The Goldbach Media Group is taking over two online marketers in Croatia and Slovenia. The marketer is acquiring a 70 percent stake in the Croatian holding company A.D.Projekti. The latter holds 50 percent of the Croatian AdOn Internet Medijski Servisi and 100 percent of the Slovenian I Media d.o.o. The two companies are profitable and generated sales of around CHF 2.7 million in 2007, Goldbach Media announced on Monday. With the takeover, Goldbach complements its existing international portfolio in Austria and Germany with a strong base in South-Eastern Europe, from which further growth in the Adriatic economic region is planned. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.
The two companies have a leading market position in online marketing in their home markets and will strengthen the European Adlink network under the Adlink brand.
According to Goldbach, the investment will be the starting signal for further growth in the region. "We want to use this strong foundation to develop the entire Adriatic economic area in Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia through cooperation," Goldbach CEO Klaus Kappeler is quoted as saying.

The Walliseller advertising agency Draftfcb, part of the Draftfcb/Lowe Group, developed the launch campaign for Powernewz, EWZ's online dialog magazine. Signs, which at first glance look like real warning signs, play with the message and draw attention to the new online dialog magazine. By means of monster boards, rectangles and floating ads on the Internet, but also wherever the warnings in everyday life cause people to look twice. The online campaign is supplemented by a sticker campaign in toilets and sticker cards in bars and restaurants in the city of Zurich. The dialog magazine offers interviews, reports, tips and entertainment for reading, listening and watching. It is published in March, July and November as a magazine and every 14 days with a new article, the Zwischenstrom. The first issue features a portrait of Bertrand Piccard, a video of Beat Schlatter and Anet Corti as energy consultants and a report on the city of Zurich's new broadband network.
Responsible at EWZ:
Jacqueline Verjee / Claudia Pfister. Responsible at Draftfcb: Nicolas Vontobel (CD), Roland Jäggi (AD), Boris Beuckmann (text), Christoph Bögli, Aline Litchenhaus (consulting), Pixelprinz (image editing).  

 The Bern-based agency Maxomedia won the competition for a new dialog program of the Swiss Milk Producers SMP against two competitors. In future, the cross-media communications agency will be responsible for the dialog on the topic of "milk and healthy nutrition". The multi-part dialog program is intended to precisely address the various needs of the target group, which consists of teenagers and young families. Two new magazines and various online measures are planned. The first results are expected in fall 2008. The collaboration between Maxomedia and SMP is expected to last at least two years.

 Switzerland has had one more newspaper since Monday. The two French-speaking Swiss daily newspapers Tribune de Genève and 24 Heures are now jointly producing an English-language Internet newspaper. After the Russian-language web newspaper Nashagazeta.ch, the Edipresse publishing house's latest product is aimed at the English-speaking inhabitants of French-speaking Switzerland. The site will be updated five times a week and consists of a free and a paid section.

 
European Championship fever was noticeably dampened last week: our national team suffered a clear defeat against Germany in Basel. But the Nati must not let the 4-0 defeat against their big neighbors put them off. To remind Köbi Kuhn's men of this, the agency Advico Young & Rubicam has now launched the Kopf-hoch-nati.ch campaign. Everyone can leave an encouraging message for our national team on a virtual banner. "S'chunnt scho guet, Köbi", "Zeigt's Europa jetzt", "Lichtsteiner, du Lichtgestalt!!!" or "Toi, toi, toi", for example, are already on the banner. The aim is to grow the ribbon into the longest banner in the world and finally hand it over to the players in physical form at the start of the European Championship.

 LZ Medien Holding, which among other things publishes the new Luzerner Zeitung, increased sales and earnings in 2007. Turnover increased by 7.7 percent to 149.1 million Swiss francs and profit by 6.2 percent to 14.9 million Swiss francs. The company explained in a press release on Monday that all operating segments contributed to the very good Group result. It attributes the growth primarily to higher advertising revenues and the full consolidation of the Radio segment. The good economic environment had influenced advertising revenues.
Advertising income increased by CHF 1.6 million to CHF 49.8 million. There was also a slight increase in subscription and newsstand income: They rose by CHF 0.4 million and 1.2 percent respectively to a total of CHF 39.2 million. Income also increased in the highly competitive print and calendar business segments. Sales in these segments amounted to CHF 44.7 million, an increase of CHF 0.5 million or 1.2 percent compared to the previous year.
Other income and income from electronic media rose by CHF 8.1 million to CHF 15.4 million. LZ Medien Holding puts the operating result Ebita at CHF 16.3 million, which equates to an increase of CHF 1.7 million.
At the end of 2007, LZ Medien employed 518 people, who shared 433 jobs. The company is majority-owned by the NZZ Group.

Together with Bemberg, Gedenk, Media and APG, the design house Mobitare has seized the opportunity to use a poster animated by light effects for a rolling campaign for the first time. The new "Promotion Light" technology makes it possible to animate the poster motif: a light source makes a fluorescent film glow. Thanks to low energy consumption, the development is cost-efficient, as the three companies announced. Any elements on the carrier can be controlled by a selective power supply. For example, individual objects or entire backgrounds can be illuminated or flashing lettering can be created. The "Promotion Light" technology has already been used abroad for initial implementations. In Switzerland, Mobitare is taking on the pioneering role. On display are motifs developed by Sulzer, Sutter. The posters have been hanging on APG's F12 and F200 billboards at Zurich main station since March 25.
Responsible at Möbel Pfister AG (Mobitare):
Christine Roth (Head of Communications). Responsible at Bemberg, Gedenk, Media: Thomas Koller, Andrea Hafner (Consulting), Matthias Lenke (Outdoor Advertising Unit). Responsible at APG: Marcel Baumann (Key Account). Responsible at Promotion Belt Marketing & Sales GmbH (Austria): Kurt Knappinger.

 
A new force is now in charge of Cinergy's sales operations. Sandor Laczko is taking over the position of Head of Sales & New Business at the company, which publishes the cinema portal Cineman and the online TV guide Teleboy, among other things. 
The business economist and media scientist previously worked in the promotions department of the RecRec sound carrier distributor and for 30 months as Artist & Promotion Manager at Sony BMG. At Cinergy, the 34-year-old will coordinate the sales department and contribute his experience to the development and expansion of innovative and cross-media concepts.
 
Cinergy co-founder Tobias Asch, who previously headed the sales department, will continue to take care of finance, controlling and the restructured content distribution and will also be increasingly active in business development again.

 New challenge for Andreas Hediger from Publisuisse: From April 1, he will take up the post of Key Account Manager and Head of the Direct Clients team. He has been working for Publisuisse in various roles since 2003. First as Account Manager Sponsoring, then as Account Manager Direct Clients in the TV division. According to Peter Kaufmann, Head of PR and Sponsoring, Hediger has the best qualifications for his new role thanks to his extensive experience on the sales front and his knowledge of electronic media.

 
The Zurich magazine Word has met a slow death. The last issue, number 45, was published last August, but it was only now that editor-in-chief Fideljus Berger informed his freelance colleagues that the magazine for urban culture was being discontinued. "At a meeting with the management, we had to realize that the continuation of Word magazine - despite all the efforts and innovations in the past - can unfortunately no longer be realized in its current form," wrote Berger, whose predecessors also include the current Viva music director Jubaira Bachmann, in a brief email. He left open the question of whether Word will continue to exist in another form as a source of information and entertainment. Once successfully launched, the magazine with a circulation of 50,000 copies quickly found many followers and admirers at home and abroad. Daring design and fluffy texts turned the magazine into a visual event. However, due to a number of changes in the editorial and management teams, as well as shifts in ownership, the conceptual direction of the magazine was repeatedly undecided over the years. As a result, the magazine, with articles on music, fashion, trend sports, graphics and niche culture, probably failed due to its inadequate positioning.
Until recently, the magazine was designed by the Zurich design agency Raffinerie, which also produces the graphics for Swiss Inboard magazine and, more recently, the magazine Kinki, which is not dissimilar to Word. Raffinerie was most recently also the main owner of Word.

 The direct marketing company MS Mail Service launches the cell phone agenda for Euro 08, enabling everyone to keep track of the football tournament. Whether the opening game is in Basel or Vienna, whether Switzerland could also play against Germany at the European Championships and when which game is taking place can all be answered with a glance at the cell phone. If you want to type through all the matches, you can see the possible constellations for the main round right through to the final. During the European Championship, users can update the table with the actual results. If you want to receive the cell phone agenda, send an SMS with "msagenda 08" to the number 977. The service is free of charge, but is only supported by newer cell phone models. According to Milo Stössel from MS Mail Service, his company is launching the tool as an unusual promotional gift. MS Mail Service also offers companies that want to offer the agenda in their own branding the option of personalizing the tool.

 Edipub will have a new Key Account Manager from mid-April. The 40-year-old Michael Zweifel will be responsible for direct customers and media agencies in German-speaking Switzerland in the marketing organization of the Edipresse magazines Bilan, Femina, Télétop Matin and TVGuide. He previously worked as a customer consultant at TeleZüri, where he was most recently head of the sponsorship department.