Awards The selection of the 100 best posters from Germany, Austria and Switzerland took place at the end of February. Now the traditional book is being published to accompany the competition, and a traveling exhibition will soon be on display. It is striking that 12 of the 100 best posters were created by the Lucerne agency Velvet. This means that almost all of the 15 works submitted by Velvet won awards. A further 12 of the 100 prizes went to various Swiss designers. 67 award-winning posters came from Germany, 9 from Austria. All of Velvet's works were for theaters: Münchner Kammerspiele, Schauspielhaus Köln, Theater Freiburg. (pan) 

John Leuppi and Sascha Fanetti want to build up Saatchi & Saatchi Simko Zurich as CDs and offer potential customers an interesting alternative.
We heard that "quite a few people applied," laughs Sascha Fanetti, not without pride. "Among them were also well-known creative directors," adds John Leuppi. But they didn't want to hire them because they would probably have continued the style of their previous agencies. And that wasn't the aim, reveal Leuppi and Fanetti, who were eventually given the go-ahead as the creative directors of Saatchi & Saatchi's "start-up" in Zurich. Two still "young" CDs that can boast enough silver in their hair as well as gold at the ADC and many other national and international awards.
The two have since been congratulated from all sides for their coveted acceptance. "It remains to be seen whether they'll still think it's so great when we take part in the pitches," jokes Fanetti. And both agree: they want to offer potential clients an interesting alternative to traditional agencies with fresh creative ideas and the "Lovemarks philosophy".
Plans have already been made in the past by various networks that also wanted to have their own address in the Mecca of Swiss advertising. It worked for some, but not for others. For their own challenge, the new CDs see the advantage that Saatchi & Saatchi Simko is not just a strong brand stretching out its arms to Zurich. The agency in Kreis 4 is also to be developed into a strong company itself. CEO Kaspar Loeb and Chief Strategic Officer Pascal Schaub are at the helm. "Two strong, competent personalities who we greatly value," say Leuppi and Fanetti.
In the first phase, the new agency will employ around twelve people in Zurich. "We already have more work on our plate than manpower in the agency," calculate the creative directors. Depending on the outcome of the pitches, the agency on Bäckerstrasse can therefore grow very quickly. "Nothing is impossible for us. Thanks to our big, strong sister in Geneva, we can reliably serve not only small, but also medium-sized and large clients with great ideas, good quality and the best service."
The first customers have been transferred from Geneva to Zurich. "It makes sense to be able to serve Orange B2B, Seat and Happy Bett directly on site." But Saatchi & Saatchi Simko is also attracting keen interest from various companies in Zurich when it comes to new business. "The appeal of the new in combination with an established brand," summarizes the duo. This constellation was also the decisive factor in their decision to join the new agency.
"We are given a lot of freedom, but we also have correspondingly high expectations," say the two CDs, who can now decide for themselves which of their ideas are worthy of finding their way onto the open market. In addition to this new creative responsibility, Leuppi and Fanetti also enjoy steering the style of their work in their desired direction themselves. "There are no entrenched structures in the agency yet. We can constantly adapt them to our needs."
"I was due for this step at some point," says John Leuppi. He has been working in advertising since the early 1990s. He spent almost seven of those 18 years at Wirz Werbung. He sees "having a say and helping to shape what is done" as one of his biggest motivations in his new job.
Sascha Fanetti feels the same way. "We would have been stupid if we hadn't seized this opportunity." The first two CDs at Saatchi & Saatchi Simko in Zurich have been working successfully as a team for some time. This was the case with Wirz for three years. They spent two years together as a duo at Daniel Matter. "We're almost like an old married couple: the occasional argument, no sex and still lots of fun every day." After all, they often spend more than ten hours a day together in their job.
Fanetti never wanted to do anything other than advertising professionally. "It's probably a family illness for me." His father was head of marketing at an international chemical company for 40 years. Sascha wanted to start out as a graphic designer. But because he couldn't draw, he "had" to learn typesetting. He worked more specifically towards his goal at the renowned design agency CI Programm. Then, after three years, he returned to advertising as an AD assistant at Aebi Strebel and Honegger von Matt, where the 36-year-old Fanetti was able to develop into a graphic designer "autodidactically". He moved to Daniel Matter for five years and earned his spurs as an AD. This was followed by two extremely successful years at Ruf Lanz before he moved to Lesch + Frei. After a period as a freelancer with his own clients, Fanetti was finally hired by Wirz, where he also met John Leuppi again.
He first trained as a machine mechanic and supplemented his curriculum with a commercial apprenticeship. Obviously, a lot of curiosity and the necessary talent later opened the door to the coveted Ringier School of Journalism in Zofingen. There was also a workshop on advertising with Hansjörg Zürcher and André Benker. Leuppi was bitten by the advertising bug and joined Advico as a junior copywriter after journalism school in 1990. After six years, he moved to Honegger von Matt and later to Daniel Matter, where the 44-year-old was able to experience all stages of Matter's agency history.
A year in Brazil was also "very exciting". Together with his South American wife and two children, the advertising man emigrated to Brazil, where he opened a restaurant and bar in the south of the country. When the Argentinian tourists from this inflation-stricken country began to disappear, the Leuppi family returned to Switzerland. Despite everything, the adventure remained "a rich experience that has helped me personally".
In Zurich, he returned to advertising with great enthusiasm. First a comeback at Matter and then at Wirz, where he worked as a senior copywriter for almost seven years.
And when they're not working?
Fanetti likes to get on his motorcycle: preferably on one of his Ducati bikes on the GP circuits in Mugello, Barcelona or Brno. Family man Leuppi also rides a motorcycle, but only on the road. Instead, he loves to accompany his two boys to their football matches.
Andreas Panzeri

 
In the poster campaign evaluation conducted by APG for the second time, the Coop Prix Garantie low-cost line performed best overall. The ranking of the best-performing campaigns, which was determined by means of a survey, was based on recall values, brand recognition and visual appeal. In terms of recall value, Coop Prix Garantie came out on top ahead of Sunrise Mobile Prepaid and Nestlé Frisco Glacé. In terms of brand recognition, Postfinance came first, followed by two M-Budget campaigns. The most popular campaigns were SMP Swiss Yoga, Lindt Excellence and SMP Milch Akrobatik. The Poster Performance Index (PPI), the name of the rating, was first compiled in 2003. A total of 160 national or supra-regional poster campaigns were taken into account for the second, current survey. A total of 400 people between the ages of 15 and 49 were surveyed.

 
Evening Newspaper: Only *Der Blick* publishes a printed evening edition. Other publications, however, offer evening online editions—for readers to print out themselves. 
The evening edition of the French-Swiss daily newspaper 24 Heures isn’t easy to find on the website www.24heures.ch, even if you know it exists. Still, if you go to the «Nos offres» section and then click on «Newsletter,» you’ll find it—under the title Le 16.30. The name says it all: every weekday at 4:30 p.m., the evening edition of the Edipresse newspaper is available for download. Le 16.30 features the day’s most important news and suggestions for evening activities across four A4 pages. «You can print it out and read it on your way home,» the homepage states. This mini-version of 24 Heures looks like a small newspaper: It features columns, pictures, and sections such as “Suisse,” “Vaud,” “Dans le Monde,” and “Ma Soirée”—it even includes a Sudoku puzzle and a bit of gossip. In short, “Le 16.30” has a real newspaper layout.
Exactly the same issue is also available on the homepage
, available on the Tribune de Genève website (also part of Edipresse), except that the logo, graphics, cantonal news, and recommendations have been adapted accordingly. In both cases, however, the mini-evening edition can not only be downloaded, but readers can also subscribe to it for free and have it sent to them shortly before the end of the workday.The two Edipresse publications have been offering their online evening editions for self-printing since their print and website relaunch at the end of March 2007. So far, however, with limited success. According to online editor-in-chief David Moginier, they have a combined total of 2,000 subscribers. Since the online editions sent out are time-stamped and the publisher receives a notification when they are opened, they know that only about half of the subscribers actually use the editions. In addition, there are about 1,000 other people who download the paper daily from the website. However, a total of 2,000 users per day for both online editions is ’below our expectations,’ says Moginier. This is all the more so given that about three people are working on the project. At Edipresse, they had anticipated a total of 10,000 users after one year.
Closer to the Audience: At the end of June, the two «16.30» editions will therefore be temporarily suspended, and over the summer break, «we will improve the product and our organization,» says Moginier. Exactly how this will be done does not yet seem to have been decided. Moginier says only this much: It should be cheaper and closer to the audience. What is certain, however, is that Edipresse intends to stick with the offering and then market it more effectively—for example, with references in the print editions.
What stands out about both evening editions is that they are ad-free. «This product has fallen through the cracks until now,» explains Moginier. Neither Publicitas, the operator of the two newspapers, nor Romandie Online—a 50-percent Edipresse subsidiary that markets the two websites—felt responsible for this hybrid between print and online. Edipresse also plans to make changes in this regard: Responsibility is expected to be transferred to Romandie online, says Moginier.
Markus Knöpfli
The BaZ also has a mini evening edition—and has long had a tradition of publishing its online newsletter.
The Basler Zeitung has one. It was launched in 2001 and, at that time, was sent out exclusively in the morning between 8 and 9 a.m.—as a summary of the most important events of the night. For the past two years, it has also been published in the afternoon at 4 p.m. On www.baz.ch, the newsletter is just as hard to find as it is on Edipresse (via baz-shop – special subscriptions). Unlike the French-speaking Swiss editions, however, it takes the form of a simple list of the most important news items. It contains neither images nor tips for going out or puzzles. But unlike the Edipresse versions, it is «occasionally accompanied by advertising or a sponsored contest—depending on the publisher’s decision,» writes BaZ-online editor Peter Zweifel. The newsletter also includes links—for example, to the BaZ classifieds section. But even in the Rheinknie region, demand is low: the newsletter goes out to about 2,600 subscribers. (mk)

 
Transport Jung von Matt celebrates SBB's elimination from Euro 08. 
It hurts to be knocked out of an important tournament. Even more so when it's the European Football Championship. Then there are no limits to the sadness. Normally.
Things look a little different when the European Championship takes place in a country where the railroad has an almost denser network than the safety net behind the goal. At least if this country can also offer such great excursion destinations as Switzerland. At least that's what the Jung von Matt/Limmat agency believes on behalf of its client SBB.
The creatives around the two CDs Alexander Jaggy and Lukas Frei are taking advantage of these circumstances for their continuation of SBB's Euro 08 campaign. In two motifs for a promotional offer, we see footballers who are almost rolling off the stretcher with joy at the early end of the tournament or who would love to hug the referee with the red card. One film shows an overjoyed penalty taker jumping for joy shortly after completely missing his shot.
The reason for the losers' joy is simple: if they don't hit the right corner in the goal, they can travel cheaply and comfortably to the most beautiful corners of Switzerland thanks to SBB. "Who wants to stand around in the stadium for long?" muses copywriter Livio Dainese. The motifs by AD Inken Rohweder can be seen immediately on billboards throughout Switzerland. The film, produced by On Line Video and Jingle Jungle, will be shown in public viewing areas, UBS arenas and on e-boards - of course only for spectators who are still there.
Andreas Panzeri

 
Automobil Noise has created a witty portrayal of limitless mobility for the ACS. 
Why should someone become a member of the ACS? A new campaign by the Zurich advertising agency Noise provides answers to this question. It dramatizes with a tongue-in-cheek pointing finger: Anyone who becomes an ACS member today not only secures the right to Europe-wide breakdown assistance and a wide range of club benefits. ACS members also automatically take out insurance that includes one of three service packages tailored to their individual needs. These have been developed in cooperation with our partner Zurich Insurance Company. ACS members also benefit from reduced premiums on their Zurich motor vehicle insurance.
Noise is now communicating all these benefits of ACS membership throughout Switzerland by effectively showcasing individual exemplary services "and thereby demonstrating their advantages to the target group using concrete examples", as project manager Patrik Leuenberger explains. In the implementation, concept designer Martin Rüegg relies on high-quality photography by Oliver Nanzig and stylish staging, "which should stand out from the competition at first glance", as Mathias Friedli, Head of Marketing & Communication at ACS, is convinced.
A national poster campaign and a large banner presence form the basis, a direct mailing supports sales and the website www.acs.ch with simple and clear guidance round off the launch package. These new media were designed and programmed by Sandro Kümin.
Andreas Panzeri

 On Wednesday, the Federal Council confirmed the priorities in the Confederation's prevention policy. An unbalanced diet, lack of exercise, problematic alcohol consumption, smoking and the Aids program will continue to form the core topics of the Federal Office of Public Health's (FOPH) campaigns in the future, and the Confederation has been running national prevention programs in the areas of drugs, Aids and tobacco since the 1990s. Now that the government has also been active in the areas of alcohol, nutrition and exercise for a number of years, this commitment is also to be continued within the framework of national programs, writes the Confederation in a press release issued on Wednesday.
For the Swiss Advertising Association, the campaigns of the Federal Office of Public Health clearly go too far. "Does every citizen have to be as fit as a fiddle and go to their grave without joy?" asked Association President Carlo Schmid rhetorically on the last day of advertising, alluding to the FOPH's prevention measures. (see
). The Federal Office and the Federal Council do not seem to be impressed by this. The costs of implementing the programs amount to around CHF 20.5 million. The FOPH's share amounts to around CHF 14 million and is included in its financial plan, the federal government writes in the press release.

 Swiss Post will be able to handle more newspapers in future: it is taking over the delivery company Prevag (Presse-Vertriebs AG) from Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM). With around 800 employees, Prevag has been managing the early delivery of daily and Sunday newspapers in the Basler Zeitung catchment area for over 30 years. The carriers distribute around 30 million copies each year, as reported by Swiss Post. The purchase price was not disclosed. Following the takeover, the early delivery of Prevag is to be merged with that of Blick. Swiss Post has been responsible for the latter since last March. The aim is to provide major customers in the publishing industry with "a comprehensive range of delivery solutions for daily and Sunday newspapers".
Swiss Post has been active in the early delivery sector since the mid-1990s. With the Prevag takeover, the yellow giant now wants to further expand its position in newspaper delivery.

 
SRG The SRG subsidiary Swiss Txt is entering the market with new cross-media services - not only to the delight of the private sector.  
For around ten years now, the 97 percent SRG subsidiary Swiss Txt has been offering its services on the free market. Until recently, the offering of the company, better known under its former name Schweizerische Teletext AG, was largely limited to the content area with news, sports results and tables, as well as technical support. Almost quietly, however, Swiss Txt has also been actively pushing multimedia solutions over the past two years. Meanwhile, the company is officially positioning itself both as SRG's multimedia competence center and as a "full-service solution provider for the free market." "Swiss Txt combines the multimedia platforms teletext, Internet and mobile under one roof and can thus offer true cross-media communication solutions," the website states. And further: "From a simple SMS game to a complete multimedia mobile and Internet portal, from individual basic pages in teletext to integral communication campaigns - Swiss Txt also has the right solution for you."
Revenues below expectationsIn order to bring these offerings to customers, Swiss Txt set up a sales structure as of 2007. Apparently with moderate success: The turnover of the SRG subsidiary, whose board of directors is chaired by SF director Ingrid Deltenre and TSR director Gilles Marchand, increased by eight percent to 22.9 million francs in 2007 - and thus remained "below expectations" according to the SRG annual report. Nevertheless, the company plans to further expand its Crossmedia Communication and Multimedia Solutions business areas in order to tap into new customer segments.
The SRG subsidiary is thus likely to step into the garden of many large and small web agencies. In most places, however, the new competitor has not even been noticed yet. Bramwell Kaltenrieder, managing director of the Internet agency Orange8, which was swallowed up by Goldbach Media two months ago, therefore wants to comment "only in principle": When state-owned and fee-financed companies become active in the free market, the question arises whether they also have to bear the full costs for their entire infrastructure, he says. In the case of Swiss Txt, Kaltenrieder has no concrete knowledge, but he expresses doubts and points to the "immense servers" that Swiss Txt operates and that could be financed by SRG and thus with fees. In short: He lacks transparency.
Any cross-subsidization enables companies such as Swiss Txt to offer their customers more favorable conditions, which in turn leads to distortions of competition, he complains. "I have nothing against new competitors, I just want a level playing field," says Kaltenrieder.
Markus Gabriel, founder and sole owner of the crossover agency Angelink, toots the same horn. He also criticizes the increasing mingling of media providers, marketers, media planners and creative service providers. Swiss Txt is just the latest example of this. PubliGroupe has already gone ahead with Web2com, as has Goldbach with Orange8. Gabriel calls this a "Wild West situation." "There is no longer a division of roles, and we are now forced to participate," he criticizes. Swiss Txt as a new player, on the other hand, does not worry him. Because with its technical know-how, the company has nowhere near the design, conceptual or even cross-media experience, says Gabriel.
Incentive for small companiesSmaller web agencies have different opinions of Swiss Txt's offerings. Thomas Schüpfer, owner of 3w-publishing in Langenthal, even welcomes the new competition, especially since Swiss Txt plays in a completely different league. "Such companies spur us on to become even more innovative," he says. Roland Lutz, owner of the Yeah agency in Einsiedeln, is also not fundamentally opposed to new competition. However, he finds it "unnecessary" for a "state-owned enterprise" to compete with the private sector. There is a danger "that we will then pay twice" - as fee payers and as customers.
Markus Knöpfli
Only partially financed by feesThe fundamental question is: Since when has Swiss Txt had to pay for costs such as infrastructure, personnel, training and further education itself? "Swiss Txt has been independent since it was founded in 1983 and bears all the costs of running a business itself," writes SRG spokesman Daniel Steiner. And further: "In principle" the SRG subsidiary is not financed by fees, but receives a lump-sum compensation for subtitling for the hearing impaired, which it coordinates and produces on behalf of the SRG. Until now, it has also received a fixed basic contribution from SRG for ensuring its basic mission in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino. However, since all teletext editorial teams will be relocated to the individual SRG stations as of July 1, 2008, this amount will no longer be paid in the future. From then on, Swiss Txt will no longer have its own editorial offices, but will continue to take care of the technical operation and the development and marketing of teletext. As to the question of what financial contribution SRG expects from its profit center Swiss Txt, Steiner gave only a vague answer: "Swiss Txt makes an annual contribution to SRG as part of the marketing mandate for teletext," he wrote. (mk)

 Nicole Kidman has already experienced and survived a lot. Now she can add another task to her list of duties: she is to create a new tourism boom for her home country of Australia. The beautiful country Down Under expects nothing less from the film "Australia", which opens in German-speaking Switzerland on Christmas Day. The film is expected to be seen by millions of moviegoers worldwide and will show them Australia's natural beauty, history and the lives of its indigenous people, said Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson at a conference at the weekend. Tourism advertisers are hoping for a repeat of the effect of "Crocodile Dundee", which aroused the interest of thousands of tourists in the country in the 1980s. In the new epic "Australia", directed by Baz Luhrmann, Kidman plays an English aristocrat alongside Hugh Jackman who falls in love with a rough-and-tumble drover from the Australian outback. Let's hope that the story turns out better than Kidman's marriage to Tom Cruise, which failed a few years ago to great media attention. Otherwise, the big tourism number will probably be rather difficult.

 The Promo Lions were awarded in Cannes. Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett took home a Silver Lion, while Saatchi & Saatchi Simko won a Bronze Lion. The jury honored the «Singles in Underwear» campaign for Migros by SFLB and the «Silicon Body Parts» campaign for Voltaflex by Novartis, created by Saatchi & Saatchi Simko.
The Grand Prix in the Promo category went to BBDO New York for a campaign commissioned by the HBO television network: It began with films projected onto a building facade in the «Big Apple.» This gave viewers the impression that the front facade had been removed and that they were looking directly into the apartments of various residents. The campaign continued online, among other places, where viewers could continue to follow the protagonists.

 The nominees in the Cyber category were announced in Cannes on Tuesday morning. Publicis scored twice for Switzerland: the Zurich agency scooped two shortlist places. The viral story for Art Poster Gallery with a stolen and allegedly reappeared Cézanne painting and the unicorn campaign for Chocolat Frey were both nominated. The Cyber Lions will be awarded on Wednesday evening.