At the press conference in Locarno, Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin commented on the supervisory complaint lodged by the Swiss Film Producers Association (SFP) and the Writers, Directors and Producers Group (Garp). According to the Minister of Culture, his department will examine the allegations, but the conflict will not be aired in public.
The two professional associations SFP and Garp submitted a complaint to the Federal Office of Culture (Bak) on July 30. This was addressed to the Director Jean-Fréderic Jauslin and was directed against the Film Section. The allegations concern violations of various regulations relating to selective film funding. Among other things, the legal obligation of members of the evaluation committee to recuse themselves was disregarded, according to a communiqué from the associations. The "inadequate management" is also criticized. On several occasions, maximum contributions were handled arbitrarily. In addition, the head of selective funding "arbitrarily denied funding to certain projects" and delayed decisions on pending transactions.

The Federal Office of Culture (Bak) believes that the Swiss cinema landscape is in danger.
This is "facing a major challenge" due to the replacement of 35mm projection systems with digital cinema projectors, writes the Federal Office in a press release on Friday. The introduction of this costly technology threatens to close up to 35% of cinemas in Switzerland - especially those in small and medium-sized towns that cannot afford this technology. Experts even believe that over 50 percent of cinemas in certain European countries are at risk.
A working group consisting of film distributors, cinema operators and representatives of the Federal Office of Culture came to the conclusion that only with a broad-based financing solution (cinema, distributor, federal government, cantons and municipalities) can the diversity of the cinema landscape in Switzerland, which is unique in Europe, continue to exist.

Digital film brings potential savings - but not for cinemas
The conversion of cinemas is not voluntary, but is based on new digital standards developed by the American film industry. The production of digital film prints leads to considerable cost savings in the long term, especially for major international productions. However, there is hardly any savings potential for cinemas.

The Federal Office of Culture (Bak) has launched the multimedia film music competition "The Score" in collaboration with the Lucerne School of Art and Design (HSLU), the music platform Mx3.ch and the "Union of Film Music Composers Switzerland". The aim of the competition is to promote young composers under the age of 30 in the field of new digital media. Participants have until November 16, 2009 to register for the competition on the internet platform Mx3.ch and compose a new film score for the 2.25-minute animated film "Plexo" by HSLU graduate Jan Anthamatten. A maximum of ten entries will be nominated by the end of the year and published on Thescore.ch will be presented. The public vote will then take place in January 2010. The winners will be announced on January 25, 2010 during the Solothurn Film Festival. There are three prizes worth a total of CHF 5,000 up for grabs. The competition is supported by Swiss Post.

Medien für Erwachsene AG (MFE) may buy the majority stake in local radio station Radio Basel 1 from Basler Zeitung Medien AG (BZM). The Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (Uvek) has given the green light for the deal, according to a press release issued on Thursday. MFE had presented credible financing for the project and a convincing program concept with a focus on information, according to the Uvek's statement. In addition, MFE wanted to honor previous assurances made by Radio Basel 1 regarding working conditions and quality.
However, the licensing authority has imposed one condition: MFE must withdraw its appeal to the Federal Administrative Court against the licensing decision from October. According to SDA, the withdrawal had already been announced in May - the appeal has become obsolete with BZM's offer to sell to MFE.

Sport Factory Outlet became famous with radio commercials in which George W. Bush unintentionally comically advertised Sport Factory Outlet's bicycle helmet sales after a bicycle accident (Cannes Lion Winner 2008). Now the concept is even surviving the change of president. Under the slogan "For all those who have something to protect", Ruf Lanz shows the old President George W. Bush without a bicycle helmet - and the new President Barack Obama with a bicycle helmet.
The motif appears on postcards and POS posters.
Responsible at Sport Factory Outlet: Peter Wider. Responsible at Ruf Lanz: Markus Ruf, Danielle Lanz (CD), Markus Ruf (text), Marcel Schläfle (art direction).

The approach of so-called "behavioral targeting", which refers to the targeting of specific user groups based on the analysis of their online behavior, is becoming increasingly important for the advertising industry. While advertisers are hoping that this new method will above all reduce the previously frequent and unpleasantly costly misdirection of their messages, there is as yet insufficient evidence of the benefits of this advertising strategy. "Targeting technology works just as well as the traditional method of placing ads in the environment. In terms of advertising impact and advertising recall performance on the Internet, our research results have not revealed any significant differences between the two methods," states Kathrin Oberreither, co-author of a joint study by the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences and Fastbridge, in an interview with Pressetext. For a final assessment of the effectiveness of the targeting concept, however, important empirical values from practice are still necessary.
"Behavioral targeting is a form of behavioral advertising in which the specific surfing behavior of a user is analyzed in order to show them targeted advertising," explains Oberreither. This is also the main difference to the conventional approach of environment placement, which merely attempts to increase the efficiency of advertisements by positioning them in a thematically appropriate environment. "Although the targeting method has been around for some time now, it has not yet really established itself on the market. The main reasons for this are the relatively high technical and financial costs involved," explains Oberreither. However, the expert is convinced that this approach will be used more often in the future. "In Austria, it has only been possible to place customized advertising in isolated cases so far. However, the example of Germany shows that there is still a lot of potential in this respect, where numerous such offers can already be observed due to the size of the media landscape there," emphasizes Oberreither.

Werbewoche online will be taking a short summer break from July 24 to August 9. The first Newsmail after the break will appear on Monday, August 10. The next issue of Werbewoche in print will appear on August 13. We wish you a wonderful summer!

(Image: Keystone)

Inhalt & Form created the new kids' flyer for Vögele Shoes. With bold colors and smiling faces, it is simply fun to leaf through the flyer, according to a press release from the agency. It is published in a print run of 2.5 million copies and is used in Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia.
Responsible at Vögele Shoes: Daniel Widmer (Head of Marketing). Responsible for content & form: Claudia Fuchs (AD), Claudio Zier, Alexandra Helbling (consulting). Claude Stahel (photography), Damaris Eigenheer (styling), Peter Schell (hair & make-up), Patrick Rohner (image processing).

Raiffeisen now has a mobile website. The IT and web service provider Namics provided Raiffeisen with technical advice and developed the user interface design and navigation ergonomics. The mobile application at m.raiffeisen.ch offers customers numerous services that they are also familiar with from the website - for example, it helps them to find the nearest ATM or bank branch. Maps then point you to the location you are looking for. Opening hours, telephone numbers and financial information can also be called up. Thanks to mobile detection, website visitors with mobile devices are automatically recognized and redirected to the mobile site - although the user is free to switch to the primary Raiffeisen.ch website.

Director Xavier Koller has shot a commercial for Emmental cheese. As the free newspaper News writes, the Swiss director, who won an Oscar for "Journey of Hope", traveled with his family from his home in Los Angeles to the show dairy in Emmental. The main actress in the 40-second commercial is Miss Bea 2009 - the cow is said to have played her role like an old actor.
The music is provided by rapper Bligg, who has written a song especially for it. The commercial will be shown on Swiss television and elsewhere from September 5. It will celebrate its premiere on the same day at the "Emmentaler 2009" event on the Bundesplatz in Bern.

EKU, an internationally active company for sliding door fittings, was looking for a partner to design and produce its new newsletter (print and electronic). The advertisers from Vitamin 2 in St. Gallen won out over several agencies. The first newsletter, including accompanying measures, will be sent to international recipients in fall/winter 2009.

Global advertising expenditure fell by 7.2% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the previous year, according to the media and market research company Nielsen in its recently published report on global advertising trends. Europe is particularly affected with a drop of 8.7 percent. Spain felt the downward trend the most with a decline of 28.2 percent, followed by Ireland with a drop of 21.2 percent, Italy with 19.1 percent less advertising expenditure and the UK with a decline of 14.7 percent. In North America, advertising expenditure fell by 12.7%. In contrast, China saw a slight increase of 2.5%.
Strongest decline in magazines
The Global Adview Pulse report also shows that advertising has declined in each of the four main media categories: newspapers, TV, magazines and radio. The sharpest decline worldwide was recorded in magazines (minus 17.4 percent). Advertising expenditure in newspapers was reduced by minus 9.1 percent, while the declines in TV and radio were more moderate at minus 4.7 percent and minus 2.5 percent respectively. Print media were the hardest hit by the crisis worldwide, with declines in all regions. North America in particular saw a 22.2 percent drop in advertising expenditure for magazines and a 15.6 percent drop for newspapers compared to the previous year. TV advertising expenditure fell in both Europe (minus 8.6%) and North America (minus 9.3%), although a slight increase in Asia-Pacific (plus 1.0%) mitigated the overall decline somewhat. Radio recorded a drop of 8.2% in North America, but remained relatively stable in Europe (minus 0.1%) and increased slightly in Asia-Pacific (plus 1.4%), thereby slightly improving the overall picture.