The Zurich agency Facing produced the 2007 annual reports for Coop Mineraloel, Swissgrid and the Association of Swiss Master Carpenters and Furniture Manufacturers. Swissgrid is responsible for the operation of the extra-high voltage grid throughout Switzerland. Based on the guiding principle "Moving Power", Facing's annual report focused on the company's internal change process resulting from the liberalization of the electricity market, according to a press release.Facing created the annual report for Coop Mineraloel in the form of a company portrait, focusing on customers and employees. Finally, for the Verband Schweizerischer Schreinermeister und Möbelfabrikanten (Association of Swiss Master Carpenters and Furniture Manufacturers), the agency oriented itself visually and typographically on the Schreiner Zeitung, which was published in a new look in the fall of 2007.

The Civic Democratic Party (BDP) has modified its website following a threat from the SVP Switzerland. Since Friday, it has appeared at Bdp.tv with the coats of arms of the cantons of Graubünden, Bern and Glarus, where the BDP sections have already been established or will be formally founded at the end of August. The green of the SVP logo has been replaced by a dark blue, with stars twinkling in the night sky. But you can also access Bdp.tv by entering Svp.tv. For a few seconds, a sun with dark glasses appears on a bath towel before quickly switching to the new site. The situation will be analyzed over the weekend and legal action will be taken, said SVP party spokesman Alain Hauert when asked by SDA. The SVP had demanded that the Thurgau production company responsible for the BDP site change the new party's Internet presence and not use the name SVP or the People's Party logo in any form.

In the first half of 2008, radio lost a small amount of daily reach. 90.7 percent of over-15s in German-speaking Switzerland tuned in to the radio for just under 118 minutes a day in the first half of the year. This is 0.5 percent less than in the first half of 2007, according to the half-year figures from Publica Data, and the DRS stations increased their market share by 0.8 percent to 64.6 percent. DRS 3 scored points: its market share rose by 1.4% to 15.8%. DRS 1, on the other hand, suffered a drop of 1.3% and achieved a market share of 38.5%, while the market share of all Swiss-German private radio stations fell by 0.9% year-on-year to 25.4%. Foreign stations, on the other hand, increased slightly by 0.2% to 6.2%. Radio 24, which has a reach of 5.6% and a market share of 2.5%, continues to lead the private radio stations. Energy Zürich improved from third to second place with a reach of 4.4%. It thus overtook Radio Top (4.3%). RSR remains the leaderIn French-speaking Switzerland, the number of radio listeners reached fell by 1.5% to 88.5%. The leading position of Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) remained virtually unchanged, with a reach of 53.7% (+0.1%). The RSR stations thus reached around 1.3 million listeners. The market share amounted to 57%, while private radio stations in French-speaking Switzerland lost a significant amount of reach. Their reach amounted to 49.4% in the past six months, 3.6% less than in the same period last year. The market share of the private stations fell by 0.4% to 23.3% in the same period.

There is a new advertising agency in Zurich West called Four. It was founded by the former management team of Fisch.Meier/Publicis Dialog: Sandra Genge, Christian Hansen, Björn Brinkmann and Philipp Sträuli. According to a press release issued on Thursday, the declared aim is to focus on impact rather than measures. This is why Four offers "multichannel creativity" and is media-neutral in dialog, classic and online.

The advertising agency In Flagranti from Lys has won the Visana and Visana Business brands of the Visana Group in a competitive presentation. According to a press release issued on Thursday, the agency's strategy and the long-term usable creation were convincing. The implementation shows what is closest to you: the pillow. This is just as good a place to be as with Visana. This key image is supported by the claim "And you're in the right place here". This message is intended to appeal to both private and corporate customers.Responsible at Visana Services AG:Yvonne Kohler Giger (Head of Marketing Private Clients), Karin Lanz-Stirnemann (Marketing Communications Corporate Clients), Esther Trüssel and Franziska Lehmann (Marketing Communications Private Clients).
Responsible at In Flagranti: Michael Hählen, Lorenz Schmid, Manuela Kern (consulting), Lorenz Killer (AD), Andrea Tschirren (Junior AD), Jon Florin,Simon Kümin, Jürg Freudiger (text/concept).

Misses are always in demand in Switzerland - even "ex-Miss" seems to be a real profession. However, one job has slipped through the local Misses' fingers: The lucky fairy at the 1st Swiss Media Ball is Miss France. This is no coincidence, as France is the guest country at the event, which takes place on the last weekend in October at the newly opened Dolder Grand. With the black-haired beauty named Valérie Bègue, the organizers of the media ball write in a communiqué, which includes a high-resolution picture of the young lady, that they want to set "a first glamorous highlight". Described as "beautiful and intelligent", the 22-year-old will choose the lucky winners of the big raffle. The proceeds will go to the international aid organization Reporters sans frontières and the Zurich Journalism Prize. So at least the local scribblers will benefit from the glamorous import from the neighboring country.

 Beijing, the venue for this year's Summer Olympics, is a long way away. That is why Swiss Olympic is calling on the Swiss population to support the Swiss Olympic team with success and congratulations as well as motivational texts via the Internet. The campaign, which is linked to a competition, was developed by the Bern agency Freiburghaus und Partner. The competition starts on July 28 with a broad-based online campaign and advertisements in print media throughout Switzerland and will run until August 24. Participants can send in their wishes by text message or by entering them on the www.swissolympic.ch/fanpost website. The entries will be reviewed and published by Swiss Olympic and shown on the TV screens in the House of Switzerland in Beijing.
Responsible at Swiss Olympic:
Dany Gehrig (Head of Marketing Swiss Olympic). Responsible at Freiburghaus und Partner: Simon Freiburghaus (Creative Director), Youri Laubscher (Art Director), Pascale Berclaz, Heike Kamieth, Lea Moser (Consulting), Croci & du Fresne (Photo and Composing).

 Despite the financial crisis and record-high gas prices, the Swiss are still in the mood to shop. Retailers posted a 4.6 percent increase in sales to 19.2 billion francs in the first half of 2008. The increase of 837 million francs compared to the previous year came primarily from food sales, which rose by 6.1 percent to 11.1 billion francs. This is shown by a survey conducted by the market research institute GfK among 19 retailers. So-called convenience products—such as ready-to-eat meals, pre-packaged sandwiches, pre-made salads, and salad dressings—are becoming increasingly popular (+11.4 percent). Bread (+8.8 percent) and dairy products (+6.7 percent) also posted significantly higher sales.
The non-food market saw an overall increase of 2 percent in the first half of 2008. Spending in the laundry and cleaning supplies, personal care, and pet food category rose by 3.4 percent. Sales of furniture, household and garden goods, and stationery items increased by 3.5 percent.
Euro 08 Made the Beer Flow The European Soccer Championship helped boost sales of beer, sausages, and chips: In June, 15 percent more beer was consumed than in the same month the previous year. In addition, 11 percent more sausages and 9 percent more chips were eaten.
Sales of sporting goods surged by 15 percent in June. Sales of bags and backpacks were up as much as 18 percent compared to June 2007. TV retailers, however, came up empty-handed: Sales of TVs and video equipment dropped by 3 percent in June. Sales of cameras plummeted by as much as a quarter. Despite the advertising blitz leading up to the European Soccer Championship, sales of TVs and video equipment rose by only 4 percent over the entire first half of the year. Camera retailers had to cope with a 9 percent decline.

 It was already known that the French-speaking Swiss company GSMN, the former Agen holding company, was looking into selling its press division. Now another rumor is making the rounds: Tamedia and Ringier are interested in acquiring the business newspaper L'Agefi and the women's magazine Profil Femme from GSMN. As reported by Le Temps, Tamedia is already preparing an offer. The purchase would strengthen the business newspaper Finanz & Wirtschaft and the women's magazine Annabelle with a counterpart in French-speaking Switzerland. However, the Zurich media company was unable to comment when asked by Werbewoche: "We do not comment on rumors. Both Finanz & Wirtschaft and Annabelle are successful and there is no reason to fundamentally change the concept," explained spokesman Christoph Zimmer. Ringier is also refraining from commenting: "As a matter of principle, we do not comment on rumors on the market," explained company spokesman Marco Castellaneta. Ringier is already present on the women's magazine market in French-speaking Switzerland with the title Edelweiss.
The GSMN Group (Genolier Swiss Medical Network) combines clinics and media under one roof, but announced in May that it would concentrate on the healthcare division in future.

 The Internet is growing faster than expected: Around one trillion web addresses currently exist. Google developers Jesse Alpert and Nissan Hajaj recently wrote this in the company's own blog. In comparison: when the Google index was first created in 1998, the number of unique URLs found was still comparatively modest at 29 million pages. However, the rapid growth of the new medium was already evident in 2000 when the one billion mark was broken. However, the current figures were a surprise even for the Google employees themselves, they admit in their blog entry. They represent growth by a factor of 1,000 in just eight years. According to Alpert and Hajaj, this means that on average around 4,000 new web addresses are added every second, with the size of the Internet reaching a new milestone with a thousand-fold increase over the past eight years. Not all web addresses found were counted for the current measurement: Pages that can be found via several URLs were only counted once.

 Switzerland is gaining a new photography prize: SBB Cargo is launching the SBB Cargo Newcomer Photo Award in collaboration with the advertising agency Euro RSCG Zurich. It is being offered for the first time this year. Photographers in training will be challenged to take part in a professional competition photo shoot and will be judged by a panel of experts. The shoot on the theme of "SBB Cargo" will take place at locations throughout Europe. The judges are Barbara Basting (cultural editor Tages-Anzeiger), Martin Parr (Magnum photographer), Rein Wolfs (Artistic Director Kunsthalle Fridericianum Kassel) and Jürg Aemmer (Creative Director Euro RSCG and President of Designnetwork Switzerland). The winner of the SBB Cargo Newcomer Photo Award 2008 will receive prize money of CHF 5,000. The 12 best photographs from the shoot will also be printed in large format in the 2009 SBB Cargo calendar.

Preparations for the Olympics at SRG: Just under two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in China, Swiss television is already gearing up for its mission in Beijing. Special attention is being paid to preventing possible censorship by the Chinese government. This is because Chinese state television always broadcasts images of events with a delay of several seconds. This means that unwelcome images can be suppressed and thus censored. As the Sonntag newspaper reported in its July 27 edition, Swiss television's own cameras will therefore be used for the first time at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Positioned in so-called presentation positions, they will allow SF to send its own images to Switzerland at any time. If independent reporting is not possible despite these measures, SRG Director General Armin Walpen intends to resort to harsh measures: If necessary, he wants to stop the entire coverageSRG will be on site with 133 employees during the games.