Google sold more advertising space again in November. After stagnating in October, the number of advertising spaces booked rose again slightly by 5 percentage points in November, according to the monthly Swiss Adex published by Angelink Yourposition. 18.5 different companies now appear per search query on Google. In the previous year, the increase in the same month was a full 8 percentage points. At the same time, click prices fell by 6 points to their lowest level since March 2007. Whereas an average AdWords click cost around CHF 1.90 for months, this figure fell to just CHF 1.77 in November.

 
Free newspapers As the number of free titles grows, so does the caution of media planners. Especially after the unsuccessful distribution of .ch. The latest commuter newspaper, News, must therefore also start with reservations. 
Photos (from left): Josi Bauer, Peter Hofstetter, Monica Jäggi, Andy Lehmann, Frauke Potent, Sandro Prezzi and Dominique Schilling News, the fifth national commuter newspaper in German-speaking Switzerland, was launched on December 5. As a non-representative street survey conducted by Werbewoche in Zurich, Berne and Basel suggests (WW 43/07), it will not be easy for the newcomer to change the preferences and habits of consumers. The new free paper from Tamedia and Basler Zeitung Medien will not have an easy time with the media agencies either. In any case, only one out of seven media planners surveyed stated that they had already booked advertisements with News. "We will certainly book News, if only because the newcomer attracts the most attention in the initial phase," says Andy Lehmann, Managing Director of Aegis Media Group Switzerland. He is also eagerly awaiting the Mittelland edition of News, especially since AZ Medien has been up in arms about it. "The best advertising reinforcement is AZ publisher Peter Wanner himself," laughs Lehmann. Apart from the current publicity of News, Lehmann emphasizes another strength of the new title: the paper can be combined with other titles in such a varied and "clever" way that it is also attracting interest from customers, he says.
Dominique Schilling, media planner at Generation Media, takes a different view and criticizes Tamedia's combination policy. This is because News Zürich can only be booked with the Tages-Anzeiger, while solo bookings are also possible in Basel, Bern and the Mittelland. "I will not be patronized by a publisher."
For others, however, the absence of news has more practical reasons. "The fact that we haven't covered news so far is mainly due to the unfavorable launch date," explains Sandro Prezzi, Managing Director of Mediaedge:cia Switzerland. "We simply don't have any corresponding campaigns at the moment." Frauke Potent, Head of Print Purchasing at Initiative Media Western, expresses a similar view. "Our budgets for this year have already been finalized and there was no reason to reschedule at short notice because of the news," she says.
Conscious use of moneyFuture booking behavior is one thing - but how have free titles been managed in the past two months? Two media planners stated that they had never booked .ch during this time. "Advertising budgets are increasing again, but customers are more conscious about how they spend their money," says Josi Bauer from Starcom Adplus with regard to the unclear distribution of .ch. Everyone else has tried out the title, but no one can really assess its performance. "For me, the distribution is the real black box with .ch. The promise to be first to the reader early in the morning was not kept," criticizes Andy Lehmann. Dominique Schilling doubles down: "Since the stands were collected, .ch has lost its USP," she states succinctly. Sandro Prezzi is more positive. He has not yet received any customer feedback on .ch. "But according to an Omnibus study, people with a better education between 30 and 49 seem to have a particular affinity for .ch. "An interesting target audience," he says. He also considers the newspaper project to be innovative. However, it is currently trading below its value.
Peter Hofstetter, owner of Mediaxis-MPG, sees things differently. In his opinion, there is a complete discrepancy between claim and reality, both at .ch and at News. From the outset, .ch assumed 1.5 readers per distributed copy, while News even reckons with two readers. "These assumptions are so exaggerated that you have to negotiate hard. A page in .ch or News should not be equated with a page in 20 Minuten," says Hofstetter.
Speaking of 20 Minuten: None of the media planners surveyed had done without this title in the last two months, despite the new competition. "When I need to reach a broad target group, I always have good experiences with 20 Minuten," says Frauke Potent. Andy Lehmann has also achieved a strong response. Sandro Prezzi, on the other hand, has observed that the Tamedia paper is seen as a "trend medium" by customers and agencies. "Some obviously see it as penicillin for sick media plans," he says with a laugh.
But this seems to have gone to the heads of the 20-Minuten makers. Josi Bauer, at any rate, believes that promotions have gone overboard recently, which could damage the paper in the long run. Opinions on Heute and Cash Daily are even more divided. Some use Cash Daily specifically for the business-savvy audience, but then cross-media with online. Others have not booked the title for more than two months. The situation is similar with Heute: some consider the title to be established with a good price-performance ratio, others describe it as barely tangible, while others have had good experiences, particularly in combination with Blick.
Be that as it may, three of the five titles are still so new that they do not have any reliable figures. Does that make you more cautious about free titles? Most say yes. "I'm generally rather cautious about booking new titles," says Monica Jäggi, co-owner of Konnex. This is because it takes a certain amount of time for a new title to get to where it wants to be in terms of distribution and editorial content. "This can currently be seen with .ch, but could also be observed with 20 Minuten or Heute in the past," she says. Frauke Potent has also become more cautious. She is primarily approaching the free newspaper market with a "gut feeling". She also assumes that free newspaper readers will not increase with the two new titles, but rather split up. "I want to wait and see what happens, because there is cut-throat competition here," she says. From her point of view, a title has to establish itself first.
Josi Bauer agrees. With the growing number of titles in this market, she has also become more cautious. "There is a lot of overlap and it is still hardly possible to differentiate between target groups," she says.
Andy Lehmann is by no means more cautious. "The free newspaper market is booming and is far from exhausted. It would be wrong to simply wait until the fog clears. Instead, we need to make the most of the opportunities that present themselves," he says.
Markus Knöpfli

 
People from Valais, Appenzell and even Austria admit that Laax has the best ski resort to offer. Three new audio commercials for the winter sports resort, created by Zurich agency Fisch.Meier.Direkt, are based on this concept. The speakers praise the advantages of Laax in the broadest dialect. The commercials can be heard on Radio Grischa and Radio Liechtenstein from Thursday. According to a press release, the ADAC Ski Guide and the ADAC travel magazine Ski 2008 named Laax a top ski resort and winner in the Snowpark category. 

 
The outgoing President of the Swiss Press Council, Peter Studer, criticized the role of the four free newspapers in German-speaking Switzerland on Wednesday's "Tagesgespräch" on Radio DRS. He sees the risk that the young generation will turn away from subscription and quality newspapers because of the free newspapers. The declining circulation figures of the subscription newspapers point to this. According to SDA, Studer does not see any major differences between the four titles 20 Minuten, .ch, Heute and News, which has been published since Wednesday. In addition, "the essentials are missing: Backgrounds and comments". Overall, they risked little in terms of content, and he could get pure news more quickly elsewhere. He also points out that a lot of money is being burned in the cut-throat competition between the newspapers. In his role as President of the Press Council, Studer, who is stepping down at the end of the year, had little to do with the free newspapers. There were sometimes complaints because they were too offensive when naming names in court reports.

 After six months of negotiations, a new framework agreement between Publigroupe and Tamedia has still not been signed. However, Tamedia spokesperson Christoph Zimmer is confident that an agreement will be reached before the end of the year. "The will is there on both sides," adds Georges von Csernatony, Head of Strategic Planning at Publigroupe. Neither of them gave any details on sticking points. The contract was terminated by Publigroupe CEO Hanspeter Rohner at the end of 2007. He did not give any reasons. But on June 13 in Thun, he said threateningly: "If we can't come to an agreement, we'll do it without Tamedia."

 
Maria Schönbucher has managed art buying and pulled off photo productions at many agencies. Now she is self-employed. 
Maria Schönbucher has been behind the camera for more than 20 years. Not at the presser, though. Her preferred place is behind the photographer's back. GGK, Advico Young & Rubicam, WHS, Wirz, Studio Achermann, Publicis, Jung von Matt, Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett, Krieg Schlupp Bürge/Springer & Jacoby: Maria Schönbucher has been in charge of art buying for all these agencies, either permanently or as a freelancer. Since the beginning of this year, she has also been increasingly involved in production for photographers. Her invisible help behind the cameras can currently be "seen" in campaigns such as that of Axpo with national trainer Köbi Kuhn or Migros' engagement by Publicis.
"I enjoy organizing the sets and processes, even for unusual or difficult shoots, so that it works on all levels," Schönbucher says of the challenges of her new job. Most of the time, production management starts with booking a photographer and fixing the dates. Then the costs are determined, locations are scouted, models are booked or street casting is organized. Organizing the right stylist is also one of Schönbucher's tasks.
Since then, this collaboration has worked so well with several photographers that Schönbucher has been approached for a partnership that will continue. This has now led to the founding of her own agency. This offers the official representation of the photographers Christian Ammann, Markus Bertschi and Noë Flum on the website www.schoenbucherfotografen.ch. Schönbucher does not only provide these photographers to advertising agencies or print media. The new agency wants to offer depending upon need as support of the picture artists also as complete a service as possible with the production. "Before, my photographers mostly did it themselves. Now they appreciate that they can use their time for creative work." Since photographers are also often abroad on reportage, they can continue to count on a representative of the agency during their absence, which does not let the contact break off with customers or potential clients.
For such a service, you need a good feeling for each other. "You have to know each other. The trust level is very important for me," Schönbucher explains. And: "I build on relationships that have grown over many years. I have already worked with the three photographers on many productions. That was the entry point. Now the final step has been added for an official cooperation."
With her so far three photographers Maria Schönbucher does not move in a certain niche, but offers the whole spectrum across the world of images.
Noë Flum does traditional advertising and also does a lot of editorial work. "This balance is important to him." You can see his pictures regularly in the magazine or internationally also in Vanity Fair. In the field of advertising, Flum has photographed the Migros-Engagement campaign as well as Axpo or Swiss Life, for example. For Freitag bags, he was just in Japan to photograph a new product. The Zurich Freitags have in the meantime achieved cult status there.
In addition to advertising, editorial contributions and architecture, Markus Bertschi mainly takes pictures in the CI area, such as annual reports. He is currently photographing a series with employees for Swiss television. For
annual reports of companies such as UBS and Schindler-Lifte, he has traveled around the world.
Christian Ammann often works for editorial and advertising in London. His clients there include fashion companies such as Bench Streetwear and Selfridges. He now wants to become more active in this area in Switzerland as well. "The offer is interesting for advertisers with a fashion and style requirement," explains the agent.
And how did Maria Schönbucher get into this multi-layered world of images?
As was the case with many in advertising at the time, her career began with a lateral move as a junior assistant. "That became a good self-taught training," says Schönbucher, looking back with gratitude on her time at GGK Zurich. After a few years, Schönbucher had the chance to move into art buying at Advico Young & Rubicam. To this end, she was Hansjörg Zürcher's personal assistant. Back at Hermann Strittmatter, she further developed the art of art buying at Mühle Tiefenbrunnen and then moved to WHS. Wirz Werbung and Studio Achermann were the further stations. In the meantime already self-employed, Schönbucher also supervised the art buying of the newly launched Migros magazine at Achermann and, for the introduction of the new picture language in 2004, also took over the management of the picture editing at short notice.
When asked about her work philosophy, Maria Schönbucher remarks: "I see every job as a new challenge and go to work with the same commitment every time, regardless of how big or how small the job is. Of course, my experience comes in handy every day."
Maria Schönbucher also loves photography - "but only as a hobby. She is also passionate about diving. In terms of sports, she loves training at the boxing club. However, only for fitness and without any intention to fight.
Andreas Panzeri

 
Newspapers Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett briefly and succinctly shows what the new commuter newspaper News wants to offer. 
Since the middle of this week, the new commuter newspaper News has been available daily from Monday to Saturday in over 2000 newspaper boxes. The paper is published in the four regions of Basel, Berne, Zurich and Mittelland with a total circulation of 334,000 copies. Advertising Week shows on page 17 how the competing product to 20 Minuten and Heute is being received by the public. The Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett agency shows us what the advertising for the joint launch of the publishers Basler Zeitung, Berner Zeitung and Tages-Anzeiger looks like with the first subjects on this page.
The new paper is a pure news newspaper and brings the relevant events from politics, business, sport and society to the point in a clear and compact manner. For example, no text element in News contains more than 2400 characters. The News compressors have also "recognized the signs of the times for advertisers and are countering the prevailing information overload and sensory overload", as CD Martin Spillmann interprets the briefing.
The advertising agency derives the brand promise "News in brief" from this product promise. This idea is dramatized on advertisements and posters by covering press images with a jungle of letters. The quick-read newspaper News uncovers the central image element and thus places the decisive event at the center. "True to the editorial team's motto: "straightforward, direct and relevant", as AD Simon Staub puts it. Following the same principle, the fast-forward method is used in TV and radio commercials to focus only on the relevant event.
The campaign has been on posters, advertisements, e-mails and online media since its launch.
boards, TV and radio commercials and web banners. The advertising concept also includes over 200 colporteurs distributing the newspaper during the launch phase.
Andreas Panzeri

 The Swiss business and communications consultancy Mediapolis is closing its offices in Berne and Zurich. As of January 1, 2008, the offices will be transferred to Farner PR. Mediapolis will now operate centrally from its headquarters in St. Gallen. Martin Baltisser, the former Managing Director of Mediapolis Bern, will become the new Director of Farner PR in Bern and will manage the existing public affairs mandates from there. According to a press release issued on Wednesday, the takeover will make Farner PR one of the leading agencies in Bern.
There will also be another major personnel change: Mediapolis Chairman of the Board of Directors and former National Councillor Peter Weigelt is retiring from the communications consultancy with immediate effect and will concentrate on his strategic management mandates in future. However, he will continue to be available to Mediapols as a senior consultant and member of the Board of Directors. He will be replaced by the current Managing Director Dr. Sven Bradke as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Pascal Jenny, former Managing Director of Mediapolis in Zurich, will also be active in St. Gallen as a partner and member of the Board of Directors.
As part of the structural changes, the company will increasingly focus on business consulting in the future.

 Kassensturz" did not violate journalistic principles with its undercover research into cosmetic surgeons. The Press Council approved the procedure due to the public interest. For the program, the consumer magazine accompanied a young woman with a hidden camera to the consultation hours of various cosmetic surgeons. The Press Council's ruling on Tuesday now states that the information would have been difficult to obtain through other, open research. A doctor's surgery is a commercial premises. Therefore, only the privacy of patients could be violated. The Press Council also considers the covert filming and audio recording to be legitimate in this case. The doctors filmed were also able to prohibit the broadcasting of the video and audio documents. Two of the doctors exercised this right.
The Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) came to a different conclusion regarding a second report on the subject of cosmetic surgery. Kassensturz had also broadcast hidden footage of this. In August, the UBI found that the images should not have been shown. The DRS ombudsman's office, on the other hand, ruled that the covert research was legitimate.

The new free newspaper News is published for the first time on Wednesday. With an initial circulation of 334,000 copies, it will be waiting for commuters and early risers in around 1,500 newspaper boxes in the morning. News editor-in-chief Philippe Pfister talks about the launch of his new free paper in an interview. WW: What editorial challenges are you facing with the launch? Philippe Pfister: We want to bring a compact, to-the-point news paper to the people. The biggest challenge is to ensure that our teams and systems mesh well so that News gets into the boxes on time. In Zurich, Basel and Berne there are basic titles that should complement News and not compete with it. How is this tightrope walk supposed to work? It's not a tightrope walk at all.
Specifically: Are you looking for primeurs at all? Of course we are. But we are a very tightly staffed editorial team with limited resources. But if we do manage to have a primeur - and I'm sure we will - then we won't feature it too small on the front page. It simply has to be relevant, exciting and interesting for a broad audience.
On the Central Plateau, you have to take a completely different approach: You can only succeed there with primeurs. We don't have any specific local pages, not even in the Mittelland. We produce more or less the same edition for the whole region, which is not very different in Bern, Basel, Zurich or the Mittelland. So we don't have to do things very differently in the Mittelland. If a Mittelland story is good, it will appear everywhere, as will one from the other three regions. We have to get a good news paper into the commuter streams, then we will be read.
How do you accompany news in the online area - the planned national portal will not be launched until spring 2008? For the next few months, news will only be available as a live paper on www.newsprint.ch. And of course also on the websites of Basler Zeitung, Berner Zeitung and Tages-Anzeiger.
The address www.news.ch is occupied by someone else - does that annoy you? No, why should it?
Media agencies are saying that the launch date for News is unfavorable. Most of the campaigns have been completed. Will News start thin? I have rather the opposite concern: I was told that the launch issue would be 48 pages long. We have had good feedback from the advertising market and hope that we can maintain this in December and beyond.
How will News be communicated? We are running an advertising campaign with advertisements and spots on local radio and TV stations. In the first few weeks, there will also be colporteurs on the road.
Interview: Markus Knöpfli

The Zurich agency Advico, Young & Rubicam emphasizes the function of Ovomaltine as a source of energy for Wander. In the new Ovo commercial, the day of a young, busy woman is followed in fast motion, from waking up in the morning, going to university, swimming training to turning out the lights in the evening. Time and again, she fortifies herself with Ovaltine. Sometimes with the classic powder, sometimes with the drink to go. The claim: "Ovomaltine: healthy energy that tastes good." The commercial has been on television since October and is produced by Wander:
Arnold Furtwängler (Head of Marketing and Sales), Björn Roncoroni (Head of Marketing), Christof Stulz (Head of Marketing Export), Beatrice Müller (Product Manager Ovomaltine) Responsible at Advico Young & Rubicam:
Daniel Comte (Creative Direction), Roland Scotoni, Dominik Oberwiler (Art Direction), Martin Stulz (Text), Marie-Theres Ott, Pablo Koerfer (Consulting), Daniela Berther (FFF Production), Heinrich Reinacher, Uli Scheper, Natascha Meislitzer (Brand Film), Stephanie von Beauvais (Director), Alex Kirschner (Music).

 Together with the cell phone provider Orange, the women's magazine Annabelle is now offering a cell phone that is designed to match the lifestyle of its readers. Annabelle readers are smart, self-confident, lifestyle- and success-oriented women, said marketing director Alexander Oeschger in a statement on Tuesday. The Annabelle package includes the SonyEricsson s500 Bronze slider model with special content, a Bluetooth headset, a neck strap, a cell phone case and an Annabelle bag.