In the current year, 30 percent of Swiss companies intend to increase their communication expenditure. A further 56 percent expect to spend the same amount on PR, advertising and events as in the previous year. This is the result of a survey of the 500 largest Swiss companies conducted by PR agency Farner Consulting. Due to the subdued economic outlook, a decline in communication expenditure was actually to be feared, according to a Farner press release. However, the decrease has only been marginal: While 90 percent of companies planned to maintain or increase their budgets last year, this year the figure is 86 percent. Of those companies that plan to increase their communications expenditure, 83% cite adaptation to future requirements as the reason. The 8 percent of companies that are reducing their communication budgets cite a reduction in available funds.
Based on the survey results, PR agency Farner has identified a shift from traditional advertising towards PR: 15 percent of the companies surveyed invest more than a third of their communications budget in public relations. Within PR, Swiss companies see the greatest need for action in the areas of consulting and coaching, crisis and change communication as well as corporate publicity and online communication.

Jean-Marc Demeulemeester has been Creative Director at GGK Zurich since the beginning of the year. The 38-year-old previously ran his own agency, Demeulemeester Publicité. He is taking his clients with him, including a partial budget for Postshop. In addition to his role as CD, Demeulemeester will also be a member of the management team at GGK Zurich. Bruno Züttel will remain CD for the existing budgets. In addition to owner Hermann Strittmatter, partner Fredy Weisser is also a member of the management team.
The first talks between GGK and Demeulemeester Publicité took place late last summer, according to the press release. "We quickly realized that we spoke the same language," explains Strittmatter. After working for Advico Young & Rubicam, Publicis, JWT+H+F and most recently LangGysiKnoll (now the new LGK), Demeulemeester had set up his own business and founded Demeulemeester Publicité based in Winterthur (see
Two little ones really big
). He describes the opportunity to join GGK as a welcome development in his career.

 NZZ has not only made friends with its new finance portal. In reader comments on NZZ-Finance, various users react with "utter disappointment" to the changes made to the service and accuse NZZ of "arrogance" and disregard for customer needs. Fredy Greuter, Editorial Director of NZZ-Online, is not fazed by the almost sixty negative comments from his users: "There are all kinds of reactions to our new finance portal, both positive and negative. Virtually all of the negative comments relate to the removal of the portfolio function. And in this context, I can certainly understand the anger." Previously, registered users were able to use this portfolio function to evaluate securities according to their preferences and create daily portfolio statements, as is familiar from the bank. The service was offered in cooperation with the company Ecofin. After the contract expired at the end of 2007, NZZ was unable to reach an agreement with Ecofin on an extension of the jointly managed Finfox portal. This was one of the reasons why NZZ finally decided to realign the portal. "Operating a portfolio function is not part of our core business. We have decided to concentrate more on providing and analyzing information again," said Greuter. This change is annoying for established Finfox users, as Ecofin is in possession of all portfolio data but has discontinued the current offering. If they want to continue comparing and evaluating securities, they will now have to switch to other portals such as Cash or UBS. "We were aware that there would be reactions. I'm also not surprised by the volume. What did surprise me a little, however, was the tone. Online, people react much more directly, emotionally and therefore more strongly," Greuter told Werbewoche. However, the company has no intention of changing course. The portfolio was a free offer and we had to expect that users would switch to another provider, Greuter continued. The initial technical problems have now been resolved and initial usage figures prove that they are on the right track with their new focus on editorial content. However, NZZ did not want to disclose what this means in absolute figures.

 The agency Matter & Gretener has a new client: it is working on the complete redesign of Action TV. This web TV channel documents events and parties and was also present at Edi.07 and Tele's anniversary celebration, for example. According to the agency, Action TV's new look will soon be available online.

 Even before the jury, interested parties can view the TV commercials submitted for this year's ADC judging and get an idea of the current Swiss commercial scene. As part of the ADC Predicition, the 120 or so spots can be seen on Tuesday, January 15, 2008, from 12 noon to 2 pm in the Festsaal des Zürcher Kaufleutens. If you like, you can bet on the winners and, with a bit of luck, win your own prize. All works submitted for ADC judging can be viewed at the WTC Zurich-Oerlikon on January 21, 2008 from 6 to 9 pm. The award ceremony is open to the public and will take place on Saturday, January 26, 2008 from 6 to 7.30 p.m. in the Toni Molkerei bottling hall in Zurich-West.

Peter Schibli has been editor-in-chief of Swissinfo.ch, the Swissinfo Internet platform for abroad, since the beginning of the year. Schibli, who holds a doctorate in law, succeeds Christoph Heri, who is retiring on March 31, 2008. Schibli has worked as a journalist and multimedia specialist for the Basler Zeitung (Baz) since 1986, including as Germany and USA correspondent. From 2000, Schibli built up Baz Online, headed the online editorial team and from 2004 was also a member of the editorial team at Basler Zeitung. Since March 2007, Schibli has worked at Swissinfo.ch as project manager and member of the editorial board.
As the new editor-in-chief, he will implement the service mandate for the SRG subsidiary approved by the Federal Council. Schibli wants to position Swissinfo.ch as the leading nine-language news and information platform for the Swiss abroad as well as for an international audience interested in Switzerland, according to a press release. His focus will be on consistently using the multimedia possibilities of the Internet platform to convey content and for customer loyalty.

 The ongoing realignment of the new Publigroupe Media Sales organization has another personnel consequence: Bruno Hegglin, Regional Director and member of the Publicitas Management Board, has decided to leave the company at the end of May 2008, announced Publigroupe CEO Hans-Peter Rohner. Hegglin wants to take on new professional challenges. The branches he manages in Lucerne, St. Gallen, Zurich and
NZZ Media have been managed directly by Thomas Bargetzi, CEO Sales Switzerland, since January 1. Hegglin has therefore already handed over his management responsibilities to Bargetzi. Hegglin has worked for Publicitas since 1991. He took over as Director of the Lucerne branch in 1994. In 1998, he was promoted to regional director for the eastern region. In his press release, Rohner emphasizes Hegglin's great commitment and expresses the hope that Publicitas and the outgoing Regional Director will remain in "good and cooperative contact".

 The private broadcaster U1 TV will continue to be available on Cablecom's analog network for the time being, but has given some employees notice of termination as a precautionary measure. A super-provisional ruling by the Federal Administrative Court had guaranteed the broadcaster that it would not be removed from Cablecom's analog network before January 7. The reprieve now continues: as spokesman Hanspeter Nehmer told Werbewoche, the network operator will not remove the channel from the analog network until a corresponding decision has been made by the Federal Administrative Court. U1 TV has lodged an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court against the decision of the Federal Office of Communications, which stated that the channel could be switched off by Cablecom (see
). Although the television producers are still hoping that the court will rule in their favor, redundancies have been announced as a precautionary measure. At the request of Werbewoche, spokesman Peter Heeb confirmed a corresponding report by NZZ am Sonntag: "Should the Federal Administrative Court uphold Bakom's decision, we will no longer be able to employ all our staff". In this case, U1 TV would be broadcast on Cablecom's digital network. Heeb assumes that a third of the current 30 employees will then be able to remain working for the broadcaster. In any case, the clairvoyant figurehead Mike Shiva will remain. U1 TV had offered Bakom to reduce Shiva's program to two hours - but even this offer did not make the Federal Office any milder. With the shift to digital, U1 TV would only be broadcast to around half as many households as before. According to Heeb, the broadcaster is currently examining various options as to how it could position itself following a corresponding decision by the judges: Although Swiss sports television has switched to Star TV, sport is still an issue for U1 TV. A stronger focus on politics would also be possible. In any case, it is already certain that Heeb's own company, Heeb & Partner, will produce the broadcast of the SVP Albisgüetlitagung, which will flicker across the screen on U1 TV.

 What the German tabloid Bild now has, the Sonntagsblick is also getting: a readers' council. It will be able to have a say in what the newspaper will look like in the future. It consists of 25 readers who are supposed to be representative of society: "Readers from all parts of the country, from many professions, young and old" are in demand, according to the latest Sobli edition. They meet twice a year and tell the editorial team what they like and don't like. They are promised a "direct influence" on the newspaper makers under boss Marc Walder. According to Sobli, work on the Readers' Council is free of charge - but Ringier will provide "food and drink" at each meeting. Interested parties can apply with immediate effect; those selected will be chosen by the Editor-in-Chief.

 The overall budget for dialog marketing and advertising for the GM subsidiary Saab Switzerland has been awarded to the dialog marketing agency Brüngger Bachmann Dialog in Zurich. GM Switzerland awarded the budget after a multi-stage pitch. The decisive factors for the decision were a clear strategy for the positioning of the brand in Switzerland, a surprising and fresh creation as well as the know-how in the field of CRM and dialog. The fact that the overall account went to an agency specializing in dialogue is due to the fact that the majority of communicative measures for Saab are located below the line, explains Arno Gunsch, Brand Director Saab Switzerland, in a statement from the agency.
The work of Brüngger Bachmann Dialog will become visible from February with a broad-based print campaign. Numerous dialog instruments will also be used for the Geneva Motor Show.
Responsible at Saab Switzerland:
Arno Gunsch (overall responsibility), Nathalie Busslinger and Mario Klaus. Responsible at Brüngger Bachmann Dialog: Daniel Brüngger (overall responsibility), Martin Steiner (strategy), Remo Bachmann (creation), Liv Bianchet and Noëmi Fretz (consulting), Manuela Eigenmann (art), Matthias Zimmermann (text), Martin Stauch (web design).

She came across as likeable, the new Federal Councillor Widmer-Schlumpf, who appeared on countless television and radio programs in the turbulent days following her election despite a considerable lack of sleep. And Micheline Calmy-Rey is also always engaging and extremely winning. It's a shame that you can't even meet up with these busy Federal Councillors to exchange ideas and sip a hot chocolate. Perhaps this would even lead to a friendship, who knows. The young Neuchâtel student Bertil Suter has brought us a lot closer to the dream of a friendship with the highest politicians in this country. He brazenly set up a separate profile for each member of the national government on the Facebook community network (Werbewoche reported, see ). His declared aim is to create a discussion platform for Swiss politics and establish direct contact with the ministers. As a first step, he is now trying to get as many friends as possible for the "fake" federal councillors. At the moment, Micheline Calmy-Rey leads with 679 contacts. In a second step, Suter then wants to approach the national government directly and get them to manage the profiles themselves. This would only take half an hour per week. So nothing stands in the way of this new form of maintaining contact with the people - foreign politicians such as the French Minister for Education and Research, Valérie Pécresse, are already using it. Especially as the only Federal Councillor who has never written an e-mail in his life is no longer a member of the government. But he doesn't need Facebook either. After all, he has long since found a friend for life in Roger Köppel.

The Zurich advertising agency Publicis provides proof that there are fragrances that are so beguiling to women that they can't stop themselves and want to get into the perfumed gentleman's pants: Three posters for the men's fragrance Axe each show a different pair of men's pants pulled down. The fragrances are apparently so effective that the posters were pulled down at the same time as the trousers: Folded, they are now only to be found in the lower half of the posters. Responsible at Unilever:
Lukas Waller (overall responsibility). Responsible at Publicis: Florian Beck (creative and art direction), Thomas Berger (graphics), Marcel Maegerle (consulting), Andreas Caruso (production), Giuliano di Marco (photography), Frontwork (poster production).