The Zurich advertising agency Weber Harbeke has won the mandate from Alpha Associates following an agency evaluation. According to a press release, Alpha Associates was looking for a competent partner for advertising and design in order to optimize its market presence. Weber Harbeke's experience, including in the financial sector, was convincing. The existing Alpha Associates website is currently being analyzed and optimized. Alpha Associates, based in Zurich, is one of the largest private equity companies in Switzerland, which manages globally diversified private equity fund programs for institutional clients, including pension funds and insurance companies.

The private Indian airline Jet Airways has appointed Trimedia Communications as its PR agency. From October, the full-service agency Trimedia will handle media relations, media trips and marketing events on behalf of Jet Airways. In addition to Switzerland, Trimedia will carry out this assignment in 6 other European countries.
Jet Airways. The private Indian airline wants to position itself more strongly in Europe. According to the communiqué, this also includes intensive product marketing and strong media relations. With its international network, Trimedia Communications is, in the view of Jet Airways' management, the right agency to carry out this assignment.
Jet Airways is the largest private airline in India. The airline has chosen Brussels as its hub. Trimedia Belgium has been working very successfully on behalf of Jet Airways since July 2007 and is now to be further expanded as a mandate together with the locations in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

 On Thursday, the singer Piero Esteriore rammed his car into the building of the Ringier publishing house (see ). In Ringier's opinion, he thereby committed intentional damage to property. In the case of this offense, the injured party must file an application in order to initiate criminal prosecution. Ringier condemns Esteriore's conduct and any form of vigilante justice, it says in a statement. Nevertheless, it is waiving its right to file a motion. The media company does not want to make Esteriore's situation even more difficult through such criminal proceedings. However, Ringier will pursue the civil law route, as Group spokesman Marco Castellaneta told Werbewoche: "Material damage has been caused, and Piero Esteriore must of course pay for this.
Police had arrested Esteriore after the incident. He was released Friday afternoon after spending a night in custody. The release was made because there are no grounds for pre-trial detention, as the responsible prosecutor Gabi Alkalay said on Friday in response to an inquiry from SDA. Alkalay had opened proceedings for endangering life. According to witnesses and also Esteriore, however, this was not the case at any time. She will now discontinue these proceedings, the prosecutor said further.
As Castellaneta further explained, the singer will still take place in view: "Our newspapers will continue to report on him as before - nothing has changed". 

The latest VBZ poster by Ruf Lanz shows with a good dose of humor that the Zurich fondue streetcar attracts all kinds of cheese lovers. The streetcar will be making its rounds again from November 3. You can enjoy a delicious fondue from the Zunfthaus zur Zimmerleuten and take a leisurely tour of Zurich at the same time. Just give them a call if you would like to reserve a table. Ruf Lanz's poster shows a group of mice making every effort to ensure that the top mouse can press the boarding button on the streetcar. The motif can currently be seen on poster stands and brochures. Responsible at the Zurich public transport company:
Phillip Saladin (Head of Market Communication). Responsible at Ruf Lanz:
Markus Ruf, Danielle Lanz (Creative Direction), Grit Wolany, Marcel Schläfle (Art Direction), Torsten Maas (Text), Michèle Leibacher (Consulting). Photography: Stefan Minder. Image processing: Süsstrunk + Jericke. Litho: rtk (Reprotechnik Kloten AG).

The election broadcasts on Swiss television and Swiss Radio DRS were perceived by the Public Council as versatile and varied. According to the communiqué, viewers interested in politics learned little that was new, but for a broad audience the broadcasts offered good guidance.the Audience Council rated the election previews on Swiss Radio DRS as a good performance. It was impressed by the wealth of information, but felt that the quantity was at the upper limit. They particularly appreciated the way the topics were presented from different party perspectives. Finally, most of the public councillors discovered great added value in the extensive Internet offering.
Those interested in politics did not benefit much from the pre-election formats. The cross-examinations (voice of the parties) on Swiss Radio DRS brought little new for them. In addition, the Audience Council doubts the attractiveness of the election podiums and recommends rethinking this format.
 
The TV programs also provided little new information for the politically well-informed. However, according to the public council, Swiss television did a good job of portraying the various parties in the program "Entscheidung 07: Parteien zur Wahl". The majority of the Council liked the work of the moderation team (Sonja Hasler/Hanspeter Trütsch). However, some council members found the pure election campaign aspects and tabloid topics too heavily weighted. They would have liked to have seen a more intensive discussion of topics that are important for the future of Switzerland.
 

 During a visit to Switzerland, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, outlined his view of future developments in the advertising market to Swiss advertisers. In this context, it was announced that Microsoft intends to market advertising for its products in Switzerland itself in future: Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions (MDAS) will now sell online advertising for MSN, Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Spaces directly via the local sales team in Switzerland. Steve Ballmer's main topics were Microsoft's role in the online advertising market. "The advertising industry is growing at breathtaking speed," said Steve Ballmer. "It is increasingly moving towards online platforms, which significantly increases the importance of software for the advertising industry". This would open up new opportunities for the advertising industry, such as online gaming, interactive TV or localized ad placement.
In online advertising, however, the software giant continues to be overshadowed by Google. Google's position has improved even further since the purchase of DoubleClick in the spring for 3.1 billion dollars, said Ballmer at a panel event in Zurich. The two companies now accounted for 80 to 85 percent of advertising on the Internet. "I believe that the deal is worth being reviewed by the competition authorities," said Ballmer.
In May, Microsoft acquired the online advertising company Aquantive for 6 billion dollars in order to get a leg up on Google. And Microsoft is looking around for further reinforcements. People shouldn't be surprised "if we do something like this again. We're not ruling out further acquisitions like this. But it's not a deal you do every day," says Ballmer.

 Around a week after the launch of the new free newspaper .ch, almost 40 percent of German-speaking Swiss spontaneously recognized it by name. This was the result of a representative survey conducted by the Demoscope opinion research institute. However, the newspaper has performed moderately so far: Respondents gave it an average score of 3.5 on a scale of one to six. The Mittelland Zeitung's Sunday paper Sonntag received a 3.7 in the survey. In addition, only one in ten Swiss-German people were spontaneously familiar with it after the publication of the second issue.

 Swiss media entrepreneur Roger Schawinski is taking over Zurich's Radio Tropic. He wants to transform the station into a radio station for adults. The target group is 30 to 60-year-olds. A test program will be running from January, with broadcasting due to start in spring 2008. Schawinski told the media in Zurich on Thursday that he had bought the entire Radio Tropic share package from the previous owner Frederic Dru, including the concession. The parties had agreed not to disclose the sale price. He financed the purchase alone.
As part of the new Radio and Television Act, Schawinski intends to apply for a new license. He wants to broadcast from the Üetliberg to a larger area than Radio Tropic has done to date.
The media entrepreneur anticipates investments of 8 to 10 million francs until the new radio project is out of the red. He is also raising this sum alone, he said.
Plenty of space for word programs The new radio station does not yet have a name. It is aimed at urban 30 to 60-year-olds. Schawinski said that the plan is to offer high-quality information programs and larger spoken-word programs, which have completely disappeared from the private radio landscape today.
Musically, the station will primarily broadcast a mixture of "classic rock and adult contemporary". However, today's tropical radio music from the Caribbean, South America and Africa will continue to have a place.
Enough of being on first-name terms The way listeners are addressed should clearly stand out from other private radio stations. Schawinski said that he has now reached an age where he is "slowly getting fed up" with the eternal "Duzerei".
According to the former radio pioneer, he is once again starting from scratch. He is now looking for a program manager/managing director. A business plan and concept will then be developed together. A new team will also be put together. Studio premises will also have to be found or newly built.
Radio Tropic" will continue its program until the end of the year. From January, Schawinski will then broadcast a test program in the new format. The official start of broadcasting will be in spring 2008.
Back to radio With his latest project, Schawinski, now 62, is returning to his "old love", radio, in his own words. Television in Switzerland, on the other hand, is a thing of the past for him.
Schawinski, now 62, has worked in the media industry for around 35 years. From 1972, he worked as a journalist for Swiss television, where he founded and presented "Kassensturz", among others.
In 1979, he founded Radio 24 and became a pioneer for private radio stations in Switzerland. He also played the same pioneering role in television: in 1994, TeleZüri was the first major Swiss private station to go on air.
Four years later, Schawinski launched Tele24, the first private TV station for the whole of German-speaking Switzerland. In 2001, he sold his Belcom AG with Radio24 and Tele24 to the Zurich publishing house Tamedia. Tele24 was subsequently discontinued.
At the end of 2003, Schawinski left Switzerland to become managing director of the German private TV station Sat 1. He helped Sat 1 to achieve commercial success, but took his leave at the end of 2006.
Schawinski has also made a name for himself as an author. His seventh book "Die TV-Falle" (The TV Trap) was recently published.

The Zurich agency Jung von Matt/Limmat wants to prove with a new fall campaign that the new Smart is the most intelligent way to drive. It consumes the least fuel, has the lowest CO2 values and congests the roads less thanks to its dimensions, according to a press release. Unfortunately, however, far too many road users are still driving around with parts of their body other than their head. Now is the time to bring more brains into traffic. The fall campaign implements precisely this idea. Not only is a Smart car pretty much shaped like a human brain, it is also the only car that can claim the most intelligent part of the body for itself, the campaign continues. In the main medium TV, a brain model is described and assembled in a virtual room. Finally, it is completed by being placed on four wheels. The TV appearance is supplemented by print. Responsible at Smart:
Fulvio D'Aurelio (Assistant Marketing Communications Smart), Doris Lengwiler (Head of Marketing Communications Mercedes Car Group), Diego Tomasini (Director Mercedes Car Group). Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat:
Michael Rottmann, Alexander Jaggy (Creative Direction), Thomas Ammann (Text), David Hanselmann (Art Direction), Florian Fröhlich (Graphics), Felix Schröder, Barbara Schmassmann (Consulting), Ilonka Galliard (Agency Producer), Erasmo Palomba (art buying), boutiq (visual effects), Sebastian Harms (3D design), Mike Huber (motion director), Luca Tomasi (3D artist), Diego Baldenweg, Great Garbo (music), Jingle-Jungle (sound recording).

 Cablecom, Switzerland's largest cable network provider, does not intend to switch off any more analog channels from the end of 2007 for the time being. This was confirmed by Cablecom spokesman Hans Peter Nehmer in the latest edition of the TV magazine TV2. The switch-off of U1 and HSE24 is still planned, but after that "no more analog channels will be switched off until further notice". Instead, Cablecom is focusing on its already communicated network expansion. This should provide over one million Cablecom households with additional capacity by the end of 2008. This will make it possible to maintain the analog service and expand the digital service. Cablecom will have to put up with a lean period until then. The introduction of HDTV will only be possible once the analog signals from U1 and HSE24 have been switched off. If U1 can therefore still not be relocated, HDTV can only be introduced at the end of November when HSE24 is switched off.

 The Association Against Animal Factories (VgT) has been vindicated for the second time by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg in a dispute over an advertisement. This means that the dispute over the television advertisement, which has been going on since 1994 and consists in part of shocking images of industrial animal husbandry, has entered the next round. At the time, Swiss television had refused to broadcast the advertisement and was vindicated in its refusal by a Federal Court ruling in 1997. The European Court of Human Rights had already overturned the Federal Court's decision for the first time in 2001.
According to Frank Schürmann, Switzerland's representative before the ECHR, the new decision from Strasbourg does not automatically mean that the commercial must now be broadcast. It will be up to the Federal Supreme Court to rule on this issue in any appeal proceedings.
As reported by the SDA, VgT President Erwin Kessler is still demanding that the commercial be broadcast.

 The agency Kunde & Co Pucci Sulzer was able to win over the German seal manufacturer Victor Reinz. The company commissioned Kunde & Co Pucci Sulzer to develop a global positioning concept and a new communication platform. The advertising measures will be implemented from the second quarter of 2008.