The Association of Swiss Imaging Suppliers has launched the Imaging.ch web portal. The site provides information on the latest equipment, technologies, exhibitions, workshops and events. The aim of the site is to become the leading Swiss information portal with up-to-date information from the photo, video and imaging industry, according to a statement from the association. The portal will be back in operation from Monday, April 20.
Imaging.ch incorporates content from the partner portals Mediaforum.ch, Hilfdirselbst.ch and Publisher.ch in addition to its own editorial reports. In a second stage, a register will be set up to provide information on brands from the imaging industry, their representatives, distributors and dealers. A newsletter will inform interested parties about the latest news at the desired interval.

In addition to the traditional GMX domains, addresses with the Swiss country code (gmx.ch) have also been available since 1999. The Internet media company is celebrating its 10th birthday in Switzerland and at the same time the first 100 days of the new online portal Gmx.ch, which was created in January. The anniversary program includes various gifts for users and advertising partners. To mark the 10th anniversary, GMX users can win air travel with Easy Jet from Geneva, Basel or Zurich to 40 European cities. For its advertising partners, the United Internet Media company is offering specials for a period of 10 weeks each.
In Switzerland, around 800,000 Internet users currently use the Gmx.ch e-mail service and portal.

In the case surrounding Nadja Benaissa, singer of the pop group No Angels, side issues are opening up: The Bild newspaper risked a fine of up to 250,000 euros with its Thursday edition because it continued to report on the case. Editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann sees himself as a fighter for press freedom.
On Thursday, the newspaper ignored a temporary injunction from the Berlin Regional Court, which forbids the tabloid from reporting on the investigation proceedings against the singer. But Bild was not intimidated by this: "Does Nadja have to go to prison for 10 years?" was the newspaper's headline despite everything. Diekmann justified the continued reporting in a commentary: "If serious crimes are private, the press can no longer report on anything. Then you might as well abolish freedom of the press. A scandalous decision. Sometimes you wonder who is allowed to be a judge in Berlin."
The temporary injunction against Bild was obtained on Tuesday by the law firm Schertz Bergmann. The regional court had weighed up the public interest in information against the client's right to privacy and came to the clear conclusion that reporting must be completely avoided in view of Ms. Benaissa's personal rights, lawyer Schertz was quoted as saying in a press release.
As Kress.de reports, the temporary injunction was issued even though the responsible public prosecutor's office in Darmstadt had previously informed the court about the case itself. Springer also intends to take legal action against the decision of the Berlin Regional Court.
Benaissa was arrested last Saturday just before a concert on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. She is said to have infected a man with the HI virus during unprotected sex and concealed her infection from him.

The Winterthur-based agency +Söhne has created a special kind of gadget for the German postal service: it had a high-quality leather notebook produced in a completely climate-neutral way. In other words, all emissions generated during production were calculated and offset by donating them to an ecological project. The paper bears the FSC seal of approval and the cover was made from leather remnants.
Textile manufacturer Nabholz also decided to work with the Winterthur agency. In an old school gymnasium, +Söhne breathed new life into the well-known Swiss sports brand. The focus was on classic gymnastics equipment such as the rings, the horizontal bar and the horse.
The result is the current fall/winter catalog 09/10 in the form of a fan. Parts of a real linoleum gym floor serve as the front and back.

On Friday, May 15, the Communications Association will award the German-language Creative Award for Moving Image Communication for Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the 29th time. Entries can be submitted in the categories TV, cinema, internet, mobile application, corporate film, direction, script, camera, editing, sound design and trailer. The award ceremony at the Kehrwieder Theater in Hamburg will be hosted by TV presenter Steven Gätjen.
In addition, the communications association has developed a tender for an emotional moving image advertising campaign for the marine habitat in collaboration with the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), Deutsche See GmbH and Edeka. To give young people more opportunity to present themselves, as the association writes in a communiqué. The aim is to create a mobile campaign using cell phones and the Internet.
The deadline for entries to the competition is April 20, 2009.

Advico Young&Rubicam has tailored Alfa Romeo's current international campaign to Switzerland and created a poster campaign based on it. The reason for the new posters is a zero-percent leasing offer for the Alfa Romeo 159. The campaign slogan: "100 percent sportiness, zero percent leasing".
Responsible at Alfa Romeo Switzerland: Maurizio Melzi (Marketing Manager), Maria Curto (Marketing Communication Manager), Nicole De Bruyn (Marketing Officer). Responsible at AY&R: Manuela Wettstein (Consulting), René Mauchle (DTP), Manuel Egger, Andrea Bosshard (Production) .

The micro-blogging service Twitter is now so popular that the first account holder has passed the one million follower mark. In a duel with the news channel CNN, Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher reached the target of one million followers on Friday morning, narrowly beating the news channel. He had challenged the channel on Monday, April 13, by publicly announcing that he would crack the million mark faster. The competition can be traced back to www.chartbeat.com be pursued.
The campaign not only gave Kutcher and CNN a popularity boost. It is also a success for the micro-blogging service. According to 20Minuten.ch, another actor has already attracted attention with a Twitter campaign. Hugh Jackman announced a donation of 100,000 dollars to a charitable organization on Tuesday.

The Zurich city police are advertising with pink handcuffs. The motif designed by the advertising agency is used as a print ad in the Euro Pride magazine published yesterday, Thursday. The city police's slogan: "We provide security so that Zurich remains a cosmopolitan and tolerant city".
Responsible at advertising agency: Reto Dürrenberg (strategy), Sarah Hiltebrand (CD), Mike Krüll (text/concept), Christina Reuss (consulting). Image editing: Altamont.

Crossmotion has expanded its center for cross-media communication tools. Mika Lanz has joined the team on a full-time basis. He is responsible for the conception and realization of projects with the interactive media of film and video in the areas of corporate communication, information and training.
After completing his training, Mika Lanz worked for several years as a cameraman and independent producer in the film and video sector. The company Crossmotion is active in the development of cross-media communication tools with a focus on video and film.

The people responsible for the Internet file-sharing platform The Pirate Bay have been sentenced to one year in prison. They must also pay the equivalent of around 4.1 million francs in damages.
Users can exchange pirated copies of films, music and computer programs free of charge via The Pirate Bay. The server is one of the largest Internet file-sharing platforms in the world and claims to have 22 million users.
Music and film companies such as Warner Bros, Sony, EMI and Columbia Pictures had filed lawsuits against the operators. Swedish writers, including Henning Mankell and Per Olov Enquist, were also involved.
The court argued that the defendants had offered the platform for illegal downloading and thus incited users to infringe copyrights. The men, aged between 24 and 49, had already announced in advance that they would appeal in the event of a conviction.
They argue that The Pirate Bay itself does not store any files on its servers. However, the file-sharing platform helps its members to search for the desired material, which can then be downloaded by other users. The court therefore classified the Internet operator as a "commercial" and "organized" company. Pirate Bay had described itself as a non-profit organization.
Representatives of the music industry welcomed the ruling. It is internationally regarded as groundbreaking in the fight against illegal downloading of files from the internet. The ruling against the operators of The Pirate Bay sends out an important signal, said the managing director of the German Music Industry Association. It makes it clear that operating an Internet file-sharing platform with predominantly illegal content has nothing to do with pirate romance. Rather, file-sharing platforms are nothing more than a modern form of receiving stolen goods. The operators would enrich themselves personally, for example through advertising revenue.
The convicts announced that they would appeal. In a video clip published on the internet, they called the verdict "bizarre" and announced that they would appeal. Regarding the damages demanded, he said: "We can't pay and we won't pay."

According to international press reports, Swedish furniture retailer Ikea is currently reviewing its global media budget. The total volume of advertising expenditure is estimated at around 220 million euros. As confirmed by Ikea Switzerland, this also affects the local media agency Mediacom.
The WPP agencies Mediaedge CIA and Mediacom currently have the budget. Mediacom works for Ikea in Switzerland, Germany and various other European markets. Its sister agency Mediaedge CIA looks after the company in North America and elsewhere. Both networks are part of Group M, under whose umbrella WPP combines all its media activities.
Sonja Blöchlinger, responsible for PR in Switzerland, put the process into perspective for Werbewoche: the investigations now being carried out are conducted on average every three years worldwide. The audit should be completed by November at the latest. The pitch has no influence on the general marketing and advertising strategy in Switzerland. The advertising measures will continue to be developed by the Unikat agency.

The DRS regional journal Aargau/Solothurn's coverage of the elections in the two cantons has been criticized by the SRG idée Suisse Aargau Solothurn programme commission. According to SDA, Susanne Hasler, President of the Program Commission, wrote in the publication Link, the magazine of the Audience Council and the member societies, that the half-hourly three-minute insertions of the regional journal on 8 March were "not able to satisfy" the need for information. According to the program commission, this short broadcasting time was "nowhere near enough to provide comprehensive and differentiated" coverage of the government and cantonal council elections in the canton of Solothurn and the elections to the cantonal parliament in the canton of Aargau.
Because 8 March was not a federal election Sunday, Regionaljournal was not able to join the national program on DRS 1 at any time as usual. Regionaljournal Aargau/Solothurn was only given the opportunity to report on the current state of the elections for three minutes on the hour after the news and on the half hour.
Private radio stations were "one step ahead"
After 3 p.m., the private stations Radio Argovia (Aargau) and Radio 32
(Solothurn) were "one step ahead", the program committee notes. "They were able to provide more up-to-date and in-depth reporting." In contrast, the regional journal lacked interviews, statements from party representatives as well as classifications and interpretations by the editorial team. This shortcoming could not be compensated for with the reports posted on the Internet. However, according to the program commission, the editors of the regional journal did a "great job" on election Sunday. This was demonstrated by the summary at 5.30 pm and the special program at 6.30 pm.