For the fourth time, the Berne Declaration (EvB) is presenting the Public Eye Awards on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF). The awards "honor" companies that stand out for their inhumane and environmentally harmful behavior. Non-governmental organizations from all over the world nominated around 40 candidates for the awards, according to a press release issued on Thursday. This year's nominees in the "Global Awards" category include the French state-owned nuclear power company Areva, the German chemicals multinational Bayer Crop Science and the Philippine subsidiary of the US fruit producer Dole Foods. The nominees for the "Swiss Award" include the Petroleum Association, the Zug-based commodities group Glencore and the building materials giant Holcim.
Care Naturkost, Soglio products and Hess Natur are among the contenders for the "Positive Award" for pioneering entrepreneurial initiatives. The award will be presented by rapper Stress, who will also announce the winner of the inaugural "People's Award". Consumers can vote for their worst company in the Hall of Shame in an online poll on Publiceye.ch.
Oliver Classen, former editor at Werbewoche and now at the Berne Declaration, emphasizes the importance of the topic of the event: "Transnational corporations such as the 1000 Wef members must take on more social responsibility today, otherwise they will not only lose credibility, but also investors, employees and customers."
Publicist Susan George and Green politician Bastien Girod will give the opening speeches, while Patrick Frey and Bernese rapper Greis will provide the artistic entertainment. The event will be hosted by Melanie Winiger.

Tagesanzeiger.ch is delighted to welcome a prominent new addition: under the title "Löpfes Wirtschaftswelt", former Tagi editor-in-chief Philipp Löpfe is now writing a weekly analysis of the global economy. The business columnist will analyze macro topics from the economy every Thursday, as detailed in a press release. In his first article, "Golden Times", the author examines the question of whether the West can withstand the challenge from Asia.

 Not much has changed at the top of the media websites in December compared to November, as the new figures from Net-Metrix-Audit show: 20minuten.ch is now ahead for the second time in terms of unique clients, i.e. the number of different computers from which a particular website is accessed. Arch-competitor Blick Online again leads in terms of visits (number of visits to a website) and page impressions (page views), at least as far as media websites are concerned. It is followed by NZZ Online and Tagesanzeiger.ch, which is also nothing new. However, the growth rates look different: 20min.ch increased its visits by 1.4 percent compared to the previous month, Blick Online by 4.5 percent, NZZ Online by contrast lost 3.9 percent and Tagesanzeiger.ch lost 1.8 percent.
Net-Metrix surveyed 168 websites for the audit statistics in December. The four websites Directories.ch, Handelszeitung Online, Local.ch and Sortir.ch were included for the first time. Taking all sites together, a total of more than 1.5 billion page impressions and 154 million visits were measured. Bluewin remains the undisputed king of all websites with advertising, at least in terms of unique clients and visits. The top spot in terms of page impressions goes to Netlog.
Top ten websites with advertising in December 2007 by unique clients:
Bluewin: 3'922'000
Search.ch: 2'404'000
Directories.ch: 2'101'000
20minuten.ch: 1'504'000
Blick Online: 1'459'000
NZZ Online: 1'217'000
Moneyhouse: 1'024'000
Tagesanzeiger.ch: 855,000
MySwitzerland.com: 817'000
PCtipp Online: 773,000
Top ten websites with advertising in December 2007 by visits:
Bluewin: 42'930'004
Blick Online: 10'320'701
Netlog: 8'657'012
Search.ch: 8'470'037
20minuten.ch: 7'504'340
Directories.ch: 6'505'672
NZZ Online: 6'234'205
Tagesanzeiger.ch: 4'831'363
PartyGuide.ch: 3'622'786
Romandie.com: 2'404'088
Top ten websites with advertising in December 2007 by page impressions:
Netlog: 353'801'949
Bluewin: 283'183'615
PartyGuide.ch: 171'717'201
Blick Online: 82'063'595
20minuten.ch: 70'027'508
Homegate.ch: 66'275'983
Tilllate: 58'624'035
Search.ch: 51'484'704
Directories.ch: 37'594'722
Lautundspitz: 31'918'394

 The Basel-based corporate communications agency Basel West won a number of new mandates in 2007. New clients include the Swiss Association for Visual Communication Viscom, the IT company Triviso, Stöcklin Logistik, interior designer Ammann, Spengler Electronic, packaging specialist Allpack, the manufacturer of the waste shark Brüco Swiss, Dataskill, Nencki and Teva Pharma. The agency also won a corporate publishing mandate for Manor and, according to the press release, did not lose any notable clients in 2007.

 The Zurich Advertising Club decides to cooperate with Sawi, the Swiss Training Center for Marketing, Advertising and Communication. The aim is to expand its membership recruitment activities. Sawi students can become members of the Zurich Advertising Club at a reduced rate: Instead of 120 francs, they pay 20 francs. This allows students to take part in all events organized by the Zurich Advertising Club and benefit from the experience of ZW members.

 The Comedia trade union and Hanspeter Lebrument are at odds over job cuts at Engadin Press in Samedan. Comedia is demanding a social plan because of the redundancies. Lebrument, the publisher of the Südostschweiz Media Group, does not want to know anything about this. At Engadin Press, ten of a total of 27 jobs have been closed due to the closure of the calendar equipment factory. According to Lebrument, Engadin Press is not an independent company, but a branch of Südostschweiz Print, which employs a total of 160 people. The redundancies announced in November were therefore not mass redundancies. A social plan was not necessary, said publisher Lebrument on Thursday when asked by SDA. According to Lebrument, ten new jobs were created in the Engadin region to counteract the redundancies. The employment situation of two or three employees is still unresolved.
The Comedia trade union, on the other hand, announced on Thursday that the employees affected by the dismissal would find it difficult to find a new job in Engadin. Most of them have been with the company for between 20 and 30 years and several are over 60 years old. Following a staff meeting at the beginning of January, Comedia was instructed to negotiate a social plan with the management of Südostschweiz.

 The EU has decided in favor of the interests of the confectionery and toy industry and against the protection of children from TV advertising - advertising in children's programs remains permitted. According to an article in the German newspaper Taz, the EU is now threatening to take Sweden to the EU Court of Justice because Stockholm wants to maintain its ban on TV advertising for children under the age of twelve, as Giuseppe Abbamonte from the EU Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection believes that the country is violating an EU directive that allows this type of advertising by maintaining its ban on advertising in children's programs.
However, Stockholm is determined to let this issue come to a conflict. It is important to protect the children, says Consumer Affairs Minister Nyamko Sabuni, and they believe they have a good chance in the event of a legal dispute.

 In his latest column, Weltwoche media columnist Kurt W. Zimmermann addresses the topic of newsstand sales. He explains that newsstand sales of press products have been drifting steadily downwards in recent years. After taking a swipe at the Tages-Anzeiger, Blick and NZZ, which are "the three worst-made newspapers in Switzerland according to traditional criteria", he places the blame for lukewarm newsstand sales at Valora. This is an extremely poorly managed company that has slept through the business trends: Instead of offering a kiosk design geared towards impulse purchases, many of Valora's outlets look like counter halls. Equally disastrous is the fact that Valora does not have a proper sales management system, which means that sold-out titles are not replenished at the kiosks. The Extraordinary General Meeting on January 30, at which Adriano Agosti intends to exercise his power, is expected to bring about change at Valora. In Zimmermann's eyes, this day offers Ringier, Tamedia, NZZ Group and Axel Springer Switzerland a "brilliant opportunity". He advises the publishers to join forces on this occasion, buy two percent of Valora's share capital and demand a seat on the Board of Directors. The columnist is "pretty sure" that Michael Ringier, Pietro Supino or Ralph Büchi would be elected. However, Zimmermann does not entirely believe in the effectiveness of his recommendation himself: knowing the publishers, he says, they would not solve the newsstand crisis, but would rather continue to moan about Valora.

 Following an agency evaluation, Volvo Automobile (Switzerland) has decided to work with Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett from 2008. According to the agency, the first works will be on display shortly.

 In 2007, Swiss television achieved an average market share of 33.5 percent for the whole day. This is one percentage point below the previous year's result. According to a statement issued on Thursday, 2006 was characterized by major sporting events such as the Football World Cup and the Olympic Games, which did not take place in 2007. However, compared to 2005, the last year without sporting events, SF gained 0.1 percentage points. If the three channels SF 1, SF zwei and SF Info are considered separately, the changes in market share in 2007 are as follows: SF 1 increased by 0.4 percentage points and closed with a market share of 24.1 percent. The lack of sporting events had the greatest impact on SF zwei, with its market share falling by 1.5 percentage points to 8.2%. Finally, SF Info's market share rose by 0.1 percentage points to 8.2%.

Publicis has created a poster for Jet Aviation. It shows snow crystals which, on closer inspection, appear to be formations of jets. According to a press release issued on Thursday, Jet Aviation's message is that private flights to the world's most exclusive winter sports resorts can be booked in addition to business trips. Responsible at Jet Aviation:
Heinz R. Aebi (Sr VP Corp Marketing & Comm.). Responsible at Publicis: Ralf Kostgeld (CD); Daniel Kobi (Art Director); Tom Gundy (Text ); Yeliz Salman and Sandro Tissi (Graphics); Simon Grasser (Consulting).

 The Swiss direct marketing companies AZ Direct and Dr.Huldi.Management.ch merged on January 1, 2008. Both companies will continue to operate under their existing company names. According to the managing directors of the two companies, Jakob Nef and Christian Huldi, the aim of the merger is to bundle their strengths and expertise. AZ Direct is a full-service provider in direct marketing, while Dr.Huldi.Management.ch is active in the areas of consulting, training and coaching in database and dialog marketing as well as customer relationship management (CRM). In future, the companies want to offer customers a complete package from a single source. They anticipate growing customer demand for CRM and direct marketing services.
Following the merger, Dr.Huldi.Management.ch is moving from Feldmeilen in Zurich to the AZ Direct site in St. Gallen in Eastern Switzerland. The two other AZ Direct locations in Rotkreuz and Crissier will remain as before.