In an interview with the French-language newspaper L'Illustré, Claude Hauser, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives, reveals a few things about the orange giant's future advertising strategy. With regard to the advertising budget of around 350 million francs, Hauser speaks of savings of around 50 million francs (une cinquantaine de millions). This is significantly less than the figure of 70 million francs that was still being bandied about in September.
In addition, Migros will only actively advertise around a few dozen (quelques dizaines) of its total range of around 250 own brands. Hauser made a surprising statement about the use of advertising media: a large proportion of advertising expenditure would be made on the Internet in future. Hauser also said that there were no plans at all to do away with advertisements in daily newspapers and magazines, as had been suggested on several occasions. However, print advertising would be measured more by its effectiveness.
Savings as a natural process
Claude Hauser put the announced savings in a broader context. Migros has one of the highest advertising budgets of any retailer in Europe in terms of turnover. With sales of around CHF 15 billion and an advertising budget of CHF 350 million, around 2.3 percent of sales are spent on advertising. This is due to the high proportion of Migros' own brands, which make up around 90 percent of the product range. For this reason, Migros wants to focus its advertising on just a few products.
Hauser considers the savings to be a natural process due to developments within Migros. Due to the sharp increase in the number of own brands, advertising expenditure has also risen sharply over the years. The company had become bogged down and now the time had come to re-center itself. As a result, cooperation with many different agencies and thus control and overall coordination had become increasingly difficult. This inevitably led to waste. This is also the reason for the termination of all existing contracts and the current tendering process.
Shifting advertising to the Internet
With regard to the future advertising strategy, Claude Hauser said that it was obvious that more and more consumers were gathering information on the Internet, comparing prices and making their purchases there. Migros has responded to this consumer behavior by setting up the LeShop home delivery portal, which has been a great success. It is essential to have a strong advertising presence on the Internet. That is why, according to Hauser, "a large part of our publicity expenditure is spent on the Internet".

TBWA has won two mandates in the premium sector. The agency was successful in a multi-stage international pitch for the Japanese car manufacturer Infiniti and will launch the car brand across Europe from January 2009. The advertising agency also won an international project for the Swiss watch brand Maurice Lacroix in a further selection process.

Carole Pochon is taking over as Area Sales Manager in French-speaking Switzerland for the Tages-Anzeiger and Sonntagszeitung. The proven print and sales specialist has worked as area sales manager at Publimedia, Ringier Romandie, Gruner + Jahr and most recently at Migros Magazin in Lausanne.

The Basel agency Valencia Kommunikation is launching the second magazine for Coop during the Christmas season. Following the publication of the "Advent" magazine with recipes and craft tips at the end of November, the festive magazine to be published on December 16, 2008 is dedicated to Christmas menus. The focus is on expert tips on wine and champagne as well as recipes and ideas for a festive buffet. The 24-page magazine in warm, Christmassy colors is intended to inspire and whet the appetite for the festive season, the agency writes in a press release.
Both magazines were printed in German, French and Italian with a total print run of 2.7 million copies. They are enclosed with the Coop press and are available in sales outlets. In addition, the Internet further recipes and handicraft tips.

Responsible at Coop: Lydie Goltdammer-Fourkal (Head of Advertising), Hélène Schmitt (Project Management). Responsible at Valencia Communication: Michael Gerber (CD), Tommy Schilling (Senior AD), Nadine Weber (AD), Patricia Heyne (Text), Marco Fritz (Desktop), Marco Rosenberg, Manuel Schmid (Consulting), Martin Graf (Photography), Doris Moser (Food Styling), Claudia Schilling (Deco Styling).

40-year-old Sabine Galindo-Fässler was appointed the new Managing Director of Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (Bz) by the Board of Directors of Basellandschaftliche Zeitung AG on Tuesday. In this role, she will continue to be responsible for the publishing management of the Bz. As of January 1, 2009, Galindo-Fässler will succeed Urs Lüdi, who took over the management of the newspaper on a mandate basis in January 2008. The 60-year-old Lüdi will continue to be involved in various projects for AZ Medien AG.
As Managing Director, Galindo-Fässler will chair the Executive Board, which includes 50-year-old Editor-in-Chief Thomas Dähler and Peter Roth, who is responsible for finance and controlling. The qualified marketing manager Sabine Galindo-Fässler joined AZ Medien at the beginning of 2001 and took over the management of special interest magazines. From April 2004 she was Head of Reader Market and from February 2006 Publishing Director of Aargauer Zeitung, before joining Bz as Publishing Director in March 2008.

The Holtzbrinck publishing group is bundling the offerings of Zeit Online, Tagesspiegel.de and Zoomer.de into the new Zeit Digital as of February 1, 2009. The Internet platform will employ around 75 people and is to become the publisher's nationwide journalistic online quality brand, as reported by the online service Kress. A large capital city editorial office will be set up in Berlin under the management of Zeit Online, whose content will also benefit the other two platforms.
The managing director of Zeit Digital will be 37-year-old Christian Röpke, who comes from G+J. Peter Neumann, currently Managing Director of Zoomer.de, will also act as Head of Zeit Digital during the merger phase. Wolfgang Blau, previously Editor-in-Chief of Zeit Online, will become Editor-in-Chief of the three websites. Blau, Röpke and Neumann will report to Rainer Esser, Managing Director of Zeit Verlag. Mercedes Bunz, editor-in-chief of Tagesspiegel.de, and Frank Syré, editor-in-chief of Zoomer.de, will remain on board as editorial directors.

SRG has once again been targeted by the supervisory authority due to possible unauthorized advertising. The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) has opened proceedings in relation to banner advertising on the Swiss Television SF website. The online game Ski Challenge is the bone of contention, as Bakom spokesman Bernhard Bürki confirmed to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. Proceedings had already been opened in the summer for the very similar game Football Challenge. This has not yet been concluded.
Advertising banners can be seen in both games, although Swiss television is prohibited from earning money with advertising on the internet. OFCOM is now clarifying whether a license violation has actually occurred. According to Bürki, possible sanctions include switching off the advertising, confiscation of the profits or fines.
This is not the first time that the supervisory authority has taken action against Swiss television. Last spring, OFCOM found a violation of sponsorship regulations in connection with the coverage of the America's Cup sailing regatta. The proceedings are pending before the Federal Administrative Court. Other proceedings concerned possible surreptitious advertising in the "Swiss Award" program or unauthorized advertising on Swiss television's "Weather Channel".

"Kili" Felix Kilchsperger will be working for radio marketer The Cover Media Basel from January 2009. The "dinosaur of radio marketing" will be based in Zurich, from where he will serve the market in the advertising metropolis as Key Manager Radio, according to a press release issued on Tuesday. For 15 years, Felix Kilchsperger was Head of Sales at radio sales agent Radio Tele, where he also worked after the takeover by Publigroupe until the end of 2008.

The Finance & Stock Markets section in the teletext of the SRG channels will appear in a new look from December 15, 2008. The portal was restructured and expanded together with the main partner Postfinance. The aim was to no longer appeal exclusively to investment-oriented users.
In the stock market section, the focus is increasingly on the Swiss market and includes additional content such as current market reports on the sale of the Swiss stock exchange, winners and losers lists and a stock market calendar, Schweizer Teletext writes in a press release. The offer is supplemented by tips and information on the topics of saving, retirement planning and financing. The new layout and a clearer structure make it easier for interested parties to find their way around.

Matter & Gretener won the account from Hochstrasse & Pfenninger and were entrusted with the development of a corporate design including a website. The implementation is already at an advanced stage and will be visible in January, the advertisers write in a press release. The agency was able to add the tenth new client to its portfolio this year with the company, which is active in project development, real estate consulting as well as sales and leasing.

The advertising agency was commissioned by Zürcher Blumenmarkt to design and implement all B2B communication measures for the new Zürcher Blumenmarkt. These included advertisements, mailings, POS presence, Internet measures, media work and numerous BTL measures. The new flower market will open its doors in Wangen, Zurich, on December 29, 2008. Covering 52,000 square meters, it offers the largest range of cut flowers, plants, floristry accessories and gardening supplies in Switzerland.
Responsible at Zürcher Blumenmarkt: Pascal Probst, Beat Thomann and Christina Malorny. Responsible at Werbeanstalt Schweiz: Reto Dürrenberger (strategy), Sarah Hiltebrand (CD), Michael Manzardo (text/concept), Mike Surovka and Sarah Erni (AD-Assi), Diana Weikert and Tina Kempf (consulting) and Andi Laub (DTP).

The Sissacher Volksstimme will be printed in Basel in future: publisher Schaub Medien has awarded the printing contract for the newspaper, which is published three times a week, to Basler Zeitung Medien. According to Schaub Medien, the independence of the Baselbieter newspaper, which was founded 126 years ago, will not change. The editorial team remains "untouched autonomous" and is solely committed to the guidelines and principles of the publisher.
The company explains that the web offset press, which went into operation in Sissach in 1980, no longer meets the quality requirements and is very susceptible to repairs. Schaub Medien is now concentrating on commercial printing and plans to construct a new building in the coming months.
The Volksstimme, which is published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with a print run of 8,000 copies, is printed at the Basler Zeitung Medien printing center. The paper is now published as a Zweibund newspaper and in four colors throughout. Since 2006, the Volksstimme has also included the job advertisement Stellefant, published by Basler Zeitung.