The Brüngger Dialog agency in Zurich is now responsible for all dialog marketing for the insurance division of AIG Europe Switzerland. AIG markets supplementary insurance in the "non-life" sector and generally sells these policies through partnerships such as MyOne, Weltbild Verlag, GE Money Bank or Reader's Digest. Mailings and accompanying measures for partner companies are planned, and the two new partners are also planning to develop further sales tools in the area of direct communication.

 The application phase for the Marketing Trophy 08 is still ongoing. As every year, Swiss Marketing honors outstanding achievements in the field of marketing in this competition. It is now possible to weigh up the chances of a concept on the basis of a short application. Short applications can now be submitted until November 15. Detailed applications will be accepted until January 7. Further information is available on the website. The winners will be announced on March 4, 2008 as part of the Marketing Day at the KKL in Lucerne.

 
Switzerland's largest and most important airport wants to communicate its advantages more clearly. A campaign by Zurich advertising agency Weber Harbeke is now intended to emphasize the attractiveness of the services and destinations on offer in the wider catchment area. In doing so, the creatives are paying special attention to regional characteristics: In the campaign already launched in the Basel area, the clear inferiority of Euro-Airport Basel is made fun of in the purest Baaseldytsch. The "Flughafe Ziiri" offers 100 more direct destinations.responsible at Weber Harbeke:
CD: Thomas Harbeke, Max Weber; Text: Christian Sidow, Marc Schwitter; AD: Jürg Ernst; Graphics: Sibill Zellweger, Michael Kälin; Consulting: Karin Both. 

 Last week, four consumer organizations called for better protection against abusive telemarketing. The agency association BSW Leading Swiss Agencies supports the consumer organizations' demand. How does the Swiss Direct Marketing Association (SDV) feel about the call for more protection? According to President Jakob Nef, the SDV is taking a different approach together with the industry association CallNet.ch: It wants to exert economic pressure with certification. "This will force telemarketers to behave correctly. Clients will want to work with certified providers," explains Nef. In future, certification could be withdrawn from black sheep, which is planned to be implemented from next year. The association is focusing on two areas: For the direct sales sector, the certification system should be in place by the end of 2007, and in the telecoms sector in the course of next year.
In addition, the SDV has also drawn up a code of honor together with CallNet.ch. The Board of Directors has already approved it and the paper is currently being submitted to members for consultation. Nef believes that the code can be more than just a paper tiger: "We have had good experiences with a code in the area of direct mailing". The aim is to raise awareness of certain rules. Part of the code is, for example, that customers have a right of withdrawal. According to Nef, however, it is also important that clients are prepared to abide by these rules. It is also important that employees in telemarketing companies are well trained and well paid.
Nef largely shares the demands of the consumer associations: He thinks it is right that addresses marked with an asterisk in the telephone directory are not approached and that telemarketers do not call with a suppressed number. On the other hand, he believes it is superfluous for telemarketing companies to have their own area code: "It is sufficient if the number is visible. Problems can arise for small companies if they suddenly have to identify themselves with a new area code".
However, Nef does not find it ideal that the legal path is now being taken for more protection against abusive telemarketing: "I am in favor of freedom and personal responsibility". In addition, the path through the legal mills is a very long one: "I think we can work more efficiently here as an association". If a consumer wanted to take legal action against telemarketing, it would involve a great deal of effort for them. Nef also does not want telemarketing to be restricted to customers who have given their explicit consent. Such solutions are practiced in other countries. "It is sufficient for consumers to have the so-called opt-out option, i.e. to indicate by means of an asterisk in the telephone directory that they do not wish to receive advertising calls".
Nef confirms that the economic pressure in telemarketing is considerable. Acceptance of this form of advertising is declining: "One in three households is marked with an asterisk in the telephone directory, one in six is not listed at all". This has changed considerably in recent years. Nevertheless, Nef believes that it is possible to operate profitably in this area in a reputable manner. However, he is also aware of black sheep clients.
The legislator's decision on the subject of telemarketing will be known soon. The National Council's Legal Affairs Committee, which is dealing with a corresponding initiative, will meet on September 13 and 14. It is expected to make a decision then.

 The Corporate Communications Award was presented on Thursday. Prizes for good corporate communications went to the Bern-based online health insurance company KPT, the Aarau agency My Sign, Kertész Kabel in Rümlang and the canton of Aargau. The award for the Canton of Aargau goes to the Department of Education, Culture and Sport for the Bildungskleeblatt school reform. The Kertész family business was honored together with the Zurich agency Bärtschi Meroni Bolleter.
The first ever Discipline Award Media Relations goes to the auditing and consulting firm KPMG in Zurich. KPMG receives the prize for its good media relations.
The Corporate Communications Award was presented for the third time. The award ceremony took place on Thursday at the Olten School of Business, as the initiators Jolanda Eggenschwiler, owner of PR Words, and Roland Bieri, owner of Bi-Com, announced.

 The daily newspaper Limmattaler Tagblatt, which is part of the Mittelland-Zeitung group, is changing its name to Limmattaler Zeitung as of September 15. This was decided by the Board of Directors of the publisher Limmattaler Tagblatt with a view to the launch of the Sunday edition, as detailed in a press release. The change is in line with the title structure of the newspaper group. The Sunday edition of the Mittelland Zeitung will be published for the first time next Sunday; for the Limmattal it will appear as "Sonntag LZ". According to the press release, however, nothing more than the title head will change: the "Limmattaler" will remain the locally and regionally anchored daily newspaper for the Dietikon district and the municipality of Bergdietikon. It will continue to be produced by the same editorial and publishing staff. There will also be no changes to the journalistic orientation. The appearance, bundle structure, newspaper structure and content will also remain unchanged during the week.
The Oltner Tagblatt, which is also part of the Mittelland Zeitung association and will therefore appear with a seventh edition from Sunday, has no similar plans to change its name: "There is no reason to rename this title," said editor-in-chief Kurt Schibler on request.

The World Press Photo exhibition opened on Thursday evening in the Paper Hall of Zurich's Sihlcity shopping center. It shows the prize-winning photos from the annual competition. The exhibition is being held in Zurich for the first time in ten years and was brought to the city on the Limmat by the Keystone photo agency. Former Federal Councillor Adolf Ogi spoke at the opening event. Nicolas Righetti, a Swiss award winner, was also present. With 280 people, including many editors-in-chief, twice as many people attended the event as expected. Ogi spoke about the unbroken power of images. "Pictures can make a contribution to a better world. They touch the heart," said the UN Special Envoy. But the world has become numb. "There is a covert war going on that has engulfed the whole world. We are observers of the war and the media live from it," Ogi continued. However, the power of images could help to improve the world.
78,083 works by 4,460 photographers from 124 countries were submitted for this year's World Press Photo competition. 60 photographers received a prize. The title "World Press Photo of the Year 2006" went to a picture by the American Spencer Platt. It shows young Lebanese people in a convertible against the backdrop of destroyed Beirut. Many of the exhibited pictures are very touching and illustrate what Ogi meant by the "power of images".
World Press Photo is an independent non-profit organization that was founded in Amsterdam in 1955. Its aim is to support and publicize the work of press photographers internationally. The traveling exhibition with around 200 works can be seen at 85 locations in 40 countries; in Zurich's Sihlcity from September 14 to October 7.

 The media company Tamedia is acquiring a stake in the leading Swiss nightlife platform Tilllate.com. With retroactive effect from July 1, Tamedia is initially acquiring 20 percent of the share capital of the newly founded company Tilllate Switzerland. The stake is to be increased to 49 percent by the beginning of 2010. "Tamedia is thus expanding its involvement in the online market and tapping into an interesting new target group," says Tamedia spokeswoman Sonja Levy. The cooperation is intended in particular to strengthen the existing collaboration between 20 Minuten and Tilllate in the print and online sectors. To date, the cooperation has consisted of a partnership between the websites and the exchange of services. Every Monday, 20 Minuten prints the event photos taken by 350 different party photographers and includes editorial content from the nightlife platform on its website.
Further projects are being considered, but are not yet ready to go ahead, Levy continued. An expansion to other Tamedia publications - such as Züritipp, which still collects its own event data - is not planned. For the time being, the participation will therefore not have any personnel consequences.
The operational management of Tilllate will remain with the current owners Christian Hagman (Operations), Silvan Mühlemann (IT), Markus Popp (Marketing) and André Schraner (Finance). Tilllate's business activities outside Switzerland are not affected by the partnership. The parties have agreed not to disclose the amount paid for the investment.

 The Lausanne-based publishing house Edipresse almost doubled its net profit in the first half of 2007. The bottom line was 22 million francs. In the same period last year, the profit amounted to 11.2 million francs. Turnover fell by 3.5 percent to 428.7 million francs. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased from 23.8 million to 45.9 million francs. This development was mainly due to the magazine division, the company announced on Thursday. Edipresse was particularly successful with magazines in the countries of Eastern Europe and Asia.
In the newspaper business, Edipresse recorded a 1.2 percent decline in income to CHF 176.3 million. The publishing house is mainly active in Switzerland. While subscription income remained almost stable at CHF 36.9 million, sales of paid daily newspapers declined. This is due to competition from the in-house free newspaper Le matin bleu and 20 minutes from rival Tamedia.
Le Matin bleu and the regional newspapers were the main beneficiaries of the 0.8 percent increase in advertising volume at Edipresse. Meanwhile, the newsstand newspaper Le Matin was the loser.
According to Edipresse, the main reason for the drop in turnover is the change in the consolidation framework - particularly in the printing business. On a comparable basis, turnover would have increased by 3.3 percent. Among other things, in 2006 the publishing house transferred the IRL print shop to Swiss Printers, the largest web offset printing group in Switzerland. This business volume is now no longer included in the half-year figures. Edipresse now only holds a 16 percent financial stake in Swiss Printers.

 The magazine Schweizer Familie will have a new look from the next issue on September 20, 2007. The online presence at Schweizerfamilie.ch will also have a new look. The new look will be accompanied by a broad-based print and online campaign developed by the advertising agency Festland St. Gallen and Zurich. In the magazine, the use of new fonts, colors and text elements should ensure better reader guidance. The font and graphics of the logo have been modernized and refreshed. Images are presented more attractively thanks to a new layout. The redesign is a consistent further development of the path taken since the last graphic refreshment in 2004 and was developed by an internal project group, Tamedia announced.
The editorial concept, mix of topics and magazine structure will remain unchanged, but will be supplemented by new elements: various additional sections are intended to promote proximity to the readership. In future, a weekly column by Swiss author Milena will form the introduction to the magazine. At the same time, book author Alex Capus will launch his third reportage series.
Parallel to the print redesign, the online presence is also being completely redesigned in collaboration with Assai Interactive. Schweizerfamilie.ch is to be expanded into a service platform for family, home and leisure and positioned as a community site with numerous interactive elements.

Following the increase in circulation, there has been a further change to the pednler newspaper 20 Minuten: The paper from the Zurich-based media house Tamedia was published for the first time on Thursday with a slight makeover. It has a slightly larger font and the expanded sports section now appears at the end of the paper. Headlines and text appear somewhat more elegant after the gentle renovation, which was realized in collaboration with newspaper designer Brian O'Conner. However, the paper continues to appear in its usual style and will continue to offer plenty of color and short fodder.
With the relaunch, Editor-in-Chief Marco Boselli wants to "structure the pages even more clearly", as he writes in his editorial, in addition to giving them a more attractive appearance.

According to rumors, the editors-in-chief of the *Tages-Anzeiger* and the *Berner Zeitung* are considering a collaboration between their newspapers that could go as far as a merger into a «major city newspaper.» It remains unclear for now how much truth there is to this. But what are the prospects for such a project? Werbewoche asked Prof. Otfried Jarren, director of the Institute for Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Zurich. WW: The Tages-Anzeiger and the Berner Zeitung want to collaborate more closely on content. In the most extreme case, this could lead to the creation of a shared front-page section. Could that work? Otfried Jarren: As a concept, it might seem convincing; it sounds like a shared use of resources, like synergies. In practice, however, common editorial strategies usually only work in homogeneous regions; political Bern and economically liberal Zurich, however, are very different.Furthermore, the consequences on the reader market side are likely to be problematic; long-time subscribers could be driven away by a new product, and it will be difficult to attract new subscribers in large numbers. On the advertising side, advertisers’ assessment of the new product will be doubly difficult, since—in addition to the confusion on the reader side—the product itself must first reposition itself.
The plan is to counter the boom in free newspapers by «enhancing the content» in the Tagi—or, more specifically, in the Grosstadtzeitung project. Does this strategy convince you? It sounds good, too, but it’s hardly feasible. First, there are already national premium publications that meet the highest quality standards. And second, the problem that free newspapers pose for subscription newspapers isn’t just the increased competition in the advertising market. In addition, free newspapers have undermined the value that the public—especially younger readers—attributes to newspapers as a product. As a result, subscription newspapers now face a value-for-money problem.
In addition to high-quality content, Tamedia envisions the “Grossstadtzeitung” project as also being strong in regional coverage. Can this balancing act succeed? Roger de Weck, as editor-in-chief, had already attempted to establish the *Tages-Anzeiger* nationally while simultaneously strengthening its regional presence—and failed. Experience shows that a newspaper can quickly reach a point where it overextends itself; almost all newspapers with a regional focus rely financially on their home market to some extent.
Interview: Michael Koller