The new Ford Focus brings a breath of fresh air to the compact class, the agency writes in a press release. With its numerous standard features and assistance systems, it makes its competitors look technologically outdated. This is why the idea of "Start more than a car" is at the heart of the campaign. In the first wave, three 20-second TV commercials will each demonstrate the functionality of one assistance system. The parking assistant, the blind spot assistant and the lane departure warning system will be featured. The TV commercials will be flanked by posters and dealer advertisements.

According to the press release, the campaign is a first for Ford: for the first time in its history, Ford is launching an advertising campaign that will be used in all markets worldwide. The campaign will be launched in Switzerland on April 8.

Responsible at Ford Motor Company (Switzerland): Danijel Dzihic (Marketing Director Ford Switzerland), Duri Sulser (Head of Communications & Events), Marc Brunner (Brand Manager PW). Responsible at Ogilvy & Mather: Thomas Bolliger (CD), Priska Meyer (AD), Fabian Küchler (text), Sabine Furrer (consulting), Nicolas Vetsch (assistance).

 

Taking up the guiding principle of prevention, the conceptual implementation was based on the five senses, as stated in a press release. After all, if people rely more on their senses, they can prevent accidents. You can insure yourself against fire and natural hazards, but prevention is always better than cure. So the solution is called "prevention": the core concern of the AGV.

The 116-page annual report is printed on FSC-certified, chlorine- and acid-free uncoated paper and contains a wealth of information that appeals to several senses.

Responsible at Schaerer and Partner: Andi Schaerer (overall management), Denise Fricker (consulting), Patrick Crivellari (AD), Stephan Bretscher (graphics, layout). Project management and coordination AGV: Christina Troglia, Secretary General. Photography: Hannes Kirchhof, Studio for advertising photography

A 75-year-old pensioner from Georgia set out to search the earth with her folding spade for scrap metal, which she then wanted to sell on to a dealer. In the process, she came across a fiber optic cable, which she cut without further ado - apparently assuming that she could also turn it into money. Unfortunately, the cable was the central internet cable connecting Georgia with Armenia. And also stupidly, 90 percent of Armenian internet traffic runs via Georgia. The logical consequence: large parts of Armenia with its 3.2 million inhabitants were offline for more than five hours.

The poor woman, who probably only wanted to supplement her meagre pension by selling scrap metal, was then mercilessly arrested. However, due to her advanced age, she will be set free until the end of the investigation and her trial - which we wish her all the best. Incidentally, according to the Home Office, she is said to have had "no accomplices". Reassuring - a gang of spade hackers was just what the Georgians needed.
 

The Klappe is considered the most important competition for "moving images" in the German-speaking world. The festival is organized by the Communications Association. Entries are invited from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 274 entries - 10 percent more than last year - were assessed by the jury. The jury is made up of film professionals, clients and representatives from the media Horizont, Werben & Verkaufen and Werbewoche. 12 entries from Switzerland made it onto the shortlist. The only gold for an overall campaign awarded in Hamburg was finally given to Sunrise with the witty SMS spots by Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett, plus a silver for the idea. SFLB also won bronze with a spot for the Migros Club School. In addition, a shortlist for the haulers of heavy stones for Switzerland Tourism. Five shortlists went to Pius Walker's agency. Silver for Möbel Pfister, silver for the flash mob "Zonenplan" as a viral film for Greenpeace, silver for the camera of the Rega film "Der Himmel kann warten" and another bronze each for the overall impression and sound. Seed Audio Visual Communication was the third participant from Switzerland to make it onto the shortlist with an industrial film "Kuss" for Ricola. Only a single Swiss entry from a fourth agency failed to win a prize in Hamburg.

Andreas Panzeri
 

Viewer development of Swiss sports television continues to follow a positive trend, according to a statement on Thursday. Rising usage figures, as well as increasingly frequent top ratings in market shares and reach, show that SSF's programming is having a positive effect on viewers' viewing behavior. Average usage in particular is an important indicator of the quality of the program. With programming highlights such as the matches of the Swiss Football Cup, the Handball Champions League and the Zurich Open, SSF was able to keep viewers in front of their screens longer in March than before.

 

There is a need for explanation with regard to the sales figures. So far, the upturn in the economy has only been reflected in positive figures for Ringier in Switzerland and Germany. Here, the Zurich publishing house reported revenue growth of 11.8 percent, which was largely due to rising advertising revenues, as Marc Walder, CEO of Ringier Switzerland and Germany, explained. In the countries of Central Europe, Asia and also in the Swiss print business, however, Ringier continued to report declining sales. In these markets, the economic recovery is only now slowly becoming noticeable, said Unger.

Joint venture in Eastern Europe makes direct comparison difficult

The development of revenues, especially in Central Europe, is in any case hardly comparable with the previous year. This has to do with the 50:50 joint venture that Ringier and Axel Springer entered into a year ago in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Serbia. However, this could not yet be fully implemented for antitrust reasons: No approval has yet been granted for Hungary, which is why Ringier's own activities in this country still appear fully consolidated in the current accounts. On the other hand, Ringier's country results for Serbia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were only included in the accounts at 50 percent from mid-2010, but conversely half of Springer's business in Poland and the Czech Republic is consolidated in Ringier's accounts. Currency effects also had a major impact on Central European sales. All this led to a drop in sales of almost 20 percent in Central Europe, which in turn pushed total Group sales down by 2.5 percent. If these special circumstances were not taken into account, Group sales would be at about the same level as in 2009, says Unger.

Compensation payments from Axel Springer

The Ringier Axel Springer Media AG joint venture also had an impact on Group revenues in other respects - in the form of compensation payments from Axel Springer to Ringier. This is shown in the annual report. In other words, Ringier benefits from the joint venture not only in the long term through market expansion and joint market leadership in some countries, but also financially in the short term. What Unger also revealed to Werbewoche is that the Ringier Group, which is active in Romania and wants to stay there, wants to buy Edipresse's Romania business in addition. "Talks are currently underway," Unger said. Edipresse, however, is already involved in Romania with Axel Springer in a 70/30 joint venture - the main reason why Romania has so far been left out of Ringier Axel Springer Media AG. If Ringier were to succeed in acquiring the Edipresse share, however, the joint venture between Edipresse and Axel Springer could be dissolved - and nothing would stand in the way of integrating Romania into Ringier Axel Springer Media AG.

Online generates 20 percent of Swiss sales

The revenues in the individual segments show that the digital business recorded particularly strong growth, rising to CHF 130.1 million and now accounting for 10.3 percent of Group revenues. The situation is different at Ringier Switzerland and Germany, where digital business accounts for 13.4 percent of revenues: However, this only includes the transaction-based online business - specifically the revenues of the Scout24 Group or geschenkidee.ch. If revenues from app sales or advertising revenues on title websites are also included, digital revenues reach 20 percent, according to Marc Walder.

Construction site at Cash.ch, no worries with Bolero

In an interview with Werbewoche, Walder also said that Ringier only has one construction site left in Switzerland: Cash.ch. It was a challenge to monetize this business portal without print titles, he said. CashTV, on the other hand, is self-supporting on a small scale. Walder is not worried about the sharp drop in Bolero's readership. After the launch of SI Style, the women's title was positioned as a premium product for the upscale women - and in this target group, the readership figures "are not really decisive for the match," said Walder. In any case, the title is doing extremely well in the advertising market. Walder is generally very satisfied with the titles in Switzerland. Even L'Hebdo, TV8 and Illustré, which according to Wemf advertising statistics continue to show declining advertising volumes in the double-digit percentage range, are in fact "doing solidly to very well," he said. The self-declared minus figures in the statistics are due to EDP problems that have not yet been discovered, he said.

Ringier wants to expand the Energy brand

The CEO of Ringier Switzerland and Germany also commented on TV plans (the advertising week reported). And he reiterated once again that Ringier would be interested in expanding the Radio Energy brand beyond Zurich and Bern to other Swiss regions in the entertainment sector - especially to Basel and Central Switzerland. However, an attempt to bring Christian Heeb's Radio Basel onto the NRJ track failed last year. Walder left open the question of how to proceed. There are plans, but they are not yet ready to be announced, he said. Since, by law, a maximum of two FM stations can be owned in Switzerland, Ringier can only consider cooperative ventures or even minority holdings.

Markus Knöpfli

Ringier in figures (in CHF million)

2010 2009 Change in %
Group sales 1263.9 1296.1 - 2.5
- Sales CH + D 613.7 548.9 + 11.8
- Sales Central Europe 336.4 418.8 - 19.7
- Sales Asia/Pacific 50.3 52.0 - 3.2
- Sales Print CH 263.5 276.4 - 4.6
Net income 61.8 17.2 +359.8
Cash flow 161.1 93.8 + 71.8
Number of employees 7752 7448 + 4.1

 

Subscribers to the print edition will receive free access to the e-paper, according to a press release issued on Thursday. E-paper-only subscriptions for six months or a whole year are also available at a reduced price. Until the end of May, the e-paper is freely available for everyone to test at Willisauerbote.ch.

The Willisauer Bote is in its 125th year of publication and, together with its headline newspaper Wiggertaler Bote, is the newspaper for the Willisau district and the canton of Lucerne with a certified circulation of 9,215 copies.
 

Affichage is currently clarifying whether this application is in order, as the company announced. The shareholder group around the company Starlet Investment holds 5.27 percent of the share capital of Affichage Holding.

According to SDA, Affichage reported a loss of 52.3 million Swiss francs for 2010 due to failed foreign expansion, particularly in Greece. Turnover fell by
10.5 percent to 304.3 million. Two shareholders have filed a lawsuit in Geneva against individual former and current board representatives. Affichage itself filed a lawsuit against the former business partner in Greece.
 

Spillman Felser Leo Brunett will also be taking part with its witty SMS spots for Sunrise, the same agency with a film for Migros Klubschule and Pius Walker with his spot for Möbel Pfister as well as a sensitive film for Rega.

"Advertising Week," Thursday, April 7 at 7:45 p.m. on Star TV.

Meier has been with Coop since April 1, 2011, and most recently worked at U.S. film company Warner Bros. Pictures in Zurich, Coop wrote in a statement Thursday. He was responsible for PR matters there. Urs Meier studied Phil. I at the University of Basel and worked, among other things, for several years as cantonal secretary for the CVP Basel-Landschaft before joining Warner Bros. in 2005.

Youtube is currently talking to Hollywood agents to procure the necessary content, the newspaper wrote, citing people in the know. For some time now, there have been increasing indications that Youtube wants to grow up. Small Internet films, mostly shot by amateurs, have made the platform big. Every day, videos with a total length of six years are uploaded. Two billion videos were viewed daily in 2010, 40 percent more than in the previous year. With its partner program, Youtube also helps private users to earn advertising revenue, which rose by almost 300 percent in 2010 for the second year in a row.

But the fear is that the enthusiasm for amateur videos and privately recorded babies and puppies will eventually wane. Youtube seems to want to prevent this with professionally produced shows. Just a month ago, Youtube bought the web video company Next New Networks. According to the Wall Street Journal, an initial 20 channels are planned, covering topics such as sports and the arts. The launch is scheduled for before the end of the year. Youtube plans to spend up to 100 million dollars to produce the content. This could ultimately pay off if viewers stay longer on YouTube and consume more advertising accordingly. This is how the portal finances itself. (SDA)
 

In its main edition at the end of February, "Tagesschau" broadcast a report on the topic of depression and stigmatization. The report featured Dieter Leutwyler, former head of press for former Federal Councillor Hans-Rudolf Merz, at work in the Federal Palace.

During the broadcast of the images, the "off-camera" voice in the "Tagesschau" warned that excessive stress at work could quickly lead to depression. There was no mention that the images shown were symbolic images. Dieter Leutwyler said on Thursday in response to an article in the "Bund" and "Tages-Anzeiger" newspapers that he was clearly identifiable in the report and had also received some reactions after the broadcast. Swiss television had violated the right to one's own image with the report. Leutwyler is now Head of Communications at the Security Directorate of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft.

The archive images used in the report were used for illustrative purposes. Leutwyler was seen for just under three seconds in a sequence of images, said SF media spokesperson Marco Meroni. "There was no direct connection to the person, for example with a spoken contribution."

The footage shown could nevertheless suggest that the person portrayed was suffering from depression. SF had used a scene that should not have been used in this way. "We have apologized for this and removed the contribution from the website." The case is now closed for him, said Leutwyler. He will not be taking any legal action. (SDA)