The 12th Winterthur International Short Film Festival will take place from November 5 to 9, 2008. The heart of the festival this year is once again the competition, in which current films from all over the world compete for prizes worth a total of 38,000 francs.
However, the film festival has a few new features: The Swiss competition (CHurzfilm) will be expanded by one to three program blocks due to the strong short film production in the country. For the first time this year, there will be a Swiss Film School Day, which is intended to offer the most important film schools and their students an appropriate platform.
Under the motto "Heimat Verleider", the organizers are showing gems from the army archives and juxtaposing them with short films that critically question the myth of the homeland. Internationally, the festival is dedicated to the guest country Israel and the St. Petersburg Documentary Film Studio. The Dutch experimental film distributor Montevideo and the Belgian shooting star Nicolas Provost will be on site. Night owls can look forward to a nocturne with video clips from Partizan. There will also be an attractive supporting program with film talks, concerts and much more.
In keeping with the upcoming movie spectacle, the homepage (to the website) where tickets can be ordered online from next week.

Publicis Health Care Department wins the pitch put out by Roche Diagnostics. The Zurich-based agency impressed with its experience in the healthcare sector, its resources for global customer support and its well thought-out creative concept, according to a press release. The top ten pharmaceutical company Roche Diagnostics is a division of F. Hoffmann-La Roche and a global provider of diagnostic systems with annual sales of 9.3 billion Swiss francs.

The TBWA agency has created TV commercials for McDonalds for the "Schwiizer Wuche", which will run on television from 1 October to 16 November 2008 and advertise the three burgers with "Swiss flair" on a weekly basis. The simple and humorous spots are intended to be as down-to-earth as the local burgers are delicious.
Responsible for the commercial at McDonalds Switzerland: Thomas Truttmann (Marketing and Communications Director), Jan De Schepper (Marketing Manager Food). At TBWA: Urs Schrepfer (Executive Creative Director), Martin Friedlin (Art Director), Simon Smit (Copywriter), Mirjam Fabrikant (Art Buying), Daniel Rickert (Strategy), Tina Kazimir (Account Director), Marcus Aeberhard (Junior Account Director), Leo Vogl (OMD). Responsible for production: TCC, Tom Gerber (director), Hastings (sound studio).

1st spot
2nd spot
3rd spot

Promarca, the professional association for the Swiss branded goods industry, has conducted an independent brand study together with the HSG Research Center for Business Metrics, Audi Lab for Market Research. The research project, entitled "Tell me what you feel and I'll tell you what you think", used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the effect of emotions on test subjects when engaging with brands. The results suggest that branded articles have a highly emotional effect in contrast to non-branded articles. This unconsciously influences the consumer's information processing. According to the study, emotions play a far more important role in purchasing decisions than positive or negative information about the product. The study will be presented in November.

Following an agency evaluation, Intelligentfood decided to work with the Zurich advertising agency Baertschi, Meroni & Bolleter. The agency's job, which is based in Seefeld, includes the conception, realization and production of the advertising campaign for the new energy drink Ixso. According to the management of Intelligentfood, "the brand promise 'The power to change' developed by the agency and the long-term opportunities for verticalization in all marketing communication activities" tipped the scales, according to the BMB press release.
Ixso will be available from October 20 in all Coop, Coop Pronto and Coop Restaurants stores as well as in Manor, Manor Restaurants, Globus and numerous other stores. The advertising campaign for the launch will start at the same time.

The Zurich agency Seed has developed and produced six short films for Swisscom. In the first five case studies, concrete customer projects of the large enterprise division are presented in the form of documentary reports. These show, among other things, a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution implemented by Swisscom for the Flims Laax Falera tourist region. Another revolves around a deployment system of mobile terminals for the Neuchâtel cantonal police. The sixth short film shows a fictitious damage expert at work and explains how he can now work more efficiently and productively thanks to the provider's latest tools. The films are available online on the platform www.swisscom.ch/dialogue used.

News from overseas: The conservative journalistic flagship "New York Sun" has finally been shipwrecked after 18 years of stormy sailing, in the midst of the financial crisis. The traditional title was published from 1833 to 1950 and then revived by journalist Seth Lipsky in 2002. Lipsky's project fought against all real and perceived enemies of Israel - including the United Nations and the New York Times, which he considered too liberal. The Sun allegedly celebrated the start of the 2nd Iraq War with champagne, later recommending that critics of the Iraq War be put on trial.
The Sun's sense of mission went so far that with 14,000 copies sold, 96,000 copies were distributed free of charge. Two years ago, Lipsky said that his newspaper was losing a million dollars a month, even though he had strong conservative backers. In September of this year, he announced that if he could not raise funds, the paper would have to close. In this situation, the financial crisis didn't exactly help. Despite solidarity money transfers from readers, it was over at the beginning of October.
A local editor of the old Sun is credited with the timeless phrase that if a dog bites a man, it's not news, but if a man bites a dog, it is. The question of the nature of the news of the Sun's demise would have to be of the dog-bites-man variety, given the financial crisis. However, in view of the fact that the Sun really did go under and was not nationalized, one would have to say: man bites dog.
One way or another, however, the newspaper seems to have retained its sense of mission even after its journalistic death. In the short obituary "Seven Years of the Sun", the website states: "In a city saturated with news coverage and commentary, the Sun shone brightly, though too briefly."

"Full Value of Search" is the name of Google's new market research site. The database offers advertisers, journalists and interested laypersons information on all aspects of online and search engine marketing. The study platform is intended to provide a better overview of the constantly growing online marketing market and enable advertisers to plan their advertising presence on the Internet in a targeted and efficient manner.
In collaboration with market research institutes such as GfK, Millward Brown and TNS Infratest, Google has conducted a series of studies on the topic of online advertising. Among other things, the in-house product Google Ad Works, a tool designed to enable advertising placement with minimal wastage, was also examined. The results of these studies are now available on the website www.full-value-of-search.de retrievable.

Pius Walker's agency won two awards for outstanding work at this year's Golden Drum festival in Portorož, Slovenia. In the E Design & Art Direction category, the Zurich-based agency won a Golden Drum plus a "special craft" award for its 2007 annual report for Fleurop. In the W Advertising Campaigns category, they picked up a "Golden Watch Award", the highest award in the category, for the continuation of the "Not here, but now" campaign with new media implementations.
Publicis, which was nominated for an award in the F Interactive category, came up empty. Likewise, Walker's remaining six nominations did not pick up an award. The Golden Drum Festival continues until next Friday, October 10. No further awards are expected from a Swiss perspective.

Sven Sarbach is to become the new Head of Events at Schweizer Fernsehen. On January 1, 2009, the 35-year-old will succeed Toni Wachter, who will retire at the end of 2008. Sarbach has worked for Schweizer Fernsehen since 1999, for four years in the Events editorial department (formerly Show) as a producer and editor, and for two years additionally in the function of deputy editorial director.
Sven Sarbach began his television career as a video journalist and then as head of news at the regional television station Telebärn. At SF, he worked as a producer and was involved in the development of various broadcast series. The portfolio of the Events editorial team includes the shows "SwissAward", "MusicStar", "Die Grössten Schweizer Hits", "Miss Schweiz Wahl", "Mister Schweiz Wahl", "Grand Prix der Volksmusik" and "Eurovision Song Contest".

After the business performance in the first nine months did not meet expectations, the Board of Directors concluded after an analysis that both the sales concept and the positioning of the title had to be changed. Home delivery had been particularly disappointing, reaching too few readers - an experience also made by similarly positioned titles abroad. According to WEMF media analysis, .ch reached an average of 204,000 readers in the first six months of 2008. Nevertheless, Ernst Buob, Chairman of the Board of Directors of .ch publisher Media Punkt AG, is convinced that "two free daily newspapers can be operated profitably in German-speaking Switzerland.
Wigdorovits leaves
In the course of the realignment, the management structures of the company will also be adjusted. The previous delegate of the Board of Directors, Sacha Wigdorovits, has informed the Board of Directors that he intends to step down from his functions and withdraw from the Board of Directors as of October 31, 2008, according to a Media Punkt AG statement on Tuesday. "Now that the pioneering phase of .ch has been completed, I want to devote myself fully to my own company Contract Media again," Sacha Wigdorovits is quoted as saying in the release. The board of directors of Media Punkt thanks Sacha Wigdorovits, who as an initiator has contributed significantly to the development of .ch, for his great commitment and for his extraordinary efforts in the development phase of .ch, it continues.
Home delivery is discontinued
.ch will only be distributed via boxes in public transport and via colporteurs from the end of October. With an additional 650 locations, the number of boxes will increase to 2,000 by the end of the year, which will lead to significantly higher readership figures. The average distributed circulation is now 370,000 copies. Home delivery will be discontinued in October 2008 and the contract with the Direct Mail Company responsible for this will be terminated by mutual agreement.
New "emotional" design of the newspaper
Together with the publisher and the editorial team, the Board Committee also fundamentally revised the newspaper concept. In the future, the focus will be on the commuter with his or her information and entertainment needs. Experienced newspaper designer Katja Hösli developed and implemented the new design, which, thanks above all to the color scheme, gives the newspaper an emotional appeal that clearly distinguishes it from its competitors. Editorially, the soft and hard news are systematically mixed and readers are actively involved. " the new layout (front page)
Increase in share capital
The Board of Directors, together with the main investors, has decided to provide the necessary financial resources for the re-launch. At the Extraordinary General Meeting on October 28, 2008, the share capital will be increased from CHF 10 million to CHF 18 million.

Wigdorovits on the day of the 1st issue of .ch
New management structure
The function of Delegate to the Board of Directors will be abolished. Managing Director Caroline Thoma will in future report directly to the Board of Directors. Ernst Buob, previously a member of the Board of Directors, was elected Chairman of the Board. He succeeds Hans Ziegler, who left the Board some time ago. The Board of Directors continues to include Eugen A. Russ and Michael Grabner, who together with Ernst Buob form the Board Committee, as well as Andy Rhis and Josef Follpracht.
(Pictures: Keystone)

Those who missed the Swiss premiere of the Cannes reel on September 18 at the former freight depot in Zurich can now bring this year's best international commercials straight into their living rooms. The double DVD box set "Swiss DVD's Of Cannes'08" is being released for the fourth time and is produced and published by Publicitas Cinecom and its long-time partner Swissfilm Association.
The Cannes year 2008 was a record year for the Swiss. They brought home no less than 74 shortlist places and a total of eleven Lions from Cannes: four Silver, four Bronze, as well as two Silver Lion Campaigns and one Bronze Lion Campaign. The DVD contains not only the award-winning commercials, but also the Swiss Reel'08, i.e. all film submissions of the year from Switzerland. The DVD is available for 280 Swiss francs from Publicitas Cinecom (order online).