Andreas Sedmak has been working as Account Director and Head of Dialog & Digital at Euro RSCG since October 1. On the client side, he has many years of marketing and communications experience in management positions in the publishing, insurance and financial sectors, as detailed in a press release on Monday. He has gained agency experience since 2004, most recently at the Young&Rubicam Group as a consultant for international clients. Sedmak has a degree in journalism and is currently writing a dissertation at the University of Zurich on the topic of "Radio and television in Switzerland in the context of digitalization". This means that he not only brings classic marketing skills to the table, but also specific knowledge of the new opportunities offered by digital media, the statement continues.

 
Why buy something new when there's Piazza? This is the message of the new campaign designed by the Zurich advertising agency Meyer Werbung for the Tamedia subsidiary Piazza. It is the third campaign since the launch of the online marketplace in summer 2005, according to the press release issued on Monday. In three stages, a total of twelve different subjects are to be placed, always showing the same object twice: once at the new price and once at the Piazza price, mentioning the signs of use, which are always so charming that they are not disturbing. For example, the rusk crumbs in the baby carriage, the broken cigarette in the lady's handbag, the slight indentation in the seat cushion of a sofa or the duck feathers on the jet ski. In addition, Meyer Werbung wrote four radio commercials in which a small ad presents itself, but it is so small and short that it only lasts ten seconds.
Responsible at Meyer Werbung:
Thomas Meyer (text and concept), Reto Zollinger (art direction).

 The Zurich-based brand and design agency Evoq recently moved into new offices in Zeltweg. Now they can increase their staff: Jenny Heinicke has joined the graphics team. Priska Krummenacher is taking on administrative tasks in the agency's back office and Laura Petar will be working as an intern in the graphic design department with immediate effect. This means that Evoq now has nine employees.

Last Friday, the ADC Young Creatives Award was presented for the first time at the Kaufleuten in Zurich (see ). The jury received around one hundred entries on the theme set by Amnesty International "It's not happening here, but now", all of a very high standard. The logo for the event is also very high quality, but less creative and certainly not young. It shows a gold-plated hand grenade with an explosive device made of brain matter. Anyone who has ever been interested in the extremely rarely successful mixture of rap and hard rock will already be familiar with the motif. It adorned the cover of an album by the Swedish band Clawfinger back in 1995. The title of the record: "Use Your Brain". If the creatives had stuck to it, the event would now have a different logo, you could say maliciously. Funnily enough, almost nothing sounds as old as Clawfinger's ageing crossover sound. But the fact that the four members of the band, who met in 1988 on a ward at Roselund Hospital in Stockholm, are still riding the long-dead crossover wave as if it were an eight-metre breaker off the coast of Hawaii, somehow makes them cool again. But only somehow. Young Creatives sound different.
 

 Just in time for the cold season, Swiss dairy products manufacturer Emmi has given its processed products a new look. With the help of the Zurich agency Schoch&Sonders, both the packaging and the logo of the Kaltbach cheese brand have been redesigned. The cardboard packaging, with its exceptional look and feel, was developed in collaboration with packaging specialist Läser, and the cave-aged cheese is now being promoted in a new national campaign comprising television commercials, print ads and sampling campaigns. The redesigned Kaltbach Fondue and Kaltbach Raclette products are available now.
Responsible at Emmi Käse: Doris Krieger Fischli (Product Manager Cheese). Responsible at Schoch&Sonders: Dominik Schoch (CD), Mr. Roman Sonders (MD).

 In agreement with VBZ and the relevant municipal authorities, the new free newspaper .ch has taken over the approximately 150 display box locations previously used for the Free TV TV guide. On Saturday, the boxes in the Zurich area that held the guide published by the U1 station were replaced with those of .ch. In return, U1’s TV schedule will be integrated into the TV pages of .ch. With this move, .ch aims to strengthen its presence in the public transportation sector in the Zurich area, according to a press release issued on Sunday. After additional kiosks had already been installed at S-Bahn stations in recent weeks, the rollout at stops operated by the Zurich City Transit Authority (VBZ) is now being significantly expanded.
The reason for this, says Caroline Thoma, managing director of Media Punkt AG—the publisher of .ch—is that experience has shown .ch is very well received by commuters. That is why the company decided to accelerate distribution via the public transit network faster than planned, in addition to home delivery, which will be consolidated in the coming weeks and then further expanded.
With the acquisition of Free TV’s box locations, .ch now has approximately 160 box locations on the VBZ network in the city of Zurich. Another 80 boxes are located on the Zurich S-Bahn and SZU networks, as well as on private property. According to Thoma, this distribution channel will be further expanded outside the Zurich metropolitan area in the coming months.

 
While participatory and writing platforms for senior citizens are already widely used in the USA, there are hardly any such offerings in Switzerland. Yet such Web 2.0 facilities in this country would not only be of interest to senior citizens but also to investors and advertisers. This is the conclusion of an article in the NZZ am Sonntag. Platforms originating from the USA such as Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Boomj and Teebeedee pursue similar concepts to Myspace or Facebook, only for older people. They are financed by venture capitalists; for example, the former investor of Myspace, Vantagepoint Ventures, has invested over ten million dollars in Multiply, while Shasta Ventures has invested five million dollars in Teebeedee, according to the article.
When it comes to the age of the target group, there are obviously different ideas about where it is worthwhile for operators and investors; for example, Eons is targeting the over 50s, while Boomj and Teebeedee are aiming at baby boomers aged between 40 and 60. In the long term, however, the target groups will extend far beyond the age of 60 as the internet-savvy generations gradually reach retirement age.
Although there are senior portals in Switzerland such as Senioren.ch, Seniorentreff.ch and Fifty-plus.ch, these have not yet become a hit because they often mix information with advertising and PR, according to the NZZ am Sonntag. The senior citizen is seen primarily as a consumer and less as a contributor. Only Seniorweb.ch sees visitors as active participants. There is still a great deal of untapped potential here.

 
Zurich-based advertising agency Ruf Lanz has made it to the finals of the New York Midas Awards with five campaigns and a total of ten subjects. The Ecological Investment Funds campaign and the Old lady TV commercial for Bank Coop were nominated, as were three campaigns for Suva that have already won several awards: the Suva winter sports campaign, the Suva cycling helmet campaign and the Suva guerrilla campaign against "speeding" on Swiss ski slopes. The winners of the Midas Awards will be announced at the end of November.

 
Geneva-based advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi Simko won two awards for outstanding work in the Outdoor category at the 17th edition of the AD Spot Awards in Florence. The AD Spot Awards are an international festival for non-profit and low-budget communication. Saatchi was honored for WWF's "Give a hand to wild life" appearance, which features heads of endangered species painted on hands. The idea was to signal the responsibility of the trade without a moralizing undertone, according to a statement on Sunday.
The second award was given for the campaign "7% - Together against Poverty"; this campaign was commissioned by over 60 Swiss aid organizations, which are working together to increase Switzerland's commitment to the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

The information on the switchover from analog to digital terrestrial television (DVB-T) is causing some uncertainty among the population. Many people do not know whether they will be affected.
It is therefore important to know that only those who currently watch analog TV via antenna are affected by the switchover. Anyone who already has cable TV - in Switzerland this is the case for over 80% of all households - does not need to do anything.
And according to the Swisscable communiqué, anyone who currently watches analog TV via antenna and would like to continue watching SRG TV channels in analog form can also do so - but no longer via antenna, but only via cable. The Swiss cable network companies also broadcast all SRG TV channels in analog quality. This will be the case until after 2010.
So if you don't want to buy a set-top box to receive DVB-T, you can switch to analog cable TV. The prerequisite is that the household is connected to the local cable network and has a cable socket. You can check whether this is the case at a particular home address at www.swisscable.ch. Simply enter the relevant address in the "Your cable network" section and the corresponding cable TV provider will appear. All further information is available there.
 

Ian Pearson, futurologist at British Telecommunications, does not see the end of print media, but rather an expansion of the traditional offering with video and web displays. Fans of the Harry Potter films are already familiar with the newspaper of tomorrow. In addition to the text columns of the Daily Prophet, the pictures show nice contemporaries waving or making other jokes when they are not turning away from the viewer or even going to sleep. Pearson is one of Europe's leading futurologists and is a consultant to the Chief Technology Office of the British Telecommunications Group on developments in the communications market. More: in an interview with Alfred Krueger: "Newspapers will have web interactivity"
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Since this summer, the Zurich advertising agency Heye has been responsible for the entire budget of Soda-Club Switzerland. This collaboration has now resulted in a poster campaign for Soda-Club's new "Pure" sparkling water maker, which clearly focuses on the product, according to the agency's press release. In cool tones, the posters praise features such as design, suitability for everyday use, price and environmental friendliness.
Responsible at the agency
Daniel Bieri (CD), Urs Zwyssig (Text), Swen Morath (AD), Patrick Puskar, Daniela Britt (Consulting); Responsible for Media: Mediatronic, Marco Rose; Responsible at Soda-Club: Aaron A. Husy (Managing Director), Edgard Lauris (Marketing Director)