For the sixth time, Scholz & Friends has announced the "Am I perhaps a copywriter" competition. With the challenge "Become a writer (for toothpaste and birdseed)", the agency invites students of all subjects to take part in the copywriting competition. The deadline has now been extended: entries can still be submitted until May 22, 2009.
The 20 best applicants will be selected and invited to a workshop. This will take place on June 20 and 21 in Berlin. According to a statement from the agency, the aim is to get to know young talent for its own ranks in this way.

The Finance Forum is the most important meeting of the Swiss IT and finance industry. The exhibition and conference will take place on November 3 and 4 at the Zurich Kongresshaus. "Meet the future of finance" is the program. The advertising agency WVC Communications in Bubikon has designed the advertising for this with balls from the forum's key visual, which are shown in various starting positions like in a game of billiards.

Victorinox and Fleurop do it in the flight path of Kloten Airport, the SVP near Dagmersellen, Greenpeace in Mellingen. And in the middle of the field: advertising. For around 25 years, companies and organizations have been entrusting their logos and claims to fields and meadows in order to attract attention, arouse emotions and get their brand talked about. Newspapers and magazines like to report on the large-format advertising spaces in the countryside because they are real eye-catchers. In Switzerland, several horticultural businesses and farmers offer to carve logos or advertising slogans into greenery. Thomas Stutz, owner of Greenworks, is a professional in green trimming.

Stutz comes from a farming family and is a trained farmer. However, because he knew early on that he would be bored working exclusively in the fields and milking cows for the rest of his life, he completed his A-levels and added a commercial apprenticeship on top, which also taught him marketing skills. Stutz has been offering field advertising since 1999 and founded Fima-Trend in 2004, which he has now renamed Greenworks. "Fields are the perfect platform for branding and image advertising," says Stutz. "Successful advertising is new, special, unique and stands out from the crowd. With field advertising, I can create the valuable 'have-you-seen-this-before' effect." Stutz uses CAD equipment to create logos and advertising slogans on the field. The company's desired motif is enlarged so that it fits on the available space. A graphic designer and a surveying company help the farmer to transfer the motif precisely to the field using GPS positioning. In most cases, the farmers who own the land also lend a hand. The contours of the advertising message are neatly marked out with bamboo sticks. Stutz then sows, plants, mows or dyes the areas.

Advertising in growth

Stutz started out on a field on his parents' farm, which is located in a hollow between the S9 Zurich-Zug-Lucerne line and the road from Birmensdorf to Affoltern. "Up to 35,000 cars pass by here every day, as well as the train with around 13,000 people," says Stutz. "The field was always full of garbage and I could hardly get back onto the road with the tractor after work because of the traffic. I thought about how this high traffic frequency could be put to good use." His "field advertising" idea has now grown into a substantial business.

Stutz is a field recruiter par excellence. He knows his way around plants and agricultural machinery and speaks the language of both farmers and advertisers. And he is creative. "I was soon approached by companies that were interested in field advertising. But they wanted advertising in their corporate colors." Even though Mother Nature has given us a colorful palette, it is difficult to match Pantone 3015C or Pantone 286, Post Yellow or Victorinox Red with sunflowers, cynia or wheat. What's more, the color only becomes visible when the plants are in bloom. So Stutz looked for a way to bring desired colors to the field. "Together with a paint company, I developed a color based on milk casein," explains Stutz. "It's not cheap, but it makes it possible to reproduce many colors and is also completely natural. You could even drink it." Stutz uses a hydraulic pump to spray the paint onto the field. Beforehand, he and his team precisely mark out the outline of the subject and spread a thin layer of straw over the area. "We don't spray plants or the ground with paint," says Stutz. "We color the scattered straw. It must not be spread too thinly or too thickly. Wind and game like to carry bundles of straw away and then there are holes in the logo." Spreading the straw is manual work, just as much of the field advertising is manual work anyway. Stutz also works with machines - he has even customized some of them himself. But staking out, sowing and weeding require precise human hands as well as a passion for nature and advertising.

Color brings joy

Victorinox has been advertising its bag knife in bright red in airport approach lanes since 2006. Back in 2003, Thomas Stutz gave the company the idea of transferring the knife to a field. Three years later, his suggestion came to fruition. "We brought our knife onto the field for the World Cup in Germany, 190 meters by 177 meters in the approach lane of Munich Airport," says Hans Schorno, media manager at Victorinox. "The response in the media and from our customers was overwhelming." Stutz is currently working on the third Victorinox advertisement. This time, he is drawing attention to the company's 125th anniversary in the flight path of Kloten Airport. He has fixed the outlines of the logo, pocket knife and claim with around 1,000 fixed points. "It is important for us to always be surprising while remaining in harmony with nature," explains Schorno. "For 2010, we already have some ideas about how we want to present ourselves in a green setting."

IP-Suisse advertising has been visible in fields since 2000. For the farmers' association, there is hardly a more suitable way to address its consumers and producers. "In 2000, there was hardly any field advertising in Switzerland. The new thing was very well received by the media," recalls IP-Suisse Managing Director Fritz Rothen. "Of course, all our field advertising was placed on IP-Suisse fields. In our experience, field advertising significantly increases the attractiveness of the product being advertised to consumers." IP-Suisse's trademark, the ladybug, was particularly important. This is because all products sold by the association are also labeled with it. No problem for Thomas Stutz. He has already released the red and black creepy-crawlies five times in the field.

Farmer seeks space

Stutz rents the advertising space he cultivates from farmers. But not every field is suitable for field advertising. It has to be a hollow or a slope, or an area that can be seen from above. For example, airport flight paths or fields at the foot of a mountain. "I also have fields at the foot of the Uetliberg and the Rigi in mind that I can offer companies," says Stutz. "The areas below well-visited excursion destinations are a very exposed advertising space." On Stutz's website (www.feldwerbung.ch), interested companies can see which locations Greenworks offers.

The main season for field advertising is May to October, but it works all year round. Field advertising changes with the seasons and therefore remains exciting. There are few limits to the imagination: a company can plant its subject with different grasses, wheat, barley, rape or flowers or have it designed with colored straw. Only Stutz has to bear a few things in mind: "If my customer wants grass, I use a special mixture of English ryegrass. This is because they germinate quickly, grow slowly and not so tall, and are intensely green." In 2003, Möbel Märki opted for red and white summer flowers, which customers were even allowed to pick at an event and take home with them. Thomas Stutz also turns a stubble field into an advertising space: "You can work with colors or sow something that grows quickly between the stubble, such as sunflowers. Field advertising is even possible in winter. We continued to cultivate some of last year's fields into February; you can do fantastic things with frost, snow and dark soil or grass."
The cost of field advertising depends very much on the plants and colors used, the duration of cultivation and the size of the area. "The range is wide," says Stutz. "From 5,000 francs for a small field that I only tend for a short time, to 60,000 francs." But it pays off for customers. "The costs for our field advertising are significantly lower than for conventional advertising," emphasizes Hans Schorno from Victorinox. "And with high awareness and a very good CPM." Fritz Rothen from IP-Suisse is also satisfied with the price-performance ratio: "A field advertisement covering around one hectare costs around CHF 60,000 in the first year. A full-page advertisement in a daily newspaper costs around 30,000 francs once."

Fans and enemies

Field advertising is ecological. Field advertising attracts attention. "There are people who regularly visit our fields to follow the progress of the growing logo," says Stutz. But field advertising doesn't just have friends. The Federal Council finds field advertising "attractive, innovative and appealing". Nevertheless, he has reservations about growing or scattering messages along highways and expressways. The risk of drivers being distracted by the lettering is too great. On this basis, the Administrative Court ordered the fuel supplier Agrola in 2005 to discontinue field advertising for heating oil on the A1 highway near Grauholz. After a pause for breath, Agrola nevertheless advertised again in 2007 and 2008 with the same green advertisement. A number of farmers, who see their earning potential dwindling, argue against the Federal Council's objections: advertising by companies on their buildings along freeways is also permitted. The Federal Council wants to allow field advertising in principle, but has not yet made a final decision on the restrictions. Some people also play pranks with the green billboards: in 2007, unknown persons removed the 25-metre-high V from an SVP logo in Mellingen - thus changing the political message without further ado (picture below right). Thomas Stutz was on the spot immediately. "We quickly replaced the V with straw. An isolated incident. Most people are happy about the messages on the field."

Better than neon signs

Stutz and his team need around one to two months to complete a field advertisement. The preparatory work begins up to three months in advance. During this time, nothing is yet visible on the field. "It is important that the motif is bold and not too small so that it is effective even at a great distance," says Stutz. The companies provide Stutz with the motif and choose the location where they want it to be placed. Stutz does the rest: he finds the right field, negotiates with the landowners, plans and carries out all the work steps including maintenance and, if desired, also organizes an event around the green advertising space. "Field advertising is like building a house," says Stutz. "I have to put different pieces together, for example first sowing the corn, then the lawn, first spreading the straw, then spraying the paint. And yet everything has to be finished at the same time." The areas that Stutz cultivates are between 1,000 and 100,000 square meters in size. With a field advertisement for Nokia, Stutz even ended up in the "Guinness Book of Records" in 2000: he sowed 300,000 cornflowers on 15,000 square meters, creating the world's largest organic logo in Bonstetten. In terms of surface area, however, Stutz has long since topped this record with the Munich Victorinox logo: he unfolded the red knife on around 34,000 square meters.

The key to the logo's impact in the greenery is its maintenance. If the advertising is growing and thriving, Stutz looks after it at least once a week. It is trimmed every two weeks and re-colored if necessary, on average every one and a half to two months. Slugs and snails or torrential rain give the farmer sleepless nights. But he takes precautions: The Fleurop advertisement in Höri, for example, frames Stutz with low-growing, multi-headed sunflowers until the end of April. Low-growing, in case it storms and rains heavily. Even storms can hardly bend the thick stems of this special species. Multi-headed, so that the yellow faces of the plant can also be seen from a plane. Because classic sunflowers don't care about advertising. They simply look into the sun. Nowhere else. And Stutz knows that.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm

The 5th Dialogday will focus on marketing trends, opportunities, strategies and potential in times of reduced budgets.
A stiff breeze is blowing against the advertising and marketing industry. However, the "wind of change" also harbors opportunities and potential. At the 5th Dialogday, various speakers from the worlds of science and advertising will attempt to show which strategies can be used to absorb the changes in consumer behavior and which tools can be used to defy the crisis.
The seminar will take place on June 4, 2009 in Zurich's Sihlcity. Registration is possible via the website Dialogday.ch.

Future Connection won a pitch for the new website of Stücheli Architekten against three other agencies. The budget includes the complete relaunch of the website. The relaunch is intended to bring projects to life and put employees more in the foreground, as Future Connection writes in a press release. The architectural firm Stücheli Architekten has around 75 employees.
Responsible at Stücheli Architekten: Christoph Kretz and Isabelle Behrens. Responsible at Future Connection: Martina Waser (project management), Reto Möbus (design), Markus Kohlbrenner and Kilian Hann (technology).

Customers judge harshly - and unfairly. And they also make mistakes. For example, Swisscom's services are perceived as more expensive on average than those of the competition, even though they are not. "Monopolists or companies that once held a monopoly are often considered by consumers to be more expensive than their competitors," explains Florian Siems, Junior Professor of Business-to-Business Marketing at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Hochschule Aachen. "Swisscom can do little to change this negative price image, even if the company lowers its prices and thus sends out a different stimulus." This is because current stimuli are always linked to existing knowledge, in this case to the long-term perception that the company has high prices.
And now? Siems also has the solution at hand: "Swisscom must consciously deal with this price image in its communication. Instead of advertising price reductions, the company should talk about its plus in service. In other words, about what really sets it apart from the competition. Or it must directly address and refute its negative price image." This is exactly what Swisscom did in 2000. With the slogan "Lower than you think", it played directly on consumers' price misconceptions and thus took the wind out of their sails. Prices were not lowered as part of the advertising campaign, but the verdict on Swisscom's prices was more positive.
"If you communicate properly with your customer, price is not an issue at all," says Siems. "But it does matter how you talk. If a flower seller asks me: 'How much can the bouquet cost?', I answer '20 francs'. If she asks me 'Who should the flowers be for?', I say 'For a dear friend' and I don't care whether the bouquet costs 20 or 45 francs." Asking a customer what they would pay for a product never works, says Siems, because this question is purely hypothetical. "The only way to find out what customers are willing to pay is to try it out - on eBay or through a time-limited test sale. This works just as well for hairdressers as it does for luxury cars."
Gut feelings
Purchasing decisions are anything but rational. This is also confirmed by studies on price estimation and reality, which Florian Siems presented in his lecture on price management for the IAA Swiss Chapter. One of the studies shows, for example, that customers suddenly perceive a monopolist that is considered expensive as cheaper if it outsources its IT. A result that would probably even surprise the study participants themselves. After all, such assessments are not made consciously. But what do consumers look for when they buy? For example, they have an idea of how much certain products should cost. When making purchasing decisions, they are guided by these anchor prices, which are stored in their long-term memory.
But even this reference is anything but valid - and can be perfectly influenced by advertising measures. An example: A customer wants to buy a camera. The first one he sees costs 300 francs, the second 1,000 francs, the third 500 francs. His conclusion: the first camera is too cheap, the second too expensive, the third a good compromise between price and performance. What if the buyer had first looked at the camera for 500 francs, then the one for 1,000 francs and then one for 1,200? And a sign above the camera for 1,000 francs would have announced: "One-off top offer. This week only!"
If consumers have little or no idea about the product they want to buy, they are most likely to base their decision on the price. "They see a high price as an indicator of good quality, even if it is no guarantee of quality," says Siems. "For example, if you don't know anything about wine but want to treat your guests to a good drop, you're more likely to buy a bottle for 30 francs than one for 3 francs."
Price judgments are often emotional. Siems, following marketing professor Hermann Diller from Nuremberg, speaks of price joy, price anger and price envy. Strong feelings - so extreme caution is required when pricing. Because negative deviations from the expected price of a product have a much stronger effect than positive ones such as price reductions, Siems recommends: "Avoid price anger, which is more important than generating short-term price joy." And a company can explain value-based pricing geared towards customer benefit to its customers through advertising: Why does the product cost five francs and not two? It probably gives them wings.
"Of course, advertising is a way of communicating prices," emphasizes Siems. "But companies shouldn't place too much emphasis on the price message. Then they turn their customers into bargain hunters. It's better to explain your pricing with advertising - then you can also push through higher prices."
Worthy prices
Because pricing, brand policy and communication are so closely linked, Siems wants to interlink them more closely again. "Pricing problems don't actually exist," says the marketing expert. "It's communication problems that cause companies difficulties. With the right communication, consumers' price judgment can be controlled." Whether consumers perceive a product as worthy of the price, for example, depends to a large extent on the messages the company uses to advertise its goods. If the advertising presents the potential buyer with a clear added value of a product or service, they will normally be happy to pay a little more for it. It is worth the price. Customers who make such value-for-money decisions are very likely to remain loyal to the provider of the purchased goods. Other consumers are fully committed to value for money. They think cheap is cool and jump at advertising that offers cheap products. Denner or the German discounter Lidl, which is pushing into Switzerland, are targeting this clientele. "You have to be careful with customer loyalty based on price," says Siems. "Because these customers move on to the next provider as soon as they find something cheaper. Such cold loyalty is limited in time, as the competition can quickly copy the price. This is not so easy with other competitive advantages."
Got on the dog
Siems divides consumers into cats, dogs and rats, an approach that has already appeared several times in current scientific discourse: cats feel tied to one place, they always go to the same store, even if the seller changes. Dogs are loyal to their masters, they always stay with one vendor, even if the product or location changes. Rats look for food. No matter what kind. They always go for the cheapest product, no matter from whom. "Each of us has all three animals in us, depending on the product," says Siems. "It depends on the level of involvement. If it's low, you're more of a rat, if it's high, you become a cat or a dog. A provider can try to stimulate one or the other price judgment through its communication. Either 'dear customers, forget the quality aspect, only the price counts' or 'dear customers, buy quality and service. We may be more expensive, but we're better'." Which option a company chooses depends on which of the two segments it wants to focus on.
This also speaks in favor of segmenting target groups more strongly again and not trying to appeal to all consumers. This is not about offending potential customers, but about focusing communication on core customer groups. "Not every customer is king," Siems points out. "It's wrong to always chase after customers who can't be convinced by a product. You have to be able to do without certain customer groups and have the courage not to approach them. It is better for companies to refocus on their core customers and pamper them - especially during the crisis. Otherwise they feed the rats and ruin their brand." Companies that focus on one or a few customer segments also find it easier to recognize their customers' needs and tailor both their offer and their prices precisely to these buyers. Then it is also very easy to find the right advertising message.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm

Putting a leash on false price perceptions: In 2000, Swisscom made the view of its consumers the focus of its advertising campaign.

In 2003, Swisscom advertised with a study on price estimates and reality.

The UN educational organization Unesco is making cultural heritage accessible in a digital world library. Around a thousand works were added to the website at the launch on Tuesday. On Wdl.org books, manuscripts, images, films and audio documents from libraries and archives around the world are available.
The aim is "international understanding" and to provide teachers, pupils and the public with study material, explained Unesco. According to James Billington from the US Library of Congress, however, the project is not intended to compete with other internet libraries such as the ad-financed Google Book Search or the European online archive Europeana.

Caption: Detail from the panoramic photograph of the Lake Geneva basin with the Brunswick monument, taken at the beginning of the 20th century (source: www.wdl.org).

The digital marketing provider Nemuk has realized the online campaign "Tropical Forest" for WWF. A tropical forest portal is intended to sensitize website visitors to the protection of tropical forests between March and May 2009. The campaign also aims to generate donations and attract new members to the organization.
An animation leads users from the WWF website to the portal. There they will find a competition with a viral character and a Facebook link, a database with everyday tips and cell phone ringtones to download. A dynamic donation barometer shows the current status of donations. To draw additional attention to the campaign, banners were placed on relevant websites and Google AdWords.

The "booger affair", or in Swiss German: the "Bööggen affair", is a beautiful story in many respects. The shortest possible version: At the Media Markt store in Wolfsburg (Lower Saxony), an employee regularly puts his boogers on the door of the men's restroom. The management is not amused and sends a letter to all male employees threatening the anonymous "dirty pig" with immediate dismissal. It also announces a hidden DNA test in order to convict the Bööggen smearer.
The letter is sent to the Braunschweiger Zeitung, which publishes the story, but without naming Media Markt. It points out that if the employees do not agree to a DNA test, the management would make itself liable to prosecution. During the investigation, Media Markt threatened to stop advertising in the regional newspaper if the story was published. The editor-in-chief is not impressed, however, and the publisher's management backs him up. The article is published.
The Braunschweiger Zeitung's stance was described by Meedia boss Georg Altrogge as a journalistic lesson - which it is, all the more so as sticking to editorial independence could have cost the newspaper an estimated 450,000 francs in advertising revenue. But the editors and publishers probably realized that giving in would have opened the door to further attempts to influence editorial reporting. Such insight and perseverance came to a happy end for once: the newspaper and Media Markt are now back in negotiations about advertising.

45-year-old Rüdi Steiner is stepping down as editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Cash at the end of May. He will take a break until the end of 2009 and then reorient himself, said Steiner. However, he will probably remain in the industry.
After discontinuing the printed edition of Cash daily/Cash in March 2009 and concentrating on the electronic platform, Cash is facing a new beginning. Steiner confirmed information from the media service Klein Report on Tuesday that the new ideas need to be realized with new minds.
Steiner took over the management of the Cash media network in July 2007. He was responsible for the journalistic content of Cash daily, Cash.ch and Cash Mobile. Steiner had previously been head of the Cash daily editorial team since September 2006. Before his time at Cash, Steiner also worked for Ringier as Head of Business at Blick.

The agency WVC Communications has designed advertisements for the Finance Forum. These are intended to publicize this year's meeting of the Swiss IT and finance industry, which will take place on November 3 and 4, 2009 at the Kongresshaus Zurich. The advertisements were placed in newspapers and magazines.

Responsible at Finance Forum Management: René Meier, Jacqueline Schleier. Responsible at WVC Communications ASW: Kurt Wettstein (CD), Nicole Antonietti (graphics), Heinz Kropf (illustration).

The Inflagranti advertising agency in Lys has launched a somewhat different kind of campaign for Swiss Post to draw attention to its direct mailing service. Users are directed to the homepage via mailings in the name of garage owner Walter Zogg. Werbestutz.ch lured. Zogg acts as a representative of the interests of SMEs, which allegedly spend millions on advertising that is then ignored. "We entrepreneurs want something to come out when you put something in," the email says. This is why Zogg founded the Effective Advertising Protection campaign. On the homepage, you can find out how to "use advertising protection so that it pays off".
Once on the homepage, the user is greeted by Walter Zogg at the lectern, who has prepared two comedic speeches - one for entrepreneurs and one for advertisers. Both convey the core message that direct mailing measures are much more effective than all other forms of advertising, such as posters or advertisements. After inserting Walter Zogg, the user is taken to an overview of Swiss Post's offers for direct mailings. Here the user learns that it is not Walter Zogg but Swiss Post that is behind the campaign. "The fictitious figure of Walter Zogg as an SME representative is primarily intended to appeal to entrepreneurs," says Mariano Masserini, media spokesman for Swiss Post, to Werbewoche. Zogg represents the advertising wishes of many entrepreneurs.
In addition to the homepage, a publicity report was created that will appear in various media. The campaign will be published throughout Switzerland in German, French and Italian.