René Worni on the unmanaged regional press of the NZZ 
What does the NZZ actually do with its regional newspapers? In contrast to its competitor Tamedia, (almost) nothing. The subsidiary Freie Presse Holding (FPH) is responsible for its regional newspapers. Through FPH, the NZZ holds shares in the St. Galler Tagblatt, the Neue Luzerner Zeitung and the Züriland-Zeitung (Unterländer, Oberländer, Zürichsee Zeitung), for example. And managers from the regional newspapers meet regularly to exchange ideas. In this respect, the FPH is a more or less valued interface. And that's about it. A consensus on how the regional press should strategically develop or at least behave in the shadow of the NZZ and in the competitive regional market has not yet been reached, and the FPH is a neglected entity at the NZZ (housed in an adjacent building). After all, anyone who works at the journalistic heights of a world newspaper is hardly interested in the concerns of a few scattered regional titles. They should see for themselves how they manage. This is why there is a widespread lack of orientation aids and guiding signals from the Falkenstrasse. So it just happens that Lucerne is now entering the Sunday market with its own Sunday edition and choosing its own cooperation partners (currently AZ Medien) in direct competition with NZZ am Sonntag. Not only do Lucerne and Baden want to cooperate editorially and on the advertising market on Sundays, but the new Sonntagstalk on the AZ stations Tele Tell and Tele M1 will also be editorially linked to the two Sunday papers. The NZZ says that the Lucerne case fits in perfectly with its strategy. However, as the majority owner of the Neue Luzerner Zeitung and the
St. Galler Tagblatt failed to convince both papers to publish a joint Sunday edition or to coordinate the project with the NZZ am Sonntag. A strategic disaster and a random joke for the NZZ regional press. AZ publisher Peter Wanner, in trouble due to Tamedia's news offensive in the Mittelland, is an ideal catalyst for all kinds of cooperation. How serious the NZZ is about the necessary commercial interests remains a mystery.
René Worni, Editor

 
Teaser campaign Free Internet caused a stir among bloggers.  
Last week, the alleged interest group "Free Internet" caused a stir among bloggers. The group claimed to be campaigning for free internet access. The group wants to emphasize this demand with a nude demonstration in Zurich's Niederdorf district, for example, as well as online advertisements and TV and radio spots. However, bloggers were quick to speculate as to whether this was in fact a teaser campaign by a company. Sunrise was suspected, with Klartext editor-in-chief Nick Lüthi giving the first hint that the telecommunications company could be behind it. The Swiss Metablog then found out that the Freeinternet.ch website had already contained Sunrise content years ago. And BloggingTom contacted several telecom companies: Apart from Sunrise, all of them denied that they had anything to do with the matter. Sunrise spokesman Konrad Stokar also told Werbewoche that he "couldn't say anything" about the whole thing. This enigmatic answer naturally fueled speculation.
Another reference was made on the Tou blog: its operator was informed by "a person from the media sector" that spots from "Free Internet" were labeled with Sunrise. The Abendzeitung Heute newspaper provided proof of this: in the Publisuisse commercial database, the clips from Free Internet were indeed labeled with Sunrise. On Tuesday, however, the commercials disappeared from the database. As Peter Kaufmann from Publisuisse said, the client in question had exercised the right to have the commercials removed.
The mystery surrounding "Free Internet" now seems to have been solved, even if Sunrise is still only saying: "No comment". It will be interesting to see the solution - and whether the many clues to the solution were perhaps even deliberately laid.
Carole Scheidegger

 The SRG subsidiary TV Productioncenter Zürich (TPC) closes what it describes as a difficult financial year with a positive result of CHF 311,000. Turnover amounted to 128.68 million francs and expenses to 127.59 million francs. The result in the black was made possible by additional sales with Swiss television, consistently implemented cost-saving measures and the great commitment of all employees, TPC announced. Switzerland's largest producer of audiovisual media started 2007 with an average price reduction of 5 percent on all services. According to the press release, this price reduction made the company more competitive overall and led to a significant increase in sales with its largest customer SF. CEO Alexander Krombholz is optimistic for 2008. In addition to major sporting events such as Euro 08 and the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the TPC is tackling HD migration, the conversion of news production to tapeless operation and the further expansion of IT-based production.

 Affichage subsidiary APG worked closely with Christinger Partner and Diesel Swiss to create what it claims is the world's first UV poster. Examples of the illuminated posters can be seen until February 15 at Löwenplatz, Gessnerallee and Bahnhofstrasse/VBZ Bürkliplatz in Zurich. The project is based on the idea of using black light technology and special processing of the posters to highlight individual elements, according to a press release. A suitable addition to the F200 light boxes was designed by APG. For its part, printing specialist Christinger Partner in Schlieren contributed its expertise in printing technology to adapt the posters to the conditions. The first copies of these UV posters advertise diesel.

 Zehnder Verlagshaus is launching the free weekly newspaper Zofinger Nachrichten on Thursday this week. It is a sister title to the Aarauer Nachrichten, Zehnder announced. The paper will be delivered to all households in Zofingen, Oftringen, Rothrist and Safenwil by post. The two sister titles have a total circulation of 35,000 copies. Until now, the above-mentioned towns have been supplied with the Aarauer Nachrichten. The launch of Zofinger Nachrichten is now intended to provide more comprehensive, regional reporting for the Zofingen region.

 Four educational institutions from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are offering a new Master's degree program in New Media Journalism. The Swiss School of Journalism MAZ is also involved. This is a part-time course for journalists, media managers and web professionals. It culminates in an internationally recognized Master's degree. The four-semester course consists of ten modules, an internship and the Master's thesis.
According to the press release, the transnational cooperation is the concept: international content, networks as a working environment, quality media and lecturers from all three countries. The course is intended to offer future media professionals the opportunity to acquire cross-media knowledge, leadership skills and new management techniques at an academic level. In addition to the MAZ, the course is run by the University of Leipzig, the Academy for Journalism Studies in Hamburg and the Kuratorium für Journalistenausbildung in Salzburg.
The course starts in the winter semester of 2008 and is open to anyone who already has a university degree, has professional experience and is convincing in a selection interview. The application deadline is the end of August 2008 and tuition fees amount to 3,000 euros per semester (plus examination fees).

 When lovers give each other lavish bouquets of flowers or place heart-shaped boxes of chocolates under their pillows, it's that time of year again: Valentine's Day makes the cash registers ring. It all began so beautifully in 1382, when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote that birds mated on Valentine's Day - people related this to themselves, and the day of lovers was born. It was then introduced in Switzerland in 1949 - by florists, of course. And it seems to have paid off: An average of 20 million flowers are sold on Swiss counters every Valentine's Day. But it's not just the florists who benefit from February 14: the cell phone industry is also likely to benefit from the day, as Mr. and Mrs. Swiss like to express their romantic feelings via text message: Around 18 million of these short messages are sent every year on Valentine's Day. There seems to be a general trend towards typing feelings rather than expressing them: According to a Valentine's Day study by Microsoft, men and women across Europe prefer to "flirt with their fingers" because it saves them from speechlessness and embarrassing blushes.
The dairy products industry is also hoping for a little more sales on the big day of love: Floralp is offering a Romantico weekend for lovers to win, Valentine's recipes will get the kitchen sizzling, and anyone who completes SMP's new milk commercial with Lovely the cow can win 20,000 francs.
And the St. Gallen agency Complecta is also jumping on the love bandwagon - with a campaign in Second Life. There, a bouquet of flowers can be chosen and a card written in the office. The greetings will then be delivered to the desired avatar by a Compecta employee on Valentine's Day.
So it's no longer just florists who are profiting from Valentine's Day - many other industries have now caught wind of the economic potential of love. And are trying to market it as well as possible.

 
Election advertising America is in election fever. The race for the US presidency is generating billions in profits for TV broadcasters in particular. 
Super Tuesday's election day is over, and apart from Republican Senator John McCain, who is likely to become his party's presidential candidate, nothing has been decided. The whole country, and with it the whole world, is watching the neck-and-neck race between the two Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama with fascination and wondering how long it will continue at this pace. A long election campaign means a lot of spending on marketing. Each of the candidates spent over 100 million dollars before Super Tuesday. According to a study by the market research institute Borrell Associates, the total amount spent on political advertising this year will be a record 4.8 billion dollars. Television stations will earn 60 percent of this sum. Revenue for online advertising is rather disappointing, with only 20 million dollars or half a percent predicted.
However, the fact that election advertising alone is not enough was made clear by the example of Republican Mitt Romney. He spent around 30 million dollars on TV advertising alone and still dropped out of the race last week. Things went far better for John McCain, who concentrated on the decisive state of New Hampshire early on and, after winning there, gained plenty of donations for his next targets.
Marginalized groups benefit
The situation is more complicated on the Democratic side. "We have two candidates who have their budgets together and are spending the money raised immediately," says Evan Tracey from the Campaign Analysis Group of media research company TNS Media Intelligence. "Over the next few weeks, spending will be highly targeted and concentrated in hotly contested states." These "battleground states" are primarily populous states such as Ohio and Texas, where elections will be held in early March and where money is increasingly being poured into Spanish-language media. Campaign spending is expected to gradually taper off with the Pennsylvania primary at the end of April.
Worryingly for Hillary Clinton, at the end of January there was a veritable shower of donations in favor of Obama, who immediately took advantage of this and ran numerous TV ads in the Super Tuesday states. While Obama had 16 million dollars at his disposal, Clinton was only able to spend 12 million that week. Clinton even had to temporarily draw 5 million dollars from her private account. It is significant that Clinton spent 4 million dollars more on political consultants and media advisors than Obama with only 1.4 million. This confirms Obama's reputation for being less accessible to the media than Clinton, who regularly goes out of her way to schmooze with the traveling press entourage.
Despite the low level of election advertising on the Internet, this medium does play a role in the election campaign. A survey by polling firm SS&K found that 40 percent of voters in New Hampshire have visited at least one candidate's website, and 25 percent have looked at their profiles on networking sites such as MySpace. For future races, campaign strategists are keeping a close eye on the media consumption habits of the under-30 demographic, 52 percent of whom browsed the candidates' websites, which included blogs, YouTube channels and Facebook pages.
So far, the so-called 527 groups, special interest organizations that campaign for or against a candidate on their own initiative, have not made much of an appearance. As was the case four years ago, when Democratic candidate John Kerry in particular was subject to attacks from the right-wing camp, they are only expected to play a role once the two presidential candidates are clear. "What we'll see then are the special interest character assassination campaigns," says Tobe Berkovitz, communications professor at Boston University.
The question is whether the Democratic race could run into August, when the Democratic convention takes place, and whether this could hurt the eventual nominee because there will only be just over two months until the election in early November. Party Chairman Howard Dean wants to counter this: "The idea that we're going to fight a big battle at the convention and then have to win the election in eight weeks is not a good scenario."
Gerti Schön, New York
"Television is unbeatable "In an interview with Advertising Week, Todd Gitlin, communications professor at New York's Columbia University, explains what makes news coverage stand out and why television is the most important channel for election advertising in the presidential candidates' horserace.
WW: What characterizes the coverage in this campaign? Todd Gitlin: It's long been lamented that the coverage is focused on the so-called horserace, the contest of which candidate is ahead, who wins where and so on. The longer the campaign lasts, the more difficult it is to get the public to watch, and the pressure to deliver fresh material increases over time. The good thing about everything dragging on like this is that it opens up a niche for investigative journalism, which requires time and resources. In this way, there is a chance to finally get away from the horserace and concentrate on substantive research.
What do you think of the election advertising so far? So far, it has been less characterized by mutual attacks, as was the case at the end of the last election campaign. But that doesn't mean that the content isn't just as manipulative. John McCain, for example, has launched a TV ad in which he is portrayed as the heir to Ronald Reagan, who was influenced by him during his time as a prisoner of war in the 1960s. This is ridiculous because Reagan was governor of California at the time and had demonstrated little political foresight up to that point.
Statistics show that candidates are still mainly advertising on TV. Does that surprise you? Not at all. Candidates opt for television because it is still the best way to convey a mood, an atmosphere, and that is the main aim of election advertising. Television is still unbeatable in this respect.
 
Interview: Gerti Schön
 
 

 
Marketing Publisuisse is extremely successful in promoting private TV in French-speaking Switzerland. 309 million Swiss francs were generated by Publisuisse in 2007 from TV advertising on the six SRG channels alone. This was announced by the TV marketer this week. Compared to 2006, the increase amounted to 1.3 percent, but the development in the "other business areas" is particularly noteworthy. Their turnover increased by six percent to CHF 33 million, which means that this area is not only Publisuisse's fastest-growing business segment once again, but already contributes around ten percent to the SRG subsidiary's net turnover (total: CHF 342 million).
Under "other business areas", which increased by two million francs in 2007, Publisuisse subsumes radio and TV sponsorship, advertising sales for ad screens at Naville kiosks and the marketing of the Tele News Combis. All of these areas of activity contributed to the increase in turnover last year, says Peter Kaufmann, Head of PR at Publisuisse, when asked. However, the main contributor to the increase was an activity that Publisuisse has only had in its portfolio since last March: the marketing of Tele Romandie Combis (TRC). According to Kaufmann, Publisuisse was able to generate just under one million francs net in the first ten months for the young private TV pool in French-speaking Switzerland, which includes seven local stations. "That is definitely in line with expectations," he comments on the figure. No comment was available from French-speaking Switzerland by the editorial deadline. The TRC comprises TV Léman Bleu in Geneva, TVRL in Lausanne, ICI-TV in Vevey, Canal 9 in Sierre (VS), Canal Nord-Vaudois in Yverdon, Tele Bielingue in Biel, MaxTV (Morges) and Canal Alpha in Cortaillod (NE).
The second new business, which Publisuisse has only been actively pursuing since fall 2007, is the marketing of private radio advertising (Swiss Radio Pool). However, it has probably not yet generated a quarter of a million francs in sales in this area.
Markus Knöpfli

 
Training II In August, the University of Applied Sciences will launch a course for advertisers.  
The "Customer Communication" course starts at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences HWZ in August. The part-time course at Master's level is designed to cover the entire spectrum of modern customer communication in a compact manner. The new course is intended to close a gap in Swiss marketing and communication training, the creators of the course write in a press release. With the new training program, the advertising industry now has a university course with international recognition (see box), and the idea of such a course was born partly because there were no training opportunities for creative professionals at university level until now. "However, there is great demand," says course director Rainer Bühler. One reason for this is probably the international recognition of the degree. "You can compare yourself internationally with the degree, which is not possible with a Sawi diploma," says Rainer Bühler. On the other hand, many agency employees do not have the opportunity to attend a university because a Sawi diploma does not allow them to do so. The new course opens the doors to the academic world: people with a federal diploma can be accepted "sur dossier".
Low proportion of academicsRainer Bühler believes that the academization of the advertising trade is a necessary and important development. "The level of training in the agencies could be higher," says Bühler. There are too few academically trained employees in the agencies. As a result, there is a tendency for agencies to have to fight for their expertise, particularly in consulting. As Bühler says, it is extremely important to meet clients on an equal footing. "There is a lot of theory and academic knowledge on the client side." This is why Bühler also wants to teach future students how to present cases using the right language and how to convince clients with ideas using the right rhetoric. The first information events prove Bühler right. It is mainly people who want to better understand the interfaces between agency and client who are interested.
Is the course only aimed at consultants? "Not at all. The course is also suitable for creative professionals such as graphic designers," says Rainer Bühler. Basically, the course is aimed at people who want to get ahead in the agency and be smarter at top management level. In this regard, Bühler refers to the content that the participants will be offered. "We don't just want to teach theory, but also discuss actual cases with the students. The training should be dynamic."
Highly qualified lecturersThe training is interesting for those who are considering working as agency strategists. A glance at the list of lecturers makes it clear that industry-renowned strategists will be imparting their knowledge. For example, Peter Felser from Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett or Pascal Schaub, strategist at Sachti & Satchi and President of the Account Planning Group Switzerland. However, the lecturers on the course are not only recruited from the agency scene. Representatives of branded companies, such as the Head of Marketing at Unilever, Frank Hauerken, will also be lecturing at the HWZ. The new advertising course starts in August. General information about the course and the HWZ is available on the Internet at fh-hwz.ch.
 
Christian Lüscher
Certificate of Advanced Studies in Customer CommunicationThe CAS course
Customer Communications can be taken individually or as an elective module of the MAS Business Communications at the HWZ. It comprises 22 study days and focuses on the topic of customer relations. Digital media should play a central role in all considerations. The maximum number of participants is 30. Successful graduates receive a university certificate from the HWZ Zurich School of Business. The course comprises 12 ECTS credits. ECTS stands for "European Credit Transfer System" and enables the international comparability of study programs. One ECTS credit point corresponds to 30 hours of study. The CAS Customer Communication is under the patronage of the BSW. The association provides lecturers. The close connection between the BSW and Sawi is not affected by this new cooperation.

  At Radio 24 and TeleZüri, where there have been weighty departures on the sales side in recent months, a new head of marketing is taking up her post: Mónica Gómez is moving from the private broadcaster 3+ to Belcom as of May 1. She will report directly to Andrea Haemmerli, who is now the commercial director of the two channels. Gómez completes the advertising market of the two channels alongside the new sales manager Philip Hofmann, Tamedia announced. Also in a new role, Carole Stulz joins the marketing team as marketing project manager. The 34-year-old Gomez worked for the TV station Eurosport from 1998 to 2002. The Swiss marketing planner then worked for more than three years as Product Manager for IP Multimedia, most recently as Head of Product Management. Before Gómez moved to the TV station 3+ as Marketing Manager in 2006, she was responsible for marketing communications at the consulting firm 3D Capital.

 
Patrizia Lehmann, Managing Director of the Internet agency mitLinks, wants to support advertising agencies even more in the development of online strategies. 
"The website is a company's shop window today," Patrizia Lehmann is convinced. The professional motivation of the new Managing Director of mitLinks is therefore to "offer her customers the best possible presence on the Internet". The online agency in Zurich focuses on design, consulting and project management. "We have a very high level of design expertise," says the manager, appreciating the work of her creative team. Lorenzo Mutti recently joined mitLinks as the new CD and member of the management team. Since the beginning of this year, Lars Frassek has been responsible for technical expertise as the new software developer. "This makes us a very good team for consulting expertise." A total of 13 people work at mitLinks in Zurich. There are also 20 programmers in Minsk. "We recently opened a production center there, where we implement standard solutions cost-effectively, for example in the area of content management," reveals Lehmann. In Belarus, quality awareness is now very high and the price-performance ratio is still attractive. "This means we can also offer competitive conditions in Switzerland," Lehmann calculates. However, the exchange should not be one-sided. The Swiss agency mitLinks is also considering entering the Russian market with its own services in the future. "To do this, you need someone on the ground to be able to properly serve the needs and mentalities of the customers," says the newly appointed Managing Director, who also plans to travel to the East herself for the first time soon.
Until now, the development of this competence center has been overseen primarily by mitLinks' long-standing Managing Director and current Chairman of the Board of Directors, Michael Baumgartner.
In May 2006, Christian Klinner and Romano Strebel took over the management of the web agency mitLinks, which was founded in 1999. In future, the two want to devote more time to building up their online publishing house Ron Orp's Mail, which was founded in 2004, and have now withdrawn from operational management with Lehmann's appointment.
Patrizia Lehmann only joined mitLinks last November. However, this was already with the common plan that she would take over the management. Her tasks also include looking after the key accounts. She is also currently busy structuring project processes and allocating resources correctly so that the agency is well equipped for the future. "If online awareness in Switzerland develops in line with the technical possibilities in the future, we will be in a position to provide attractive offers for the market." So far, Lehmann has found the Swiss market to be "fundamentally rather conservative". As a web specialist, you still get a lot of specifications from agencies that have basically been developed for print implementations. These can then simply be adapted for the web.
Lehmann particularly likes the store solution for mytheresa.ch as a successful example of how mitLinks was able to draw on its full potential both technically and creatively. Other mitLinks references include numerous public transport projects. The agency has developed a ticket store solution for the Zurich Transport Association (ZVV) and is currently working on the redesign of the website. For Rheinbahn Düsseldorf, the Zurich-based company was able to implement a reporting system for the control center. Disruptions in the route network can be entered in such a way that they are then effectively communicated on screens at the station or as a message directly in the means of transport.
In the brand sector, mitLinks works for the Migros Culture Percentage, where the Steps dance festival is redesigned every year. Other clients include Cardinal, Hyundai, Sinalco, Melanie Winiger and the job placement portal Mediaforum.
All these tasks offer Patrizia Lehmann the ideal combination of what she has always wanted to do professionally.
After graduating from high school in Solothurn in 1995, she initially wanted to study economics. However, after two semesters at the University of Bern, Lehmann realized that although she liked economics, the course did not fully satisfy her. As she is also a numbers person, she finally found the ideal combination to realize her interests in business informatics.
Lehmann studied part-time at the University of Applied Sciences in Olten. At the same time, she worked in a computer company. In her first year, she had to take computers apart and discovered what these marvels actually look like on the inside. In her second year, she programmed. In her final year, she worked in marketing at a software company, where she was also able to develop her diploma thesis on trade fair presentations.
"That was my world: marketing, to be able to structure and present products as well as possible." Lehmann found her first job after her diploma thesis at a hosting agency in Biel. She was involved in this start-up right from the start. As a key account manager, she acted as an interface between IT, marketing and customers. These included, for example, Mövenpick and Swiss Bankers Travelers Cheques.
Lehmann later expanded her experience in hardware sales, in the marketing department of a vested benefits foundation and finally in a small advertising agency in Zurich. Here she was already a member of the management team, as it had always been her goal to take on responsibility and work as independently as possible. "I've always been an alpha animal and quickly slipped into the role of project manager everywhere."
With mitLinks, Lehmann has now found an agency "of an ideal size". There is enough capacity to solve really exciting tasks. But it is also "small enough to be able to react very flexibly". Just the right thing to be prepared for all future developments in the online sector.
Andreas Panzeri