Highlight Communications, the media company based in Pratteln in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, increased its sales to CHF 271.7 million in the first half of 2007. This corresponds to an increase of 6.3 percent. Consolidated net income in the first half of the year amounted to CHF 13.9 million. In the same period last year, it amounted to 11.1 million francs. The operating result improved by 24.3 percent to 23.0 million Swiss francs, as Highlight Communications announced. The listed company operates in three divisions: Film, Home Entertainment and Sports- and Event-Marketing. The Film division achieved a 5 percent increase in sales to 229.5 million Swiss francs in the past six months. The increase was due to new releases on DVD and video as well as the continued positive development of TV service productions.

The Fan Championship M'08 got off to a successful start with the draw in June. It continues on September 12 with the first round of 16, in which Switzerland plays Sweden. The fans will compete in disciplines such as television throwing, shouting at the top of their voices and opening beers. The program will be broadcast immediately after Meteo at 7.50 pm. Like Euro 08, M'08 also has its sponsors: the organizer Migros has been able to win over companies such as M-Electronics, SportXX, LeShop and Migros-Restaurant.
Publicis has developed five spots for Migros and its M'08 sponsors that focus on football and are tailored to the needs of fans. They will be placed around the M'08 events. "In this way, we are effectively advertising the advertising," explained Publicis CD Ralf Kostgeld to Werbewoche. The commercials were directed by Danish director Martin Werner.

 

Responsible at Migros: Beat Mühlemann (Head of Marketing Communication); Bettina Huwyler (Project Manager Advertising Super-/Consumer Market); Patrick Chevin (Main Project Manager M'08); Caesar Keller (Project Manager M'08).
LeShop: Dominique Locher (Marketing & Sales Director); Migros Gastronomie: Simone Frei (Head of Communication Gastronomy); M-Electronics: Petra Gayko (Project Manager Advertising M-Electronics); SportXX: Silvia Girtanner (Project Manager Advertising SportXX).
Responsible at Publicis: CD: Ralf Kostgeld, Jean Etienne Aebi; Text: Tom Zürcher; Graphics: Barbara Staub; Agency Producer: Ines Bossart; Consulting: Marion Marxer, Mirjam Vonarburg, Oliver Meili, Monika Leu.
Production: Pumpkin Film; Director: Martin Werner; Cinematography: Jens Maasboel; Postproduction: The Boost; Sound: Hastings Zurich; Media: Konnex and Bemberg.

 Advico Young & Rubicam's loss of the Sunrise account is now complete. It was announced on Thursday that the telecoms company's advertising budget will go to the Geneva-based agency Rive Gauche. AY&R had previously held the mandate for four years. When it became public in June that the agency was losing this budget, it was rumored that around 15 jobs could be lost. Advico is being rather quiet about this: "We had already initiated measures to adjust capacity in June," Caspar Coppetti, Managing Partner of the agency, told Werbewoche. "For us, the issue is now closed". We wish Rive Gauche every success.
Advico is not interested in washing dirty linen now: "We had four good years with Sunrise. It is part of the everyday life of an agency that clients come and go. But we are proud of the fact that we have many very loyal clients." The agency from Gockhausen has already landed another major new client, but Coppetti has not yet revealed who it is.
With big names such as Alfa Romeo, GE Money Bank, Sonntagszeitung, Swiss Re and Zweifel, Advico probably has enough other customers to be able to cope with the loss of Sunrise.
Rive Gauche, Advico's successor as the Sunrise agency, is significantly smaller than its predecessor. The new budget will probably account for a large proportion of the agency's volume. There is therefore a certain cluster risk - the challenge for Rive Gauche will be to build up additional pillars so as not to be entirely dependent on Sunrise.
 

Carole Scheidegger

 In future, the Zurich agency Spillmann/Felser/LeoBurnett will be responsible for handling the reader and advertiser market for Migros magazine. According to Migros Media Director Marius Hagger and Publishing Director Bernt Maulaz, the agency has impressed with its charming and cheeky approach, which puts the magazine and its function and significance in exactly the right light. With 2,890,000 readers, Migros magazine is one of the largest free newspapers in Switzerland. The first works by SFLB can be seen this fall.

 The former and extremely popular presenter of "Quer" turned his back on television journalism last year. Now he is back: from September, he will be co-presenting "Baz-Standpunkte" on SF zwei with Baz editor-in-chief Matthias Geerig. On September 8, Rohr can be seen in his new role for the first time when he presents the "Baz-Standpunkte" on the topic of "New Building in the Alpine Region". According to a BaZ press release, the show will also feature a wide range of studio guests such as St. Moritz hotelier Felix Schlatter and Heinz Julen, who wants to build a tower hotel on the Kleine Matterhorn at an altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level.

 As part of a competitive presentation, Wirz Werbung was able to secure both the advertiser and reader budgets for the new Sonntagszeitung Sonntag. The newspaper, which is the seventh edition of the Mittelland Zeitung, will be launched on September 16. According to the agency's press release, the first Wirz measures are already being implemented.

The Teo Jakob Group is an authority when it comes to exclusive interior design for the highest demands. This is exactly what the new communication measures developed by Grey convey. The furniture market is a highly competitive field in which it is important to position oneself clearly. Grey positions the furniture store with six Swiss locations as a design "authority" and all communication measures are derived from this positioning in terms of content and implementation. In the classic advertising, Teo Jakob proclaims a hall of fame that is its reference and obligation. The protagonists of the campaign are artists, but not celebrities, but the creators of the products themselves from the design and agency sector. Mario Botta and Alfredo Häberli kick off the advertising campaign that is now starting. According to the Baden agency's press release, the portraits were photographed by Marco Grob, who has also worked for Levi's and Sony.       

 The designated new head of pay-TV channel Premiere, Michael Börnicke, has new goals for the company: In the next three years, up to 20 percent of sales are to be generated from non-traditional subscriptions, the successor to Georg Kofler told the German newspaper Handelsblatt. This figure is currently just under 10 percent. Börnicke wants to reduce the station's dependence on its 3.4 million subscribers and spread the risk more widely. The new CEO is also focusing on the Internet: He wants to tap into new revenues through acquisitions. However, there are no concrete takeover candidates as yet.

 The new free newspaper .ch, which launches in September, has filled various positions on the publishing side: Peter Kümmerli, who announced his resignation as Managing Director of Zehnder Print in June after just eight months, will be in charge of sales and logistics. Kümmerli's professional background also includes Ringier, Tamedia and Jean Frey. Stefan H. Böni, who joins .ch from NZZ Folio, is the national advertising manager, as .ch managing director Caroline Thoma told Werbewoche. Predi Vukovic-Sifert, who most recently worked at AZ, will take over regional advertising management from October 1. Ursula Grütter will become Head of Internal Services and Advertising Marketing. She comes from Tamedia. Martina Canonica, who currently works at Sonntagszeitung, will be in charge of reader marketing and cooperations.

 Television journalist Hanspeter Trütsch was honored with the Eastern Switzerland Radio and Television Prize on Friday. Trütsch is currently the interim head of Swiss Television's parliamentary editorial team. Trütsch has been working for Swiss television since 1990 and has since made credibility and competent domestic reporting his trademarks. The jury agreed and awarded him the prize of 10,000 Swiss francs, which has been presented by SRG Ostschweiz since 1952. The recognition and promotion prize was donated by the cantons of Graubünden, Glarus, St. Gallen, both Appenzells and Thurgau, according to an SDA press release. The prize is awarded either to personalities for their many years of distinguished work in the SRG media or to young talent with a connection to Eastern Switzerland.

 Despite the egalitarianism of globalization, we have received two reports from the Far East concerning the operating industry that exemplify considerable local differences. A particularly gory form of reality show has been banned in China, which is extremely restrictive in media and other respects: With immediate effect, images of sex changes or cosmetic surgery may no longer be broadcast because such programs would have "no positive effect on society" (not like the rest of the television offerings).
The authorities in Muslim Malaysia reacted very sensitively to the publication of a caricature of Jesus. The daily newspaper "Maakal Osai" was banned from publication for a whole month because it had put a boozing and smoking Jesus on the cover, under which it said: "If someone repents for his mistakes, heaven awaits him." This was probably to prevent angry Christians around the world from setting fire to Malaysian embassies, as happened in the opposite case when a Danish newspaper made fun of Mohammed.

 On September 15, Marco Stettler will take over the management of Ringier Ukraine. Stettler has been managing Ringier's business in Romania since 2006 and takes over from Attila Mihok in Ukraine, who will focus entirely on the management of Ringier Serbia in future. The 44-year-old Stettler studied economics in Basel and then trained as a marketing planner. He then worked for various financial and publishing companies, including Credit Suisse and Adlink Internet Media. He was then General Manager at the free newspaper Metro in Rome and Milan. From 2004, he worked as Advertising Director Classified for NZZ for two years before joining Ringier. His tasks in Kiev will focus on the further development of the daily newspaper Blik, which was launched in 2006, according to a Ringier press release.