Oswald Siegfried carried out a guerrilla product advertising campaign for his client, the Grosspeter car supermarket. In November, an Opel Agila was suspended from a crane in the middle of Basel when it was not needed on the construction site there. The car dangled at a considerable height above a street - clearly visible for miles around. The accompanying banner explained to passers-by and drivers why the vehicle was hanging at such a lofty height: "Highly talented: The new Opel Agila".

Responsible at Grosspeter: Jasmine Gasser (Head of Communications). Responsible at OSW: Michael Oswald (AD), Nadine Siegfried (consulting), René Fisch (text).

Affichage Holding's subsidiary, APG Montagne, has made two new appointments: Gabriela Graf took up the position of Key Account Consultant on January 1, 2009. She previously worked as an account manager at Publicitas Publimedia in Zurich. Markus Bien also moved from Publicitats Publimedia Zurich at the beginning of December. The 39-year-old became Sales Manager of the poster company, which specializes in outdoor advertising in the mountains, on 1 December 2008. At Publicitas, he worked as a consulting group manager and account director respectively.

The Cosmic advertising agency has designed the graphics and layout for "The daily offside", a documentary about Euro 08. The 40-page report on the football event comes in magazine format and is dedicated to the private fan zones of football enthusiasts away from stadiums and public party areas. Michael Sieber captured the events in apartments, on campsites and even in prisons. Claudia Langenegger summarized the events in words. Cosmic has also created postcards and a website where the publication can be ordered directly.

TBWA has been named "Global Agency of the Year for 2008" by the trade magazine Adweek. The globally active agency was able to prevail against the other finalists BBDO, Grey and Leo Burnett by convincing with its combination of strategy and creative ideas, according to the magazine. The competition looked at work from five segments (e-commerce, security, affluent, debit and sponsorship) aimed at the US, Canadian, Korean, Brazilian and Russian markets.

The private radio stations in the Swiss Radio Pool (SRP) will take over the stake previously held by Publisuisse in the marketing company Mediasense SA at the beginning of 2009. The SRP radio stations will continue to operate the national booking platform and marketing organization independently of Publisuisse. This will create an open sales model for radio advertising controlled by the radio broadcasters and based on the Publiplan online booking system, which is available to Publisuisse's radio stations under a service agreement.
In addition to its role as a national booking platform, Mediasense will focus on product design, pricing and promotional measures for national radio advertising. In future, SRP offers will be sold individually by the individual partner radio stations and by the agents already active in the market. The previous Managing Director, Bernhard Krättli, will leave the company at his own request at the end of January, but will remain available to the company for project work as part of the realignment.
The Mediasense Board of Directors is now made up of the following members: Urs Lorenz, Radio Zürisee (Chairman), Andrea Haemmerli, Belcom (Vice Chairman), Roland Baumgartner, Radio Argovia, and Joachim Freiberg, Radio Pilatus (previously). The current representative of the SRP on the Board of Directors of Mediasense SA, Andreas Meili, will continue to work for Mediasense on a mandate basis. The two previous representatives of Publisuisse on the Board of Directors, Martin Schneider and Othmar Stadelmann, have left the Board.

With the appointment of Jacqueline Sasse as Head of Radio & Sponsoring, Goldbach media company IP Multimedia is strengthening its staff in the areas of radio and sponsoring. In her new role, Sasse will assume responsibility for all sponsorship products of the marketing organization for electronic offline media in Mediasales. As former Managing Director of Eurosport AG and Managing Director of YSM - Youth Sports and Music Marketing, she has in-depth knowledge of the advertising and sponsorship market, the agency wrote in a press release on Wednesday.

Which audience is most likely to respond to a vitamin tablet for strong nerves? The Zurich-based advertising agency JWT+H+F is focusing on commuters, which is why the second campaign for Bayer's Berocca product is also being shown heavily on public transport. Alluding to the daily gauntlet of the stressed office population, it advertises with slogans such as: Berocca - and the thread of patience becomes a tightrope or: Berocca - and the meeting marathon becomes a walk in the park.
From January, rail posters will be on display in all intercity trains and commuter trains in Switzerland. According to the agency's press release, they are intended to show in a playful way how Berocca can take the stress out of daily office life. The motifs will also appear as F12 posters in selected Swiss railroad stations.
Responsible at JWT+H+F: Grischa Rubinick (CD), Anna Kindlimann (graphics), Mike Krüll, Mathias Bart (text), Rainer Bühler (strategic planning), Vanessa Lehmann-Spalleck and Fabian Merz (consulting). Responsible at Bayer (Schweiz) AG: Daniel Bärlocher (Group Brand Manager Nutritionals) and Roger Zimmerli (Brand Manager).

The former Blick editor-in-chief is returning to journalism after a break. As reported by the Sonntagszeitung, he will become the editor of the regional splits of the Aargauer Zeitung. He thus complements the team around the new editor-in-chief Christian Dorer, who takes office on February 1. De Schepper stepped down as editor-in-chief of Blick in March 2007 to work as an author.
(Image: Keystone)

On January 3, 2009, the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC), the association of American film critics, named Ari Folman's animated film Waltz With Bashir "Best Picture of the Year 2008." Writer and producer Ari Folman's animated documentary is a journey into his past - a trip to West Beirut during the First Lebanon War. The Israeli-German-French co-production had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
The annual awards ceremony was held for the 43rd time this year and took place at Sardi's Restaurant in New York City. A total of 49 members voted:

Best Actor
Sean Penn (Milk) (Focus Features)
Best Actress
Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky) (Miramax)
Best Supporting Actor
Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky) (Miramax)
Best Supporting Actress
Hanna Schygulla (The Edge of Heaven) (Strand Releasing)
Best Picture
Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman) (Sony Pictures Classic)
Best Director
Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky) (Miramax)
Best Nonfiction Film
Man on Wire (James Marsh) (Magnolia)
Best Screenplay
Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
Best Cinematography
Slumdog Millionaire (Anthony Dod Mantle) (Fox Searchlight)
Best Experimental Film
Ken Jacobs' Razzle Dazzle

Wirz Corporate, a member of the Wirz Group, is expanding its management team with Michel Reichmuth and Thore Lingel as of January 1, 2009. Michel Reichmuth has already been working as a senior consultant at the agency, which specializes in corporate communications, for three years. The 34-year-old is now responsible for the Brand Identity division. After studying journalism and business administration in Zurich, he worked for several years at various agencies and for clients as a brand specialist.
Thore Lingel joined Wirz Corporate a year ago as a Senior Consultant for Public Relations and will take over the management of the Public Relations division in his new role. At the beginning of 2008, the 35-year-old moved from the German communications consultancy Deekeling Arndt Advisors to Switzerland. Prior to this, he worked for Weber Shandwick for over six years, advising national and international clients in the field of corporate communications. Thore Lingel studied business administration and journalism in Hamburg.

Caption: Michel Reichmuth and Thore Lingel.

Caterina Meier-Pfister has joined the 4C Business Campaigning consulting team. Meier-Pfister most recently worked as a consultant at Waldburger Consulting, which specializes in development policy. Prior to that, she was Head of Communications at the Max Havelaar Foundation Switzerland, where she was also a member of the Executive Board.
4C Business Campaigning is part of an international campaigning agency network that specializes in interdisciplinary communication and management disciplines. Campaigning is a resource-efficient approach and conserves budgets through the targeted selection of the most effective communication tools. Campaigning is therefore "what companies can learn from NGOs if they want to get the most out of the budget available to them", says Harald Burgener, Managing Director of 4C Business Campaigning. Caterina Meier-Pfister's professional experience with NGOs is likely to have benefited her in the selection of candidates.

According to an article in the Sunday newspaper Sonntag, Migros will only be advertising twelve brands, so-called program brands, in future. This news is surprising in that Migros President Claude Hauser spoke in an interview in mid-December of several dozen brands for which the advertising drum should be beaten in future. The program brands that have now been defined include: Actilife, Anna's Best, Aproz, Candida, Farmer, Frey, Heidi, I am, Léger, Lillibiggs, Sélection and Total.
When limiting the brands advertised, care was obviously taken to ensure that only one brand was advertised for related products. This means that only Total remains in the detergent category, with Elan and Savo out of the running. In addition to the twelve program brands, a further 45 brands were determined on Sunday to remain without being advertised. The fate of the remaining 200 or so own brands (out of a total of 250) is uncertain. Sonntag speculated that related brands could be merged under one name, such as cosmetic products (Iduna, Jana) under the name I am.