Scholz & Friends has launched a new image campaign for Blick am Abend in German-speaking Switzerland. The campaign is intended to position Blick am Abend as an up-to-date, entertaining companion for the evening, with the slogan "Here's what's going on".
Various motifs are intended to show why it is worth reading the Abendzeitung. A couple at dinner is commented on in the text with the words "The fresher fish is in the restaurant next door" and the situation is resolved with the claim "Here's what's on".
The Scholz und Friends campaign can be seen on various media channels over the next six weeks. The campaign kicks off with advertising motifs and streetcar hanging boxes. The message will also be communicated directly to the target group, which consists mainly of commuters aged between 14 and 32, through BTL measures.
Responsible at Blick Group/Ringier: Thomas Passen (Head of Blick Group), Corina E. Schneider (Head of Reader Market), Marie-Eve Aegerter (Head of Advertising). Responsible at Scholz & Friends Zurich: Joerg Jahn (overall responsibility for creation), Markus Hammer (AD), Björn Blöchlinger (graphics), Andreas Troxler, Conrad Malcher (text), Erich Baumgartner, Raphael Brinkert (overall responsibility for consulting), Pascal Baumgartner, Mathias Rösch. Photographer: Hans Starck.

The winners of the Edi Awards were announced in Zurich on Thursday evening. However, the joy of winning a gold trophy was dampened at the Zurich agency Ruf Lanz. In a press release on Friday, agency head Markus Ruf complained about the organizers' communication policy. Here is the award-winning advertiser's communiqué:
Ruf Lanz won the Gold Edi in the highly competitive Commercials category for the Hiltl cinema spot "Sound Designer" last night. However, they found out about it from Werbewoche.ch and Persoenlich.com, not from the organizer. This is why neither the concept developer of the commercial, Markus Ruf, nor the director, Serge Hoeltschi, nor the producer Daniela Berther from Onfilm Switzerland were present at the event. Client Rolf Hitl, owner of the Zurich restaurant of the same name, was also not at the Schiffbau.
Markus Ruf comments: "This could be avoided if the organizers would discreetly inform the winners in advance. Just like all the prestigious awards do, right up to Cannes. Otherwise, in view of the Hiltl spot, I would be inclined to speak of a cucumber organization with tomatoes on its eyes." Ruf emphasizes that his criticism is directed solely at the organization, not the jury. "Three years ago, when I was an Edi juror myself, I found them to be very professional."
Incidentally, this is the third Gold Edi that Ruf Lanz has won with Serge Hoeltschi as director. In previous years, the TV commercials "Stevie Wonder" and "Andrea Bocelli" for the Mühlehalde home for the blind won the highest award at the Edi.

The advertising agency In Flagranti from Lys won the communication contract for the energy brand 1to1 Energy in a competitive presentation. The agency is now renewing the brand's positioning, image and claim. The new slogans of 1to1 Energy are based on the association's intention to use energy efficiently.
The 1to1 Energy association consists of over 130 regional energy supply companies, which offer advice and information on energy management in addition to green electricity and various electricity products. According to a press release issued by the agency, the plan now is to make the 1to1 Energy brand better known in view of liberalization.
The campaign consists of stories about electricity that are intended to evoke associations and memories. The texts are accompanied by images that capture the mood of the stories. The new campaign will be launched in two stages. The electricity stories are published in the first part of the campaign. The subjects of the second part are underpinned by the message of previous campaigns and a competition question. The market presence will be implemented in umbrella communication and product communication, with sponsoring and events.

JvM head of consulting Rolf Helfenstein is taking over shares in his Zurich-based employer at the beginning of November. The shares in the Jung von Matt/Limmat advertising agency will thus be divided up with immediate effect between the previous co-owners Dominique von Matt (Managing Director), Alexander Jaggy (Executive Creative Director) and Jung von Matt AG in Hamburg, as well as the Client Service Director Rolf Helfenstein. Dominique von Matt continues to hold a majority stake.
Von Matt explains the new partnership with the development of the agency: "Jung von Matt/Limmat has developed very well and is the most recommended agency in Switzerland. The investment is a logical consequence of the successful and long-standing collaboration and our shared vision, particularly in the cross-media sector," the Managing Director was quoted as saying in a press release on Friday.
40-year-old Rolf Helfenstein started his career at the Zurich agency Wirz Werbung and continued it at Ogilvy&Mather and Publicis as a member of the management team. He joined Jung von Matt/Limmat in 2002, where he became Head of Consulting in 2005.

Cablecom, the cable network operator, has lost customers in the Internet and telephony sectors for the first time. Between July and September, the number of Internet subscribers at Cablecom fell by 3,000 to 447,000 and the number of telephone customers by 100 to 308,000.
An important reason for the low figures is the total failure of customer service. Cablecom spokesman Hugo Wyler admitted to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that for weeks practically no new customers could be connected.

APG has received the additional advertising display in the Swiss public sector of the airport from Euro Airport. This display covers the zones along the roads and paths, all outdoor parking lots and the cargo zone. Euro Airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and the subsidiary of Affichage Holding APG signed a cooperation agreement for the next five years on January 1.

An interesting development in the dispute over the coveted radio and television licenses: Geneva local station One FM, which came away empty-handed in the awarding of radio licenses, could now get an FM broadcasting slot after all. The station Buzz FM, which was awarded the license instead of One FM, wants to relinquish it.
As Bakom announced on Friday, this is possible in principle. However, One FM must explain how it intends to fulfill its information mandate under licensing law. The broadcaster's previous project was not sufficient and qualitative and quantitative improvements were necessary. OFCOM will then hold a public hearing on the new submission by the Department of the Environment, Transport and Energy.
David Ramseyer, editor-in-chief of the joint editorial team of One FM and the television station Lémain Bleu, is confident that the radio station has been saved. The editorial team will be restructured and the quality of the political debates improved, he told SDA on request.
Following the negative licensing decision for One FM, a number of politicians in Geneva spoke out in support of the station. The station with its 100,000 daily listeners is an important local partner for numerous cultural events and also provides self-produced information content, explained the political representatives.
Not only One FM was disappointed by the award of the license in Geneva. Buzz FM, a radio station that so far only exists on paper, was also dissatisfied with the concession conditions. Among other things, this is likely to have led to the proposal to cede the license to One FM.

SRG has announced this year's winners of the Idée Suisse Media Prize. For this year's edition, the jury had decided to limit the Idée Suisse Media Prize to the category "Reaction to a current event". It had chosen the election of Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf as Federal Councillor as the theme. The winners were Thomas Schifferle for his report "Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is Federal Councillor", which was broadcast on the Graubünden regional journal, and Corinne Portier and Alain Hertig for their report "Complot de famille" , which was shown on the TSR magazine "Mise au Point".
The Radio prize was awarded by the jury to the SR DRS local editorial teams in Graubünden and Eastern Switzerland. The two local editorial teams produced a 30-minute program that was remarkable in every respect when Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was elected. This is despite the fact that both editorial teams work with very limited resources. They succeeded in combining political analysis with lively, regional reporting, thus offering the Grisons audience an intelligent, fast-paced and varied program.
The jury also awarded two honorable mentions in the radio category: One for the special broadcast of "Forums" (RSR) on December 12, 2007. In the programme entitled "déni démocratique ou acte souverain du parlament" (democratic refusal or sovereign act of parliament), the editors of "Forums" presented a bouquet of opinions on the dismissal of Christoph Blocher.
The second honorary mention went to the programme "Echo der Zeit" (SR DRS), which was broadcast on the evening of 13 December 2007. In this traditional production, the journalists from "Echo der Zeit" took a precise and well-founded look at the causes and effects of the parliamentary decision to replace Christoph Blocher with Evelyne Widmer-Schlumpf.
The Idée Suisse media prize for television went to the program "Mise au Point" (TSR) for the report "Complot de famille" (Corinne Portier and Alain Hertig asked the most important protagonists of the "conspiracy" for their comments in the days after Christoph Blocher was voted out of office on December 12 and summarized these statements in what the jury called an "excellent" 10-minute report.
The jury of the Idée Suisse media prize also awarded two honorary mentions in the television category. The first goes to "Classe politique", the SF discussion program on political issues. The debate between the party presidents, which was broadcast the evening after Ms Widmer-Schlumpf's election, showed what consequences the SVP's defeat is likely to have at a political level. Thanks to the participation of the new Federal Councillor, an SVP National Councillor from Bern and a political scientist, it was possible to shed light on the event in a very differentiated way.
The second honorary mention goes to the special edition of TSR's news programme, which was broadcast on 12 December at 7pm. An overview of the day's events and the uncertainties of the future was followed by an "excellently conducted and very lively debate" between the representatives of the four main parties. It made it clear why the political climate made the event possible, which for some was a "coup" by the classe politique and for others a "civic awakening" by the parliamentary majority, the jury was quoted as saying in a press release on Friday.
SRG presents the Media Prize every year as part of the Management Meeting. The president of the jury is Dominique von Burg, president of the Swiss Press Council and former editor-in-chief of the Tribune de Genève. The jury consists of Monica Piffaretti, publisher, Rainer Stadler, media editor of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Jacques Donzel, former program director of Radio Suisse Romande, and Marco Färber, former editor-in-chief of SR DRS.

News Corporation, which is controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has started its new financial year with a slump in profits due to its stake in pay-TV channel Premiere.
News Corp's surplus fell by almost 30 percent to 515 billion dollars in the last quarter. In contrast, turnover rose by a good six percent to 7.51 billion dollars, as News Corp announced on Wednesday after the US stock exchange closed in New York.
Premiere caused losses of 447 million dollars for the US media group, mainly due to write-downs on its 25 percent stake. According to SDA, the German pay-TV station had to admit to drastically inflated subscription figures. Billionaire Murdoch has since taken action at Premiere and replaced the management team.
News Corp's operating profit also fell by nine percent to 953 million dollars in the first quarter ended September. This was due to lower advertising revenue from TV stations and weaker film business at its Twentieth Century Fox studios.

The media group ProSiebenSat.1 no longer believes in its profit target for this year due to the crisis in the advertising market. In the current market environment, the company does not dare to reaffirm its forecast for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a ProSiebenSat.1 spokesperson said on Thursday, according to SDA. The Group had already lowered its EBITDA forecast to between EUR 670 and 700 million in September. Now this forecast no longer applies either.
The company performed as expected in the third quarter. Turnover fell from 668.4 to 646.5 million euros. The bottom line was a loss of 10.7 million euros after a loss of just under 78 million euros in the same period last year.

Affichage Holding has appointed Sascha Hardegger as its new PR manager at Group level. The 36-year-old replaces Othmar Casutt, who has been Head of PR at APG for many years. Casutt will retire on December 17, 2008.
36-year-old Sascha Hardegger previously worked for SBB for several years as communications manager. Among other things, he was responsible for a large part of SBB's Expo.02 information. After a stint in corporate communications at Swiss Post, he was most recently head of communications at SBB's Infrastructure Division.
Hardegger joined Affichage Holding in November 2007 as project manager in the Corporate Center/Corporate Communications corporate staff unit. He has taken on various tasks for the holding company as well as for the domestic and foreign subsidiaries.