Sonja Brand is building a new unit stream for digital advertising with Goetz Hudelmaier at Pumpkin Film.
The trend can no longer be overlooked. In addition to the classic advertising film, new "moving images" are entering the market every day via a wide variety of channels. Viral films on the Internet, for example, are booming and will soon be part of every campaign. However, this development is misunderstood when a less high-resolution version of an otherwise completely traditionally conceived spot is simply posted on the web for distribution. "On the Internet, films often have to work differently," Sonja Brand - like other Zurich film producers - is convinced. Pumpkin Film has therefore founded an appropriately specialized unit for this new media world. "Pumpkin Stream wants to deal with advertising beyond the classic subject areas." Major productions for clients such as Migros, UBS or Swisscom will continue to form the core business at Pumpkin Film. With Stream, they want to make projects possible in other areas such as new media, the Internet and cell phones. "Stream offers clients a forum for realizing films that run beyond the traditional track," explains the producer. "We work with a pool of young filmmakers, web designers and post-production specialists on a national and international level."
Pumpkin Film and Stream specialists will work partly overlapping. "You communicate and develop things together," Brand explains. But customers should have a clear contact person for each medium.
The new Stream unit is headed by the young Goetz Hudelmaier. He already had "cinema on the brain all the time" during his school years. Hudelmaier spent his vacations in the movie theater, "learned entire film encyclopedias by heart" and decided at the age of twelve "to bring the German film industry up to speed ...".
After graduating from high school, he studied communications, media and theater in Leipzig. Although this university had a good reputation for these subjects "shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall," Hudelmaier was not happy with what was on offer and eventually moved to Munich for more practical training in order to gain a foothold in the film landscape there. Hudelmaier found it important to "always get as many aspects of film as possible so that you can talk to people at eye level."
After a brief interlude at a film school in New York, the now versatile professional moved to Hamburg. First, he worked for Markenfilm as a recording manager, then at Petersen Naumann as a post-production supervisor. It was at this then 20-person company that Hudelmaier "found his advertising roots" and later met Sonja Brand. He began working as a freelancer for Pumpkin Film. Later, he wanted to "rev up his directing career" in Munich and has worked on various projects in TV. "Daily soaps are a very good school." Or the Grimme Award-winning and rather subversive production of the children's channel and Munich-based Bummfilm company "Chili TV" with its hero "Bernd das Brot." Hudelmaier gained further valuable experience as post-production supervisor for the Austrian-American feature film "Jump" with Patrick Swayze. "I was lucky enough to work with excellent directors again and again and to learn a lot on interesting productions," says the new unit manager of Pumpkin Stream. He wants Stream to continue to benefit from these contacts with a wide variety of specialists. In addition, since Hudelmaier's girlfriend lives in Munich, he will also follow developments in both Switzerland and Germany for private reasons.
Sonja Brand, the current sole owner of Pumpkin, came to film "like a virgin to a child". After studying teaching and Italian at the University of Münster, she first worked as an interpreter in Hamburg. A chance encounter brought her into contact with a commercial film production company. There was a vacancy in the office in 1988. Sonja Brand was allowed to write "production assistant" on her business card and soon became enthusiastic about the world of film. The good organizer could be found more and more often on shoots - "learning by doing," as is customary in the industry - and for ten years in Hamburg she eventually also co-founded the company Production International. The renowned company still exists today. Sonja Brand left in 1993, however, because she wanted to take a baby break.
Later, she worked freelance, mainly for the Swiss producer and director Christian Aeby, who ran an offshoot of the then booming Zurich-based G.L.A.S.S. Film in Hamburg. It was through this collaboration that the "Switzerland Connection" was established, which eventually brought Brand into contact with Susanne Henggeler. Together with her, she founded Pumpkin Film ten years ago and therefore moved from Hamburg to Zurich. After Henggeler's departure last summer, Sonja Brand manages Pumpkin alone. The team includes seven permanent employees. In addition, there is an interesting portfolio with mainly internationally active directors. "This international orientation was already an important strategy when we were founded, in order to be able to distinguish ourselves as newcomers in Zurich against the established competition," Brand explains. As a result, Pumpkin Film was able to realize umbrella campaigns for Migros on behalf of Publicis for several years and also shoot large commercials for UBS, Renault and, most recently, Tele2.
Pumpkin Film also co-sponsored a documentary three years ago. It deals with a dance project in the townships of Cape Town and shows how the two world-famous dancers Philip Boyd and Phyllis Spira try to "show children and young people a perspective". The film, which was previewed at a matinee in Zurich last Sunday, is co-sponsored by Arte and is scheduled for release soon.
More information about the extraordinary project "Dance for all" can be found on the Pumpkin Film website.
Andreas Panzeri

 Cécile Kunz and Patrick Frey joined the WPS Medienservice sales team at the beginning of the month as Sales Support and Sales Manager. The consultancy agency, which has been in existence for 40 years, is aiming to intensify its market presence and expand its customer advisory services with this personnel expansion, as detailed in a press release. Cécile Kunz previously worked at NC AG as a clerk/sales representative. There she looked after customers such as Swiss, Raiffeisen and Marionnaud. Patrick Frey most recently worked at DE Druck in field sales. He looked after key accounts such as IKEA, ZKB and Migros.

 Fabian Unteregger, the cabaret artist known from the SF satire show "Giacobbo/Müller", will produce a comedy format exclusively for Radio 24 in future. The celebrity impersonator will take part in the morning show "Ufsteller", which is being relaunched with the new presenter Patrick Hässig. Unteregger will broadcast a weekly voice imitation of well-known figures such as Christoph Mörgeli, Köbi Kuhn, Ottmar Hitzfeld and Elmar Ledergerber. In the first phase, he will be present with "Stapi Elmar erklärt den Deutschen Zürich" before tuning into the European Championships as national coach Jakob Kuhn from mid-May.

 
Labels Modern labels with a so-called Time Temperature Indicator (TTI) are designed to provide retailers and consumers with more certainty in terms of freshness and shelf life. The TTI labels called OnVu, developed and produced by the Balingen-based technology company Bizerba and the Swiss chemicals group Ciba, bring more transparency to the entire production and cold chain. The TTI label with a special printing ink can be attached to any sales packaging as an additional label. The degree of discoloration indicates whether the product is still full or only just edible or whether it is already spoiled. The indicator discolors faster the further the product deviates from the ideal storage conditions, thus describing the individual degree of freshness for each product. This makes it possible to visualize a cold chain so that consumers can see for themselves that the goods have been chilled throughout.

 
The so-called Mörgele-Mengele affair appears to be over. The National Councillors concerned will not be reprimanded for the indiscretions from the National Council committee, nor will any action be taken against journalists who reported the indiscretions. The Office of the National Council has decided not to file criminal charges against persons unknown and against a journalist from the newspaper Südostschweiz. The National Council office had wanted to discipline Christoph Mörgeli, Oskar Freysinger, Lieni Füglistaller, Jacques Neyrinck and Kathy Riklin because of the leaks from the Science Committee. However, the National Council rejected this. The office is now instructing the National Council's Political Affairs Committee to deal with the confidentiality of committee meetings as a matter of principle, as reported by SDA on Wednesday.
The waters are also calming at Swiss television. The "10 to 10" programme of 6 February 2008, which showed Mörgeli in connection with the Buchenwald concentration camp affair, was criticized by SRG ombudsman Achille Casanova, but there were no repercussions. He agreed with a TV viewer who said that the actions of the "10 to 10" editorial team contradicted the principle of reliability in the SF mission statement.
The report is now no longer accessible in the online archive. SF editor-in-chief Ueli Haldimann already apologized to the Buchenwald Memorial Foundation in February (see:
).

 The new Publicitas is announcing another change of chair. This time it's Cinecom: Jean-Claude Bruhin, Head of Cinema, and Manuel Gasser will jointly take over as Head of National Cinema Sales with immediate effect. The previous head of the team, Rolf Hertzog, is leaving the company. He has decided to take on a new challenge, according to a press release. As Senior Account Manager, Manuel Gasser will take over operational team management with immediate effect, but will also remain active on the customer front. Gasser has already been working in cinema sales at Cinecom for around four years.

Great honor for the Walker advertising agency: The renowned ADC New York has honored the Maxiprint Newsweek campaign with a Hybrid Award. According to ADC NY, this makes the poster campaign one of the most groundbreaking, creative campaigns of the year.
During a week last summer, the Internet printing company Maxiprint published editorial messages on 30 APG poster sites even before they appeared in the daily press. Since then, Maxiprint.ch has been advertising with the claim: "No one prints faster." According to the agency's press release, the campaign succeeded in more than doubling the number of visitors to Maxiprint.ch within two months and increasing the annual sales result by 44.5 percent.
With the Hybrid Award, the creators of the campaign can look forward to another international creative honor, after the posters already won silver at Eurobest.

 
Progress Sappi has developed a paper that saves time, reduces costs and increases efficiency.  
The deadline pressure in today's printing industry is higher than ever. In recent years, the demand for print products that can be delivered immediately has risen by 25 percent. With a paper that dries quickly, processes could be accelerated, saving time and costs. A possible solution for the printing industry to work more efficiently. Sappi Fine Paper Europe has recently started producing a new paper that offers printers real advantages. Sappi presented the wonder paper at a press conference at the Print Media Academy in Heidelberg. Sappi is one of the world's leading producers of high-quality papers. Sappi is the world's number one producer of coated fine papers. 4.2 million tons of high-quality coated fine papers leave the paper mills every year. They are used for a wide range of sophisticated print products such as brochures, magazines, annual reports and wine labels. No wonder the paper producer is constantly working on the further development of its products. Sappi also produces uncoated graphic and business papers as well as uncoated specialty papers.
Speed saves time and costsEvery year, a large number of new papers are launched, but there have been no significant innovations in recent years, argue those responsible at Sappi. They therefore took their time to develop their new product, which is a genuine innovation, and carried out intensive research in the industry to find out what printers expect from a new coated paper. Before Sappi went public, the new development was thoroughly tested. Market studies and Sappi's own investigations showed that printers primarily want shorter throughput times. However, this requires a reduction in the drying time of the printing inks and better abrasion resistance. Sappi then invested five million euros in the development of Tempo Silk. The result is a wood-free, coated, silk-matt format paper that is available in grammages of 100 to 300 grams per square meter. Tempo Silk is characterized by a new coating texture that provides a super-smooth, silk-matt surface and leads to excellent printing results. The special features of the new development are faster ink absorption and faster drying.
While you need to allow at least half an hour for the ink to dry when using conventional coated paper, Tempo takes 15 minutes. The reverse side can therefore be printed almost immediately after the front side. This reduces waiting times on the press. In most cases, further processing with creasing, folding and cutting can be started after just half an hour. Another advantage is powder consumption. As the ink dries so quickly when printing on Tempo, powder consumption is reduced by 50 to 100 percent, meaning that fewer washing intervals are required during printing. Previously, silk matt papers also had to be coated, but this is also no longer necessary with Tempo. Tempo behaves like glossy coated paper in terms of the rub resistance of the printing ink. In practice, this means that, as a rule, no varnish needs to be used to prevent rubbing. This is associated with material cost savings as a further positive consequence.
Practical test passedTempo has already been subjected to a practical test in 60 European printing companies, with positive results so far. "I see the biggest advantages in reducing the amount of powder," says Erwin Prehn, Managing Director of the German printing company MHD Druck und Service GmbH, who was one of the testers. "We all know that with longer, longer runs, the powder is particularly troublesome for us during back printing, which means we often have washing intervals. I see them at least halved here." Prehn is also satisfied with the quality. "We can print eighty screens without any problems and the image reproduction is excellent." Speed is also an advantage for small print jobs. "We have a small 52 press here, on which we print a very large number of jobs every day on all kinds of paper types, especially on semi-gloss paper," explains Raf Broeckx from Baillien & Maris in Belgium. He has found that the new paper makes it possible to work much faster and delivery times are shorter as a result.
Tempo offers a number of advantages that pay off for a printing company over the entire order. Print capacity could be increased by around 20 to 25 percent using the new development. At the Sappi press event at the Print Media Academy in Heidelberg, much was said about the advantages of Tempo, but almost nothing was said about the price. As is well known, those who offer more can also demand more. It can therefore be assumed that Tempo will probably not be one of the cheaper paper products. For many printers, this is a reason to switch to day-to-day business and continue to work with less Tempo. The next few months will therefore show how innovative the industry really is and whether Tempo can actually convince printers.
Sabine Flaxman
The speed advantages:- Twice as fast ink drying, fast throughput times.
- Reduction in waiting times, higher capacity utilization.
- Greater flexibility in machine assignment.
- Reduction of powder consumption by 50 to 100 percent.
- Reduction in washing intervals, eliminating costly cleaning work.
- Usually no protective lacquer and no sealing required.
- Savings in material, time and energy.

 
SRG SSR SRG is extending its trials with video on demand. User numbers have risen significantly since January. 
Today, hardly anyone disputes the fact that digital technologies are increasingly turning television into a medium that is used individually and independently of predetermined program structures. Accordingly, there are increasing signs that video on demand (VoD) is on the verge of a boom. In addition to offerings that run directly via the digital set-top boxes of cable networks, the Internet is the distribution channel for feature films. Even if only a few offers are currently available from Switzerland, experts believe that VoD could largely replace DVDs in the medium term. The technical hurdles have been removed since devices have been on the market that allow PCs and televisions to be easily networked. The bandwidths available today are sufficient for the large data volumes of a feature film, and pirated copies can be prevented with effective copy protection mechanisms. However, because these are usually based on Microsoft's digital rights management system, Windows is often indispensable. Narrow selectionIn August 2007, SRG SSR entered the VoD market with its own platform. Since then, around 30 feature films and short films have been available on the websites of SF, TSR and TSI. They can be downloaded for between one and six francs. They are all Swiss productions, including such successful ones as "Vitus" and "Die Herbstzeitlosen". The project was launched as part of the "pacte de l'audiovisuel", a cooperation agreement between SRG and the Swiss film industry. As a result, the proceeds flow back into domestic filmmaking.
In view of the more than modest selection of films, the VoD platform has so far primarily served as a test laboratory for the new technology. In contrast to SF's own productions, which have long been available free of charge as podcasts or video streams, the copyright situation for feature films is more complicated: private producers also want to be compensated. SRG also uses Microsoft's digital rights management as a copy protection system, meaning that the platform can only be used with Windows operating systems.
SRG SSR has now extended the trial phase of the VoD service until the end of June 2008. Media spokesman Daniel Steiner explains that the aim is to gather further experience and then carry out a detailed evaluation. On this basis, a decision will be made as to whether and how the platform will be continued together with the participating Swiss film associations. Concrete figures on how many films are downloaded are therefore not yet available. Nevertheless, Steiner is optimistic: "In general, we are receiving a positive response to the VoD offer." This at least applies to the domestic market. For copyright reasons, films cannot be downloaded from abroad. This has led to disappointed reactions from the Swiss abroad.
If VoD is continued after the trial phase, all films produced as part of the "pacte de l'audiovisuel" could gradually be made available, according to the launch last year. Over the past ten years, this has involved more than 1,000 shorter and longer productions. "It's clear that audience success depends heavily on what's on offer," says Steiner. The adaptation phase for audiences has been slower than expected. Since January, however, there has been a 30 percent increase in usage without any advertising for the VoD platform. This is due to the expanded offering: Since the beginning of 2008, SF, TSR and TSI have been adding five films a month to their offerings.
 
Adrian Scherrer
HDTV as a jump-start for video on demandHigh-definition television (HDTV) could give video on demand a development boost. After Pro7 and Sat.1 discontinued their HD broadcasts in mid-February, the broadcasting group plans to offer HD content via its joint Internet portal Maxdome. According to German industry services, the first high-definition content will be available from mid-2008. However, Swiss consumers will not benefit from this. For copyright reasons, Maxdome can only be subscribed to in Germany. There are no plans to expand into Switzerland for the time being.
Maxdome has been offering video on demand in Germany since mid-2006. With around 10,000 feature films and series available in conventional picture resolution for a fee, the platform is one of the largest providers in Europe. The extent to which HD content will be added is not yet known. However, the technical hurdles are low: anyone who uses video on demand on their PC can usually watch HD content without any problems. The situation is different for those who use Maxdome via a set-top box that is connected directly to the TV without a PC. It must be replaced. (rer)

In the city council elections on June 1, 2008, the Young Finns are sending their president Michael Burkhard into the race against the candidates from the Greens and SVP. In order to make Burkhard known to the voters, the Zurich advertising agency Meyer Werbung has realized a poster campaign in two stages, according to a press release on Wednesday: First with pointed questions, then with a photo and good reasons. The texts exaggerate the positions of Burkhard's rivals and are intended to establish him as a sensible choice, with the eight subjects of the first wave appearing on around 80 poster sites in all formats.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Company Vetropack Group recorded excellent revenue and earnings growth in the 2007 fiscal year. For the first time in recent years, the Swiss subsidiary is also back in the black. EBIT reached 132 million Swiss francs and the EBIT margin amounted to 18.9%. Consolidated annual profit increased by 133.6 percent to CHF 100.9 million. The Group invested a total of CHF 86.9 million in plant, equipment and production capacity. Most of this was invested in Vetropack Gostomel, which has the largest production capacity within Vetropack Group with a daily melting capacity of 820 tons of glass.

 
Zurich-based advertising agency Weber Harbeke has been awarded the contract for Enzler Reinigungen's budget to promote the new "Enzler Top Cleaners" project. This is an offer for customers who place "the highest demands" on cleaning and flexibility, according to the press release. The relevant cleaning specialists, known as Top Cleaners, are to be recruited from the company's total of around 1,800 cleaning specialists. Attention will be paid to both cleaning skills and personal contact with customers. The advertising measures are currently being developed. The first works will be on display shortly.