On average, Swiss-German TV viewers spent 207 minutes a day watching television. This is 12 minutes more than in the same period last year, as reported by Publica Data according to SDA. 68.1 percent of the population over the age of three watched television every day. Among viewers aged 15 to 29, daily usage increased by 13 minutes to 189 minutes. The proportion remained constant at 51.8%. With 207 minutes of television consumption per day, German-speaking Switzerland is clearly behind French-speaking Switzerland with 237 minutes and Italian-speaking Switzerland with 256 minutes. At 68.9% and 70.5% respectively, these parts of the country also have a higher reach, according to the NZZ on Thursday.
The public television stations lost market share slightly. In German-speaking Switzerland, SF 2 (0.5%) and SF Info (0.2%) made slight gains. However, SF 1 lost 0.8% in the second half of 2008 compared to the same period in the previous year. SF 1 achieved a market share of 23.6 percent, SF 2 8.3 percent. ARD (5.4 percent market share), ZDF (4.9 percent) and ORF 1 and 2 (2.9 percent each) also lost some viewers, as did the music channels MTV and Viva Switzerland (0.5 percent each). By contrast, the German private channels were able to increase their market shares slightly compared to 2007. RTL achieved 6.9 percent, Sat 1 6.2 percent, Pro Sieben 4.5 percent and Vox 3.7 percent.

The NZZ am Sonntag has announced various changes to its editorial team. The changes affect the Society and Style sections.
Journalist Carole Koch has joined the Sonntagsmedium in the society section. She most recently worked at Annabelle, where she was a reporter, among other things. Carole Koch, who studied journalism, history and literature in Zurich, began her career at the Berner Zeitung.
Roberto Zimmermann will take over as head of the NZZ am Sonntag's style department, while Jeroen van Rooijen will continue to be responsible for the magazine "Z - Die Schönen Seiten". The Stil-Bund and Z magazine will continue to be produced by the same team. A new art director is now joining this team. Claudio Gmür will work 50 percent of the time and help shape the look and content of the monthly supplement "Z - Die schönen Seiten". Gmür trained in new media and visual communication at the Zurich University of the Arts. After stints with Donald Schneider in Paris, publisher Lars Müller in Baden and Graphic Thought Facility in London, he now works as a freelance art director with his own studio in Zurich.

Alexander Horrolt is moving from IP Deutschland to Publicitas Cinecom in Switzerland. He takes over the management of Swiss TV marketing for the channels Sat.1, Kabel eins and 3+.
The 39-year-old Horrolt will take up his new position in Zurich on April 1 at the latest. He will replace Karin Frautschi, who is now Key Account Manager for national advertising customers for all Publicitas electronic media.
Horrolt is currently still responsible for the Vox channel as Head of Marketing at IP. He has worked in the media industry since the beginning of his career. In the course of his career, he has held various positions, from media buying, internal sales and key account management to marketing and product management for various channels marketed by IP Deutschland.
"With Alexander Horrolt, we have been able to gain a real TV professional for Publicitas, who we are very much looking forward to. With him, we will succeed in further professionalizing our work and consolidating and expanding our market position in TV marketing," Tim Dührkoop, Head of Electronic & Interactive at Publicitas, was quoted as saying in a press release on Thursday. He is also pleased that Karin Frautschi will remain with the company in another role.

Swiss Sports Television (SSF) is demanding its own broadcasting slot on the analog TV cable network. Because it is not getting this, the broadcaster is taking Cablecom to court, as the TV magazines Tele and TV-Star report in their latest editions. According to the two publications, the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom) must now decide whether sports television will be forcibly allocated a slot on the analog Cablecom network. If SSF, which currently broadcasts on the Star TV channel, succeeds with its request, another broadcaster would have to make way. According to Tele and TV-Star, the decision will be made in February.

The Saatchi & Saatchi Simko agency with offices in Geneva and Zurich is to become Saatchi & Saatchi. Agency founder Pedro Simko will take on more international responsibility in his role as Chief Marketing Officer of the Saatchi Group, the agency announced on Thursday. However, he will continue to be the contact person for key clients and responsible for Saatchi & Saatchi's strategy in Switzerland. "Times have changed", Simko is quoted as saying in the press release. "We are no longer an owner-managed agency, but the number two in Switzerland and representative of the world's most sought-after brand in our industry." It is therefore only logical to operate as Saatchi & Saatchi from now on.
In January 2009, Philippe Meyer also took up his position as Managing Director of the agency in Geneva. Together with CFO Yann Lohezic and CEO Kaspar Loeb, he forms the responsible management team.

The Zurich agency Marti & Partner has developed a radio game in collaboration with Radio Top for its client Shopping Seen in Winterthur Seen. Anyone can prepare for the questions posed in the game on their homepage. Correct answers will be rewarded with a 200-franc shopping voucher for the shopping center until the middle of the month. If the answer is incorrect, the amount is accumulated for the next game slot. The game is intended to help anyone who falls into a depression due to gray skies, empty wallets or a festive hangover, the agency writes in a press release.
Interested players can find out about the game not only over the airwaves. All the important information about the rules of the game and broadcast times can also be found online - via the Radio Top homepage. A
animated banner shows the way.
Responsible for Shopping Seen: Harald Winter (Chairman of the Tenants' Association). Responsible at Marti & Partner: Anita Kittel and Thomas Krebs (project management/consulting). Responsible at Radio Top: Oliver Schönholzer.
Shopping Seen radio spot

Shopping Seen radio spot

The Zurich agency Brüngger Bachmann Dialog has reached the final of the John Caples Awards New York. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in New York on March 19, 2009. The dialog marketing agency made it to the finals with a mailing that was part of an integrated communication campaign for the launch of Orange fixed-line telephony for business customers. The mailing was intended to emphasize a quick switch from another landline provider to Orange. Brüngger Bachmann's clients include Saab Automobile SA, Toshiba Tec and Pro Juventute.

The euphoria is great. The United States has a new president and everything will be better with him. Even now, before he officially takes office, Barack Obama is busy promoting his 775 billion economic stimulus package. He wants to stimulate the economy by all means and with a convinced "Yes, we can" on his lips. And yet - if you believe the latest Spots of the fast-food confectionery chain Dunkin' Donuts - not at all the first black president to keep the country going, but a particularly strong coffee and a sweet pastry curl.
After Nike has been advertising with the claim "Just do it." for decades, Dunkin' Donuts is now doubling down with "You kin' do it". One cup of their coffee (the 1.99 dollar cup, including a warm protein sandwich) and no task is unsolvable. A Hollywood swing with a thousand parts? A desk covered with meters of files? A hopelessly snow-covered driveway? No problem with a cup of Dunkin' Brew! "America runs on dunkin'". It's just a shame that there is no branch in this country. By the time the coffee has been imported from Germany to Switzerland, its effect will probably have fizzled out.

According to a study by economists at Credit Suisse and the consulting firm Fuhrer & Hotz, two thirds of the 90 decision-makers surveyed in the Swiss retail trade intend to increase their marketing budget in the coming year. The study on the business development of the Swiss retail trade in 2009 states that this optimism may come as a surprise in view of the expected recession, but shows that the market players in the retail trade are not expecting a slump and that they remain confident with regard to their own sales.
Nevertheless, after several years of upswing, Swiss retailers are again expecting more saturated markets and overcapacities in 2009. However, more than 80 percent of the companies expect significant sales growth in some cases. The winners will therefore be low-cost suppliers and wholesalers. The outlook for retailers in the consumer goods sector is less positive, especially for independent retailers. The exceptions are everyday consumer goods and personal care and health products.
Increasing predatory competition is expected in the coming year. According to the study, in the saturated Swiss market, growth in the retail trade is only possible at the expense of competitors. However, a powerful concept, convincing marketing and solid financial strength are more important for success than low prices. For example, if food prices rose by 1 percent, consumer demand would only fall by 0.05 percent. And according to the study, private consumption only increases by 0.19 percent for every 1 percent real growth.
(Image: Keystone / Friday Zurich)

The online appointment scheduler Doodle is continuing to expand its team. Thanks to strong growth and the associated newly formulated growth targets for 2009, Doodle has brought another sales expert on board in the form of Oliver Anderegg. As Key Account Manager, Oliver Anderegg will continue to drive forward the expansion of the advertising platform in Switzerland.
Anderegg previously worked at Tilllate, Adlink and Publicitas web2com, among others, where his roles included Account Manager and Product & Tool Manager. In addition to Oliver Anderegg, Sabine Bernhard will also be joining the Doodle team. She will strengthen the management team in the administrative area.
"The current team enables us to further expand Doodle's position as a premium advertising platform", comments Stefan Wirth, VP Marketing & Sales, on the new additions.
Doodle was developed in 2003 for private purposes and has developed rapidly since then. In 2007, inventor Michael Näf decided to professionalize the service together with his business partner Dr. Paul E. Sevinç in order to meet the requirements associated with the growing number of users. Doodle AG has been supported by venture capitalists since March 2008. According to the Wemf in November 2008, the service has 761,000 unique clients per month.

The US media group Time Warner fell into the red last year due to billions in write-downs. The Group warned that the bottom line for the past year was a loss.
Time Warner announced in New York on Wednesday that pre-tax adjustments of 25 billion dollars had been made for the cable business, the publishing division and the AOL Internet division due to lower goodwill. Time Warner had previously expected a significant profit for the past year. The Group did not provide more precise details on the amount of the loss. The figures are to be announced at the beginning of February. In 2007, Time Warner achieved a surplus of just under 4.4 billion dollars.
Time Warner had already announced massive job cuts at its magazines such as Time, Fortune and People some time ago due to falling advertising revenues. The Group has been looking for a new strategy or a buyer for the struggling AOL business for some time.
Group CEO Jeff Bewkes, who has been in office for a year, is massively restructuring the media giant. The Group intends to completely divest itself of its cable network division, which is already listed on the stock exchange. The Group also owns the Warner Brothers film studio and TV channels such as CNN and the popular pay channel HBO (Home Box Office), responsible for such outstanding TV series as "Rome", "The Wire", "Entourage" and "Flight Of The Conchords".