The Pforzheim-based brand building agency Visualis has founded a subsidiary agency in Switzerland, Swiss Branding. This has been looking after luxury brands for the global market since August and initially employs four people, according to a press release issued on Thursday.
Swiss Branding, based in Wallbach near Basel, takes on all tasks involved in brand and license development. The brand experts focus on the communication of luxury goods such as watches, jewelry, writing instruments and small leather goods. The agency is already responsible for the brand development and management of Aigner Timepieces, Police and Swiss Military, according to the statement.
Swiss Branding is geared towards the global market. The agency will also strengthen the international expertise of its parent company Visualis, which was founded in 1994.

From December 27 to 30, the Swiss photography exhibition Photo 08 will take place for the fourth time in the Maag Event Hall. According to a press release, 120 selected photographers will present pictures from 2008 in the style of an individual review of the year. This year's exhibitors include young talents as well as established professionals. For example, works by Claudia Leisinger, Philipp Jeker, Sally Montana, Martin Guggisberg and Thomas Cucini will be on display.
There will also be a special exhibition on the subject of "Blind Visions". Blind people have captured a week of their lives in photographs for Photo 08. According to the press release, the result is a moving documentary.
For more information www.photo08.ch.

The web agency Mitlinks was once again commissioned by the M4Music festival to implement a redesign. The new site was launched at the end of November. The navigation structure, clarity and user-friendliness were the main focus of the website, according to a statement from the agency.
The agency Hinderling Volkart, which has already implemented several projects in close partnership with Mitlinks, is responsible for the technical implementation.
Speaking of M4Music: Bands and artists can submit demos for the Demotape Clinic band competition until February 1. The most exciting works will be presented on March 27 and 28, 2009 at the Schiffbau in Zurich and judged by professionals. The Suisa Foundation for Music and M4Music will present the Suisa Awards to the best demos. There is a total of CHF 10,000 up for grabs. The Demotape Clinic is taking place for the 11th time and is conceived and realized by Migros-Kulturproduzent.
Responsible at Migros-Kulturproduzent: Raphael Rogenmoser (project manager). Responsible for co-links: Patrizia Lehmann (project management), Lorenzo Mutti (CD). Responsible at Hinderling Volkart: Michael Volkart (technical implementation).

The winners of the Eurobest 2008 have been determined. Various Swiss agencies were able to accept awards. Euro RSCG received silver in the Promo category for the "Glacier Art" campaign for Greenpeace Switzerland. Also awarded silver in the same category was the agency Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett for the campaign "Singles" for Migros.
Numerous agencies were also honored with bronze:
In the TV category: Advico Young & Rubicam ("Bush" for Sonntagszeitung), Walker ("Not here, but now. Channel Hop" for Amnesty International) and Saatchi & Saatchi Simko ("Baby" for Novartis Consumer Health).
In the Outdoor category: Jung von Matt/Limmat ("Slim Poster" for Daimler Chrysler Switzerland).
In the Media category: Walker ("Ebay Attack" for Amnesty International). In the Interactive category: Advico Young & Rubicam ("Free Internet" for Sunrise Internet, two bronze medals).

The Association of Photographic Designers VFG and Ewz.selsction.ch will be awarding prizes for the best Swiss photographic work at the 11th Swiss Photo Award. An EWZ.selection prize will be awarded for the best Swiss photographic work, a VFG photo prize in the advertising category, an audience prize and a Sonntagszeitung photo prize in the editorial photography category. Prizes will also be awarded to a work in the Fine Arts category and an unpublished work in the Free category. The competition is looking for the best photographic work in Switzerland in 2008.
An international jury will evaluate the works and award the prizes. The closing date for entries is January 12, 2009.

Wintertime is ski time. Anyone who is finally back on a white summit can think of nothing better than giving their skis free rein to enjoy freedom and speed to the full. Modern carving skis are becoming easier and easier to maneuver, giving even average skiers the feeling that they are in control of their skis. But those who seem to fly through the snow as if on rails quickly reach speeds of 50 to 70 kilometers per hour - and forget the risk of accidents in the rush of speed. A collision at 50 km/h is the equivalent of a fall from a height of 9.8 meters.
From the knee joint to the Kienglenek
The number of speeding accidents on the ski slopes is increasing from year to year. According to UVG statistics, around 24,000 skiers and 9,000 snowboarders were involved in accidents in 2006. The costs for the insurance company Suva amounted to over 230 million Swiss francs. For years, the Suva brand SuvaLiv has been committed to improving skiing safety, for example with voluntary speed measurements on the slopes. Ruf Lanz has been designing the award-winning advertising campaigns that support this commitment since 2002. In the current campaign, twisted words stand for twisted limbs. They are just as unrecognizable after a crash as the fragmented words of the creatives. Anyone who reads "Oebrshcneekl" on the poster, which is designed like an X-ray, will feel the impending pain in the affected body part as soon as they read it - and will adjust their speed accordingly. That's what the insurance company and advertising agency hope.
The motifs are not only displayed on F12 posters in all Swiss ski regions, but are also stuck on the safety bars of the chairlifts. This makes them the "last words" that skiers and snowboarders read before plunging into the white fun. An appeal for short-term memory. The chairlift hangers also refer to the possibility of creating a personal risk profile with Suva.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm

Whether on the train, in the forest or in the mountains: surfing the Internet on the move with your cell phone is now part of the modern lifestyle. Natel Liberty Surf subscriptions include mobile Internet with sufficient data volume. So you can surf carefree and conveniently wherever you are.
Natel Liberty Mezzo is the right surfing subscription for anyone who surfs, emails and makes calls on their cell phone every day. Contexta has developed a comprehensive campaign to publicize this subscription.
The subjects show: Thanks to the included data allowance of 250 MB, you can surf a little more on your cell phone. "You'll find the answers to all your questions, always stay up to date and can be connected with your friends at all times," as Swisscom promises.
The message "surf more" is communicated throughout Switzerland by means of advertisements. Posters, online advertising and measures at points of sale also complement the campaign. (pan)

The takeover of the TV group ProSiebenSat.1 by the media group Axel Springer has been rightly prohibited, according to a court ruling. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court (OLG) ruled in favor of the Federal Cartel Office on Wednesday. The Cartel Office had stopped the billion-euro merger at the beginning of 2006. The competition authorities had feared that the merger between Springer and ProSiebenSat.1 would have created a dominant market position for the company. Although Springer abandoned its plans after this decision, it nevertheless filed a lawsuit in order to obtain legal certainty for possible future mergers.

As is well known, the free newspaper Cash has recently been equipped with a so-called QR code, which combines print with mobile and the Internet. QR stands for Quick Response. In the case of Cash, the code makes it possible to download the entire magazine or parts of it to a cell phone and read it there or send the articles to your own PC.
The trade magazine Anthrazit began systematically tagging its articles with QR codes a good year before Cash. And now the magazine, which has a certified circulation of 27,627 copies, is already one step ahead of the industry when it comes to mobile tagging: under the name Cross Response, it offers its customers the option of adding such codes to advertisements so that consumers can order the advertised product or request additional information in a similar way to SMS. The November issue of Anthrazit already contains three such interactive advertisements. In one case, you can order a drink to your home, in the other a pack of Pampers and in the third a fashion catalog. Anyone interested takes a photo ("tags") of the relevant code with their cell phone and a connection is established via mobile Internet to the relevant website, known as the landing page, where the consumer can enter their name and postal address. The order is then sent to an e-mail address specified by the advertiser.
Lots of service for advertising customers
It's simple for advertisers: all they have to do is provide a picture of the product to be advertised, a logo, a text and an e-mail address. "We do the rest at Anthrazit: we layout your advertisement, generate a QR code and design your landing page for the cell phone," says the Anthrazit documentation 2009. Cost: 3,500 francs (introductory price: 2,900 francs). The Anthrazit service goes even further: the QR code is always provided with an SMS address so that consumers without a camera phone can also use the advertisements. The SMS service is included in the price. "We have received initial feedback on the advertisements, but we don't have any figures yet," says Anthrazit publisher Christian Schwengeler. The only thing that is certain is that the December issue will also contain three QR code ads.
Schwengeler is also vague about the experience with tagged articles: Anthrazit has recorded a five-digit number of users in total since September 2007, and the trend is rising, he says. Half of them have requested the texts via code, the other half via SMS. Schwengeler believes that one reason for the slow start is the "still non-transparent cell phone tariffs for mobile Internet". "That is the number one inhibiting factor," he says. However, Ringier's cash would now provide new impetus.
By the way, what if Anthrazit customers wanted to place their ad with a QR code not only in the magazine, but also elsewhere? "There's nothing wrong with that. As the landing page has a term of one year, it is available," says Schwengeler. And if a customer prefers to entrust the creation of the advertisement to an advertising or media agency, he is also open to this. "If the agency is not technically capable of generating QR codes or landing pages, we will of course offer them this service," he says.
Markus Knöpfli

Medien für Erwachsene AG (MFE), which was unsuccessful in the award of a radio license for the Basel area, is appealing against the decision in favour of the two existing radios Basilisk and One. The DETEC decision "clearly violates the letter and spirit of the Radio and Television Act", complain the board members Franz Widmer (retired
bz editor-in-chief) and Christian Heeb (co-founder of Radio Basilisk) in a communiqué.
The aspect of pluralism of opinion and media diversity was given "no consideration whatsoever" because DETEC ignored the dependencies of the existing broadcasters. In other regions, however, this criterion was decisive. The rebuffed MFE project called "Radio, das mehr Basel bietet (RBB)" had demonstrated financing and basic capitalization. In the case of the competition, on the other hand, DETEC had even dispensed with this proof. MFE speaks of "arbitrariness".
RBB was announced a year ago as a new type of local radio station with a 50 percent share of spoken word and a round-the-clock editorial team with 27 full-time positions. The core task of this radio station for a "responsible audience" is the comprehensive procurement, processing and dissemination of information. Should RBB, which is financed purely by advertising and sponsorship, receive a license, the share capital would be increased from CHF 100,000 to one million, Heeb said at the time. Publigroupe Lausanne wanted to take a 25 percent stake. Hans Jürg Deutsch, former head of TV at Ringer, was also on board.

At Radioday in September, SRG marketer Publisuisse and the Swiss Radio Pool (SRP) announced that they wanted to reposition their joint company Mediasense. Specifically, the following key points were planned: Publisuisse will immediately cede its majority stake in Mediasense to the radios and "substantially" reduce its shareholding by the end of 2008; it will also relinquish the chairmanship of the board of directors. Mediasense will also withdraw from active radio marketing by the end of the year and will in future concentrate primarily on generic marketing, while Publisuisse's Publiplan online booking tool will be used as an industry instrument. The new model also provides for the SRP to be opened up to all radio stations (previously it was reserved for 15 selected stations), and Mediasense's shareholder base will now also be open to all radio stations.
But since Radioday, Mediasense has gone quiet. Although time is pressing. After all, if a new market regulation is actually to be introduced in 2009, the details should now be finalized. However, neither Publisuisse nor the SRP can provide any concrete information on the current state of affairs. "We are working on it, the matter is already being finalized," says Andreas Meili, who sits on the Mediasense Board of Directors for SRP-Radios. Because many partners are involved, the negotiations are taking a little longer. Communication will take place when everything is finalized. "We are confident that this will be before the end of the year," he says.
The industry therefore assumes that any reorganization will be delayed by six to twelve months. One thing is clear: the radios outside the SRP do not even know what a stake in Mediasense would cost them. Some claim to have heard that a radio station should invest in Mediasense with at least one share at CHF 2,500 to 5,000 each. Another broadcaster has heard that a share will cost just one franc, but that the new radio stations should help with loans to bridge Mediasense's losses to date. But that would go down badly. "I'm not going to help restructure a company in which I haven't had a stake so far," says top boss Günter Heuberger on behalf of many others.
Missed opportunity for broad information
The unclear information situation is no coincidence: a survey of 17 out of 23 non-SRP members shows that Mediasense did hold an information event on the new model, but apparently did not invite all radio stations, only informed some by telephone and never contacted third parties at all. A missed opportunity, as most stations would welcome a reorganization of the radio market. "We are open to anything that improves the current tense situation," says Sunshine Managing Director Marco Meier. "We would be very interested in a solution," says Daniel Ruch, Managing Director of Neo1 (formerly Radio Emme).
But the skepticism is huge. "The new Mediasense model will only work if the agents are happy with it," says Jérôme Marchal, Director of Média-Régie, which markets Radios Rouge, Lac and Plus. And Alfons Spirig from Radio Central is also of the opinion that nothing works without intermediaries. "We are dependent on them because they bring us the money. That's why they set the pace." Mediasense must therefore first come to terms with the intermediaries. But that won't be easy. "As long as there is a requirement that all advertising orders must be booked via a tool and a central office, the intermediaries cannot benefit from the new model at all," he says. On the contrary: every additional agency between them and the radios also wants something from the agency commission, which reduces the commission for the agents. "There is simply no added value for them," says Spirig.
Spirig's analysis is also shared by others. However, some dare to point out that only one intermediary currently has something to lose: IP Multimedia, which currently brings non-SRP radios 50 to 70 percent of national advertising sales (see column on the left) and is therefore in a very strong position. "A common booking tool for everyone would be good, but if the IP says no, it will be complicated," says Pierre Steulet, head of Radios Jura Bernois, Fréquence Jura and RTN. "Above all, the IP has to go along with it," says Karl Ehrler, co-director of Radio Fribourg.
Martin Muerner, Head of Broadcasting at Radio BeO, is therefore arguing for "a resetting to the situation in 2007", when the SRG subsidiary Publisuisse was not yet involved in the radio market. In concrete terms: Publisuisse should withdraw completely from Mediasense as of 2009 and leave the company to the radios. These should then rent Publiplan, but operate it separately from Publisuisse so that the SRG subsidiary cannot view any data. "We should seize the opportunity and once again discuss the basic ideas of marketing as an entire radio scene," says Muerner.
Markus Knöpfli

Quite a good year for radio
23 FM radio stations do not belong to the Swiss Radio Pool (SRP). Of these stations, nine stated that their advertising revenue this year was the same or better than in 2007. Three stations reported slightly lower revenue than last year, while two complained of a significantly worse year. Almost all stations generate at least half of their national advertising revenue from IP Multimedia, some even 65%. Only in two cases is the IP share below 50 percent. In the ranking of intermediaries, Radiotele Publicitas is a distant second, but only just, as its place is often contested by Cover Media, Spot Promotions or RadioEmotion. Mediasense plays a subordinate role for all non-SRP radio stations. (mk)

New sounds: Radios are to become the majority at Mediasense.

New bite: Mediasense will withdraw from active radio marketing by the end of the year.
and concentrate on generic marketing.