Thanks to the Hiltl restaurant in Zurich, founded in 1898, there is an alternative to bratwurst and Cervelat even during Euro 08. Vegetarian specialties will be served in the Hiltl European Championship tent on Münsterplatz from June 6 to 29, 2008, with live broadcasts of all matches on large plasma screens. A European Championship bar, a VIP lounge, live bands and parties with DJs will ensure a festive atmosphere every day from 11 a.m. to midnight.
Ruf Lanz has taken up this opportunity and designed a campaign to publicize it with a wink: There is a vegetarian in every footballer or football fan. Images of footballers sticking their heads in the grass for a variety of reasons were reinterpreted for the campaign. The print campaign with a total of six subjects will run from the beginning of May.
Responsible at Hiltl:
Rolf Hiltl (overall responsibility). Responsible at Ruf Lanz: Markus Ruf, Danielle Lanz (Creative Direction), Marcel Schläfle (Art Direction), Torsten Maas (Text), Gian Marco Juon (Consulting). Pictures: Archive.

 
Food II Bluespirit makes chickens yodel for the Bell Poulet brand. 
In 2007, the EU relaxed import regulations for chicken meat from Thailand and Brazil. Switzerland is also in the process of liberalizing the poultry market. Much to the suspicion of Swiss meat producers, who have therefore been trying for some time to enhance the value of "Swiss meat" with quality labels. Studies have shown that various labels available on the market can make a difference. Consumers are prepared to pay a higher price if they receive a corresponding product quality in return. The type of rearing, feeding and slaughter are not unimportant to Swiss consumers. Bell is now making its poultry products and animal-friendly husbandry an issue. Switzerland's largest meat producer is launching a campaign for the new Bell Poulet Suisse brand. "Bell neglected this sector for a long time," says Alban Haas from Bluespirit. The Zurich-based agency has developed the new brand identity for the meat supplier. To communicate the quality values to consumers, Bluespirit focuses on Swissness. In TV commercials and print ads, Swiss chickens surprise consumers with their charming Swiss idiosyncrasies - yodeling at sunrise or hoisting the national flag as a matter of course. Slightly exaggerated, the new Bell Poulet Suisse brand under the motto "Eifach äs bizeli schwiizerischer" is intended to provide proof of the best Swiss poultry quality from animal-friendly husbandry and guaranteed Swiss origin.
Instead of real chickens, the commercials show 3D animations. "Dressage would have taken too long," says Haas. The commercials were realized with Condor Films and the Zurich-based motion design studio Boutiq. "The aim and requirement was to create a credible look for the animations in a natural environment," says Alban Haas. The film was directed by Mike Huber, who has made a name for himself in the feature film sector and, as a partner of Boutiq, has already been the inspiration for numerous animation spots. A European yodeling champion was chosen for the acoustic authenticity. The Bell-Poulet-Suisse campaign will be shown on TV, in print, at the POS and online. Via bell.ch, users can get an impression of the new brand in a playful way, have the chickens yodel for them or send them as viral e-mails.
 
Christian Lüscher
 

  
Sport Mobilezone is the new sponsor of the Axpo Super League, Switzerland's top football league. From the start of the 2008/09 season, Switzerland's leading cell phone store chain will be visible on the perimeter boards in all stadiums of the ten clubs, taking advantage of the national interest in top Swiss football. The contract was concluded via the International Sports Agency, the official marketing partner of the Swiss Football League.

 
Company II Muller Martini Buchbinde-System AG, based in Felben TG, has invested 15 million Swiss francs in machines and buildings since 2006 and modernized a significant part of its machinery. The company, which has a global market share of 50 percent, aims to make parts production more efficient and cost-effective and to be able to react more quickly to customer requirements. Bookbinding systems from Muller Martini are used for perfect binding books, magazines and catalogs, 97 percent of which are exported.

 
Company I David Ziltener (38) is the new Director of Xerox Global Services (XGS) at Xerox Switzerland. Ziltener, who was most recently responsible for ICT outsourcing for major Swiss customers at Swisscom, is responsible for all document and outsourcing services in Switzerland at Xerox.

 
Airlines flights to New York are particularly cheap at the moment. To communicate the current special fares, American Airlines is resorting to guerrilla tactics. Early in the morning, the largest US airline distributed apples in Zurich with the following message carved into them: "www.americanairlines.ch - The easiest way to the Big Apple". American Airlines flies non-stop from Zurich to the Big Apple every day, so the journey to New York couldn't be easier. The company may also have done something to combat its poor image with this campaign. In recent days, the airline has made negative headlines because hundreds of flights were canceled.

 
 
Home The best sun protection is enjoyed by those who stay in the shade. Griesser ensures that there is plenty of it, even on hot days. With the Swiss market leader for blinds and roller shutters, the sun protection systems move in and out automatically without you having to worry about anything. The campaign is published in specialist magazines that are read by homeowners.

 
Röné Bringold and his agency D'SIGN Bringold & Cueni want to position packaging even more as the most important advertising tool at the POS. 
 
"Pursuing the path we have chosen with determination and yet not straying off the beaten track": That is the claim for D'SIGN Bringold & Cueni AG in Biel-Benken. As one of Switzerland's largest and internationally active design agencies, the agency has been writing "successful packaging design history" for 25 years. 70 percent of D'SIGN's work is packaging and brand design. But some customers also have their corporate design or, if the occasion arises, a poster, display, flyer and, of course, web design designed by the agency.
All orders are handled directly between the agency and the customer. Ideally, D'SIGN is involved in large projects or a relaunch right from the briefing stage, together with an advertising agency. Bringold is always surprised at how the packaging is incorrectly positioned. "Packaging is often underestimated. Yet it is the final decisive factor at the POS."
Especially for products where there is little advertising budget, such as private labels, it is therefore all the more important that the packaging design "works and is good". A new packaging design solution is not only intended to last for one or two years, but must be able to survive on the market for three to five years before a new revision is launched. "It used to be up to eight years, but the cycle has become shorter."
And where are the trends heading? When it comes to food, it is very important that the product is displayed with a serving suggestion wherever possible. "You have to show the consumer: What can I do with this product?" Simply depicting a bag of rice no longer sells today - unless it is a correspondingly highly positioned specialty, for example.
Consumers don't go to the store with the intention of buying Arborio rice or Floralp butter, for example. "They write rice and butter on their shopping list and then pick the best-looking pack," says Bringold. Because the consumer effectively makes the purchase decision in the store, the packaging has to appeal to them. "They have to stop in front of the shelf because of the packaging."
Food photography and skillful retouching are "half the battle of packaging". Customers are very aware of beautifully designed cookbooks or artfully photographed lifestyle magazines. "Skillfully done is in today. We also feel this when designing packaging." It has to convey a modern and fresh attitude to life. The shapes are usually limited to functionality. In the cosmetics sector, however, the shape is more important than for food. With food, on the other hand, the shapes have "generally become more feminine. Also the materials, typography and aesthetics."
Brand architecture is an important part of the work at D'SIGN. When a brand has several sub-brands, stylish solutions have to be found. Such tasks are particularly important for Hengstenberg, a major client in D'SIGN's portfolio from Germany.
This company from southern Germany has grown up with sauerkraut. Today, 40 million tins of the classic sauerkraut tin are sold every year in Germany alone. In theory, every second household has such a tin. This one was designed by Bringold. Does that sometimes make him proud? "It's actually not a bad feeling to stand in a store and discover perhaps 30 products that you have designed yourself," says Bringold, pleased with the success of his work. However, he clearly sees himself as a craftsman. "We make handicrafts, not art."
An important customer in Switzerland is Ricola. Bringold's studio has been the lead agency for the design for 23 years. During this time, the packaging has "changed a lot, but always in small steps".
D'SIGN also works a lot for Coop with Qualité et Prix and the new positioning of its own brands. However, the major distributor's design is split between five large agencies in Switzerland. "That means no cluster risk for both."
D'SIGN supplies print data, all documents and ready-to-use final artwork. The customer can be guaranteed the desired quality for all work steps from A to Z. English star agencies sometimes only do the design, as do some advertising agencies. For Bringold, its full service is therefore an argument why its work is also in demand internationally.
40 to 60 percent of D'SIGN's capacity utilization comes from Germany. Bringold also feels ideally positioned geographically in the border triangle. However, the international business also includes country-specific packaging for the whole of Europe, Taiwan, Singapore and China. Ricola is supplied to 120 countries, Hengstenberg already to 40.
A total of 15 people work at D'SIGN in the three divisions of administration, production and graphics. D'SIGN also trains its own graphic designers. This is something that is particularly important to Bringold.
Röné Bringold himself has worked in five different professions. He comes from the printing industry, trained as an advertising assistant at Sawi and also trained as a repro photographer and typographic designer. He founded his own agency 25 years ago as "Atelier für klassische Werbegrafik". Before that, he worked for various companies on the client side, most recently for two years as advertising manager at Knauf Switzerland, a trading company with products for interior design.
The first major customer was Ricola - and it has remained to this day. This is how Bringold "gradually got into packaging design". Initially as a one-man company. Then he had to keep expanding when Gaba, Elmex, Aronal and Coop also joined the customer base. At the same time, he also ran an ASW agency at the beginning.
Twelve years ago, when the agency already had around a dozen employees, Christian Cueni joined as a partner. Cueni previously worked at Schmidlin und Partner in Reinach, later known as Futurebrand, a subsidiary of McCann-Erickson. What was once the largest packaging design agency in Europe no longer exists.
Former designers Röné Bringold and Christian Cueni are now mainly managers. However, both are also regularly involved in the creative work process. This is also one reason why many customers explicitly come to D'SIGN.
Regular workshops are also an important customer argument at D'SIGN. There, marketing people learn how to handle print documents - "What are open files? Why can't a Word file be placed in a final artwork?" More than 280 interested parties have attended these courses at D'SIGN to date. The agency has thus successfully positioned itself as an "interface between design and marketing".
You can get to know Röné Bringold's private side on his website www.bringold.com. He mainly publishes his own photographs there. He describes hunting for images all over the world as his great passion. He has already organized six exhibitions with his own photos. He also enjoys jazz. Bringold is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Basel Jazz Festival - and has of course already designed various posters for this event and carried out the relaunch of the festival brand "off beat".
Andreas Panzeri

 
Award At the German Dialog Marketing Award (ddp) in Berlin, there was not a single medal for Switzerland. 
Yellow card for the Swiss agencies: at the German Dialogue Marketing Award 2008, not only were there no medals, but there was also criticism of the passivity of the helpers. "We are disappointed with the response to our international competition," said Michael Koch, jury president of the German Dialog Marketing Award (ddp) and managing director at OgilvyOne Worldwide in Frankfurt. The chairman finds the lack of Swiss participation in one of Europe's most prestigious dialog competitions "completely baffling". "There have been complaints from Austria," says Koch, "about the additional 1,000 euros that are due if a campaign either wins a medal or receives an award." But this is a contribution towards expenses that is due for a current book publication.
As the jury of the German Dialog Marketing Association (DDV) received very little mail from the Swiss and Austrian dialog agencies, there was not much to award. Other categories such as "Customer Loyalty", "Mailing" and "Digital Media" celebrated two gold medals. In contrast, the international category "D-A-CH" had no gold winners.
Negative record "We are sad that only 21 campaigns were submitted from Switzerland and Austria," said DDV President Dieter Weng, describing the absolute negative record.
Nevertheless, it was the Viennese agency PKP proximity that scored points in the international category with silver ("How oh") and bronze ("smartam Zug!") for its client ÖBB-Personenverkehr AG. Two agencies from Switzerland also made a positive impression with one award each and made it onto the shortlist.
The jury commended Agentur am Flughafen AG, which designed a multi-stage mailing for the Swiss Textile Federation. The aim was to acquire qualified young talent for the textile industry. This was achieved through a targeted approach and information to high school teachers. The jury liked the approach and execution, especially as the response rate for the dialog campaign was 15 percent out of 1,200 mailings.
The jury also considered the work of Publicis Dialog for the client Hewlett-Packard Switzerland. Under the title "HP magnifying glass mailing", the aim was to raise awareness among Swiss customers of efficient printer solutions from HP. Publicis developed an appealing box containing a tiny letter that could only be read with the enclosed magnifying glass: "Save on small things..." In this case too, the judges recognized the response success of the campaign. Within ten days, there had been 28 presentation appointments on site.
The number of participants from Austria and Switzerland for the international DACH category has more than halved over the past four years. As recently as 2005, 56 agencies submitted entries to the ddp for this category. At that time, Lowe Direct won bronze. In 2006, OgilvyOne took silver, and last year there was also bronze for the Swiss advertising agency Fisch.Meier.Direkt/Publicis and its work for Saab.
Raising awareness among participantsDDV President Weng and ddp jury chairman Koch now want to raise awareness of the ddp among Swiss and Austrian dialogue agencies through campaigns and personal contact. "The German Dialog Marketing Association is now the largest national association of dialog marketing companies in Europe and one of the leading associations in the communications industry. We are open to cooperation," said Weng. "We have to think outside the box, especially as dialog marketing is becoming increasingly important."
German dialog agencies confirm this trend. This time, 126 companies took part, more agencies than ever before. A total of 628 entries were judged (728 in 2006). With 15 gold, 14 silver and 21 bronze trophies as well as 46 awards (shortlist), the current year, according to jury chairman Koch, "shows a very high quality. With fewer entries, we have awarded more golds compared to last year."
OgilvyOne Worldwide was able to defend the title of "Best Dialog Agency". The creatives scored a total of 62 points and distanced themselves from their rivals Heye, 121 (27 points) and DDB Germany (21).
However, the biggest applause of the evening did not go to perennial winner OgilvyOne, but to DDB Germany. The dialog agency based in Hamburg and Berlin won the Grand Prix "Best in Show" for the Volkswagen campaign with the oddball local journalist Horst Schlämmer, alias Hape Kerkeling, which has already won several awards. "No campaign shows more impressively how dialog marketing has changed through digital media and what opportunities are available here," said Michael Koch, explaining the decision in favor of Horst Schlämmer.
Procter & Gamble was delighted to receive the "Eddi" customer prize, which was awarded for the 15th time. Leo Burnett Frankfurt won the gold medal in the Junior Creative Award. All the campaigns and works honored at the ddp 2008 will appear in the ddp yearbook, which will be published in May by Varus-Verlag in Bonn at a price of 50 euros.
 
Peter Ehm, Munich
 

 
Membership decline haltedAt the DDV General Meeting
which also took place in Berlin before the gala event, President Dieter Weng was re-elected for the next three years by a large majority. The former Reemtsma board member had brought the association out of an economic and media slump. The decline in membership, which had been ongoing since 2002, was halted last year. The association currently has 754 members, with 15 new companies and agencies joining since the beginning of the year alone. At its meeting, the DDV also decided to change its name: the German Direct Marketing Association is now called the German Dialog Marketing Association. (pe)
 
 

 
Outdoor advertising The ZVV and ZKB, together with KSB/SJ, get the night network talked about with a giant comic.  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Around the clock, suburban trains and buses will operate during the European Football Championship. At night, fans will get their money's worth. Thanks to a sponsorship from Zürcher Kantonalbank, the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV) will waive the night surcharge of five francs throughout Euro 08. In return, ZKB will receive from ZVV the largest advertising space in Switzerland, which was officially presented at a media conference on April 10 in Zurich's main train station.
These are two train compositions, each 100 meters long, which show a nocturnal landscape in comic style along their entire length. The night world presents the Zurich skyline and countless bats, led by a giant bat at the head of the locomotive. The advertising highlight was realized by the Zurich agency Krieg Schlupp Bürge/Springer & Jacoby (KSB/SJ). The two train compositions will be on the S-Bahn network throughout the greater Zurich area for an entire year.
Star of the comics sceneThe Lucerne-based comics artist Melk Thalmann was commissioned to create the train. Born in 1967, the cartoonist is one of the early and very successful representatives of the Swiss comics scene. As early as 1989, during his studies at the Lucerne School of Art and Design, Thalmann published his first work, "Kommissar Roggenmoser, ein schwieriger Fall" (Commissioner Roggenmoser, a difficult case). In 2001, he received a scholarship from the city of Lucerne for a year of work in Chicago.
Stylistically, Melk Thalmann feels a connection to modern US adventure comics and has developed his own style from them. In 2005, he published the comic book "Zwischenfall," an exciting and at the same time offbeat agent story set against the historical background of Swiss efforts to obtain the atomic bomb in the sixties. Thanks to this publication, Melk Thalmann won the Cultural Recognition Award of the City of Lucerne in 2005.
The passionate illustrator has also worked as a freelance illustrator for press and advertising for 17 years. His highlights include cover illustrations for the business magazine Bilanz and the news magazine Facts, which ceased publication in 2007. Occasionally, illustrations bearing his signature also appear in the Sunday press.
Paper and pencil instead of pencilThe night world comic for the ZVV was not created on the computer, as Thalmann says, but on paper, drawn in pencil. The sketches were later colored with brushes and ink and then scanned in. On the computer, the colors were edited and the drawing was given the finishing touches. For Melk Thalmann, the poster in train format was new territory and a special challenge, because the extreme length has its pitfalls. The artist had to take into account the safety regulations of the ZVV and the train architecture. For the passionate cartoonist, the production of the train poster was also very demanding because the clients wanted a staging that could be recognized from a distance and from a short distance. For this reason, the large bats were used on the outside and the "rummage character" in the door area. In the door area, the "longest poster in Switzerland" has a few surprises in store for the attentive viewer.
While the current poster and ad campaign of the ZVV was already characterized by a multitude of allusions and secret messages, the train advertising impresses with various "special effects". If the doors open, individual bats move or new fluttering animals emerge. Melk Thalmann is not the only one who counts the work for the ZKB night network as a career highlight. Daniel Krieg from KSB/SJ also considers the work to be a highlight of his career to date: "After a project like this, I should actually retire as an advertiser."
Convertible sloganInitially, the two trains will advertise the ZKB night network, which will exceptionally operate night after night during the European Football Championship 08. The slogan will be "So that you are where your football night is". Afterwards, the trains will then travel with "So that you are where your night is" for the rest of the year. A whole range of other advertising materials will accompany football fans and anyone who prefers to avoid the football hype in June: Ads, bus lettering, small posters in streetcars, buses, and suburban trains, ticket vending machine stickers, and info brochures for European Football Championship guests and regular ZVV customers.
KSB/SJ takes Feldermaus idea furtherSince 2002, the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV) has operated the night network, the bat has been the companion of every campaign. Under the motto "Live like a bat - first flutter around, then hang out", the ZVV communicates the night service. At the center of the campaign are the passengers traveling home in the S-Bahn cars. And the ZVV does not want to part with the wildly romantic image of the most famous nocturnal creature. Despite the change of agency in September 2007 - KSB/SJ is now responsible for communications instead of Publicis - the ZVV is holding on to the flapping animal. Daniel Krieg of KSB/SJ: "It's only right that we keep pulling the core idea." Together with Jean-Etienne Aebi, Daniel Krieg is one of the creators of the ZVV bat.
 
Christian Lüscher
 

ZVV is on the move around the clockWith 1,400 extra S-Bahn trains,
2,000 extra buses and streetcars, the ZVV wants to ensure that everything runs smoothly on public transport during Euro 08. More than one million visitors are expected. They should be able to travel at any time of the day or night by suburban trains and buses. As a matter of principle, they should be able to travel on the connections of the existing daytime network. During the Euro, the ZVV will deploy an additional 250 people per day. On match days, another 100 employees of the municipal transport company (VBZ) will be added. ZVV Director Franz Kagerbauer estimates the additional costs for the Euro at 4.4 million Swiss francs. About half of the amount should be covered by the ZKB by taking over the night surcharge. (cl)

 
Furniture Love is an inexhaustible topic. The Angelink agency shows how it can be dealt with in 25 seconds in a TV commercial for Möbel Gallati. The commercial observes a couple in love in the showrooms of the Sihlbrugg furniture store and describes the prototypical course of an amorous relationship in off-screen text. The fact that Möbel Gallati recommends itself as a furnishing partner in this context is emphasized in a pleasantly unobtrusive way. The commercial runs on regional television on Tele Tell and Tele Züri. 

 
Finishing The value and attractiveness of printed matter can be visibly enhanced by embossing. With its embossing techniques, Prävag offers tangible and visible experiences. 
High-quality products are in demand and the market for premium products is developing into a growth market. It therefore comes as no surprise that print products and packaging are being finished to an ever greater extent. Embossing techniques are one way of making motifs tangible and thus achieving haptic effects. Prävag Prägedruck + Veredelung AG, based in Köniz-Bern, has been offering a comprehensive range of embossing services for more than 15 years. "We see ourselves as an embossing specialist that can offer its customers the various embossing techniques and has the corresponding technology and comprehensive expertise," says Managing Director Walter Giger. Typical embossing processes include classic blind embossing. The result is a colorless, very lifelike relief.
This is characterized by the raised and recessed areas on the printed material. "Blind embossing can be used to produce simple, but also very complex and large-format subjects," explains Giger. Blind embossing is often used to depict coats of arms, logos and logotypes, whether on business cards, business stationery or the front page of annual reports.
Attractive embossed foil printingAnother process that is increasingly being used in the packaging sector is embossed foil printing. New developments and improvements in the foil sector have contributed to the attractiveness of embossed foil printing. A typical feature of the process is the metallic sheen, which can be achieved not only with gold and silver, but also with many other predetermined colors.
The use of non-metallized matt foil also enables special effects. A mechanically or chemically processed 7 mm magnesium or brass plate is used for the engraving. The print image and print run are decisive for the choice of material. The raised part of the engraving heated to 100 to 200 degrees detaches the foil film from the carrier material and simultaneously presses it onto the printed material. It is also possible to add a relief to the embossed foil print to further enhance the tactile effect.
The finest form of deformation is microembossing, which is also embossed foil printing. However, this does not require a counter-mold as with a relief, as only the surface of the foil is deformed. The special effect of this process is the cybernetic effect caused by the light refraction of the surface structure when the viewing angle is changed.
Security solutions in demandPrevag also has special expertise in the field of holograms. Holographic effects are created by using different embossing stamps and diffraction foils or by combining different types of holograms. "Today, holograms are mainly used for high-quality branded goods, in the pharmaceutical sector and for securities to protect against counterfeiting, or as an eye-catcher," says Giger. Because more and more products are being counterfeited today, efficient hologram-based security solutions are an increasingly important issue.
Prävag's expertise is used by advertising agencies, marketing specialists, graphics studios and, above all, the graphics industry. "As a contract finisher, we very often take on orders from print shops and packaging companies that are unable to carry them out themselves," says Giger. "That makes sense for everyone involved. Many companies that stamped their own printed matter just a few years ago now rely on us."
The reasons for this vary. On the one hand, such companies do not have the embossing systems required for these orders. Another is the complexity of the subject matter, which very often requires comprehensive embossing expertise in order to meet the customer's quality requirements. This requires not only knowledge of production, but also of materials technology. "We have to be able to handle the pre-printed products supplied by the customer and also have knowledge of foils. We therefore see ourselves as a problem solver for complicated and demanding individual orders," says Giger. "In addition, thanks to the available technology, such as an FBR 104 film printing sheet-fed rotary control foil jet, we are also able to produce large orders in the range of 500,000 to 1 million sheets quickly and cost-effectively. The system can emboss up to 10,000 sheets per hour in 72 x 104 cm format."
Growing food sectorHighly refined products are in vogue. Prävag is also benefiting from this. More and more premium lines are being launched in the food sector in particular, which need to present themselves with a high-quality appearance at the POS, says Giger. In addition to cosmetics packaging, embossed foil printing is primarily used for packaging for coffee, tobacco products, confectionery and labels for alcoholic beverages. However, the possibilities of these finishing techniques are also used in the print sector, for catalogs for luxury items and for magazines.
The securities sector is a growing area. While little has changed in terms of embossing printing processes, it is above all faster embossing printing machines, more precise tool production thanks to CNC technology and improvements in the area of foils that now enable the cost-effective production of large print runs and thus the development of new market segments.
Sabine Flaxman
Quality CircleThe Embossing Foil Printing Working Group e. V.
is an association of efficient process users and suppliers in the field of embossing printing. The objectives include the development of comprehensive knowledge, information and communication of the process, quality and innovation community as a general concern, promotion of the finishing process with its formative concerns, consulting competence, process technology, environmental protection topics, specialist lectures, seminars, workshops for designers and marketing or training of junior staff. Interested parties can obtain an overview of the individual embossing processes at . (sf)