The Zurich-based agency Sutter Design Identity will operate under the name Evoq Communications from September 1, 2007. The change to Evoq is intended to expand the range of services offered by the agency, which previously specialized in corporate identity, in the direction of brand development and communication, according to the press release. The new name is intended to signal the expansion of the range of services and at the same time allow for further development opportunities. According to Managing Director Christian Sutter, the name contains the Latin verb form evoco, which means: I evoke, cause, trigger or generate. These activities are all very fitting for what Evoq wants to achieve as an agency for design, communication and brand consulting on behalf of its clients, emphasizes Sutter.

 Adlink markets the Swiss premium blog portal Logcut, which was launched on Monday in collaboration with the blog publishing house Adimmersion.com. The portal arose from the idea of generating attractive reach for online advertising and campaigns by combining individual, high-quality blogs. According to the press release, the advantage of the premium offer for those interested in advertising lies in the quality control and the clear categorization of the contributions.

 Just one day after the board of the Dow Jones publishing house approved the sale of its own company to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (see ), German publisher Dieter Holtzbrinck resigned from the board on Thursday, as reported in Werben und Verkaufen and Spiegel Online. In his letter, he said that a takeover by Murdoch would damage the journalistic quality of the "Wall Street Journal" in the long term, but the former publisher of Handelsblatt and Die Zeit also wrote that he could not prove that he was right in his concerns about Murdoch's News Corp. He could only point to the business practices of News Corp. in the past. "I don't think a 'special committee' can stop Murdoch from doing what he wants, operating in his own way." The special committee is supposed to oversee the journalistic quality of the Wall Street Journal and personnel issues. In a written response, the board accepted the resignation with regret.

 Rega ranks first in terms of corporate reputation among the Swiss, followed by Swatch and Logitech. These are the findings of the "Business-Reflektor 2007" study conducted by the market research company IHA-GfK, which examined the reputation and standing of 100 Swiss companies for the second time. Swatch came third in last year's overall ranking. By moving up to second place, the watch manufacturer was able to overtake last year's winner Logitech. Swiss climbed up the corporate reputation rankings in 2007. In addition to companies from eleven different sectors, non-profit organizations were also included this year. The WWF is the clear leader in terms of sustainability, ahead of Unicef and Rega.
The study is based on over 3,500 surveys and was developed in cooperation with the GfM Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Marketing. It examines 15 different factors such as image, awareness, quality, innovation, emotional components and sustainability.

 Mad Hairstyling's three hairdressing salons are among Zurich's established names. For its 15th birthday, Mad is treating itself to a gentle overhaul of the brand by the Bern-based cross-media agency Maxomedia. Mad Hairstyling's hairdressing salons are not just hair cutting locations. Each of the three stores has an additional benefit: Mad Art - hairstyles and art, Mad Lux - hairstyles and music and Mad Kalkül - hairstyles and cocktails. Nevertheless, a uniform appearance with a defined corporate design ensured a high level of recognition. To mark the 15th anniversary, owner Marc Menden commissioned Maxomedia, an agency specializing in cross-media communication, to analyse the existing concept and suggest potential improvements. For a hairdressing business, it is important to move with the times and regularly question its appearance, Menden explains in a press release, explaining the collaboration with Maxomedia. After all, the aim is not only to implement trends on the head, but also to document its claim to be up-to-date through its appearance. As part of the assignment, the entire corporate identity will be analyzed and proposals for new claims, advertisements, flyers and the website will be developed.

 After months of negotiations, Colt Telecom and Swisscom have now concluded an agreement on the use of the last mile. This makes Colt the first alternative provider in Switzerland to take advantage of all the opportunities offered by unbundling the last mile. As reported by Netzwoche, Colt intends to invest millions in the development of its last mile infrastructure. Colt intends to offer high-quality, convergent communication services to companies that are only connected to the network via copper cable. The contract concluded with Swisscom regulates the use of Swisscom copper cables from the house connection to the local exchange, the rental of space in the local exchanges, the shared use of the pipe systems for Colt's fiber optic connections, the use of leased lines in areas in which Swisscom is market-dominant and the billing of the subscriber connection.

 On average, there is a bus stop every 300 meters in Zurich. Ruf Lanz now dramatizes this benefit for her long-standing customer VBZ in a humorous cinema spot. Who doesn't know them, the South American street musicians who create a great atmosphere in the streetcars, especially in winter. As the Ruf Lanz agency reveals in a press release, it is using the musicians' temperament for a cinema spot: a combo gets on a VBZ streetcar - and plays the well-known song "La Cucaracha" at a ludicrously fast tempo. After all, the passengers could get off again in 300 meters... The commercial celebrates its premiere in Zurich's Kino am See and is likely to cause some hilarity among the young, urban audience.
 

 Every six months, the market research institute Demoscope determines which Swiss online portals are the best known. Autoscout24, Immoscout24 and Jobsout24 once again occupy top positions. "Those who scout, find" is the claim of the Scout24 portals. As the latest Demoscope survey with hundreds of individual interviews shows, users also find the 24 portals. Once again, they were among the strongest brands in the Swiss online market in the first half of the year. In the corresponding press release, the portal provider is pleased that many of those surveyed were able to spontaneously name the car, real estate and job portals. Brand awareness is an important indicator for both private individuals and companies when placing their listings or advertising. According to Frank Gerber, Chief Marketing Officer of Scout 24, the company has invested in its brands in recent months with targeted measures - this is now the reward for its efforts.

 Advertising expenditure in Switzerland continued to grow in June. Compared to the previous year, it rose by 5.9 percent to 332.4 million Swiss francs. Accumulated advertising expenditure in the first half of 2007 rose by 8.2 percent to just under 2 billion Swiss francs, according to the market research institute Media Focus on Friday. Television gained market share and received around a quarter of advertising investment. Daily newspapers recorded the highest revenues with 35.7 percent. In contrast, only 1.2 percent of advertising expenditure went to the Internet.
According to the monthly report on the development of the Swiss advertising markets by Media Focus, most advertising money continues to be spent on finance (CHF 36 million), food (CHF 33.4 million) and vehicles (CHF 27.8 million). Migros is the company with the highest advertising expenditure, followed by Coop, Nestlé and Swisscom.
According to the report, the beverage industry increased its expenditure by more than 50 percent to 20 million francs. Non-alcoholic beverages in particular were advertised more at the start of the summer. The pharmaceutical industry also significantly increased its advertising expenditure by 28.5% to CHF 8.6 million.
Advertising for energy increased by almost four-fifths. In contrast, there was significantly less advertising for tobacco. Expenditure fell by 78.8% to around CHF 1 million.
In the markets with a smaller advertising volume, political campaigns recorded the highest increase in advertising expenditure, namely growth of 87.2%. However, unlike this year, there was no national referendum in the same period last year.

Or rather: the pupils of Juventus School are demonstrating against the school vacations, because people like going to Juventus School. Last Wednesday, three dozen Juventus pupils marched through the streets of Zurich chanting: "Down with the school vacations!". This unusual advertising campaign for Juventus, devised by SFLB, earned the agency an article in Friday's 20 Minuten as well as many positive reactions from passers-by. These are unusual demo scenes: Students who are extremely eager to learn, insisting on their right to education even in summer, and smiling passers-by. As SFLB writes in a press release, this is the first in a series of many advertising measures that Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett has come up with for the new Juventus campaign. The next step will benefit those who missed the protest march, as the images of a film team that accompanied the demonstration will be shown as an advertising spot in a few days' time. The demonstration banners - probably inspired by the occupation of the old Juventus school building that ended in May - can currently be seen on the façade of the newer school building at Lagerstrasse 45 until the end of the school vacations.

 Andy Hostettler's move to TBWA has led to a strategic realignment at JWT+H+F. With Remy Fabrikant, the network has for the first time a CEO who has emerged from the creative department. He will be supported by a newly formed management team: Vanessa Lehmann-Spalleck as Client Service Director, Rainer Bühler as Strategic Planning Director and Mike Krüll, who recently joined the team, will take over Remy Fabrikant's previous role as Creative Director. The departure of former Managing Director Andy Hostettler to TBWA came as a surprise to the agency, but they did not part on bad terms. In a statement, Hostettler's former colleagues expressed their understanding that he had accepted a new challenge after ten years at the agency. The outgoing CEO will also remain in the company's name: As one of the top ten agencies in Switzerland, the successful JWT+H+F brand will be retained in the spirit of consistent brand management.
The new management team The new CEO, 49-year-old Remy Fabrikant, studied at the University of Applied Arts and began his career at Advico Young & Rubicam. He then worked for Aebi & Partner, GGK Basel and Paris, Weber Hodel, Schmid, Schmid Hostettler & Fabrikant and was most recently Chief Creative Officer at JWT+Hostettler+Fabrikant. To date, he has won more than 130 national and international awards.
35-year-old Vanessa Lehmann-Spalleck is a European business economist and has been with JWT+H+F since August 2005. Prior to that, she worked at JWT in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf for three and a half years. She gained international experience at Young & Rubicam, Frankfurt and Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam and Portland, Oregon.
The 36-year-old Rainer Bühler has been working for JWT+H+F since February 2005. Prior to that, he was Deputy Head of Brand Communications at Cablecom and Planner and Project Manager at Day Interactive and RTL Television. For a few months now, he has been leading the CAS (Certificate of Advanced Studies) Customer Relations/Marketing Communications at the HWZ (Zurich University of Applied Sciences).
The 51-year-old Mike Krüll laid the foundations for his copywriting career at DDB Düsseldorf, which he then refined at GGK Düsseldorf and GGK Basel. After founding Weber, Hodel, Schmid, he worked there as Creative Director. From 1993, he was a partner and creative director at FCB Leutenegger/Krüll. His creative work has earned him no less than 120 national and international awards.
Picture: front from left: Mike Krüll, Remy Fabrikant; back from left: Vanessa Lehmann-Spalleck, Rainer Bühler

 Zurich-based Incite Media, which is active in multimedia advertising, was sold to US group Netnetnet.tv for 27 million Swiss francs. The new owner intends to use the purchase to expand its business activities in outdoor advertising. The takeover by the U.S. company, headquartered in Geneva, is being carried out through a share swap, according to a report by news agency SDA. Regensdorf-based Incite Media was founded in 2005 and specializes in multimedia advertising platforms and digital media management solutions. In Incite's corresponding announcement, Roland Kümin, founder and CEO of the company, describes the transaction as a classic win-win situation. "InciteMedia's technologies and know-how combined with netnetnet.tv Inc's global network and resources will make us the leading company in multimedia advertising."