Rod Kommunikation has won a new client in Bell. The Zurich agency was able to beat three other agencies in a competitive presentation. It will develop and implement a campaign for the 2009 barbecue season for the meat manufacturer.

The commuter newspaper .ch is hiring two new people. From the beginning of 2009, a new art director and a new editor will join the editorial team.
Art Director Armin Wäger previously worked for 24 years at Blick/Sonntagsblick as Head of Layout and Art Director of the sports desk. He will also become a member of the editorial team at .ch.
Thomas Senn will join the team as editor. He was most recently a rewriter and producer at Blick and head of the domestic department at Facts.

Danielle Lerch Süess and Karin Jost founded the proofreading and editing company Jeannies Editing Services in Zurich. In addition to proofreading and editing, the network also offers translation comparisons, rewriting and text management. A total of five languages are covered by native-speaking text specialists: German, French, Italian, Rumantsch and English.

How do you attract city dwellers to the mountains? Countless tourism experts throughout the Alpine region are asking themselves this question. The Grisons ski resort of Arosa has come up with something special to encourage city dwellers to spend longer in the snow-covered mountains, even if they don't care much about frozen water or simply don't want to miss out on the cultural offerings of the big cities: Since 2001, PR and culture specialists Claudia Orlando and Daniela Mitidieri have been organizing exciting concert and party evenings at the Hotel Eden club on a weekly basis during the winter season. The focus is on urban music.
In recent years, rap luminaries such as Sido, Samy Deluxe and the Munich group Blumentopf have performed in the special atmosphere of the Kitchen Club - on a mini stage made from the old stove of the Eden kitchen.
This year's program is not from bad parents either: After being kicked off by Zurich reggae singer Phenomden, Berlin non-conformists K.I.Z., hip-hop bard Max Herre from Freundeskreis and the man with the cellar voice named D-Flame, who is always inspired by Caribbean music, a number of top-class acts will visit Switzerland's highest hip-hop event at 1,800 meters above sea level. Many of them took the opportunity to spend the following day on the hills. A beautiful custom.

(Image: He was in Arosa last winter: German hip-hop star Samy Deluxe on the Eden stove)

Migros will handle its media management via the advertising agency OMD Switzerland from February 1, 2009. According to the orange giant, the partnership will save considerable costs. This step is not yet comprehensible for its previous contractual partner BG Media.
"The decisive factor for the decision in favor of OMD was the range of services, including successfully tested management and control instruments for media management," Migros wrote in a press release on Tuesday. Migros had obtained offers from numerous media agencies.
"With OMD, we will have considerably lower costs for marketing and communication," said Migros spokeswoman Monica Glisenti. In 2007, the corresponding costs amounted to 350 million francs. As already announced, Migros intends to make savings in advertising and media planning.
BG Media, one of the three existing media agencies alongside Konnex and Mediaedge, has reacted with consternation. "We are very surprised by Migros' decision," Managing Partner Dietmar Bemberg told Werbewoche. The cooperative association has not yet informed its long-standing contractual partner BG Media in detail about the reasons for the change of media agency. "This exchange will take place this week during a personal meeting. I will then inform our Migros team," continued Bemberg. His company currently has a team of twelve people working with Migros. One thing is certain: the loss of income resulting from the loss of this customer cannot be fully compensated for with other customers. The cluster risk is of course always present with a client like Migros - still the company with the largest advertising budget in Switzerland.
"The Riedener and Mühlemann era at Migros has come to an end. It was to be expected that something would change afterwards." However, hardly anyone had expected this drastic step. Bemberg regrets the reduction to one media agency, as he has always found the competition between different agencies to be very healthy and invigorating.

Adcom has launched a national launch campaign for Ticketcorner's new ski ticketing system, using print subjects, online banners and postcards, among other things. One poster shows a computer mouse elegantly making its first tracks on a pristine deep-snow slope. In addition, promotions will be carried out under the motto "The hottest winter season starts now", the agency writes in a press release. The promotional teams will distribute ice cream in ski suits at various railroad stations and circulate postcards about the new online service.
From this winter, tickets for 50 winter sports resorts in Switzerland and a selection in Austria can be booked directly online via the Ticketcorner Active ski ticketing system. According to a press release from Ticketcorner, online booking is the same price as a ticket at the cable car ticket office.
The ski tickets can be purchased via Ticketcorner.com can be booked via the Ticketcorner call center and at around 1400 Ticketcorner advance booking offices. The new Supercard Ticket from Coop, the Postfinance Card with ticket function, the Ticketcorner V.I.P. Card and, from the 09/10 winter season, the TCS customer cards for tourism & leisure and the Cooldown youth membership all have the necessary RFID functionality.
According to George Egloff, CEO of Ticketcorner, the offer will be linked to a total of around one million compatible cards together with Coop, Postfinance, Viseca and TCS.
Ticketcorner offers the mountain railroads what was previously lacking for the marketing of snow sports offers - a dense sales network, various sales channels and professional marketing power, Leo Jeker, member of the Board of Directors of Savognin Bergbahnen, is quoted in the Ticketcorner press release.

The following Swiss ski resorts will be participating from the 2008/2009 winter season:
4Vallées with Verbier, La Tzoumaz/Savoleyres, Nendaz, Veysonnaz, Thyon, Adelboden-Chuenisbärgli, Adelboden-Engstligenalp and Adelboden-Lenk; Aletsch Sportarena with Riederalp, Bettmeralp, Fiesch-Eggishorn, Anzère, Arosa, Belalp, Bellwald/Goms, Braunwald, Brigels-Waltensburg-Andiast, Bürchen, Château-d'Oex, Churwalden-Pradaschier, Crans-Montana-Aminona, Elm, Frutigen (Elsigen-Metsch), Grächen; Gstaad Mountain Rides with Gstaad-St.Stephan, Gstaad-Zweisimmen, Gstaad-Saanenmöser, Gstaad-Schönried, Gstaad-Saanen-Rougemont, and Gstaad-Glacier 3000; Jaunpass/Boltigen, Laax, Lenk-Betelberg, Lenzerheide, Les Mosses/La Lécherette, Leukerbad-Albinen (Torrent), Leysin, Meiringen-Hasliberg, Melchsee-Frutt, Pizol; Saas Valley with Saas-Fee, Saas-Grund (HohSaas), Saas-Almagell and Saas-Balen; San Bernardino, Savognin, Scuol/Engadin, Sörenberg; Toggenburg/Obertoggenburg with Alt St. Johann, Unterwasser, Wildhaus; and Wiriehorn/Diemtigtal. In Austria, 12 ski resorts will be gradually integrated into the system over the course of the winter.
integrated.

Responsible at Adcom Communication: Eric Hasler (CD), Dominik Peikert (AD), Roman Elsener (Graphic Designer), Gabriela Dierauer (Consulting), Daniel Hörschläger (Multimedia).

The promotion team in ski suits.

Cool ice creams for the "hottest winter season".

Jan Vontobel will become Editor-in-Chief of Radio Top in mid-March 2009. Vontobel was most recently head of special programs and talk presenter at the private broadcaster in Eastern Switzerland. The 30-year-old began his journalistic career ten years ago as a video journalist at Tele Top. After completing his degree in journalism at the University of Zurich, he was appointed a member of the management team and from then on was responsible for the talk shows and the successful development of live reporting on election and voting Sundays, among other things. With Vontobel's appointment, the broadcaster wants to emphasize that management positions are recruited from within its own ranks wherever possible, according to a press release issued on Tuesday.
Vontobel replaces Gianni Huber, who will take over the newly created position of quality assurance at Radio Top and Tele Top. Huber worked in the station's day-to-day editorial business for over eleven years, four of them as editor-in-chief. With the creation of this position, the two private broadcasters have fulfilled an important aspect of the concession requirements for both stations of the Top Media Group, the press release continues. Gianni Huber will submit an evaluation report to Bakom as soon as possible.

(Image: Jan Vontobel and Gianni Huber).

Startbahnwest has secured the advertising budget for Penguin Clothing. The Swiss snowboard and streetwear clothing company has existed since 2001.
The first works will be on display at Ispo Winter from February 1 to 4, 2009 in Munich. Startbahnwest will be designing the Penguin Clothing stand at the international trade fair for sporting goods and sports fashion.

Bluespirit has won the Canon pitch. The aim of the measures, which will soon be implemented, is to position the technology company as a well-known brand with a high recognition value. The agency scored particularly well with the planned POS advertising activities to increase sales of Canon camcorders, according to a press release issued on Tuesday.
The agency's concept is to highlight the video camera's test winner awards in the form of various "gold medals". During the Christmas period, these medals will be displayed in 24 stores throughout Switzerland as rotairs, floor stickers and chocolate medals.

Responsible at Canon: Richard Breyer (Marketing Director), Michael Brumann (Trade Marketing Manager), Christof Oehrli (Product Business Development Manager). Responsible at Bluespirit: Alban Haas (consulting), Susanne Kick (coordination), Peter Trüb (text / concept), Danny Bron (graphics / DTP).

There will definitely be redundancies at the Neuchâtel newspapers L'Express and L'Impartial. Eight members of the editorial team will receive the pink slip, instead of ten as initially planned. The publisher of the two newspapers, Société Neuchâteloise de Presse (SNP), announced the redundancies on Friday. 2.3 jobs can be cut through voluntary reductions in working hours. The editorial staff had made this alternative to the redundancies possible.
The SNP had already dismissed four members of the editorial team two weeks ago. Another four were dismissed on Friday. All those affected have been informed, the SNP wrote. A social plan is planned for those affected, SNP director Jacques Matthey told the news agency SDA. At the beginning of November, the SNP announced a total of 15 job cuts at the two newspapers, ten of which were journalists or photographers, due to a slump in advertising revenue. In mid-November, the editors of L'Express and L'Impartial went on strike for two days in protest.
In negotiations, the publishing house and staff then agreed on four redundancies for the time being. In addition, a permit for short-time work for six editors was to be obtained from the canton, but this was rejected by the Office of Labor. The SNP editors then proposed voluntary reductions in their workloads. The restructuring will lead to a new definition of the editorial remit of the two newspapers. The SNP, which is controlled by the French Hersant Group, announced that working groups would be formed from next week to consider the development of the two papers.

The well-informed American now not only checks the weather forecast on the Internet before going to work, but also has himself checked on Google.org also spit out the flu epidemic forecast.
Google's new analysis tool is based on search queries on the subject of influenza. The hypothesis sounds logical, but seems a little risky for accurate prediction: if flu cases increase in a region, search queries on the subject of flu also increase - the faster the increase, the higher the probability of an epidemic. However, the creators do not seem to doubt the accuracy of the hypothesis, because according to them, the flu epidemic warnings for the USA are more reliable than those from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Particularly practical: the cold trends can be viewed separately for the individual countries, and a graph illustrates the flu trend over the year. The flu barometer below also lights up in colors ranging from green for the all-clear to the signal color blood red. But what should you do when the risk potential is high and your nerves are on edge? Dr. Internet has the solution here too: worried home page users can access further tips and information on influenza via a link to the CDC. However, one question remains: Can I use Google to get a prophylactic sick note if there is a high risk of infection?

The Springer Group is also preparing for an uncertain future. Saving is the order of the day. However, the German publishing house, which publishes the Beobachter, the Handelszeitung, the business magazine Bilanz and the television magazines Tele and TV Star in Switzerland, does not intend to cut staff for the time being.
Despite the significant economic downturn, Axel Springer has so far managed to defy the crisis and refrain from making severe cuts to its staff or its titles and online offerings, the German media group wrote in a press release on Monday.
Every effort will continue to be made to ensure that this remains the case. In view of falling advertising revenues and the uncertainty of the forecast for the coming year, the Group Management Board has therefore decided to take a break from events in 2009.
This affects all celebrations, receptions and galas throughout the Group. The fundraising campaign. The prizes and awards will also be presented in 2009 - but without accompanying events.
"We don't want to make savings where it would affect the quality of our journalism and the motivation of our employees. We have not made any redundancies or discontinued any newspapers or magazines to date. We hope that we can also avoid this in the future. And we want to continue to invest in the basis of our business, in excellent content," Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner is quoted as saying in the press release.
Axel Springer Switzerland will therefore award the "Prix Courage" presented by the Beobachter next year without the usual gala. The Handelszeitung's "Advertising Trends" study will also be published without an accompanying reception.
As part of a repositioning and possible cooperation with other partners, it was decided in advance to postpone the awarding of the new Swiss Television Prize by Tele and TV Star until the first half of 2010, Springer continues.