Health insurance companies often make their customers more ill than healthy. There is a simple remedy for this: switching to ÖKK, say the creative minds at Y&R.
In its current campaign extension, the evils of the insurance industry are once again "mercilessly eradicated", as Markus Gut puts it.
This is communicated consistently at all levels: from traditional advertising to sponsoring, job advertisements and web banners to customer loyalty measures and magazines. The aim is also to avoid "the humorlessness of conventional insurance advertising". A nice example: For the annual report, the management of ÖKK had itself immortalized in the campaign style of illustrator Rob Hartmann. (pan)

The long-running "newspaper war" in Solothurn between the Solothurner Zeitung from the Vogt-Schild Medien Group and Tamedia, which has a local presence with the Solothurner Tagblatt, appears to be coming to a head. In the summer, Tamedia launched an annual subscription combination of Solothurner Tagblatt and Sonntagszeitung for CHF 100.
Due to this "dumping offer", as Vogt-Schild CEO Christian Müller called it to the Swiss journalist, the Solothurn publishing house has now filed a lawsuit against the Zurich media company for unfair competition. As there has not yet been a decision of the highest instance on such "bait-and-switch offers" (competition law expert Michael Vlcek from the Institute of Law at the University of Zurich), the lawsuit could set a precedent and be successful.
Vogt-Schild has also provisionally resigned from the publishing association due to the "dumping offer". The company's Board of Directors will decide whether the resignation will actually be carried out. As reported by Swiss Journalist, publisher president Hanspeter Lebrument will attempt to mediate at the annual congress of the Swiss press in Montreux next Thursday.

The Swiss data protection authority advises internet users to be well informed about the new Google Chrome browser. If too many applications such as e-mails, internet browsers or search engines are used from the same provider, it is questionable in terms of data protection, Daniel Menna, spokesman for the Federal Data Protection Commissioner, told SDA. He therefore advises Internet users to diversify their applications. "If you enter search terms on Google and have an e-mail account there, you shouldn't also use Google's browser". The more additional functions an internet company provides, the higher the risk to privacy. In general, anyone interested in Chrome should read the browser's terms of use carefully.
Google rejects criticism of Chrome and its data protection policy, but has nevertheless changed its data collection practices. On Tuesday, the company announced that in future it will anonymize users' personal connection data after just nine months. Previously, Google stored the search queries of every computer for 18 months. The data collected in this way is lucrative for Google because it allows Internet users to reveal their interests. This allows targeted advertising to be sent to them. However, according to Google, this data is also needed to improve the search engine.

Within a year, the press has lost 717,000 readers. A total of 36 titles have lost significantly, but 14 have gained. In the daily press, there were four winners and five losers. In the general-interest and business press, there were four winners and eleven losers, and in the special-interest press, six winners and 20 losers.
Titles with significant changes compared to Mach Basic 2007-2 and 2008-1
40 percent read for free
There was a further increase in the free share of the daily press. In French-speaking Switzerland, the effects of the distribution expansions of Le matin bleu and 20 minutes to the entire language area are now becoming fully visible for the first time. The two small-format free papers achieve a reader market share of no less than 45 percent. Le matin bleu is still ahead of 20 minutes.
However, the gap has narrowed by about a third, as 20 minutes made stronger gains. While the tamedia paper was still three percentage points behind the paid matin a year ago, it has now distanced it by over 13 points. This is because orange matin has lost 2.8 reach points and, along with Tribune de Genève (-1.4 percentage points), is the second title with significant losses in French-speaking Switzerland.
In German-speaking Switzerland, by contrast, 20 Minuten has grown only modestly - but still significantly. With a reach of 30.5 percent, the commuter paper now already surpasses the Sunday business day combination of Blick (Power Duo) by two percentage points. The Metropool is even already six points behind. This is because Blick and Sonntagsblick as well as Tages-Anzeiger and Basler Zeitung have lost significant coverage compared to 2007-2. In contrast, heute, which has been replaced by Brombeerblick, has gained ground. With a reach of 6.8 percent, it is now on a par with the NZZ (6.9%). In German-speaking Switzerland, the share of free newspapers has risen to 30 percent - but without News and .ch, for which no figures are yet available.Sonntagsblick magazine, on the other hand, is shown separately for the first time. With 11.8 percent, however, it reaches only 56 percent of the readers of the carrier paper, but still outperforms the NZZ am Sonntag. For the future, however, considerably more movement is to be expected in the Sunday market. Sonntag and Zentralschweiz am Sonntag will certainly have an impact on the readership figures of the regional language titles. However, it will probably be another one to two years before this is reflected in MACH Basic.
Audience press continues to go downhill
In the general-interest press, the losers come from all title groups. However, the program press in German-speaking Switzerland was particularly hard hit. Four of the seven titles lost significant ground compared with 2007-2. The losers also include the market leaders TV täglich and Tele. However, together with the other program guides from the same company, Springer's subscription title Tele Kombi XXL, with 22.6 percent, achieves practically the same reach as the free supplement TV täglich from Ringier and Tamedia.
Together with the Beobachter (which also lost significant ground), the Springer Millionenkombi even reaches more than a third of the population in German-speaking Switzerland. But even the Millionenkombi doesn't stand a chance against the cooperative titles of Migros and Coop - although both have lost significant reach.
At first glance, things look positive for the business press. In French-speaking Switzerland, the popular Tout compte fait increased its reach by over 20 percent within a year. And in German-speaking Switzerland, Handelszeitung increased its reach by 13.5 percent. This growth is due to the acquisition of the subscriber base of Cash-Wochenzeitung.
However, it remains to be seen to what extent these readers can be retained in the long term. The overall positive picture for the business press is also helped by the fact that Cash was no longer reported a year ago. Compared to 2004, its almost 300,000 readers are still missing, of course. The 85,000 readers of Cash daily do not make up for this by a long shot - but these figures still do not include screen usage via Livepaper. Only paper usage counts.
Ueli Custer

For the next three weeks, the new prevention campaign of the Lung League will be on display in the canton of Zurich. The subjects, created by the Swiss advertising agency, show archive photos of people in the USA who were killed by the Mafia in restaurants in the 1920s and 1930s. Accompanied by the headline "Passive smoking also kills".
The provocative images are intended to deliberately shock and awaken the population, according to a media release from the advertising agency. It is too little known that the disease COPD, known as smoker's lung, is the third most common cause of death in this country after cardiovascular disease and cancer, and that passive smokers can also fall ill from it.
The agency obtained the licenses for the images directly from the Los Angeles Police Department. In addition to the posters, the free postcards "Cardsforfree" and below-the-line posters on garbage trucks of the city of Zurich are used as advertising media. The apt message on them: "Don't throw your life away!"
Responsible at the Lung League Zurich: Robert Zuber (Managing Director).
Responsible at Werbeanstalt Schweiz: Reto Dürrenberger (strategy, consulting), Sarah Hiltebrand (CD), Michael Manzardo (text/concept), Mike Surovka (AD assistant), Cilgia Lang (consulting), Andi Laub (DTP), Altamont (image editing).

At the start of the high-calorie fall and winter season, new participants have been recruited for Weight Watchers' nationwide meetings since the end of August. The company, which has been active in Switzerland since 1974, is using above-the-line measures. The contract for this was awarded to the Zurich advertising agency Euro RSCG. In western and German-speaking Switzerland, ads will be placed in the magazines Annabelle, Femina and SI-Style, among others. Multi-stage direct mailings are also part of the campaign.
The subjects show people who have decided to lose weight together. The focus is on the fact, proven according to Weight Watchers, that losing weight in a group is three times more efficient than trying to do it yourself.
Responsible at Weight Watchers: Peter Kascha, Caroline Dütsch, Nadia Rimann (marketing management).
Responsible at Euro RSCG: Axel Eckstein (creative direction), Rob Hartmann, Oliver Fröhnel (art direction), Nemanja Gajic, Thomas Bruns (text), Isabelle Bühler (graphics), Sheila Wan, Walter Tagliaferri (consulting), Roman Emunds (strategy), Caroline Webb (art buying), Sonja Bloch (production), Frank Bodin (overall responsibility). Andrea Diglas (photography), Marlies Lanker (production).

The organic magazine Verde from retail giant Coop was published for the first time on Tuesday with an initial circulation of 3.3 million copies. It aims to provide information in carefully researched reports on interesting aspects and background information on organic and nutrition, lifestyle and fashion, according to a press release. Like the recently published Ecolife magazine and other publications that have been announced, the magazine is thus moving closer to Lohas - Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability - a trend creation that aims to combine a pleasurable lifestyle with environmental protection ambitions.
The new magazine has 48 pages and is published in the three national languages German, French and Italian. As a broad marketing measure, the first edition was enclosed with the Coop newspaper and other publications such as SI Style, Bilanz, NZZ Folio and L'Hebdo. In future, the organic magazine will be published four times a year and will also be available online and for subscription at Coop.ch/verde. Coop sees the magazine as an expansion of its position in the Swiss organic market, in which it claims market leadership.

Unlike the free press, where readership figures are still rising, the paid daily press is stagnating even at best. Most national titles have lost readers, while only regional newspapers have been able to maintain their level, according to the latest survey published on Tuesday by Wemf AG für Werbemedienforschung.
In terms of readership, Blick lost the most readers (-22,000 or -3.2 percent), although as the largest paid-for daily newspaper it can still count on 650,000 readers. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung was able to slow down the decline in readership somewhat compared to previous surveys, losing 6,000 readers or -2 percent.
The three largest titles - after Blick - Tages-Anzeiger, Mittelland Zeitung and Berner Zeitung (including Der Bund) also suffered a decline in readership. However, their figures are not comparable with the last survey for methodological reasons.
The Zürcher Landzeitung recorded an increase of 13,000 readers, more than compensating for the loss of readers from the last survey. The St. Galler Tagblatt and Südostschweiz remained stable.
In French-speaking Switzerland, regional newspapers in particular were also able to maintain their readership, such as Liberté in Fribourg and Nouvelliste in Valais. Competition from free titles, on the other hand, made itself felt at Le Matin (-13,000 or -4.4 percent), 24 Heures (-11,000 or -4.6 percent) and Tribune de Genève (-4,000 or -2.6 percent).

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the most powerful particle accelerator on earth will be put into operation in Geneva, and with it, the so-called Large Hadron Collider (LHC), elementary particles will be made to collide with each other at quasi-light speed. This is a major event for quantum physics, as it hopes to find the smallest building blocks in the world. And it also hopes to put an end to the wild theories that have been running rampant for decades due to the standstill in experimental physics.
How ironic that this experiment, of all things, has led to a new edition of the doomsday theories that cannot be killed, this time: the LHC produces a black hole that swallows up the Earth. Should this fantasy, reminiscent of excessive drug intoxication, actually come true, the earth would simply disappear sometime tomorrow (or if you're reading this on Wednesday: today). Kind of like at the beginning of the book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", when Earth had to be blown up to build an intergalactic highway. If that's what happens, well, then rest in peace. Or don't miss the last spaceship.

From January next year, the Chur-based newspaper network Südostschweiz will publish a large weekly circulation. A total of almost 229,000 newspapers will be printed instead of the normal circulation of almost 127,000 copies per day. With the large circulation, the association of 12 daily newspapers will reach 301,000 readers or 70,000 more than with the normal edition, as Südostschweiz Publicitas announced on Tuesday. The various daily newspapers will be published with the large circulation on different days of the week, between Tuesday and Friday.

Once dubbed revolutionary, mobile TV has not yet blossomed into what developers hoped it would be. The German magazine "Werben & Verkaufen" writes that television on the move is only making slow progress.
On behalf of the Serviceplan Group, the Zukunft Digital research initiative addressed this issue and conducted a study with 200 test subjects. The result was that TV formats specially tailored for mobile TV are better received by users than unchanged formats from conventional television. In other words: Programmes that are between five and ten minutes or even shorter are the most successful. The reason for this is that mobile TV is mainly consumed on the move and during waiting times and is not a substitute for television at home. This probably explains the success of Swiss television's "Tagesschau in 100" seconds, which was designed for mobile TV.
In addition to news, music, sports programs and series with short episodes (so-called mobisodes), commercials tailored to mobile TV are also popular. Compared to commercials on television, radio or the Internet, those on cell phones are perceived as less annoying and often even entertaining. This is a great opportunity, says Christian Bopp, Managing Director of the Serviceplan research institute Facit Digital, quoted in the article. Advertising on mobile TV has not yet run its course, people are still open-minded and curious about it.

The Zurich-based publishing house Tamedia increased its sales in the first half of 2008 by 32.1 percent compared to the previous year to CHF 472.8 million. The recently acquired Bern-based Espace Media Groupe made a particular contribution to this, as the Group announced in a press release on Tuesday. On the other hand, the overall result fell by 4.4 percent to 49 million francs. This was due to the high level of investment in the new free newspaper News, the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten and the launch of L'essentiel and the online service Newsnetz.
The potential of the merger with Espace Media Groupe has not yet been exhausted, Tamedia spokesman Christoph Zimmer told the news agency SDA. Tamedia's goal of achieving a level of profitability comparable to Tamedia's margins with Espace Media Groupe in the medium term still seems realistic. The integration of the acquired media group is progressing rapidly, according to the press release.
Advertising investments suffered a setback due to the weakening economic situation, particularly towards the end of the semester. The 2008 European Football Championships in Switzerland and Austria apparently also had a negative impact on advertising expenditure. Advertising clients brought their products to consumers in June with sponsorship or other forms of advertising than advertisements. Nevertheless, after a decline in June, cumulative sales of job advertisements are still above the comparable figure for the previous year.
Sales in the Newspapers division rose by 25 percent to CHF 337.2 million. In addition to Espace Media's publications, 20 Minuten and Thurgauer Zeitung also contributed to this growth. While Finanz und Wirtschaft remained stable, Tages-Anzeiger, Sonntagszeitung, Alpha and Stellen-Anzeiger recorded lower sales than in the previous year.
Magazine sales grew by 37.9% to CHF 54.8 million, thanks in part to Schweizer Familie and car magazines. Electronic media also performed well, with sales up 38.7 percent to CHF 38.8 million. The main contributors to this were the newly included Bernese radio station Capital FM, the local TV station Tele Bärn and the real estate platform Homegate.
In the Services division (printing and delivery services), sales rose by 51.1 percent to CHF 169.7 million. The Espace printing center and the Bern-based delivery organization Bevo made a particularly positive contribution to this growth.