes, the volume and distribution remained more or less the same in the public domain. There are only slight shifts in billposting on building walls. On private land, the number has declined slightly.

In 2006, the city of Zurich caused a sensation because - for the first time in Switzerland - it issued a call for bids in 16 lots or packages of 40 to 80 poster panels each. The panels were drawn by lot and thus randomly assigned to one of the 16 lots. Was there a model for this abroad?
No, we developed the procedure based on the situation in the city of Zurich. We divided the total volume into different lots because we wanted several and also smaller companies to be able to participate in the tender.

Were all the jobs effectively in one pot -or was there some sort of pre-selection?
There were different pots, but the commercial sites F12, F200 and GF were allocated randomly. The cultural or political billboard spaces, which must be managed by vendors as a service, were divided into two lots. One lot included so-called special F4 sites around transit stops and two lots included political and cultural billboards in addition to commercial F4 sites. Another lot included construction wall billposting. Annual fixed charges had to be bid for 15 lots. For posters on construction walls, a share of sales had to be offered.

Do lots with jobs spread all over the city make sense logistically and ecologically? In other words, why not distribute the jobs by neighborhood?
For a small provider setting up something new, it might actually be easier if he could only display his posters in one neighborhood. However, the market works differently. Advertisers want to be present with their campaigns throughout the entire city area. The ecological aspect - which has gained in importance - will have to be looked at more closely in the future. In the last tender, it was not a criterion either in the invitation to tender or in the awarding process.

Had you previously sounded out the billboard companies to see whether they would approve of the new concept, or did you present them with facts?
We previously invited all known companies to a workshop where we communicated and discussed with them the interests and intentions of the city.

Before the 2006 tender, Zurich had a consortium agreement with APG for 14 years. It was obligated to cede part of the space to third parties, regardless of the size. Clear Channel Switzerland (CCS) was the main bidder. This form of cooperation was also unique in Switzerland. Why did you abandon this model at that time?
I can state that the city's experience with the consortium solution has been largely good. Nevertheless, the city administration came to the conclusion that it has advantages to involve the companies with direct contracts.

APG and CCS were at odds at the time over poster research. Did this influence your system change?
I can't confirm that.

A new feature of your 2006 invitation to tender was that the interested providers only had to submit a monetary offer. In other cities, they usually also have to convince with a billposting concept.
We did not submit a concept bid because we were well positioned with the conceptual design specifications and because hardly anything had changed in terms of the number of panels and their distribution. Nevertheless, we took the invitation to tender as an opportunity to update our GK92 billposting concept and adapt it to the changed conditions.

In 2006, ten bidders took part in the bidding - in the end, the highest bidders were awarded the contract: APG got twelve lots and CCS four. Weren't these two at an advantage because they were already licensed billposters beforehand?
The previous bidders had a certain starting advantage in 2006. To compensate for this advantage for the next tender, the term of the current contracts was limited to five years. In order not to give the previous billposting companies a starting advantage, it was decided during the preparation of the 2006 invitation to bid that ownership of the billposting media would revert to the City of Zurich upon expiration of the current contract.

This point was also unique. Will the city thus establish a new department from 2013 that will maintain the street furniture in the future?
No. The plan is to transfer the maintenance and management of the girders to the lessees - just like any other rental property that is left for use for a certain period of time.

This idea did not catch on elsewhere. How do you explain that?
I can't judge that. But I am convinced that it is a solution that offers great advantages for the city of Zurich.

APG has consistently opposed it since 2006, while CCS has spoken positively about it.
APG accepted the terms of the contract at the time.

Another novelty in your approach at the time: In contrast to the usual practice, Zurich did not charge a fee based on sales, but only a fixed fee. Why?
The main advantage of fixed charges is on the one hand the lower controlling effort for the city and on the other hand the budgetable revenues. Fluctuations only occur in the area of megaposters, but these are not part of the concessions.

Why?
Megaposters have other laws, their number varies greatly from year to year. I would even call them an indicator of the economic situation: On the one hand, their number depends strongly on construction activity, and on the other hand - and to a greater extent - on the state of the economy. If the economy is going badly, this has a direct impact on this type of advertising category.

So how much money has the city taken in each year with the new concessions?
The total is 2.2 million francs per year, including in-kind services, i.e. cultural and political posters - but not including the income from Magaposters.

From 2008, the crisis years came and APG and CCS groaned under the (fixed) concession fees. The city authorities can't be indifferent to this either.
I can only judge to a limited extent what the situation looked like from the companies' point of view. But being able to estimate a levy over five years is part of the entrepreneurial risk for suppliers. It should also be borne in mind that if the economy is doing well, this tends to be to the advantage of the companies. Over the entire contract period, this should balance out.

Is it correct that the 2.2 million francs is 30 percent higher than the average charges in the previous consortium agreement?
Yes, the order of magnitude is about right. I assume that the city expected a certain minimum bid from the tender. We did not specify a minimum amount. But the goal was to get at least the same amount of levy as in previous years.

Today, there are reach figures for poster sites from the SPR+ poster research system. Do you consult these figures - and do they flow into the next call for bids - for example, to evaluate the individual sites?
So far, we have not consulted these figures. They are of only limited relevance to us. The advertising impact is only one of several aspects to be considered. For the approval of billboard advertising sites, the building and traffic regulations are primary.

Because the value of a billboard lease in Germany is now much higher than it was just a few years ago, cities are currently demanding massively higher levies. Will this also be the case in Zurich?
We will probably put the lease out to public tender again - and let the market play its part. However, I personally don't think it's realistic for us to demand higher levies than the market would produce through the tender.

But even in a Swiss comparison, Zurich's rent seems quite favorable.
I don't know the numbers of other cities.

Lucerne, for example, receives at least one million Swiss francs per year for its 250 poster sites on public land, i.e. 4'000 Swiss francs per site. Zurich, on the other hand, receives just 1'050 francs each for its 2100 sites.
You are probably not comparing like with like. Your calculation only corresponds to an average value across all areas. It should be noted that Zurich has a very high proportion of discounted F4 spaces and that the total amount includes the management of cultural and political posters. On the commercial spaces, the city of Zurich generates appropriate charges due to the public tender.

With the discounted F4 spaces, the city supports local businesses. Is this in line with a legal requirement?
No. However, this has a long tradition. A large proportion of the F4 areas are therefore occupied with a maximum tariff.

In 2006, as I said, the city of Zurich concluded a direct contract with both APG and CCS. How has the collaboration with the two been in recent years?
The cooperation is good. The contracts are honored by both sides.

And looking back, how has the whole system change played out from the city's perspective?
Direct communication with both partners is certainly an advantage. Another positive aspect is the reduced administrative burden, which not least benefits the taxpayers.

And disadvantages?
There are hardly any disadvantages. We have had and continue to have consistently good experiences with the system.

Did no one appeal against the concession award in 2006?
But, one of the losing bidders made an objection, which meant that the new contracts could not come into force as planned in 2007, but a year later.

Will you use the same model again for the 2012 tender?
That is still open. In the next two to three months, we will evaluate the experience, analyze the current situation and determine the further course of action.

In Switzerland, the Zurich system of tendering in lots and considering more than one concessionaire has not yet caught on. Why not?
Not everything that is done in Zurich has to be adopted elsewhere. (laughs)

But elsewhere, for example in Geneva, Lucerne and Basel, the legal tussles took much longer. Were there never any inquiries from other cantons?
There is a loose exchange. Especially among the large German-speaking cities of Switzerland and some German cities. Experiences are exchanged on a selective basis and we look at what has proven successful, what has not and whether there are innovations in this area.

Last year, there was a change at the top of the two large poster providers: Jürg Rötheli is the new CEO of CCS, Daniel Hofer at APG. Have you already met with them?
Yes.

Was a change in climate felt?
I perceived that they both focused less on quantity and more on quality.

This comes in handy for you.
It depends on how you define quality (laughs). The city defines quality in terms of a well-kept cityscape and the quality of stay in public spaces. The outdoor advertising industry, on the other hand, defines it in terms of what customers want. That leads to a conflict of goals from time to time.

For the future tender, it will be essential to find a common line on this issue. How are you proceeding?
On the one hand, we will review the conceptual specifications and, in a second step, we will welcome the stakeholders.

APG and CCS want to set up soundless digital screens in outdoor areas in the future. CCS, for example, is planning a pilot project. Will Zurich offer a hand in this?
In this regard, we are in talks with both providers, and we certainly see a qualitative potential for this new medium, especially if it could replace so-called scrollers or poster changers or dismantle other installations that are a burden on the cityscape. In some cases, digital posters could provide solutions that are more compatible with the cityscape.

More compatible in what way?
The rapid alternating motion of scroller ads in particular can be very disruptive in public spaces.

Interview: Markus Knöpfli

As in the previous year, not only was the number of entries very high with 13 dossiers, but also the quality standard. This time too, the jury presented two awards: to the specialist magazine Architektur + Technik and to the specialist magazine Wandermagazin Schweiz. Both titles have been rewarded with this award for a strenuous phase of reorientation. Architektur + Technik had the problem of distinguishing itself from the other large number of relevant titles and underwent a radical relaunch, not only in terms of form but also content. The market responded with significantly higher subscription and advertising sales. Wandermagazin Schweiz had to completely reinvent itself after ending its long-standing partnership with SBB. The number of readers almost doubled within a year.

The jury for the 2011 Q-Awards was unchanged from previous years. It consisted of Pepi Burch, publishing consultant, René Grossenbacher, Managing Director of Publicom, Josefa Haas, Head of the Media Institute of the Swiss Media Association, Karl Lüönd, publicist and author, Urs Schneider, owner of the media agency Mediaschneider, and Jürg Siegrist, Managing Director of the SWA.

The jury also made four additional nominations as honorable mentions. These
go to:
- Bulletin SEV/VSE - trade journal and association information from Electrosuisse and VSE
- Cigar - The Swiss cigar magazine
- Ride - Mountainbike-Magazine Switzerland
- Swiss Bank - Monthly magazine for banking and finance

Users who additionally watched the Coca-Cola commercial on Wilmaa were found to have a 13 percent higher commercial recall. Qualified, image-based TV spot recognition was even 34 percent higher. Goldbach Media wrote this in a communiqué on Thursday. In addition to the significantly higher values for brand- and image-based advertising recall, there was also an effect due to contact frequency. The number of contact doses via Wilmaa led to an increase in image-based advertising recall.

For the experimental design, a group of Wilmaa users received the Coca-Cola commercial. Users in the control group had no advertising contact on Wilmaa.com, but were able to see the commercial via other media. Wilmaa users between the ages of 12 and 29 participated in the study. To test the advertising impact, they were surveyed at the end of the campaign regarding advertising recall. A total of 1,512 people took part in the survey. Of these, 658 were in the control group and 854 in the Coca-Cola Wilmaa group.

More information or the full study results can be here be obtained on request.
 

The magazine reports on those who dream, design, create, produce, sell, buy, collect and admire watches. Consistency in form and content is what has always characterized Montres Passion and will continue to do so in the new style, according to a statement from Montres Passion. In the new style, Montres Passion aims to offer its readers a refined structure and clear points of reference. Better readability, even more elegance, flexibility and creativity.

The new look was created and designed by the Vaud-based agency B+P Swiss Typefaces. The magazine is now clearly structured into five sections. In addition to the traditional sections "à la une" and "édito", readers will find a section called "balises", followed by "zoom" with information on news from the world of watches, dossiers, interviews, portraits of men, women and companies, pages on trends, technology and communication as well as a large reportage. Finally, there is the "histoire" section and a section called "subjectif".

Montres Passion
The first issue in the new style will be published on Thursday, November 17, 2011.
With 160,000 copies, the magazine has the highest circulation of all publications on the subject of watches in Switzerland. The French edition is delivered to L'Hebdo subscribers and the German edition to selected premium subscribers of Schweizer Illustrierte. It is also available at newsstands and by subscription. Montres Passion is also the organizer of the "Prix Montre de l'Année" watch award.
 

If you talk about advertising in Switzerland, you can't avoid the ranking of the biggest advertising clients. As is well known, the same two players have been leading this ranking for years: Migros and Coop. No wonder, because hardly any need is more basic than the procurement of food. While the splurge for the biggest budgets may make media agencies go into raptures, it is irrelevant for consumers. They want to satisfy their needs as cheaply as possible. Don't they? Maybe that was the case in the past. But since the advent of social media, expectations have changed. Consumers don't just want to shop quickly and cheaply, no, they can now form their own opinions and even have their say. The Cluetrain Manifesto recognized in 1999: "Already, companies that speak in the voice of the market shouter are not reaching anyone. Anyone who assumes online markets are the same markets that once endured TV commercials is kidding themselves." The question is whether this has changed the behavior of Swiss retailers. One player, Migros, is particularly active in this area. Time and again, the orange giant shows inventiveness when it comes to social media. The center of Migros' activities is the notorious platform www.migipedia.ch, where since June 2010 customers have been able to give their opinion on a good 10'000 products, express wishes or ask questions. Although the website is still in beta, it has already won the Best of Swiss Web award in 2011. Migipedia is just the tip of the iceberg, however. Because Dutti's heirs are busy on practically all social media (with the umbrella brand as well as with the subbrands). Be it www.facebook.com/Migros, www.twitter.com/migros or www.youtube. com/user/MigrosTVSpots. And Migros is being richly rewarded for this commitment. With 52'000 fans on Facebook, 2800 followers on Twitter and 870,000 views on YouTube. But these are only the superficial figures. Much more valuable is the dialog that is created. And it bears fruit. Because customers are given the opportunity to have their say and help shape the company. For example, six months ago we were looking for an idea for a new, young type of confectionery. A total of 1102 ideas were received. The 20 best recipes were finally cooked and tested at a professional tasting together with representatives of the Migros community. Over 4300 Migros customers cast their votes in the final survey on Migipedia. And now the two products, marked with the new "Developed by customers" sticker, are on the shelves. User-generated products. So far, so good at Migros. But what are the other competitors doing? The answer is simple: nothing. Nada. Zero. Sad, but true. The very industry that should maintain direct contact with the consumer, whose success and failure is the barometer of our economy, ignores the customer when it comes to social media. Denner did benefit from the popular Bündnerfleisch laughing fit of Federal Councillor Merz and, thanks to a night-and-night campaign, generated Facebook fans in the short term. But what will be done with the almost 29'000 fans is still unclear. All other retailers are even still in the darkest Middle Ages. Regardless of whether they are called Lidl, Aldi, Spar or Coop. Migros' big counterpart Coop in particular is not just one, but several steps behind. Although the user is asked to share the content of the website, there is no trace of a dialog far and wide. Not on any network. Even customer service is less accessible (Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.) than the competitor's Twitter account. In my Social Media Management course at the HWZ (Zurich School of Business), I always say that it's a no-go to make fun of someone who is gaining experience on the social web. But what we are seeing here is the negation of dialogue. I have no understanding for that. The tag cloud on the homepage seems like a clumsy marketing gag. It's a shame, really, because by ignoring customers' needs and wishes, Swiss retailers miss opportunities to improve their products and lose valuable time to gain experience. And although we have an orange lighthouse, the predicate #fail applies to the Swiss retail trade. Because, "companies that do not belong to a discursive community will die out".
 

SBB came out on top with its online and mobile platforms, e-commerce strategy and online advertising campaigns. Patrick Comboeuf, Head of E-Business, accepted the award on behalf of the entire SBB team.

The new "Digital Pioneer of the year" is Roger Baur, Managing Director of Net Profit. The new "Digital Pioneer of the year", Roger Baur, has already accompanied dozens of online projects and startups as an investor and consultant, and was also instrumental in setting up the IAB Switzerland.

Samy Liechti, founder and CEO of Black Socks, was the first to receive the newly created "Digital Lifetime Award". With Black Socks, he was able to help the idea of socks subscriptions achieve a breakthrough. Founded in 1999, the company is one of the original figures in the Swiss online industry, according to the organizer.

With over 350 guests, the Kaufleuten ballroom in Zurich was filled to capacity, as the organizer writes in a statement. Ueli Weber, President of the IAB Switzerland, hosted the evening. In recent weeks, visitors were able to vote for the "Digital Marketer of the year" themselves via online voting.
 

- adcockpit 5.0 - admazing
- AXA Winterthur - AXA Insurance
- YourDeal - Goodshine
- MediaMarkt - Media-Saturn-Holding
- PostFinance - Swiss Post
- SBB - Swiss Federal Railways SBB

Nominees:
- Marc Walder, CEO of Ringier Switzerland and Germany
- Marc Werner, Head of Marketing & Sales at Swisscom Private Customers
- Martin Kall, Chief Executive Officer of Tamedia
- Peter Hogenkamp, Head of Digital Media at NZZ Media Group
- Richard Eisler, founder and CEO of comparis.ch
- Roger Baur, founder and owner of Net Profit

What it's about: The IG Plakat Raum Gesellschaft is calling on the Zurich City Council to do away with 2,200 public poster sites, arguing that they also mar the cityscape. That amounts to one-quarter of all sites.

My theory: If the posters offered something to talk about in the cityscape, such discussions wouldn’t even come up in the first place. For example, I rarely notice a poster that conveys its message in a creative and eye-catching way. The entire automotive, watch, fashion, and food industries are completely uncreative and lack visual impact. A few exceptions can’t be ruled out. But 90 percent of them don’t contribute to a pleasant cityscape. The clients, who want to cram as much information as possible onto the paper, are also partly to blame for this problem. The agencies then dutifully comply with this requirement, as you can see. But the medium is called a «poster»—as in “eye-catching.” On Wikipedia, you can read the following, among other things: “… printed on paper, it is large, colorful, eye-catching, contains images and text arranged as sensibly as possible, and should convey a message …”

When I look at today’s posters, I realize that they fail to meet the criteria of «meaningful composition» and «conveying a message.» Take the HP poster as an example of pointlessness. Everything is arranged haphazardly, and nothing came across to me. It is—and always has been—Rule No. 1 that the viewer of a poster must understand the message within one second.

What on earth is the problem with this for you Swiss advertisers and clients? Switzerland, along with Poland and the U.S., was once the leading nation in poster advertising; names like Niklaus Stöcklin, Armin Hoffmann (my teacher), Josef Müller-Brockmann, Celestino Piatti, and my favorite, Herbert Leupin—with countless poster ideas that were powerful in their message, wittily executed, minimalist, and thus striking and well-suited to the cityscape. On the left, you can see a 1947 Eptinger poster by Leupin, and on the right, HP’s poster today.

Let’s return once more to the Tagi article from November 10, 2011, by Beat Metzler, who writes that the best solution would be to introduce a penalty tax on boring outdoor advertising. He does, however, doubt whether this would actually be feasible. I think the idea is excellent. Before or during the display period, people should vote online on a scale of 1 to 10 to determine whether the advertiser should have to pay a «city eyesore tax.» My column is too short to go into the exact details of how this could be implemented. Christian Hänggi, president of IG Plakat, should have a chat with me. Dear advertisers, do you want the billboard spaces to disappear? No? Then please be more creative, more entertaining, and boil your message down to the essentials. See Herbert Leupin online.

My highlight of the week is that order will soon reign in Italy, just as our new Tuscan olive oil is exquisitely perfect. Theophil Butz, once a star advertiser (according to Ringier), now an inspiration, and from now on also a complainer. «Not an easy role, but a necessary one, which I take on here every 14 days.» Please send relevant information to [email protected].

It's that time of year again: the shelves disappear under Christmas tree baubles, tinsel and all kinds of beautifully decorated knick-knacks. The shop windows are lit up in all colors and Bing Crosby's voice is blaring from the loudspeakers. But listen, there is an ominous roar mingling with the cheerful sounds: "Crisis under the Christmas tree." A consumer survey by Ernst & Young is already predicting big losses for the retail trade. Mr. and Mrs. Swiss intend to spend just 258 francs on presents this year. According to the consulting firm, that is exactly 43 francs or 14 percent less than last year. The Christmas business is only just warming up the engine and people are already predicting that there won't be enough gas to get to the finish line. The Swiss retail trade is not alone in this fate. Research institutes and experts are making election forecasts. Futurologists already know today what will be in tomorrow. Clairvoyant Ivan and his colleagues in the industry place numerous advertisements on the Annabelle pinboard. There's no question that business with the future is flourishing.

But what are the benefits of looking into the cards of fate? Let's travel back to our hairy beginnings. From an evolutionary point of view, it can certainly be seen as an advantage if we knew in advance where the sabre-toothed tiger was lurking. The fact that our species still (over)populates the planet today allows two assumptions to be made: A hairy Mike Shiva already helped our ancestors find the right path - for the price of three mammoth skins, of course. Or humans have multiplied faster than the population of their animal enemy. In view of the seven billionth citizen of the earth that we recently had to welcome into our midst, my money is on the latter. So the theory of evolution fails in relation to the predictions of the present. So what use is it to the sovereign to read two months before the National Council elections that the SVP is likely to emerge victorious? Or what use is it to the remaining 7,700,500 inhabitants of Switzerland to know that 500 others "only" want to fork out CHF 258 for their Christmas presents? Are we part of a huge conspiracy? It is well known what influence fortune tellers can have. What works on a small scale could also work on a large scale: If we voters are predicted that the SVP will win, then we say: "Pha, not with us", and vote Green Liberal and BDP. The latter have therefore paid a tidy sum to research institutes and experts - no wonder, they were less present in newspapers and on billboards than the SVP. Following this theory, it quickly becomes clear that the "Ernst & Young" forecast was also bought! And by the retail trade. "Pha", the Swiss consumer should say to himself, "I won't be influenced by the general mood of crisis and will invest anti-cyclically." Why else are such survey results and forecasts being dragged through all the media?

I don't really count myself among the conspiracy theorists. Nevertheless, I'm not worried about the current Christmas sales. Because what if the budget has already been used up, but this cute teddy is still missing from my daughter's collection? Or when I'm buying a scarf for my husband and this great hat of all things catches my eye? Exactly, you can't treat yourself to anything else. I can't wait to see the hard figures for Christmas sales. What will be, will be ...
 

How can topics be tailored in such a way that they receive a positive response in the media? How can the anticipated sensitive issues be picked up in advance at a media conference? Such communication tasks are part of Andreas Eigenmann's consultancy mandate for the City of Zurich. His corporate communications department has been working on projects for the civil engineering department for three years. Accompanying the redesign of the two squares Sechseläutenwiese and Münsterhof became an exciting story. How can drastic changes be made palatable as a positive innovation to the initially suspicious population? - Because the planners are convinced that there is added value that is not yet visible at first glance. But there was a tricky nut to crack: how can the city administration reconcile the different interests of businesses, the public, the opera house and motorists? The clippings from a media response analysis showed Eigenmann where "critical tones" are to be expected in these construction projects. There were reservations about the Sechseläutenwiese, for example, because the traditional site for Circus Knie and the Böögg burn will no longer have a lawn in future. In the run-up to the media conference, negative voices were heard in the media criticizing the fact that the square is to be "paved over" with Vals quartzite. "It was clear to me that we had to create a counter-image to the dead square in our communication. This counter-image is the living one," says Eigenmann, explaining the concept, which ultimately found its way into public opinion in close collaboration with François Aellen. The Director of the Civil Engineering Office is convinced that the Italian attitude to life should symbolize the flair of the redesigned squares. This is how the idea for the "Piazza" project was born. Eigenmann and Aellen searched: Where can you find a square as large as Sechseläutenplatz? The solution was St. Mark's Square in Venice. This is admired by millions of tourists, although it is also covered with beautiful stone instead of grass. It borders the sea - Sechseläutenplatz borders the lake. St. Mark's Square is even smaller. This led to the headline: "Bigger than St. Mark's Square in Venice", as the NZZ benevolently included in its title after the media conference. As a "jewel based on the Italian model", the agency then also verbally restyled the Münsterhof as a Zurich "piazza". The architects promise to do the rest. Andreas Panzeri