The Swiss advertising business is maintaining its downward trend. As a result, the share price of Swiss advertising marketers and media companies is also falling. Advertising revenues have been falling dramatically since the summer. In October, the volume of advertising fell by 15 percent compared to the previous month.
The reason for the declining income in the advertising business is not only the poor economic forecasts, but also the steady migration of advertising volume to the Internet, writes Cash on Friday. Publigroupe, for example, has lost almost 80 percent of its value since the beginning of the year. Internet revenues are also declining, albeit not as much as in print. The online advertising marketer Goldbach Media has also lost over 60 percent of its value. Advertising posters are more crisis-resistant in this respect, as they are comparatively cheaper, as Helvea analyst Chris Burger told Cash.
The advertising market should slowly recover by mid-2009 at the earliest. However, even then only on the condition that the overall economic situation improves by then, Burger continued.

In less than two weeks, over 50,000 people have signed the "Energy4ever" petition. With the collection of signatures, Energy Zurich is defending itself against not being considered for the award of the license and is calling on the Federal Council to set up a fourth FM frequency for the Zurich-Glarus region. The response is huge. On the "Energy4ever" campaign day last Saturday alone, over 20,000 signatures were collected, according to Managing Director Dani Büchi.
The day of action took place on Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse and at five other locations in the broadcasting area. Celebrities from the world of music and show business supported the collection of signatures. These included Baschi, Erich Vock, Stress and Sarah Meier.
Further signatures will be collected at Zurich's Hallenstadion on Friday, Büchi continued. The "Energy Stars for free" will be held there for the sixth time. This event will also be broadcast live on Pro Sieben for the first time this year.

Tommy Hilfiger has created a new advertising campaign for its spring 2009 denim collection. The image for the new campaign was taken by photographer Todd Cole in East River Park between Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridges. It shows the American indie rock band "The Virgins" and model Heidi Verster, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.
The campaign was designed by Hilfiger's internal creative team. It gets to the heart of the youthful American spirit, which remains playful and cool, writes the agency Weibel Communication in a press release. It also reinforces the brand's connection to the world of music and New York.

The jury of the BZ Prize for Local Journalism has awarded prizes to two winners. Jörg Meier of the Aargauer Zeitung and Christian Liechti of the Berner Zeitung were honored for German-speaking Switzerland. The jury for French-speaking Switzerland awarded first prize to Annick Monod from La Liberté. Second place went to Serge Noyer from Le Régional.
Jörg Meier, head of regions at the Aargauer Zeitung, received the award on Thursday in Bern for his series of articles entitled "Real life" about people from the local area. According to the press release, the jury praised the articles as carefully selected, brilliantly written and attractive to read. Christian Liechti reported with courage and backbone on animal cruelty in the cowshed, the jury said, explaining its choice of the other first-place winner. His up-close and personal series was convincing thanks to its carefully crafted local reference and appealing layout.
The German and French-speaking jury of the BZ Prize for Local Journalism selected from 146 works by a total of 77 journalists.
Espace Media Prize for Press Photography
A picture by freelance photographer Charles Ellena was named Swiss Press Photo of the Year 2008. It shows the couple Christoph and Silvia Blocher, closely guarded by bodyguards, at the SVP election rally in Bern in October 2007, which later turned into riots.
Other photo prizes went to Magali Girardin from Geneva with the theme of male prostitution, Ruth Erdt with the theme of her two children growing up and Olivier Vogelsang with pictures of disappointed football fans after Switzerland's elimination from the EURO 2008. Vogelsang won another prize with pictures of female dancers from all over the world auditioning in Geneva. Jean Revillard, founder of the online agency Rezo.ch, won a prize in the foreign category with pictures of temporary accommodation for illegal immigrants in the forests around Calais (F).
The international jury evaluated a total of 1791 photos from 135 photographers. The best images will be published in an illustrated book and will be the subject of a traveling exhibition.
The honored pictures and reports have been available since November 27 on the Internet pages www.bzjournalistenpreis.ch and www.swisspressphoto.chviewable.

On November 22, the federally certified sales managers of the 2008 examination year received their diplomas. Of the 264 candidates who took the examination organized by the sponsoring associations Swiss Marketing, KV Schweiz and Verkauf Schweiz, 180 were successful. At the ceremony at the Hotel Victoria-Jungfrau in Interlaken, Jean-Paul Zürcher, President of the Examination Board, congratulated the sales specialists.

The Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett agency has launched a new campaign for Micasa. The campaign kicks off with a series of posters that can now be seen throughout Switzerland. The subjects show Micasa furniture that looks used. Under the slogan "Made for life", the posters are intended to express the fact that the furnishings are made for everyday use and not just for looking at.
Responsible at Micasa: Matthias Wunderlin (Head of Specialty Stores Micasa), Giovanna Colucci (Market Development Specialty Stores). Responsible at Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett: Patrick Suter, Martin Spillmann (CD), Pablo Schencke, Natasha La Marca (AD), Patrick Suter, Christian Schäfer (text), Andy Stäheli, Martina Fäh (consulting), Suzana Kovacevic (art buying). Photo: Felix Streuli. Image editing: Felix Schregenberger.

Marcel Ospel is currently considering a lawsuit against the two publishers NZZ and WOZ. The left-wing weekly newspaper had published a fake apology by ex-UBS banker Ospel on its front page. This then appeared in an advertisement in the NZZ.
According to advertising law expert Franz A. Zölch, the forgery is legally inadmissible, even though WOZ describes the whole thing as satire. Zölch considers a lawsuit to be promising. Ospel must now consider suing the two publishers jointly, his media spokesman Jörg Denzler told the Tages-Anzeiger.
The fictitious apology has triggered a wave of opinions at Tagesanzeiger.ch. By 5 p.m. on Friday evening, 74 bloggers had already spoken out. The comments range from an accusation of arrogance at Ospel's expense to a call for Mr. Ospel to be granted the right to privacy as well.

Nike is promoting soccer star Franck Ribéry's new footwear with an original new online commercial. In the short animated film, the Bayern Munich player escapes his trainer time and time again. The special feature: Ribéry wears studded shoes in bright pink. In keeping with this, the entire commercial is designed like a remake of the Pink Panther films.
According to Hunziker & Hunziker, the Swiss marketing management agency responsible for Nike, the design of the shoes from the Mercurial Vapor line has served only one purpose since the product was launched ten years ago: to support the fastest players in the world in their game. Now the small, fast Frenchman has received his own special shoe. He wore the pink Mercurial Vapor IV for the first time on the last match day against Cottbus.

Click here for the spot - please wait until downloaded!

The online supermarket LeShop.ch continued to grow strongly in its tenth year. In 2008, the Migros subsidiary sold more than CHF 100 million worth of food online. By expanding its delivery areas in Ticino and Graubünden, LeShop reaches over 90 percent of Swiss households in all four language regions. The online provider plans to further expand its market position in 2009.
Around 46,000 Swiss households currently regularly order their weekly groceries for home delivery, covering an ever-increasing proportion of their consumption via online shopping. The average shopping basket grew by over 7 percent in the current year. An average of 150 tons of groceries leave the logistics centers every day.

Recognition for Euro RSCG: At this year's AME Awards ceremony in New York, the Zurich agency took home the coveted AME Grand Trophy for its work for Greenpeace Switzerland. In August 2007, 600 volunteers posed naked on the Aletsch Glacier for the award-winning advertising campaign to draw attention to the problem of global climate change and the threat it poses to humanity. The event, photographically staged by the US installation artist Spencer Tunick, generated enormous press coverage worldwide.
Euro RSCG Zurich received another award for its work for the Federal Office of Public Health. The success of the campaign "Hier schützt man sich ja auch" (Love Life Stop Aids) was honored by the international jury with a silver award.
Every year, the AME Awards (Awards for Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness) recognize campaigns that have attracted exceptional attention beyond national borders and have been particularly effective in meeting clients' marketing and advertising objectives.

Movie about the glacier action - please wait until downloaded
Stop Aids campaign - please wait until downloaded

Clear-cutting at Austrian television: ORF wants to cut 1000 of its 3500 jobs by 2012. Director General Alexander Wrabetz opened the media conference on Thursday with the words: "2009 will be terrible, 2010 will be terrible". Without measures, the broadcaster would face insolvency by 2012, he continued, announcing drastic measures.
From mid-2010, no one at ORF will work above the retirement age. The existing workforce is threatened with a zero wage round. There are also plans to abolish the overtime bonus from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. as well as weekend and night shift bonuses and anniversary bonuses. There are also to be cuts in the so-called old service contracts, where salaries are significantly higher than the market average. The number of managers is to be reduced from around 100 at present to 75.
The radio symphony orchestra, equipment, facility management, IT and rights management will be spun off from the company. In addition, the shares in the broadcasting technology subsidiary ORS, in which ORF currently holds 60 percent, are to be reduced.
"Every Pimperlbank gets a billion from the state. Why not us?" said Wrabetz at the end. The ORF feels let down by the new government. The package of measures must be approved by the Board of Trustees.

A change in program management is planned at Basel local radio station Basilisk. The current program director Raphael Suter is stepping down from his position. He will take on a new role in the editorial office of Basler Zeitung.
As of December 1, the management team will consist of the current Head of Presentation Jean-Luc Wicki, Head of Editorial Benedikt Erni and Sandra Wagner. Jean-Luc Wicki will take over as program director at Basilisk. Benedikt Erni has been appointed editor-in-chief and Sandra Wagner represents the ownership. This arrangement ensures continuity in the management of the radio station, writes Basilisk. In addition, the change will continue to ensure the program quality of the local radio station in the Basel region.