When 6,000 partygoers celebrate in the Maaghalle on September 1 under the motto "You are the Star", it will be clear whose star shines brightest: Within just seven years, Tilllate.com has blossomed into an international nightlife platform with 1,100 party photographers, 470,000 members and an audience of millions. The platform now operates in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Ibiza, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Turkey and Bulgaria. According to a Tillate press release, more than 10 million pictures of international partygoers can already be admired on the sites. It's no wonder that the company is in a festive mood on the occasion of its seventh anniversary. Internationally active DJs such as René S and George Lamell will be providing the right beat on four different dance floors at the birthday party in the Maag Areal.

 Germany's most popular luxury brand in the watches and textiles sector is Gucci. This is the result of the annual "best brands" survey. Second place went to the German watch manufacturer Glashütte, followed by the Swiss luxury watchmaker IWC. Since 2004, "best brands" has honored brand concepts that are particularly visionary and innovative. A total of 22 watch brands and 54 textile brands were scrutinized this year. The participants in the survey provided information on their personal wishes and needs and the potential of the brands to fulfill these. They were also asked about emotional characteristics such as the self-indulgence value or the status-giving value of a brand. As the prize is not awarded by a jury but on the basis of a representative survey, it is considered to be particularly popular and meaningful.

 Competition from free newspapers is taking its toll on the French-speaking Swiss tabloid Le Matin: the tabloid is being restructured and six journalists are losing their jobs, including both deputy editors-in-chief. With the redundancies, the number of Matin journalists will fall from 87 to 81. The editorial team was presented with a fait accompli on Monday and is "in shock", according to an SDA report. The editorial management is not exempt from the changes: Although editor-in-chief Peter Rothenbühler will remain in office, his former deputies Denis Pittet and Jean-Pierre Gattoni will have to vacate their posts for Michel Jeannerat and Ariane Dayer.  
Le Matin has an image problem: the paper is often confused with the free newspapers. That's why it needs to differentiate itself more strongly from them in future, as the president of the Matin editors' association told SDA. The reorganization is by no means an initial spark for a merger with the free newspaper Le Matin Bleu. Le Matin Dimanche is not affected by the restructuring.

 A few days ago, Lucerne firefighter Laurent Schütz secured the millionth domain name ending in .ch. As the network operator Switch reported on Monday, the central Swiss secured the record with the entry for the website www.ez14.ch.EZ 14, which stands for Einsatzzug 14 of the Lucerne fire department. On the website, the completely surprised Neuhalter wants to make photos of joint excursions available to his colleagues.
Switzerland has one of the highest domain name densities in the world. On average, every tenth inhabitant has a domain name ending in .ch.

 The AZ Medien Group's customer printing plant in Aarau will definitely close its doors at the end of the year. AZ and the Vogt-Schild Group, publisher of the Solothurner Zeitung, are concentrating production at the Derendingen site in the canton of Solothurn. The move is being made because the facilities in Aarau have reached the end of their life cycle, the Vogt-Schild Group announced in a communiqué. Eight employees will lose their jobs.

 The communications agency is taking over the Swiss-wide media relations for the French tour operator Club Med, helping to position the "all-inclusive" vacation provider in the top segment by 2008. According to Burson-Marsteller, the mandate was awarded as part of the strategy "high-quality vacation offers for the Swiss market". Since 2002, the travel provider has been radically redesigning its "all-inclusive" concept and is increasingly establishing itself in the premium vacation segment. However, the aim is to retain what makes the brand so special: Individuality, hospitality and a multicultural ambience.

 Switzerland's largest weekly newspaper is now presenting itself with a revised concept. According to a press release, Coop's intention is to structure the paper more clearly and make it more airy. The sections "Food&Drink", "Living&Enjoyment", "Shopping&Profit", "Children&Family" and "Leisure&Entertainment", which are more focused on the consumer world, are intended to improve the overview and reader service. The newspaper will also be supplemented with additional Internet offerings such as podcasts and photo shows. 2002 saw the last concept revision of the newspaper, which has been in existence for more than 100 years.

This year, the agency is once again encouraging people to stay fit on behalf of Health Promotion Canton Zurich. The "Exercise, nutrition, relaxation" campaign is once again providing health tips. Matter & Gretener and its partner Streuplan also used unusual channels to disseminate these tips. For example, stickers were placed on old glass collection containers calling on people to cut down on alcohol consumption, and pizza delivery boxes were marked with instructions to pay attention to diet. According to Matter & Grenener, the brochure "Reading on promotes your health" is the central element of the campaign. It contains 36 tips on how to do your health a favor in everyday life. It will be distributed by Surprise sales staff, among others, and sent to Sanitas policyholders and future recruits.
Responsible at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich: Roland Stähli, Regula Behringer; at Matter & Gretener: Daniel Matter (Creative Direction), Dominik Imseng (Text), Franziska Langenbacher (Art Direction, Martina Schörghofer (Consulting); at Streuplan: Thomas Back (overall responsibility, Oliver Schwab (project management), Sara Tiboni (consulting).

 The weak results of Valora's kiosk division have led to personnel changes at the retailer. According to research by the Sonntagszeitung newspaper, German manager Manfred Zipp, who has been in charge of Valora's kiosk division since June 2006, is to step down. The 52-year-old had not succeeded in reviving the flagging kiosk business, which had been the aim of his job. The results achieved were even worse than those of previous years. Moreover, the management did not even realize for a long time what a disastrous result they were heading for, according to the Sonntagszeitung.
The reason for the staggering newsstand business is, on the one hand, the continuous decline in newspaper newsstand circulation. This, in turn, is due to the strong rise of free newspapers. Blick in particular is selling less and less. As other products, such as cigarettes, were often purchased with the newspapers, this decline in circulation has a double impact on newsstands. This is exacerbated by growing competition, for example from petrol station stores or Coops Pronto stores through to post offices.

 The TV encryption specialist Kudelski increased its turnover considerably in the first half of 2007, but suffered a setback in net profit. In the first half of 2007, Kudelski earned 28.1 million Swiss francs. In the same period last year, profits amounted to 90.3 million Swiss francs, as the company announced on Friday. At that time, the profit from the sale of the ticket vendor Ticketcorner amounted to 59.2 million francs. Sales, on the other hand, increased by 38.6 percent to 423 million francs.

 The international retail group Valora, which also owns Kiosk Switzerland, reports sales of CHF 1433 million for the first half of 2007. The year-on-year comparison shows the Group stagnating, with all divisions on track except Kiosk Switzerland. The Group was only able to increase its sales slightly compared to the previous year. The core Kiosk Switzerland business even shrank, with Valora citing the continuing negative trend in tobacco and press revenues as the reasons. The Group also suffered losses in the non-food and services categories, which had a significant negative impact on earnings, as Valora writes in a press release. The measures already taken to improve earnings had not yet produced the desired results. As a result, the operating result for the first half of the year fell by CHF 23 million year-on-year to CHF 17 million. The Group is forecasting a better result for the second half of the year, but this will not compensate for the lack of income in the first six months.

 Following an agency evaluation, the dental center entrusted Publicis Zurich with its national advertising budget. The company is a network of practices with branches in five Swiss cities. The practices are open 365 days a year and offer the entire spectrum of dental medicine under one roof. The first work by Publicis will be seen this fall. This includes a new corporate design, a branch opening and a national campaign.