The Basel-based company M&D Computerberatung und -Support will soon be launching new software for personnel service providers. The advertising agency OSW is drawing attention to it with three films, the latest spot featuring Star Wars character Darth Vader.
The films can be seen on soprop.ch until October 08. Darth Vader, Catwoman and James Bond villain Blofeld all pursue the same goal: to bring the new software to market themselves.
Balser Oswald Siegfried Werbeagentur (OSW) announces the new software with three mailings relating to the figures.
M&D offers software solutions and services for companies in the recruitment and staff leasing sectors.
Responsible at M&D: Benjamin Leuzinger, Ralf Mouttet. Responsible at OSW: Michael Oswald (art direction), Nadine Siegfried (consulting), René Fisch (text), Brian Goff (camera), baselcitystudios (sound).

The St. Galler Tagblatt is undergoing a major relaunch: from October 1, the eastern Swiss daily newspaper will be published with a new newspaper bundle for cultural, social and lifestyle topics called "Focus", a new newspaper architecture and a refreshed appearance based on the Anglo-Saxon model. In future, it will be produced in a newsroom.
As the sixth newspaper bundle - after the four-part newspaper jacket and the local section - the "focus" bundle will in future combine the editions of the St. Galler Tagblatt and its regional editions (Appenzeller Zeitung, Toggenburger Tagblatt, Tagblatt Thurgau, Wiler Zeitung, Der Rheintaler). The twelve-person "Focus" editorial team combines the previous culture, life, knowledge, media and travel sections. In future, it will cover these topics in a "more attractive" and "more concentrated" way, writes the St. Galler Tagblatt in a press release on Wednesday. A page with service and nightlife tips will in future conclude the Tagblatt, which has been modernized by newspaper designer Katja Hösli.
The new Tagblatt is now produced in a newsroom. The current edition of the newspaper is produced "from a single source" at a central desk, which not only allows for more efficient work, but should also free up journalistic resources for "more creative tasks".
The newly created online editorial team is also integrated into the newsdesk. This is updated according to the "online first" principle, but also contributes self-researched stories to the printed edition on an almost daily basis, the Tagblatt continues.

In Calabria, on the shores of Scylla, where the almond and olive trees flourish, the strangest business practices are also known to flourish. The region has only recently made negative headlines again due to the resurgence of the Mafia 'Ndrangheta and the chronic failure of the justice system. Now it also has problems with the EU Commission. The Commission is pumping six billion euros in subsidies into Italy's poorest region until 2010 in order to boost trade and tourism. The Regione Calabria then knew no better than to spend 1.8 billion euros on the Italian national football team.
According to the EU Commission, the decision is now being closely scrutinized. The regions in the European Union have certain freedoms when it comes to the use of funding, said a spokesperson for the authority, but you can't just hand over a suitcase full of EU taxpayers' money and say: "Here, have fun with it!" Calabria's idea to spend half a million euros on advertising shots with the Calabrian football star Gennaro Gattuso is also unlikely to have contributed much to the amusement. However, Gattuso will not keep the money, according to Calabria, but will donate it to his foundation for needy children. One can only hope that this foundation is a little more developed than his Website.

The Publicitas Forum will be a thing of the past by the time this Advertising Week is published. Urs Gossweiler, publisher and editor of the Jungfrauzeitung, comments on developments in the Swiss media center on the occasion of the event.
According to Gossweiler, the coming year in particular will not be without turbulence in the local media scene. When it comes to naming the trends in an increasingly cross-media world, he says, fierce disputes are to be expected. Because there is "less to distribute" among the market players. "We are facing major changes in 2009," estimates Gossweiler with regard to the development of the three major private media companies in Switzerland, Ringier, NZZ and Tamedia. Tamedia in particular is currently growing rapidly, for example through start-ups such as Newsnetz and takeovers such as Search.ch, which is making it more difficult for the company to form a functioning media network. Media integration is not practiced at Tamedia in any way; instead, there are several similar editorial offices that could actually work together. "Obviously Tamedia can afford this. The integration will be correspondingly complex one day," says Gossweiler. On the other hand, the publisher expects dawn at NZZ, because with Albert P. Stäheli they will have a CEO who is motivated to prove that there can be a second integrator in the Swiss media center. So far, the NZZ has not utilized any synergies from its media. Whether a network of Zurich (NZZ), St. Gallen and Lucerne would be sufficient against Tamedia's triangle of Zurich, Basel and Berne remains to be seen. Gossweiler considers it crucial which side AZ publisher Peter Wanner will take in the medium term. Ringier, on the other hand, does not currently know exactly what its strategy is. Under these premises, the three big players would fight for national budgets and oversleep localization, which is currently being boosted by the American financial crisis and is showing the first signs in Germany under the heading of micromarketing. Above all, Axel Springer will make a takeover bid to either Tamedia or Ringier from one day to the next. "Just like Rupert Murdoch did to the Wall Street Journal."
René Worni

We remember: three and a half years ago, the Tages-Anzeiger proclaimed its strategic credo that the Tagi had to grow in its core area, the Zurich suburbs. Previously, the paper had failed to become a large-circulation national daily newspaper. The strategists at Werdstrasse then set up a costly network of regional editorial offices in an attempt to steal subscribers and advertisers from the traditional regional titles. Two years of Tagi local journalism later, the desired effect has not (yet) materialized. The Tagi has lost a lot of its reach, and even the large circulation has not been able to bring the Zurich regional newspapers to their knees. And the split editorial teams are still unable to make the competition sweat with closing times that are far too early, two important Tagi splits are missing in the Limmat valley and in Winterthur and the large circulation is by no means distributed nationwide. The strategy is designed for five to ten years, is the mantra at Werdstrasse. The Tagi is stuck in a dead end - time to adapt the flagship to the signs of the times and to overhaul it courageously - thinner! - to overhaul it.

Toshiba Tec Switzerland's new B2B agency is called Brüngger Bachmann Dialog. This was recently decided by the appliance manufacturer. The collaboration began with a number of measures to generate sales appointments. To this end, the Zurich agency developed an integrated campaign with the theme "Joint growth" and dramatized this with a new type of "super bean".
In an initial mailing, the target group is sent a package containing a bean branded by Toshiba. During the first visit, Toshiba's sales representatives bring the soil and a small plant pot. After a few weeks, the sales representatives have the opportunity to arrange a follow-up visit to inquire about the success of the jointly planted super bean.
The "seed bag" is accompanied by a landing page on which Toshiba Tec presents its printing and copying machines in terms of environmental compatibility. The mailings are followed up by specially trained call agents by telephone.
In addition to the mailing, banner and website, advertisements were designed for special interest titles, which also refer to the URL Superbohne.ch.
Responsible at Toshiba Tec Switzerland: Urs Stauffer (Head of Marketing) Simone Bachmann (Marketing Services) Stefan Jüngling (Product Management). Responsible at Brüngger Bachmann Dialog: Remo Bachmann (CD) Manuela Eigenmann (Art / Webdesign), Urs Obrist(Text). Daniel Brüngger / Christina Lipp / Liv Bianchet (consulting & production). Web programming Jürg Thomann / Dominik Janko (Isobar).

It is one of the biggest mistakes in Swiss history. Not three, but four confederates took the oath to found Switzerland on the Rütli in 1291. "No cheese", at least that's what the Bern-based agency Republica thinks about these latest findings of historical research. And is building an entire campaign for its client Emmi on it.
The idea was launched with a teaser. It was at this stage that Republica first publicly stated that "back then" it was not just the famous three, but the four confederates. And Republica also knows that the first four Confederates were cheesemakers. One of them was a woman.
The idea, which is a little historically flawed but otherwise charming, has been infiltrated into various blog communities by the Republica crew around CD Re Wilk over the last six weeks. The storytelling has now been revealed as teasing for the upcoming promotional campaign for the four Emmi cheeses Luzerner, Winzer, Kaltbach and Swiss Alp.
In the lead-up to the blogs, the retired "historian" Robert Hemminger, ported by Republica, had the task of thoroughly shaking up the myth of the three confederates. Hemminger's blog, which was in fact written by the Biel writer and poet Michael Stauffer, provided clear evidence that the fourth confederate had to be a woman named Johanna Winz. Stauffer made reference to a blog also launched by Republica, in which a certain Sofia Weiss sought tutoring in Swiss myths.
Both blogs were also picked up and commented on by 20 Minuten Online. In a subsequent survey of over 800 participants, a good 20 percent thought that the theory of the four confederates was true. Wilk is convinced that the "fakes" of the Four Confederates paintings from the Republica kitchen, which were created especially for the teasing phase, "probably contributed a lot to this".
The secret is now out. They really do exist, the four confederates. And in the form of the four Emmi cheeses. The Luzerner, Winzer, Kaltbach and Swiss Alps products are appearing in a joint brand promotion for the first time in this campaign. The cheeses are embodied by people - Confederates to be precise - who correspond to the brand characters of each cheese.
The unconventional promotion aims to promote cross-selling. After all, anyone who has bitten into a Kaltbach Le Gruyère, for example, is often hard to convince to try another Emmi cheese such as the Winzer. This is now set to change.
Andreas Panzeri

The material object currently causing the most concern in Switzerland is the finance minister's brain. The central question is: will it be recovered, or has the minister's biocomputer, filled with what is most likely priceless data on the Swiss financial scene, been irreparably damaged?
Perhaps only the announcement of the number of bypasses (there are 5) or his unconscious body, filmed and photographed from all sides as he was wheeled from the helicopter to the hospital on a stretcher, were as crazy as this voyeuristic introspection into Mr. Merz's brain across space and time. You could even count the number of tubes leading into his body from all sides.
However, the Inselspital Bern, where the scene took place, had agreed with the photographers and film crews that the patient should not be recognizable. But how can you blame the photographers? The quarter turn of the lens - and thus Mr. Merz's face large in the picture - is simply too tempting.
However, the Inselspital is defending itself against the accusation that patient confidentiality is being weakened. It is thanks to his family that the whole country knows everything about Mr. Merz's state of health. However, the hospital has not exactly been a strong advocate of discretion.
There is a great need for information and this is being met, the Basler Zeitung quotes Inselspital Head of Communications Markus Hächler. You can't leave TV journalists out in the rain when they are already there. This has nothing to do with profiling and marketing the Inselspital, which is fighting for the top spot in heart surgery.

Ombudscom, the ombudsman's office for the telecommunications industry, has successes to report. In 2007, it was able to settle around 90 percent of the 477 cases submitted to it through mediation, Ombudscom announced on Tuesday. The reporting year of the association, which has been transformed into a foundation under the supervision of the Federal Office of Communications, comprises the calendar year 2007 and the first six months of 2008.
In 2007, 1149 people contacted the conciliation body. This resulted in 477 cases, 89 percent of which ended in successful mediation. By the beginning of July 2008, Ombudscom had received 534 inquiries and 196 cases. 71 percent of inquiries were made in German, 25 percent in French and 4 percent in Italian. This roughly corresponds to the demographic situation.
The most frequent reasons for complaints were contract terminations, number porting, services, customer service, bills and value-added services as well as SMS.

The Alpamare water park has a new advertising space marketer. From October 1, Zürcher Propaganda will be exclusively responsible for all forms of advertising within the fun park in Pfäffikon, Schwyz. Following the successful implementation of an initial campaign in spring 2008, both parties have now decided to enter into a joint partnership.
The task of propaganda will now be to find advertising customers who want to draw attention to themselves with teasers, samples, samplings and promotions in the bathing, wellness and spa facility, which is visited by 470,000 people a year.

According to the advertising statistics of the AG für Werbemedienforschung (Wemf), print publishers in Switzerland lost a cumulative total of CHF 38.4 million in advertising revenues as of August. A shocking figure. The industry has been complaining for months. People have been bemoaning the downward trend and predicting an even worse second half of the year. The mood of doom and gloom is spreading. But let's keep our feet on the ground. The daily press shows a minus of 27.5 million Swiss francs, the general-interest press a minus of 23.5 million, the Sunday press, on the other hand, was able to increase by 17.9 million, and within the daily press, the free newspapers are still in the plus.
The total decline of 38.4 million in eight months seems imposing, but in percentage terms we're talking about a drop of just three percent. A decline that is truly not dramatic. In any other industry, such a negative development would be accepted with a shrug of the shoulders. Not so in the media industry. Everywhere you hear about cost-cutting measures. People are complaining, restructuring, freezing budgets. People complain that advertisers are failing to materialize, and implore and hope for anti-cyclical advertising behavior. And what do you do yourself? They cut back on their own advertising for their own products. Whether this sends a good signal to advertisers is open to question.
But there's no need to sugarcoat things either: Subscription dailies are the losers in the battle for the advertising pie. This is only logical, because many subscribed titles have also seen their readership decline sharply in recent years. The fact that the free newspapers are the winners across the board cannot be disputed. They are well made for the needs of their target group, have an attractive young readership and are therefore interesting for advertising. And they have a different business model. It's as simple as that.
All the culturally pessimistic whining about the decline of quality journalism is of no use; the world has changed. The number of people willing to pay something for a daily newspaper will not increase in the next few years, it will continue to decline. And it would be naive to think that today's young people, once they have grown up and settled down, will suddenly mutate into buyers or subscribers of a daily newspaper. Some of them may do so, but the vast remainder will obtain their daily information elsewhere, namely free of charge. Be it in print or online.
The daily newspaper must reinvent itself so that it can reach a smaller but interesting target group in the future. One that is willing to pay a high price for orientation, background and exclusivity. Whether that price is six or ten francs remains to be seen. But such a new business model requires courage.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]

Following a multi-stage competitive presentation, Bad Schinznach AG has opted for the Baden-based agency S&W Werbeagentur AG. In addition to the brand strategy, the budget includes the development of the corporate design and other communication measures, the agency wrote in a press release on Wednesday.
The first results of the collaboration between the thermal spa operator and the Aargau agency should be on display this fall.