The Ringier subsidiary Xmedia has acquired 70 percent of the shares in the Croatian company Foto-Nekretnine d.o.o.. The company will acquire the remaining 30 percent at the end of 2010, as Ringier announced on Friday.
Founded in 2004, the online company Foto-Nekretnine d.o.o. operates real estate platforms in Croatia and Serbia and covers around 70 percent of the Croatian real estate market, according to a press release. This represents a market share of around 40 percent. The platform records an average of around 150,000 visitors per month. The company also publishes a real estate magazine in Croatia.
The platform in Serbia only went live last November. According to Ringier, it has been clicked on around 5,000 times a month so far. With the latest acquisition, the media company is now active in ten countries in Europe and Asia.

Peter Bamert has been appointed as the new CEO of Denner. He will take up his position on January 1, 2010 as successor to Philippe Gaydoul, who will remain Chairman of the Denner Board of Directors. Bamert has worked for eleven years as head of Ex Libris in the Migros Group. His successor at Ex Libris will be appointed in the coming weeks, according to the press release.
The 50-year-old has been Managing Director of Ex Libris since 1998. He began his career in 1983 at Colgate-Palmolive in the marketing department. From 1989, he was Publishing Director of Cash, Business Development International and Managing Director of Ringier Germany at Ringier.
Denner also grew faster than the market in its core food retail business in the 2008 financial year, according to the statement. Consolidated sales increased by 8.3 percent to 2,943.1 million Swiss francs. At the end of the year, Denner operated 746 locations and employed 3,483 people.

(Image Keystone)

Jung von Matt/Limmat has won the contract for Migros' new umbrella brand campaign. "We were able to choose between various excellent proposals and decided in favor of Jung von Matt," said Migros Head of Marketing Oskar Sager. After long months of decision-making, the Zurich agency won out over SFLB, the Y&R Group and KNSK from Hamburg. Migros will hand over media management to OMD Switzerland from February 1, 2009.
As Dominique von Matt, Managing Director of Jung von Matt/Limmat, said, the demands on Migros' advertising are exceptionally high due to its unique positioning and high popularity ratings among the population. "We are therefore all the more pleased to have the opportunity to create the new brand campaign".

Coop Switzerland regularly launches national experience promotions in all its sales outlets. The Valencia agency, based in Basel and Zurich, has once again created the key visual for the current "Asia Weeks" promotion.
According to the press release, various advertising media will be used in front of and at the point of sale: F12, F4, hanging frames, picture worlds and rotairs, which will be on display until February 7.
Responsible at Coop: Lydie Goltdammer-Fourkal (Head of Advertising Realization), Joachim von Allmen, Rose Bianchi (Project Management). Responsible at Valencia Communication: Michael Gerber (CD), Tommy Schilling (Senior AD), Carlo Tagliavini (AD), Julia Schibler (graphics), Sebastian Refardt (text), Serdal Aktas, Maria Baer (DTP), Sabina Wothe, Jeannine Kaiser (consulting), Martin Graf (photography), Doris Moser (food styling), Domo Löw (illustration), Hans-Heinrich Hilker (image editing).

Kimberly-Clark wants to open up new sales channels for the Huggies brand diaper range in the long term. Favo was commissioned to carry out the launch campaign in various Coop Megastores. The international popularity of the diapers is the idea behind the entire campaign, according to a statement from the Basel-based agency. This was dramatized in a shoot with numerous toddlers. The motif works like a key visual and unites all the measures that have been implemented and are still planned. The result can now be seen in the form of an advertisement and a multi-page in-store flyer.
Responsible at Kimberly-Clark: Marjolein Nefkens (Brand Manager Huggies). Responsible at Favo: Hinrik Wachsmuth (CD), Nanette Roth (AD), Frank Engelhaupt (text), Philippe Schär (consulting).

The agency Advertising, Art & Ideas has produced a motion graphic clip for the successful base jumper Ueli Gegenschatz and on behalf of 360 Grad Management. The film, which was intended for the press and the Internet, shows incredible images of the spectacular jumps from mountains and skyscrapers, according to a press release. Producer Jonas Kiefer and motion graphic artist David Purviance conceived and realized the entire project and carried it out completely in-house up to and including post-production. The music was provided by Audiofactory in Hamburg.
> Watch clip

The US online service AOL is laying off around 700 employees in view of the advertising slump. This is according to an internal letter to employees published on Wednesday and obtained by the Reuters news agency. AOL also wants to cut bonus payments this year in order to keep the number of redundancies low, writes AOL boss Randy Falco in the letter. The jobs are to be cut primarily in the USA.
The company employs around 8,000 people worldwide. AOL belongs to the world's largest media group, Time Warner. Google acquired AOL for one billion dollars at the end of 2005.

Sunrise is giving all existing and new customers the free ADSL connection forever as part of Free Internet. The prerequisite for this is that customers have a Sunrise Zero Plus or Sunrise Max mobile subscription and use fixed-line telephony and ADSL with Sunrise. The SFLB agency has produced a commercial with the slogan "Are you still paying for the Internet?", which is now being shown on television. Radio spots and advertisements on the same topic are being used in parallel.

Responsible at Sunrise: Priska Heger (Director Marketing Communication), Peter Schilde (Marketing Communication Manager). Responsible at Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett: Dana Wirz, Peter Brönnimann, Simon Staub, Martin Spillmann (Creation), Rebecca Krausse (Consulting), Sebahat Derdiyok (Agency Producer). Production: Rudi Haller (Solid & Hallerfilm), Rainer Binz (Director).

As part of a comprehensive renovation, Geneva Airport has also renewed all of its catering outlets. Select Service Partner, operator of the bars and restaurants at Geneva Airport, commissioned Frontwork with the production and installation of all signage and decorative elements. The advertising technology company has installed light boxes, aluminum door and lift lettering, displays and price tags made of Dibond and foil wraps on counters, panels and display cases, as detailed in a press release issued on Thursday. The order also included the production of three-dimensional lettering made of acrylic glass as well as the printing and installation of hanging panels made of flame-retardant and washable translucent film.

The trade union Unia is now publishing the Ticino newspaper Area on its own. The Social Democratic Party has left the publishing company. The circulation of the paper, which is published in Italian, is around 32,000 copies. Of these, 14,000 copies are sold in Ticino and 11,000 copies on the northern side of the Alps. The rest of the readership is located in the Italian border region, Unia announced on Thursday, according to SDA. Area is no longer published weekly, but only twice a month. This reduction is intended to improve journalistic quality.
First published in October 1998, the magazine will continue to focus mainly on trade union, social and economic issues. Gianfranco Helbling has been editor-in-chief since 2002.

The introduction of stricter control measures on the English-language portal Wikipedia.org called for by founder Jimmy Wales is causing fierce protests within the online encyclopaedia's author community. Until now, all users have been allowed to publish their own articles on the platform and edit existing articles. However, this is now set to change fundamentally. Wales is calling for new entries and changes to be reviewed and assessed by trusted Wikipedia authors before they are published. A similar control system has already been in use on the German-language version of Wikipedia since May 2008, according to Catrin Schoneville, spokesperson for Wikimedia Deutschland, when asked by Pressetext.
While Wales primarily wants to improve the quality of Wikipedia articles through the stricter review, many English-speaking authors now fear for the basic values of the online encyclopaedia, which was conceived as an open platform.

On Monday, February 2, the Alpine World Ski Championships will open in Val d'Isère. Under the leadership of Valais Tourism, the canton is using the international event to position itself as a winter sports destination in the Alps. Since Sunday, for example, a large picture 20 meters wide and 9 meters high has been advertising the House of Swizerland in Val d'Isère with ski racer Daniel Albrecht. According to a press release issued on Thursday, this façade image was produced before the Valais ski racer's accident. In the Chalet Valaisan restaurant, which is also located in the House of Switzerland, guests will also be treated to Valais specialties by top chef Irma Dütsch.