The BSSM advertising agency has won Robusta as a new client. The over 80-year-old bedding company has commissioned BSSM to reposition and redesign the Swiss Line product line, which includes mattresses and insert frames.
The agency also reports two budget wins: following the budgets for Rum Coruba, Roses Lime and Sambuca Molinari, Haecky Drink & Wine AG has entrusted the advertising agency BSSM with further budgets. An introductory campaign is being planned for the launch of Amaro Montenegro, Italy's best-selling semi-bitter. The aperitif with its gently tart note was created in 1885 in honor of Princess Elena of Montenegro. The first BSSM works will be published in a few weeks.
The BSSM advertising agency has developed advertisements for Haecky's new wine products for the hospitality industry. The ads promote the worldwide novelties of the active partner of wine merchants, restaurateurs and hoteliers.

Users of the online offerings of newspapers, magazines and TV stations are interested in politics. Two thirds of Internet users in Germany inform themselves about political topics online. This is the result of a study by the market research company Fittkau & Maass. More than 120,000 German-speaking Internet users were surveyed for the study in April and May.
When it comes to obtaining information about political developments, the internet is in second place behind television, ahead of radio and newspapers. The online offerings of newspapers, magazines and television stations play a more important role than the homepages of political parties. Social networks and blogs are only visited by around 5 percent for political information.

The Swiss children's channel Nick is increasing its market share and has already overtaken its competitor Ki.Ka in its second month of existence. After achieving an average market share of 7.3 percent in its launch month of April, Nick surpassed its competitor in May with a market share of 11 percent in the target group of 3 to 14-year-olds. Last Saturday, the station achieved a higher daily average than Super RTL for the first time with 27.3 percent.
Since the launch of Nick, pre-school children have been able to watch a program tailored to their age in a separate program window in the morning. Now the program is being extended to 24 hours and will have its own channel. This will be launched on June 9 under the name Nick Jr. in Cablecom's digital offering.

The Gütersloh-based media group Bertelsmann is facing massive job cuts. As reported by the German industry service Werben & Verkaufen, the Group management plans to cut around 10,000 employees by the end of next year. This is around ten percent of the total workforce. However, the media group denied the job cuts on Wednesday afternoon.
Bertelsmann employs more than 100,000 people. The Group includes the television channel RTL, the services division Arvato and the major Hamburg-based publishing house Gruner + Jahr. Bertelsmann has launched a comprehensive cost-cutting program. It covers all areas of the Group and is to be implemented by late summer. One component is "an overhead project that analyzes the management, staff and administrative structures at all levels of the Group in order to subsequently make them more efficient." CFO Thomas Rabe has announced this within the Group, W&V further reports.
The background to this measure is the current economic crisis. "This is the first time that Bertelsmann has undertaken such a comprehensive and far-reaching analysis," explained CFO Rabe. In addition to the Corporate Center in Gütersloh, the staffs of all divisions and those of the largest divisional subunits and profit centers are affected. The program is being supported by management consultants McKinsey. "To rule out capacity adjustments would be disingenuous," Rabe continued.
A few hours later, the company denied the speculation about job cuts. A Bertelsmann spokesperson was quoted by Kress.ch as saying that although job cuts had not been ruled out, no details had yet been finalized. In addition, staff cuts are not a priority in the current cost-cutting measures.

Bertelsmann director Hartmut Ostrowski recently announced cost-cutting measures of several hundred million euros. Nevertheless, Meedia.de speculates that the optimization measures could also lead to capacity adjustments, i.e. job cuts. In an interview with the FAZ, Ostrowski stated, among other things: "We have to make ourselves leaner." In circles close to the company, it is now expected that the structural changes will be completed by the end of the year.

The crisis is omnipresent. The media graveyard in the Werbewoche editorial office is growing and growing (our medium has not yet joined it), celebrated managing directors are secretly sending waves of redundancies through their agencies and everywhere suddenly twice as much has to be done with half as many people. Of course we would like to look into the future. And who, if not astrologers, could help? In the current issue of the Publisuisse magazine Impact, Madame Etoile, alias Monica Kissling - who has been on first-name terms with the stars for twenty years - tries to provide an interpretation. "Since 2008, the cosmic signs have been pointing to a storm. Pluto, the most important indicator of collective trends, has moved into the thrifty, security-oriented earth sign of Capricorn after 13 years in the growth-oriented fire sign of Sagittarius," she writes. Or: "The most sustainable trend is set by Pluto, which runs through the earth sign Capricorn until 2022." And from this she concludes: quality instead of quantity. After a time of information and sensory overload, priorities must now be set. Or: people, companies and brands must now be absolutely authentic and credible. I see. This goes on for several thousand characters. We think that a first step out of the crisis would be to save Kissling's fee. Anyone who has read one of the commuter newspapers three times in the last twelve months can make similar profound assessments and forecasts.

The publisher of Ticino's largest daily newspaper Corriere del Ticino and Publicitas are extending their long-standing partnership for advertising marketing until 2011. Publicitas will continue to market the 193,000-reader advertising combination Tre Top Ticino with Corriere del Ticino, La Regione Ticino and Giornale del Popolo. The signing of the management contract is already the second important commitment from the sunny canton to media marketing this year, writes Publicitas in a press release. As a new business model with new service packages for publishers is currently being developed, both sides were aiming for a rather short contract duration.
In the future, Lugano Publicitas branch manager Fabio Balmelli will focus on regional market development and on promoting the potential of the Ticino market and the Ticino daily newspapers in the national Swiss advertising market and northern Italy even more strongly, writes Publicitas in a press release on Wednesday. To this end, sales are to be expanded accordingly.

The Council of States insists on a general ban on advertising for alcoholic beverages in the electronic media. On Wednesday, it voted 21 to 19 against the National Council, which wants to allow advertising for beer and wine for all radio and TV broadcasters.
The background to the controversy is Switzerland's participation in the EU's Media film funding program. The agreement and Switzerland's contribution of CHF 41 million with annual tranches of around CHF 10 million until
2013 was approved by both councils. The obligation linked to the agreement to apply the EU "Television without Frontiers" Directive, which conflicts with the advertising bans in the new Radio and Television Act (RTVA), is causing problems. The Federal Council has worked out a compromise with the EU on behalf of Parliament. Thanks to this agreement, the ban on religious and political advertising as well as advertising for spirits and mixed drinks such as alcopops can be maintained. The situation is different for advertising for beer and wine. This is already permitted for local TV broadcasters under the RTVA.
EU ban in sight
The Council of States has now stuck to its radical solution that all advertising for alcoholic beverages in SRG TV programs, private TV programs and foreign advertising windows in Swiss media is prohibited. The decision is motivated by the idea of prevention and the protection of minors. As committee spokesman Peter Bieri (CVP/ZG) explained, neighboring countries France, Italy and Austria prohibit alcohol advertising. It was only a matter of time before the EU imposed a general ban, as called for by the World Health Organization (WHO). Filippo Lombardi (CVP/TI) and This Jenny (SVP/GL) warned against scoring an own goal. The Swiss advertising ban would not help and would rob domestic event organizers of a source of income. Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin could go down in history if he were to impose a Europe-wide advertising ban.
Beer too cheap
The Minister of Health pointed out that this was only a German-Swiss problem, as there were no French or Italian advertising windows for alcoholic beverages in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino. The excessive consumption of beer by young people was not an advertising problem but a price problem.
The National Council had rejected the idea of banning advertising for alcoholic beverages altogether by 91 votes to 78. In the overall vote, the RTVA revision only passed the large chamber by 92 votes to 30 with 43 abstentions. The process of settling differences continues.

Christoph Bächtiger is the new Managing Director of Fridolin Druck und Medien Walter Feldmann, the publisher of the Glarus weekly newspaper Fridolin. Bächtiger has previously held management positions in the areas of marketing, sales, project management, human resources, accounting and crafts. Among other things, he worked in marketing at Therma.

Filmmakers in Switzerland can now benefit from a film promotion fund. The Swiss private broadcaster Star TV provides communication services worth one million francs per year for the promotion of Swiss feature films, documentaries and animated films. Anyone wishing to benefit from this support can submit a funding application to Star TV. A committee of internal and external industry experts decides which project will receive support and how much it will be.
Paul Grau, Star TV founder and initiator of the fund, wants to actively support Swiss filmmakers and set an example in these difficult economic times. This fund will enable producers to promote their films on television, Grau is quoted as saying by the press portal. Advertising, trailers and editorial contributions will help to raise awareness of local filmmaking.
The newly created fund is intended to supplement other existing film promotion measures, said Star-TV Managing Director Jean-Claude Bruhin at the request of Presseportal. The private channel, which has been in existence since 1995, already broadcasts information from the areas of film, lifestyle and entertainment around the clock. According to Bruhin, this makes it the ideal platform for the planned promotion.

The book retailer Orell Füssli is now relying on the brand agency Schoch & Sonders. The fresh cheese brand Gala is also being repositioned by the Zurich agency. The two brands are being revised in various marketing disciplines. Gala will be launched on the market this fall with a new packaging design, while the book retailer will focus primarily on the brand design.

Following a competitive pitch, Gallo Suisse, the association of Swiss egg producers, has commissioned Neue LGK to develop a new communications campaign. The agency, based in Bern and Zurich, is now tasked with ensuring that Swiss consumers continue to prefer high-quality eggs from their own country when shopping for eggs. The first results are expected early next year.

One radio, one word
Different, fresh, never boring and no annoying repetitions - that's Radio 105's promise to its listeners. Thanks to the concession it has received, it will go on FM for the first time tomorrow, June 4, 2009. As a test run, so to speak. On September 9, 2009, it will be followed by a continuously moderated broadcast on the radio. The palette of the played music ranges from rock, pop, electro, house and last but not least the indispensable urban hip hop. The scheme of youthful radio is difficult to pigeonhole. Giuseppe Scaglione, Managing Director of Music First Network, which in addition to Radio 105 also includes Rock Nation and Radio Monte Carlo, has a lofty goal: Radio 105 should distinguish itself in the radio landscape above all by having the courage to play exceptional music.
"The jingles are a little annoying, the music is okay".
The excitement was high when Scaglione and his, by his own admission, "music-obsessed" crew invited some journalists to a pre-listening yesterday. Before long, heads in the 105 studios were swaying along with the beats. "The recorded jingles annoy me a bit, but I find the music quite okay," was the first impression of a journalist present. Someone else said critically, "I'm not sure I'll listen to 105 permanently. But the station is certainly not dull. It sounds exciting!". Not a bad interim balance that Scaglione and Co. should draw from yesterday's pre-listening.
Convinced of success
Since the Musik First Network was awarded the long-awaited license for youth radio by the Bakom at the end of 2007, the entire team has been constantly fine-tuning the concept. According to Dani König, head of music at 105, the nervousness has grown enormously in recent weeks. "Of course, we also had to work night shifts. At the moment, we are running a test stream in our offices. If a piece of music doesn't suit us, it's cancelled. That's how we're constantly working on the program." When asked whether resignation has ever arisen, König answers in the negative. "Not for a second was there any talk of giving up. Rather, it is the excitement that is slowly but surely spreading. We are all immensely excited and convinced of our listeners' taste in music - just as we are of success."
Adriana Zilic