Euro 2008 is over and Spain has been crowned European champion for weeks now, but the issue of public viewing is still keeping lawyers on their toes: the Federal Administrative Court has ruled that no special tariff will apply to such major events in the future. With its ruling, the court confirmed a decision made by the Arbitration Commission for the Exploitation of Copyright and Neighboring Rights in April. The Commission determined that only copyright societies may demand license fees (see
). In accordance with this tariff, the copyright company Suisa collected CHF 160 from public viewing organizers for the duration of the entire European Football Championship. For its part, the European Football Association (Uefa) also charged fees for public viewing events, albeit much higher ones. Uefa also appealed to the Federal Administrative Court against the fact that only the Suisa tariff should apply (see
). The appeal has now been rejected. The court had already withdrawn the suspensive effect of the appeal in May, so that the Suisa tariff for the European Championship could come into force.

The online dating service Partnerwinner.ch brings people together who would otherwise never meet. In a new image campaign, the Zurich-based advertising agency Meyer Werbung uses clear images to illustrate this fact, playing with extremes. The posters show couples that could hardly be more different: an orthodox Jew with a devout Muslim woman, a Catholic priest with a provocative Lolita-type young lady and a skinhead with a dark-skinned woman. Thanks to Partnerwinner.ch, they all present themselves in perfect harmony. The advertising message of this sensational campaign is that love knows no boundaries. According to a press release from Meyer Werbung, all the models were surprisingly easy to recruit - except for the orthodox Jew. So agency owner Thomas Meyer, himself of Jewish descent, had a beard added without further ado.
The three subjects will be on display in Zurich, Bern and Basel for two weeks from July 28 and will also be used as a print campaign in all Tamedia titles without restriction.
Responsible at Partnerwinner.ch:
Christoph Lüscher. Responsible at Meyer Werbung, Zurich: Thomas Meyer (copywriting and creative direction), Nicolas Y. Aebi (photography and art buying).

 Publicitas provides information on the interim status of its reorganization and announces that sales in Switzerland will be divided into four areas in future. The reorganization is progressing "faster than planned", according to a press release issued on Friday evening. In particular, the marketing of print media and TV has become more effective, transparent and sales-oriented. Further reorganization steps are planned for August to optimize sales processes and services. Sales Switzerland under Thomas Bargetzi will in future be divided into four regional sales areas (Léman, ROC, Central and East). In addition, the two departments "National Sales" and "Direct Sales" will be created in Zurich. The competence units for each media category will be located in National Sales. The main task of the regional sales units with their branch network will continue to be active print sales, the press release continues. In addition, however, consulting and sales across all media are to be successively promoted. Competence units will be deployed for this purpose. They will support the regions with specific know-how, for example on electronic media. They will also support partners in media agencies and customers, as Bargetzi is quoted in the press release.
The key account departments of Publicitas Publimedia and the "Electronic & Interactive" units will work more closely together in future. In consultation with the agencies involved, they will look after the 50 or so most important advertising clients. The "Media Partner Relations" unit will be integrated into Sales.
A newly introduced reporting system is intended to ensure uniform measurability across all branches of the company. And Publicitas is apparently focusing on internal competition: since June, all sales units have been able to see how their sales performance compares to that of other units on a ranking list.
The heads of the "Sales Switzerland" sales organization from 1 August 2008 and 1 September 2009 are as follows:
Management: Thomas Bargetzi
Sales area West: Patrick Cuénoud
Central sales area: René Gehrig
Sales area East: Stefan Bai
NZZ-Media: Walter Vontobel
Publicitas Publimedia: Stephan Gartenmann
Electronic & Interactive: Tim Dührkoop
Publicitas Publiconnect: Markus Bucher
Direct Sales: Moreno Cavaliere
Publicitas Publimag: Darko Panic
New Sales: Werner Schlatter
Publicitas Swiss Press: Paul Baumgartner
Media Partner Relations: Alexandra Kasper
Sales Support: Heinz Bischof
The management at Marketing & Communications Worldwide:
Management: Christian Gartmann
Market Development: Séverine Lago
Marketing Services: Michael Schaefer
Legal Services: Jan Widmer
Project Rebranding: Sabine Tschopp

Feldschlösschen has launched Fresca, a sparkling beer with fruit juice, and entrusted the Basel-based Oswald Siegfried advertising agency (OSW) with the creation of the national launch campaign. It includes various poster formats. OSW also designed the entire below-the-line package: POS measures such as displays, shelf stoppers, window stickers and F12 posters as well as a competition. Responsible at Feldschlösschen:
Patrick Schweizer (Brand Manager), Niklas Kukat (Marketing Team). Responsible at Oswald Siegfried Werbeagentur (OSW): Michael Oswald (Art Direction), Nadine Siegfried (Consulting), René Fisch (Text), Leila Merkofer (Graphics), Miriam Gramelsbacher (Consulting).

 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 all reporting (see also
). SRG will have 133 employees on site during the matches.

 A few months after the appointment of a new editor-in-chief, the managing director of the Spiegel publishing house is also changing: the previous publishing director Mario Frank is stepping down at the end of the year, as the German news magazine announced on Friday. The new managing director will be 47-year-old Ove Saffe. He has been publishing director of the Stern Group at Gruner+Jahr since 2004. He already worked at Spiegel-Verlag from 1996 to 2000, most recently as Head of Sales Marketing. In April, Frank lost the confidence of the so-called Mitarbeiter KG, which holds 50.5 percent of Spiegel. Gruner+Jahr, minority owner of the news magazine, subsequently backed Frank, but has now apparently had to give in. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, there is a good chance that the change at the top of the publishing house will take place before the announced date.

The launch of the iPhone 3G was without a doubt a sensation. The Werbewoche editorial team was there itself and was amazed to see the scramble outside the Swisscom store in Zurich. We were even more amazed by the media event at the Hiltl restaurant. Before the official sales launch of the iPhone 3G, the phone company Swisscom invited the local media to offer them a "unique multimedia experience". The rumor mill was buzzing. Will Swisscom give away one of these coveted gizmos? When it comes to mobile TV and the Nokia N77, Swisscom has been generous with the journos. Talking to professional colleagues, it turned out that people got together at the Hiltl to literally dust off an iPhone. The motives were different. "My boss sent me here because he wants to give it to his daughter," said a young journalist. His counter neighbor even skipped the "best party" of the year to get his hands on a device. "I'm not buying it," he says bluntly. Several representatives of a commuter newspaper stand around expectantly. They are nervous: "I already have one, but my girlfriend wants one too," one of them says openly. His colleague says, "I heard that iPhones are being distributed. So I quickly signed up." Minutes later, a journalist from a quality newspaper with a global reputation declares that he will definitely not be reporting anything about the iPhone. Why is he here, we ask? "I want to watch porn on the iPhone," he says, sipping his beer. Astonished, we turn to the next interviewee. And indeed, there are journalists who have never held a device in their hands, but have long since written their multi-page test report. We ask them how this works: "Thanks to Google and blogs," is the answer. Another journalist from a Tamedia daily newspaper caught our eye. When asked whether she would keep the iPhone after the test, she said: "We send back everything that costs over 100 francs. Exemplary, we think. Others comment on the statement as pure code chatter. Keeping an iPhone is less bad than making the phone the main topic for weeks, they say. One meticulously counted iPhone mentions in articles by his colleagues over the past few days. "At one point, I counted 41. Unbelievable, isn't it?" Scandalous, we say. Regarding iPhone, by the way, we left empty-handed. Swisscom did not give a test device to all journalists, but only to those who work for high-reach titles. The advertising week is obviously flying under Swisscom's perception radar. As a consolation, our colleagues have to send the thing back in two weeks.

This summer, the Sonntagszeitung is sponsoring the Orange Cinema and the Montreux Jazz Festival, among others. AY&R has come up with a spot and a poster motif to match the respective event, which further establish the Sonntagszeitung's current Babushka campaign. At the end of George W. Bush's term of office, the spot once again addresses an issue that will long outlast his presidency: the war in Iraq. And the poster subject takes an ironic look at the favorite toy of bad boys: the electric guitar.
Responsible at the Sunday newspaper:

Diego Quintarelli (publishing director), Andrea Waltzer (advertising director). Responsible at Advico Y&R: Christian Bobst (CD), Martin Stulz (text), Rob Hartmann (AD), Emi Lehmann (graphics), Fabian Biedermann, Lukas Tenger (consulting), Kathrin Gerber, Verena Rentsch (art buying). Responsible at Markenfilm: Uli Scheper (production) Sandra Trostel (editor), UPP Praha (post-production), JingleJungle (sound).

The Zurich agency Ruf Lanz has created a cinema spot for the vegetarian restaurant Hiltl, in which a professional sound designer is looked over his shoulders. According to the press release, the spot reveals how certain sounds are still produced today - even in Hollywood: with crunchy vegetables. With the help of carrots, leeks, tomatoes and the like, the final scene of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof is set to music. The idea and screenplay were written by Markus Ruf. The film was directed by the Los Angeles-based Swiss Serge Hoeltschi, with whom Ruf Lanz already shot the TV commercials "Stevie Wonder" and "Andrea Bocelli" for the Mühlehalde home for the blind. The spot was produced by Onfilm Zurich with Daniela Berther as producer. The sound designer is Peter Bräker, who has already worked for films such as Snow White, Sternenberg or serious Havana.Responsible at Hiltl: Rolf Hiltl (overall responsibility). Responsible at Ruf Lanz: Markus Ruf, Danielle Lanz (CD), Gian Marco Juon (consulting). Design of posters, advertisements and postcards: Marcel Schläfle (AD), Markus Ruf (text). Production: Onfilm Zurich. Producer: Daniela Berther. Director: Serge Hoeltschi. Camera: Maher Maleh. Editing: Marko Strihic. Sound design: Peter Bräker.

 The news network of the Tages-Anzeiger, Berner Zeitung and Basler Zeitung will have prominent reinforcements during the Olympic Games: Peter Achten will report daily from Beijing. His video reports will focus on stories about the Games - be it the environmental situation, the concerns and enthusiasm of the population or human rights. The 69-year-old worked for Swiss television for many years. He became known to the public as a newsreader. Before moving to Beijing as a correspondent in 1986, he was a member of the SF editorial team. After a stint as a television correspondent in Washington, he has been working as Asia correspondent for Radio DRS since 1997.
Markus Ryffel will also write a daily column as an expert on athletics competitions. The 53-year-old is one of the most important figures in Swiss sport. As an active athlete, he won silver in the 5,000 meters at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He won numerous medals at international championships. Ryffel still holds the national records for the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. Together with his brother Urs, he runs Ryffel Running AG with stores in Bern and Uster.

 
On July 21, 2008, Radio 24 will launch the weekly special "On the Rocks¬". Rock music will be broadcast from its origins in the 1960s to the present day, from Aerosmith to Jimi Hendrix and Joan Jett to ZZ Top, as the radio station announced on Friday. The music program is enriched by background reports on topics such as the creation of the Hard Rock Café or Joan Jett's world hit I love Rock'n'Roll. The program, which is broadcast on Mondays from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., is hosted and presented by Karin Müller. "On the Rocks" is also broadcast by Radio Basilisk and Radio Rottu. 

 The Swiss press generated advertising revenues of CHF 151.9 million in June. This represents a significant decrease of 15.3 percent compared to the same month last year, as Wemf announced on Friday. All advertising categories declined. This ranged from -11.1 percent for job advertisements to -27.8 percent for real estate advertisements. The commercial advertising category shrank by 15.4 percent to 111.7 million francs.
In terms of print media categories, only the Sunday press (+7.4%) was able to increase. The daily press recorded a 16.7% decline in advertising revenue to CHF 85.4 million.