In addition, cross-media communication synergies are to be exploited to a greater extent by coordinating the magazine and the website and supplementing them with an electronic newsletter. The magazine, now in its 105th year, will be published monthly instead of fortnightly from September 2010. The newsletter will be sent out every two weeks. The background to the renewal is a reader survey conducted by Publicom in 2008. It revealed that although the magazine is highly regarded by readers in terms of information content, credibility and editorial quality, reader loyalty and usage are limited by various conceptual shortcomings.

Amplifon, with branches in 13 countries, is the world's leading provider of hearing aid solutions. Various brands are represented. In Switzerland, the specialist retailer from Italy is present in all parts of the country with over 80 branches and partner companies, making it the market leader. It offers "professional hearing advice always close to the customer". This fact gave Noise the idea for the claim that manifests Amplifon's unique customer proximity: "Amplifon. Always within earshot."
Noise won Amplifon Switzerland's budget in a pitch and is now presenting a comprehensive repositioning, from the claim to the new corporate identity to the advertising and TV campaign. The campaign's target group is people aged between 55 and 75. The aim is to reduce their fear of making the decision to buy a hearing aid. The main medium is therefore a TV commercial that is specifically placed before the favorite shows of this age group, such as "Benissimo".
The commercial was shot on a Monday when there was no performance at the Kiev State Opera. In Switzerland, a similarly large theater would never have been free for an entire day of filming, says producer Shannon Mildon from Manifesto, who was able to choose from six different venues in the east. The concept wanted a classic theater with boxes, plush furniture and a large stage, "because the spot should radiate a certain value according to the target audience", as CD Patrik Giacobbo from Noise explains. In keeping with this image, director Reto Salimbeni had a stylishly modern stage set built in Kiev. 500 extras were placed in the audience for several hours. They get to see a Dr. Faust, who in his monologue "There I stand now, poor fool! And I am as clever as I was before...". The prompter wants to help the actor, but he can't understand her whispering. A hearing aid would save the situation. But the hero on stage is just like the target audience: he is playing an important role where he should hear "all the nuances". But he is also vain - and therefore does not wear a hearing aid. When designing the umbrella campaign, such facts were combined with strong emotional impulses. Noise also designed posters, brochures, flyers, street stoppers, customer mailings and advertisements. The various print media are based on quotes from customers. These statements show what small but extremely valuable moments are lost if you do nothing about your hearing loss. The sale and fitting of hearing aids is based on trust. That's why the hearing aid acousticians at Amplifon sales outlets should also "get a face" in this campaign, as Marketing Manager Claudia Schilter explains. To this end, the agency "personalized" the print subjects for 56 different local media with the heads of the respective acousticians.
Andreas Panzeri

The spot from the Kiev State Opera is intended to radiate high quality with its decor and ambience.

Image Trust from Constance was founded just under a year ago and produces individual images, reports in text and image as well as audiovisual presentations on culture, politics, business, portraits and reportage - also on behalf of clients. The agency also organizes seminars and workshops on photography and image marketing. The following photographers are represented by the company: Bernd Arnold, Franz Bischof, Christian Burkert, Henning Bode, Jesco Denzel, Dirk Gebhardt, Michael Hauri, Robert Kah, Carsten Koall, Stefan-Thomas Kröger, Helge Krückeberg, Michael Löwa, Ralf Meyer, Rolf Nobel, Daniel Pilar, Götz Schleser, Felix Seuffert, Florian Sonntag, Heiko Specht and Julia Zimmermann.

In gondola number 3 of the Singapore Flyer, the employees of a software company are enjoying a New Year's dinner, while in the adjacent gondola, a group of tourists from New Zealand with champagne glasses in their hands marvel at the city skyline from an unusual perspective. At 165 meters, the world's tallest Ferris wheel is one of the most important tourist attractions and an increasingly popular party venue in the Southeast Asian city-state, and this is also thanks to Chew Boon Heang, Director of Corporate Planning & Business Strategy at the Adval Brand Group, which markets the wheel and brings new ideas to the fore. The Ferris wheel is owned by Singapore Flyer Gmbh&Co, which initially struggled to finance the landmark, which cost the equivalent of around 200 million Swiss francs. Singapore is known as a commercial, banking, convention and trade fair city. What was the point of a playful Ferris wheel? With 30 employees, Adval ("adding value to your brand") looks after a whole range of clients, the most prominent of which is the Singapore Flyer.
Offensive marketing
"We market the Flyer aggressively and are constantly looking for new ideas," says Ms. Heang with an infectious laugh. Driving their momentum is the agreement to guarantee the operators of the bike for an annual turnover of at least 16 million Singapore dollars (S$) - approximately 12 million Swiss francs. The agency receives a commission, and the higher the turnover, the more it can skim off the top.
29 S$ is the full price for the half-hour round trip, which offers spectacular views of the city and as far as Malaysia. Adval developed a fan of tickets with reductions for families, groups, etc., and even annual subscriptions are on the market for people who want to experience the bike every now and then. "The scenarios are completely different depending on the weather," says Heang. "Some guests love the views in the tropical rain, where the skyscrapers blur in the wet haze, others prefer the cloudless sky, while still others enjoy the glistening sea of lights during the night ride."
Honeymoon over the Bay of Singapore
Singapore is a world champion in marketing, which is exemplified by the Flyer. The idea of renting out the spacious cabins as breathtaking party rooms quickly emerged. Brochures with the offers were printed, journalists were invited, television crews filmed in the futuristic, floating wine bars and demand quickly increased. Young couples booked several turns for a complete honeymoon dinner, while other cabins were booked by entire families to celebrate their grandmother's birthday. A dinner for two with two rotations (approx. one hour) costs 199 S$ (150 Fr.), while a private capsule with dinner and drinks for up to 10 people costs a flat rate of 1,500 S$ for two rotations.
If you want to go even bigger, you can book a wedding package for the whole party on the most beautiful day of your life with a champagne aperitif and salmon rolls in an extra romantically decorated capsule for up to two dozen guests during two round trips. As a further highlight, the party then cruises the waters of Singapore on a luxury yacht; including limousine service to the harbor, this all costs 2999 S$, with dinner in the VIP lounge or in the Flyer's event hall costing correspondingly more. Those who prefer a simpler experience can enjoy the breezy circuit with a signature cocktail (69 S$), the glass is given to you as a souvenir and you can then continue drinking in the VIP lounge (at your own expense).
From the airplane to the flyer
While other Ferris wheels simply sell tickets, Adval turned the Singapore Flyer into a breathtaking event machine; Swiss tourism providers could take a leaf out of its book. With the award-winning Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport, which is highly rated in passenger surveys, Singapore is one of Asia's major flight hubs. Some passengers only use the airport to change planes or make a one-day stopover here before their onward flight, for example to Australia. As many planes from Europe or the USA land early in the morning, the Singapore Tourism Board and Adval have put together programs together with the hotels to show guests as much as possible during this stopover. Tourists are taken from the airport to the city by bus and, as the hotels are often not ready for check-in in the morning, are taken straight to the Flyer: from the plane to the Ferris wheel!
The cooperation with Singapore's tourism organization is intensive, so the bike is integrated into many city tours, which contributes to the added value of the Singapore Flyer. The adventure bike is advertised with posters at strategic locations such as the airport or in shopping centers. "However, our advertising costs are not high," says Chew Boon Heang. "Press reports, TV shows etc. are our most important advertising, we are happy to provide support in the realization of media projects."
Negative publicity was generated by an incident shortly after the opening when the wheel came to a standstill due to a power failure and the 170 passengers had to wait in their capsules for hours; no one was harmed. Since then, all cabins have been equipped with survival kits containing food, drinks and even sanitary utensils. An "in-flight audio guide", which explains the view of the city and surrounding area to guests in several languages, is included in the ticket price and is free of charge.
Jungle and yield management
At the foot of the wheel there is even a small jungle with waterfalls, an attraction that can be visited free of charge. Stores and restaurants are grouped around it, and a large souvenir store on the upper floor next to the VIP lounge attracts many visitors. The stores and restaurants are not managed by Brand Group Adval, and their rents and sales are not relevant to the agency's royalties. In the entrance area by the ticket offices for the flyer, there is space to display cars for a fee - after all, hundreds of thousands of expectant visitors flock here every year.
Yield management is the order of the day at the Flyer: during the rather slow summer months, there are discounts and promotions, while during the Formula 1 race (September 24 - 26, 2010), whose circuit passes under the Flyer, the expensive 600-dollar packages for a few bike rides are sold like fresh wok vegetables.
Although the 800,000 visitors a year so far are a lot less than the lofty forecasts before the opening, this is an incentive for Adval to manage the wheel even more creatively.
Cooperation with other organizers
While Singapore used to be more of a riverside city, the metropolis is increasingly turning towards the sea as a result of landfill. The Flyer, on the shores of Singapore Bay, is an outpost of this development. Nearby, the huge integrated resort Marina Bay Sands is now rising from the ground with three hotel towers covered by a huge 200-metre-high park; the 5.2 billion US$ complex also includes convention halls, shopping arcades and a casino. Adval is already developing strategies to work productively with the Marina Bay Sands Resort, which is due to open in 2010.
As the marketing strategist explains, more and more regular tickets and events are being booked for the flyer by e-mail. Unique corporate packages, where companies book one or more capsules for their presentations, are in demand. Chew Boon Heang: "Press conferences in the Flyer are also becoming increasingly popular because the organizers can be sure that the journalists won't rush off before the end of the presentation."

The internet game "Pennergame", promoted by Bild, Hamburger Abendblatt, Tagesspiegel, Spiegel online and Sat.1, must have been created in a particularly weak moment. In the game, you can assume the identity of a homeless person who scrounges and begs. If you are successful, you become rich. "Become homeless now for free and without any further risks," it says. What fun! The game came out in 2007 and sadly even won "Browser Game of the Year" a year later.
The Hamburg homeless magazine "Hinz & Kunzt" - comparable to "Surprise", which is published in German-speaking Switzerland - has now launched a clever counter-attack: it has launched the online game "Egoseller". Players can virtually put themselves in the shoes of a "Hinz & Kunzt" seller who has to sell as many copies of the magazine as possible in two minutes in a pub. This allows them to experience first-hand how difficult it is to sell enough copies per day to secure a dry place to sleep and a hot meal.
The title "Egoseller" is a powerful left hook for all those who consider themselves superior to homeless people and street vendors. The game was produced by "Labor1 - Gesellschaft zur Entwicklung digitaler Inhalte mbH". One thing homeless certainly doesn't mean: unimaginative. (afw)

> Hinzundkunzt.labor1.de

The prediction in the last advertising week (44/17.12.2009) that eReaders would dominate the new year was impressively confirmed. Tablet PCs, eReaders and oversized smartphones were omnipresent. A few days before the trade fair, Google presented its Nexus One super-phone; Microsoft generated little enthusiasm with the presentation of a tablet PC from HP, and various manufacturers showed dual-screen models that can be opened up like a book. The IdeaPad U1 Hybrid from Lenovo caused quite a stir: the screen of this notebook can simply be removed and then functions independently as a tablet PC, whereby current information (such as open websites) is synchronized when docking and undocking. The Adam Prototype from Notion Ink is also noteworthy: At the touch of a button, the display can be switched from color LCD mode to a power-saving but still fast ePaper mode.
It will now be interesting to see which devices, together with which business models for content and telecommunications, will be accepted on the market and which will fail. One important question is whether pure eReader reading devices bundled with data services and content will be able to establish themselves against multifunctional tablet PCs. At present, the industries concerned are still eagerly awaiting Apple's announcement at the end of January, which is also expected to involve such a device (iTablet/iSlate). However, the cult brand will only be able to gain significant market share if Steve Jobs can come up with truly revolutionary features. Otherwise, as the CES clearly showed, even an Apple tablet will be just another (presumably expensive) competitor. What is clear is that mobile will establish itself as another media channel and will be far more multifaceted than the online world to date.
Two previously largely Internet-free rooms, the living room and the car, are now to be opened up to the Internet. The big hype word in Las Vegas was 3D TV. The question remains as to who was seriously waiting to gather in front of the TV with the indispensable special glasses to consume a very meagre range of programs for the time being. But that's not the point: more and more computer power is being built into TV sets, be it for image processing for 3D programs or for Internet TV or video conferencing (via Skype). New standards (WiDi or WHDI) were also presented to connect PCs or notebooks wirelessly to televisions. In addition, there is an ever-increasing range of separate boxes (such as Boxee or Roku) that can be used to connect the home altar to the Internet. Program offerings are often bundled with these boxes. Widgets, small information windows that can be displayed alongside the current program - for example to show the latest news, sports results or new e-mails - are particularly interesting for advertising. With all these possibilities, TV consumption will become far more individualized. With niche programs, it will be possible to reach target groups for advertising very precisely - and content producers will be able to charge a premium for this.
Anyone who got into a car in the past fell back to the 1970s in terms of communication. With the car radio and the cassette or CD player, the possibilities were exhausted. The American car manufacturer Ford is now leading the way with MyFord Touch, offering an integrated overall solution that should be standard in 80 percent of all new cars within five years. The core element is voice control, which not only determines the entertainment program, but can also call up content from the Internet (such as navigation instructions). There is a WiFi hotspot for passengers to access information with their own devices via mobile data networks or with each other. It is quite possible that conventional radio stations will soon have to say goodbye to an important part of their regular audience that commutes in the car. This trend is interesting for advertising because drivers can now be conveniently supplied with location-based messages. Anyone turning into the parking lot in front of the shopping mall will immediately hear announcements of the day's special offers...
Christoph J. Walther

At the CES, the largest trade fair for consumer electronics, thousands of new products are presented every January in Las Vegas.

(Pictures: Keystone)

Why did you - together with other Swiss investors - buy the Swiss branch of Springer Business Media?
Almost ten years ago, I joined Bertelsmann Springer alias Medien&Medizin Verlag - four medical journals were part of it at that time. I built up this publishing house and added another five specialist journals, turning it from an insignificant nice-to-have publishing house into an important pillar for continuing medical education. Today, we rank among the top three publishers in the field of medicine in Switzerland. When the publishing house was bought by Cinven and Candover four years ago, the fair-weather period was over - tough profit calculations were in the foreground. In the good times, this was still bearable - but as market conditions became more difficult and the merger with Media Daten Verlag was imminent, thoughts of a spin-off became increasingly acute. Since there was already speculation in early summer that Springer Business Media was to be sold again, the idea of a merger seemed obvious. The fact that we succeeded in winning over various partners is due not least to my perseverance - when I'm convinced of something, I'm tireless.
What will be the name of the new company?
We will be called Medien&Medizin Verlag again. We have now only operated under the name Springer Business Media for two years - the change to the original name, which moreover suits us even better today, does not take much getting used to.
What do you hope to gain from the new situation?
Above all, more flexibility and fewer group-dependent decisions. I think that if you can devote the main part of your energy to the market and not to more or less helpful central offices, you have good chances.
What are your goals?
To position the medical magazines and Werbewoche as need-to-have magazines that are practical, up-to-date and tailored to their target groups. And to do so in both the reader and advertising markets.
Where do you see new opportunities?
Gaining even more acceptance as a Swiss publisher - especially in the medical sector
What will you change?
Nothing, actually. With the changes I made a ¾ year ago - changing the frequency of Werbewoche to fortnightly, integrating the Media Trend pages into Werbewoche and reducing the frequency of the Media Trend Journal, and last but not least selling the Media Data Book - we have focused on the core of our business. I am now confident that we have set the right course.
What do you want to maintain?
Everything. Of course, you always have to keep an economic eye on things, but otherwise you have to tackle and execute tasks and situations mainly with common sense and a "down-to-earth approach".

Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief

Eleonore E. Droux, Publisher.

The Zürichsee-Zeitung is up for sale. Thedi Gut, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zürichsee Medien AG, told the industry publication Klartext last December: "It's all about the succession plan; I'm now 62 years old. The Board of Directors and the family have decided that we want to have this succession plan worked out by next summer. The sale of the entire Zürichsee Medien AG (ZSM) is not an option".
Zürichsee Presse AG (ZSP) is the publisher of the Zürichsee-Zeitung, while Zürichsee Druckerei AG (ZSD) is, as can be seen from its homepage, "a service company that makes printed communication with its customers efficient and attractive". It is a prepress company, there are no printing presses, the actual printing is done by partners. While ZSD is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zürichsee Medien AG, ZSP has another major shareholder in addition to Zürichsee Medien AG: the NZZ Group. Through its subsidiary Freie Presse Holding AG, the NZZ Group holds a 40 percent stake in Zürichsee Presse AG. It can therefore be assumed that NZZ has a pre-emptive right to purchase ZSP. Recently, however, there have been increasing signs that buyers are being sought on a broad basis. In addition to Tamedia and NZZ, there are said to be other interested parties.
When asked by Werbewoche this week, Thedi Gut said: "Zürichsee Medien AG is a family-owned stock corporation. No one in the family is willing to succeed me. We on the Board of Directors have therefore decided to examine various options for this succession plan. One of these options is for us to offer part of Zürichsee Medien AG, namely the Zürichsee printing company and our majority stake in Zürichsee-Zeitung, on the market.
When asked whether Freie Presse Holding does not have a pre-emptive right to the 60 percent share of Zürichsee Medien AG in Zürichsee Presse AG, Gut said: "You have a pre-emptive right to this 60 percent, but only if we sell it alone. This is how it is worded in the contracts. It was the will of the people who signed the contracts at the time. If we sell Zürichsee Medien AG or several parts of Zürichsee Medien, then they have no right of first refusal. Gut continues: "We have a clear idea of what Zürichsee Medien AG - the parent company - should look like in five to ten years' time. We do not want a unilateral sale of our 60 percent stake in Zürichsee Presse AG, in which only NZZ would be a possible buyer. Such a sale would not solve our internal family problems. We are therefore not even considering this option."
In response to the additional question of whether the NZZ was also interested in this new construct, Gut said: "The process is only just beginning. I assume that the NZZ is also interested. But I can't say anything about that because we haven't yet received any feedback from NZZ." Gut did not want to confirm whether other potential buyers have been contacted: "We don't provide any information on this. But you can assume that we would not have chosen this procedure if we only wanted to talk to one party."
We wanted to know what the NZZ thinks about the whole thing. In an interview with Werbewoche, Albert Polo Stäheli, CEO of the NZZ Group, said: "As a long-standing partner of Zürichsee Presse AG, we are astonished by the actions of Zürichsee Medien AG. Both partners in Zürichsee Presse AG have a contractual right of first refusal and pre-emptive right to the other's shareholding. Whether this right of first refusal and right of first refusal can be circumvented by the now chosen construct of a subholding with the addition of prepress services will have to be clarified by the lawyers.
Ultimately, it is clearly about the sale of the Zürichsee-Zeitung. And it is precisely for this case that the partners have agreed the right of first refusal and right of first refusal. It would only be different if the parent company Zürichsee Medien AG were to be sold. In this case, the partners agreed that there should be no restriction. However, this is not the case with the addition of Zürichsee-Druckerei to the sales package, which practically only generates throughput sales as it is not a printing company at all. This is obviously intended solely for the purpose of circumventing our prerogatives. Freie Presse Holding is naturally interested in the takeover of Zürichsee Presse AG and hopes to be able to reach an amicable agreement with Zürichsee Medien AG on the issues raised."
So much for the facts as they now stand. It remains to be seen whether the lawyers will really have to decide the dispute. A fair partnership solution between two partners would certainly be the better solution. And above all, one that doesn't leave a stale aftertaste.
Pierre C. Meier

The prediction in the last advertising week (44/17.12.2009) that eReaders would dominate the new year was impressively confirmed. Tablet PCs, eReaders and oversized smartphones were omnipresent. A few days before the trade fair, Google presented its Nexus One super-phone; Microsoft generated little enthusiasm with the presentation of a tablet PC from HP, and various manufacturers showed dual-screen models that can be opened up like a book. The IdeaPad U1 Hybrid from Lenovo caused quite a stir: the screen of this notebook can simply be removed and then functions independently as a tablet PC, whereby current information (such as open websites) is synchronized when docking and undocking. The Adam Prototype from Notion Ink is also noteworthy: At the touch of a button, the display can be switched from color LCD mode to a power-saving but still fast ePaper mode.
It will now be interesting to see which devices, together with which business models for content and telecommunications, will be accepted on the market and which will fail. One important question is whether pure eReader reading devices bundled with data services and content will be able to establish themselves against multifunctional tablet PCs. At present, the industries concerned are still eagerly awaiting Apple's announcement at the end of January, which is also expected to involve such a device (iTablet/iSlate). However, the cult brand will only be able to gain significant market share if Steve Jobs can come up with truly revolutionary features. Otherwise, as the CES clearly showed, even an Apple tablet will be just another (presumably expensive) competitor. What is clear is that mobile will establish itself as another media channel and will be far more multifaceted than the online world to date.
Two previously largely Internet-free rooms, the living room and the car, are now to be opened up to the Internet. The big hype word in Las Vegas was 3D TV. The question remains as to who was seriously waiting to gather in front of the TV with the indispensable special glasses to consume a very meagre range of programs for the time being. But that's not the point: more and more computer power is being built into TV sets, be it for image processing for 3D programs or for Internet TV or video conferencing (via Skype). New standards (WiDi or WHDI) were also presented to connect PCs or notebooks wirelessly to televisions. In addition, there is an ever-increasing range of separate boxes (such as Boxee or Roku) that can be used to connect the home altar to the Internet. Program offerings are often bundled with these boxes. Widgets, small information windows that can be displayed alongside the current program - for example to show the latest news, sports results or new e-mails - are particularly interesting for advertising. With all these possibilities, TV consumption will become far more individualized. With niche programs, it will be possible to reach target groups for advertising very precisely - and content producers will be able to charge a premium for this.
Anyone who got into a car in the past fell back to the 1970s in terms of communication. With the car radio and the cassette or CD player, the possibilities were exhausted. The American car manufacturer Ford is now leading the way with MyFord Touch, offering an integrated overall solution that should be standard in 80 percent of all new cars within five years. The core element is voice control, which not only determines the entertainment program, but can also call up content from the Internet (such as navigation instructions). There is a WiFi hotspot for passengers to access information with their own devices via mobile data networks or with each other. It is quite possible that conventional radio stations will soon have to say goodbye to an important part of their regular audience that commutes in the car. This trend is interesting for advertising because drivers can now be conveniently supplied with location-based messages. Anyone turning into the parking lot in front of the shopping mall will immediately hear announcements of the day's special offers...
Christoph J. Walther

At the CES, the largest trade fair for consumer electronics, thousands of new products are presented every January in Las Vegas.

The TV commercial was produced by Wirz Fraefel Paal Productions under the direction of Ernst Wirz. Filming took place over three days on the Lauberhorn in Wengen. Local children were also used for stunts. A wild boar costume was specially created by Artem in England for the film's main characters, a horde of reckless piste hogs. Inside the pig costume was a sporty actor. The facial expressions were remote-controlled from the outside by a team of specialists. The soundtrack comes from Yello.
The Suva brand Suva Liv has already appealed to the personal responsibility of winter sports enthusiasts with several prevention campaigns in recent years. This winter Posters and advertisements for use.

The Making-Of:
> part 1
> part 2

Switzerland Cheese Marketing (SCM) and the Association of Swiss Milk Producers (SMP) support the Swiss cheese industry and marketers in their efforts to increase sales volumes at home and abroad. For 2010, the agency is planning a nationwide campaign to support the consumption of Swiss cheese. The campaign will start at the beginning of April.

But why is a beer brand launching such a campaign? The company provides the answer right away: Erdinger Alkoholfrei is isotonic, rich in vitamins and low in calories. These three properties would make the beer an ideal fitness drink for endurance athletes. The brewers even had Professor Anton Piendl from the University of Weihenstephan confirm that their drink is a real fitness booster. Participants for the casting are now being sought online. After the casting event in mid-March, the winner will be meticulously prepared for the 42-kilometer run in November with a personal training session with the team of Olympic silver medalist Markus Ryffel. Let's go, drink Erdinger and get fit.