Record participation in Best of Swiss Web 2009: Almost 300 projects have been entered into the race for this year's Best of Swiss Web Award. According to a press release issued on Friday, the awards in the categories Creation, Online Marketing, Online and Mobile Campaigns and Usability are particularly coveted this year. The jury is now evaluating the entries. The nominations for the Master 2009 and the shortlist of outstanding projects will be announced in mid-February.
The Award Night on April 2, 2009 will focus on the special theme "Women Wired in Web". Guests can look forward to a program with a festive dinner and the election of the Master of Swiss Web 2009. The last available tickets will be available immediately after the nominations have been announced.

Südostschweiz Medien founds its own allmedia company, Work4media AG. The aim of the new company is to present Südostschweiz Medien's entire range of services to the advertising market.
Südostschweiz Medien wants to strengthen its activities in the advertising market. To this end, it has founded Work4media AG, an all-media company based in Chur. Südostschweiz Medien is thus reacting to the constant change in the media industry and the increasing demand for cross-media offerings, as well as to the Federal Council's positive decision regarding the awarding of radio and TV licenses, writes the media company led by publisher president Hanspeter Lebrument in a press release on Friday.
The management of the advertising company Südostschweiz Publicitas has been entrusted with the management of Work4media AG. Lebrument was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. The aim of the new company is to present Südostschweiz Medien's entire range of services in a targeted and networked manner on the advertising market.

The agency Bluespirit has realized a campaign for Swisslos. The new Shopping Fieber lottery ticket, with which one can win a full credit card, is advertised. Bluespirit conceived the entire Shopping Fieber campaign, from the design of the first four tickets to TV, cinema and radio spots, ads and POS implementation for numerous kiosks, gas stations and restaurants.
According to a statement from the agency, illustrator Jason Brooks was enlisted to create the images. The TV spot shows the seductive idea of shopping in the most beautiful fashion metropolises with a full credit card. For the production of the spot, Bluespirit relied on animation by Motion Design Studio Boutiq and sound catering by Philipp Scherrer.
> To the spot
The campaign starts on January 24 and runs for three weeks on television, cinema, radio and various print media.
Responsible at Swisslos, Intercantonal National Lottery: Mark Lauber, Jessica Wassermann (Marketing). Responsible at Blue Spirit Communications AG: Gerry Flückiger (overall responsibility), Alban Haas, Manuela Rocchese (consulting), Peter Trüb (CD), Tizian Walti (concept, text), Fritz Kreis (AD), Manuel Griestock (graphics). Production: Boutiq. Illustration: Jason Brooks. Recording studio: Tonstudios Z.

Internet giant Google is continuing its rapid growth even during the recession. Strong advertising revenues also brought the search engine operator an unexpected profit at the end of the year, as reported by SDA on Friday. Google thus joins the small group of technology companies that have surprised on the upside during the economic crisis: Apple and IBM also increased their profits, while US software giant Microsoft disappointed expectations and announced 5,000 job cuts on Thursday.
Google sales rose by 18 percent to 5.7 billion dollars in the fourth quarter. This is a far cry from Google's previous growth rates - the company often grew by around 50 percent a year. Nevertheless, industry experts consider this an extremely respectable performance in view of the desolate economic situation and the cuts in the advertising budgets of many companies. 67 percent of sales were generated via group-owned sites such as Google.com - an increase of 22 percent compared to the same period last year. While the UK, Google's second-largest market, showed "certain weaknesses" due to the weak British pound, the rest of Europe achieved a better result.
More paid clicks
Google performed particularly well in Germany, France and the Netherlands. The number of paid clicks - a measure of how often Google is paid for advertising placed alongside its search results - rose by 18 percent in the past quarter. Excluding one-off expenses, Google earned 5.10 dollars per share, while analysts had expected only 4.95 dollars. On balance, however, net profit fell to 382 million dollars from 1.21 billion dollars due to write-downs on the investments in Clearwire and the Time Warner division AOL.

In recent months, online TV Zatoo has concluded agency agreements with various Swiss marketers for online advertising, including Admazing, Adlink and IP Multimedia from Goldbach Media, Serranetga and Web2com. Advertising customers and agencies are free to choose whether they want to work with their preferred marketer or directly with Zattoo, according to a press release issued on Friday. The type of cooperation can be decided on a case-by-case basis. "The cooperation is going well, the feedback from the market is very positive," Nick Brambring, Head of the Swiss and German markets, is quoted as saying in the press release.

The readers of Auto Illustrierte have decided: For the second time in a row, the Fiat 500 has been voted Best Car 2009 in the Mini Cars category. The Zurich agency Sulzer, Sutter has developed an advertisement for this. This can be seen in Auto Illustrierte on January 23.
Responsible at Fiat Group Automobiles Switzerland SA: Susana Prado (Marketing Manager Fiat), Samuel Engeli (Communication Manager Fiat). Responsible at Sulzer, Sutter: Roland Sutter (Managing Director), Michael Kathe (CD), Florian Bachofen (AD), Katja Wölfel (Text), Giusi Brullo (Consulting).

The Dutch brewery Heineken has launched an elaborate advertising campaign at just the right time. Some of its entertaining spots will also be shown during the Football Super Bowl on February 1.
With a Spotwhich revolves around the not-so-secret vices of the female and male sex, the Amsterdam agency TBWA/Neboko is currently the talk of the town. In the advertising film for the Heineken beer brand, a woman proudly presents her new apartment to her friends during a housewarming party. Her pride and joy: a walk-in closet. The friends are overjoyed. However, their expressions of enthusiasm are drowned out by another room. Cut. There, the men are rejoicing over a room of the same size furnished as a Heineken beer fridge.
In another new Heineken spot The ad features actor John Turturro delivering a philosophical monologue on the art of "taking care of yourself" while wandering through the space landscape of the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York. A similar spot, also featuring the actor known from such legendary film roles as bowling ace Jesus in "Big Lebowsky", will also be shown during a commercial break of the Super Bowl on February 1. The Turturro commercials were realized by the American agency Wieden + Kennedy.

The Winterthur production company Forster Film has won four World Gold Medals with "Selma!" at the 2009 New York Festival for commissioned films. The short film on the subject of human rights, which was commissioned by the Geneva-based organization Ecole Instrument de Paix (EIP) for use in schools, won Gold for Best Director, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Narration/Performance and the category win for films on social issues. "Selma!" is part of the DVD "Droits et Libertés Tout Courts" with films by six up-and-coming Swiss directors, which was produced by the Lausanne agency Base Court.
The director and screenwriter of "Selma!" is Bernie Forster, who has already won the Golden Edi and Grand Prix Victoria at the International Business Film Festival. The acting ensemble, which has also been awarded a World Medal, is led by Nadine Landert.

The Basellandschaftliche Zeitung will in future be printed in Aarau by the AZ Medien Group. The Liestal-based company Lüdin will cease newspaper printing at the end of May. 17.5 full-time positions will be cut. Of the 21 people affected, 13 will be made redundant.
The newspaper printing plant and in particular the distribution plant have reached the end of their life cycle, the company announced on Friday, according to SDA. Replacement investments at the Liestal site are not planned. This replacement was originally planned for 2010. Bringing it forward will ensure production reliability.
For 8 of the 21 people affected, other jobs had been found internally in the cantonal capital of Basel. For 13, however, "dismissal is unfortunately unavoidable". A social plan has been drawn up. Lüdin will help in the search for a new job. The Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (BZ) has been owned by AZ Medien AG since the end of 2007. According to the press release, Lüdin's other departments will not be affected by the transfer of newspaper printing to Mittelland Zeitungsdruck. The newspaper will also benefit from this move in that there will be "unlimited color options" in the future and the volumes will be more flexible.
After 175 years of independence, the Lüdin family had sold the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (BZ) to the AZ Group at the end of December 2007 in order to secure the future of the daily newspaper. The Basler Zeitung, which was also interested, was turned down. At the time, the BZ had a circulation of 22,579 copies. The Mittelland Zeitung association of the AZ Group had a total circulation of 207,531 copies at the time. The BZ editorial team remained in Liestal.

According to the Goldbach Index (Gemi), advertising pressure on the Internet continued its marked increase in December, gaining 13 index points, bringing the annual increase for 2008 to 112 index points.
In December, the Gemi shows an already familiar picture in the advertising pressure recorded by Media Focus for all media: the internet was also able to increase by a full 13 index points to 369 in the last month of the year. The total for e-media remained down by one index point in the month under review, while all media surveyed remained on a par at 194 index points.
Television suffered a drop of 3 index points to 450 in December, while radio advertising pressure remained the same at 246 points and teletext rose by one index point to 155.
For 2008 as a whole, TV increased by 26, the Internet by 112, teletext by 22, all eMedia together by 28 and the total of all media by 6 index points. Radio was the only medium to record a decline, falling by 6 index points.

The Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Young Persons (BPJM) has for the first time blocked a blog on the Internet that positively portrays and glorifies anorexia nervosa, better known as anorexia. It is the blog of a minor who belongs to the so-called pro-ana scene.
The Federal Review Board argues that the blog content undermines the parental right and duty to educate their children. They endangered and hindered the education of young people to become responsible and socially competent personalities. The blog is harmful to minors because it glorifies and trivializes behavior that can lead to physical harm.
According to 20 Minuten, the BPJM's decision has been heavily criticized by legal experts. Hundreds of comments on the report can be found on Lawbog alone. Many speak of censorship in this context. Censorship is never good, and certainly not when it happens so arbitrarily just because a state-appointed body decides that it is.
However, there are also said to be voices in the blogging scene who support the BPJM's decision. For example, Johnny Haeusler, the man behind the German blog Spreeblick: "Indexing such a site is not about blocking an anorexia forum, rather a cult has developed on the net that elevates anorexia to a religion {...}" he is quoted as saying in the free newspaper.

President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to give the French press a helping hand. Millions in taxes and a structural reform are intended to make it permanently profitable.
The press was already in crisis before the crisis, said Sarkozy on Friday. Its economic conditions had now collapsed in 2009. "The first condition for the independence of the press is to earn money," continued the French President. The state must take care of the industry with its 100,000 employees in the same way as the crisis-ridden car industry. As a result of several months of debate among media representatives, Sarkozy proposed a three-year programme for the modernization of the press. As the "first building site"
he cited the Internet and the corresponding technological adaptation.
In addition to private investment and the creation of a statute for the internet press, public investment is necessary. Online titles should be exempt from business tax. He will also campaign in Brussels for a reduction in VAT. Sarkozy named patronage as a further lever: funds should be able to invest in press and online titles at reduced tax rates, as well as in cultural works.
Sarkozy described the modernization of distribution as the "second priority construction site". The state will increase its support for newspaper delivery from eight to 70 million euros and, as far as possible, provide assistance with taxes and levies, subsidies for modernization and the creation of new sales outlets.