At this year's rebrand, five Metadesign clients received awards for their repositioning and redesign. The Best of Award went to the current NZZ Online website. This award is given to the five best out of 100. The agency's work for Infras and Triumph International was also honored in the Distinction category and the work for Conrad and Nici in the Merit category.
The winners of the Rebrand 2009 include over 40 sectors from 21 countries, as the agency writes in a press release. The jury's assessment criteria included a coherent strategy, consideration of the emotional component and achievement of the defined goals and needs of the target market.

The Unikat communications agency has developed a campaign to mark the 30th anniversary of Ikea Aubonne. It was carried out over the past two weeks in French-speaking Switzerland on television, online, in print and on the radio. Talking red leather sofas were set up in the center of Lausanne from March 16 to 21. Equipped with invisible loudspeakers, they spoke to passers-by as they walked past or sat on them. Local radio stations made live calls directly to the sofas, which were also equipped with cell phones, and handed out Ikea furnishing vouchers to the winners who sat on the sofas at the right time.
The promotion was supported with radio spots in French-speaking Switzerland. TV commercials were used as the main medium. In addition, 16-page flyers were used as newspaper supplements and distributed on the streets and in households. The TV magazine TV8 was booked for an issue exclusively featuring Ikea advertisements at the start of the birthday week.
Responsible at Unikat Kommunikationsagentur: Daniel Meier (CD), Martina Maurer, Doris Herger (AD), Jan Maurer (Managing Director), Simone Jung (Consultant). Responsible at Ikea: Carlos Friedrich (Head of Marketing), Manuela Raue (Head of Advertising), Jean-Christophe Leboulanger (Head of Ikea Aubonne), Michel Moor, Alexandre Nickbarte (responsible for Marketing). Film: Manifesto Zurich/Vancouer, director: Reto Salimbeni, project handling: Denny Spirig. Promotion: Spool, Daniel Bosshard (responsible). Media: Mediacom, Alison Green, Séverine Hörler.
" To the commercial (MP4)
" To the commercial (WMV)

The Salvation Army has decided to work with Wirz Werbung for its fundraising in future. As the Swiss social welfare organization announced, the contract was awarded following various intensive discussions held last year. The first works will be seen before the summer.

Pepper has launched the new Perilla brand. This encompasses all mandates that revolve around the topics of social, ecological or economic sustainability. According to the agency, Perilla wants to support those companies in their communications that live sustainability.
Perilla advises companies on the communication of specific projects and products in the areas of Eco-Media and Eco-Project. Her biggest current client is Eco Life, the agency took over as editor-in-chief of the magazine for society, business and the environment at the beginning of 2009. Other clients include the annual Climate Forum in Thun, Lenk Simmental Tourism, the Outdoor Guide magazine, Swisscom and Energie Wasser Bern. According to the press release, Perilla is currently starting with a team of around 10 people.

Sulzer, Sutter has designed marketing advertisements for South Tyrol in which the "other Italy", South Tyrol, is presented. South Tyrol is a Mediterranean oasis at the foot of the Alps, as the agency writes in a press release. The advertisements are intended to convey the region as an autonomous province that is in many ways untouched by the turmoil of Italy and is particularly devoted to Italian food and lifestyle. The advertisements have been appearing in various magazines such as Annabelle, NZZ Folio, Magazin and Weltwoche since mid-March.
Responsible at Südtirol Marketing: Christoph Engl (Director), Greti Ladurner (Head of Market Management), Daniela Walder (Market Management German-speaking markets). Responsible at Sulzer, Sutter: Michael Kathe (Creative Director), Sebastian Krayer (Art Director), Marcel Huwiler (Graphics), Manuela Gualeni (Consulting).

The German Advertising Council has just published a brief review of the campaigns complained about in 2008. A total of 264 complaints were received (2007: 269), of which 176 were rejected as unfounded. Of the 88 campaigns complained about, only 6 were publicly reprimanded because the advertising companies had initially refused to withdraw the advertisements. The majority of these involved images of naked female body parts. But not only, as the following three examples show.

Genealogy Ltd, Griesheim
The advertisement appeared on the Internet as a banner ad.

G&M Fleischwaren Frischdienst, Bönnigheim
The following poster as well as the naked woman and the slogan "True beauty comes from within" are used to advertise the company's own vans

EFAG Trade Mark Company, Altheim
Small poster advertising.

The innovation announced by the Federal Chancellery comes at just the right time: thanks to new technology, the Federal Council's media conferences can now be followed on the Internet with better images and easier operation. Citizens can now enjoy better images of what the country's executive has been showing its citizens since the emergency aid for UBS: Government by emergency law, i.e. governing by unlawful means, slagging off supervisory duties, inability to make decisions (or cunning restraint) and persistent disregard for the principle of collegiality.
But if you read the Federal Chancellery's announcement further, it takes on almost avant-garde characteristics. The Federal Chancellery assures us that in future, the Federal Council's appearances can be watched without faltering images and with razor-sharp pictures. It will not matter how many people are watching a broadcast. - If that is not a precise description of the situation, the whole country is watching and there is no correction in sight. But the Federal Chancellery continues: shortly after the end of the media conference, the recording can be found in the web-accessible archive. - It can be assumed that this is where the current discussion about the national government will soon end up. - But at least the whole thing can now be followed with better pictures.
" www.tv.admin.ch
(Source: SDA)

The Lowe agency, part of the Draftfcb/Lowe Group, has launched a three-phase campaign for the car manufacturer Mini to draw attention to its new convertible. The campaign was launched with a mailing. This was followed by TV billboards and cinema spots, and the final part was a print ad, which drew attention to a webcam on the Mini homepage.
The three-phase campaign kicked off with a two-stage mailing. In the second phase, Lowe used international cinema spots and TV billboards adapted to the Swiss market, as well as radio spots and advertisements created in-house. These encourage people to get into their new convertible regardless of the weather. The final part of the campaign followed shortly before the national launch weekend. A print ad on March 23 drew the attention of 20 Minuten readers to a webcam.
Responsible at Mini Switzerland: Patrick Cupelin (Head of Mini Switzerland), Jonas Theiler (Head of Communications Mini Switzerland). Responsible at Lowe: Daniel Comte (Executive CD), Frédéric Nogier (AD), Ivan Madeo (text/concept), Rolf Jeger, José Gonzalez, Jasmin Jost (consulting).
To the spot
To the spot
To the radio spot

Together with the corporate publishing agency Primafila, Circus Knie has developed the concept and implementation of the flagship Knie Illustré as well as the program and other smaller publications. The magazine will be published in time for the start of the tour on March 27, 2009.
With the Knie Illustré magazine, the Swiss National Circus has committed itself to a new appearance with its own media, according to a statement from the agency. More intensively than in previous years, the topics are told as stories, be it about events and work in the circus ring or about circus life backstage. Photographers such as Alberto Venzago, Lothar Schmid and Günther Kathrein have helped shape the Knie media this year. The content can also be found online at www.knie.ch.

Swiss cable networks were able to gain customers for broadband Internet, cable telephony and digital TV in 2008. Broadband Internet via cable increased by five percent and cable telephony by ten percent. In contrast, the number of cable TV connections fell slightly by 0.48% to 2.9 million.
The potential of digital cable television must be better exploited, as the industry association Swisscable announced at its general meeting on Friday. It is true that almost 110,000 customers were acquired last year (+27 percent), so that by the end of 2008 around 510,000 households had subscribed to digital cable TV. However, the digitization rate of around 18 percent for cable TV shows that analogue cable TV is still very popular. Swisscable President Hajo Leutenegger is quoted in the press release as saying that the analog offering in Switzerland is very good, which is why the switch to digital TV is only taking place slowly.

High performance of cable networks
High-definition HDTV has become an important driver of digitization. Around one in three people who switch to digital cable TV also subscribe to HDTV. According to Leutenegger, it is important that cable TV companies communicate the performance of their networks better to their customers. The capacity of the cable networks is far from exhausted: with technical upgrades, bandwidths of more than 100 megabits per second are quite realistic. The cable TV companies want to strengthen on-demand services.

The current advertising poster of the health insurer ÖKK was voted "Poster of the Week" in the APG competition in the first week of March. The subject, "Heisse Luftitis - eine Krankheit, die es bei uns nicht gibt" ("Hot airitis - an illness that doesn't exist here"), developed by the Zurich advertising agency Advico Young & Rubicam, received over 44 percent of the votes in an Internet poll. With the award, the poster is automatically entered into APG's annual "Poster of the Year" prize draw.