Publisuisse writes in a press release on Friday that the market's need for integrated customer support will thus be met even more effectively. Sponsorship customers will now have a single point of contact for regional, national and cross-media sponsorship commitments. Program proximity will also be ensured by the SRF sponsorship team now focusing its core competencies on the design of the offers and continuing to ensure the interface with the editorial teams, the press release continues. And SRF's sponsorship team will continue to support customers directly in the future for tailor-made offers with a strong connection to the program, product placements and other forms of integration in the editorial environment.
 

The live recording of such a program requires a production crew of around 20 people, according to a statement from Lobsterstudios. The almost 500 square meter photo, film and TV studio can accommodate up to 60 viewers and guests per show. The big challenge is that no post-production is possible with such a short live recording, which requires a tight and professional organization.

The entire appearance of the broadcasts was realized by the agency for moving images Level Two.

Responsible at Lobsterstudios: André Eichholzer (overall responsibility), Steve Noi (technical management). Screen design LevelTwo: Gregor Rott, Christian Rüeger.

Winners do not receive any money, however, but choose one of around 300 church projects and offerings and support it with the specified amount. With the campaign, the Reformed Churches of the cantons of Aargau, Bern, Solothurn and Zurich want to show their many projects and offers in a surprising way, according to a statement. In the coming weeks, 600'000 scratch-off tickets will be distributed to appeal to passive church members. In addition, the parishes want to ask about the nature of happiness in special events and church services.

The church gamble had been devised by the agencies Wirz Werbung and Assai Dialog + Digital and had already made headlines before the campaign launch, write the Reformed National Churches. The NZZ am Sonntag and the Tagesanzeiger had already reported months earlier about the popular appearance, which would also cause criticism within the church. The campaign was launched on Thursday and has already made it into the main edition of the Tagesschau.

Paul Kehl can look back on a long, exciting history like hardly any other Swiss fashion brand, By Heart writes in a statement. It all began in 1881, when the young entrepreneur Paul Kehl founded a clothing factory in Winterthur. He had nothing less in mind than to lead the Swiss man into a fashionable modern age. Fashion should no longer dress him up, but give him more freedom with new cuts, new materials and an uncomplicated style. In doing so, fashion pioneer Paul Kehl has always been oriented towards the active, sporty. Today, the Paul Kehl brand is reviving this heritage by launching its current fall collection under the title "Swiss Sports Club." The corresponding advertising presence works with all the signs - and badges - of a masculine Swiss sports culture. A culture that should whet the appetite for an autumn and winter full of adventure and challenges among comrades. And, of course, also whets the appetite for warm sweaters.

Responsible at PKZ Burger-Kehl & Co: Ph. Olivier Burger (owner), Simone Schäfer (communications manager), Nadine Pless (communications planner). Responsible at By Heart: Hans Siegwart (CD), Markus Bircher (Strategy/Text), Marc Hahn (Brand Design Manager), Nonda Coutsikos (Graphic Design), Natascha Breu (Realization), Misha Gambetta (Account Direction). Photo: Romeo Mori. Litho: RTK, Kloten. Video: Simon Jaquemet. Media: Thomas Rüttimann, Zip Media.

 

Around 13,000 trade visitors were inspired by 360 exhibitors and 60 speakers with innovations and trends from the "360° networked marketing world", according to a press release. According to the organizers, the event was an exciting demonstration of how to communicate in the future, which offers will lead to business success and how emotions can be triggered. The new sensory world for direct marketing by Swiss Post, the workshop activities by Xing and Google as well as the free congress program proved to be visitor magnets.

The organizers are not lacking in ideas and new concepts for Suisse Emex'12. Fabia Rizzoli, team leader of Suisse Emex: "We want to offer more space for new communication technologies for a mobile society and the creative industries. Developments are so rapid that we can look forward to the future with excitement!" The date for the sixth edition of the trade fair has already been announced: It will once again take place at Messe Zürich from August 21 to 23, 2012.
 

Sabine Galindo-Fässler held leading positions in the AZ Medien Group for ten years, including publishing director of the Aargauer Zeitung and managing and publishing director of the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung and Solothurner Zeitung. In 2011, she became self-employed with the magazine Welt der Tiere, which she will continue to run alongside her work at SWS Medien, according to SDA.

Josef J. Zihlmann has been with the Willisauer Boten since 1976. He first worked as an editor, from 1989 as editor-in-chief and since 2007 as managing director. He remains associated with the company in other functions.

SWS Medien Verlag is a subsidiary of Willisauer Bote Medien und Print, on whose behalf it produces the Willisauer Boten, the Wiggertaler Boten, the Seetaler Boten and the Seetaler Brattig together with its Allmedia services.
 

The most recent example of this is the mountain sports brand Mammut. On Monday, environmentally conscious members on Facebook descended on the company like a swarm of wasps. They unleashed a so-called shitstorm - a protest campaign with hundreds of negative comments. The reason was the new CO2 law. Because Mammut joined the campaign against the new law by the umbrella organization Economiesuisse, users of the social platform put pressure on the company. The company has now given in. On Tuesday, Mammut was forced to remove itself from Economiesuisse's list of supporters.
"We apologize to all critics who felt offended by this step," wrote Mammut on its Facebook page, also thanking them for having learned "another important lesson in dealing with social media". The stakes were high for Mammut with the social platform. After all, the company has around 60,000 followers on Facebook. Users on the Internet would react quickly and say "I'm not buying this product any more", says Philippe Surber, head of department at Internet service provider Unic and an expert in social media, to the news agency SDA. However, the shock wave on social platforms can be much greater. According to Marcel Bernet, PR consultant and lecturer in social media at the MAZ media training center in Lucerne, the fever curve is more volatile and people react more impulsively and quickly. A story can disappear again as quickly as it has risen.
However, if a "shitstorm" is triggered and the company reacts quickly and authentically, it can even polish up its image. Whether this will be the case with Mammut remains to be seen. Experts at least agree that the mountain sports brand's reaction to the accusations was exemplary.

 

It all started with a photo competition at the beginning of this year. With a classic mailing to associations throughout Switzerland as well as various online ideas, the Rhaetian Railway was looking for groups that wanted to participate as photo models in its next advertising campaign. "The whole of Switzerland can inherit," was the claim. The idea was that the Rhaetian Railway wanted to pass on its newly awarded UNESCO "World Heritage" designation to as large a public as possible - in the sense of "sharing the inheritance".

"We were thinking about what could really make waves. Right now, all the involvement campaigns are very hyped," explains Gabriel Peisker, CD of the Erdmannpeisker agency, "but what really works? Finding this out was very important to us."

Erdmannpeisker has also already launched a best-known campaign for its client Mammut with customers as part of the staging. In contrast to Mammut, the Rhaetian Railway now allows entire groups to join together as "heritage communities" and apply for a professional photo shoot with a photo that is as original as possible. The prize for the four most original entrants was 3,000 Swiss francs into the club's coffers, as well as an attractive weekend of filming and photography in the Grisons mountains.

Great echo for the mountains

The Rhaetian Railway expected 100 applicants. In the end, more than 200 clubs and spontaneous groups took part in the competition. "People from all age groups took part, from teenage clans to senior citizens' jass circles, sports clubs, music groups, loose associations and, of course, many hiking groups. Far beyond the canton, only a small proportion from Graubünden," says a delighted Martin Sturzenegger, Head of Marketing and Sales at RhB.

Two of these groups were chosen as winners via online voting. Two others were chosen by a jury. The joint weekend with a motorcycle gang, brass band, ladies' gymnastics club and the "Titans" from Bern was "a super experience for everyone. With all these "models", the first four print subjects and various films for use on www.rhb.ch/erben have now been realized.

With the currently placed print subjects, there is already a call for the next round, because the idea of this involvement campaign is far from exhausted. pan

Martin Sturzenegger, Head of Marketing and Sales at RHB, on Advertising with a World Heritage Site

WW: The campaign relies on clubs. How important are group tours as a target audience for the RhB?
Martin Sturzenegger: They are very important. On the one hand, we have the classic groups, from school trips to hiking groups. In addition, we have a large number of clubs. In Germany and Italy, we work with tour operators who buy group allotments from us. This is a very important business for us. But in the current campaign, the link is different. We believe that the clubs are a kind of cultural asset in Switzerland. The campaign therefore wants to create a link between these associations as a cultural asset and the Rhaetian Railway, which has also become a cultural asset of Switzerland with its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How did it come about?
The initiative came from us. The process was initiated in 2005. In 2008, we were included on the World Heritage List. For this, we had to prepare a very extensive documentation. We had to win over the municipalities that lie along the World Heritage Site so that they would support us. There was also a lot of internal political work to be done at the cantonal and federal levels. In summary, we had to find a common nen¬ner for our justification to the UNESCO authorities in Paris.

So what obligations does UNESCO World Heritage entail?
This is all clearly regulated. The World Heritage label applies not only to the RhB Albula/Bernina line in the narrower sense, but also to a band along the railroad line. This co-protected area comprises individually defined important cultural assets, sites and landscape elements and has a width of 500 to 1000 meters. Finally, a so-called buffer zone was defined, which includes the cultural landscape seen from the railroad line. Within these definitions, in the future all changes, adaptations or modernizations must be documented and also approved vis-à-vis the UNESCO World Heritage Authority in Switzerland and, in a second step, in Paris. With the candidature, the federal government and the canton of Graubünden have committed themselves to preserving the uniqueness of the Albula and Bernina lines including their surroundings. However, this does not mean that obsolete facilities may no longer be modernized in the future.

And what is the point of World Heritage as a promotional argument?
Abroad, it's a good label. There are only three railroads in this world that are considered World Heritage Sites: the Semmering Railway in Austria, the Mountain Railways of India and us. This is certainly an argument for tourists from abroad to take a ride on our railroad. In Switzerland, we want to communicate the offer a bit more broadly. For us, it's all about the leisure world. We want to position the Rhaetian Railway and its surroundings as a possible leisure activity. In competition perhaps with an Alpamare, the Technorama ...

The RhB as a world of experience?
We have two roles. One is the classic rail operation, like an SBB, where we guarantee basic traffic. We have a normal workload all year round. But we can do more additional business in the summer. Then we are also a leisure and vacation railroad. Our parade offers are a ride on the Bernina Express on the UNESCO World Heritage route or the spectacular panorama on a ride on the Glacier Express. New - and this is now the third part that we want to market with the current campaign - we are highlighting the wide variety of adventures that our guests can experience around the UNESCO World Heritage route. From the museum to the cultural festival to swimming fun or hiking.

How far is the cooperation with Graubünden Tourism?
We work very closely together. They represent us. When it comes to advertising abroad, we appear together at most of the fairs. The foreign tourists are very important. Accordingly, the strong franc or the weak euro are giving us a hard time. We feel it especially on these premium trains. However, the campaign presented here is aimed at Swiss customers. The campaign is not being run abroad.

Erdmannpeisker won this campaign in a pitch. At the time, the tender was a talking point at BSW. Has the situation calmed down?
Yes, we had to talk about the fact that 35 agencies were interested in the pitch. But we only took 5 of them. I think that is acceptable within the rules of the game in this industry. What was new was that we called for Internet agencies to pitch together with advertising agencies. Our thinking was that we wanted to do a cross-media campaign right from the start, and not start with an advertising campaign and then think about how to continue online. We wanted both worlds to come from the same mold. And we succeeded in doing that.

Social media is a very important element in this campaign. Does it work?
The initial spark was a traditional letter by postcard and electronic mailing to thousands of Swiss clubs. From then on, the path went online. Via Facebook, video online ads in Swiss portals and sites, or even directly via the RhB site, it was possible to apply and win over people who voted for a corresponding club. In my opinion, we are the first railroad in Switzerland to use social media in such a heavily weighted way. We are still learning a lot in the process. One insight: the various media have to work on their own. You can't assume that people will go through the whole cross-media process and just switch from one medium to another on command. It has to work on its own. But you don't get this kind of success from social media for free. We've hired an extra staff member to look after the whole thing. Advertising with social media involves a lot of effort. We had to improve the voting process for the competition - certain clubs took advantage of the system. But that also shows how much interest there was in what we had to offer in this campaign. Interview: Andreas Panzeri

Martin Sturzenegger (l.) with CD Gabriel Peisker.

 

"I think I'm good!" If you can say that about yourself without batting an eyelid, you don't need friends, luck or consideration. And no power button. Our media pioneer Dr. Roger Schawinski proudly tells Annabelle that he fell off his chair because of Hannelore Elsner and would have been the dream man of campaign dyke Alice Schwarzer. On self-congratulatory Radio 1, he spins that his first wife Priscilla from Puerto Rico was already integrated in Switzerland when she couldn't speak a word of German. All without the slightest sign of insecurity. Reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking: "I make the world widdewidde, as I like it."

The guest doesn't matter

Someone like Schawi can start his career on Swiss television, then spend years railing against SRG and finally return to SF1 with his own talk show - without anyone talking about spinelessness. Our Roscheee can do that, that's how we love him. The first guest on "Schawinski", as his show is naturally called, on Monday was Dr. Konrad Hummler, the best-known Swiss private banker with an otherwise sharp pen and tongue. Not much of that was noticeable. But the guest didn't matter either: "The viewer should not only be interested in the guest, but also in the interviewer," Schawi made clear in advance. The whole truth is: the viewer should only be interested in the interviewer. So on day 1 after "Schawinski", the media world does not talk about provocative theses, moving content or new insights. No, they talk about Schawi, who played the banker against the wall like any other interviewee. What was the show about? About money, money? Nope. About Schawinski, Schawinski. "Good questions, strange answers, mission accomplished," was the verdict of former SF editor-in-chief Peter Studer. I see. What was the assignment?

Wonderfully impossible

Who is this Schawinski, that he can be so outrageously embarrassing, unobjective and often unfair, and yet enjoy so much respect? Someone who seasoned media people don't want to sit across from in an interview because he would mercilessly tear them apart? And not because he is so eloquent. I, too, give in and listen and watch again and again: not because of the boyish charm of his gap in his teeth, not because of his openly celebrated chauvinism, not because of his unjournalistic brilliance, not because of his inhibition to listen and not because of his old-fashioned appearance when he arrives at Radio 1 in the morning with his bike, helmet and brown Tschope. Schawinski has something that most Swiss people lack completely: self-confidence. And to a grotesque degree. This fascinates with unbroken entertainment value.

In the future, Acino Switzerland will operate as an independent, international brand in the pharmaceutical sector. The first step was to develop an appropriate strategy and a brand identity. Now comes the next step - the brand image. On the basis of the jointly defined strategic orientation, McCann Erickson designed all elements of the brand communication. This included, among other things, the expansion of the corporate design for the promotional appearance in various, international markets, the creation of a brand book for sales, marketing partners and agencies, as well as the compilation of a differentiating, proprietary image pool, for which a multi-day shoot in the Bernese Alps was organized.

The core elements of the brand identity focus on the Swiss origin of the company and the associated attributes that are reflected in the world of mountaineering.

Responsible at Acino Pharma: Manuel Heim (Global Head of Marketing). Responsible at McCann Erickson: Thilo Boullion (Head of Planning), Annika Seidel (Group Account Director), Folker Wrage (CCO), Marcus Josty (Art Director), Denise Frech (Art Director), Tina Krakow (Art Buying), Sonja Jegen (Typography/Production). Photographer: Jan Greune.
 

Ringier thus adds to its existing activities in Romania the titles Elle, Avantaje, Look!, Psychologies, Intamplari adevarate, Povestea mea, Lucru de Mana, Povesti de Viata and Baby, as well as the Romanian licensed editions of Viva!, the youth magazine Popcorn and the Custom Publishing Division. The Swiss media company has been active in Romania since 1992 with Ringier Romania runs around a dozen print and online products, including the e tabloid Libertatea. Edipresse Romania's activities will be integrated into the Ringier Romania organization.

The acquisition of Edipresse A.S. Romania by Ringier Romania S.R.L. is still subject to the approval of the Romanian competition authority, according to a Ringier release.
 

For a long time, there were only two Sunday titles in German-speaking Switzerland, Tamedia's SonntagsZeitung and Ringier's SonntagsBlick - until 2002, when the NZZ Group launched its NZZ am Sonntag. Four years later, some regional publishers also sensed a Sunday goldmine: Südostschweiz am Sonntag was launched in 2006, followed by AZ Medien's Sonntag in 2007 and Zentralschweiz am Sonntag, the seventh edition of the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, in 2008. Then came the crisis years, which meant that Sundays became quiet again. No wonder, as most Sunday titles also lost advertising volume: while the Sunday press (Switzerland as a whole) still generated advertising revenue of CHF 210.5 million in 2008, this fell to just CHF 154 million in 2010 (-26%). Some titles, such as SonntagsZeitung (SoZ) and NZZ am Sonntag (NZZaS), even lost 30 percent of their advertising volume (only commercial advertisements, excluding classified ads). As a result, staff and quality were cut everywhere. In any case, readership figures also began to fall with the crisis. Only Südostschweiz am Sonntag (SOSo), which steadily expanded its early delivery area, and Zentralschweiz am Sonntag (ZaS), the youngest Sonntagsblatt, made marginal gains.

Saturated Sunday market

All this shows: The Sunday market in German-speaking Switzerland is stagnating. "The Sunday market is undoubtedly saturated," said Caroline Thoma, Managing Director of the Blick Group. SoZ publishing director Diego Quintarelli also speaks of a "competitive environment". "The Sunday euphoria is on the wane," notes Andrea Masüger, CEO of Südostschweiz Medien. That's why every publisher now wants to put its Sonntagsblatt in pole position. Accordingly, investments are once again the order of the day after the years of austerity: SoBli and SoZ appointed new editors-in-chief - Carsten Witzmann and Martin Spieler - last year, SoZ launched the luxury supplement "Finest" in spring, SoBli changed the face and concept of its magazine, and Sonntag gave itself a new layout in May. Two newspapers also announced new features for this fall: NZZaS will transform its previous lifestyle bundle into a magazine supplement called "Stil" at the end of August, and Sonntag plans to launch a seventh for the canton of Stadt-Basel in addition to its existing six regional bundles from mid-September. The digital age is also being entered everywhere: SoZ, which generally relies on paid content, was the first Sonntag title to launch a paid iPad app back in summer 2010. "Every Sunday we are the top-selling print media app in the App Store," says Quintarelli proudly. Sonntag and Südostschweiz recently followed suit, as did the Blick Group, which had already released iPhone apps in the past. The NZZaS, on the other hand, is working on a Lifepaper, an animated version of the EPaper. According to Editor-in-Chief Felix E. Müller, this is planned for the first quarter of 2012 and should then also facilitate NZZaS distribution abroad.

SonntagsBlick remains number 1

It remains to be seen what effect these activities will have. However, upheavals are not to be expected. Not even the crisis and new regional competition have been able to completely turn the Sunday market upside down. However, they have left their mark. With a paid circulation of 238,178 copies and 873,000 weekly readers, SonntagsBlick (SoBli) remained the largest Sunday title - and the only one in tabloid format. It also continues to have the lowest thousand-reader price (TLP) and the largest advertising volume. It has even been able to keep its market share of commercial advertisements constant at 27 percent since 2008. However, it has felt the effects of the new regional competition particularly keenly in the user market: while it still had one million readers in 2007, it has lost a significant 13 percent since then. Circulation has fallen by a similar amount. Interestingly, although the publisher has promoted subscriptions and Sunday early delivery, the SoBli still sells almost half of its circulation in single copy sales. The SoZ also remained number two in terms of reach, circulation and TLP, continues to have the largest editorial team (70 people) and, with four readers per copy, is read more intensively than its competitors. However, of all the Sunday titles, the SoZ suffered the most financially from the crisis and its regional competitors: in 2008, it generated almost as many advertising pages as the SoBli and also had a 27 percent market share in commercial advertising at the time, but in the first half of 2011 it only achieved a market share of 21 % and even fell to third place behind the NZZaS (market share: 23 %).

Sunday remains regionally blocked

Conversely, it is still unclear whether the nine-year-old and third-placed NZZaS has already reached its limits. Although there was a slight erosion in reach last year (-3.7 %), circulation has continued to rise steadily, even though the NZZaS charges the highest prices for subscriptions and at newsstands. But even Editor-in-Chief Felix E. Müller, who last year was still aiming for 550,000 readers and 130,000 copies, has become more cautious. "The circulation target still seems achievable, but the reach target was probably too ambitious," he says. Of the regional Sunday editions, the Aargauische Sonntag is undoubtedly the most important, but it is caught in a dilemma: in terms of content, it has a national claim and can certainly hold a candle to the SoBli, SoZ and NZZaS: It is often quoted and generally praised as "well done". However, its circulation area has always been limited to the Mittelland, Zurich and north-western Switzerland. This is why it was never able to achieve its declared goal of becoming the second-largest Sunday title. In terms of circulation, it is now only the third-largest paper, and in terms of reach and CPM, it is only in fourth place. Circulation and reach are also declining. The "potential of 500,000 readers" that was mentioned at the launch was never even close to being exhausted (peak in 2010-1: 371,000 readers). As a result, its advertising market share has always hovered around 13%. SOSo and ZaS, the two other Sunday editions, are smaller and clearly regionally positioned, but - despite their high TLP - still have a combined advertising market share of 17%. It remains to be seen whether these shares were generated by the Sunday editions themselves or whether volumes were simply shifted from the respective daily newspapers to the weekend. According to Andrea Masüger, there was no substantial shift in advertising for his title. "With the launch of SOSo, we were able to tap into an additional market, which was worthwhile for us," he says.
Markus Knöpfli

Experiment on Sunday

In September, the small Schaffhauser Nachrichten (circulation: 22,868 copies) is launching a fourth regional Sunday edition, but "only" digitally with apps for all types of tablets and smartphones. "We want to fill the gap on Sundays, but also generate additional revenue," says publisher Günter Neininger. A production team will prepare reports for Sunday that are already being processed in the in-house radio, TV and newspaper media. They will start with a few tablet pages and then gradually expand. The app will be free of charge until the end of the year and will become chargeable from 2012. In terms of advertising, the aim is to break new ground and be highly interactive. The project should break even as early as 2012. However, Neininger sees the project primarily as an experiment. "It's ideal to be able to try it out like this. It would never have been possible with a print edition," he says. Although a paper edition is definitely an option for Neininger - "depending on how the economy develops". (mk)

> Swiss German Sunday market at a glance (PDF)