The portal of the free newspaper 20 Minuten and the telecommunications company Sunrise have agreed on a strategic cooperation: From now on, Sunrise customers will be able to use the 20 Minuten Online mobile portal free of charge and without restriction. According to Stephan Obwegeser, Publishing Director Online at 20 Minuten, the free newspaper's mobile portal has always been free of charge. Now, thanks to the cooperation, the biggest hurdle to date can be removed: For Sunrise customers, the provider's data fees for Internet access via cell phone will no longer apply with immediate effect. For users, it no longer matters whether they access the online service via cell phone or PC. 20 Minuten Online hopes that this will increase the reach of the portal via cell phone.

 
For the second time, an award for exemplary advertising with children will be presented on Advertising Day on April 25. The initiators are the children's charity Terre des hommes and Schweizer Werbung. One advertisement and one TV spot will be honored "in which children are portrayed as independent personalities and taken seriously without denying their childishness", as the press release states. The reason for the "Child guardian 08" award is the fact that children are popular protagonists in advertising, but require special protection. According to the organizers, it is important to them that children are protected in commercial communication and not discriminated against or portrayed in an unworthy manner or even instrumentalized.
The award-winning agencies and advertising clients receive a symbolic prize, with the prize money going towards Terre des hommes' child protection projects in Switzerland. The patronage committee is chaired by APG CEO Christian Kauter. The jury consists of several personalities from advertising and communication as well as a 16-year-old and an 11-year-old. Around 300 subjects were assessed.

 
Several trade associations, including Swiss advertising, are mobilizing against the prevention campaigns of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). The accusation is that the FOPH is patronizing citizens. FOPH Director Thomas Zeltner in particular has to put up with harsh accusations, and twenty associations have now joined forces in an interest group. The IG includes the business umbrella organization Economiesuisse, the Swiss Trade Association (SGV), the Swiss Employers' Association, Gastrosuisse, the Swiss Farmers' Association, the Petroleum Association and the Swiss Advertising Association.
The FOPH has launched three campaigns within a very short space of time that would severely encroach on consumers' freedom, said Rudolf Horber, political secretary at the SIA, on Monday in an interview with the program "10 vor 10". The newly founded IG wants to combat these excesses. Nothing is yet known about planned measures.
Two of the FOPH's demands in particular are a thorn in the side of the economy, according to an SDA report. These are the restrictions on the sale of alcohol after 9 p.m. and smoke-free restaurants. However, the prevention spots against obesity are also a thorn in the side of the economy.
FOPH Director Thomas Zeltner should not be telling people what they can and cannot eat, Piero Schäfer, spokesperson for the Swiss Advertising Association, told "10 vor 10". Instead, personal responsibility should be appealed to.
Zeltner is also at the center of criticism. In the latest issue of the Gewerbezeitung, SGV spokesperson Patrick Lucca even describes him as a "health Taliban". The FOPH told "10 vor 10" that it had taken note of the article in the Gewerbezeitung and the opinion reflected in it. The next step will be for the Federal Council to comment on the programs. This is expected to happen before the summer break.

 The registration period for the fourth Corporate Communications Award is now open. There are two prizes up for grabs, namely the Award-CC and the Award Media Relations. The former is awarded by the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. It honors experts who communicate creatively using an integrated approach (see ). In addition, the Media Relations discipline prize sponsored by News Aktuell will also be awarded again this year. The closing date for entries for the Award-CC and Award Media Relations communication concepts is July 31, 2008, and the award ceremony will take place on September 11, 2008 at the FHNW School of Business in Olten. At the same time, the Swiss Forum for Integrated Communication will take place there, with the theme "Nonprofit Communication".

 Last year, the Commission for Fair Trading (FC) decided to publish the rulings of the first chamber on its website after the expiry of the appeal period. As this is not an actual sanction measure, the company names of the respondents are covered. In recent months, there have again been several complaints against sexist advertising, according to the LK. Of the four complaints submitted on this matter, the Commission upheld three. One complaint directed against advertising for a TV channel's casting show was rejected. In total, the first chamber of the LK had to assess nine complaints. It found six of them to be unfair. One case was referred to the plenum for assessment. In addition to the three sexist cases, the FC also upheld the complaint against the advertising of a laser hair removal device, which contained misleading claims, as well as a complaint in connection with a sales pitch in which the mention of the purchase price was disputed. A company that had failed to clearly communicate the price of its service on the Internet was also condemned.

 In March, advertising worth CHF 367.2 million was placed in Switzerland. Compared to the previous year, advertising pressure increased by 1.1%. The cumulative increase since the beginning of the year is 7.7%, according to Media Focus. With an increase of 44.3% (CHF 15.9 million) compared to the same period last year, there was once again a significant change in the "consumer electronics / photo / films" segment. The key market of "watches and jewelry" also performed well in March 2008: advertising pressure rose by 31.6% to CHF 5.04 million at the beginning of spring. The most significant positive trend was recorded in the watch advertising market with an increase of 72.6% (CHF 1.6 million). The financial sector also grew, namely by 4.8% (CHF 32.4 million).
In contrast, there was significantly less advertising in the "Energy" segment. A decrease of 31.2% (CHF 2.3 million) was recorded here. There was also a drop of 64.7% (also CHF 2.3 million) in the "Political campaigns" sector. The key market of "Clothing / Leisure / Sport" also lost ground, namely by 15.1% (CHF 18.4 million).
Media Focus has presented a new media classification system for the current data edition: All advertising media in the print media category are now categorized according to the typology of the Swiss press in the Media Focus media system. The media groups are now called "Daily, regional weekly and Sunday press", "Consumer, financial and business press", "Specialized press" and "Trade press". According to the company, the restructuring will improve the accuracy of classification and comparability with a valid market standard.

The Zurich Neighborhood Help Association (FNBH), founded in November 2005, has chosen the Zurich advertising agency Publicis for its public image. The FNBH sees itself as a service organization with the aim of making neighbourhood help better known to the public. After all, good neighborliness is one of the most important prerequisites for living together in the city. But sometimes people don't dare to ask for help - or those willing to help don't know where they can make themselves useful. That's why there are 14 non-profit neighborhood helpers (NBH) in the city of Zurich alone. These provide voluntary services such as shopping, watering plants or feeding animals.
With the visual implementation on A2 small posters and in the annual report, Publicis makes the theme of humanity tangible in the anonymous city. Key words such as "helpfulness", "closeness" and "tolerance" shoot up three-dimensionally like buildings on the sober city map of Zurich. In addition, a new logo, brochures and various accompanying measures were created in the first phase.
Responsible at Förderverein Nachbarschaftshilfe Zürich:
Christian Guler (President), Santiago-Manuel Alonso (Head of Communications). Responsible at Publicis: Ralph Halder (CD), Carlos Mejia (AD), Roy Spring (Text), Deborah Herzig (Consulting).

 

Davos and Klosters are joining forces from May 1st to create a uniform image. The most visible common feature is the new logo, which will be used by Davos Klosters Tourismus for all mailings. The marketing measures - be it the joint support of the markets or campaigns for summer 2008 - will be carried out uniformly under the Davos Klosters brand. This also applies to media and PR work, according to a press release. Processes behind the scenes have also been merged, such as accounting, visitor taxes and guest statistics. The uniform appearance will be gradually expanded over the coming weeks and months. The next step will be to produce joint brochures and leaflets and prepare a joint website.

 Wemf has revised the guidelines for circulation certification and sent the revised regulations to publishers in the last few days. The adjustment came about after a project group of the Swiss Press Association approached the research institute with various requests. The regulations will be applied for the first time in the survey period from July 2008 to June 2009 and for the publication in 2009. From the survey period 2008/2009 onwards, all audited titles will be considered "Wemf/SW certified", and the designation "Circulation Confirmation Post" will be dispensed with in future. Advertising-relevant titles are always listed in the VSW database as "WEMF/SW-certified". Furthermore, the same publication guidelines now apply for the typologies 1000 to 4000, which include daily press, regional weekly press, Sunday press, financial and business press, general public press, special press and trade press. The "free circulation" section has been divided into five subcategories. According to a Wemf statement, the adjustments still ensure comparability of the figures with previous years.
In addition to the adjustments to the regulations, a new pricing model was developed. This is based, on the one hand, on a detailed process cost calculation and, on the other hand, on source-oriented aspects.

 The Association of Leading Advertising and Communication Agencies in Switzerland (BSW) is getting to the bottom of the subject of measuring advertising success in an intensive seminar. In view of the high level of advertising investment, clients increasingly want to know whether the targets set are being achieved. Agencies and marketing people on the client side must therefore have answers as to whether advertising investments are worthwhile, how the return on investment can be proven and which measures have a positive impact on sales and brand value. At the BSW Intensive Seminar from June 15 - 18, 2008 at the Gerzensee Study Center, all aspects of measuring advertising success will be examined from the perspective of agencies, advertising clients, market researchers and the media. Speakers from practice and academia will bring participants up to date on the latest developments in measuring advertising success and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various methods and approaches with them.
Peter Felser (Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett) and Urs Schneider (Mediaschneider) are responsible for the seminar concept. Further information on the seminar can be found on the
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 Sobering figures in the advertising business: In March 2008, advertising revenues in the Swiss press fell by 10.2 percent year-on-year to CHF 177.1 million. In the two previous months, the number of advertisements sold had still increased. According to Wemf on Monday, income from job advertisements (-11.5 percent) and advertising (-9.9 percent) both fell last month, with the daily press, which accounts for over half of the advertising pie, being particularly affected by the decline. In the same month last year, it was still able to sell 17.8 percent more ads. However, it should be noted that three fewer newspaper editions were published in March than in the previous year due to Easter.
In contrast, the number of advertisements sold in the Sunday newspapers developed extremely positively. The volume increased by 45.1 percent, which is due not least to the new Sunday newspaper "Sonntag" launched in September 2007. The increase is also due to the fact that there were five Sundays in March 2008 instead of four.
The trade press (+9.5%) and specialty press (+0.3%) also recorded positive developments. In contrast, the general press (-22.6%) and the regional weekly press (-23.1%) were down sharply. The financial and business press lost 9% of its volume.

 
The winner of the APG online Poster of the Year 2007 competition is Graubünden Ferien/Davos Klosters Tourismus. 14 percent of all votes went to the poster designed by Jung von Matt/Limmat. All visitors to the APG website were invited to serve as the jury. From January 23 to February 22, 2008, more than 1,800 people took the opportunity to vote on the subjects. The 38 different Posters of the Week from 2007 were up for selection. Graubünden Ferien/Davos Klosters Tourismus, as the client, and the creative agency Jung von Matt/Limmat, which was responsible for designing the poster, were presented with the winner's trophy at a small ceremony at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.
Since 2002, all major Swiss poster campaigns have also been present on the Internet. By means of e-voting, anyone, whether from the advertising world or as a layman, can vote for his or her personal Poster of the Week from the current billboard and, in doing so, has a weekly chance to win 300 Swiss francs in the form of a Kuoni travel voucher, according to APG. Creative managers and poster enthusiasts can now find around 6,500 posters in the electronic APG archive, which can be accessed using various search criteria.
Photo: Béatrice Merlach (SR DRS, previously Davos Klosters Tourism), Martin Fritsche, Alexander Jaggy (both Jung von Matt), Gieri Spescha (Graubünden Ferien).
The winning poster: