The question of whether publishers and the SRG should support the Swiss Press Council has been open for some time. However, the professional journalists' association Impressum has now postponed its statement on the matter. It was originally planned that the association's delegates would announce their position on this issue at the Impressum Congress last Friday. According to a statement from the association, the reason for the postponement of the agenda item is that the SRG submitted new proposals just two days before the congress. The delegates had therefore decided to give the Press Council Foundation Board time to negotiate these changes. The statement was therefore postponed until the 2008 Spring Congress. On the other hand, the congress elected Impressum representatives to the Press Council Foundation Board: Enrico Morresi (acting president), Mathieu Fleury and Andreas Valda (freelance journalist) were re-elected, Rainer Stadler (media editor of NZZ) is a new addition. He replaces Reinhard Eyer (Radio DRS correspondent), who stepped down.
In addition, the congress unanimously decided that professional moderators can also be accepted as members with immediate effect.

 Credit Suisse recommends that tourism operators in the Bernese Oberland work together to promote the region at home and abroad. The challenge is to show that there are offers for all population groups in the Oberland. "The bottom line is that the Bernese Oberland would benefit from a joint presence," said Martin Neff from Credit Suisse in Bern on Tuesday. He made this statement, according to SDA, at the presentation of a comparative study of 32 major tourist destinations in the Swiss Alps. However, according to Neff, the joint presence would have to bring the region's very heterogeneous tourist resorts under one roof.
Bernese Oberland Tourism, the umbrella organization of the Bernese Oberland tourist resorts, was dissolved in September 2001. The Canton of Berne and a majority of tourism professionals in the Bernese Oberland were of the opinion that it would be better to advertise to guests under brands such as Alpenregion Brienz-Meiringen-Haslital or Interlaken.
The canton corrected this decision five years later. It decided to once again cultivate the "Bernese Oberland" brand and to better position the Oberland as a place to live and do business.

 The Swiss Association for Internal Communication (SVIK) has honored the best employee newspapers of the year with gold, silver and bronze awards. The "Grand Prix for Staff Newspapers" has been taking place for over 50 years. This year, the jury assessed 60 entries according to the professional criteria of business journalism. In the "Staff Magazine" category, the SBB-Zeitung won the Golden Feather 2007, with silver going to One from Credit Suisse and bronze to Apropos from Mobiliar. Credit Suisse won the "Front Cover" category with One. Swiss Post won silver for its magazine, while Atel won bronze for its publication Member. In the "Text" category, People from Alstom took the Golden Pen. Live by Novartis received silver, One by Credit Suisse bronze. The CS magazine was therefore successful in all three categories.

 For some, globalization can also become an adversary - namely when an Asian company secures a Swiss municipality name as an Internet address: The upmarket health resort of Zermatt can no longer use the address Zermatt.com to attract tourists from all over the world. Following a decision by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Zermatt has been denied the address for the time being. The owner of the address remains a Thai tourism company with a strong business presence in Zermatt. It had snapped up the domain. The municipality and the Zermatt Tourism Association protested against this at the WIPO - but to no avail. The people of Valais still have the option of taking civil action. It is still unclear whether they will take this route. As a consolation, the resort already owns the address Zermatt.ch. However, the .com address is better known worldwide than the Helvetic ending, Zermatt's mayor Christoph Bürgin told SDA. After all, the Thai company advertises Zermatt on its website - above the belt.

 
The Zurich-based information platform Zuri.net has redesigned its website. Founded by the Winterthur web agency Escapenet.ch as an open platform and fun project, the now revamped non-profit portal continues to focus primarily on user-generated content, in particular reviews and comments on anything and everything that has an address or a name in Zurich: from restaurants and hairdressers to district offices. The site, with its deliberately chosen local focus, currently has over 2000 members. The site also features a cinema program, a housing market, classified ads and TV tips. Apart from Züri-Slängikon, which is also published in book form, the site has so far offered little in the way of editorial content. However, there will now be a review of the week. The current topic was taken from a comment on a jewelry store: The hairstyles of the jewelers on Bahnhofstrasse.

 By 2011, 33 percent of SRG broadcasts are to be subtitled. With these and other measures, the television programs of the three major national broadcasters will be adapted for the sensory impaired in future. SRG and the associations of the sensory impaired have signed an agreement to this effect. The subtitling and other preparation of TV programs for the hearing-impaired, deaf and visually impaired is laid down in the new Radio and Television Act (RTVA). Today, the proportion of subtitled broadcasts is around 8 percent, as SRG announced on Monday.
Each language region must also broadcast one information program per day in sign language from January 1, 2008. It was also agreed that twelve films with audio description will be broadcast in each language region in 2008. Audio description is aimed at the visually impaired. A voice describes what is happening on the screen.
According to SRG, the changes will involve considerable financial expenditure and the deployment of specialist staff. The investments of CHF 7 million planned for 2008 will therefore be gradually increased to CHF 12 million in 2010.

 The radio station Energy Zurich is strengthening its brand profile. Together with the credit card companies Cornèrcard and Mastercard, the station is launching a member card for its young and urban target group. On the one hand, the plastic card is a prepaid card that allows cashless payment worldwide; on the other hand, the "Energy Card" is a member card with exclusive discounts and special offers for cardholders. As an introductory offer, the card is valid as a ticket for the major "Energy Stars for free" event organized by the radio station on 14 December at the Hallenstadion in Zurich. From the second year, a processing fee of CHF 25 will be charged.

The advertising agency for Roger Schawinski's new radio station Radio 1 is TBWA\Zürich. According to a press release, the agency has successfully aligned its concept with Schawinski's new frequency and his claim "For adults only". The logo and corporate design, which are geared towards an adult target group, will set the visual tone. Roger Schawinski comments on the choice of agency: "We chose TBWA because they very quickly understood the potential behind the project. And because they were just as quick and uncomplicated to get involved."
Incidentally, the "Adults only" claim is already being used by Radio eins in Berlin. "I asked them if I could use it and offered to buy it for Switzerland," explains Roger Schawinski when asked by Werbewoche.
"They then officially gave it to me as a gift. Incidentally, it was not protected in Switzerland. Schawinski is convinced by this slogan: "'Only for adults' is considered by radio producers in Germany to be the most ingenious claim at the moment, much better than all the undefined 'the best songs of all time' slogans. We are proud to be able to use this claim for Switzerland. It expresses better than anything else what we are aiming for". "We have been working for Radio 1 for around a week", says TBWA/Zurich CEO Andy Hostettler to Werbewoche. The agency has therefore designed the logo at a rapid pace. His crew is currently working on the corporate design. The visual language is not "fancy" or overloaded, but is aimed at an audience that has had enough of the existing channels and is looking for a grown-up alternative.
TBWA is also working on the launch campaign. It will consist of two stages: The station's pre-launch phase will be accompanied by streetcar and poster advertising, while "other stops" will be pulled out after the actual start of the broadcast. "It will definitely be a crossover story, we want to work with other advertising media and events," says Hostettler. His agency is currently working out the details.
The collaboration with Roger Schawinski is going very well, explains the TBW/Zurich boss. "It's a give and take. Roger Schawinski himself is a very creative guy. A lot of things are created directly at the table during meetings". The former radio pirate is an incredibly quick decision-maker, which makes the work very efficient. "It's great for us to look after a customer like this. He embodies what we do ourselves: He dares to go for unconventional solutions and looks for the gap."
Does a man like Schawinski even need commercial advertising for his latest project when his every move is met with an enormous response in the editorial section of the media? "Yes," says Hostettler. "Advertising is important for him to be able to build a brand quickly. And if you advertise, it makes sense to use an agency". In Hostettler's eyes, Schawinski would certainly be able to create attractive advertising himself. With the agency, however, he would have experts at his side who could provide critical feedback on his ideas and make new suggestions. "Roger Schawinski has to get people interested in his station very quickly in order to become relevant for the advertising industry. Advertising is the right way to do this."

As of January 1, 2008, Volker Strohm will become deputy editor-in-chief of the investor magazine Stocks. Strohm has been a member of the editorial team since the launch of the magazine. Previously, the qualified banking specialist worked for the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung. As Deputy Editor-in-Chief, the 40-year-old will continue to oversee the "Life Science" sector and the area of structured products, as the publishing house Axel Springer announced on Monday. Strohm will also take on strategic projects for the further development of the magazine. Stocks now has a three-person editorial team with Editor-in-Chief Urs Aeberli and the two Deputy Editors-in-Chief Marc Reisner and Volker Strohm.

 This year, two project teams received the "Burson-Marsteller Award for Academic Excellence" for their theses in a degree program at the University of Lugano. The award ceremony took place as part of the graduation ceremony for the Executive Master of Science in Communications Management (MScom) course at the University of Lugano. The award, which is endowed with CHF 10,000, recognizes theses that have been awarded top marks. One team developed a communication strategy for Bertrand Piccard's round-the-world flight in a solar-powered airplane. The thesis proposes how this expedition can be successfully communicated in a target group-oriented and sender-oriented manner.
The second winning team focused on Phonak hearing aids. It systematically analyzed the criteria used by distributors to select products in the hearing aid market. Based on these criteria, a strategy was developed for Phonak on how these results can be efficiently incorporated into its marketing and communication activities.

The Geneva-based agency Saatchi & Saatchi Simko has designed the new advertising for the Orange Maxima and Optima price plans. In the images of the new campaign, the world moves closer together, distances become shorter and everything you love is always close by. Visually, this was realized with a globe effect that runs through the entire campaign and illustrates the reduction of all distances. The campaign was launched in September with two subjects for Maxima and is now being continued with a TV commercial and three subjects for Optima. In addition to the basic media of TV and print/poster, the campaign was also prepared for the Internet in a media-appropriate manner.
Responsible at Orange Communications: Richard Briffod (Marketing Manager Residential) Responsible at Saatchi & Saatchi Simko: Olivier Girard (Chief Creative Officer), Fred Doms, Gabriel Mauron (Art Direction), Sandrine Llopis, Antonio Lopez (Copywriter), Bernard Cornut (TV Producer), Anthony Lamy (Account Director), Leyla Rosatti, Lorene Deschenaux (Account Manager).

Maxomedia has designed and implemented a cross-media campaign for the online trader Swissquote under the motto "Take advantage of your head start". Customers who open a new Swissquote account receive 300 trading credits with an equivalent value of CHF 300. Maxomedia dramatizes the core message of the campaign with a sporty subject: a sprinter gets a few meters ahead at the start. An advertisement in the Cash Daily live paper and banners on Swissquote.ch publicize the offer online. An advertisement in Cash Daily and a radio spot broadcast on seven radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland round off the campaign. Maxomedia is responsible for the overall concept, design and online and offline realization of the trading credit campaign.