The official website of Uefa Euro 2008, Euro2008.com, has set a new traffic record with more than 1 billion page views since its launch in February 2008. In June alone, more than 42 million visitors have logged into the text and multimedia areas as well as the video coverage of the Euro matches. Up to 4.3 million visitors logged in on a single day of the tournament, and up to half a million visitors per hour follow the live coverage on the Internet, an increase of more than 250 percent compared to Euro2004.com four years ago. And this despite the fact that the tournament is still going on until Sunday.

 
Football fanatics have a new object of desire. After fan scarves, jerseys and expensive leather balls, this time the focus is on culinary products. Publicis came up with the idea for a new product as part of the multi-award-winning M08 cross-media campaign: the M08 fan grill in the shape of a football box has been standing out for a few weeks now from the range of products in all Swiss Migros stores.Responsible at Migros:
Caesar Keller, Michael Benz, Franca Coppoletta. Responsible at Publicis: Ralf Kostgeld (CD), Ondrej Maczko, Serge Deville (AD), Barbara Staub (Design), Marion Marxer, Monika Leu, Oliver Meili, Marc Uricher (Consulting), Outdoorchef (Realization).

 The Confederation and the cantons want to strengthen the promotion of Switzerland as a business location among foreign companies. To this end, a cooperation agreement has been reached for the years 2009-2011. This was announced by the Conference of Cantonal Directors of Economic Affairs (VDK) in a communiqué on Monday, stating that the establishment of international companies in Switzerland has made an above-average contribution to Switzerland's economic growth in recent years. The VDK writes that existing jobs have been preserved and new ones created thanks to companies moving to Switzerland. The federal government's promotion of Switzerland as a business location to date has been inadequate. The cooperation provides for the cantons to financially support the promotion of Switzerland as a business location in nine countries by the Office of Foreign Trade (Osec).

 It has been official since the beginning of June: Hillary Clinton will not be running for the highest office in the USA. But Mrs. Clinton has actually been president for eight years, according to the Sonntagszeitung. And pays tribute to the former candidate with a poster that allows the viewer to discover, turn by turn, who was really in charge during the Clinton era. It also suggests that the final chapter in Hillary Clinton's career is far from being written. Responsible at the Sonntagszeitung:
Diego Quintarelli (publishing director), Andrea Waltzer (advertising director). Responsible at Advico Y&R: Christian Bobst (CD), Martin Stulz (text), Rob Hartmann (AD), Fabian Biedermann, Lukas Tenger (consulting), Kathrin Gerber, Verena Rentsch (art buying), Scheffold.Vizner/Fluxif (photography/composing).

 Since Tuesday night, advertisements have been appearing on eBay with headlines such as "U. Porsche, 1992, top model, powerful". However, they are not trying to sell cars, but have a much more drastic aim: the ads are intended to draw attention to the fact that massive trafficking in women is taking place worldwide. The ads, which ostensibly sell women, end with statements such as "Traffickers in women often make higher profits than car brokers: around 35 billion US dollars are generated worldwide every year through human trafficking." The Ebay ads call on people to sign a petition from Amnesty International to put a stop to trafficking in women. The human rights organization is also the sender of the unusual campaign. Over the course of the night, more than 200 Ebay members posted the ads. An Amnesty International advertisement is to be found in every possible category on the online auction site, whether it be cars, electrical appliances or works of art.
The ads were written by the Walker advertising agency. The creative team wrote 200 individual ad texts. The reason: it should not be possible for Ebay to remove all advertisements at the touch of a button. The guerrilla campaign could trigger a snowball effect: "As many people as possible should place such ads and thus draw attention to the fight against trafficking in women," explains Pius Walker. The campaign was devised by the agency's two new creative employees Nik Hodel and Martin Arnold: "It was their first joint idea with us - not a bad start," says Walker.
A lot of attention with little budget The Ebay campaign builds on the spot against trafficking in women, which was realized as part of the "Euro 08 against trafficking in women" campaign. Amnesty International is one of the sponsors of this campaign. The aim is to provide better protection for victims of trafficking in women and not to push them into illegality. Walker explains why the unusual guerrilla campaign on eBay was chosen: "We need to attract as much attention as possible with a limited budget. This requires unconventional actions, because we don't just want to reach existing Amnesty International sympathizers, but to win over the broad masses for our cause."
Maintaining the credibility of the organization remains the top priority, which is why the preparation and fact-finding took time. However, the online auction house is not expected to take legal action: "This is a limited campaign that serves a good cause," says Walker.
 

 Publigroupe has acquired a 39% stake in the German online entertainment network Fantastic Zero (FZ). The Munich-based company was founded in 2007 and develops entertainment sites in the fields of games, film, technology and music. Fantastic Zero bundles and markets these sites. The aim is to reach a young, male target group with minimal wastage. For Publigroupe, the investment opens up attractive marketing opportunities abroad. It is therefore in line with the strategy of increasing growth in the interactive sector and in international markets, explains Thomas Kaiser, CEO of Publigroupe's Digital & Marketing Services business segment. The fact that Fantastic Zero acts as both a publisher and a marketer opens up a good opportunity for cooperation with the online marketing service provider Zanox, added Publigroupe CEO Hans-Peter Rohner in a press release on Monday. Zanox bought Publigroupe a year ago together with Axel Springer.
The seller of the 39 percent stake in Fantastic Zero is a subsidiary of Wunder Media GmbH. Publigroupe will receive the option to acquire a majority stake from majority shareholder Holtzbrinck E-LAB, as detailed in the press release. The transaction is subject to approval by the German competition authorities.

 
Greg Creed, CEO of the Mexican fast food chain Taco Bell, had a great advertising idea: for his big "Why pay more?" summer campaign, in which menus for 79, 89 and 99 cents will soon be served to hungry people, he chose a very special advertising medium. Gangsta rapper 50 Cent was to change his name to 79, 89 or 99 cents for one day at Creed's request. Under this name, he was to drive to a branch of his choice and place an order in rap form at the drive-in. In return, the wrapped bread boss would have donated a whole 10,000 dollars to a charitable organization to be determined by Fifty. And in addition, all visitors to that branch would have been fed for free. Well, Creed had actually just wanted to attract some attention with this campaign. That's why he had informed the press directly instead of the artist himself. What he hadn't counted on, however, was the temperament of the steel muscle rapper who had once been riddled with nine bullets. His representative spoke of a "cheap, immature advertising trick" and a "deceitful offer". And Fifty himself said: "When my lawyers have finished with them, they can be scraped from the taco graveyard." Someone seems to have a serious aversion to fast food.

 BBDO New York was named Agency of the Year on the Côte d'Azur. The agency collected laurels at this year's festival with its "Voyeur" campaign for HBO. AlmapBBDO Sào Paulo came second in the agency ranking, with DDB London in third place. BBDO can call itself "Network of the Year", the second-placed network is DDB, with Saatchi & Saatchi in third place.

The 55th Cannes Advertising Festival came to an end on Saturday. The Swiss won four silver and four bronze medals, as well as two Silver Lion Campaigns and one Bronze Lion Campaign. Gold, however, was denied to the Swiss. However, with 74 shortlist places, they received an impressive number of nominations. Advertising Week takes stock and shows which agency won how many awards. LionsAdvico Young & Rubicam:
Silver Lion Campaign* in the Outdoor category for Leica
Bronze in the Media category for "Optical Zoom" for Leica
Publicis
Silver in the Cyber category for "Cézanne" for the Art Poster Gallery
Call Lanz
Bronze in the "Media" category for "Fragile Eggs" for Suva
Bronze in the Radio category with the "Bush" spot for the Sport Factory Outlet
Saatchi & Saatchi Simko
Silver Lion Campaign* with four subjects in the Press category for Voltaren by Novartis
Bronze Lion Campaign* in the Outdoor category for Voltaren by Novartis
Bronze in the Promo category for "Silicon Body Parts" for Voltaflex from Novartis
Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett
Silver in the Media category for "Veteran Football Players" for Helvepharm
Silver in the Promo category for "Singles in Underwear" for Migros
Walker Advertising
Silver in the Design category for the Fleurop annual report
ShortlistAdvico Young & Rubicam: 17
Bircher, Rabl: 2
Euro RSCG: 4
Jung von Matt/Limmat: 7
Krieg Schlupp Bürge / Springer & Jacoby: 5
McCann Erickson: 2
Publicis: 6
Call Lanz: 9
Saatchi & Saatchi Simko: 12
Scholz & Friends Zurich: 4
Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett: 3
Walker: 2
Wirz advertising: 1
* According to Cannes press officer Amanda Benfell, a "Lion Campaign" award is the equivalent of winning a Lion.

 Censorship is not generally regarded as a prevalent problem in our country, but the term is currently booming. Following the discussions about the transmission of TV images at Euro 08, SRG Director General Armin Walpen is now addressing the upcoming Olympic Games in China. The media must be able to report independently during the major event, he emphasized to the Sonntag newspaper. Two points were particularly important: whether the doping issue could be dealt with freely and whether journalists in general would not be hindered in their work. In the event of serious incidents, SRG would have to make fundamental considerations regarding media coverage, Walpen continued. According to Sonntag, this could mean that SRG could even stop its coverage of the Olympic Games if journalistic freedom is encroached upon. Walpen wants to be present in person at the major event to assess the situation. He sees the independence of the media at risk because the sports associations want to generate as much revenue as possible from the events. The SRG boss is therefore calling on the organizers to discuss the issue with the media companies at a round table.
Kallen rejects accusations Meanwhile, Euro managing director Martin Kallen defends himself against the accusations of censorship in an interview with the Sonntagszeitung - the same newspaper in which Walpen made accusations of censorship against Uefa a week ago. Kallen sees Walpen's statement as "disconcerting". In addition to the images from Uefa, any TV station could set up cameras in 40 positions and broadcast whatever it wanted. In his opinion, the images of fans throwing petards are not what viewers want to see at home anyway. There are no instructions from Uefa to the picture directors. Walpen himself also seems to be backtracking somewhat: He emphasized to Sonntag that the Uefa story was an "isolated accusation of secondary importance" and that Uefa should not be blamed "for everything bad in this world".
NZZ media journalist Rainer Stadler had already analyzed Uefa's role in more detail on Friday. He pointed out that SRG must have already known what it was getting into when it acquired the Uefa broadcasting rights - after all, such deals are sealed in thick contracts. However, Stadler considers it fundamentally questionable when a sports broadcaster takes over the basic supply of TV coverage.

 The 55th Cannes Advertising Festival ended on Saturday evening with the presentation of the Film and Titanium & Integrated Lions. The Swiss had to cope with one disappointment: they came away empty-handed with the coveted Film Lions. Five local agencies were in the running with six nominations. Instead, the jury awarded two Film Grand Prix: one went to the London agency Fallon for the "Gorilla" spot for the chocolate brand Cadbury (
). The second Grand Prix was won by TAG, a unit of McCann Erickson, with a four-part web film series for the Microsoft X-Box "Halo 3" campaign (). For the first time this year, the film category in Cannes also includes spots that were not explicitly made for cinema or television. The Swiss agencies entered eight works in the race for Titanium & Integrated. However, the Swiss were denied success in this category: they did not win any of the 33 shortlist places awarded by the jury. Worldwide, 432 entries were submitted for Titanium & Integrated.
The Integrated Grand Prix went to McCann Worldgroup in San Francisco for the "Halo 3" game from Micsosoft X-Box (
). The Titanium Grand Prix was won by the Japanese agency Projector for the virtual appearance of the fashion label Uniqlo ().

 Telecoms company Sunrise has attracted a lot of attention in the Sunday press this week: CEO Christoph Brand is featured in an almost full-page interview in the Sonntagszeitung, in which he explains the success of the free ADSL campaign and once again kicks his former employer Swisscom in the shins: Swisscom is systematically taking the water out of all its competitors. And he hints at a serious possibility: Although no one is talking about Sunrise, like Tele 2, considering an exit from Switzerland - but there would be shareholders behind the company "who can do the math". So the option does not seem completely out of the question. The NZZ am Sonntag also states: "Sunrise in a tight spot". And Brand once again points out the superiority of Swisscom and the fact that liberalization in the Swiss telecoms market is working "more badly than well". Finally, the Sonntag newspaper reports that Sunrise is considering a lawsuit against Swisscom's new company structure. Only the Sonntagsblick remained Sunrise-free at the weekend - at least editorially, with a double-page advertisement for the Sunrise "Zero" offer. In view of Sunrise's concentrated media presence, it is clear that the telecoms company's media managers have done their homework diligently. Next Sunday will show whether Swisscom strikes back in the media.