Because traditional publishers are becoming multimedia providers, the focus has shifted from print to other channels, especially the web. This has an impact (also) on advertising research and media planning.
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According to the ombudsman, Tele Ostschweiz's reporting on the television license was appropriate and no programming regulations had been violated. In January, the Winterthur District Court had already dismissed a claim by Heuberger for unfair competition in the same context.
In the week from 14 to 18 December 2009, Tele Ostschweiz reported intensively on the Federal Administrative Court's decision on the licensing procedure and its impact on the Eastern Swiss television station. As a result, "Tele Säntis" initiator Günter Heuberger made accusations against TVO, as TVO writes in a press release. He claimed that the broadcaster had reported in a one-sided and unbalanced manner and had organized an actual media campaign. He initially made these accusations before the Winterthur district court and demanded a super-provisional injunction against TVO. The court rejected Heuberger's complaint on all points in January. Heuberger then also took his allegations to the ombudsman for radio and television broadcasters, who is tasked with investigating complaints against editorial broadcasts.
In his recently published statement, the ombudsman now also clearly rejects Heuberger's accusations. The various reports complained about were all factual and correct. TVO had provided the essential information and no program regulations had been violated, writes the ombudsman. Only the additional involvement of an external media expert would have been desirable from the ombudsman's point of view.

This is the Spotlight Festival, which after all has existed in Baden-Württemberg for thirteen years. Admittedly, I'm a party to it, since I've been sitting on its jury for several years. A jury composed of creative people from advertising agencies and film productions, professors from film schools and a few journalists.
The Spotlight Festival has two special features. First, there are two prizes to be won in each category. One for the professional commercials and one for the films made by students of film schools. The students choose a product or service and, in a way, brief themselves. It is exciting to see how budding filmmakers deal with the medium of commercials. Some of the films produced are extremely creative and often stand comparison with their professional rivals. Films that are amazing not only in terms of the idea, but also in terms of directing, camera work, cas¬ting and technical implementation. In the jury, the two film categories are measured with the same cubits and have to face the same criteria. Seeing these student films is an interesting experience that I wouldn't want to miss. It would be hoped that more creatives would be curious about these films.
Another special feature of the Spotlight Festival is that there is also an audience award in each category. The films are presented at an event to a paying (!) audience, which can then vote live electronically. I can already see some people turning up their noses. How is the general public supposed to judge a film? It's mainly the clumsy, thigh-slapping films that would do well. Far from it!
To witness the spontaneous and unfiltered reactions of this year's 2000 or so audience members is something special. For some films there is practically no reaction, for others spontaneous and for a few then long-lasting applause. Similar to the cinema, with the difference that there is practically never a whistle, because people want to watch commercials.
I don't want to pit one festival against the other here, but it seems to me that direct audience reaction can provide valuable clues as to how a spot is working.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]

Daisy Lowe (21) is the daughter of singer Pearl Lowe and Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale. She already modeled as a small child and was signed by the Select agency at the age of 15. Since then, Lowe has appeared in Glamour, Myself, Vogue and other well-known fashion magazines. Julia Restoin-Roitfeld (29) is the daughter of Carine Roitfeld, editor-in-chief of the French edition of Vogue. She has made a name for herself primarily as the muse of US designer Tom Ford.

Lowe posed in a car junkyard near Los Angeles for the Esprit brand "edc". Under the title "Traveling Together", photographer Barnaby Roper Caldbeck captured the thrilling experience of breaking new ground. At Lowe's side, her boyfriend Will Cameron, singer and model, cuts a fine figure. Cameron presents the edc men's collection together with Ash Stymest and Sam Way, the shooting stars among the men's models.
Dead cars for new paths
Restoin-Roitfeld stood in front of the camera with a larger group of models for Esprit's women's casual collection. The subjects, which show the models in the Californian desert, are based on the Esprit campaigns from the early 1990s. This is a playful take on the brand's tradition, which stands for activity and coolness.
The production of the campaign subjects took place around Los Angeles and lasted a total of ten days. The campaign was conceived and implemented by Glampr.com from Los Angeles, an agency that also looks after a number of Swiss clients.
And why a shoot in California? Esprit has its origins in this state. Founders Susie and Doug Tompkins drove their car all over California selling home-made clothes. The first customers were enthusiastic - and Esprit was born.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm

Daisy Lowe and her boyfriend Will Cameron for edc.

For the mandate from Orangina Schweppes International Company, the agency had to prove itself in an extensive
presentation against three competitors. Communication and realization of the
international "Shake that Orangina" campaign in Switzerland, with the focus this year on social media.
media and online platforms.
Facebook will play a key role in the campaign. There, an ambitious competition between the Swiss Shake Stars can be followed at close quarters and multiplied by a fan community. The Subiaco People & Promotion agency will plan and implement the sampling campaigns in the summer. For content management on the various online platforms, the agency is once again relying on the "Snapr Content Distribution Tool" from Zurich agency Racerfish. The photo shoot for the current subjects is currently underway in New York with Lois Greenfield Photography. It should be rocking and shaking on the online social platforms from mid-April 2010.
The agency is also pleased to have won another mandate. As part of a communication campaign, the agency will be demonstrating the powerful effect of the liniment Perskindol from the end of March 2010. The agency already supported Vifor Pharma with the market launch of the dietary supplement EQUAZEN IQ in 2008. A classic advertising campaign for Perskindol will now publicize the 24-hour effect of the new Active Patch. Initial implementation is planned for the end of March 2010.

The company is almost as old as the medium of film. But only now has Manor presented a TV commercial for the first time in its 110-year history. The atmospheric clip was realized by the well-known British director Laurence Dunmore. He has also directed "The Liberty" with Johnny Depp and John Malkovich. The Manor commercial was shot in South Africa and Slovenia with film production company The Gang from Paris. Saatchi & Saatchi was responsible for the screenplay.
The first of four planned films revolves around the theme of spring. Three further versions will follow by the end of the year, each adapted to the season. For Manor CEO Bertrand Jungo, the TV commercial is the continuation of the branding strategy introduced in 2008. With the brand promise "donnons du style à la vie", Manor has succeeded in "gaining market share" over the last two years. But that's not enough for Bertrand. "The short film makes the Manor brand more emotional and even more appealing. It should inspire and make viewers dream." In this way, it should bring Manor closer to its goal of "becoming the preferred brand for all Swiss people".
In four episodes, the commercial tells the story of how dreams inspire people to make something special out of their everyday lives. The French touch that belongs to Manor is embodied in the film by the two Parisian leading actors Gaëlle Hérisson and Jean Paturel. The film music, sung by Yasmin Shah Felidat, was written especially for Manor by Gilles Camus. In order to realize the atmospheric scenes, not only were romantic locations chosen, but a great deal was also invested in an elaborate set. The 59-second commercial will be shown in prime time on almost all major channels throughout Switzerland until the beginning of April.
Andreas Panzeri

Hollywood star Laurence Dunmore directed a lavish commercial for Manor.

1. more dialog: An interactive online magazine promotes dialog within the company. This is because the medium links, networks and collects feedback. Employees are encouraged to express their opinions, ask questions and take part in surveys.
2. more interaction: An interactive employee magazine gives employees the opportunity to actively retrieve information. This increases attention. Anyone who wants to delve deeper into a topic receives additional information at the click of a mouse - on intranet and Internet pages, PDFs and various magazine levels.
3. more tools: Thanks to video, audio, animated graphics, slideshows, etc., the content can be prepared in such a way that it reaches the target group - intelligently and playfully. This is how the messages get across.
4. more impact: The impact of an interactive online magazine can be measured - issue by issue, article by article.
5. more motivation: employees are involved and motivated with numerous opportunities to participate and have their say.

Springer recorded a 4.3 percent drop in sales to 2.61 billion euros for the 2009 financial year. This was reported by Nachrichten.ch on Wednesday. The net profit for the year fell by 45 percent to 331.8 million euros. However, Axel Springer announced in Berlin that the dividend will remain constant at 4.40 euros per share. The cross-media business model nevertheless paid off and developed better than the overall market in a difficult environment. Many declines in the print sector were offset by the digital business. They achieved an increase in advertising revenue of 24.1 percent compared to the previous year.
Although German newspapers were able to increase their circulation revenues by one percent in 2009, advertising revenues fell by 12.1 percent. Only the flagship Bild was able to maintain advertising revenues at the previous year's level, as Pressetext writes. The international press business, on the other hand, performed rather poorly. The Eastern European market in particular saw sales plummet. Circulation revenues fell by a whopping 14.2 percent and advertising revenues by as much as 36 percent.
According to Kress.de, Group CEO Matthias Döpfner is now emerging confidently from the crisis year. He expects sales to remain stable or increase slightly in the current year.

The Swiss Employers' Association has commissioned Medianovis to fundamentally renew the association's magazine Schweizer Arbeitgeber. The magazine is now in its 105th year and is currently published fortnightly. The background to this is a reader survey conducted by Publicom AG in 2008. It revealed that although the magazine is highly valued by readers in terms of information content, credibility and editorial quality, reader loyalty and usage are limited by various conceptual shortcomings.
Medianovis is now developing a new magazine architecture and a new visual concept for the magazine. In addition, the communication synergies in the cross-media area are to be exploited to a greater extent by coordinating the magazine and the website and supplementing them with a regular electronic newsletter. From September 2010, the magazine will be published monthly and the newsletter fortnightly.

At first glance, the many advertising posters on stores, bars, restaurants and all kinds of other walls do not appear to be based on a well-thought-out strategy, but rather randomly placed and hung up. However, if you follow the Panamericana, the large main road that connects the countries of South America by land along the coast, you come across a clear strategy: "Standing out is everything". An oversized human figure, buried in the sand except for his hands and head, lies in front of a computer screen. In some villages, however small, huge posters seem to outnumber the houses. Other street posters are three-dimensional. Until a few years ago, many of the posters were not only illuminated, but even lit up themselves. However, this was then banned, as such illuminated advertising could distract drivers from the traffic. (uma)

Advertising motif on the Panamericana between Lima and Ica.

Billboards tower over a village along the Panamericana between Lima and Chinca.

Three-dimensional advertising posters on the Panamericana in Peru.

Iceland could soon become for insider information what Switzerland still is for black money: a real Eldorado. This is because a law initiated by the whistleblower platform Wikileaks grants maximum whistleblower protection and turns the ailing island into a "media free state". If Wikileaks doesn't go bankrupt itself first. An appeal for donations.
The time and place are perfectly chosen. After the bad experiences with the financial crisis and the inglorious role played by its own banks and media in the quasi-state bankruptcy, Iceland is more ripe than any other country for radical political cuts. In Reykjavík, the healthcare system could probably be completely overhauled in a week rather than 30 years. Such reform enthusiasm resulting from desperation would surely make Obama green with envy. This applies in particular to the "Icelandic Modern Media Initiative" (IMMI), which is supported by a broad majority of the population and parliament. If the initiative is adopted, Iceland will overtake the USA overnight as the global protective power for freedom of expression and transparent information in business and politics.
The driving force behind this epoch-making initiative is the Wikileaks Internet service, legally domiciled in Iceland, where anyone can anonymously publish documents about unethical behavior by companies or governments. Launched in 2006 by a number of committed journalists and lawyers, this contemporary central organ for civil courage has already produced more scoops than many world newspapers in their entire history. Last summer, Wikileaks published insider information about who received which uncovered loans from Kaupthing, the largest Icelandic bank at the time, and how around five billion dollars were taken out of the country shortly before the collapse. Kaupthing "naturally" had the explosive link to these internal details blocked immediately by means of a temporary injunction. Thanks to courageous TV editors, however, the story still made it into the main news program.
It is high time to put a stop to such de facto censorship, which is also common in this country, and to create a binding legal basis for dealing with sensitive data and internal whistleblowers that is appropriate for the Internet age. Iceland is taking a bold step forward here and making a virtue of its current need for media policy. Today, the democratic control function of journalism is increasingly being constrained by national legislation. Be it with the argument of public safety or under the pretext of protecting alleged property or personal rights, which in practice often amount to censorship that can be more or less legitimized by law.
According to the bill, which was clearly adopted at first reading, journalistic sources will enjoy far-reaching protection and, particularly important in the global news business, will be placed beyond the reach of any foreign plaintiffs. For global media companies and internet providers, this extremely liberal regulation is an invitation to operate from the "free port of information", just like Wikileaks. For beleaguered Iceland, on the other hand, the new law represents a massive locational advantage. And for us old offshore profiteers, it is an invitation to actively support the originators of this initiative.
Because Wikileaks is also almost bankrupt. Half of the modest annual budget of just over 600,000 francs is still not under the roof, which is why the website is currently dominated by an appeal for donations instead of links to confidential documents. It is a perverse irony of fate that this important internet platform is on the brink of collapse at the height of its influence. I am therefore transferring my - equally modest - column fee to Iceland and asking you, dear reader, to make a solidarity contribution to Wikileaks. And if Roger Blum or any other trustee of the Solothurn Vogt-Schild Foundation reads this: Why not invest one fiftieth of the CHF 20 million that your institution has released from the sale of the Vogt-Schild Group in securing the future of investigative journalism and thus promote what is probably the most effective means against tax havens, namely journalism havens? A Swiss publishing house would certainly make positive headlines with such a gesture of compensation.