The debate on advertising bans and postal market liberalization is freshly launched in the new parliament. The private TV association Telesuisse can breathe a sigh of relief: its president Filippo Lombardi is still a member of the newly elected Council of States. The situation is different for the Swiss Advertising Association: its President Carlo Schmid (CVP) no longer stood for election to the small chamber. The SW now no longer has a direct line into parliament. However, SW spokesperson Piero Schäfer does not believe that the position of the advertising industry is in any way threatened by this. "There are a relatively large number of new SVP parliamentarians, and they are most in line with us, at least when it comes to rejecting advertising bans," he says. In this respect, the SW issues might have it a little easier in future. Schäfer also describes the fight against advertising bans as the main political issue from the SW perspective in the future. He refers to the off-roader initiative and the national "Alcohol" and "Nutrition" programs, which would also include advertising bans or restrictions. It is also important to remain vigilant with regard to the EU. The news from Brussels is not good for the advertising industry.
The Swiss Press Association also considers advertising bans to be one of the most important political issues of the future. However, the association's managing director Hanspeter Kellermüller mentions others: the revision of VAT and - more pressing than ever for publishers - the liberalization of the postal market. But how does he see publishers' positions on these issues being represented in the new parliament? Kellermüller is hesitant - with good reason. There are two National Councillors who describe themselves as publishers - Filippo Leutenegger (FDP) and Doris Stump (SP). The SVP National Councillors Hans Fehr and Hans Kaufmann are members of the board of Schweizerzeit Verlags AG, SP National Councillor Hans-Jürg Fehr is a member of the board of Schaffhauser AZ, FDP Councillor of States Rolf Büttiker is on the board of Dietschi AG (Oltner Tagblatt) and CVP Councillor of States Urs Schwaller is on the board of La Liberté newspaper printers.
But Hanspeter Kellermüller knows from past discussions about the RTVA and indirect press subsidies that publishers in parliament do not speak with one voice. Leutenegger and Fehr, for example, represented very different media policy positions. "It would therefore be wrong to say that we have our representatives in parliament," says Kellermüller. This cannot be compared to the pharmaceutical or farming lobbies.
The vested interests of the new parliamentarians are still only sporadically known: Doris Stump, SVP National Councillors Wobmann and Gadient, CVP National Councillor Bugnon and FDP Councillor of States Fünfschilling sit on SRG committees, FDP National Councillor Gysin has a connection to Basler Zeitung Medien, FDP National Councillor Theiler and SVP National Councillor Stamm have one to the AZ Media Group and SVP National Councillor Rickli works for Goldbach Media. To name just a few.
Markus Knöpfli

 
Daniela Jakab and Claudia Zechner founded Proud Mary, the first Swiss communications agency to focus on a female target group. 
There are 2,921 advertising agencies in Switzerland. And only one for women. That's the introduction on proudmary.ch, before a handbag pops into view on the website. Typical woman. And as women's handbags go, this one contains not only all kinds of interesting things, but also some surprising ones.
"Today, 80 percent of all purchasing decisions are made or influenced by women," one can read, for example. In the USA, a study shows that 75 percent of women living in a partnership already manage their joint assets. And Crédit Suisse knows that three out of ten Swiss women own more than 750,000 Swiss francs.
"We are facing a new social epoch: the century of women," says Creative Director Daniela Jakab. Women are becoming more independent, self-confident and educated, even in value-conservative Switzerland. "The labor force participation rate of women is continuously increasing. So is their importance for consumption," reckons Account Executive Claudia Zechner.
Billions are spent on cosmetics, detergents and fashion. Wellness, health or even lifestyle are part of the current consumer trend. "All these areas are particularly close to women's hearts," Daniela and Claudia know. And they can also prove it with studies and trend reports: The target group of women offers an enormous growth market.
Proud Mary wants to take these economic and scientific aspects into account with new communication requirements and is oriented towards gender marketing.
As Switzerland's first communications agency, it is focusing entirely on advertising for women. "90 percent of 2,000 top female decision-makers already wished for a different image of women in advertising in a survey in 2005," prove the proud Marys, looking forward to their professional future with serenity.
Did Claudia Zechner and Daniela Jakab already feel this need in their work as advertisers or more as consumers?
The ball was set rolling by the view of female consumers, they say. After countless discussions, the concrete reason was an ad for an oven, a testimonial ad in a women's magazine. "We both found it pretty awful. The wrong type of woman and a statement that a woman would never make." So this ad became the impetus to "work this very corner in the future."
Their self-born tool is called "fnoc" or, more fully developed, "female needs and opinion circle. Behind this youngest child of Swiss advertising is a growing card index of already over a hundred women. In the future, their needs and opinions will provide Proud Mary with the strategic basis for its female intuitions in advertising.
Both in this new form of market research and subsequently in the communicative implementation, Proud Mary is to be understood not only as a good-sounding name, but also "as an attitude". "Proud Mary is synonymous with the self-confident consumer of today. She is proud of her achievements and proud to be a woman. And that's how we approach women. Both in our advertising and in our surveys," explain the representatives of the new creative generation. The fact that this attitude should not simply be confused with feminism is an aspect to which the two attach great importance. Rather, they say, it's about strong economic arguments.
Proud Mary is also open to clients who are not just about the female market. After initial agency presentations, such a pitch for an overall account is already tempting. "We certainly won't block that right away." And there are also "of course men" in the multi-layered network.
Daniela Jakab and Claudia Zechner can draw on a combined 24 years of experience in advertising. During this time - mainly at Lang Gysi Knoll/NeueLGK - they have already won a Cannes Lion with their teams in addition to various awards from ADC to Eurobest.
Claudia Zechner, who works as an account executive at Proud Mary, entered the industry in 1992 via the media side after finishing business school. She learned media planning at Publisuisse in Bern. "An important step" was then the move to the advertiser mecca of Zurich. She did the marketing planner with a federal diploma and worked at IP Multimedia for the marketing of the advertising window of Pro Sieben/ Sat.1. "But I realized that advertising with the classic communicative part is my lifeblood," Claudia explains why she then moved back to Bern to Lang Gysi Knoll. Here she made the classic climb from assistant to senior consultant. Her last job was the image campaign for Swiss Post. Here, together with Jakab, she was also able to realize her long-standing dream of a commercial with dogs that are currently waiting for their letter carrier on TV.
Daniela Jakab, Creative Director at Proud Mary, came to advertising with a "classic career change. She first studied medicine until, before her second propaedeutic course, she had a crisis of purpose: "Do I want this for life?" As an alternative, she discovered a portrait of various advertising professions in a magazine, and finally an ad for a "CD Text" in Werbewoche. Although the abbreviation CD was unfamiliar to her, she nevertheless picked up the phone. Of course, they laughed at first. But still made an offer as a junior copywriter, because she already had journalistic freelance work to show. Even more tempting than the JWT opportunity in Zurich was the chance to try out Lang Gysi Knoll in Bern. This has turned into ten years and still a CD today. Jakab was promoted to team leadership at about the same time, when she turned down an offer from Jung von Matt in Hamburg after four years at LGK. Later, Jakab took over as overall creative director at LGK and, in parallel, completed a two-year postgraduate management training course at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences IAP. Her professional highlights include various jury assignments from the Golden Ear to Clio Awards Miami to Cannes, where two years ago she was allowed to judge the then new category of radio spots, "incidentally as the only woman among 16 men".
In their private lives, the new Zurich advertising women live in Bern. There they not only find a relaxing balance "to the pulsating and inspiring life" in the communications capital, but also enjoy their long-standing circle of friends, "consisting of women and men," the proud Marys smile.
Andreas Panzeri

 
Magazine Jung von Matt/Limmat conducted a paparazzo casting for the Swiss magazine Style. 
The Schweizer Illustrierte Style advertising campaign has been portraying unknown people like stars for some time under the motto "The makings of a star". The Jung von Matt/Limmat agency now went one step further for SI Style and held a street casting in the fall to find a young model from the public to continue the campaign. On a paparazzi course in front of Starbucks on Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse, the candidates had to prove how to behave like a star in front of a paparazzo with shopping bags, a coffee cup and a cell phone. Around 1000 passers-by watched the spectacle organized by Rufener-Events. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., 60 women spontaneously wanted to show their courage in a star test. The "test" was hosted by Melanie Winiger.
After the casting, the best 20 candidates were also presented on the SI Style website. In the meantime, the jury has found its ideal star. Sabrina Diriwächter from Kaisten proved at the street casting that she is the best at look-alike posing. She was ultimately chosen as the winner in the online voting on www.sistyle.ch. Stéphanie Joly, Product Manager SI Style, is delighted to report that this online voting has boosted traffic on the site fivefold.
Consequently, Sabrina now plays the star role in the motifs of SI Style's new campaign. Just like a star, she knows where to meet the difficult on-and-off lover incognito. Or, like Madonna or Mrs. Pitt, she provides for offspring through adoption. CD Alexander Jaggy relied on the style of Chris Tribelhorn for the shooting of the star motifs in the paparazzo approach. The photos were taken in and around Zurich. Jung von Matt/Limmat also designed the cross-media presence for this competition.
Andreas Panzeri

 On Wednesday, the Federal Council granted the SRG a new license to broadcast advertising and live broadcasts on the SF info channel. This caused displeasure among private broadcasters in advance. Even conservative media politicians are not enthusiastic about this measure, as Blick writes on Wednesday. "This would distort the advertising market and once again privilege SRG over the private broadcasters," SVP politician Maximilian Reimann told the tabloid. He is calling for SRG's fees to be cut. In the short term, however, Parliament cannot take any action on this issue, as the Federal Council is responsible. However, the Federal Assembly will have to discuss an amendment to the RTVA on television advertising in the foreseeable future due to the media agreement. "Then we would bring the question of fees back to the table," announces Reimann.
FDP National Councillor Filippo Leutenegger also strictly rejects the SRG expansion plans. "Every new channel costs more, which means we need more concession money. This must be stopped!", Leutenegger told Blick. However, SRG spokesperson Max Gurtner disputes the additional costs: "SF info will not become more expensive with the new concession."

 
The second part of the advertising material & production special on the subject of finishing deals with the broad field of security printing. 
Billions are lost every year due to counterfeit goods and documents. However, it has long been possible to effectively finish vulnerable printed products and packaging to make them forgery-proof. The realistic goal must be to be able to better distinguish originals from counterfeits, and in the second part of our special on the subject of finishing, we report on the latest experience in the field of security printing.
 
Download the relevant pages of the current Advertising Week: 
 
 
 
The first part of this special appeared in Werbewoche issue 39.

 
Hairstyling Noise has built up a new brand for got2b by Schwarzkopf (almost) without traditional advertising and with few resources. 
Cross-media marketing is the new magic word in modern advertising. However, as is the case with "magic", many still see it as hocus-pocus. One example where the magic really became tangible is a campaign by Zurich agency Noise for its client Schwarzkopf. The trick here is that a great deal of creativity and detail work was used to achieve a lasting effect with rather modest means, which is otherwise only possible with large advertising budgets. Specifically: Noise did not launch a high-profile casting competition to the general public as usual, but first to the cores. These trendsetters then communicated Noise's cross-media "noise" to the early adopters. These opinion leaders then played their part, resulting in a 36% increase in mass sales for the new got2b line, as ACNielsen's market research for Switzerland shows.
The got2b products form Schwarzkopf's young hairstyling line. The brand, which belongs to the Henkel Group, has to hold its own against the high-budget competition from L'Oréal Studio Line and Garnier Fructis. The target group for got2b is 18 to 28-year-old "urban and trendy women and men", as Noise knows. "Many of these young people are experts in styling and they attach great importance to the right look," explain consultants Christian Frey and Patrik Leuenberger.
Together with concept designer Martin Rüegg, the basic idea for the cross-media campaign was born: Noise is looking for the best trendsetter for got2b and will send the winner of this competition around the world as a got2b trend scout. For three months, the aim is to discover the latest trends in the cities on this journey.
The application process for the job of trend scout was set up as a casting and conducted entirely online. In order to publicize the competition without expensive means, Noise first sent out a bag with all got2b products and instructions on how to take part to opinion leaders at fashion or art schools, for example. The aim was to make the opportunity to work as a trend scout attractive to their students.
Selected lifestyle journalists were also made aware of the world tour with a mailing. White socks were enclosed with the media information, along with the question: What will be fashionable in the future?
The gag was understood. 20 Minuten was won as a media partner. Radio Energy reported on the competition several times. The Tages-Anzeiger devoted an entire page to the trendy topic, and Faces even ran a double-page spread. The Tilllate party portal also played an important role.
By the end of March 2007, over 150 applications had been received. "The competition was taken very seriously," says Noise happily. Elaborate documentaries were submitted electronically as dossiers, even with specially produced film clips. A jury of style experts such as Mahara McKay (ex-Miss), Oliver Scotoni (rundfunk.fm), Markus Popp (tilllate.ch) and Patrick Peritz (F.E.T.I.S.H. Consulting) selected 20 candidates together with the clients. These were narrowed down to eight candidates by 3000 community members on the Internet. The finalists were able to present themselves to 400 early adopters at the Zurich Härterei in the summer. For this styling show, individual applicants did not shy away from an effort with up to 12 models.
In the end, the winner was Harun Dogan, also known in the scene as Shark. With the support of illustrious sponsors such as Sony, Hotelplan, TrendboXX and Manor, he has been traveling around the world ever since. After almost three months of scouting in New York, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Stockholm and Berlin, the trend researcher is currently on his last stop in Copenhagen. Throughout this time, Harun Dogan has been reporting on his fashion and other observations on the www.got2b-trendscout.ch website. This scene info is now followed by over 30,000 single users.
It is not only this quantity that is relevant for the agency. In terms of quality, the campaign also had a very lasting effect with a presence over several months.
Andreas Panzeri

 The latest episode of "Supermodel" on the private channel 3+ is the most successful in terms of ratings to date: it achieved a market share of 10.9 percent among 15 to 34-year-olds and 6.1 percent among 15 to 49-year-olds. For a short time, Supermodel was even the most-watched program among 15 to 34-year-olds, according to a statement from 3+. At its peak, 89,000 viewers watched the casting show at the same time. The show appears to be popular with young women: 32.4 percent of all 15 to 24-year-old female TV viewers watched "Supermodel" on Tuesday evening.

 
Mediafocus Advertising pressure rose by 16.7 percent in October 2007 compared to the same period last year. As expected, the advertising market for political campaigns saw the strongest growth of 458.1%. Consumer electronics also showed above-average growth of 54%. Telecommunications grew by 40.9%. The most significant positive trends were recorded by mobile prepaid B2C (+1269%), television (+186%), mobile B2C (+73.6%) and mobile content (+49.8%). Companies also spent 54.9% (CHF 19.9 million) more on image advertising. 

Textiles
The Eastern Swiss textile logistics specialist Scherrer Transport wants to draw the attention of textile and fashion companies and their branch networks to itself and its services with a coat hanger mailing based on the new logo, promising to move the textiles from A to B as carefully as if they were their own. The mailing was realized by the agency at the airport.

 
Airline With over 150 European and intercontinental destinations, Zurich Airport is one of the most attractive airports in Central Europe.  
The airport operator Unique has set itself the goal of communicating the advantages of traveling from Zurich to the wider catchment area of the airport. To this end, Weber Harbeke has developed a presentation that takes into account the local characteristics of the respective region. As is currently the case in Valais. With the opening of the new Lötschberg base tunnel, Zurich Airport is up to an hour closer for the people of Valais. A poster now speaks Valais German and communicates the advantages of the new connection.

There will be no UBS Arena in Winterthur during Euro 08. This was decided by voters last Sunday. The referendum will have little effect on the services offered by Publisuisse, which markets the arenas throughout Switzerland. "Of course, the UBS Arena in Winterthur will be removed from the regional portfolio. But the prices for the national packages will remain the same," explains Manuela Gerber, Project Manager Euro 2008 at Publisuisse. "We continue to assume that we can guarantee our customers at least 1.5 million spectators with the overall package of all arenas. We should be able to achieve this even without Winterthur". Publisuisse is therefore refraining from lowering prices. The marketer describes the 1.5 million mark as a "worst-case scenario"; in the best-case scenario, it estimates that 2.5 million spectators will be reached. The Winterthur arena could have accommodated 8,000 to 10,000 fans. With the loss of this arena, UBS will now not have an arena in the Zurich area. Organizer disappointed The organizer of the UBS Arena, the Biel-based agency Perron 8, is naturally not happy with the decision of the people of Winterthur: "We are naturally disappointed with the decision of the Winterthur voters. We pushed ahead with the project together with the city of Winterthur right up to the end. But we live in a democracy and have to accept the decision," says Reto Bloesch, media manager of event organizer Perron8. "There are always individual groups that oppose such projects. We take the whole thing in good sporting spirit." With the elimination of the Winterthur Arena, there will now be 16 broadcasting locations.
PdA referendum leader Peter Berger cited the growing unease among the population about the commercialization of sport as the reason for the clear rejection of the Winterthur Euro 2008 loan. "Many people are enthusiastic about football, but don't think much of the commercial exploitation of the sport," said Berger.
Bloesch, on the other hand, sees the reasons primarily at a communication level: "There were some misunderstandings. There was a widespread feeling in Winterthur that the whole thing was a project by some large corporation pursuing commercial interests. But the idea for the arenas came from the Swiss Confederation and is being organized by Perron8. The sole aim is to make Euro 08 a unique event, a festival for the people."
Adrian Schräder, Carole Scheidegger

 
Letter to the editor on the letter to the editor "Self-congratulation instead of transparency" by Remy Fabrikant, CEO JWT+H+F - Werbewoche 42/07 of November 22. 
The Board of Directors of BSW leading swiss agencies notes the following six points: 1. the ranking was presented at the members' meeting on March 29, 2007. The system and the procedure were known to all members. 2) BSW leading swiss agencies looked for a system that would also allow network agencies affected by Sarbanes Oxley to participate: collection of data from the previous year, publication in the fall after the group companies have audited and published their results from the previous year. 3) More than half of the network agencies participated in the ranking. 4. it is better for the transparency of the industry that a current ranking is available than that agencies operate on the basis of 2001 figures. 5. every member was given the opportunity at any time to participate in the discussion about the new ranking in direct dialog with the Board. 6) BSW leading swiss agencies is endeavoring to create full transparency in the area of rankings as well, with the aim of ending the public discussion about the ranking and returning the dialog to the association's committees in order to achieve an amicable solution for all members and maximum transparency for clients and the media.
Walter Merz, Managing Director BSW, leading swiss agencies