The necessary calm has returned to Publicis Dialog. Even if things are very hectic at the moment. The new success is based on an old "dream team". CEO Erik Neumann, who started in the spring, first brought Eric Fricke on board as Group Head Art in the summer and then Folker Wrage as Head of Creation in August. The three have known each other for a long time. Their history has also shaped many events in German dialog marketing over the past twenty years.
When you become an advertiser, there are two choices: Text or art. "I'm not a graphic designer. In that respect, the only thing left for me was the written word," says Folker Wrage, summing up his career choice. The business manager for creation at Publicis has been writing "all his life." Record reviews, music reviews, reports for scene magazines. As a complementary course of study, he chose psychology. After seven semesters, however, Wrage realized that he was "studying for unemployment." So he made a radical cut and joined Lufthansa for five years. As a flight attendant, he was able to live out his great curiosity about the big wide world. But since distributing trays "is not the ultimate professional challenge," Wrage asked himself one day: What can I do? That's how he got into advertising as a copywriter. First as a freelancer. When word got out about his talent, an offer came from Ogilvy One. The fact that it was a dialog agency was more of a coincidence. And that's how Wrage's career took its continuing direction to this day. "In the end, everything came together great. In advertising, everything I've done so far has helped me. Actually, it's almost obligatory for a seasoned copywriter to bring a dropped-out degree and a strange profession with him."
Wrage remained loyal to his first agency for a decade. "It was never boring, though. Everything was going like crazy at Ogilvy One." After five years, Wrage was CD; after seven, deputy managing director. After ten years, he had "accomplished what needed to be accomplished." So to learn a bit more, he switched to a traditional agency. That's how he came to Leo Burnett. At that time, he was in charge of the Swiss account for Marlboro. When he also "understood Marlboro," he met Erik Neumann again, an old companion from Ogilvy. The current managing director of Publicis Dialog in Zurich was working for Saatchi & Saatchi X at the time. Wrage joined this agency for shopper marketing as a creative partner, learned "a lot" about advertising at the POS there and also had great success in the team with Neumann. "The two of us get along very well as partners. And even when we work as executives, we always approach our tasks very entrepreneurially. And above all with a lot of heart," is how Wrage describes his style. Of course, he and Neumann are now part of a large network at Publicis Dialog in Zurich. "But we have overall entrepreneurial responsibility, almost in the sense of being independent." Wrage has always been interested in numbers, even as a creative. "I also really enjoy working on business strategy. It's important to me that we grow and are profitable."
Fun with Direct Marketing
When he once talked to a headhunter about his future, he said that Wrage was turning a pretty big wheel. "But that's also what I enjoy," he muses. And he likes to talk about his exciting times at Ogilvy One, where he helped make an agency "number one by a huge margin" within five years. An agency that had never won a major award before managed to win gold in the same category at the German Dialog Marketing Awards five times in a row, and in 2001 even won gold, silver and bronze, the "best mailing" and a gold clio. Almost exclusively with work for IBM. In addition, Wrage also won a Direct Lion in Cannes. "We even managed to get the dialog agency Ogilvy One to seventh place in the creative ranking of classic agencies, only behind the really big ones like Jung von Matt, Scholz & Friends or Springer & Jacoby."
Nevertheless, Wrage still has the most fun working in direct marketing. "I love working in a success-oriented way. In the sense of being measurable." You also have a lot more opportunities to express yourself, "because with us, the formats go almost into infinity." And all of these possibilities for play always inspire Eric Fricke's imagination anew.
The new Group Head Art at Publicis Dialog found his way into advertising via the world of arts and crafts. In order to become a goldsmith or stage designer later on, Eric Fricke took private lessons in drawing from a freelance artist while still in regular school. Later he studied at a private art school in Frankfurt. He financed his education in the second semester with jobs in small advertising agencies. Two days a week he played the boy for everything. Since he soon enjoyed this practice more than the theory, the young art student was found more and more often in these agencies. "In this way, I did something like an unofficial apprenticeship in an advertising agency," Fricke assesses this entry. "I was allowed to get a taste of everything." The agencies he served were rather classic. Nevertheless, he also gained initial experience in POS and trade show construction. During his eventual full-time engagement at four different agencies, the young graphic designer was able to "get to know a lot of important people." Through a copywriter, this led to contact with Ogilvy One. Over the next eight years, Fricke experienced the boom period there, which was also shaped by Folker Wrage. The number of employees doubled from 60 to 120. But more important to Fricke than this size thanks to success remained the "fun at work. He was always immediately on fire when a team was needed with ideas for a new pitch. "The salt in the soup is new business because it's always a new challenge." A few of those jobs, in addition to IBM, were for Deutsche Bank, American Express, Mercedes-Benz, Procter & Gamble, or SAP, for example.How do shoppers move around the supermarket?
Because Springer & Jacoby wanted to strengthen its expertise in dialog, Fricke later accepted a call to Hamburg. "But that was bad timing," because SJ soon entered a - now overcome - crisis. After just eight months, Fricke was back in Frankfurt. Here, his old companion Erik Neumann immediately offered him a better opportunity for his new team at Saatchi & Saatchi X. At the agency, which specializes in shopper marketing, it was a special challenge for Fricke to do the whole concept in shopping and retailing for Frankfurt Airport. How do people move around in a supermarket? Which security regulations have to be observed? Which path flows offer which opportunities? To be able to answer such questions, Fricke has read through many studies. The knowledge he has accumulated should now also provide him with valuable impetus for new dialogs with customers at Publicis.
When first Folker Wrage moved to Publicis Hamburg and then Erik Neumann, the managing director at Saatchi & Saatchi X, also moved to Zurich, it quickly became clear to Eric Fricke "over a beer" with Erik Neumann that he too wanted to find happiness elsewhere. "Although it was known that there was a crisis at Publicis Dialog at the time. But that was also a challenge and therefore an opportunity. Because all three of us had already proven that we could build something," was an important motivation for Fricke.
Meanwhile, the trio has set a goal: "We've all seen it happen, how to build an ordinary agency into a truly relentlessly creative one - a vibrant hot store, with spirit and pace as it grows."
Andreas Panzeri

Parental skills are not innate. But they can be learned. Seven One Media Switzerland is therefore supporting a campaign entitled "Strong through education". This campaign by the Swiss Association for Parent Education (SBE) aims to promote the parenting skills of parents and people who raise children. The campaign has now also been implemented audiovisually. The idea is being launched jointly by the private channels Pro Sieben, Sat.1 and Kabel eins. The Swiss windows of these channels are making airtime available free of charge as part of their corporate social commitment.
Thanks to the support of the Swiss company Victorinox, the eight defined core competencies of education and the existing visual material were used to animate short stories that are intended to "convey the cornerstones of education in a playful way", as program director Mike Gut explains. With this social sponsorship, Seven One Media Switzerland wants to put children and families in Switzerland at the center of the discussion, as in previous engagements. "Through our channels, we have the opportunity to support a meaningful and necessary institution," explains Managing Director Hardy Lussi. The eight trailers can now be seen daily in the advertising windows of the participating stations. (pan)

The internet companies Google and Yahoo are abandoning their planned cooperation in the advertising business. The reason for this is the concerns of the US antitrust authorities, as the two companies announced on Wednesday. Google and Yahoo agreed in June to place Google ads alongside Yahoo search engine results.
Further adherence to the joint project could have resulted in lengthy legal disputes and damage to customer relationships, as Google and Yahoo further announced. The US Department of Justice has announced that it will block the cooperation. In addition, there are also reservations from advertising customers about the planned cooperation.
Together, the two companies control around 80 percent of the search engine market in the USA. The authorities therefore apparently had reservations about the alliance between the two market leaders.

Migros is committed to a healthy Switzerland." This was the briefing for the Young Creatives' work. After Amnesty International in the first year, Migros was won as the main sponsor and client this year. However, the ADC was not only delighted to have a top-class partner, but above all to have once again received an impressive 86 entries on the theme.
According to the unanimous opinion of the jury, their standard was consistently high. Migros' public voting was a novelty. As soon as the jury had determined the shortlist on Thursday afternoon, the works were presented to a wide audience for voting on the Migros website. Within a few hours, around 8,000 people had taken part in the creative "casting show". The two winners of the voting received the Migros Audience Award.
The majority of entries were once again in the Print & Outdoor category, closely followed by Alternative Media. There was little quality in Film, while just a handful of entries in the Cyber category showed once again this year that the youngest medium is still unable to compete with the classic disciplines, even among the young. The jury, consisting of Stefan Ehrler (Hasenfeld), Petra Bottignole (Freelance), Pius Walker (Walker), Dominik Oberwiler (Y&R Group), Patrick Suter (SFLB), Michael Kathe (Sulzer Sutter), Florian Birkner (Draftfcb/Lowe), Florian Beck (Publicis), Philipp Petersson (Condor), Thomas Schöb (Ruf Lanz) and Thomas Kurzmeyer (Wirz), first determined eleven finalists in Cannes mode under the direction of Urs Schrep¬fer (TBWA). The three winning teams emerged, who will represent Switzerland at the international young talent contest in Cannes in 2009. In addition, one U-23 talent was selected for the Hatchuel Academy, who will attend the development workshop there.
Nora Vögeli and Conny Jäger won the Print & Outdoor category with their organic machine. An amazingly placed poster idea that draws everyone's attention to the healthier alternative at the very moment of consumption. The second winner also comes from the Print & Outdoor category. Laura Grümann and Laura Gomez impressed with an unspectacular but cleverly conceived idea: they actually got Migros directly involved and proposed a new sales strategy: Migros makes unhealthy products more expensive and offers healthy products at a lower price.
After last year's cyber category failed to produce a winner, Patrick Bucher and Ruben Feurer saved the honor of new media this time with a literally powerful idea: they turned scroll bars into fitness equipment.
The U-23 talent Signe Fleischmann finally developed a film idea under the catchy motto "If they're doing well, we're doing better". The jury considered the concept to be interesting at first, but it still needed to be developed further. The apprentice from the Walker agency can learn more about this at the Hatchuel Academy.
The Migros Audience Award went to the film "Snail" by Andrei Vid and Patricia Hazenmoser with its short story about great willpower. After the jury prize, the audience prize was once again awarded to Nora Vögeli and Conny Jäger's Biomachine. With these scores, we can conclude that the ADC and the public often agree on what constitutes outstanding advertising. (pan)

Organic machine by Nora Vögeli and Conny Jäger.

Laura Grünmann and Laura Gomez want to make unhealthy products more expensive.

Image idea for the film by Signe Fleischmann.

The Interpublic Group is now implementing the internal restructuring of the media divisions announced at the beginning of 2008 in Switzerland as well, with the media agency Initiative Media and the advertising agency Universal McCann in Switzerland being merged under the umbrella of Mediabrands at the beginning of 2009. However, both agencies will continue to operate on the market under their own names.
The structure introduced in Switzerland will not be rolled out by Interpublic in all markets, but in a very targeted manner, Graham Duff, Mediabrands president EMEA, was quoted as saying in a communiqué on Wednesday. In France, Belgium, Portugal and Austria, the experience has been very good. The ultimate goal is to expand and further develop the offerings of the two agencies.
According to the announcement, the departure of Initiative Media CEO Stephan Küng is not related to the restructuring. "Totally unrelated to this change is the other news that Stephan Küng, currently CEO of Initiative Switzerland, will be leaving in the first quarter of 2009 to become partner at Mediaschneider," Duff is quoted as saying. He fully understands that Küng wants to take the opportunity at Mediaschneider and wishes him all the best.

For a week now, the new lifestyle and nightlife magazine Friday has been available in selected 20 Minuten boxes every Friday from 12 noon. The title can also be found in various stores of The Body Shop, City Disc, Marionnaud and Tally Weijl. Rod Kommunikation generated the necessary attention for this launch of a joint work by 20 Minuten, Annabelle and Tilllate with a humorous teaser campaign.
In it, the Zurich creatives take up the aspect of the almost sacred veneration of Friday as the "little death of the week". Many young people have this devotion in common, Rod found out in a qualitative study. In this study, 30 young people from all regions of Switzerland were sent out with a diary and a disposable camera to document their personal Friday. The teaser images for the launch campaign showed young women praying under the motto "God I Wish It Was Friday", asking God to finally make it Friday.
During the launch week, e-mails could be sent to heaven via banners and the specially created homepage www.im-himmel.ch with the request, which were answered by the Lord himself with the following wording: "Sorry that I'm only replying now. I'm a bit busy today. Everything always piles up on Monday. Generally speaking, I prefer Fridays. That's why I really like your idea. I think it should be possible to arrange something. But I can't promise anything. I'm not a magician ;-)." Finally, the resolution subjects under the motto "Thank God It's Friday" show the relics of the "Friday cult": all the covetousness that the new magazine is about has been set up like an altar. (pan)

Condor Films’ Corporate division conceived and produced a promotional film for Schwihag, a company specializing in track and switch technology. The film, which combines live-action footage and computer animations, premiered at the Innotrans trade show in Berlin. It will now be used across various communication channels and for upcoming promotional campaigns.
Founded in 1947, Condor Films consists of the following divisions: Commercials, Corporate & New Media, FaroTV, and Studio Bellerive. Through its subsidiary Condor Pictures, the company also produces feature films and documentaries for theaters and television.
Responsible at Condor Films: Oliver Egli (Creative Producer).

Due to a dramatic drop in demand in the media sales sector, Publigroupe is cutting a total of 250 jobs in Switzerland and abroad. The economic downturn triggered by the crisis in the financial and capital markets has apparently hit the cyclically sensitive advertising agency harder than previously expected. As a result, total costs will be reduced by approximately 40 million Swiss francs, rather than the 10 million Swiss francs originally planned in the summer of 2008. This corresponds to a group-wide reduction of about 10 percent. At the beginning of 2008, the group had 3,000 employees.
The cost-cutting measures are affecting the Media Sales division and central services in particular. The results of the Search & Find, Custom Publishing, and Digital & Marketing Services divisions have so far been in line with expectations, but this is not the case for the key Media Sales segment, which markets print, television, radio, cinema, and online advertising under the Publicitas brand, as Publigroupe announced on Tuesday. In 2007, Media Sales accounted for three-quarters of the group’s revenue—that is, 1.5 billion of a total of 2.16 billion Swiss francs.
A Significant Drop in Demand
Consumer sentiment has taken a sharp turn for the worse since September, Group CEO Hans-Peter Rohner said Tuesday during a conference call. This has been accompanied by a «veritable» slump in advertising demand. Rohner explained that the Media Sales division is currently recording double-digit revenue declines every month compared to the previous year. Job advertisements and commercial advertising in key customer segments such as retail and the automotive industry have been particularly affected. If demand for advertising does not recover by the end of the year—and especially during the holiday season—Rohner fears the Media Sales segment will slip into the red.
The far-reaching changes in the media market have prompted Publigroupe to review Media Sales' business model. Publigroupe views the current difficult business conditions not only as a cyclical problem but also as a structural one. (sda/red)

Last week, the time had finally come. At a press conference in Bern, the last remaining local radio and television licenses were announced. It was still about the delicate and controversial cases. Controversial because there were more applicants than licenses for these broadcasting areas. The problem-free licenses were granted a long time ago. Without press conference and without ballyhoo.
All over the country, people were eager to find out which applicants would emerge as winners from the licensing procedure and which would be the losers. The officials from the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom), who provided the basis for the decision for the attention of Media Minister Moritz Leuenberger, were truly not to be envied. Nor was Leuenberger, because one thing was clear: our media minister would come under full criticism. No matter what decisions would be made, the concessions would cause a huge stir. It had been known for a long time that the losers would do everything they could to get one of the longed-for licenses after all. This meant that appeals to the Federal Administrative Court were inevitable. But what was largely overlooked during the entire concession phase was the fact that any appeals to the Federal Administrative Court would have a suspensive effect.
And now the situation is becoming grotesque: Those new broadcasters who have received a license that is contested by their competitors by means of an appeal to the Federal Administrative Court will not be able to broadcast at all as of March. They will have to wait until the Federal Administrative Court has responded to the appeals. And this can take up to a year. So Mr. Scaglione, Mr. Heuberger and Mr. Schawinski will have to wait and see. The existing broadcasters, on the other hand, can continue broadcasting until the appeal decision.
This is absolutely absurd. It is therefore understandable that today politicians are calling on a broad front to free up more frequencies for private broadcasters. The SRG should give up some of its frequencies in return. The reaction of politicians is understandable, but unfortunately it comes a little late. Politicians who belong to the same parties that bravely supported the SRG in the endless debates about the new radio and television law are now in favor of cutting frequencies from the SRG. Just because they can now score points with the public. No one thinks about the fact that this demand cannot be met within a reasonable period of time. One thing is clear, however: a quick and perhaps unconventional solution must be found. It is not acceptable for the Federal Administrative Court to hinder market development with its slow way of working. It needs to put its foot down. The only question is by whom.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]

The agency Advico Young & Rubicam has designed a three-part poster campaign for Feldschlösschen. Across three different themes, Schweppes is portrayed as a must-have at every Christmas and New Year’s Eve party. The slogan «It’s time to celebrate» is intended to build anticipation for the holidays and get people in the party mood, according to a statement from the agency.
The poster is based on the current Schweppes brand identity. The three designs will be on display in November and December on Weinbergstrasse in Zurich.
Responsible at Feldschlösschen Beverages: Simone Schmutz (Brand Management). Responsible at Advico Young & Rubicam: Philipp Skrabal (CD), Corina Martin, Luca Schneider (graphic design), Marietta Mügge (text), Sandro Breu, Eliane Fischer (consulting).

Urs Schneider, owner and strategic head of the media agency Mediaschneider AG, has taken on Stephan Küng as a partner. This means that two successful agency heads of recent years will be going their separate ways in the future. Küng's move from Initiative Media to Mediaschneider coincided on Wednesday with the announcement that Initiative Media will in future work under one roof with the agency Universal McCann. However, the two transactions are "totally unrelated," according to Wednesday's statement from Initiative Media.
42-year-old Stephan Küng has more than 20 years of experience in the media sector. For the last seven and a half years, he has headed Initiative Media's business in Switzerland, more than tripling its volume in the last three years. Küng is also President of IGEM, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Mediapulse Foundation and a member of the Research Advisory Council of SPR+.
The previous owner Urs Schneider is very excited about the new partner: "For our agency, this is a significant step into the future. With Stephan Küng, we are increasing the quality of our work in strategic and creative planning as well as in purchasing. The new management with Stephan Küng, Claudia Mühlebach and me is a powerful team and thus creates new capacity for the further development of our agency."
The new partner Stephan Küng is equally pleased: He is looking forward to the new challenge. There had always been no question that his future would continue to lie in media. With the possibility of a participation in Mediaschneider AG, a dream comes true for him. "On the one hand, Urs Schneider's agency is simply a pearl, extremely successful and, above all, known for high-quality media work; on the other hand, I'm happy to be able to take care of customers more in the future instead of 'network reporting'."
Mediaschneider, based in Zurich Seefeld, employs 15 people and serves clients such as Swisscom, Manor, Swiss Airlines, Bank Julius Baer, Hyundai and 40 other mandates from various industries. Founded in 2001, the agency has shown healthy growth year after year and is now the largest independent Swiss media agency. In summer 2008, Mediaschneider was voted Media Agency of the Year.

Whatever one may think of the redistribution of radio and TV licenses, viewed objectively, the DETEC has at least managed to set some new priorities in the radio sector. These priorities could have a positive impact on listeners, advertising, and thus the industry as a whole.
First, there’s the fact that both Pierre Steulet in the Jura and Giuseppe Scaglione in Zurich each hold two licenses, allowing them to broadcast two program formats each. Since their stations aren’t supposed to compete with each other, they’ll keep the formats clearly separate. This adds some spice to the otherwise monotonous radio landscape. Hopefully, Roger Schawinski, with his radio station exclusively for adults, will contribute his share. And perhaps the three of them will also get the ball rolling in other regions with multiple radio licenses (Basel, Bern, Geneva). After all, why should Capital FM and BE1, for example, continue to target the same young audience and wear each other down in years of trench warfare? But once a few radio stations start targeting an older audience, a new, cross-regional advertising platform could emerge.
In the advertising sector, things are already starting to shift following the licensing decisions. Scaglione and Steulet, who had little to no say in the unspeakable pool squabbles of the past 20 years, now suddenly carry a lot of weight thanks to their dual licenses. Together with Schawinski’s Radio 1 and Günter Heuberger’s Radio Top, the ranks of publisher-independent stations are growing stronger. This will definitely challenge the Swiss Radio Pool (SRP)—dominated by Tamedia and NZZ radio stations—which is already undergoing a period of upheaval. It will also be interesting to see how IP Multimedia positions itself, given that it is losing its base, Radio Energy Zürich.