In terms of content, Radio Basel 1 will concentrate on comedy, music, cinema, DVD, parties, leisure and multimedia in the entertainment sector. In the information and service area, the focus will be on local and regional events as well as listener-related and polarizing topics. Listeners will also be involved, whether via street surveys, e-mail or SMS. Silvana Imperiali, Managing Director of Radio Basel 1: "We want topics from everyday life, including those that polarize and promote dialogue. Radio Basel 1 should be a platform for our listeners."
Musically, the existing format is to be further developed and the positioning on Swiss and regional music further strengthened. Imperiali told Werbewoche that a new station layout as well as new audio signage and claims with the message "closer to home" should give the local radio station additional listener proximity and emotionality.

A squirrel gets lost in the Aubrugg substation of Zurich's electricity company, there's a short circuit, the poor animal is roasted - complete power failure in Zurich North. So far, so good, that can happen. Although the question is allowed why such an important substation is not designed in such a way that free-ranging little animals cannot cause a short circuit? After all, it could be marauding night owls or other bad guys. But let's leave that alone.
The Swiss Television site was also affected. While banks and hospitals, for which an uninterrupted power supply is vital, have an effective emergency power supply, this does not seem to be the case at the public service broadcaster SF. Leutschenbach is not equipped for such an emergency. There is an emergency power concept, but it is dimensioned in such a way that it is only capable of supporting individual broadcasts on a selective basis. If the power fails in the entire area, it won't be enough, SF spokesman Marco Meroni told the media. Great.
As a result, SF's program was interrupted for an hour and a half. So there was no Valencia GP, no Olympic closing ceremony. The TV stayed dark and the viewers migrated to the foreign channels. Maybe they stayed there. Bad luck. In any other company, such an incident would be a super-GAU. But not at Swiss television. A concerned television director apologizing in the "Tagesschau" was just about everything. An emergency power supply that would prevent an outage would only be feasible at very high cost, according to Leutschenbach. The hope that nothing would happen has caught the television administrators on the wrong foot. The whole affair is embarrassing, unnecessary and ridiculous. A station that places so much value on public service should actually be able to broadcast at any time under any circumstances. One would think.
This is dilettantism in its purest form. Only a public broadcaster that profits from compulsory fees can afford such an attitude far removed from customer orientation. It's not just about angry viewers. It's also about advertisers who wanted to have their spots broadcast in the context of the broadcasts and not sometime in the evening in a repeat with correspondingly lower viewer numbers. It can be assumed that these losses will be compensated for in the ratings, but that doesn't make the embarrassment any less.
Or maybe the whole disaster even suits the SRG as a further argument for the next fee increase. Who knows? Lucky circumstances.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]

Manuela Mani, Aysun Önaktug, Felix Schaad, Eveline Stamm and Jeanine Tinner received their diploma from EB Zurich Division Manager Nikolaus Stählin on August 28. For this, they had to write a thesis based on a real business case and present it in a pitch-like situation to the case giver.
The diploma, issued by course director Maurice Codourey and his team, is intended to serve as a precursor to the new federal certificate of proficiency in "Text and Concept". An application to this effect was submitted to the Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology in spring 2008. The federal examination is to be held for the first time in 2010. Holders of the diploma "Textpraktiker/in EB Zürich" should be able to take part directly in the federal examination with additional examination preparation.

The Bernese graphic design scene invites you to a joint exhibition. On September 12, the creative names of the last 30 years will be presented together for the first time. The premises of the Cosmic agency at Uferweg 15 will serve as both a "museum" for this excursion into history and a gallery for new works.

Snowboarding, skiing, freeriding, jumping, carving: the possibilities in winter are manifold. And even more diverse are the numerous websites on which winter sports enthusiasts exchange information. Mediabox Online is now bundling the most important communities from these areas for the first time and making them accessible to advertisers "easily and at exclusive conditions," as Sandro Proietto explains. With Snowpool.ch, interested parties can reach around 200,000 unique users on Switzerland's trendiest online platforms at a stroke. This includes, for example, Twoleftfeet.ch, which, according to the operators, is "the largest and most comprehensive board sports portal in the German-speaking world. Here, up-to-date reports on national and international board sports are published on a daily basis. Information about the hottest events can be found at Raiders.ch. Meteo news, avalanche bulletins as well as information on mountain railroads and piste conditions in all Swiss ski resorts can be found on Rideguide.ch. The pool also includes the hippest photo and film sites from the white scene.
With this new pool, Mediabox is consistently pursuing the idea of homogeneously compiling strongly structured products for advertising. With the scene pool, the most important communities from the areas of film, music, trend sports, gaming and lifestyle have already been combined into one medium, with which around 800,000 unique users can be reached with one "click". "The acceptance is very high. Within three months, the big customers have snapped it up," says a delighted Proietto. Together you have a strength. Alone, you get lost. In order to be able to reach young people and other target groups even more seamlessly with this concept, another pool is to follow soon. With the portals bundled there, Mediabox wants to offer serious competition to Tilllate and also reach more users than the site of 20 Minuten. There, the Wemf-certified number of users already exceeds 600,000.

Truck monster as advertising mediumThe Mediabox offers are also being publicized this week at the Emex in Zurich. A truck behemoth will be advertising on its own behalf around the trade fair. This advertising truck has been styled by Colani and is specially driven in from Milan. The most conspicuous advertisement on the truck is for News.ch. Piquantly, this is not the portal for the new free newspaper from Tamedia, but a domain of Vadian.net in St.Gallen. These partners of Mediabox are still in possession of numerous "sleeping beauties" as well as illustrious and already active domains like Wetter.ch, Restaurant.ch, Fashion.ch, Hotel.ch or also Stellenmarkt.ch. Mediabox also wants to become more active here in the appropriate future.
Technically, the marketer works with the same system as AdLink - "mature and professional. As a novelty in the industry, Mediabox, together with software specialists in Austria, has also developed an exclusive way of "recycling" advertising spots on one of its pool portals. For this purpose, the technically specially edited spot appears on the screen only in a narrow, but curiosity-inducing strip. In this way, it does not disturb users while they are reading the news. But if the film strip is touched with the mouse, it fades across the screen in full size. The idea has already been received with interest by Victorinox, Axa and the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention. Proietto also sees this system as a useful option for switching film trailers.
Andreas Panzeri

Success Box
Mediabox has been around since 2001, when the marketer started with two people and five media. Today, nine media specialists work near Zurich's Binz for countless media from the portfolio of independent magazines. In addition, creative ideas from below the line continue to be communicated. The box also includes two guides. "Where Switzerland celebrates summer!" and "Where Switzerland celebrates winter!" are edited in-house and produced by the company itself. Distribution is via SBB railway counters, Citydisc and kiosks.

Ogilvy & Mather brings movement to the University of St. Gallen. A 1.5 meter by 5 meter blackboard was hung as an oversized sliding game in the HSG's temporary building. The board, scrawled with business formulas, is part of an employee recruitment campaign by SAP. In addition, "The global market leader in business software" uses its presence on site with a special door design. Various classrooms in St. Gallen can be sponsored.

Social networks such as Facebook, Myspace and StudiVZ are now part of everyday life. Millions of people already conduct a large part of their communication via these channels. Facebook already has 100 million members, while Myspace broke through this barrier two years ago and now has more than 200 million members. However, complete networking has not yet been achieved: According to a survey by 20 Minuten Online, only 47 percent of Internet users in this country are members of an online community. Moreover, more than half of them spend less than five hours a week on virtual networks.
The majority of users are interested in real contacts and state that their main reason for joining is to "network with old friends and acquaintances", writes 20 Minuten. Pastime is in second place. Only in third place is the desire to find new friends.

There is too much fouling on Swiss sports fields. At least that's the opinion of Suva. That's why it commissioned the Zurich advertising agency Ruf Lanz, which has been responsible for the advertising presence of the leisure safety brand SuvaLiv since 2001, to design a new campaign. The task was to create a subject that could be used for sports as diverse as football, handball and volleyball. The agency therefore opted for the pain-relieving ice spray, which is used in a wide variety of sports.
To demonstrate the large number of fouls in Switzerland, no fewer than 37,000 ice sprays were piled up to form a mountain that bears a striking resemblance to the Matterhorn. The motif is used both as an advertisement and as a poster.

The competition must have seen red. On Tuesday of this week, the entire circulation of the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten in Switzerland was printed on yellow paper. The title of the paper read: "From today, everything is different. Inside the sheet then the clarification on an advertising street over full eight pages. "Rivella yellow is here."
After red (1952), blue (1959) and green (1999), there is now also Rivella yellow. The world premiere with the first soft drink based on soy is also obtained from a "waste product" - whey produced during the manufacture of tofu. The organic soy is harvested in southern Germany. In winter, it comes from a Fairtrade supplier in Brazil. At Rivella in Rothrist, they experimented with the lactose-free drink for four years. Now they are expecting a lot from the market in a trendy lifestyle area, but also among people without a desire or license for milk serum.
Reinhold was allowed to pour correspondingly generously during the launch campaign. A large-format "art book" with background information on Rivella yellow paved the way to the shelves of major distributors. For smaller customers such as restaurants, a mailing with a print run of 45,000 is being sent out, including soy seeds, soil and pots. A lounge covering 600 m2 has been set up in Zurich's main train station on launch day. The aim was to sell 50,000 sample bottles to men and women. A similar campaign took place on the Place de la Riponne in Lausanne. A fleet of six yellow-branded Mini will be distributing further drinking samples in ten cities in the near future. A poster campaign will follow in late fall. In addition to a broad set of ads, a commercial is already being run. After the still anonymous teaser, now comes the enlightenment, trendily staged in a lifestyle ambience. The spot was produced in Zurich by Reto Salimbeni and his Manifesto Films. From now on, the film will be used as the basic medium for the new branding.
"When we announce a different Rivella, there's a need for explanation," says Patrick Naef, who has overall responsibility for this budget at Reinhold. The ads and posters, unlike the film, are saturated with a good dollop of information about soy, Rivella, and organic.
Niche products such as Coke Zero and Redbull have somewhat dampened Rivella's sales in recent years. With yellow, everything is now set to change, and not just in the bottle.
Andreas Panzeri

There are few campaigns that last as long in advertising as those of Mobiliar. And even fewer campaigns are still as popular and successful after 10 years. At the beginning of the year, the multi-award-winning concept was awarded the title "Campaign of the Year".
The creative minds at Wirz Werbung have now proved once again that they are not resting on their laurels. CD Matthias Freuler is particularly proud of his crew's quick response with a special ad for the Swiss national team's elimination at the Euro. On a large ad, it showed a variety of situations in which Mobiliar policyholders throw their TV sets out of the window.
To this end, numerous summer themes have been placed in recent weeks, which deal with the misadventures of policyholders on vacation and at home in the usual humorous way. As the formats of the advertisements demonstrate, creativity - beyond the idea - is increasingly expanding into the area of graphic design. The ideas are visibly pushing the envelope, having already experimented with placement. (pan)

At the end of October, Tamedia is launching the people magazine 20 Minuten Friday together with Tilllate and Annabelle, and Newsnetz recently reported that Ringier is apparently also working on a free lifestyle magazine. But that's not all. The concert agency Good News Productions, in which Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) has a 52 percent stake and Ringier a 48 percent stake, is also currently considering a magazine with similar content. "Ringier and we are each developing our own concepts independently of each other. They should take into account the respective needs," says André Béchir, founder and managing director of Good-News. Based on this, a decision will be made by the end of September as to whether something joint can be realized. Otherwise, two parallel magazines would probably be launched.
The reason for the activities at Good News: The concert agency needs a replacement for the nightlife magazine Week, which it had published together with 20 Minuten since 2003 and distributed every 14 days in a total circulation of 90′ 000 copies - of which 60,000 copies were distributed on Fridays via the boxes of 20 Minuten. In June, Tamedia had terminated the contract because of its own project and ceased distribution via boxes as of July 3 - surprisingly for Good News and Ringier. "We definitely need a general interest magazine to reach a wider audience," says Béchir.
However, the new concept is not yet in place. The budget is also still open. Béchir is looking for new partners. "We also need an editorial team," he says. What is certain is that the new magazine will revolve around entertainment, lifestyle, people and, of course, music. Everything else is up for discussion. Week, which last reported a readership of 229,000, was published in tabloid format and ran to 40 pages, 6 of which were editorial and 3 extra for members. The editorial section was produced by 20 Minuten.
Béchir makes no secret of the fact that he would prefer a cooperation with a Ringier title. "This would really be an opportunity for Ringier, because thanks to our contacts in showbiz, we could facilitate interviews with various stars," he says. Is he thinking of Blick or Blick am Abend? Béchir waves it off: Blick is already working with a competitor - and that contract doesn't seem to be up for grabs. But for Béchir it is clear: So far, the full potential of Good News has not been exploited. It is true that the cooperation between 20 Minuten and Good News was "very good". "But in the end, the heart and soul was missing. Week could have been turned into something more exciting," he says. That's one reason why Week has slowly but steadily lost readers since its launch.
Markus Knöpfli

Wings for Good News
The unexpected termination of the contract by Tamedia necessitated a summer break for Week. However, from August 28 and until the end of the year, the magazine will be published again every 14 days and with 30,000 copies. It will be sent to the 15,000 or so Good News members and displayed in companies. And Tamedia remains committed: 20 Minuten will continue to provide the six editorial Week pages and, on top of that, print them in its own newspaper every Tuesday after Week appears. This will temporarily give Good News a mega reach. (mk)
Facts about Good News Productions
Shareholders: Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) 52 %, Ringier 48 %. Ringier has the majority of votes
occasions per year: 80-100
Visitors per year: 600'000 to 800'000
Turnover per year: 50 million francs
Employees: 20
Subsidiaries: Fortissimo AG (production) and EM Event Marketing AG (events)

Successful brands always offer both: practical advantages and emotional benefits. Brands speak directly to our feelings, motives and dreams. That's why it's important for the creatives at the By Heart agency to position brands in the emotional world of consumers. But how?
"We are convinced that brands have to fascinate. It's like when I walk into a bar. No one here has the chance to tell me their life story and convince me of their worth by way of argument. I only sit down with someone who immediately appeals to me, turns me on, and fascinates me," Markus Bircher compares. Brands function in a similar way, and psychological mechanisms are therefore becoming increasingly important. Especially in times when advertisers no longer have the opportunity or the budget to argue at length.
The advertising agency By Heart was founded 14 years ago by Hans Siegwart and Markus Bircher. Today, 15 people work in a former wine grotto on Zurich's Zeltweg "for many beautiful Swiss premium brands," as Markus Bircher proudly explains. The agency is strongly positioned for brand advertising. Those who come to By Heart don't want a "creative high-flyer." For this, the agency has been working for the same clients for nine years in some cases, for example the PKZ Group. Most of the time, By Heart is "very much involved right up to the strategic issues.
In this long search for new ideas on how to strengthen a brand and give it an independent appearance, Markus Bircher and his team have become increasingly interested in finding out even more about exactly how brands work.

Get to the bottom of the brandBrandezza grew out of this need five years ago. Markus Bircher sought contact with the University of Applied Psychology in Zurich. There, Professor Daniel Süss was inspired. The first research project could already be tackled with the help of the National Fund. This project dealt with the question of how to measure the psychological and emotional performance of a brand.
Since then, several studies have repeatedly addressed the question: How much advertising does a brand need? What exactly does it need? Which brand services offer the greatest leverage on brand sympathy? "As an advertising agency today, you have to explain things to your clients," Bircher is convinced. Advertisers must also be able to say honestly: What can advertising do, and what can it not do? Where are there opportunities to achieve the same or even better effects with other instruments? For Bircher, psychology is "an important explanatory model" for this. However, one must have one's ethical principles, and Bircher also discussed Vance Packard and his then agitator "The Secret Seducers" extensively during his studies. But he is convinced that it would be wrong not to actually use what we know about psychological mechanisms. "We owe it to our customers. Advertising is supposed to work, after all." People can no longer be so easily assigned to brands and markets sociodemogaphically. That makes it all the more important to look at one's target groups psychographically as well. "Then you realize that advertising is nevertheless not so unpredictable."
Markus Bircher studied German in Zurich and "always wrote advertising copy" while still a student. He was a Steiner student, "which perhaps explains a certain affinity for brands, because advertising was taboo there." He was able to pursue his interest more at GGK, where Bircher did his first internship. Then he financed his studies at a small agency as a "lad for everything." After graduating, he joined GGK Zurich for real and "learned a lot" there. He later found more in-depth insights into advertising at a successor agency to Grendene and Lanz, at what was then HSG&L. It was there that Bircher met his current business partner, Hans Siegwart. When, after two years, a major change in management was due, the two decided to go into business for themselves. In 1994, By Heart was founded. In the rooms of an old wine shop on Zeltweg, the two creative people "started very small." But things progressed quickly and while the wine shop had to downsize more and more, the advertisers were able to take over more and more space at the same time.
After a lot of development work in the start-up company Brandezza, Bircher will now concentrate more on By Heart again. Brandezza is in the process of becoming independent in terms of space and personnel. This is because the demand for the innovative Brandezza instruments has developed steadily and makes it necessary for this company to be able to operate independently.
For Markus Bircher, this development is very positive. And By Heart still offers him quite enough tasks to keep him busy. In his free time, Markus Bircher plays the piano, "not very well, but passionately". New ideas also ripen for him when he cruises on Lake Zurich in his "small but fun" sailboat.
Andreas Panzeri