AZ Medien's online platform, which is currently under development, now has a mobile offering. At Mobile.a-z.ch, you can find national and international news, a mobile doodle appointment survey and various audio offerings from Radio Argovia, accompanied by a search function for content on the site and the entire mobile web. Drivers can find the locations of mobile speed traps reported by Radio Argovia listeners. The current program offerings of the regional television station Tele M1 can also be called up, as well as radio streaming via cell phone. Radio Argovia can be listened to live throughout Switzerland. Audio contributions from various areas are also offered. According to a press release issued on Monday, this pilot project was developed in collaboration with Swisscom and can be used with a flat-rate subscription. There are no additional data charges.
The mobile offering is being continuously expanded, as the press release explains. A recipe search is planned in collaboration with "Annemarie Wildeisens Kochen". Current job, property and car offers are also to be integrated.
The portal can be used free of charge, apart from the normal data fees charged by mobile phone operators, and the link to Mobile.a-z.ch can be ordered via SMS with the keyword "Mobile" to 974 (20 Rp./SMS).

 The Zurich agency Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett has realized a campaign for the news network of Tagesanzeiger.ch, Bernerzeitung.ch and Bazonline.ch. The claim "Don't miss a thing" is implemented in four subjects. These show situations in which the most important moment has just been missed, from world politics to a major sporting event to a sensation in Swiss nature. The campaign can be seen immediately on advertisements and posters:

Dominik Lämmler (Head of Advertising Market), Peter Wälty (Editor-in-Chief), Sandra Kopplin (Head of Reader Market). Responsible at SFLB: Simon Staub (AD), Moritz Stillhard (Graphics), Antonio Lopez (Text), Peter Brönnimann (CD), Andy Stäheli, Noemi Schmid (Consulting), Suzana Kovacevic (Art Buying).

 

 

 Berlin-based Econ Verlag, publisher of the Advertising Yearbook, is once again looking for the best advertising and the newcomer agency of the year. This year's competition starts on September 1. Outstanding work will be awarded a silver megaphone. Young creatives can also win laurels: the jury has been promoting young agencies with the Newcomer competition since 1991. The competition is held for German-speaking countries and awards a silver megaphone to the "Newcomer Agency of the Year". The agency must have been founded after January 1, 2006.
For the first time in the 2009 competition, a megaphone will be awarded for the best entry in the business-to-business category. Entries from the categories print, ambient media, events, direct marketing, film/TV spots, radio spots, online and multimedia are eligible for each discipline. Entries consisting of contributions from different categories can also be submitted as an integrated campaign. The deadline for all entries is October 13, 2008.

The Italian fashion company Benetton is continuing its tradition of provocative advertising with a new motif. On Friday, it published an advertisement showing a Tibetan monk and a Chinese soldier. The word "victim" can be seen above them. Benetton wants the advertisement to be understood as a "message for peace" and in no way as a political statement, as Welt.de reports. The advertisement appeared on double-page spreads in several Italian daily newspapers and in the French daily newspaper Le Monde. "We in no way want to take sides with China or Tibet. It is a general message for peace, tolerance and peaceful coexistence between peoples," said a Benetton spokesperson according to Welt.de. The picture marks the end of an initiative by the company for the victims of the earthquake in southwest China in May.

 Like the Sonntagsblick, so the Blick, the makers of the two newspapers seem to have thought: On Sunday, the picture of Köbi Kuhn driving his sick wife in a wheelchair through the clinic's park adorned the front page. On Monday, the same picture on the front. Köbi's gaze is directed a little more into the distance and his wife, unlike on Sunday, is looking into the camera. But otherwise identical, same clothes, same park. The two editorial teams clearly agreed that Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn should be on the front page, but they were apparently not in complete agreement on a much less serious matter: the broadcast of the Street Parade by private broadcaster 3+. While Sonntagsblick ran the headline: "Everyone wanted Gina-Lisa!" and praised the German star guest, perhaps known to some as a Germany's Next Top Model contestant, in high terms ("She returned every greeting, posed patiently for photos, threw her kissing hands all over the place."), Montagsblick had less positive things to say about the 3+ broadcast. In a commentary entitled "Street Parade on 3+: below the belt", it says that scandalous Gina-Lisa wasn't even needed, what the normal presenters offered was scandalous enough... It's just like in real life - sometimes you agree, sometimes you don't.

 Smile.direct, based in Zurich-Wallisellen, is the direct insurance company for motor vehicles and private households. It is the first insurance company in Switzerland to offer a unique fairness guarantee. Following a pitch, Ruf Lanz was awarded the contract to confidently position Smile.direct as the fair online insurance company, as detailed in a press release. According to Claudia Staub, Head of Marketing & Communication, the creative agency impressed with "an integrated concept that enables expressive positioning and emotional involvement". The first works by Ruf Lanz will be on display this fall.

 New arrival at .ch: Andrej Abplanalp is joining the free newspaper on October 1, 2008. He will be a member of the editorial management and pagemaker for the regional editions. "This position has been newly created to relieve the main edition's pagemaker and to optimize the coordination and coaching of the field offices," .ch Editor-in-Chief Rolf Leeb told Werbewoche. Abplanalp is currently deputy editorial director of Gastrojournal. He has been in charge of final production there since 2005. Before that, the 38-year-old had worked for 20 Minuten, Telebärn and Radio Extrabern.
In addition to Leeb and Abplanalp, the editorial management of .ch will in future comprise Marcel Siegenthaler (Deputy Editor-in-Chief), Mona Fahmy (Chief Reporter), Daniel Arnet (Head of Style), Benjamin Bögli (Head of Production), Kevin Lancashire (Head of Online) and Andre Maschek (Head of Sports).

 In the liberalized postal market, postal regulator Marc Furrer wants Swiss Post to make its distribution centers available to private competitors for a fee. This would prevent duplication. According to SDA, Furrer said in an interview with the Basler Zeitung that it was unacceptable for such infrastructures to be set up several times in parallel. Access and the tariffs for this would have to be regulated when the new postal law is drawn up.Furrer compares the shared use of the postal infrastructure with the last mile in the telephone market. The price of access to the last mile for Swisscom's competitors will be determined by the Federal Communications Commission (Comcom) in September or October. Furrer also heads Comcom.
Furrer is concerned about Swiss Post's current expansion in the area of early delivery of newspapers. This development is typical. "The monopolist buys up the market shortly before liberalization. Then competition no longer plays a role." In Furrer's opinion, Swiss Post would be well advised to refrain from such national expansion while the new postal law is being drafted.

 TV presenter and editor-in-chief of Radio e Televisiun Rumantscha (RTR), Mariano Tschuor, is flirting with the director's post at RTR. He wants to continue the work of RTR director Bernard Cathomas, who will retire in spring 2009 (see ). Tschuor is said to have returned to Zurich five years ago with this goal in mind. He told the Sonntag newspaper: "I have never made a secret of the fact that I am interested in this position." He has worked for SRG for 25 years, knows the company inside out and has implemented significant innovations together with Cathomas in recent years. In addition to Tschuor, two other names are mentioned in Sonntag as favorites for the post: Scuol municipal president Jon Domenic Parolini and cantonal school principal Gion Lechmann.asked about his chances of being elected, Tschuor told Sonntag: "I really don't know." And if he doesn't get the position of director, he will have to have a very serious discussion with himself and think about what to do next.

 Finally, a tangible scandal in the show "Bauer, single, sucht...": Farmer Tobias grows marijuana on his land and is one of the biggest hemp dealers in his area. Around three months ago, a raid is said to have taken place on his farm. But that's not all: he has even served time in prison, as the authorities confirmed to Sonntagsblick. The private broadcaster 3+ can save itself a sacking, as the bad boy left the matchmaking show voluntarily. Allegedly because the woman who was supposed to spend a week with him on his farm packed her bags after just a few days... I wonder if she got an overdose of Love and Peace? In any case, 3+ said it had not been informed about Tobias' sideline and expressed surprise to Sonntagsblick: "The farmer would not have made it onto the show if they had known about the conviction. Well, that puts our minds at rest. Still, it's a shame about the guy... a bit of dirt wouldn't have done the show any harm in addition to the sometimes hard to bear farming idyll.

 Philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas has been awarded the Hans Ringier Foundation’s «European Prize for Political Culture,» now in its third year. According to a statement from the foundation, Habermas is receiving the prize as one of Europe’s leading intellectuals. «Habermas is best known for his work in social philosophy and his teaching at universities around the world. His theories have had a decisive influence on the development of modern social sciences and moral philosophy.»The prize, worth 50,000 euros, was presented to Habermas at a Ringier event held as part of the Locarno Film Festival.

 According to a new study, the reputation of advertising experts at European companies is extremely poor. Only 32% of respondents in Europe consider advertising managers to be credible. The only professional group to fare worse are politicians (14 percent), and the index of the international survey also shows that advertising experts are rated as less trustworthy in Western Europe (27 percent) and the USA (25 percent) in particular. In Central and Eastern Europe, on the other hand, advertisers have an above-average reputation of 50 percent, writes the industry magazine Horizont, based on the results of the study. In a country comparison, trust in this professional group is highest in Romania at 58%, followed by Poland (52%) and Bulgaria (49%). Germany is below the European average at 28%. France and the Netherlands bring up the rear with 16% and 17% respectively.
The most trustworthy professional groups include firefighters and doctors. GfK surveyed almost 20,000 people from 19 European countries and the USA for the study.