The two advertising agencies of the Walliseller Draftfcb/Lowe Group have made it to the finalists at the New York Festivals. Whether the "Any Shape" campaign for Artesanos Camiseros has also won a gold, silver or bronze award in the Outdoor (Guerrilla Marketing) category will be announced on April 18.

 
For the third time, the best PR images of the year are being sought for the Obs Awards. The prize is awarded by the SDA subsidiary News Aktuell Switzerland and the DPA subsidiary News Aktuell in Germany, both of which offer an Obs, an original picture service. Participants from Germany and Switzerland are invited to submit their photos at Obs-awards.de until July 6, 2008. The jury for the photo competition is made up of journalists and PR experts, and companies, organizations and PR agencies can apply for the Obs Awards with images that have been used for media relations and communication in the past twelve months. Entry is free of charge. In addition to the categories of corporate communications, events and campaigns, product photos, portraits, program and magazine PR, the prize will also be awarded for the first time to NGOs. The winners will be announced at a PR photography event in Munich in November.

 After 25 years of experience in journalism, Elisabeth Eckert Dunning joined PR agency Rochat & Partners on April 1. She will become a partner at the Geneva office, which specializes in financial communications and crisis communications. Eckert Dunning has a degree in history and started her career in journalism at the newspaper La Suisse, for which she also worked as a correspondent in Zurich. This was followed by positions as business editor at L'Hebdo, Bilan and L'Agefi. In 1998, she was appointed head of the business section at La Tribune de Genève. In 2007, she additionally assumed responsibility for the business pages of 24 Heures. In parallel, she has been responsible for the business course at the Centre Romand de Formation des Journalistes (CRFJ) for several years.
Rochat & Partners has offices in Lausanne and Zurich in addition to its Geneva office. The agency has won several new mandates in recent months, including the Société des Régisseurs de Genève and the Centre Patronal in Vaud, as well as international companies such as Carmignac Gestion and Pimco, according to a statement.

 Ricardo Cabanas, footballer at Grashopper Club Zurich, now has his own website. The site, which is managed by the communications agency KFS, features many pictures showing the everyday life of the top footballer in all its facets. Encounters on the pitch, such as with football legend Zinédine Zidane, are also documented in photographs, and interested parties can find up-to-date information about Ricci Cabanas as a person, his career and his greatest successes. In addition to Adidas, the sponsors also include "Silestone by Cosentino". The Spanish manufacturer and processor of worktops for kitchen worktops has recently opened its own branch in Switzerland.

Publimedia is losing its CEO: after a long career at Publigroupe, Daniel Strobel has decided to leave the company and take on a new challenge, according to a statement. Until the new management is determined, Thomas Bargetzi, CEO Sales Switzerland Publicitas, will take over the operational management of Publimedia on an interim basis. "Daniel Strobel and I will be working together intensively over the next few weeks, and I will actively familiarize myself with the various dossiers and be present at the most important meetings from now on," Bargetzi told Werbewoche. He said he expects to be able to present the new management in the summer, perhaps even earlier.
Exactly when Strobel will leave the company has not yet been announced. Commenting on the outgoing CEO, Bargetzi says: "In Daniel Strobel, the new Publicitas is losing a proven and successful expert on the Swiss media and an active driver of the all-media strategy. In his long tenure at Publicitas, he has put his heart and soul into the "P" and the interests of the print genre." Strobel himself is quoted in the communiqué as saying, "Working for the reinventing Publicitas was and is exciting and challenging." Nevertheless, after such a long time, the time had come for him to do something completely new again.
Publimedia is undergoing changes In addition to the departure of the CEO, Publimedia is facing further changes. Information on the further development of the Publicitas unit is planned for the summer, before the planning phase in 2009. "The topic of Publimedia has been on our minds not just since yesterday," Bargetzi further explained to Werbewoche. "However, we are very far along in our deliberations and will be able to present Publicitas Publimedia in the summer as the market demands. Many market partners have given us enough indications over the last few months and we have gathered extensive information, also thanks to the active cooperation of Daniel Strobel."
According to Bargetzi, the possibility of a change at the top at other Publicitas units cannot be ruled out. "I hope not, but in a reorganization, the largest in the group, you are not spared such events. However, I am not aware of anything," says the CEO Sales Switzerland of Publicitas.
The "reinvention" of Publicitas is progressing well, given the size of the project. "Certainly, not everything is going the way we want it to. As a rule, it takes much more time than desired. But this is quite normal," said Bargetzi, assessing the situation. He and his management team are in constant contact and are managing the many tasks of a reorganization in addition to the day-to-day business. "I'm on the road a lot, meeting people in Geneva, Basel, Zurich and Ticino, and generally speaking, I have the impression that I have a lot of very motivated employees. This is a pleasure and encourages everyone to continue working so determinedly on the new P," said Bargetzi, explaining the ongoing changes.

 Goldbach Media is presenting the Goldbach Guide for the sixth time. The free pocket-sized reference book contains up-to-date data on television, radio, online, ad screen, cinema and teletext as well as information on in-game advertising, mobile marketing, in-store radio and Internet TV. It is designed to support students in the fields of marketing and communication and to help them quickly find information and develop rough concepts and budgets. The Goldbach Guide is published in a print run of 7000 copies and is available in German and French.

The Zurich agency Publicis is promoting the theater premiere of Martin Suter's "Business Class" with a trenchant subject. The Casinotheater Winterthur will be staging the bitter and humorous management columns of the former advertiser and ADC president from May 8. The advertisers from Publicis make heads roll in advertisements and posters and mercilessly get to the heart of the struggle for survival in the boardroom: the managers stand in the shooting lane as bowling figures, just waiting to see which of them will be the next to be "shot down". The subject is now on show. Responsible at Casinotheater Winterthur:
Paul Burkhalter (overall responsibility), Christa Kostgeld (advertising management). Responsible at Publicis: Ralf Kostgeld (CD), Denis Schwarz (AD), Roy Spring (text), Yeliz Salman, Raphael Monsch (graphics), Deborah Herzig (consulting), Cortis&Sonderegger (photography), Christina Hengstmann (art buying).

 The pay-TV broadcaster Premiere wants to buy Sat.1 and thus enter the free-to-air television market. Premiere CEO Michael Börnicke believes that the Berlin-based broadcaster would be an ideal fit for his company, as the German Handelsblatt reported on Monday. By purchasing a channel like Sat.1, he could benefit from volume advantages in the purchase of film and sports rights. However, there are no concrete talks about these purchase intentions. At Pro Sieben Sat.1, the parent company of Sat.1, there is no mention of this: "A sale of Sat.1 is out of the question," a spokeswoman for the broadcasting group told the German Handelsblatt newspaper. "There are no intentions whatsoever to sell a station. Not even Sat.1." However, Sat.1 is a problem child of the parent company due to poor business figures and weak viewing figures.
Incidentally, Premiere could receive support for its takeover plans from new major shareholder and media zampano Rupert Murdoch. His holding company News Corp. recently increased its share package to 22.7 percent.

 
Emmi's Luzerner is a cheese that is eaten in large, hearty chunks, writes Advico Young & Rubicam in a press release. The Zurich-based advertising agency developed the advertising campaign for the Central Swiss cheese product for the milk producer. It is so fine and creamy-mild that instead of being simply eaten, it is simply munched away in a flash. This statement was implemented in a campaign that continues the previous concept with cows as protagonists, but focuses on the new theme of "munching". Anyone who unwraps their Lucerne cheese sandwich on their next hike and munches it with relish should watch out - they might not be alone:
Guido Kälin (Head of Marketing Cheese Division), David Jäger (Head of Marketing Services), Marlise Tamburini (Product Manager), Torsten Fankhänel (Head of Advertising), Neuhaus Sina (Project Manager Advertising). Responsible at Advico Young & Rubicam: Philipp Skrabal (ECD), Christian Bobst (CD), Marietta Albinus (AD), Emi Lehmann (Graphics), Johannes Raggio (Text), Frederic Poppenhäger (Strategy), Lukas Tenger, Daniela Britt, Sandro Breu (Consulting), Daniela Berther (FFF Producer), Chickenshack (Production), Harry Patramanis (Director).

 The cross-media agency Maxomedia has won the pitch for Raclette Suisse's overall communication against three competitors. The collaboration is planned for three years. Now that the association has introduced a new marketing strategy, the overall communication is to be comprehensively revised, the agency announced. In a first step, the contract includes the redesign of the basic communication. The existing positioning as a traditional, uncomplicated Swiss specialty is undergoing a rejuvenation, but will remain the core value of Raclette Suisse. The first results can be expected in the middle of the year.

 
The Naturafarm line was launched just over a year ago. According to Coop, the products are intended for all those who like good meat or tasty eggs and are particularly concerned about animal welfare. Naturafarm means: free-range farming for pigs and calves, suckler cow farming for Natura-Beef young animals and free-range farming for chickens. When coming up with ideas for the new advertising campaign, the KSB/SJ creative team put themselves in the position of the animals and asked themselves: What wishes can an animal that is allowed to spend the whole day outside have? According to the campaign, the answer is impressively simple: the animals would perhaps like to return to their stables. In the dry, in the warmth, on the soft straw. Because even the animals' stables at Naturafarm are apparently "furnished" in a particularly animal-friendly way.
The three advertisements have recently appeared in the national Sunday and general press.
Responsible at Coop:
Jürg Peritz (Head of Marketing/Procurement), Lydie Goltdammer (Head of Advertising Realization), Christian Waffenschmidt (Head of Specialist Management Naturafarm), Christof Braun (Project Manager Naturafarm). Responsible at Krieg, Schlupp, Bürge / Springer & Jacoby: Flo Wacker (Creative Direction), Marion Lim (Text); Mario Moosbrugger (Art Direction), Mareike Jansen (Graphics), Dany Kielholz (Consulting Management), Nathalie Pasternak (Consulting), Nadia Bachmann (DTP), Schaub Stierli (Photography), Nora Fehr (Image Processing), Detail AG (Litho), Coop Media and Initiative Media Western (Media).

 Staff at Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) have suspended the strike threat they issued last week over the child pornography affair. The employees and the media union SSM are demanding that a dismissed computer scientist be reinstated at least until the investigation is concluded. The strike threat has now been suspended in view of a meeting with the management. The union had also demanded this discussion with the management. In a statement on Monday, it wrote that all parties involved must be treated equally in order for the independent investigation into the case to be credible. SSM is still demanding the reinstatement of the IT specialist who started the affair. The Board of Directors of Radio Télévision Suisse Romande (RTSR) described the strike threat last week as unacceptable. Former Vaud cantonal judge Jacques Reymond has now been appointed to investigate the case (see
).