The Migros Aare Cooperative has commissioned a center newspaper for this year's Christmas celebrations. The Bern-based agency Z. B. Werbung. The concept: to shed light on unknown Christmas traditions.
The center newspaper presents unconventional Christmas on 24 pages. In the "Festive days" section, for example, unknown customs from the Migros Aare Cooperative's catchment area are presented. Under "Question marks", Dorothea Engel, cashier at Ladedorf Langendorf, reveals how it feels to be a gift from heaven. And a report on Midor's Mailänderli production reveals why it's best to travel to Meilen for the baked goods. Z.B. Werbung produced the Christmas magazine, developed the concept, came up with ideas and prepared the texts.
The Center newspaper will be distributed in December at the Centre Brügg, the Zentrum Oberland and the Ladedorf Langendorf.
Z.B. Werbung also took over the communication of the center's opening hours over Christmas and New Year. The resulting motif is intended to tell a little Christmas story. What happens if you forget the time because of all the Christmas shopping? The moral: it's better to remember the opening hours right away.
Responsible at Genossenschaft Migros Aare: Helene Häfele, Karl Gorsatt. Photos: Regula Roost, Liebefeld.

As announced, Radio Energy Zurich filed an appeal against the licensing decision of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) on Friday. Energy Zurich will therefore remain on air in the Zurich-Glarus licensing area until at least the end of 2009, as the station announced on Saturday. After 25 years of broadcasting, the radio station was left empty-handed in the allocation of licenses.
In its letter of appeal to the Federal Administrative Court, Radio Energy criticizes, among other things, that DETEC "arbitrarily failed to take into account the long-standing track record when assessing the applications". In addition, the broadcaster goes on to explain that the radio station, which belongs to the Ringier Group, "fulfils the information mandate just as well, if not better, than other broadcasters and makes the greatest contribution to the diversity of opinion and offerings with its program".
Petition already signed by 70,000 people
The appeal against the DETEC ruling for the Zurich-Glarus region means that the current licenses of the existing radios in this area will be automatically extended. The affected stations will therefore remain on air with their current license until three months after the Federal Administrative Court has issued its final decision. The same applies if the Federal Administrative Court refers the case back to DETEC for reassessment and DETEC has to make the final decision.
Parallel to the appeal, Radio Energy is also running a petition calling on the Federal Council and the governments of the cantons in the broadcasting area to support a fourth FM license for a private radio station in the Zurich-Glarus area. Only three licenses had been awarded for the Zurich-Glarus broadcasting area, which went to Radio 24, Radio Zürisee and Roger Schawinski's Radio 1. According to Energy, over 70,000 people have already signed the "Energy4ever" petition.

Agentur am Flughafen is developing the new customer magazine for the cleaning company Pronto Reinigung in St. Gallen. The first issue of the magazine, called "Saubermann", will be published in December.
Responsible at Pronto Reinigung AG, St. Gallen: Hans and Werner Herzog (owners). Responsible at the agency at the airport: René Eugstair (concept), Dominique Rutishauser (AD), Désirée Schmid (editor).

The Sulzer, Sutter agency has launched a campaign for the Palazzo Colombino gourmet theater on behalf of American Express. The theater is making its eighth guest appearance in Basel and Zurich this winter with a new program. This year, guests will be offered a four-course menu by top chefs Peter Moser (Basel) and André Jaeger (Zurich) and a variety act. The subject of the campaign designed by Sulzer, Sutter is a rope-dancing fork against the light of a full moon. It is intended to express art, gourmet enjoyment and a romantic evening experience merged into one image, the agency said in a press release.
As a partner of the show, American Express offers its customers the opportunity to order tickets at special conditions via a hotline.
American Express is publicizing its participation and the service with advertisements and banners, as well as with personal mailings and an appearance at the event itself. The campaign is proving successful and the order hotlines at American Express, especially in the premium customer segment, are running hot, the agency continues.

Responsible at Swisscard AECS AG: Bianca Bejjani (Premium Customer Relationship Manager), Beat Stadelmann (Production Management). Responsible at Sulzer, Sutter: Michael Kathe (Creative Direction), Florian Bachofen (Art Direction), Christoph Hess, Katja Wölfel (Text), Lars Müller, Bärni Gilgen (Consulting). Photography: Stephan End. DTP/Prepress: CAT Prepress Factory. Litho: Printcom AG

A new start-up needs to be celebrated properly: Last Wednesday, the new agency Rawcut celebrated its debut in the Zurich creative scene with an unusual Santa Claus. At the launch event in the nightclub Zur Nachtigall, a female hostess in an adventurous yet very raunchy costume took care of the guests' physical well-being. She was sent out on the runway by the well-known stylist Tina Weiss from Premium Promotion. Her Advent girls, trained in serving, parading and eye candy, have enriched a number of events and parties with their visual charms in recent weeks.
Creative Director Harun "Shark" Dogan and Managing Director Chris Wyer (formerly Büro Nord) also want to create enrichment. With their new, multidisciplinary creative studio Rawcut, the two will in future develop brand communication measures, advise on style issues, design interior furnishing and music sound concepts and - as they have done for years in various places - practice visual design. Office dog Rio provides the entertainment factor in the new agency's premises in Villa Manegg.

(Image: The employees of the Rawcut creative studio, with their four-legged friend Rio)

(Image: The premium promotion hostesses in a Christmassy mood)

Basler Zeitung, together with Serenada Verlag, has sold its stake in Jüdische Medien JM to Yves Kugelmann. The two publishers previously held equal shares in JM. The current editor-in-chief Yves Kugelmann is now taking over the JM publishing house in a management buy-out and will become publisher of the magazines Tachles and Revue Juive. The Jewish monthly magazine Aufbau will not be taken over by the new owners. It will continue to be published by Serenada-Verlag, according to Bazonline.ch
In the course of the change of ownership, Kugelmann wants to modernize Tachles and sell the paper more abroad, especially in Germany. There are also plans to invest more in the Internet. The Basler Zeitung has been committed to the well-being of the publishing house since it was founded and has supported the publication of an independent publication for the Jewish community, according to a Baz press release.
The newspaper Tachels currently has a weekly circulation of 6,000 copies. The editorial team comprises six employees and a number of freelancers. In addition, Jüdische Medien AG will continue to publish the French-language monthly Revue Juive.

At the 2008 Annual General Meeting of the Association of Swiss
The leadership of the Telesuisse regional television association was renewed on Thursday. Founding president Markus Ruoss and his successor Claude Alain Stettler were bid farewell by the board after 13 years of intensive work. Aline Nicol (Canal 9, Valais) and André Moesch (Tele Ostschweiz) were newly elected. Councillor of States Filippo Lombardi (Tele Ticino) was confirmed as President of the Association for a further two years.
At the same time, the meeting set up a working group to prepare the association's realignment for 2009 together with the Board of Directors. Part of the realignment is a possible expansion through new membership categories, professionalization of the association's structures, new financing options and amendments to the articles of association. Marc Friedli (Tamedia-Tele Bärn), Thierry Bovay (Vaud-TV) and Silvio Lebrument (Tele Südostschweiz) were elected to the group.
At the end of the meeting, the assembly thanked Martin Dumermuth and
Matthias Ramsauer, Director and Deputy Director of the Federal Office of Communications.
For years, in good cooperation with Telesuisse, they had set the course for the new radio and television law and for the new licenses of the Swiss
regional television. Dumermuth and Ramsauer were available for an in-depth discussion about the next challenges facing the industry.

The Department agency, based in Zurich and New York, has developed a new Christmas campaign for Sihlcity. Under the motto "There's an angel in every child", a large-scale angel photo shoot was carried out with Karina Berger over three weekends. From the photos of over 800 children, 200 were selected and transformed into full-size angel figurines. These have now been on display in the shopping mall since the end of November.
Sihlcity supports the Wunderlampe Foundation with 20 francs for each angel. The campaign will be accompanied by 20Minuten, Tele Züri and Radio 24, and radio spots will also draw attention to the Sunday sales. The first Sunday sale took place on November 23, 2008, followed by two more on December 7 and December 21, 2008.
Responsible at Sihlcity Center Management: Stefan Steiner (Center Management), Nadine Bachmann-Brunner and Mara Bonorand (Marketing and Communication). Responsible at /DEPARTMENT Zurich: Oliver Brunschwiler, Johnnes Eisenhut, Oliver Wagner, Reto Vogler, Samira Courti and Franziska Binz. Photography: Gian-Paul Lozza. Christmas concept and 3D production "Angels": aroma Productions AG.

The St.Gallen dialog marketing company Trendcommerce Group is entering the address database market with the national personnel database B2C Excellence. On December 1, 2008, the sales competencies for marketing addresses and direct marketing services of Datapuls were transferred to Trendcommerce. As part of this bundling of expertise, Patrick Hersche also moved to Trendcommerce. He will work there as sales manager and head of database marketing.
In future, Trendcommerce will provide its customers with geographical, socio-economic and demographic information. According to the company, self-developed analysis methods will be used to better identify target group potential.
The company is expanding its sales activities in Switzerland and has therefore recruited Patrick Hersche to strengthen its sales team. The new Head of Sales and Database Marketing will take over the day-to-day business from his predecessor Helmut Hartinger and is to expand the new target group addresses division.
Helmut Hartinger is moving from the Group to self-employment. Together with Bernhard Simet, he founded the agency Die Offensive with a focus on non-profit organizations.

Metzgerlehner Worldwide Partners has won the budget of Biolab Technology AG. The agency will now implement Biolab's core competencies as a prototype factory in a workshop mailing: Each copy is a prototype and handmade. The mailing serves as a teaser, provides workshop participants with the most important information, and leads them to a microsite that offers additional information.
Biolab, an independent company, has been located in Zurich Seefeld since May 2007. The core competencies of the company are upstream of the classical research and development activities. With internal and external specialists from a wide range of fields, ideas and projects are developed to the prototype stage and subjected to commercial evaluation.
The agency's "prototype mailing" will be retained for Biolab's next events. The idea is to become a series and thus contribute to the unconventional new appearance.

Responsible at Biolab Technology Zurich: Michael Diebold, Mathias Haussmann (Executive Management), Katrin Wunsch (Executive Assistant). Responsible at Metzgerlehner Worldwide Partners: Marco Lehner (Strategy/Text), Felix Dammann (Creative Direction), Janine Aebischer (Art Direction), Noa Zimmermann (Graphics), Thomas Hinderling and Alain Schwaar (Consulting), Giovanni Bucca (Production), Balint Dobozi (Metzgerlehner Digital).

The President and CEO of Viacom, Philippe Dauman, has announced restructuring measures involving the elimination of 850 jobs. This represents a reduction of 7 percent of the total workforce. The restructuring is to include cuts in all areas of the company, at MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures.
In a memo to employees, Dauman justifies the restructuring with the very serious challenges posed by the economic recession. However, Viacom's outstanding brands and its global operations promise a long-term basis for future growth.

More than half of Austria's top 100 companies do not focus enough on their online customers, as the recently published Web Analysis Report Austria 2008 shows. They do not know who is visiting their website and how users behave there. Millions in sales are being wasted as a result, criticizes Siegfreid Stepke, Managing Director of the management consultancy E-dialog.at, to Pressetext.
Stepke believes that the potential of a company's website could be exploited to a greater extent by analyzing online activity on its own website. Companies could gain important data for optimizing their online offering with tools for analysing visitors to their homepage. However, more than 50 percent of companies still do not measure success with suitable web analysis software. In Germany, 47 percent of DAX companies use such software.
The web analytics report also surveyed the transparency of companies that use web analytics tools. According to Stepke, this analysis does not collect user data, but only the movement of online visitors on the site. Nevertheless, surfers should be made aware of the data collection. However, 67 percent of companies that use web analysis programs do not inform users about this.