Swiss Markting awarded 561 newly qualified marketing planners with their diplomas. 
561 candidates passed the exam, which is administered by Swiss Marketing, making up 74% of the registered candidates. As Swiss Marketing reports, this is by far the best pass rate in the past seven years. The overall grade average of 4.30 is the second best in the last ten years. The oldest participant was 56 years old and the youngest was 21 years old.
The recipients of the diplomas are 321 women (57%) and 240 men (43%). In terms of language regions, the picture is very different: the German-speaking cantons are represented with 503 diplomas, the French-speaking cantons with 40 diplomas and Ticino with 12 diplomas. 6 diplomas are awarded abroad.
All eight top scorers come from German-speaking Switzerland and here too the women have the upper hand: Natascha Alibrandi from Spreitenbach, Andrea Staffelbach from Buochs/NW, Marc Helfenstein from Emmenbrücke, Christoph Lenggenhager from Wildberg/ZH, Petra Studer from Buttisholz/LU, Eva Unternährer from Romoos/LU, Claudia Walter from Schaffhausen and Caroline König from Bern.

 
"Cats would buy Whiskas" - a cat from Bellach in Solothurn probably took this advertising slogan to heart and headed for a shopping center on Monday night. Unfortunately, the store with the coveted food was closed, so the cat tried to gain access through the roof. Unfortunately, this door was also closed and so the cat had no choice but to meow loudly until the good friend and helper freed it from its predicament. It is not clear from the SDA news agency's report whether the cat will now be tried for attempted burglary or whether it will try to buy the next time during the day.

At the end of last week, the Matter & Gretener agency brought the frozen baguettes from the Dr. Oetker food company's Bistro line to the fore with a guerrilla campaign under the slogan "Genuss à la française". On the night of Friday, July 13 - the day before the French national holiday - the company had a Napoleon hat put on the most popular statues in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland and tied a red, white and blue sash around them. Among others, Calvin in Geneva, Tell in Altdorf and Helvetia in Basel were given the decoration. The initially anonymous campaign caused puzzlement and media reports in various daily newspapers. It was resolved with advertisements in the Sunday press. The visual of the advertisements shows the statues with Napoleon hats and sashes and the headline: "France conquers Switzerland: Bistro by Dr. Oetker is here." The various bistro specialties are presented in the running text and a competition beckons with trips to Paris.

Last week, the city of Zurich switched off the power to four flat screens in Zurich's old town. On Monday, the operator, Jürg Knecht from the company Citylights, defended himself against this step in a communiqué. Among other things, he wrote that the city should not necessarily have enforced it. "Wrong", says Urs Spinner, media spokesman for the responsible building department. "The Federal Supreme Court said at the end of March that the screens did not have to be removed, but that they had to be taken out of service until the Lausanne judges had ruled. We therefore gave Knecht enough time to take the screens down himself." As this did not happen, the city had to enforce the Federal Court's order. Knecht went on to write that the city had, against its better judgment, given the Federal Court the impression that the shop windows in question had undergone renovation work, but this was not the case. Spinner does not wish to comment on this, as ongoing proceedings are not commented on. Knecht also said that the property management of the city of Zurich had threatened a long-standing tenant with termination if she did not give in on the flat screens. "This was information, not a threat," said Spinner. The tenant of the building in question did not know that there had been an administrative court ruling against the screens. When the property management informed her of this, she took the screens in her shop window out of operation of her own accord.
In general, Spinner wants to state that the city did not make the decision on its own: "As the city, it is our job to check whether the laws are being complied with. We are of the opinion that third-party advertising in Niederdorf does not comply with the law, and the administrative court has supported this view." The city has anchored in its mission statement that there should only be self-advertising for local businesses in the Niederdorf. The reason for this is that space in the old town, which is worthy of protection, is limited and visitors should therefore not be overwhelmed with third-party advertising: "It is clear that the location with its busy slow traffic is very attractive for the advertising industry. However, the old town is a special urban quarter in which advertising should not be permitted. According to Spinner, this is also intended to prevent the small stores' own advertising from being drowned out by a flood of advertising.
Jürg Knecht from Citylights sees things differently: "It's not true that the city had to enforce the federal court order. It was only about the suspensive effect". This was within the discretionary powers of the authorities. He sees this as a disciplinary measure by the city against the SMEs, after all, the head official of the Department of Buildings came along personally to turn off the power: "This is an act of personal revenge". In order to fight for his cause, he informed the city councillors and Mayor Leberger on Tuesday.
He also refuses to accept that the city is only doing its job when it enforces laws: "The screens were approved by the building appeal committee without any objections. The city then appealed to the administrative court, which only said that the matter was at the city's discretion. Then I went to the Federal Court". There is no law that prohibits third-party advertising in the Niederdorf: "I would know that, after all I have been doing outdoor advertising in the Niederdorf with changing advertisements since 1979". If such a law were created, he would abide by it, Knecht continued. "What's more, in this case we're talking about private property, not public land! It's none of the authorities' business what kind of furnishings are in a display case".
Even if there were a provision regarding third-party and self-promotion, the outdoor advertiser sees problems: "Where does self-promotion end and third-party advertising begin?". It is often not possible to make a clear distinction. In his case, he sees a complete violation of proportionality, as it is only about four small screens: "There are completely different forms of advertising in the city! And in Niederdorf there are sex stores, falafel stands and snack bars - my screens are a direct embellishment!". Knecht is now hoping for the Federal Court: "I am quite sure that I will win. I haven't done anything that is against the law or an ordinance." If the city of Zurich wanted to generally ban third-party advertising on private property in display cases and shop windows in the old town and core zone, it could enact a corresponding law through legislation, Knecht continues. So far, however, this has been lacking.

  
Following the merger of the German TV group ProSiebenSat.1 with the European broadcasting chain SBS, the first jobs are being cut. The Group plans to cut a total of 200 jobs. According to the news agency SDA, some of the cuts are due to the end of the tabloid magazines "Sat.1 am Mittag" and "Sat.1 am Abend". A total of 54 employees are affected by the discontinuation of the two programs. The station is also discontinuing the news program "Nacht-News" at the end of August. However, no personnel effects are expected here. No other programs are to be discontinued. However, the station is considering optimizing individual measures or structural changes. In an interview with the German news agency DPA, the broadcaster emphasized that the job cuts have nothing to do with the new owners KKR and Permira. Cost optimization measures have been under consideration for some time.

 Visitors to the market research trade fair "Research & Results 2007" can expect more than 100 exhibitors, as well as over 70 workshops and panel discussions on various topics. The industry event will take place on November 20 and 21 in Munich.
According to the trade fair's press release, many exhibitors who took part in last year's premiere are expanding their stands. In total, the exhibition will cover around 1,300 square meters of stand space, 80 percent more than in 2006. Swiss companies will also be represented with stands at the trade fair in Munich.
The accompanying program consists of 72 workshops in which exhibitors will report on trends and innovations, research tools, consumer wishes, consumer behaviour and media use, for example. The schedule of topics will be published on Marktforschungsmesse.de in September.

 In October 2006, the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper published an article entitled "In Bern, one hand washes the other" about the awarding of study and consultancy contracts by the federal government to private companies. Using the example of the Bureau for Labor and Social Policy Studies (BASS), the author wrote that a federal civil servant who is also a member of the BASS advisory board was abusing his official position to award federal contracts to the BASS. For the Press Council, the author would have been obliged to clarify the allegations by carrying out further research. According to the Press Council, the article violated the "Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Journalists" by publishing unsubstantiated allegations, the SDA wrote in a press release on Tuesday.

 Inspired by the hit MTV show «Pimp My Ride,» IP Multimedia is searching for Switzerland’s ugliest car for its Axe product as part of the «Axe pimps you up» promotion, according to a press release. Through a wide-reaching radio campaign across Switzerland and with 70 Axe promotional models in all major Swiss cities, drivers are being encouraged to vote on which driver will have their vehicle «pimped out» by a professional tuning garage.The event will be staged as a 20-minute TV show tailored to the target audience and broadcast multiple times on MTV and, in French-speaking Switzerland, on the music channel TVM3, the press release continues. The souped-up car will ultimately be unveiled to guests for the first time at a special AXE party.
On behalf of Unilever, the Special Projects department at IP Multimedia Switzerland is launching the cross-media promotion in collaboration with Compresso, an agency network specializing in below-the-line marketing that includes Vogel Szenenmarketing, Eye Media, ID Event, Fastbreak Promotion, Primeur, and Uniqueworld. The promotion will begin in July and run for several weeks.

 More job advertisements and political advertisements were placed in the Swiss press in June. Despite the real estate boom, however, real estate advertisements declined. Commercial advertising also decreased, according to the Publicitas Index. The index on the development of advertising expenditure in the daily press rose from 96.2 to 96.7 points compared to the same month last year. This increase was mainly due to the additional expenditure in June 2007 compared to the previous year. However, the upturn in job advertisements was more pronounced than usual. The index of job advertisements rose from 176.4 to 182.1 points. This corresponds to an improvement of 5.7 points.

The city of Zurich switched off the power to four advertising screens in Niederdorf last week. In doing so, it is implementing a Federal Court ruling, as the operator of the screens had not complied with the switch-off order, according to a statement from the city. The Federal Court had not yet ruled on the admissibility of the advertising. However, it has demanded that the operators take the devices out of operation until a final decision is made.
Now the operator of the flat screens, Jürg Knecht from the company Citylights, is speaking out. His company has been denied suspensive effect; however, the city of Zurich should by no means have enforced the "disproportionate enforcement", according to a statement.
Knecht writes that the city has, against its better judgment, confronted the Federal Supreme Court with arguments in its response to the appeal that are hair-raising and lack any real basis. The city claims that structural changes have been made to the shop windows in which the flat screens are installed.
According to Knecht, however, the city is aware of letters from the building owners testifying that the showcases have existed for over forty years, were illuminated and have always been used for third-party advertising. However, the display cases had often been vandalized or had posters stuck all over them. Knecht then installed flat screens in the display cases.
With its response to the complaint, the city is now obscuring the fact that a shop window in itself is an advertising installation and not its furnishings. The case involves arbitrariness, legal inequality and a massive restriction of freedom of trade and commerce, Knecht continues: "This is no trivial matter". He now hopes that the Federal Supreme Court will rule in his favor. 

 In the Netherlands, a TV show that offered a kidney as the main prize caused a sensation in early summer. Citizens were reassured to learn that the show was a media coup and the alleged donor was an actress. The Werbewoche editorial team wondered at the time in the "Last but not least" section what the whole fuss was for (see: ). The answer should not be left unanswered: As the Ministry of Health announced in The Hague on Monday, around 12,000 people have registered in the country's organ donation database since the organ donation show around six weeks ago. . According to the figures, normally only 3,000 to 4,000 people register per month. Almost all of the new registrants had agreed to donate their organs. In the Netherlands, in addition to organ donors, citizens who refuse to have their organs removed after their death must also register in the database.
In view of these figures, there is a glimmer of hope in the television sky: TV can be good for something useful after all! We can only hope that the current poster campaign in Switzerland will be similarly successful.

 The consumer goods manufacturer Johnson & Johnson has reorganized its global media budget. In Europe, the Aegis subsidiary Carat was awarded the contract. It replaces the previous budget holder Initiative. "This also applies to Switzerland," confirmed Initiative Switzerland CEO Stephan Küng to Werbewoche on request. His agency, which is part of the Interpublic network, will have to relinquish the mandate at the beginning of 2008. What is a loss for Küng's agency and its sister agencies in Europe is a gain for Interpublic's US agencies, Küng continued: In North America, the Interpublic agency Universal McCann will remain responsible for Johnson & Johnson's media relations. According to Horizont.net, slightly less than half of the approximately 3 billion dollar media budget is spent in the USA.
In Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, on the other hand, Johnson & Johnson is working with Omnicom subsidiary OMD.
In the USA, Johnson & Johnson has decided to separate traditional media tasks and strategic communications planning at the same time as reallocating the account. According to Horizont.net, this area is now shared between the New York office of the English agency Naked, the WPP subsidiary JWT and the Interpublic unit Sandbox.