Helmut Thoma, former head of the German private broadcaster RTL, is to become a new member of the Board of Directors of the Swiss television channel 3+. As the 69-year-old Thoma explained in an interview with the Sonntagszeitung newspaper, he had already received a request to this effect from German broadcaster boss Dominik Kaiser years ago. Kaiser had shown a lot of courage and decisiveness. "That impresses me, which is why I am now involved," explained the Austrian, adding that private broadcasters need to be popular and refreshingly different. This also applies to 3+. "It has to be more Swiss, more homely - you have to use the dialect". This is where the channel's potential lies, Thoma continued. He wants to help position 3+ as a clear alternative to Swiss television.
With a doctorate in law, he began his career as a legal assistant at ORF before moving to the general agency of Radio Luxembourg, where he became Managing Director in 1975. In 1982, he took over the management of RTL's German radio program and in 1988 the position of Managing Director of RTL Television in Cologne. In 1999, he moved to the station's advisory board. From 1999 to 2002, Thoma also worked as a media advisor to SPD politician and North Rhine-Westphalian Minister President Wolfgang Clement.

 The European Championship is over, the European champion has been crowned, and the Swiss team has gone out without much fanfare. What remains are memories of completely unrealistic expectations, a few good games, and various effective advertising messages. For example, the one from fast-food chain McDonald’s. «And remember, you’re not just here to look good! Now get out there!» a little boy tells Swiss player Tranquillo Barnetta in the ad. Barnetta just smiles, takes the little boy by the hand, and marches out into the stadium with him. The euphoric ad by Ruf Lanz and the one commissioned by Switzerland Tourism and produced by SFLB are also worth seeing. It’s a good thing you don’t need a European Championship to advertise. There are plenty of advertising opportunities even without a soccer tournament. The only concern: that we might lose the buddy-like commentary from Toni Polster, the «sleeping pill with a nose for gold.».

 
Switzerland is saying goodbye to the Euro 08 football teams and all the fans who cheered on Switzerland with the TV commercial "Auf Wiedersehen". It will be shown from this weekend in Germany, Holland, Italy and France. Produced by Switzerland Tourism in collaboration with the Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett agency, the
shows the longing of the Swiss women who have been involved as hosts over the past three weeks: Their longing for the many great footballers, guests and fans from all over Europe.The commercial is intended as a thank you to all visitors. It is also intended to express the hope of seeing them again soon. It will run for around a week in the various countries. And since the
is intended as a "thank you and see you soon" greeting, it is not used in Switzerland. Responsible at Switzerland Tourism:
Jörg Krebs (Head of Location Marketing Switzerland), Matthias Schneider (Deputy Head of Location Marketing Switzerland). Responsible at Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett: Martin Spillmann (Concept, Creative Director), Rolf Zimmermann, Patricia Balliana (Consulting), Sebahat Derdiyok, Suzana Kovacevic (Agency Producing). Film production: Pumpkin Film. Martin Haerlin (Director), Götz Hudelmaier (Producer), Michael Krautter (Cinematographer), Sonja Brand (Exec. Producer).

 Tamedia is losing two web-savvy minds: Cyrill Treptow, project manager in the Online Development and New Media department, and Christoph Lüscher, head of the dating platform Partnerwinner, are leaving the Zurich publishing house. On July 1, they will jointly open a Zurich branch of Information Architects, the Tokyo-based agency of information architect and Werbewoche columnist Oliver Reichenstein. The agency plans, builds and manages interactive brand products. As Reichenstein writes in his blog, the Zurich-based agency's mission is to make websites financially successful. The three Internet professionals already have a prominent mandate: they realize the news network of Tamedia, Espace Media and Basler Zeitung Medien. Prior to this, Reichenstein implemented the two websites Dasmagazin.ch and Facts.ch. While working on these projects, the three got to know each other: "I've been working in the Internet business for ten years and I've never worked with a client with so much Internet know-how," Reichenstein told the blog Medienlese.com about his two new partners. The Zurich office of Information Architects is owned by Treptow and Lüscher, Reichenstein is a partner.

 If a recent online survey is to be believed, Coca-Cola is the European advertising champion: 40 percent of the 500 respondents stated that Coca-Cola particularly caught their attention during the European Championships. Adidas followed in second place with 30 percent and McDonald's in third place with 24 percent. These are the results of a survey of German Internet users. The survey was conducted by the two companies Mediaanalyzer and Myonlinepanel from June 19 to 25. Another finding is that awareness of advertising appears to have increased during the football tournament. In contrast to surveys from the first days of the tournament, when around 40% of respondents stated that no company had particularly caught their attention, this figure was only just under 20% in the current survey.
Companies with a small budget were also among the advertisers that attracted the public's attention. Companies that did not run a special European Championship campaign at all can also be found in the top places. For example, Krombacher and Hyundai achieved a top ranking, while official Uefa sponsors such as Carlsberg and DFB partners such as LG landed in the midfield. Incidentally, Coca Cola and Adidas are the same companies in the top two places as in the survey at the start of the European Championships.

 Eclat, the agency for brand consulting and communication design, will design Ernst & Young's annual report. The Erlenbach-based creative agency won a pitch against several competitors. In collaboration with BreuHug, the repositioning "Achieving Potential" is to be implemented in the annual report in accordance with the specifications of the new corporate design. This is Eclat's eleventh annual report this year.

 The Zurich agency Inhalt&Form is continuing its image campaign for Keller Ziegeleien. The specialist for the production and planning of exposed brickwork is being advertised with two subjects: The images of the Landtag in Vaduz are intended to prove that there are no limits to architectural creativity with prefabricated exposed brick elements, the agency wrote in a press release on Friday. Keller Ziegeleien was awarded the contract for the project in Liechtenstein following an international tender. Responsible at Keller Ziegeleien:
Christian Keller (CEO). Responsible at Inhalt&Form: Serge Riedener (CD), Daniel Käser (AD), Heinz Bugmann (graphics), Claudio Ziert (consulting), Valentin Jeck (photography).
 
 

 The magazine K-Tipp, which has a partnership with "Kassensturz", is bridging the gap between Switzerland and Austria. In future, it will be working more closely with the French-speaking Swiss magazine Bon à Savoir. After the summer break, the two consumer press titles will be offering a combined advertising discount of 11 percent. This will give advertisers the opportunity to reach almost 1.4 million consumers in German- and French-speaking Switzerland with the same subject. K-Tipp is published every two weeks, Bon à Savoir monthly, and the two sister magazines K-Geld and Tout Compte Fait in the financial sector will also be offering an advertising combination with an 11 percent discount from August. K-Geld has a circulation of just under 50,000 copies, Tout Compte Fait a good 40,000 copies. K-Geld is published six times a year, Tout Compte Fait eleven times a year.

The web agency Information Architects (IA) is realizing the design of the news network of Tages-Anzeiger, Berner Zeitung and Basler Zeitung. It has now provided a first look at the layout.
IA produced various concept studies in 2007 as part of a comprehensive reorientation of Tamedia's online products, according to the agency's website. Sketches for the new online portal were shown and discussed on the blog of agency founder Oliver Reichenstein - disguised as a Washington Post website.
In March of this year, IA finally won the pitch for the definitive design of the news network. The idea and aim of the redesign was to close the gap between print and online and to establish the respective brand as a unified sphere of news experience, according to the website of the Swiss branch of Information Architects, which is owned by the former Tamedia men Cyrill Treptow and Christoph Lüscher. The final design was completed on site in Zurich together with Newsnetz boss Peter Wälty.

The Internet agency Orange8 interactive, which has been part of the Goldbach Media Group since May, is now officially launching the previously announced "Performance Marketing" unit. Andreas Jorgella will head this business unit. At the same time, he will join the management board of Orange8 interactive. Jorgella brings 13 years of communications and media experience with a focus on digital marketing, according to a press release. He was responsible for setting up the online marketing agency Planetactive in Switzerland, which he led as Managing Director until February. He will take over the current development work of the unit from August 1. At the same time, a branch office will be opened in Küsnacht at the headquarters of the Goldbach Media Group.
Jorgella will also be responsible for launching the performance marketing offering in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe. The aim of performance marketing is to achieve measurable responses from online advertising. Billing is success-based.

 Euro 2008 boss Martin Kallen is aware that Uefa has an image problem in the public eye. Because the association is based in Switzerland, the problem is greater here than in Austria. "We need to communicate even better why certain rules apply," said the tournament boss in an interview with SDA. "We will have to communicate even better why certain rules apply." Kallen described it as a balancing act as to how far one wants to go in marketing. Uefa would definitely have to reassess the situation after the tournament. The organization of Euro 08 costs around one billion francs. A net profit of 412 million francs is expected, Kallen continued. 70 to 80 percent of this will be reinvested in football over the next four years.

 The outrage over the cancellation of the Federal Council sitcom "Classe politique" is huge. As Werbewoche has already reported (see ), the entertainment department of Swiss television has decided to discontinue the show from the end of November. This is despite the show being very popular with the public. Giacobbo's show was so expensive that Müller and Steinegger had to jump ship, writes Blick, citing insider sources. Of course, the two main actors Birgit Steinegger and Walter Andreas Müller don't like this at all. He was totally shocked and got really angry, Federal Council impersonator Müller told the Ringier newspaper.
Although the parody show was last programmed behind Viktor Giacobbo's show, it still achieved a 30 percent market share. "Others would be rolled out the red carpet for this. We're being dismissed," Müller was upset. But head of entertainment Gabriela Amgarten and head of comedy Rolf Tschäppät showed no mercy. When Müller left Amgarten's office in a rage after the announcement, she allegedly shouted after him: "You're a renowned actor. There are always ways to work together." For Müller, these words are "sheer mockery".
One of the real Federal Councillors has already commented on the discontinuation of the show. He told Hans-Rudolf Merz in an interview with Blick that he thought it would be a shame to cancel the show. "I often enjoyed watching it on Sunday evenings to get in the mood for the new working week."