The shareholders of the Valais publishing house Rhône Média rejected the 2007 annual accounts in Sion on Wednesday. However, the eclat at the publisher of the daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste was caused by tensions between two groups of shareholders, not because of poor financial results. When asked by SDA, Chairman of the Board Hildebrand de Riedmatten even described the annual result as excellent. The tensions among the shareholders have been going on for several years now (see:
). The reason for this appears to be the shareholders' agreement, according to which BoD proposals can only be approved if two thirds of the shareholders agree. As both groups each hold more than a third of the voting rights, they can block any decision.BoD Chairman De Riedmatten now wants to discuss the next steps in the BoD. A new AGM is ruled out, as no other decision can be expected at present. He hopes to be able to resolve the dispute within twelve months, particularly because it is damaging the company's image. If no solution emerges, the BoD will have to take the matter to court. You can't run a company without approved annual accounts.
The Rhône Média Group generated a profit of CHF 1.5 million in the last financial year. At CHF 4.5 million, cash flow was CHF 500,000 above budget. Turnover amounted to 38 million francs. According to de Riedmatten, the company is on a sound footing.

 
Newspaper On June 2, the free evening newspaper heute will become Blick am Abend. Scholz & Friends Zurich developed a two-stage launch campaign for the announcement of the title. In the first phase, the campaign plays with the Pacman, who eats up the headlines "On June 2, today is geges" on advertisements and hanging boxes in streetcars piece by piece.

The retail company Otto's is riding the football wave, but is focusing on the female perspective: with the slogan "Women on the ball" and net-stockinged legs including high heels, Otto's wants to introduce the ladies to the most important rules of football. The campaign developed by the Balsthal-based agency Business+Design comprises posters, a TV commercial, an online game and a pocket guide. The latter summarizes the 17 most important football rules in handbag format. Scholarly women - who may even be able to memorize the offside rule - can practice scoring goals at the click of a mouse and take part in a competition. The ad, which has been running since Monday, also focuses on the aesthetics of fishnet stockings and high-heeled boots in combination with a football. According to the press release, the "Women on the ball" campaign is not just a Euro 08 project, but will also be seen after the major event.

 
Radio 105 is getting some prominent reinforcements: the well-known Swiss DJ Dani König is taking over the overall management of the music editorial team at Radio 105 and Radio Monte Carlo Swiss with immediate effect. He succeeds Yves Brandenberger, who is leaving the station.
König has built up a loyal following during his long career as a DJ. For example, he was resident DJ at Zurich's Kaufleuten club for around 10 years. He was also music editor at DRS 3, released numerous CDs and was also a successful producer. He was responsible for remixes by international artists such as Moby, Tom Novy, Sonique and Phil Fuldner. König will now significantly reduce his workload as a DJ in favor of the new job at 105, as was reported in a press release.
Station boss Giuseppe Scaglione hopes that his station group will be able to further expand its position thanks to König's music expertise and his network of contacts in the national and international music and DJ scene.

 Schaffhausen-based IWC International Watch Co. is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year and is launching a new vintage edition of its watch series to mark the occasion. The product film produced by Condor Films combines historical photos, film sequences and packshots to create a dream journey by IWC founder F.A. Jones through the six IWC theme worlds, as the production company announced. The film, with Dolby Surround sound, was produced in modular form for various communication channels and for use in different language regions. The corporate department of Condor Films with Dominik Stibal and Olivier Egli was responsible for the creation/implementation of the film.

 In the bilingual city of Biel, language pluralism will also prevail in the UBS Arena during Euro 08: The thorny question of which language the matches should be broadcast in has been resolved with a compromise. France's matches will be shown on the big screen with French commentary, while Germany's matches will be shown in German. All other matches will be broadcast in the language requested by the audience, as the organizer Perron8 announced on Tuesday. A vote will be held in the arena before the matches. After the count, the person responsible will announce the language.
Multilingual entertainers are deployed in the 16 UBS arenas in Switzerland to ensure a good atmosphere.

 
Stefan Senn is to become the new program director of the Biel-based regional television station TeleBielingue. His predecessor Karin Rickenbacher is moving to the Biel-Lyss adult education center at the end of June. Senn is no stranger to Biel: The 53-year-old worked as an editor at the Bieler Tagblatt from 1981 to 1983 and from 1984 to 1990, where he was responsible for the Seeland, City of Biel and Economy and Consumption sections. Most recently, he was editor-in-chief of the Touring-Zeitung of the Touring Club of Switzerland (TCS). After a commercial apprenticeship, Senn trained in England, California and at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Fribourg. In 1992, he completed the higher professional examination as a public relations consultant at the Swiss Public Relations Institute in Zurich. According to the press release, Senn's main task is to successfully master the numerous new framework conditions of the expected concession.
 

 
The canton of Schaffhausen wants to move away from its tourism-heavy image and will therefore present itself as a place to live and do business with a large-scale campaign. "The canton also wants to tackle the problem of ageing and the low basic income," says Mäni Frei, owner of the responsible agency Frei, Partner, to Werbewoche. When you hear Schaffhausen, you should no longer only have images of the Rhine Falls in front of you. A little paradise" will be launched in September 2008. "We are looking for a dialog with the people of Schaffhausen, as it is about the image of the entire canton, and the people should support it. Our question will be what is needed for this little paradise," says Frei. The first presentation will take place at the Zug trade fair in October. In April 2009, the new image will be promoted with advertisements, posters, radio spots and on the Internet.
The campaign aims to emphasize the low property prices, the beautiful recreational area and the proximity to Zurich. Although the canton is small, this also means short distances and a personal atmosphere in which individuality rather than mass counts, says Frei. Because an image change takes time, the campaign will run intensively for at least four years. An annual budget of CHF 800,000 is available for this, which will be financed via the regular budget and the existing advertising budget of CHF 200,000 from the Schaffhausen Economic Development Agency.
Frei, Partner was awarded the contract via the Schaffhausen government's economic development agency, for which it had already been carrying out residential marketing. For this reason, the contract was awarded without a competitive presentation, says Frei, who founded the agency 20 years ago in Schaffhausen and moved with it to Zurich three years later. Despite being based in Zurich, the agency continued to work for clients in Schaffhausen. In June, the agency is moving back to its home base.
 

  Negative signals from Germany: the Central Association of the German Advertising Industry (ZAW) fears an advertising slump. Last year, the advertising market in the northern neighboring country only grew by 1.8 percent to 30.78 billion. This was below the previous year's result (+2.1 percent). Further setbacks are now looming: "There is a growing danger that the German advertising market will slide back into recession," said ZAW President Michael Kern in a communiqué. The difficult situation is evident from the fact that the share of advertising investment in gross domestic product (GDP) fell to 1.67 percent last year, the lowest figure since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany. Things do not look good in an international comparison either: Germany's advertising growth of 1.8 percent is far below the global figure of 4.7 percent. Forecasts for 2008 also place Germany at the bottom of the list of industrialized nations: The ZAW assumes growth of 1 percent, which puts Germany at the bottom of the international league table.
The ZAW sees various reasons for the weakening German advertising market, such as changes in the media structure and media use, social and demographic changes among consumers and the EU's industry-specific "advertising censorship".

 
The organizers of the 55th Cannes Advertising Festival will have their hands full this year. With a total of 28,284 entries, the festival has seen an increase of over ten percent compared to last year. Half of these are attributable to the new Design Lions category. Among the existing categories, Media Lions (up 20.4 percent), Promo Lions (up 40.3 percent) and Titanium and Integrated Lions (up 33.3 percent) saw strong growth. Radio Lions was the only category with fewer submissions than last year (down 1.1 percent). Submissions from Switzerland remained stable, with 617 local works once again competing for the coveted Lions. The most popular category among the Swiss is "Outdoor", with 186 entries, followed by "Press" with 175. Six Swiss entries were submitted for "Design". Worldwide, economic boom regions such as China, India and Russia made disproportionate gains in the number of entries. However, as last year, the USA leads the ranking by a wide margin, followed by Brazil, Germany, Great Britain and Spain.
The Cannes Lions Festival on the Côte d'Azur will take place this year from June 15 to 21. It will attract over 10,000 visitors from the industry.

 

 McCann Erickson was able to secure two finalist nominations at the renowned New York Festivals: One nomination was in the "Ambient" category for Hot Wheels. A second in the "Outdoor" category for Terre des hommes.

 
A new sports channel will be launched on the Internet for the 2008 European Football Championships, which will be available as an IPTV channel on Zattoo under the name "Blick EM-Spezial" (see: ). The cooperation between Ringier and Zattoo will be marketed by IP Multimedia Switzerland, a Goldbach Media company. According to a press release, the channel is a good addition for TV campaigns during the 2008 European Football Championship. Spots for single commercials will be offered as advertising interruptions in various lengths from five to 30 seconds.