Dario Ballanti has been the new head of the Italian-language editorial team at swissinfo.ch since mid-July. He was the Swiss parliament correspondent for Corriere del Ticino and a member of the editorial team at Swiss Review. The 43-year-old then worked as a media spokesman for Alp Transit Gotthard and Swiss Post. Most recently, he was head of the marketing and communications department at Banca del Gottardo in Lugano.
Monika Gysin has worked at Swissinfo.ch since 2004. Originally responsible for internal and external communications, she took over as interim head of the Marketing Communications department in August 2008. Since July 1, 2009, the 39-year-old has headed the Marketing Communications department.
Swissinfo.ch is a corporate unit of the SRG. Its task is to inform Swiss citizens living abroad about events in their home country and to raise Switzerland's profile abroad. To this end, Swissinfo.ch operates a news and information platform in nine languages.

Radio suisse romande can have its name protected as a word mark. The Federal Administrative Court has overturned a decision by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) and ordered registration in the trademark register, as reported by SDA on Thursday.
In 2006, the Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision (SSR) applied to the IPI for registration of "Radio suisse romande" in the Swiss trade mark register, inter alia for the services radio broadcasts and productions. The IPI refused registration in these categories, as "Radio suisse romande" was a purely descriptive term that should also be available to other users as a sign of the public domain. The Federal Administrative Court has now upheld SSR's appeal and ordered registration.
According to the judges in Bern, it is true that "Radio suisse romande"
is descriptive. However, there is no absolute need to keep the name as a whole free. The name has established itself with the public as a designation for public radio, which has been widespread in French-speaking Switzerland for around fifty years.

"The SSM is astonished to note that the Swiss press is almost universally reporting that SRG Director General A. Walpen is demanding that recipients of AHV and IV supplementary benefits should pay fees again in future. This as a contribution to balancing SRG's finances.
This claim is completely false. In the interview with the magazine L'Hebdo, to which the reports allegedly refer, A. Walpen says quite simply that the fee exemption granted to EL recipients is not the responsibility of SRG SSR. This is correct and should also be understood by people who do not (want to?) understand French texts.
The SSM emphasizes that it is of course absolutely right to exempt EL recipients from the license fee - it is well known that these people are not on a bed of roses. However, this is a socio-political task that should be borne by the Confederation and the cantons, not by SRG SSR. The more than 50 million needed for this is a mere pittance for the public sector, but for SRG it accounted for two thirds of the deficit in 2008. If ByeBye-Billag is trying to cook up a political soup on the basis of misinformation, this only shows the lack of intellectual capacity of those behind this campaign."

The Swiss Public Relations Institute SPRI announces personnel changes. Erika Walz is the new receptionist. She supports course management and takes care of all the important "incidentals". Erika Wals brings a wealth of office experience and an appreciation of people, as was reported in a press release.
Urs Salzmann replaces Marlène Frey. Urs Salzmann has been responsible for marketing and communication at Spri since July 1, 2009. He has experience in sponsoring and web projects and holds a degree in organizational communication/journalism from the ZHAW. Marlène Frey has joined the PR agency Panta Rhei with her experience as a junior consultant.

The cell phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson is still deep in the red and is selling significantly fewer cell phones than in the previous year. In the second quarter, sales fell by 43 percent to 13.8 million cell phones compared to the same period last year. The net loss amounted to 213 million euros compared to a plus of 6 million euros twelve months earlier, as the Swedish-Japanese company announced in Stockholm on Thursday, according to SDA. However, the loss was lower than the 293 million euros recorded in the first quarter of 2009.
Sales fell by 40 percent from 2.8 to 1.7 billion euros. Group CEO Dick Komiyama stated that the rest of the year would also be "difficult" for Sony Ericsson.

The Walker advertising agency has been included in the latest edition of Lürzer's Archive with its latest film project "Heaven can wait" for Rega. The campaign, consisting of the commercial and a mailing, achieved the highest response rate for Rega in years this spring with a response rate of 5.92 percent, according to a press release from the agency.
Academy Films London is responsible for the production of the Rega film, which has already made it onto the Shots reel.

The entry deadline for the first Green Switzerland Award has been extended by two weeks. Companies and agencies can now register for participation until August 14, 2009.
The Green Switzerland Award will be presented for the first time this year. The prize is presented by the Internet portal for "green" technology and "green" innovation in cooperation with the Suisse Emex trade fair for marketing, communication, events and promotion. Entries from the period July 2008 to July 2009 will be judged in two categories: "Green Company" - which is open to all companies that make efforts in the field of ecology and sustainability, and "Green Campaign" - where "green" advertising and communication campaigns can be submitted. An expert jury with representatives from environmental protection, science and communication is responsible for the evaluation. The competition is open to the public and all companies, agencies and research institutes based in Switzerland are eligible to take part.
The award ceremony will take place on Thursday, August 27, 2009 in the GreenVillage at Suisse Emex.

The street magazine Surprise will be published on Friday as a special summer edition. The "Lesen!" issue contains exclusively short stories by writers, including Franz Hohler, Martin Suter, Ruth Schweikert and Sybille Berg.
A total of 29 authors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland provided texts, as Surprise writes in a communiqué according to SDA. Most of the stories were written exclusively for German-language street newspapers. They appear in 30 publications with a total circulation of 500,000 copies.

The downward trend in advertising slowed somewhat in June. According to the market research institute Media Focus on Thursday, advertising pressure in June fell by 5.3% year-on-year to around 305 million francs. In May, the decline was a whopping 17.1 percent, in April 13.4 percent. However, it should be noted that the European Football Championships were held in June last year and their sponsors in particular dominated advertising. Other companies were probably more cautious, particularly in terms of television advertising.
Television also recorded an increase of 1.2% this June compared to the previous year. The specialty press, poster advertising and the internet were also among the winners. In contrast, the daily, regional weekly and Sunday press suffered a further decline of around 9%. The decline in the general, financial and business press was as high as 33%, and cinema advertising fell by 45%.
Food industry stands out
In terms of economic sectors, the food industry stands out with a 50.1% increase in advertising pressure. There was a 37.2% increase in beverages. According to Media Focus, the increased communication presence of Migros and Henniez advertising were particularly significant here. Despite UBS's greatly reduced advertising presence, the financial sector recorded an increase of 5.8%. This was mainly due to insurance companies. Looking at the first half of the year as a whole, however, the financial sector was clearly one of the losers with a drop of 21.8%.
Sharp decline in advertising pressure for tobacco products
The energy (+37.5%), pharmaceuticals and healthcare (+16.4%) and tourism and transport (+15.7%) sectors then reported clearly positive figures in June. There was a sharp decline in advertising pressure for tobacco products (-38.1%), clothing, leisure and sport (-33.7%) and telecommunications (-31.6%). According to the Media Focus statistics, the two retail giants Migros and Coop and the food group Nestlé had the largest advertising budgets in June.
Media Focus compiles gross advertising statistics: All advertising placements are valued at the official rates of the advertising medium; discounts are not taken into account. (sda)

The Säntis suspension railroad celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2010. And as its first campaign, it is unfurling the largest Swiss flag ever on the rock faces of the Säntis in time for 1 August 2009: 120 x 120 m (the size of two football pitches), weighing 1.2 tons and manufactured by Heimgartner Fahnen AG. The E,T&H advertising agency from Rorschach is supporting the campaign with a series of accompanying communication measures.
Responsible at Säntis-Schwebebahn AG: Bruno Vattioni (Managing Director), Gust Broger (Project Management). Responsible at Heimgartner Fahnen AG: Heinz Höhener (management), Rosie Knechtli(project management).Responsible at E,T&H Werbeagentur AG BSW: Thomas Widmer (text, media contacts), Claudia Stiefel (AD), Peter Thoma (consulting).

Jasmin Kienast is returning to the microphone at Radio 1 and will host the morning show from Monday to Friday for the next two weeks. Kienast was a DRS 3 presenter from the very beginning. She will stand in as a vacation replacement for Marc Jäggi, who has hosted the morning show since the launch of Radio 1 on March 17, 2008. "Despite only sporadic appearances, Jasmin is part of the Radio 1 family", editorial director Sandro Brotz is quoted as saying in a statement from the Zurich-based private broadcaster.

The brand consulting agency Branders, based in Zurich's Bellevue, has had a new online design since the beginning of July. According to the press release, the new site is defined by a large-scale use of images and an urban visual world. Branders.ch has also been expanded in terms of content. The bilingual website offers a wide range of information on the topic of branding, which is constantly being expanded with new publications and themed articles. Customers and partners also receive customized information on the Branders customer portal "InnerCircle".