The media scene seems to be discovering a new demographic group: After the classic target group of the under 50s, after the best agers and after children, it is now the turn of prison inmates. From November, Swiss television will be showing a docu-soap with the euphonious title "Chor auf Bewährung". It follows 15 inmates from the Aarburg youth home who form a choir together with 15 students from Kanti Zofingen. At the same time as the announcement of the SF format, we received an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung describing in detail the 70 or so prison newspapers that are produced behind bars in Germany. The largest of these, with a circulation of 5,500 copies, is a newspaper called Lichtblick from the Berlin-Tegel prison. It is apparently not the editorial content that attracts the greatest response, but the partnership advertisements, which read, for example: "33-year-old lion, currently in cage, seeks wild cat to roar together." Nevertheless, some prison governors see the newspapers as a threat, while others value them as a means of reintegration. In any case, the previously underestimated press genre seems to be meeting with a positive response.
It remains to be seen whether those politicians with a heavy hand will benefit from people behind Swedish bars appearing more frequently in the press, on the radio and on television. After all, viewers certainly want to ensure that there are fewer of them to watch - so it could be a strategy to vote for parties that put every bread thief in prison...

Eco-marketing ads and PR campaigns extolling environmental awareness and ethical corporate behavior are all the rage in US marketing. Not a week goes by without a new eco-campaign or conservation campaign being launched. Large corporations such as Wal-Mart, FedEx and Procter & Gamble are at the forefront. One of the most recent projects that stands out for its sheer volume is a 20 billion dollar initiative by Bank of America, the largest US financial institution. The aim of this initiative is to initiate environmentally friendly business projects over the next ten years and thus raise awareness of climate change. "The initiative is outstanding because Bank of America can do good business and at the same time link it to an excellent PR campaign," says Jacquelyn Ottman, business consultant and author of the book "Green Marketing". And in her opinion, this is precisely the reason why so many companies are jumping on the eco bandwagon. "It's not only good for a company's image, but also for their business."  
The new campaign by building materials company Home Depot, which a few weeks ago became the first retail group to introduce its own green label called "Eco Options", is similarly innovative. More than 2,500 environmentally friendly products, such as low-irritant insect spray or organic peat, are awarded this label. Among other things, the company is responding to the growing trend towards ecological construction.
 
Yet it was only a few years ago that global corporations such as Nike, the Gap and Chiquita made negative headlines due to unethical business practices, such as child labor in third world countries. Since then, all three companies have publicly discussed their problems, revised their methods and are now among the US corporations that are considered role models in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) - the corporate sector that deals with the ethical issues of business and encompasses areas such as employee rights, philanthropy and environmentally friendly production. "In the past, it was quality that set brands apart. Today, it's a company's reputation," says Bradley Googins, Director of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. "Customers, as well as employees, now expect more from a company in this regard." The target group for these efforts at consumer level is the so-called "Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability" (Lohas) segment, a population group of around 50 million in the USA that attaches great importance to the environment, human rights and health in its purchasing decisions.
 
Some companies began setting up community relations departments back in the 1990s, often for the benefit of the company's immediate local community. But corporate efforts to communicate these activities to the outside world have skyrocketed in the past year, says Jay Whitehead, CEO of business magazine The CRO. "The magazine was founded in the same year that companies such as General Electric, BP, Toyota and Ecolab began to move away from defensive communications practices in 2006 and aggressively invest money in CSR to sell more products, attract capital and recruit talented employees." According to Whitehead, a total of 31.7 billion dollars was spent on CSR in 2006 alone.
 
However, industry observers also believe that as consumers become more environmentally aware, skepticism about the truthfulness of such campaigns will grow. For example, the "Ecomagination" campaign launched by General Electric (GE) back in 2005, which promoted the use of environmentally friendly energy, was long regarded as a model for convincing green advertising. But not all green marketers are convinced, as GE has not only produced more energy-efficient locomotives since then, but has also lobbied to thwart planned new government smog regulations. "GE is going against its own principles," says BJ Cook, Director at the eco-marketing agency Digital Telepathy, who points out that this is hardly discussed in public. "They wanted to capitalize on it first and foremost, and they did that by creating brand awareness among customers."
 
Gerti Schön, New York
 
 
 
"CSR is integrated everywhere"  
Stanley Litow,
responsible for Corporate Social Responsibility at IBM, talks about ecology as a marketing tool.  
WW: How can CSR be integrated into a successful marketing and communication strategy?  
Stanley Litow: First and foremost, you communicate your principles to customers and business partners. We operate a 47 billion dollar supply chain, these are companies that work with us on a regular basis. There is a code of conduct for these companies that not only includes our CSR practices, but also what we expect from our partners. CSR is integrated into all our activities, our marketing, our advertising, our customer relations, our employee policies and business relationships.  
WW: How credible can a company be that constantly praises itself?  
SL: It's important to involve third parties rather than going it alone. IBM, for example, has started a network to promote technology for humanitarian purposes, and many organizations have reported on it. We leave it to others to praise our progress.  
WW: What is the key to a successful CSR policy?  
SL: You need the right content. You can't take bad balance sheets and then try to sell them as something positive, that would be like putting lipstick on a bulldog. People aren't stupid, they realize when you're trying to soap them up.  
Interview Gerti Schön
 
 

Image agencies Keystone has a new image portal. This is primarily intended to make it easier for advertisers to work with stock images. The new image portal was designed by Nose. For Keystone, the result is a successful example of how business processes can be optimized thanks to good design. The Internet is the most important sales channel for Switzerland's largest picture agency. With two new entrances, creative professionals should now be able to find their images "more easily and quickly", as Rainer Kupper from Keystone explains. Previously, the portal was geared more towards the needs of media professionals. However, as Keystone sees itself increasingly in a crowded international market, it wants to position itself even more intensively as a picture agency for advertisers in the future, as Kupper sees "the opportunity for growth" here.  
Keystone has over two million images available online. There are also eleven million in the physical archive. Keystone also offers extensive expertise in the field of history. Through Keystone, creative professionals in Switzerland also have exclusive access to some of the world's most important picture agencies. The attractive presentation of images is crucial for the creative market. The images offered on the web portal are now displayed on a deep black background and much larger than usual. The portal thus becomes a "digital lightbox".
 
The new service is being advertised with a campaign by Euro RSCG. This works with satirized "stock images" that were actually staged by Keystone photographer Martin Rütschi with real customers of the image archive. "We thought it was a funny idea from Euro RSCG to capture advertising agencies in the style of these terribly clichéd business stock images, proving that bad images can damage the best image. We were happy to provide the self-irony required for this. Our mothers will probably be calling the agency soon and saying that we're finally dressed properly," says Markus Ruf about this gag. And Markus Gut adds: "I took part in the subject because I think the campaign idea is good."
 
And what do they think about the use of agency images? Markus Ruf: "Agency images are often not suitable for classic advertising because the idea calls for an image that doesn't exist anywhere else, or because the AD has a visual language in mind that can only be realized with a photographer. However, if you need exotic landscapes or famous buildings, for example, image agencies such as Keystone can be ideal. Occasionally, brochures and annual reports can also be illustrated with agency images. And of course we need them for layout purposes."
 
Markus Gut: "Stock images wrongly have a much worse reputation than they really have. The idea determines the image. Stock images can therefore theoretically be used anywhere."
 
Andreas Panzeri

Distribution The Direct Mail Company has chosen to go it alone in distributing the free newspaper .ch, making itself the market leader among private delivery companies.Markus F. Hof, Director of the Direct Mail Company (DMC), is not to be envied, as he has the Herculean task of getting the distribution of the free newspaper .ch up and running by mid-September: early delivery from Monday to Friday to the doorsteps of apartment blocks with at least five households - in Zurich, Basel, Bern and Winterthur. At the beginning of June, the contract was then extended to St. Gallen and Lucerne. It remains to be seen whether DMC, which has previously only been active in daytime delivery, will be able to achieve this. After all, the market for newspaper carriers is quite dry, as other free titles and new Sunday titles are currently also intensively looking for carriers.  
For a moment, Hof also seemed to doubt whether going it alone would work. In mid-June, at any rate, he stated that he had sounded out other early morning and daytime delivery companies "for possible synergies" (WW 24/07). In the meantime, however, Hof has changed its strategy. He turned down an offer from Zuvo, the delivery organization of Tamedia and NZZ. Similarly in Bern. "There was an intention to cooperate between DMC and AWZ. In the meantime, however, DMC decided to set up early delivery for .ch independently," says Marco Hinni, Managing Director of AWZ Bern. Markus F. Hof confirms this. He decided against the Zuvo offer for "technical publishing considerations". He turned down the offer from the publisher-independent AWZ, on the other hand, because it had "no infrastructure for early delivery".
 
It may be understandable that Hof is wary of the publisher's own delivery companies. However, they can all tolerate competing products. The rejection of AWZ, on the other hand, is a cop-out, as DMC itself must first build up an early delivery infrastructure. Why should this not be possible for AWZ?
 
Opportunity for major expansion
The real reason for Hof going it alone is probably something else: The additional contract for St. Gallen and Lucerne offers DMC a unique opportunity for expansion. Until now, the Swiss Post subsidiary was "only" active in the cities of Zurich and Winterthur as well as in more rural areas, but now it will be present in the six most important German-speaking Swiss cities in one fell swoop. And on a daily basis. In the early delivery sector, the Swiss Post subsidiary is thus becoming the most important rival to Zuvo and its partners. With one difference: DMC early delivery is unaddressed.
 
However, twelve regionally active and mostly publisher-dependent daily delivery companies are coming under even greater pressure. These are networked in the Swiss Direct Mail (SDM) association with the Swiss Post subsidiaries DMC and Epsilon. Thanks to this cooperation, each of the 14 SDM members is able to offer nationwide distribution of unaddressed advertising material twice a week. However, the SDM also guarantees that each member can have its own area where it is not in competition with any SDM partner. DMC is now threatening to disrupt this order in Bern, Basel, St. Gallen and Lucerne, because the Swiss Post subsidiary will be encroaching on the territories of SDM partners AWZ, Distriba, Prisma and Anzeiger Luzern for the distribution of .ch. Markus F. Hof emphasizes that DMC will only be active in early delivery, which does not affect the SDM contracts. However, the SDM partners see this somewhat differently. At Distriba, Managing Director Alexander Pytloun speaks of a "breach of contract". The others are more cautious, but all express concern that DMC could also distribute unaddressed advertising material together with .ch in future - volume that would then be lost to SDM partners. "This fear exists - and I don't want to simply banish it to the realm of dreams," says Marco Hinni, Managing Director of AWZ Bern, who is also Chairman of the SDM Coordination Committee.
 
The SDM coordinator's statement shows that Hof was unable to dispel the concerns of the SDM partners. No wonder: instead of giving concrete answers, Hof asks counter-questions or makes do with bogus arguments. This was certainly the case when Werbewoche asked him about his partners' concerns: he initially pretended that DMC had to distribute the free .ch magazine exclusively. But this is demonstrably not true. Hof's client Sacha Wigdorovits would even welcome more early delivery customers at DMC (WW 24/07).
 
New balance of power
Hof then tried to make it credible that the DMC early delivery was of little interest to direct marketing customers, as it only served blocks of flats and was therefore incomplete. But the question arises as to why the free newspaper .ch distributed by DMC should be a success. After all, the paper has to make do with the same gaps in coverage. Hof squirms. "It makes no sense for me to torpedo the well-functioning SDM cooperation," he says, slightly annoyed. Maybe so. But that is still not a rejection of the distribution of advertising material. Above all, however, the SDM partners are also aware that even if DMC refrains from doing so for the time being, the company is in a position to launch a corresponding offer at any time.
 
Hof's behavior is therefore feeding the concerns of his partners. Nevertheless, SDM coordinator Marco Hinni does not want to become active for the time being. This is understandable, as DMC, already the largest SDM member, now has at least as much weight as all private SDM partners combined thanks to the .ch distribution. In future, DMC will be able to set the tone and probably also negotiate certain special conditions. Soon it will no longer be dependent on the SDM cooperation, but will have a sufficiently broad base to be able to go its own way at any time. No other SDM partner is in a position to do this.
 
Markus Knöpfli
 
 
 
Contract with Distriba terminated  
Two weeks ago, Markus F. Hof
terminated its contract with Distriba, which belongs to Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM), at the end of 2007 "as a precautionary measure". A bold step in SDM's current situation. But Hof is reassuring: He had only terminated one of two contracts with Distriba. One governs the SDM cooperation, the other the cooperation in distributing the BZM free newspaper Baslerstab: DMC distributes the regional edition of Baslerstab twice a week. He had only terminated this in order to make price adjustments. It is quite conceivable that Hof first wants to test how high he can now push his demands in view of the changed balance of power at SDM. (mk)

With her talent factory, Andrea Wedel wants to help ensure that the advertising industry invests more in people than in pitches and hardware. "It's a shame every day that you can't work in an inspired way. It's a shame for the employee and a shame for the company." This insight from Andrea Wedel is not just a philosophy that she uses to coach clients in her talent incubator today. It was also her personal decision to leave a senior position after 16 years in advertising and start something completely new from the bottom up.  
In 2003, the strategy planner at Fisch Meier Direkt and manager of Switzerland's most successful DM agency felt "tired of advertising" and announced to her husband and agency manager Gilbert Fisch that she was leaving the agency after twelve years. This was "no problem" for the two of them. However, she had a bit more of a headache when she realized that it was not so easy to find a new professional challenge that suited her.
 
What lucky women have at such times is a good friend. She knew what was slumbering inside Andrea Wedel and came up with the right tip: "You have to get into HR." Since then, Human Resources has been the challenge that has allowed Andrea Wedel to fill her time with inspired work again. She first "apprenticed" as an assistant in a management consultancy, where she supervised "hundreds of assessments" in the HR department over three years. She continued her psychological training and, as a former executive, also learned to coach managers. "Some of them were people who had slipped into a management position and were leading more intuitively than consciously," says Wedel, explaining her work, from which she has also benefited a great deal herself. "You learn how we humans 'work' and why we behave in certain situations in a certain way and not differently."
 
After three years, these experiences from countless management meetings led to the consultant feeling accepted in her new profession and also specialized enough to want to realize her own ideas even more in the future.
 
In spring 2006, Andrea Wedel founded her Talent-Schmiede in an office partnership with her good friend, who also runs a recruitment agency on Zurich's Bleicherweg. Unlike an established recruitment agency, however, Wedel's consultancy aims to do more than "just" place talent. Her USP: "I have worked in the communications industry for 16 years and have experienced all stages myself, from young advertising assistant to consulting group leader to strategist and 20-man/woman unit manager. I also have a second career in personnel selection and development. I would now like to combine these two areas of experience."
 
Advertisers invest in pitches, PCs and creative minds. Wedel believes that "much more would be possible". Creativity and entrepreneurial success in all areas could be multiplied "if you have the right people in the right environment". With her Talent-Schmiede, she would therefore like to advise agency owners, managing directors and executives on how they can create an environment in their team where talent can best develop. In addition to general personnel recruitment, Schmiede also wants to provide advice and coaching on personnel development. The agency's name says it all, as Wedel is convinced that "everyone has talent. The only question is which one." The second important analysis: is someone with this talent in the right place and are they already making full use of it?
 
Together with the client, Wedel considers "what can be done specifically to ensure that employees can contribute all their talents and thus want to stay with the company". For Wedel, staff turnover in the industry is far too high. "Those who don't feel supported and valued try another agency," she says. And currently, the upturn in the economy has led to more people wanting a change. Is this also increasing the need for the services she offers?
 
"The advertising industry is still doing far too little. When an employee is hired, he or she is still 'an investment in the future', but afterwards is usually just a cost factor. This tendency is strong in advertising," Wedel has observed. Hardly any agencies have a specialist department for personnel strategy and personnel development. And if they do, then only for personnel administration. The situation is similarly poor in the area of training. Nothing is done that goes beyond the practical and purely technical. Other service industries are much further ahead in this respect, investing specifically and systematically in the personal and leadership development of their key employees.
 
Wedel can present Spinas Gemperle as an example of how the Talent Forge was able to support the growth of an agency in a meaningful and successful way. The specialists for communication in the NGO sector have grown from two to twenty people in a short space of time. Many of these employees originally came from the creative department. Together with Lorenz Spinas and the management team, Talent-Schmiede has therefore introduced an organizational form into the agency, structured processes and used an "employee barometer" to analyze how processes can be optimized, how efficiency can be increased and how they can contribute to inspired work.
 
In other consultations, Wedel can also come to the conclusion that a company has filled key positions with the wrong people. And time and again, she finds that "the number one reason for dismissal is still the line manager", which is also statistically proven. However, intelligent owners are slowly realizing this and, in sparring with her, are realizing "that you can't just demand more and more from employees, you also have to think about the environment so that people are motivated and can give their best". After just one year, the talent incubator is already very well utilized. Nevertheless, it is still the norm for many agencies that the "level of suffering must be very high" before the help of a coach is requested.
 
However, "suffering" can also mean fun for Andrea Wedel. That's when she completely disconnects from advertising once again. Like this week, for example. The enthusiastic triathlete will be running, swimming and cycling across the country for seven days in the longest Gigathlon in Switzerland, from Basel to Chur to Nyon to Bern. Otherwise, she still likes to relax by painting. - After all, everyone has more than one talent that they sometimes have to live out.
 
Andreas Panzeri

 The media agency Mediaxis-MPG will be looking after the world's largest cleaning products manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser from September 1, 2007. According to the press release, Mediaxis prevailed over various competitors in a multi-stage competition thanks to its strategic expertise and strength in purchasing. The media agency was founded in 2000 with just three employees. With average annual growth of 20 percent, it is well ahead of the market trend for advertising expenditure in Switzerland. Mediaxis now has 15 employees and serves clients such as Orange, Swisscanto, Ricola and Calida.

 In collaboration with the media agency Mediabox, Meyer Werbung has designed a competition for the tobacco importer Oettinger in which smokers can demonstrate their ability to roll their own cigarettes in several "Rollympic disciplines". The conditions for taking part in the Rollympics 2007 are simple: you need tobacco, paper and a digital camera. You roll a cigarette, photograph it and submit it in one of three categories: the most beautiful cigarette, the longest cigarette and the thickest cigarette.
At the same time, users can act as judges on the official Rollympics website Slowsmoking.ch and rate other entries. As a result, a cheerful little community of cigarette artists was created within a very short space of time, as can be seen in a press release from Meyer Werbung.
The competition is advertised via advertisements, flyers, banners and promotions, where tobacco pouches labeled "Official Training Equipment" are distributed.

Culture TBS Identity takes a look behind the curtain with sketches for the Theaterspektakel 2007. Theater always means the world and is therefore a design: social design, sketch, speech and counter-speech, experiment and pleasurable play in one. This definition has been summarized by TBS Identity. The Zurich-based design and communications agency also derives the concept for its campaign for the 2007 theater spectacle from this fact. On the design level, CD Daniel Leber and his team work with the well-known doodle drawings that we all have to get rid of casually, unconsciously and subversively somewhere during long telephone conversations or meetings.  
Each of the three subject series is based on a provocative deletion of one of the three components of the festival logo and the culturally and politically correct and incorrect ideas that replace the deletion, only to be overwritten and overdrawn again. A movement that aims for infinity.
 
The Zürcher Theater Spektakel takes place from August 16 to September 2. The subjects of the campaign are omnipresent on posters, advertisements, streetcar posters, program newspaper, e-board and on the Internet. More than just sketches of the program can also be found at www.theaterspektakel.ch.
 
Andreas Panzeri

Associations After around 100 days in office, BSW President Frank Bodin invited guests to a clarifying breakfast. The traditional media breakfast with the BSW Board of Directors took place at the Park Hyatt in Zurich for the first time this year. In terms of content, the mood was also intended to radiate a little more international spirit. "The challenge of globalization" was one of the keywords, and both BSW President Frank Bodin and Vice President Peter Felser were convinced that Swiss BSW agencies can certainly hold their own in international competition.  
"Promoting Switzerland as an advertising location" is the name of a concept that has now been incorporated into a brochure entitled "Creativity Swiss Made". The 90-page brochure about Swiss creativity was first published in Cannes and is intended to be the new annual halberd in the fight against clients who are willing to emigrate. For Felser, it remains an illusion that companies headquartered in London will have their advertising created in Switzerland. However, he sees an opportunity with the many international corporations that have their headquarters here. The aim is to show them: "Creativity is one of Switzerland's assets."
 
Bodin was also able to announce that a BSW ranking will be calculated again in October 2007. The association's agencies are to submit their figures to a trustee for this purpose. The trustee will then compile a ranking list without publishing the turnover.
 
With the Swiss-Effie, the BSW wants to announce the "king award" of the many advertising prizes in August. Entries can be submitted until October. The long deadline is intended to take into account the fact that participation is associated with greater administrative effort. Ralph Büchi will be the president of the jury this time. Peter Felser dares to predict that "classic approaches can also be highly efficient and not just cross-media campaigns". The Board of Directors noted that expenditure on classic advertising has reached a similar peak to 2002.
 
One consequence of this: At the moment, the market for good people has dried up. Otherwise, the ADC- BSW Creative School will take place annually instead of every two years. There will be an intensive seminar on advertising effectiveness research and an intensive seminar on strategic planning.
 
Andreas Panzeri
 
 
Young Creatives Award A new competition
is intended to promote new talent. The previous U28 young talent competition will be replaced by the ADC Young Creatives Award. The new ADC competition will take place for the first time in October 2007 and will be held annually in future. Practitioners from advertising agencies and students who are still 28 years old in June of the following year can take part.  
The briefing will take place in mid-August
in the form of a warm-up event. A work is to be designed for Amnesty International, which will also be published by the client.  
Three winning teams
in the categories Print and Outdoor, Film as well as Web and New Media can go to Cannes as a reward.

Marketing 24seven is a blog portal from marketing researcher Concept Zurich. The aim is to follow consumers' day-to-day consumption live. "The staff are unfriendly and demotivated. The food is simply bad," writes a certain CMH79 not in a restaurant guide, but on the blog portal 24seven. CMH79 is one of a total of 40 bloggers who report on their consumer lives there.  
24seven is a project of the marketing researcher Concept Zurich. The company specializes in qualitative marketing research. Launched for customers at the beginning of June, the portal is something of a mini-blogosphere. Participants write in a closed environment about their feelings and actions in the world of consumption. They don't have to take anyone or anything into consideration, because the creators want to know as precisely as possible what makes consumers tick.
 
The authors are free in their choice of topics, and also in their tone. The spectrum of expression ranges from well-behaved and correct to cheeky and witty. Very few of them mince their words. Defects are exploited, illustrated and discussed down to the last detail. If the environment were freely accessible, the entries might have legal consequences. However, Concept Zurich does not want to impose any behavior on the participants. The writers should freely and unadulteratedly document the intricacies of their lives.
 
Insight into the world of thought
Alain Messerli is the project manager of 24seven. The political scientist intends to firmly establish blogs as a research tool. "We are dealing with a new consumer today," says Messerli. He is referring to the "performing consumer" who, contrary to the stereotypes and clichés defined in marketing research, acts irrationally, redefines brands and lives out his creativity on the web. According to Messerli, blogs should help to trace the new consumer behavior. This is because a blog can be used to analyze not only the content, but also the linking, the discourse among each other and the mutual evaluations.
 
Messerli emphasizes that his blog portal is by no means intended to be representative. Instead, 24seven should develop into a trend barometer for decision-makers. After all, bloggers are regarded as reliable trendsetters.
 
Authenticity is very important to Alain Messerli. He wants the goings-on on his platform to be honest and open. However, the number of participants who write off the cuff is decreasing. Since January, when 24seven was launched, only around 1700 entries have been written. That's an average of around 50 entries per person. Compared to the active blogosphere on the Internet, the community is rather reserved in its writing. The cultivated blog cosmos is also reserved when it comes to commenting. The diarists do not write for free. For their blog mandate, the participants receive 150 francs per month, more than the amateur journalists earn on the web. For Messerli, the incentive is not just a reward for writing. The amount is intended to set the community's thinking apparatus to full consumption.
 
While the blog entries of individual participants remain constant, others become lazy and say goodbye to the project. Roman Hanhart, who runs the Yoda blog privately and has a good reputation in the Swiss blog scene, is critical of the project. He himself has been involved since the beginning, but after 22 entries he says: "24seven is too fake, too silly and simply not lively enough for me, like the real scene." He feels forced into a mold by the founders of 24seven. Hanhart speaks blog text: "For people who like to report on their consumption preferences, who want to write something about every fart, it may be quite good. But the blog constraint is not for me."
 
The creators of the project have set themselves ambitious goals. They want to employ 120 bloggers. The young portal is currently being marketed. The environment is currently freely accessible to 350 registered customers. This is set to change soon. Messerli wants to offer exclusive blog studies. Observing 100 writers for two weeks will cost the equivalent of 60,000 francs.
 
Christian Lüscher

Advertising film The film industry's "Eidgenössische" is once again open for entries. His grandfather is called Oscar, his uncle Cesar and a distant aunt is called Lola. Edi comes from a pretty illustrious family. Accordingly, a few creative people from Switzerland would like to meet him in person. There is now another opportunity to do so. On November 20, the Swiss Film Award for advertising, industrial and corporate films will once again be presented at a grand gala. This will be the eighth edition of the creative competition under the patronage of the Federal Department of Home Affairs. The "Eidgenössische" of the film industry is organized by the Swissfilm Association. Entries can be submitted from now until August 31 in the three categories "Commercials", "Corporate" and "Clips & Trailers". Gold, silver and bronze Edis as well as special prizes will be awarded for the three best productions. The works must have been created within the last twelve months and have been realized by a Swiss production company or by Swiss directors. A jury approved by the FDHA evaluates the films within the individual categories according to various criteria. Further information can be found at www.edinet.ch.  
Despite being around for eight years, Edi is no longer quite the same either. The entire communication presence for the competition is now managed by Cavegnwerbung, true to the motto: "Comrades: The Swiss Confederation is calling!"
 
Andreas Panzeri

Digital printing The Kodak Graphic Communication Group is expanding its digital printing business. Kodak Graphic Communication Group (Kodak GCG) can now offer an attractive portfolio: This ranges from scanners, workflow and proofing solutions to computer-to-plate imagesetters including consumables. The range is rounded off by digital printing machines and solutions for the creative sector. 
Kodak GCG has also adapted its organizational structures accordingly in the past. The Group is divided into four divisions: Prepress Solutions, Digital Solutions, Document Imaging and Enterprise Solutions. Kodak GCG is currently strengthening its range of products and services in the various areas in a targeted manner, thereby also eliminating certain weak points.
 
The main points of a Kodak GCG presentation in Belgium were the introduction and demonstration of the new Kodak NexPress S3000 and Kodak NexPress M700 digital printing systems, new tools for the Kodak Unified Workflow and a revised Kodak NexStation. During the press conference, reference was also made to the 10,000 CtP installations that have now been installed, which shows the true size of Kodak GCG.
 
Digital printing from a single source Probably the most important innovation is the NexPress M700. This is a high-performance, high-quality digital printing system in the mid-range in terms of performance. The M700 prints up to 70 A4 color pages/min (single-sided printing). With a maximum sheet format of 330 ¥ 487 mm, the M700 covers a grammage range of 64 to 300 g/m2. Interestingly, the printing unit of the M700 comes from Canon, the rest was developed by Kodak. Operation, maintenance concept and workflow technology are the same as for the NexPress 2100plus, 2500 and 3000 models. This allows Kodak to significantly expand its digital printing portfolio.
 
The Kodak NexPress S3000 is also new. As the most powerful machine, it rounds off the top end of the NexPress platform. According to Kodak, the system is particularly suitable for user companies with the highest demands on productivity and print volumes.
 
News from the workflow front Kodak also presented the new version 4.0 of its Prinergy workflow system, which features the Adobe PDF Print Engine, allowing transparencies to be processed natively. Transparent objects in PDF files are now preserved when processed by the Color Matcher (color matching) and Trapper (trapping) software modules. This means that transparencies can be preserved throughout the entire digital production process without reduction and output in high quality without post-processing.
 
The standardized workflow grows with the addition of Kodak's web-based InSite portal products to Prinergy. These software solutions enable efficient, centrally managed collaboration and communication between print shops, customers, publishers and creative and advertising agencies.
 
Paul Fischer