Swiss Television must hand over CHF 341,000 to Bakom for unauthorized sponsorship advertising for the TCS. The Federal Administrative Court has rejected a corresponding appeal by SRG. The Touring Club Switzerland (TCS) had sponsored the travel program "Einfachluxuriös" from 2006 and the weather forecast "Meteo" from 2007. In February 2008, OFCOM came to the conclusion that SRG had made inadmissible advertising statements in favor of the sponsor and punished the violation of the law by withdrawing the corresponding income.
The travel magazine used the text: "Simply luxurious travel - with TCS weather protection". In the weather forecast, the slogan "In any weather with Meteo and the protection of TCS" was used to refer to the sponsorship of TCS. The impression was conveyed that the sponsor TCS enables carefree travel thanks to its insurance and offers comprehensive protection in all weathers.
SRG must have been aware of the inadmissibility of the statements, which is why it can be accused of inexcusable misconduct in this respect. The seriousness of the infringement committed justified the confiscation without further ado. All the more so as SRG "Repeat offender" and is either unwilling or unable to comply with the legal requirements.
SRG had argued unsuccessfully that Bakom should have threatened it with confiscation in advance. In addition, as a milder measure, the Federal Office should have drawn its attention to the fact that it had to obtain prior "approval" for dubious sponsorship billboards.
The ruling can still be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court. According to SRG press spokesperson Daniel Steiner, it is not yet clear whether SRG intends to lodge an appeal.

Billag is defending itself against accusations of squandering taxpayers' money. The company won its mandate twice in a competitive procedure in 1999 and 2006, Billag spokesperson Jonny Kopp told SDA. Cost-effectiveness and quality were the two key criteria.
It is up to politicians and legislators to determine the type of fee collection. The accusation that Billag spends expensive money on the placement of TV spots Kopp does not accept this. Billag is contractually obliged to provide regular information about the legal obligation to register and pay fees. In addition, the SRG makes its own channels available for broadcasting.

The advertising space provider Wigra Mediatools has developed a new 3D rail poster together with Vogt Foliendruck. The advertising space uses lenticular technology to create a depth effect. The new rail poster was launched at the beginning of the year with its own "Depth effect" campaign. A total of 1,492 posters were displayed for three weeks in SBB's national intercity trains and all local S-Bahn fleets. Four different subjects were used to showcase products from the cosmetics, home, drinks and watches sectors.
According to a press release issued on Monday, the special effect makes the advertising more memorable than average. The posters also stand out from traditional printed advertising. The production costs for a rail poster amount to around CHF 6.30 for a print run of 1,000.

The Swiss Central Association for the Blind (SZB) is continuing its fundraising campaign for deafblind people with famous Swiss people. This year, former ski racer Bernhard Russi and presenter Monika Schärer have been added to the poster campaign developed by the Festland agency. Their portraits will be used in major Swiss cities. Emil Steinberger and Jean-Marc Richard, who have supported the SZB since the start of the campaign four years ago, will also be featured.
Responsible at the Swiss Central Association for the Blind SZB: Norbert Schmuck (Head of Public Relations/Fundraising) and Martina Hautle (PR and Communications). Responsible advertising agency: Mainland, St.Gallen/Zurich. Photography: Tom Haller, Zurich.

Swiss trade via the internet has increased significantly in recent years. This is the conclusion of a long-term study by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Chair of International Retail Management at the University of St. Gallen. In 2008 alone, Swiss consumers bought products worth around 5.87 billion Swiss francs via the Internet - an increase of over 38 percent in two years. The study will be presented on April 28, 2009 as part of the "St. Gallen Internet Day".
For the sixth time in succession, over 1,000 people were surveyed at the end of 2008 for the study "Swiss Online Retail - Internet Usage Switzerland 2009". In addition to the proven market data, the new edition of the study also provides a ten-year long-term analysis of changes in usage behavior for the first time. This shows that the proportion of online shoppers in Switzerland has risen from 30 to 84 percent over the last ten years. In 2006, online sales in Switzerland still amounted to CHF 4.24 billion.
The authors of the study attribute this strong growth in particular to vacation travel (+9.6% online customers), flight bookings (+7.6%), the sale of second-hand products (+3.6%) and electrical appliances (+1.2%). Almost 100,000 Swiss consumers also prefer to purchase less popular online products, such as food, online.

St. Gallen Internet Day 2009, April 28, 2009
Following the new trends of the study, the "St. Gallen Internet Day 2009" will focus on the "merging of two retail worlds". In addition to the developments on the Internet, the congress will focus in particular on their impact on established providers in the retail sector.
In St. Gallen, representatives from industry and trade will discuss and give presentations:
Ralf Kleber (Managing Director Amazon.de)
Frerk-Malte Feller (Managing Director Ebay Germany)
Dr. Beat Bühlmann (Head of Sales Google Switzerland)
Christian Wanner (Managing Director LeShop.ch)
Dr. Dieter Berninghaus (Member of the Executive Board of Migros Genossenschaftsbund)
Dr. Björn Schäfers (Head of Business Development Otto Group and Smatch.com)
Jan-Dieter Schaap (Director E-Business Perfumery Douglas)
Dr. Axel Seeger (Manager E-Commerce S.Oliver)
Prof. Dr. Thomas Rudolph (Institute for Retail Management, University of St. Gallen)
Pierre-Alain Regali (Managing Director Ebookers.ch)
Marc Mielau (Head of Digital Media BMW)
Andreas Brandl (Head of Conextrade, Swisscom IT Services)
Paul de la Rochefoucauld (Managing Director iTaste)
Arie Struik (Managing Director Ala Test)
Jürgen Seitz (Head of Products & Platforms United Internet Media)
and others.

Zürich Tokio has once again designed the advertising for this year's 2nd Swiss Music Awards. The presentation of the Swiss Music Award, which was established by the representative body of producers and manufacturers of sound recordings in Switzerland (IFPI), will take place on Thursday, February 19, 2009, at Kaufleuten. The most popular national and international pop and rock artists will be chosen by Internet voting. The Zurich agency has drawn attention to the actual event and the opportunity to vote with its new advertising campaign.

> To the spot

The highlights of the Swiss Music Awards can be seen on February 20 in a one-hour TV show on Pro7 Switzerland.

Responsible at Swiss Music Awards: Office Oliver Rosa (Executive Producer). Responsible at Zurich Tokyo: Daniel Donati (CD), Karin Glarner (AD), Niels Schäfer (graphics), Nadine Häller (DTP), Stefan Lemberger (consulting), Thomas Campolongo (freelance copywriter). TV commercial: Combo Entertainment, Roman Peritz (Director/Producer), Siro Micheroli (Director/Producer), Milos May (AD/Postproduction). Sound: Peter Bräker.

The Swissgazette, published by Alpenmedia in Vienna, will also be available in print from March 1. Until now, the multilingual daily newspaper was only sent as a PDF by e-mail. The print edition will be published in Swiss hotels on Fridays. Existing subscribers will also be served with the print version.
The readership - particularly in Switzerland - had asked for a print version, said publishing director Kurt Ulrich in a press release on Monday. This will be published with an initial print run of 30,000 copies and will be printed in Austria. Sales and marketing are the responsibility of co-initiator Joachim Schwarz. The Swissgazette editorial team under Ulrich Glausen Dennler will remain unchanged and will be supplemented by a number of prominent commentators.

CS receives support from the fashion industry in difficult economic times. The iconic blue, white and red ski cap of the former Schweizerische Kreditanstalt is appearing as a free advertising medium. Alprausch will produce 300 SKA-look caps for the coming season. The only difference: instead of the SKA logo, the Alprausch lettering will be embroidered on it. Despite this small change, the recognition effect - and thus the connection to the bank - is guaranteed.
The idea for the ski cap came from an employee of the SKA advertising department in the summer of 1976. It became a hit the very next winter. From 1989, it could only be obtained through competitions. Production of the coveted head warmer was discontinued in 1993. There was already a mini-revival in 2004, Andy Tanner from Alprausch told the Sonntag newspaper. Due to high demand, a second edition has now been launched. The cap will be available in stores from fall 2009.
Despite the jazzed-up Alprausch version, the original is still in high demand. An SKA hat changed hands for 45 francs on the Ricardo auction platform on Friday. So, let's go - rummage through old cupboards full of long-forgotten winter sports equipment, rummage through brockis and get involved in saving the image of Swiss banks. UBS might almost be a little envious.

The black-and-white image of a sheriff searching an evicted house at gunpoint has been named the best press photo of 2008. The photo by American Anthony Suau won the 10,000 euro prize at the World Press Photo Awards in Amsterdam on Friday.

Two photographers from Switzerland also received a prize - both came third: Jean Revillard from Rezo.ch won with his picture "Hachim, Afghan migrant in Patras, Greece" in the sub-category "Individual people".

Philippe Dudouit from Contact Press Images with "Tuareg rebels in Mali" in the subcategory "Groups".

The exhibition is also coming to Zurich
A total of 63 photojournalists from 27 countries received awards in ten different categories. 490 participants submitted pictures for the competition. The award-winning photos will be exhibited in Amsterdam's Oude Kerk from May 4 to June 28. From May 8 to 31, the traveling exhibition will be on display in the Papiersaal in Sihlcity. The organizer is Keystone, as the Swiss photo agency announced on Friday.

(Image source: Keystone)

Calls for the abolition of Billag are getting louder and louder. Even price watchdog Stefan Meierhans and consumer advocate Simonetta Sommaruga no longer see any justification for a separate company that collects reception fees on behalf of the federal government. The Foundation for Consumer Protection (SKS) has submitted a paper to the responsible committee of the National Council calling for the abolition of Billag.
In an interview with the Sonntagszeitung newspaper, Meierhans said that the CHF 55 million that Billag receives from the federal government for collecting the fees should be used to reduce the fees. Meierhans proposes a new model of a per capita fee to be collected with the federal tax. However, care must be taken to ensure that the system is family-friendly. The price watchdog does not consider it sensible to abolish the fees and finance the SRG from the federal treasury.
Although Billag still has a contract until 2014, Meierhans is calling for a change before then. According to the Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC), however, a change is unlikely. The federal government must comply with the contract, DETEC spokesperson Daniel Bach told SDA. The fee system is to be reviewed at the next tender.
Recently, television and radio use via computer or cell phone has also been subject to charges. As a result, practically all households in Switzerland now pay Billag fees, SKS President Simmonetta Sommaruga told the Sonntagszeitung newspaper. A simple, inexpensive structure is now needed to collect the fees.
Billag has been under fire for some time now. A community of over 29,000 people has formed on the Facebook website under the title "Bye Bye Billag", calling for its abolition. A popular initiative of the same name is also in preparation.

Schoch & Sonders hosted a vernissage on February 5. The basic idea of the evening was to demonstrate how brands are mainly perceived through emotions. "That's why we presented our brand works as works that contain neither lettering nor content," says a statement from the Zurich agency. The exhibited images conveyed emotions through their shapes and colors alone.
"As a brand agency, it is our job to create design worlds for products or companies." For this reason, the same design and formal language was used for all the images on display. To create a unique personality for the Schoch & Sonders client portfolio, so to speak.

> To the exhibited works (on the right side of each page the corresponding project)

Google is withdrawing from the radio advertising market. The three-year project failed, admitted the Vice President for Product Management, Susan Wojcicki, on Thursday according to SDA in the Internet company's blog. It had always been clear that if risks were taken, not all of them would pay off. Up to 40 employees would probably lose their jobs. The group now wants to concentrate on advertising for audio broadcasts on the Internet.
In January, Google withdrew from a similar project in print media. The US company generates more than 90 percent of its revenue from online advertising.