Euro 08 is also leaving its mark on Swiss television's entertainment program: On Sunday, January 20, the quiz show "Euro 2008 - Das grosse Städteduell" will start in the main program on SF1. The best host city will be sought in six Sunday evening programs, as reported by SDA on Thursday. Teams from the eight Euro host cities in Switzerland and Austria will compete against each other. The quiz questions will revolve around the 16 countries that have qualified for the European Championships, as well as the characteristics of the host cities. The final will take place on February 24.The second season of the show "Der Match" is also about football, with a team of celebrities trained by football entertainer Gilbert Gress competing against former football greats in the final. According to SDA, Switzerland's Euro partner Austria was convinced by the first season of the program this year and adopted the broadcasting concept in the Euro year.
SF also has something to offer the little ones in Euro 08: In the football entertainment program "Kids am Ball", which will be broadcast on SF2 in April and May, children from all over German-speaking Switzerland will compete in various ball games. The 20 winners will be allowed to enter the stadium at Euro 08 as escort kids together with a player.

Christine Rennhard will become the new publishing director of the Aargauer Zeitung and the Sonntag title at the beginning of 2008. She will join the extended management board of the AZ Medien Group. Rennhard succeeds Sabine Galindo. The 44-year-old Christine Rennhard has been an independent communications and management consultant since 2002. A marketing and publishing specialist with a postgraduate degree in Corporate Communication Management, she worked as a project manager in the New Media division at Ringier from 1999 to 2001. From 1995 to 1998, she was Publishing Director at Habegger Verlag Zurich and Vice Director and member of the Executive Board of the parent company Vogt-Schild/Habegger Medien in Solothurn. From 1989 to 1994, she worked as Product Manager and subsequently as Publishing Director of Schweizerischer Beobachter.

 
Raumtechnik Sulzer, Sutter has designed a new brand identity for the greatly expanded Walter Meier. 
As part of a comprehensive restructuring and rebranding process, the new corporate brand Walter Meier has emerged as the leading Swiss provider for all areas of indoor climate. Previously well-known names such as Oertli Service, Vescal or AxAir Kobra now appear under the name Walter Meier.Sulzer, Sutter dramatizes the new force in the market with the expertise and the already well-established service in all areas of indoor climate. Walter Meier service technicians and their vehicles are sent to the desert, the Arctic and the steppe to combat indoor climates that are too hot, too cold or too dry. The advertisers around strategist Sven Oeschger and CD Michael Kathe want to say that anyone who can do it there will also be able to do it in Switzerland. After all, even in our latitudes it is becoming more and more common to have to deal with alternating hot summer and dry winter climates.
The broad-based campaign was launched in November in the Sunday press and will be followed by advertisements in the specialist and trade press. Customers and business partners will also be informed via a mailing.
Sulzer, Sutter has been working for Walter Meier for two years and is responsible for all advertising in Switzerland for this client.
Walter Meier is a global service and industrial group specializing in air conditioning and manufacturing. In 2006, the company generated sales of 800 million Swiss francs with around 1800 employees. Walter Meier was founded in Zurich in 1937 as a trading company for machine tools and was expanded by Reto E. Meier in 1972 to become a group with locations in 8 countries and representatives in 75 countries. Walter Meier shares are listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange.   
Andreas Panzeri

 
Internet Reto Hartinger wants to take away companies' fear of user-generated content. 
WW: Web 2.0 is changing user behavior. What does this mean for companies and their brands?Reto Hartinger:
User-generated content will occupy companies more and more. They need to ask themselves how they want to open up to the online audience. Today, we can already see that content and comments from bloggers have a significant influence on the choice of topics by editorial teams.
Aren't this trend and Web 2.0 being overestimated? We cannot escape this development. There are many examples that show that communities are becoming more important for companies. Companies are opening up, having their products evaluated and thus gaining important knowledge to develop innovations. Even in Switzerland, nobody can escape this trend.
What makes communities so valuable? Let's take the example of Facebook, a US community platform. In terms of technology, it is not difficult to replicate the website. It would cost very little to develop. But Facebook was valued at 15 billion dollars. It is not the technology that has its price. Nor is it the content, but the users who spend their time on the website and network there.
Are there any Swiss examples that work in a similar way to Facebook? There are still few sites in Switzerland that have experience with the participatory network. The operators of Travel.ch and Facts.ch are Swiss role models. The operators of these platforms will be speaking about their experiences at the upcoming Internet Briefing Conference.
The Swiss experts will talk about their experiences with online comments and the discussion culture of online communities. They will also talk about how to gain a critical mass of users for a project in Switzerland.
Interview: Editorial office
Club of Internet managersAt the Internet briefing events
is where the Swiss Internet Guild meets. Anyone who manages Internet projects at management level is a member. The club sees itself as an experience-sharing group that meets monthly to discuss relevant Internet topics. The club has around 500 members.
Next conference:
"User Generated Content - No fear of the customer". The participatory web offers great opportunities. Users are becoming more committed to the site. They therefore come back more often: they evaluate offers, generate content themselves and thus make the sites more valuable. This also brings with it new problems. Four speakers from
renowned Swiss websites show what problems and successes they have.
Date:
22. 11. 2007Time:
15.00 - 19.15 Location:
NZZ, FalkenstrasseCosts:
Fr. 95.- for members, Fr. 240.- for non-members
Read more
here

The German Federal Court of Justice is saving us from a possible celebrity photo ban. It ruled on Tuesday that celebrities cannot have press photos of their private lives banned as a preventative measure. The reason for the ruling was a lawsuit filed by Franziska "Goldfranzi" van Almsick. She suffered the same nasty fate as our media minister Moritz Leuenberger: a newspaper was pleased to show pictures of the former swimmer in swimming trunks. Her partner was also photographed. The couple had been secretly photographed on vacation on the beach and strolling through town in Sardinia, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Van Almsick then managed to get the publishers sued not to publish the photos again. But that was not enough for her: she also demanded that the publishers refrain from showing pictures of her private everyday life in the future. The judges in Karlsruhe put a stop to this: It could not be judged in advance whether Almsick was entitled to a claim to refrain from publishing similar images. In each individual case, a balance had to be struck between the public's interest in information and the interest of the person depicted in protecting their privacy. How lucky we are - after all, we rely on being able to cheer up our dreary everyday lives as non-celebrities with pictures of Boris Becker with his new flame, Britney Spears at Starbucks or Martina Hingis at Sprüngli.

 
René Worni on the fluctuating balance of power.we remember: In the fall of 2004, NZZ and PubliGroupe announced their cooperation. At the time, it was said that the earthquake-like deal left no stone unturned in the media in the greater Zurich area. NZZ had managed to tie three coveted Zurich regional newspapers to itself overnight, so to speak, and to collect other titles already belonging to the group, such as the St. Galler Tagblatt and the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, in the specially founded Freie Presse Holding. The NZZ credo was to support and promote the independence of the regional press, and the company basked in the light of a savior of press diversity. A model of editorial cooperation, called Pressenetz, would also allow the regional press to exchange content cost-effectively and guarantee that the editorial offices would not have to be cut to the bone. In the face of so much cleverness, the industry's competitor Tamedia seemed strategically far offside. By building its own regional editorial offices, it resorted to robust means against the regional newspapers in order to gradually emerge from the defensive.
And today? The scene has changed, as have the competitors, and with them the balance of power. Tamedia has acquired Espace and will - who would have guessed it - form a collection basin for the associated media in conjunction with Basler Zeitung, in essence probably the largest Swiss media platform on the Internet, combined with a further new placement in the current thicket of free newspapers. Obviously, Tamedia has learned important lessons, not least from the strategic understanding at Falkenstrasse. All shades of conceivable cooperation are now being mastered, as long as both sides benefit. There is no need for the stronger party to immediately incorporate its partner.
Today, it is the NZZ that is on the sidelines and has to think about how to counter the rapidly growing market power of Werdsträssler. The fact that it is in the same boat as Publicitas may also seem like a flaw to some. For many publishers, the P is no longer sexy and they are now going their own way if they want to make attractive offers to the advertising industry.
> René Worni, Editor

 Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett and Publicis Zurich were successful in the German creative award "Die Anzeige". The agencies were each awarded a "Anzeiger" in bronze. SFLB received the prize for the "What if" campaign for the Tagesanzeiger. Two other works by Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett made it onto the shortlist: the Helvepharm campaign "Das bescheidene Pharmaunternehmen" and the "Wandtafel" ad for Helvetas.
Publicis won the award for the wooden block ads for Pastorini.
Gold was awarded to "Post-it" for Doppelherz Lecithin by Scholz & Friends Hamburg and the "Outstanding Talents" series by Jung von Matt Hamburg for the Konzerthaus Dortmund.

Hearing aids Zurich soprano Noëmi Nadelmann will not only be performing in a gigantic production of "La Traviata" in Zurich's Hallenstadion in November. These days she has also been heard at Zurich's main railway station. Or rather, not to be heard. Because Nadelmann sang in a soundproof glass box. With this campaign, Phonak wanted to demonstrate how deaf people fare when they cannot rely on Phonak's modern technology. 

 Swisscom Broadcast will ensure that we can watch football on TV during the European Championships next year: It will deliver the television signals recorded in the four Swiss and four Austrian stadiums to Uefa's international broadcasting center in Vienna. From there, they will be broadcast all over the world. The contract includes the entire management and quality monitoring of the signal transmission. In Switzerland, the signals will be transported via the Swisscom Fixnet network. In Austria, the network services will be provided by Uefa's Austrian partner.

 
Structural change Just under a year ago, Lang, Gysi, Knoll became Neue LGK.  
WW: What has developed since then behind the name Neue LGK?André Benker:
The name Neue LGK means that the agency Lang, Gysi, Knoll is presenting itself with new people, new owners and two new locations following its relaunch. Hans Tanner and I have joined as new partners. Neue LGK opened an office in Zurich this August. We also moved into new premises in Bern in mid-September. Both offices in Zurich and Berne are a two-minute walk from the train station. That's why we say: Neue LGK is a communications agency, a team of 23 employees, an infrastructure, a management team and two offices.What attracted you to this structure of Lang, Gysi, Knoll?Hans Tanner:
André Benker and I have known each other from ADC for a long time. We have always discussed ways in which we could work together. Then the opportunity arose to create something new together from LGK.André Benker:
We complement each other perfectly. He talks a bit more (he's also half-Cuban). I talk a little less (I'm also from here). I'm a copywriter, he's an AD. The idea was that we wanted to build something together, but not start from scratch. We analyzed a few options. Lang, Gysi, Knoll was the agency with which we saw by far the most complementary potential and therefore the greatest future for development. We know the history and the people at the agency, as we both worked as freelancers for the old LGK and also understand each other very well on a human level. Which was and is almost the most important thing for us. Why LGK in particular?
Lang, Gysi, Knoll has a very reputable and solid structure, it has been in the market for a long time and is particularly strong in consulting and strategic planning. We were looking for this addition. As creatives, we can play our part here. Good and relevant creation requires sound advice and strategy. We both know that. Tanner:
André and I come from large agencies and have learned our trade working on big stories. But now we both want to work in an environment that we help shape and that is the way we want it to be. We want to develop holistic communication solutions in a team of committed, talented and motivated people, where the "boss" is always at the table and not just at the final presentations. How will Neue LGK be positioned in the future?
We want to create outstanding communication with a relevant idea, because we know that this is the only way to make a difference in today's market. We want to work for clients who think the same way. Benker:
A good communication idea doesn't just catch the eye. It must also convey the customer benefit of the product or service. Finding this relevant and promising customer benefit requires close cooperation and trust between agency and client.how big should the new LGK be?Benker:
We want to grow, but qualitatively before quantitatively. Our current size is 23 people. But ultimately we want to have the size we need to be able to do our work professionally. We want to be able to handle large mandates such as KPT or Swiss Post in all their complexity. We have also recently acquired Emmi, Schweizer Zucker and Greenpeace. Why do you need two offices for this?
Two locations are two location advantages. Many major clients have disappeared from the Swiss market in recent years because they have merged or are now having their advertising managed by foreign networks. Many clients appreciate the fact that, in addition to national, professional expertise, local knowledge can also be incorporated into the campaigns. Benker:
You can also see from the newspapers how local news has gained in importance. Local knowledge is considered more important than it used to be, see 20 Minuten:
Wherever we are needed. Like all employees, we will both commute as required. That's why our offices are right next to the train station and within walking distance. People from Bern like coming to work in Zurich from time to time, and vice versa, people from Zurich also appreciate a change of scenery.Interview: Andreas Panzeri

 
Living ViznerBorel has shot a commercial for Ikea with Manifesto. 
Too many cooks spoil the broth, as the saying goes. However, the same popular saying also loves to prepare food in a pretty kitchen and dine in the most tastefully furnished dining room possible. "How you sit is how you eat" is how the advertising agency ViznerBorel sums up this trend towards beautiful dining.
To capture this message in a commercial, ViznerBorel has for once given the lie to the popular saying that too many cooks spoil the broth. No fewer than 20 chefs are used several times in this funny story. The film for the new dining campaign communicates that Ikea's dining room furnishings stand up to even the most critical guild of top chefs. They are so impressed by the wide selection, the quality and the good price that they are increasingly acquiring a taste for it. And so more and more chefs are flocking to Ikea to shop, where they test the individual dining room furnishings as if they were vegetables at the food market. Tried, tested and found to be good, the commercial finally demonstrates.
This was realized in the Ikea furniture store in Spreitenbach with Reto Salimbeni and his Manifesto Films. Filming took place on a sales-free Sunday until early Monday.
The spot is accompanied by a dining room type test and a competition to draw attention to Dining Room Week. The carrier media are internet banners, family mailings, advertisements and flyers.   
Andreas Panzeri

 
Storytelling An alternate reality game is an information scavenger hunt. It is never clear whether you are in the fictional or real world.  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
These days, a clown is up to mischief in the US media. And it's not a funny contemporary, but one of the most evil kings of crime. We are talking about Joker, the greatest adversary of the comic hero Batman. Whether on billboards, in newspapers or on the Internet, the villain leaves his mark everywhere. It all began with a simple election poster in the metropolis of Los Angeles, on which a certain Harvey Dent is running for the post of district attorney. However, as soon as it went up, the poster was defaced. Harvey Dent's face resembled a clown's grimace. At the same time, the election poster appeared on the Internet and linked to mysterious websites, blurred videos on YouTube and strange image puzzles on the Internet.
The messages are not from a madman having fun with the comic figure, but are part of a nationwide viral marketing campaign by Warner Bros. for the new Batman film "The Dark Knight", which is expected to be released in cinemas in summer 2008. Instead of advertising the film via traditional channels, the film producers launched a so-called Alternate Reality Game (ARG for short). Behind the unusual name lies a clever advertising strategy that is extremely popular in the USA.
The emergence of a genreAn alternate reality game is a game that draws on various media and deliberately blurs the boundary between fictional events and real experiences. The Beast" is considered one of the first ARGs. When Warner Bros. promoted Steven Spielberg's science fiction film "AI" in 2001, the film's poster featured a tribute to a certain Jeannine Salla as the "Sentient Machine Therapist" alongside the usual names of the actors. But that was not all. Fans quickly noticed that the movie posters contained encrypted phone numbers. By picking up the phone, you were suddenly part of a huge multimedia scavenger hunt that kept tens of thousands of players around the world busy for weeks. "This was the beginning of a growing genre for telling stories in a new way," said Steve Peters recently on ORF, who developed the game together with the agency 42-Entertainment.
Spielberg's AI campaign was followed by a whole series of other net-based puzzles. This was followed by campaigns for the Microsoft video game Halo 2 and the mystery series Lost. The game developers were particularly creative for Halo 2. Instead of launching the game with a shaky trailer in the movie theater, potential Halo 2 video gamers were sent jars of honey. In the middle of the sticky mass was a hint that led to a website. From there, players were directed to phone booths around the world, which were called at a predetermined time. The tricky mystery surrounding Halo 2 was a topic of discussion in the media for weeks and lasted 16 weeks.
Use of resourcesThe driving force behind such a scavenger hunt is human curiosity, which is almost always tickled with a little insight into a big, well-kept secret. Game designers usually create a self-contained world on the web that is perhaps a hundred pages deep. There they place mysterious clues and tell enigmatic stories that can only be solved through extensive research. All kinds of media are used to create an ARG story: Photos on community sites like Flickr, clips on platforms like YouTube and audio files on iTunes. The clues are not only placed in the digital media, but also in the press in the form of fake newspaper ads or posters. The scavenger hunts are very diverse. For example, it has long since become standard practice to hide GPS data in puzzles.
 
For game designers such as Adrian Hon, who spoke about the development of alternate reality gaming at this year's Gamehotel conference in Zurich, such interactive scavenger hunts are becoming more important for the advertising industry because they turn the world into a playground. It usually doesn't take much. In principle, more can be achieved with a few pictures, an e-mail system and a good story than with elaborately produced films, a flash game or other "ballyhoo". The game designer from the London-based game agency Mind Candy developed the successful "Frozen Indigo Angel" campaign this year. The English radio station BBC 1 used it to draw attention to the "Radio 1 - Big Weekend Festival". Thousands of players tried to solve the mystery behind a certain Paul Denchfield, who left his mark on podcasts, blogs and forums. "ARGs create communities that solve problems collaboratively," says Adrian Hon. A big difference to conventional viral campaigns. While many companies flood video platforms such as YouTube with viral spots, in alternate reality games problems have to be solved that provide thrills and excitement for the participants. But what do companies gain if the target group diligently solves puzzles without learning anything about the product being promoted? Adrian Hon: "The campaigns get the product talked about." According to the game designer, this is often worth more today than an aggressive advertising campaign. Practically all major alternate reality games in the USA can look back on a successful campaign. For the Technology Review magazine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one thing is clear: "This is the future of gaming."
Christian Lüscher