The ProSiebenSat.1 TV Group increased its profits in the second quarter of 2007. On balance, the company earned 87.2 million euros. This represents an increase of 4.6 percent over the same period last year. However, revenues stagnated at around the previous year's level of EUR 551.6 million. According to the Group, this is due to special effects last year. At that time, many companies brought forward their advertising bookings to the months of April and May in order to avoid the World Cup. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 2.6 percent to EUR 158.8 million, as ProSiebenSat.1 announced on Wednesday. ProSiebenSat.1 continues to expect the German TV advertising market to grow by two to three percent.
Following the takeover of the SBS Broadcasting Group, ProSiebenSat.1 made a number of organizational changes. As one of the most important changes, the company has created the Group Content division, the press release continues. To expand its online activities, ProSiebenSat.1 acquired a majority stake in the advice portal Wer-weiss-was.de. The changes are accompanied by various new appointments. Michael Krautwald will take over as Chairman of the Management Board of SevenOne Media.

 Overall, advertising revenues in the Swiss daily and regional weekly press fell by 1.9% in July compared to the same month last year. However, the Sunday press and the business press saw significant growth. Advertising investment in the daily and regional weekly press fell by 0.2 percent, as the latest Wemf statistics show. In contrast, job advertisements increased by 1.1 percent, as reported by the SDA. The Sunday press also had a very good month with an increase of 24.9 percent, as did the business papers with an increase of 23.5 percent. The general press also recorded a strong increase of 22.3 percent. Wemf measures the page volume of both the specialty and trade press: the number of pages filled with advertisements in the specialty press increased by 0.7%, while the number of pages in the trade press rose by 6.4%.

Magazines The Quorum Group focuses on Avant Première.
The Geneva-based Quorum Group, which publishes the free cinema magazines Live and Avant Première (AP) in French-speaking Switzerland, is discontinuing Live at the end of September. "From October, only Avant Première will be available in all cinemas in French-speaking Switzerland," says Jean-Pierre Grey, publishing director of both magazines. The reason for the discontinuation of Live (circulation 72,000 copies) is simple: until now, the monthly magazine was the in-house magazine of cinema operator Europlex, while AP was available in all other cinemas in French-speaking Switzerland, including those of Pathé. When Pathé took over all Europlex cinemas a year ago, the end of Live was foreseeable. "It doesn't make sense to publish two different cinema magazines for the same distribution channel," says Grey.
From October, AP, which has a reach of 14.1 percent in French-speaking Switzerland, will increase its circulation by 20 percent to 120000 copies. It will also be sent to all customers of the online DVD distributor dvdfly.ch free of charge. (mk)

 The time has come: the internet platform YouTube is cutting itself a slice of the advertising pie. The Google subsidiary announced on Wednesday that advertisements will now appear in selected clips. However, advertising messages will only appear in films from selected partners such as Warner Music and Hollywood film studios that want to promote music groups and movies. Privately posted films would not be subject to advertising. In general, YouTube intends to proceed cautiously with the introduction of advertisements, according to SDA. Ads will only appear at the bottom of the video after a video has been running for 15 seconds. They should make up a fifth of the window.
Advertisers pay 20 dollars per 1000 users, which is shared between the internet platform and the owner of the video clip. With around 100 million users, YouTube has an enormous reach. According to a YouTube manager, an internal study shows that around 73% of users would accept advertising on the portal.
YouTube wants to improve its business results by entering the advertising business. Following the takeover last October, Google is still under pressure to justify the high purchase price of 1.65 billion dollars. According to experts, YouTube operated at a loss last year despite sales of 15 million dollars.

Pharmacies The Swiss Advertising Agency addresses the new role of pharmacies for PharmaSuisse.
PharmaSuisse members believe that the extensive services provided by pharmacies are primarily known to regular customers and patients, but not to the general public. For them, the fact is that pharmacies provide important services for all premium payers: Thanks to performance-based tariffs, advice and support in choosing the optimal medication, costs are saved for the benefit of all premium payers. "However, too little attention has been paid to this in the discussion about reforms in the healthcare system," the pharmacists believe. Werbeanstalt Schweiz AG has now translated the role of Swiss pharmacies into an image campaign. The focus is on the new pharmacy cross, which is integrated into well-known objects: On a five-franc coin with the message "Health made inexpensive", a Swiss passport with "Personal and genuine", a pocket knife with "Effectiveness sharply controlled" and on a football shirt with "Fair play in healthcare".
With this campaign, the advertising agency is clearly differentiating the member pharmacies of the PharmaSuisse umbrella organization from discount stores, which unilaterally boost the consumption of medicines.
   
Andreas Panzeri

 For a month, SF 1 took viewers on a journey back in time. With success: the summer series "Pfahlbauer von Pfn - Steinzeit live" reached an average of 534,000 viewers, which corresponds to a market share of 50.1 percent. In the rerun on SF Info, an average of 78,000 viewers still watched the program produced by "Schweiz aktuell". According to SF, this is almost as many viewers as the main "Tagesschau" edition on SF Info. The pile dweller website was accessed by 160,000 people, while the webcam with live images from the pile dwelling village was viewed 65,000 times during the project phase.

Magazines Freudian slips are the focus of the Heads campaign for Ringier magazines.
The Heads advertising agency is launching its second umbrella campaign for Ringier Magazines. As last year, the motto "We make brands prominent" is being consistently continued, but this time with a new approach. Once again, the people and lifestyle titles Schweizer Illustrierte, SI Style, Glückspost, Bolero and Goal are being advertised. The aim of the campaign is to remind media agencies and advertising clients that magazines are attractive advertising environments. Instead of arguing with hard facts, the Zurich-based creative company Heads is taking a playful approach. They let the readers have their say. To show how Top of Mind works, celebrities and brands are dramatized with Freudian slips. Suddenly "Dolce & Cabanas" is playing the best football, the Queengemahl mutates into "Prince Phillips" and "L'Oréal Gilliéron" is considered the most beautiful Miss. The campaign will be featured in the trade press from mid-August to December.
Christian Lüscher

Market research Interio, Greece and Unilever placed the most popular advertisements in the Swiss media in the second quarter of this year. 
 
In collaboration with the market research institute Demoscope, Publimedia presents readers of Werbewoche with an extract of the results from the Advertising Index (AX-Print) five times a year. This index (see below) is a module of the Market Radar and measures the popularity of advertisements. The boxes on the left and right show the ads that were most popular with the relevant psychographic target group. The three subjects that performed best among the entire sample, i.e. all four target groups, are shown under the title "Top Three".The Advertising Index for print advertising provides binding performance data on advertising as a whole year after year.
The 750 interviewees per survey wave are psychographically calibrated. Their value orientations range from north (progressive) to south (conservative) and from west (outward-looking, materialistic) to east (inward-looking, idealistic). This shows time and again that the different target groups are addressed very differently by the advertising campaigns. Further information on the Advertising Index and the Market Radar can be obtained from Demoscope by calling 041 375 40 00 or via www.demoscope.ch, planning support with the Advertising Index, the Market Radar and with the Print Advertising Monitor (PAM) provided by Publimedia. (ww)

Guido Wietlisbach, CEO and founder of the direct marketing agency OgilvyOne, has now announced that he sold his shares in the agency last year and will step down from his position at the end of this year. Barbara Dürst, the agency's current Head of Consulting, will take over as Managing Director from this date. Wietlisbach wants to reorient himself, he confirmed to Werbewoche in a report by the industry service Persönlich.com. In future, he will continue to work in marketing, but probably no longer within an agency. "I am currently thinking about some marketing-related corporate concepts," said Wietlisbach. After 14 years as head of OgilvyOne, the time has come for him to take on a new entrepreneurial challenge.
The shares went to Grendene Ogilvy & Mather, the Swiss agency of the international network Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. The latter was already a minority shareholder. The decision to appoint Barbara Dürst as CEO was also made last year.
The departure of Creative Director Björn Brinkmann marks another personnel change at OgilvyOne. He is already leaving the agency in October. "His departure came as a relative surprise to us," explained Wietlisbach. Until a successor is found, he will take over the creative direction himself, which will hardly be difficult for him, as the current CEO was Brinkmann's predecessor as Creative Director and, like him, has received numerous national and international awards.
Following his resignation, Wietlisbach will also continue to be available to the agency. It is planned that he will initially support OgilvyOne on a part-time basis and later on a project-related basis in strategic and conceptual terms.

 The two agencies Publicis Zurich and Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett have each been nominated for a medal in the German "Die Anzeige" competition. Publicis is in the running for the "Pastorini Holzklötze", SFLB for a work for the Tages-Anzeiger. "Die Anzeige" awards the "Anzeiger" prize for exemplary creative achievements. The best advertisement or the best advertising campaign in the competition receives a gold award. The winners in the respective categories receive "Anzeiger" in silver or bronze, the winners of the shortlist receive certificates. The categories available are Consumer/Consumer/Capital Goods, Pharmaceuticals, Service Providers, Institutions, Personal/Corporate Advertising, Retail, Social Marketing, Media and Culture + Exhibitions. The award ceremony will take place on November 6, 2007 in Munich.

 The multimedia business publication Cash daily is about to undergo further development. It will soon focus on real estate once a month, and twice a week there will be up-to-date information on careers and business behavior. SME know-how, knowledge and technology are also regularly included in the reporting. The money section is supplemented with tips on investment and financial issues. As Christoph Bauer, Head of Business Media at Ringier, explained to Werbewoche, the expansion affects all channels of the business publication, such as the print edition, live paper, online, web TV and mobile. The cash crew is also working on specials. The primary aim is to continue the tradition of specials that the discontinued weekly newspaper Cash had. Cash daily will be the main title and the corresponding multimedia implementation of the topic will take place on Cash.ch. There are also plans to strengthen Cash mobile: In the sense of an extended arm of Cash.ch, the mobile section will be expanded this fall.

The Vögele company Max Shoes and Jung von Matt/Limmat are sending two new subjects onto the catwalk. They show how the campaign launched in spring 2007 can be styled in the cooler season. The short babydoll dresses have not become longer, just warmer. The previously summery open shoes have made way for closed shoes - in line with the fall trends - but are still staged to maximum effect. The fall designs will be on display in all Max stores in Switzerland over the next few weeks. Responsible at Max Shoes: Carmela Vetsch (Head of Marketing Services and Product Placement); Yvonne Kälin (Visual Merchandising). Responsible at Jung von Matt/Limmat: Alexander Jaggy (Creative Direction); David Hanselmann (Art Direction); Samuel Knaus (Text); Martin Samsel (Unit Management); Sebastian Durband (Consulting); Ilonka Galliard (Art Buying); Diego Alborghetti (Photography).