Rolf Schmitz is to become the new managing director of Internet research company Net-Metrix. The 44-year-old succeeds the interim management of Manuel Dähler (Mediapulse) and Marco Bernasconi (Wemf). Marco Bernasconi will remain on the Board of Directors. Manuel Dähler will presumably continue to chair the Net-Metrix Research Commission.
Rolf Schmitz holds a doctorate in business administration and has many years of experience in management positions in marketing and sales in Switzerland and Germany. He has already worked for companies in telecommunications, publishing, consulting and for non-profit organizations and brings expertise in setting up and expanding business units. Among other things, he was responsible for marketing fixed-network and Internet products at Swisscom Fixnet.

The latest Net-Metrix-Base 2008-2 Internet study shows that almost 60 percent of Swiss people aged 14 and over can no longer do without the Internet and surf the web daily or almost daily. Around eight years ago, only 14 percent of the population belonged to the group of "heavy users".
Eight years ago, online and offline users in the Swiss population were roughly equal. Today, only 20 percent or 1.2 million people do not use the internet at all. 60 percent of non-users are pensioners. Only nine percent are younger than 40 today - eight years ago it was 35 percent.

On January 7, 2009, the weekly newspaper Rorschacher Echo will be published for the first time in the town of Rorschach. It is published by Moser Communications on Wednesdays in A4 format with a print run of at least 1000 copies. The newspaper is four to twelve pages long and is available free of charge in around 50 restaurants in the town of Rorschach. Jürg Moser, owner of Moser Communications, is responsible for the editorial work.
In the 1990s, Moser was editor of the Rorschacher Zeitung, a local edition of Die Ostschweiz, which was discontinued a good ten years ago, and then editor of the Ostschweizer Tagblatt, the Rorschach region edition of the St. Galler Tagblatt. According to Jürg Moser, publishing the Rorschacher Echo is a leisure activity. The advertisements are only intended to finance the printing and distribution costs. After an introductory phase and depending on its success, the plan is to transform the Rorschacher Echo into a limited company in which third parties can participate.
As a small and politically independent weekly newspaper, the Rorschacher Echo aims to help Rorschach residents identify with their town by highlighting its attractive aspects in a positive light, as Jürg Moser puts it in the editorial of the first issue of the Echo.

At the beginning of December 2008, Urs Hügli took over responsibility for the further development of Tamedia's online job market (see Tamedia expands position in online job search portals / 165201). He will be supported by the Homegate.ch management team. Hügli has managed Homegate AG, in which Tamedia and Edipresse each hold a 45 percent stake, since it was founded in 2001 and has developed the Swiss real estate portal into the market leader in Switzerland together with its current 36 employees. Until 2000, he held various management positions at Zürcher Kantonalbank and other Swiss financial service providers.

The Federal Council is complete again. The Swiss of the Year will be determined next Saturday. Dynamo Moscow has won the Spengler Cup. All that's left now is to choose the advertiser of the year. Frank Bodin, Markus Gut, Alexander Jaggy, Daniel Krieg, Philipp Skrabal or Andreas Widmer? The suspense is mounting as to who will be crowned Promoter of the Year 2009 next week. The successor to Pius Walker will be celebrated at an exclusive gala dinner.
Everything that has lions and dice will meet at Zurich's Kaufleuten on January 14. The dance around the Egon Cup will be hosted by Anna Maier. What kind of dress will she wear? But all joking aside: The exquisite kitchen of the Kaufleuten is slowly preparing the shopping lists and wants to know who is coming. Last chance to register with Daniela Hämmerle at the Werbewoche publishing house: by e-mail to [email protected] or phone 044 250 28 47.
Subscribers to Werbewoche can get up close and personal for CHF 250. Non-subscribers pay 350 or can still quickly buy a subscription. Those who want to make a particularly crisis-resistant impression on their customers can also reserve an entire table with eight seats. Those who want to celebrate their anticipation of the Migros account or other pitch wins in 2009 in front of the whole world can also have a few tables put together. In any case, the red carpet is rolled out from 5 p.m., at Kaufleuten, on January 14.. (pan)

Jung von Matt/Limmat has developed new motifs for Health Promotion Switzerland relating to healthy body weight. The campaign is now in its third round. While the focus in 2008 was on infants and children up to pre-school age, this time the aim is to encourage the general population to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
The poster campaign will be launched nationwide on January 5, 2009, followed by a national advertising campaign in February 2009.

The cherry lollipop is intended to encourage people to buy their snacks from the greengrocer rather than the kiosk.

The banana, representing the Nike symbol, stands for the healthy combination of a balanced diet and exercise.

The fruit coupe is intended to whet the appetite for alternatives to desserts made from sugar, cream and pastries.

The spaghetti skipping rope motif is intended to make it clear that if you eat a lot, you have to move accordingly.

The TV biscuit is intended to draw attention to the problem of constant media consumption.

The egg motif, representing the youngest children, addresses the innate urge to move. The aim is to encourage schools, parents and authorities to create sufficient space for movement.

Responsible at Health Promotion Switzerland: Susanne Gäumann (overall responsibility, Head of Communications), Victoria Graf (Campaign Coordinator). Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat: Lukas Frei, Alexander Jaggy (CD), Thomas Ammann (text), Bruce Roberts (AD), Conny Jäger, (graphics), Ilonka Galliard, Jil Rottmann (art buying), Fabian Röthlisberger, Michèle Gutmann, Milène Huber (consulting), Felix Streuli (photography and image editing).

On Wednesday, January 7, Migros is offering its customers ten times as many Cumulus points on all dairy products. To make this message known to as large an audience as possible, Exxtra Communications put together a package of measures comprising a TV commercial, radio, print, POP and online. The visual leitmotif chosen was the Swiss mountains and a traditional custom that represents the Alps and thus the "dairy world": Flag-wavers, or rather flags that are flung into the air by them, as the agency writes.
In the TV commercial, after a yodeling jubilation, flags with the logo of ten Cumulus points fly through the air against a backdrop of magnificent snowy mountains. A fade-in at the end communicates the message again with the date of the campaign. In the radio spot, the mountain world is dramatized with an echo message. The flags logically appear in the advertisements, and a yodel headline expresses the joy that there are ten times as many Cumulus points in Migros on the day in question.
" TV commercial
" Radio spot
Responsible at MGB: Sven Guggenheim (Project Manager Communications), Daniel Hasenfratz (Junior Project Manager Communications). Responsible at Exxtra Communication: Dieter Hofmann (CD), Beat Fedier (text/concept), Christoph Hänsli (AD), Nadine Antenen (graphics), Sarida Bossoni (FFF), Susan Baumgartner and Markus Brink (consulting). Film and image: Ultra Images. Radio: Jingle Jungle.

The advertisers at Draftfcb developed an advertising campaign for Alcoholics Anonymous Switzerland, which appeared over the festive period. The aim was to draw the attention of addicts to Alcoholics Anonymous during the festive season - the peak drinking season - and to help them make a New Year's resolution to drink less.
The advertisements start in the same place as the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It all starts with the realization that alcohol is a problem and that you are stuck in a tunnel, according to a statement from the agency. By talking anonymously with other sufferers and with dry alcoholics, it is easier to find a way out of addiction.

Responsible at Union 3 Communications/Anonymous Alcoholics: Marianne Egli. Responsible at Draftfcb: Daniel Comte (Executive Creative Director), Nicolas Vontobel (Creative Director), Sebastian Hugelshofer (Art Director), Ivan Madeo (Text/Concept), Melanie J. Auerbach (Art-Buying), Scheffold.Vizner/Fluxif (Photography/3D-Art), Stefan Naef (Consulting).

It was already leaked on Monday and became official on Tuesday: 47-year-old Bernd Buchholz, previously a member of the Executive Board and Head of Germany at Gruner + Jahr, will replace Bernd Kundrun as CEO of Europe's largest publishing house. The Supervisory Board has appointed Buchholz as the new CEO with immediate effect, Gruner + Jahr wrote in a press release according to Kress.de.
According to official language, 51-year-old Kundrun is leaving his post due to "differing views on the future strategy of Gruner + Jahr". The separation is "by mutual agreement". A decision on Bernd Buchholz's membership of the Bertelsmann Executive Board will be made at a later date. For the time being, he will remain CEO of Gruner + Jahr in addition to his position as CEO Germany.

The canton of Aargau wants to sell itself better as a business and residential location. The cantonal parliament clearly approved the law on location promotion on Tuesday by 117 votes to 8. Location marketing aims to promote the establishment and relocation of companies, attract wealthy taxpayers and promote tourism in Aargau. The cantonal government estimates that the measures will cost CHF 1.3 million per year.
The law was mainly supported by the SP. However, it failed with the proposal that future-oriented technologies should also be promoted. The SVP and parts of the FDP were particularly critical of the Economic Promotion Act, describing it as a "paper tiger". The cantonal government responded to the criticism from conservative parties and business associations by extending the law until the end of 2016.