The delegates of Swiss Marketing (SMC) have confirmed Uwe Tännler as Central President for a further three years. The current Board of Directors was also re-elected at the meeting on June 5, 2009. Tanja Doris Levine (Clubs, Networking, Services Western Switzerland Region) and Simon Hubacher (PR & Communication) are new members of the top management body.
The Swiss professional association with around 3,000 specialists and managers is looking to the future with confidence, according to a press release issued on Monday. National partnerships enabled additional activities such as the No. 1 campaign in 2008, the marketing event at the KKL Lucerne has become established and all sales and marketing examinations are now being conducted together with the MarKom certification examinations. Swiss Marketing has also joined the EMC (European Marketing Confederation) and initiated European accreditation.

According to the latest GfK Confidence Index, advertising people are in a bad way. 72% of those surveyed have no trust in creative professionals. While 32% had confidence in the industry in 2008, only 28% still do in 2009. Only politicians fared worse, with a full 82% distrusting them (2008: 83%). Journalists do not fare much better. Only 41 percent of those surveyed expressed their trust in them. The proportion thus remains the same as in the previous year. Marketing people are close behind, with only 39% trusting them (2008: 38%).
This means that communicators are in the same boat as bankers and top managers. They have lost trust, particularly in the past year. Among bankers, the proportion fell from 45% to 37%, among top managers from 36% to 33%. The people surveyed have a particularly high level of trust in the fire department (92%), teachers (85%), postmen (81%), doctors (81%) and the military (81%).

Renault Suisse has launched a campaign to mark World Environment Day on June 5, 2009. In future, every Renault dealer will have specific flyers that can be attached to the rear-view mirror. These are designed to encourage motorists to use fuel efficiently with six tips on how to save fuel - for example by changing gear correctly or accelerating in a controlled manner.
At the same time, the Swiss car importer is continuing its "scrap bonus" campaign. An extremely rusty Trabi with an equally rusty sign on the roof is intended to signal to potential customers that the 2,000 franc scrap bonus is available to anyone who trades in their car, which is at least eight years old, by the end of June. The scrap-ready vehicle also draws the attention of interested parties to the website Myschrott.ch where additional rewards and offers can be found.

The SRG Board of Directors wants to cut costs at the foreign platform Swissinfo. Under the responsibility of the three directors Peter Schibli (Swissinfo), Gilles Marchand (TSR) and Walter Rüegg (SR DRS), three models are to be examined for their feasibility and savings potential by the end of 2009: The optimization of the current corporate unit Swissinfo in Bern, the integration of Swissinfo into TSR Geneva and the integration of Swissinfo into SR DRS Studio Bern. The Confederation's performance mandate must be fulfilled with the same quality and quantity as before. Seven million francs are to be saved, out of a total current expenditure of 26 million francs.
The Board of Directors has appointed Beat Häring, former Group Controller at SRG, and Bernard Cathomas, Director of Radio e Televisiun Rumantscha (RTR) until April 2009, as project coordinators. The two long-standing employees have the task of ensuring the comparability of the project results. Once the reports have been completed and analyzed, the Board of Directors will decide on the choice of model.

After Washington rejected the rescue plan for US newspapers, there is new hope for the New York Times (NYT). A Mexican cell phone billionaire and a music producer are vying for the prestigious newspaper. Carlos Slim Helú, who is worth 35 billion dollars and whose companies build railroads, clinics and sewage treatment plants in Latin America, has already invested 375 million dollars in the paper. Gay David Geffen, who has an estimated fortune of around seven billion dollars, is negotiating the purchase of a 20 percent stake in the NYT company.
But what makes these two enigmatic figures invest in a quality newspaper? Nobody really knows with Helú. Apparently, he has had a huge respect for the newspaper ever since he spent a summer in New York in 1964, as the NZZ am Sonntag writes. He also seems to believe that only the Times and the Wall Street Journal will survive the press crisis. Greffen, on the other hand, is probably looking for a new job out of boredom. He first came into contact with the Times when he told a columnist at a Hollywood party that the Clintons were "habitual liars" and that he supported Barack Obama, which of course later appeared in the paper. However, Greffen has concrete ideas about what he wants to do with the publication. He wants to turn the newspaper into a charitable foundation and preserve it as an institution that keeps a watchful eye on politics and business. With these investors, we naturally wish the New York Times all the best.

Roland Binz has opened an agency for crisis communication and media relations in Winterthur. His company Roland Binz Kommunikation & Image supports corporations, SMEs, authorities, associations, event organizers and personalities throughout Switzerland with their public relations work. The 36-year-old's services include advice on crisis communication, media relations, media training and support in the event of bottlenecks in corporate communication. The former SBB Group spokesman is also a founding member and Vice President of the Swiss Association for Crisis Communication.

The Zurich-based company Ray Sono received three awards at the international iF communication design award competition. In the digital media category "Atmosphere", the 17-member jury honored the implementation of the "Lufthansa Travel World Beta" portal. The agency received two awards for the recent relaunch of the Miles & More frequent flyer portal. This was recognized in the digital media categories "Screen Design" and "Interface".

Up to 634,000 people watched the live broadcast of the final between Roger Federer and the Swede Robin Söderling at the French Open in Paris on SF info on Sunday. This corresponds to a market share of 48.6 percent. An average of 476,000 people watched Federer win his 14th Grand Slam title, equaling Pete Sampras' record. During the 14-day tournament, an average of 126,000 people watched the live coverage on SF zwei and SF info. According to its own figures on Monday, Swiss television achieved a market share of 18.4 percent.

From now on, publisher and editor-in-chief Roger Köppel will be commenting on current affairs in a video on Weltwoche.ch. Köppel's comments are filmed directly in the Weltwoche editorial office every Monday and published online. Users can comment on the article themselves using the comment function. The new format is made possible by sponsorship; the online marketer Publicitas web2com was able to acquire the Swiss Trade School Organization (HSO) as its first customer partner.
HSO opted for the sponsorship because Weltwoche appeals to the same target group as itself - a well-educated audience interested in progress, Beat Nägelin, head of the business school, was quoted as saying in a press release on Monday. The development of new formats in the media is also to be welcomed.

The association of Swiss graphic artists, designers and communication designers "dns designnetwork switzerland" changes its name to "SGV Schweizer Grafiker Verband". At the same time the Website revised. The association wants to focus again consistently on the quality of graphic design and its creators, according to a press release on Monday.
The association was founded in 1983 and today has around130 members. It is committed to helping shape the visual environment in business, education and culture sustainably and qualitatively at the highest possible level.

Kevin Lancashire has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the news portal News.ch. He replaces Peter Linsin as of July 1, 2009, who will move to the publishing management and in this position will be responsible for the further development and marketing of News.ch and the other Vadian.Net online publishing products.
The 38-year-old from Basel spent two years as a member of the management and head of the Internet department of the free newspaper .ch. Lancashire has many years of experience as an online specialist and digital journalist. He worked as Executive Producer Internet for Swiss Radio DRS for seven years, most recently as Head of DRS Virus and expert for the relaunch of Drs.ch in 2007.

SRG Bern Fribourg Valais, RGB (Bern Radio and Television Cooperative) has redesigned its website and is now online. In the spirit of a uniform corporate design, it is based on the online portals of SRG Deutschschweiz and the other member companies. The new website is intended to inform members of the cooperative about the activities of the sponsors and SRG and give them the opportunity to have their say, according to Martha Bernasconi, Head of the RGB office, in a press release issued on Monday. In addition, committee members are to be offered a platform on which the updated information necessary for their work is available.
The web design was realized by Philipp Schwindl from Ehrliche Grafik. The web master is Julien Duseyau from JD Network.