Vocational schools Publicis dramatizes for the Zurich Drama School that there are other honorable professions besides advertising. 
 
When it comes to advertising for the drama sector, creatives can smear and dramatize without any artistic limits. Publicis has already enjoyed this to the full with its last commercial for the Zurich Schauspielhaus. This creative all-round hit won various prizes. Now Publicis has reached into the same bag of tricks once again and is promoting training at the Zurich Drama School with a recruitment campaign that appeals to theatrical talent in a way that is as dramatic as it is surprising. It is also immediately clear that students can learn to act convincingly in a wide variety of roles at this school. The Zurich Acting School offers professional acting training to professionals and students who cannot or do not wish to attend a full-time acting school such as the Zurich Acting Academy, but still want to train or further their acting skills.
The school was founded in 1950 by Hannes Becher and ran until 1988. After that, a team of two took over the management: the actress and writer Aglaja Veteranyi and the actor and director Christian Seiler, who has been running the school alone since August 2001.
The campaign can now be seen on numerous poster sites.
Andreas Panzeri

 The German channel Sat.1 had the same new claim in mind that Super RTL is now using for its advertising. Sat.1 had already booked ads for January with the slogan "Nice to see you", but the rival channel has surprisingly been using exactly the same slogan since Monday. As a result, Sat.1 has lost out, as reported by Dwdl.de. However, the new marketing boss Torsten Rossmann did not like "Nice to see you" anyway: The claim was too soft and too arbitrary. A spokeswoman for the TV station also denied that Super RTL had stolen the slogan: "You can only steal what others have wanted". However, they were certainly surprised by the competition's advance. Sat.1 has now canceled the booked ads, and the station is still looking for a new slogan. Once this has been decided, Sat.1 will also start work on a redesign. This is expected in the spring. The old claim "Sat.1 zeigt's allen" was dropped about a year ago because it no longer seemed appropriate in view of Sat.1's weakening ratings.

 The newly launched Freelancerportal.ch was launched on January 7. It offers freelancers in the communications industry a professionally designed website for an annual or half-yearly fee, which they can update at any time (see ). So far, a good 20 freelancers are presenting themselves online, according to the Ruf Lanz agency, which handles media relations for the portal. Interested freelancers can register for the portal at any time. A six-month contract costs 500 francs, an annual contract 990 francs. The portal was launched by Monica Miraldi. The trained marketing communications manager knows both the agency side and the client side. Today she works as a freelance consultant herself.

The former Weltwoche man Walter De Gregorio is now responsible for the sports section of Blick and Sonntagsblick. The previous head of sports André Grieder, who has only been in office since last November, is leaving the sports editorial team for personal reasons, Ringier announced. De Gregorio has been deputy to Blick editor-in-chief Bernhard Weissberg since the beginning of the week (see
). Before that, he worked for renowned newspapers: He wrote for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, was a founding member of Facts, a reporter for the SonntagsZeitung and Italy correspondent for Die Zeit, among others. He was a member of the editorial board at Weltwoche. Sport, especially football, is one of De Gregorio's main topics alongside politics.

Code of conduct 147 titles have signed the "Code of Conduct" to date. At this year's Dreikönigstagung, the traditional New Year's meeting of the publishing industry, the code of conduct on the strict separation of journalistic content and commercial advertising was also discussed. So far, 147 individual titles in the Swiss press have signed the charter and thereby committed themselves to complying with the provisions, explained those responsible in Zurich-Oerlikon. "We are very pleased that after years of effort, such a code of conduct is now in place," said Res Strehle, President of the Conference of Editors-in-Chief and co-initiator of the paper. Strehle compared the stage success with a victory on the Alpe d'Huez in the Tour de France. Now the task is to successfully complete the rest of the route to Paris. Specifically: to implement the Code of Conduct in practice. To this end, those responsible want to set up a monitoring system and draw up corresponding implementation regulations. For Strehle, the Press Council would be the appropriate body to monitor compliance with the Code. After all, the code is intended to be more than just a quality seal and should have an impact on actual practice. A proposal to this effect is already on the agenda for March.
Ralph Büchi, CEO of Axel Springer Switzerland, spoke out against lengthy implementation provisions so that the work does not degenerate into a paper tiger. The editorial offices must have leeway for implementation. Overly rigid regulations would be counterproductive. The code of conduct is supported by the Conference of Editors-in-Chief, the publishers' associations in German-speaking Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino as well as the associations of the Swiss advertising industry (BSW, SWA, ASW, FRP). (rw/sda)

 An interview with UBS CEO Marcel Rohner, published in advance by the Handelszeitung, helped the big bank's share price soar on Tuesday. What investors only found out on Wednesday: The interview did not refer to current information. The interview was conducted before Christmas and refers to the information available on December 10, 2007, the day on which the big bank announced the capital increase and the write-down of a further 10 billion dollars. In the interview with the Handelszeitung, Rohner said, among other things, that UBS's risk position had become substantially smaller. The market evidently believed the supposedly new assessment: UBS shares experienced a strong boost on Tuesday. Following the publication of the interview, the share price shot up by almost 4 percent to CHF 50.40. At the end of the day, the share was still up 1.82 percent.
The editor-in-chief of the Handelszeitung, Martin Spieler, told the AWP agency that the interview was only authorized for publication by UBS on Monday. A UBS spokeswoman confirmed this. NZZ and Blick argued in their Wednesday editions that the interview contained no new information. The NZZ wrote that Rohner's statements were "without the slightest news value". What Rohner said was "long known and about as oracular as any astrological forecast published at the turn of the year".

Logistik Boxx promotes the new DHL Rail Pac service for DHL. The German parcel courier competes with Swiss Post.  
After the logistics company DHL launched its new DHL Rail Pac service in September last year, the Zurich-based advertising agency Boxx is now promoting the new service in a national marketing campaign. DHL Rail Pac is a national express service. For the time being, customers can post letters and parcels at the so-called service points in Zurich and Berne (SBB luggage counters), which are transported by rail to the most important economic regions in Switzerland and delivered to their destination on the same day. With the new DHL service, customers can decide for themselves whether the courier should deliver the parcel to their home in the Zurich, Basel, Berne, Biel, Lucerne and Geneva regions or whether the recipient would like to collect it themselves from the SBB luggage counter. In Lausanne, St. Gallen and Bellinzona, the parcel is transported to the station, where it is handed over by SBB staff at the service point of the baggage counter.
Green ExpresspostThe new offering is made easier by a simple price structure. In addition to a format for every type of letter, there are small, medium and large sizes for parcels. With DHL, you don't pay by weight, but by volume. In direct comparison with Swiss Post, this is often cheaper for customers (see box). The Deutsche Post subsidiary not only wants to be cheap, but also green. Under the motto "Go Green", DHL wants to make a name for itself as an environmentally friendly logistics provider. All CO2 emissions generated during transportation are calculated and offset via internal and external climate protection projects. DHL states that close cooperation with the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) in particular will enable parcels and documents to be sent in an environmentally friendly manner despite the high speeds involved.
Massive expansion in SwitzerlandThe private postal company aims to massively expand its position in the Swiss postal market with its DHL Rail Pac service. The ambitious goals are made clear by the intensive advertising measures. In December, for example, DHL began using TV commercials to advertise the 120 service points it already has in Switzerland. The message: today you don't necessarily have to hand in your parcels at the post office counter. DHL's service points are located at SBB baggage counters, kiosks and pharmacies. The expansion of the express company is not least an attack on Swiss Post's monopoly position. DHL says it wants to operate 300 service points in Switzerland by the end of next year. To achieve DHL's ambitious goal, Boxx Werbeagentur is relying on a broad mix of measures, including electronic media as well as advertisements, posters, flyers and below-the-line advertising.
Christian Lüscher
DHL often cheaper competition
At the beginning of December, the postal regulation authority (PostReg) compared various parcel services. The conclusion: with 2,500 post offices, Swiss Post has a denser network than private postal providers. However, if you want to send your parcels with A Mail, you can sometimes find cheaper alternatives from private providers. Example: If you want to send a parcel as large and heavy as a set of cell phones with A Mail, you will pay the most with Swiss Post at CHF 8, and CHF 7.50 with DHL. The situation is similar for three bottles of wine. At 10 francs, Swiss Post is the most expensive provider. With DHL, the customer pays 50 centimes less for shipping. The situation is different for a two-kilogram book, as PostReg writes in a press release. At CHF 9.50, DHL charges CHF 1.50 more than Swiss Post. (cl)

Beer The Calanda campaign has a new motif. The Bernese advertising agency Contexta has designed a new visual for the winter season, which will be used specifically in the main area in the Grisons mountains. The motif refers to the photo sequences used in snowboard magazines to show daring jumps. The "360° backflip calanda grab" is particularly popular this season.

 Even heads of government know expletives, and even heads of government seem to have time to sit in front of the TV now and then. What Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Günther Oettinger sees there, however, doesn't seem to please him at all for the most part. "There are programs that come on some channels more, from which I see considerable dangers for the education of young people," said the head of government of Germany's third-largest state on Tuesday in Stuttgart, naming the channels Super RTL and RTL 2 as outstanding scapegoats. The media's influence on society has grown considerably, Oettinger said, dubbing independent television creation "shitty private television." He also admonished the advertising industry not to use these channels: "Brand-name products with a good name should not advertise in the vicinity of programs that are harmful to young people." For once, the clear words of the CDU state leader even found favor with the political competition. The Greens in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament now see Oettinger as reinforcing their opinion that the "RTLization of society" is progressing. Of course, the RTL broadcasting group sees things somewhat differently. Super RTL spokeswoman Kreft said that Oettinger's statement was "undifferentiated and not tenable. Oettinger's wife of many years, Inken, also proved untenable. Since she ran off with Porsche manager Otmar Westerfellhaus a few months ago, the prime minister currently has to watch Arte at home all alone.

 
Mediafocus Advertising pressure in November 2007 rose by 3.9% year-on-year, with a cumulative increase of 9.2% since the beginning of the year. The beverages advertising market rose by 13.5 percent, consumer electronics/photo/film by 27 percent (primarily with recorded CDs and DVDs as well as flat screens). The furniture, home and garden category also grew by 15.9%. The advertising markets of watches/jewelry (+20.3%), cosmetics/personal care (+19.2%) and non-profit campaigns (+14.6%) were also clearly up. Television, Internet and trade press also outperformed the growth average. 
 

 IT company Beteo has chosen to work with Jenni Kommunikation in the area of public relations. According to a statement, the PR agency's main task is to provide technical advice and implement Beteo's communications strategy in Switzerland, as well as acting as lead agency for the countries Germany and Austria. Jenni Kommunikation has already been looking after Collanos Software in terms of media relations in Switzerland and as a lead agency worldwide since 2006. The CEO of Collanos Software, Peter Helfenstein, recently took on the additional role of COO of Beteo. This was done with the aim of the two Swiss start-ups sharing resources, expertise and partnerships. Against this background, Beteo chose Jenni Kommunikation. Beteo provides services and software for sustainability in the further development of standard software systems. The company is based in Sarnen and also has offices in Zurich and Berlin.

 The media blog Medienspiegel.ch has announced changes to its team of columnists. Rolf Hürzeler and Nick Lüthi have joined the team. Hürzeler was media and culture editor at Facts and is currently head of culture at the commuter paper News. Lüthi is a media journalist and editor-in-chief of the media magazine Klartext. The two replace Daniele Muscionico and Thomas Widmer, who have returned to the Weltwoche head office, as announced by Medienspiegel operator Martin Hitz. Former President of the Press Council Peter Studer, NZZ Folio editor-in-chief Daniel Weber, Tages-Anzeiger department head Edgar Schuler, journalist and songwriter Martin Hauzenberger, Oliver Classen, former Werbewoche media editor and currently press spokesman for the development policy organization Berne Declaration, as well as the "immature reader" known from the commuter blog, are also part of the team.