The cigarette company Parisienne is offering its customers individuality: from November, every consumer will be able to design their own cigarette packet. Parisienne is making good on this promise with a new manufacturing tool that allows small quantities of cigarette packs to be integrated into a large production process. Customers can design their own packs on the Parisienne.ch website. In the associated communication campaign by Sulzer, Sutter, the do-it-yourself aspect is given a humorous touch. It takes a look behind the scenes of the production process: as handmade as cigarette packets will be in the future, so must the machines be, writes the agency in a communiqué. In the campaign, this can be seen in a machine made of cardboard by artist Christian Duss. Since last Monday, the campaign can be seen on posters and advertisements throughout Switzerland.
Responsible at Parisienne:
Mehdi Cherif-Zahar (Brand Group Manager), Thomas Baer (Brand Manager), Miriam Radermacher (Junior Brand Manager), Gabriela Dvoracek (Junior Brand Manager), Philipp Meyer (Junior Brand Manager). Responsible at Sulzer, Sutter: Michael Kathe (Creative Direction), Stephan Huwiler, Sebastian Krayer (Art Direction), Sini Oh (Graphics), Remo Christen (Consulting), Christian Duss (Machine), Urs Bigler (Photo).

National soccer player Alex Frei has been a brand ambassador for JVC Switzerland for two years since July. A campaign specially designed for the Swiss market by WS Kommunikation aims to emotionally enhance the electronics company's brand communication. In the first phase, the aim is to increase brand awareness. The focus is on Alex Frei as a private person. At the beginning of 2008, a follow-up campaign will show the footballer at work. Two major national campaign waves with posters and advertisements will be supported by additional campaigns for specialist retailers and end consumers. In view of Euro 08, the main product focus is on the new Full HD LCD televisions.
Responsible at JVC Switzerland:
Herbert Eichelberger (General Manager Advertising & Promotion), Thomas Häberling (Advertising & Promotion). Responsible at WS Kommunikation:
Reto Meyer (Strategy/Consulting), Gabriel Heuberger (CD), Markus Stöckli (AD), Andrea Sutter (Graphics), Christoph Läser (Photography).

 
In the USA, Google is not only active in the online advertising market, but also in the print advertising market. It is still unclear whether the Internet company also wants to sell print ads in Europe. Philipp Schindler, Head of Central and Northern Europe at Google, told Werben und Verkaufen that if the model proves successful in the USA, a transfer to other countries would be obvious. According to Matthias Graf, spokesman for Google Switzerland, such an expansion of business activities in Switzerland is not currently under discussion. All the less so as the company is concentrating on expanding the online advertising market. He told Werbewoche that this is not yet very well developed in Switzerland compared to other countries.

Radio Ri and Radio Aktuell will merge next year to form a new regional radio station for Eastern Switzerland. Station owner Tagblatt Medien invited four agencies to pitch for the name, image and communication. The winner was the St. Gallen-based Kraftwerk advertising agency, as announced on Thursday. The new invitation to tender for radio licenses by the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom) offers a unique opportunity to create a new radio station for a self-confident Eastern Switzerland. The aim is to attract new listeners with a bold and fresh approach and to successfully position the new regional radio station on the advertising market. Tagblatt Medien did not want to tell Werbewoche exactly what this means. However, more details about the station will be announced in a communiqué towards the end of this year. The secret of the logo, slogan and visual identity will be definitively revealed next year shortly before the start of broadcasting at the beginning of May.

 Betty Bossi Verlag is discontinuing Bossi at the end of the year. The magazine and online service for men was only launched in spring. Coop spokeswoman Susanne Erdös confirmed a report by Tages-Anzeiger Online at the request of Werbewoche. The last issue of the magazine was published this week.
"When we launched in April, we set ourselves the goal of having 40,000 paying subscribers by the end of the year. Today we are only at just under 16,000," spokeswoman Ruth Bannwart told Tages-Anzeiger.ch. In September, the concept was adjusted in order to change the trend. However, this no longer helped. "We had to realize that we had no chance of ever making money with it in the long term," said Bannwart.
The seven employees affected are now being looked for other positions in the publishing house. There will certainly be no redundancies before the end of the year. The Betty Bossi publishing house is owned equally by Ringier and Coop.

The Thurgau government agrees that licensed radio and television broadcasters should transmit political advertisements before federal votes. The government council welcomes the fact that the State Policy Commission (SPK) is reacting to the changes in democratic politics in the media age, as reported by SDA on Thursday. However, there are some critical points. For example, it seems strange that the responsibility for the content of the advertisement should not all lie with the party or the initiative committee, but that a radio or television station could later be held accountable. It would be more expedient to exempt the media from any liability. In addition, it is questionable whether an independent complaints body could even deal with the review requests in time, i.e. before they are broadcast.

 
The Consumer Care division of Bayer (Switzerland) is terminating its contract with the media agency Universal McCann with effect from June 30, 2008 and inviting competitors to a presentation. After almost six years of good cooperation, the company has decided to review its performance with the agency, according to a statement from the pharmaceuticals marketer. Although the company can look back on a very fruitful collaboration with Universal McCann, it would like to create more market transparency and explore the potential for future activities, said Luca A. De Vito, Group Brand Manager at Bayer, explaining the reasons for the planned media agency round. In addition to Universal McCann, the agencies OMD, Mediacom and Media Schneider have been invited to the competition presentation, which is scheduled to take place in March next year.

 On Wednesday, Ringier announced that Sonntagsblick would not be renewing its contract with Euro RSCG Zurich. The Zurich-based media company is still keeping a low profile on the question of whether cooperation with a new agency has already been initiated or a pitch has been opened. "Those responsible are holding various talks in this regard," explained Ringier spokesperson Marco Castellaneta. Ringier justified the fact that the contract with Euro RSCG will not be continued with the "phase of complete renewal" at Sonntagsblick. Castellaneta recalls that the Sonntagsblick magazine was first completely renewed this year. At the same time, the editorial team was strengthened and some members of the editorial team were replaced. This was followed in October by the complete relaunch of the cover section. According to the spokesperson, the publishing structure was also adapted and a number of new positions were filled. Furthermore, existing partnerships, such as media partnerships, were "scrutinized and approached anew". The non-renewal of the contract with the advertising agency is related to this. The so-called renewal should be completed by the end of the year.

 A newly formed and prominent Swiss interest group wants to take a closer look at forms of entertainment that are financed by brands. The "Branded Entertainment Circle" is made up of exponents from the media, marketing and entertainment sectors and met for the first time this week. According to a press release, the group aims to drive forward the discussion on branded entertainment, which is both "profitable and polarizing". The initiators are OMD Switzerland CEO Christof Kaufmann and Rod co-owner Regula Fecker. According to them, the Circle should be diverse and not represent the particular interests of the industry. In addition to discussions in small groups, regular public presentations are also planned. In addition to Fecker and Kaufmann, the members of the group are: Claudio Ammann, Managing Director Sony Overseas; Hannes Britschgi, Head of Ringier TV Ringier; Roger Crotti, Managing Director Buena Vista International; Urs Heller, Publishing Director Schweizer Illustrierte; Marcel Kohler, Managing Director 20 Minuten; Ivo Sacchi, Managing Director Universal Music; Res Strehle, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Tages-Anzeiger.

 The publishing house Axel Springer Schweiz is expanding its online activities. Their marketing is being merged within the Group. In this way, the publisher intends to make optimum use of the synergies of the growing online offerings and to bundle them in a targeted manner for the advertising market.Oliver Frank is taking over the management of central online marketing with immediate effect. Frank has been with Axel Springer Schweiz since May 2007 and was previously responsible for marketing the online offerings of the Beobachter. Prior to that, he worked as an account manager and managing director in various online companies.
For him and his team, an initial focus is the marketing of the Handelszeitung's new web presence. The relaunch is scheduled for the last week of November and will bring a greatly expanded offering.
Monica Muijsers will join Axel Springer Schweiz as the new head of the online activities of the Beobachter on April 1, 2008 at the latest. A comprehensive relaunch and expansion of the online offerings is planned for spring 2008.
Muijsers already held various positions at the Beobachter from 1995 to the end of 2006, most recently as Content Manager in the online division. After a detour to Tamedia as Head of Magazines Online, she is now returning to Axel Springer Schweiz.

 This year's Eurobest Awards have received an unprecedented number of entries: a total of 5333 submissions from 608 companies in 37 countries are vying for the prizes. This represents an increase of seven percent and makes 2007 the sixth record year in a row, according to the organizers. From Switzerland, 334 entries were submitted by 17 agencies. The lion's share entered the "Print" and "Outdoor" categories. The public will find out who has made it onto the shortlist on November 28. The winners will be announced during an online award ceremony on November 30.

 According to the Goldbach Electronic Media Index (Gemi), e-media increased advertising pressure in October with a plus of 8 index points to 394. TV shone with an increase in advertising pressure of 11 index points to 411. Radio, on the other hand, was unable to keep up with the development of all e-media and recorded a minus of 2 index points to 256. The market for all media covered by Media Focus rose by 3 index points to 194.Media Focus has completed the review of data deliveries in the Internet media group in the current year and in 2006. After four months of revising the data deliveries, this process is almost complete. The data for 2005 will be available with the next data update. Following the revision to date, Internet has recorded an indexed increase in advertising pressure of 116 points to 368.