Schoch&Sonders has created four new Axe gift sets for Unilever Switzerland in the run-up to Christmas. The Zurich-based agency created and implemented the design concept and packaging design for the men's grooming brand. Despite the different content, design and form, the "Axe design language" has created a common line, writes the brand agency in a press release on Tuesday. In addition to the shower gels, deodorants, aftershaves and skincare products, each gift box contains a surprise, be it a toiletry bag, a bath towel or a Hawaiian wiggle doll.

From now until January 12, 2008, Swiss web and mobile projects can be entered into the race for the Best of Swiss Web Awards. The best Swiss web project will win the Master of Swiss Web. This year's award takes place under the theme "Women wired in web" and evaluates exclusively "female projects" in a special category.
A jury awards projects gold, silver and bronze seals in eight specialist categories. The categories range from technical and creative implementation to user-friendliness and the embedding of the online project in a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy. Works that achieve the highest rankings in the technical categories are submitted for the Master of Swiss Web. Consequently, the chances of winning increase if a project is entered in as many categories as possible.
The IT industry is still a male domain, the organizers wrote in a press release on Tuesday. That is why the ninth Best of Swiss Web Award is dedicated to women in the IT and web industry. The low proportion of women in IT is striking: only 15 percent of women are found in computer science professions, and the proportion of women studying computer science is only ten percent. Accordingly, projects from the last few years, the majority of which were created by women, will be judged by a women's jury in the special category.
The industry award is presented by the Best of Swiss Web Association. This is made up of the Swiss interactive media & software association (Simsa), the trade magazine Netzwoche and around 80 jury members. The aim of the award is to support the Swiss e-business, Internet and mobile industry, it continues.
The award ceremony will take place on April 2, 2009 at the Kongresshaus Zurich.

Once again this year, Hesskiss, the FCZ's in-house agency, has launched a Christmas campaign for the football club. It advertises the FCZ Advent calendar, which allows every fan to get in the mood for Silent Night throughout December. Another motif draws attention to the iconic blue and white FCZ Christmas baubles, which every true fan must hang on their Christmas tree. Both gift ideas are now being advertised with F12 and F200 posters and are also available in the fan store on Löwenstrasse, along with many others.

Responsible at FCZ: Christian Müller (Marketing Manager). Responsible at Hesskiss: Roland Hess (creative direction), Meo Giger (graphics) and Dieter Boller (text). Nathalie Zeller (consulting).

The Goldbach Index shows a negative result in October for the advertising pressure recorded by Media Focus for all media. However, as in previous months, the Internet was able to make further gains. The "all media" item fell by two index points to 193, while electronic media lost a total of 4 index points to 432. TV recorded a loss of 7 index points to 454.
As expected, the Internet was a bright spot in October with substantial growth of 13 index points to 333. Teletext also joined the upward trend with 3 index points to 149. Another point collector is the radio medium with an increase of 3 index points to 247.
The index initiated by Goldbach Media for advertising pressure in the overall market and electronic media is based 100% on the Media Focus data collected and published monthly. It should be noted that the monthly seasonality is filtered out of the time series in a two-stage process. The 13 previous months are shown in the short-term analysis.

At the annual media breakfast of BSW leading swiss agencies at the Park Hyatt in Zurich, a whole range of topics were discussed; the BSW ranking 2008, the first BSW ranking for media agencies, then a review of 2007 - an extremely successful year for BSW agencies - and of course the economic crisis. Peter Felser (SFLB), Urs Schneider (Mediaschneider) and Frank Bodin (EuroRSCG) were present. The discussion was moderated by Walter Merz, Managing Director of BSW.
BSW does not believe that agencies will be hit just as hard by the recession as the media. It is a widespread misinterpretation that the current drastic cuts in advertising expenditure, which are primarily affecting the media, will have the same impact on advertising agencies. Due to the smaller advertising budgets, it is even more crucial to use them efficiently. And the BSW agencies, seven of which are among the top 10 in the Swiss Krea ranking, are ideal for this.
Crisis as an opportunity
Although the looming recession and the associated budget cuts will put agencies under even greater pressure, no general statements can be made overall, as the various sectors are behaving differently. It is true that banks in particular have drastically reduced their advertising expenditure. However, other sectors see the gap as an opportunity and are investing disproportionately in their marketing communication. For agencies, this means that they must be able to react even more quickly and flexibly.
The crisis is also often used as an opportunity to increase the cost pressure on agencies. However, this has been the case for years and is almost exhausted. The discussions between the advertising client association SWA and bsw leading swiss agencies with regard to the contractual framework are also part of this context.
2008 ranking of advertising and specialty agencies
After publishing a turnover ranking of Switzerland's leading advertising and specialty agencies for the first time in five years in 2007, most of the member agencies decided to participate again in 2008. The 55 advertising and specialty agencies in the BSW realized a total of 331.3 million Swiss francs in gross operating income (GOP) in 2007, which corresponds to an increase of 7.5 percent compared to 2006. In 2007, they were responsible for advertising money amounting to around two billion francs for their clients. Only around seven percent of all advertising agencies in Switzerland are in the BSW, but they are responsible for around two thirds of all advertising money used via agencies.
" 2008 ranking of advertising and specialty agencies (list)

First ranking of media agencies
For the first time in 2008, media agencies also published their own ranking in the BSW, which is also intended to provide transparency and guidance. Media agencies have a slightly different business model to advertising agencies (media planning and media buying in addition to consulting services/strategy) and are therefore not directly comparable with them.
The ten media agencies in the BSW generated gross operating income of CHF 42.3 million in 2007. They handled media assets worth around CHF 1.2 billion for their clients, making them an important link in the communications industry's value chain.
The 2008 ranking
The media agencies in the BSW published their own ranking for the first time in 2008. Due to the US Sarbanes Oxley Act, the majority of media agencies are unable to publish earnings figures. The ranking was compiled by a neutral trustee on the basis of actual gross operating income (GOP) and is published without figures - but with details of employees. The agency Mediaxis-MPG AG refrains from participating in the 2008 ranking. The media agencies in the bsw generate a total operating income of CHF 42.5 million and are responsible for approx. 1.2 billion media assets for their clients.
Ranking list (full-time equivalents in brackets)
1 Optimedia AG (incl. B,G, Media, Zenithmedia) (85)
2 OMD Schweiz AG (47)
3 Mediaedge:cia Switzerland AG (38)
4 MediaCom AG (30)
5 MindShare AG (20)
6 Initiative Media Western AG (18)
7 mediaschneider AG (17)
8 The whole Media AG (4)
9 JBW Julien B Witt Media (2)

A successful 2007 - probably an equally successful 2008
The member agencies of BSW leading swiss agencies performed very successfully in 2007. The gross operating income of Switzerland's top 60 agencies rose by 7.25 percent to CHF 363 million despite increasing cost pressure from clients. 2008 - at least as far as the first half of the year is concerned - is likely to be even better for the agencies than 2007.

TBWA staged a cross-media viral campaign for McDonalds Switzerland. The advertising campaign caused confusion with the title "The M is near". Wild posters with a doomsday look and sandwich men à la apocalypse preachers, sandwiched between two posters with the slogan, were used. Even the 20 Minuten Online homepage was completely blacked out. The measures attracted curious visitors to the equally enigmatic website Themisnear.ch, where the imminent birth of the "M" was conjured up in seven different commercials.
To increase the viral multiplier effect, users were able to add their portrait to a gallery and join the "M" community. A few hours after the website went live, the first Facebook group was set up and even Blick am Abend reported on the "M" bloggers, the agency wrote in a press release on Tuesday. On November 27, the dissolution took place in a further advertisement. Themisnear.ch also revealed that the "M" is the fast food giant's latest burger.

Responsible at Mc Donalds Switzerland: Thomas Truttmann (Marketing & Communication Director), Sébastien Dubey (Senior Marketing Consultant), Jan de Schepper (Marketing Manager Food). Responsible at TBWA: Urs Schrepfer (Creative Director), Martin Friedlin, Adrian Egger (Art Directors), Tobias Bühlmann (Copywriter), Daniel Rickert (Strategic Planning Director), Tina Kazimir (Account Director). Other partners: Tequila, GAP Films, Propaganda AG, Skidoo, Tobias Bühlmann (director), Arvild Baud, OMD (Andreas Bartneck, Leo Vogl) (music).

The Aargau media company AZ Medien is parting ways with Urs Helbling, deputy editor-in-chief and page-maker of the Aargauer Zeitung. The termination was by mutual agreement, Eva Keller, head of corporate communications, said according to SDA. The reason given for the separation is the change in the editor-in-chief.
The 47-year-old Urs Helbling worked for the Aargauer Zeitung for almost four years. His journalistic career began in 1985 at the Aargauer Tagblatt. After that, he was head of news at Blick, head of the Aargau department at Aargauer Zeitung, and head of economics and pagemaker at Berner Zeitung.
Helbling's successor has not yet been chosen. Christian Dorer, the designated editor-in-chief, has put forward proposals for his own paper. However, no names have been announced yet.
Helbling was not the only one to receive the pink slip. AZ Medien announced a week ago that by the spring of Cut 30 jobseight of them in the editorial department. According to Keller, those affected have already been informed in advance in personal discussions. The cutbacks will affect the entire company and will be made through early retirement and staff reductions. In addition, positions that become vacant will not be filled for the time being. The cost-cutting measures were justified by declining advertising revenues.

Seven applications from private broadcasters and one application from SRG have been received for the second digital platform, which is intended for French-speaking Switzerland. They want a license to broadcast radio stations using the DAB+ standard.
ROM Radio (with the participation of Rouge FM), FriRadio (with the participation of Radio Fribourg), Radio Jazz International (Philippe Zumbrunn), Radio Roc (with the participation of Radio Chablais), Maxxima (with the participation of Web-Radio Maxxima and Rouge FM), Radio Verticale (with the participation of Radio Rhône) and Soprodi Sàrl (with the participation of Pierre Steulet, in collaboration with Romandie FM SA) are applying for a license.
As announced by OFCOM, the hearing was opened on Tuesday. According to SDA, interested parties have until December 23 to submit their comments. The Uvek will make its decision after examining the applications in spring 2009. The Federal Council is the licensing authority for SRG's application. This application will also be published on the Internet and, like the private applications, will be subject to a hearing.

The Migros Singles campaign by Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett won an award in the Retail category at The Cup international advertising festival. The Zurich agency's advertising campaign, which presents real singles in underwear, is thus the only work from Switzerland to win in this category.

Walker Werbeagentur has made it to the Eurobest shortlist five times with four works. The annual report of Fleurop Interflora is nominated in the design category. Also in the finals are the three works the agency realized for Amnesty International. "Ebay Attack" was nominated in the categories Media as well as Interactive, "Channel Hop" in the category Media. The continuation campaign "Not here but now" made it onto the shortlist in the Use of Mixed Media category.
Of course, Euro RSCG Zurich is also prominently represented at the Eurobest Awards with five shortlist placements. The campaign for Greenpeace "Glacier Art", which has already won many awards, has the best chances of being nominated in three categories. Also listed are the "Strong Hair" ad for En Vogue and the "Pin Art" poster for the Glarus mattress manufacturer Riposa.
In addition to Walker's subjects, it is the Work of various Swiss agencies made it onto the shortlist. The winners will be announced on December 3.

The Swiss exit platform Tilllate.com has launched a new online advertising format, the "Floor-Ad". It has been on display on Tilllate.com for a week. The ad's distinguishing feature is that it stays firmly in place at the bottom of the screen, even when the user scrolls down. Although it remains fixed in place, it is positioned so that it does not interfere with normal browsing, Tilllate wrote on Tuesday. The "floor ad" is suitable for advertising products from various industries. The click rate is on the highest level for online advertising banners, Tillate writes further.
Campaign information
Campaign: Sony Cybershot T700 campaign with James Bond
Customer: Sony
Agency: coUNDco
Website: tilllate.com
Technical information
Format: 842×100 Pixel
File: Flash
Price: CHF 100.-TKP, max. 1 customer

Literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki remains true to his line - criticizing - but breaks with decades of tradition - his collaboration with Frankfurt's Suhrkamp Verlag. He feels "badly treated" by the publisher because he asked the publisher, Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz, to release his book "Mein Schiller". However, the publisher had invoked the contract and refused. Having to deal with her was "torture", Reich-Ranicki announced on Weltonline. His new series on great authors will therefore be published by Hoffmann und Campe Hamburg.
The Suhrkamp publishing house has therefore made a mess of things with the literary pope, although he, tireless as he is, still has a few works in the pipeline: "My Heine", "My Lessing", "My Kleist", "My Books", "My Kafka"... So we can only hope that Reich-Ranicki will be able to concentrate fully on high-quality literature in future and no longer have to be annoyed black and blue by any "nonsense". His relentless mission to provide the world with "sensible, intelligent books and newspapers" is taking its toll and certainly not stopping at Suhrkamp Verlag.