Internet Google's search engine is popular. Google's public appearances, however, are not. An experience report. Anyone who uses Google is saved. Every search query, every movement on the World Wide Web is recorded. Nothing remains hidden from the giant. This should not scare you, as Google has not yet attracted attention for data misuse. On the contrary: unlike its competitors, if there are any, Google successfully refuses to hand over user data to the authorities.  
Despite data protection, Google can be scary. Because virtually nothing is known about the future plans of the all-dominant search engine. The cult company likes to shroud itself in a cloak of silence. You don't hear anything from employees or managers. The Google world is hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world. Journalists who try to get in touch with the company know what they are talking about. The information giant consistently avoids publicity.
 
Last week, however, the European top management dared to appear in front of a large audience for the first time. Philipp Schindler paid a visit to the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich. He is Google's Head of Northern Europe and, alongside the founding trio Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, one of the most important minds in the Google cosmos. The 37-year-old has been in charge of the world's most influential brand in Europe since 2005. Schindler is considered a veteran of the web. The German brought Internet marketing up to speed for Bertelsmann and Internet giant AOL. Until he was poached by Google.
 
The International Advertising Association (IAA), roughly the club for exceptional personalities in advertising and media, called for a general meeting and trend brunch. Philipp Schindler was invited to spice up the event with a presentation. The marketing specialist is a man in demand. In view of the figures presented by Google last year, there is currently no company that is more successful than the search engine giant. The reason why Schindler is standing in front of the Swiss media elite is already in the title of his presentation: "Google - part of everyday virtual life or a threat to traditional business models?" The topic is highly topical. Publishers around the world are perplexed by the advertising machine. Even here at home. People up and down the country are watching Google's expansion plans in Zurich with suspicion. 400 new jobs are to be created. The increase in personnel will mainly affect sales. But that's not all. In the USA, the technology company is experimenting with the marketing of print ads. Google's successful advertising system is to be adapted to the offline world. A move that leaves no publisher cold. The industry is skeptical. The "threat" in the title is not a nice addition.
 
Right at the beginning of the lecture, Schindler starts with a short story: "A friend of mine is standing in a store for musical instruments with his six-year-old son. The father asks his son: What instrument would you like to play? The son replies: iPod." The audience laughs, the ice is broken. For Schindler, this is not just a nice anecdote, but a warning call to the media strategists in the room. It is also not his only story as a symbol of the media revolution that is currently taking place. For the Google man, the fact that traditional business models have had their day is as certain as the Amen in church. At least that's what his presentation says. If you don't join in, it's your own fault.
 
Clever salesperson For Germans, Google is the largest and most effective marketing and sales channel. In the long term, everything else is just an afterthought.
 
Schindler presents himself as a shrewd salesman at the Trend Brunch. For him, everything is sensational and fantastic, except that Switzerland lags behind internationally in terms of advertising expenditure on the Internet. "Switzerland is so progressive. But anyone who doesn't invest in the Internet is negligent." In Schindler's world, every neighborhood store will soon be advertising on Google.
 
You can make what you want of Schindler's appearance: the participants interviewed by Werbewoche thought his presentation was above all a "pure sales show" and "window dressing".
 
Publicitas boss Otto Meier: "For me, the presentation was not quantified enough." In other words, Schindler was not specific enough. "Schindler basically left us in the dark on many points. To me, it sounded like it would be best to invest in Google today rather than tomorrow," Meier continues. Andy Hostettler from the agency JWT+H+F also felt that Schindler was leading him around by the nose: "It bothered me how Schindler gave a one-sided presentation about Google's services." Hostettler was one of the few in the audience who tried to confront the speaker with critical questions. "Nobody understands Google's advertising system. It's manipulated and determined by money," said the agency boss. We are talking about the placement of search engine entries, which are not beyond all doubt. Among the first ten hits, there are often only price comparisons and questionable blog entries. For Andy Hostettler, this is a clear indication that not everything works the way Google likes to say it does. Schindler denied the accusation.
 
After his presentation, Philipp Schindler left unnoticed without answering any further questions. Even Google Switzerland boss Andreas Schönenberger, who was also in the audience, didn't have time for an interview and referred to the PR department, which, according to the SonntagsZeitung, takes weeks to answer inquiries. For Catherine Müller from the Swiss Press Association, this behavior is nothing new: "I see it all the time. Google puts on a big show, but then there's no time for critical questions." Müller is a member of a four-person project group that is currently negotiating with Google about its news service Google.News due to copyright infringement.
 
Christian Lüscher

 For the first time, Swiss Life will be the main sponsor of the Solothurn Film Festival, the next edition of which will take place from January 21 to 27, 2008. With this year's commitment as sponsor of the Swiss Film Prize, the life insurer has already set new accents in its cultural sponsorship. According to a press release, the aim is to honor filmmaking and thus anchor the still young Swiss Life brand in the minds of the general public.

Management Shortly before the editorial deadline, Ringier announced that the management had parted company with its new man at the helm of Ringier Switzerland. Thomas Landolt, who swapped his job as former General Manager of Ringier Romania in Bucharest with the Zurich management at the beginning of the year, also took up his new position as Head of Publishing Ringier Switzerland in the new structure that the internationally active publishing house had adopted at the turn of the year. The official reason given for Landolt's resignation was a difference of opinion regarding the management of the company, with the current head of Ringier Romand, Daniel Pillard, taking over his job on an interim basis for a period of one year.  
With Pillard's appointment, the publishing house is simultaneously streamlining Ringier Switzerland. Pillard is now responsible for the French-speaking part of Switzerland, newspapers and magazines at the same time. Group spokesman Marco Castellaneta explains the reason for Landolt's departure: "It was about the way in which the publishing house is to be positioned and further developed in Switzerland." It is conceivable that the Romania fighter has stirred up too much dust in the boardroom. (rw)

 Alinghi's victory is also pleasing for the media: The final race for the America's Cup 2007 on Tuesday was watched by 227,000 viewers on SF 2, corresponding to a market share of 46.4 percent, as reported by Swiss television. The decisive phase was even watched by 324,000 people. The press also had fun with Alinghi: "A final for the history books" was the headline in the Basler Zeitung. "We are winners at sea", said the Aargauer Zeitung. Blick got carried away with the headline "We are all Alinghi" - perhaps inspired by the German tabloid Bild, which used the title "We are Pope" for the last papal election. For a country that does not border the sea, the Alinghi victory was indeed remarkable.
However, President Micheline Calmy-Rey reminded us of the geographical circumstances: "We Swiss not only find our way on the mountain, but also on the wide open sea," she wrote in her congratulatory telegram.

Promoting young talent Recently in Paris. Advertising Week visited the bestYET, a European creative competition. Advertising talents from all over the world competed against each other. The participants had to design a campaign for the Eco2 eco-label. Renault's seal of quality had to be presented as creatively as possible. During the competition, Renault's head of marketing paid the youngsters a visit to get an idea of their creative achievements. He praised the fresh ideas and approaches of the young agency talents (column on the right). Four weeks later, an advertisement from Renault caught the eye of Werbwoche: "Everyone is talking about environmental protection. Renault acts." This is followed by a lot of text. It could be the briefing of the bestYET that was printed. What's more, the design is reminiscent of the first layout attempts of a graphics apprentice. The wrong message to send to young creatives. Opel, on the other hand, is fun. The ecoFlex program, which is currently the subject of a TV campaign, may not be based on a funny idea, but the images in the commercial evoke emotions. (cl)

 From the end of August, Swiss Television channels SF1, SF2, SF info, TSI 1 and TSR 1 can only be received digitally via antenna throughout Graubünden. From the end of November, the SRG will switch off analog channels completely. As the news agency SDA writes in a report, the SRG is creating a nationwide network of transmitters for digital terrestrial television on behalf of the Federal Council. The basic supply of at least four SRG channels will be ensured with the so-called Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial. If you still want to receive Swiss channels via antennas, you have to buy a so-called set-top box. These devices cost around 150 francs.
There is no need for action for the majority of viewers, as television sets connected to cable or satellite dishes are not affected by the switch-off of the analog system.
 

 At the beginning of August, Migros Bank will have a new public relations manager in Albert Steck. Steck has been editor of the business magazine Bilanz since 2004. He previously worked for the news magazine Facts and the investor magazine Stocks, which he helped to launch. This year he won the Swiss Media Prize for Financial Journalists.

Thomas Landolt, Head of Publishing at Ringier Switzerland since the beginning of January 2007, is leaving the company with immediate effect due to differences of opinion regarding management. The departure is by mutual agreement, according to a Ringier press release. Daniel Pillard (photo), currently Head of Ringier Romand, will be responsible for Swiss publishing activities on an interim basis. At the same time, the organization of Ringier Switzerland will be streamlined: Daniel Pillard will be appointed interim Managing Director of Ringier Publishing Switzerland for one year and will be directly responsible for the French-speaking part of Switzerland, magazines and newspapers. He will take over the newspaper division from Patrick Vogt, who will be available to Ringier as a consultant at publishing and group level in future. During this time, Ringier Romandie will be managed operationally by Patrik Chabbey, the deputy managing director of this division.
Daniel Pillard has worked for Ringier since 1983, first as a journalist and deputy editor-in-chief at L'illustré, then as deputy editor-in-chief at L'Hebdo and 24heures. The 52-year-old was then editor-in-chief at L'illustré (1997 to 1999), Le Matin (2000-2001) and dimanche.ch (2001-2003).
The Executive Board of Ringier Publishing Switzerland is now composed as follows: Daniel Pillard, Christoph Bauer (Business Media), Marc Görtz (Electronic Media), Andreas Schaffner (Services; Ringier Print Adligenswil and Logistics), Jean-Luc Mauron (Human Resources) and Daniel Terzoni (Controlling).

The regional broadcasters involved in the Tele News Combi advertising combination have transferred management to Martin Bürki as of the beginning of July. Bürki takes over this function from Christian Gartmann (Radiotele), who had been in charge ad interim since the departure of Bruno Oetterli. The communications specialist Martin Bürki is Managing Director of Conradio-TV, which is responsible for the marketing of radio and television within Espace Media. He will also take over the management of Werbekombi and, according to the press release, is looking forward to continuing the cooperation with Tele News Combis, Radiotele and Publisuisse.
The marketing of Tele News Combi will remain in its existing form: The individual broadcasters handle their regional markets, Radiotele acquires and supports customers at national level and ensures processing and billing together with Publisuisse. Publisuisse also looks after its direct customers. The Tele News Combi includes the regional stations Tele Basel, TeleBärn, Tele M1, Tele Ostschweiz, Tele Südostschweiz, Tele Tell, TeleTop and Tele Züri.

 Freiburghaus und Partner strengthens its consulting team. Viviane Lyoth is the name of the new consulting group leader at the Bern-based agency. She has been working in agencies and in the media business for ten years, the company writes in a statement. She started her career at Lang Gysi Knoll in 1998. After moving to Zurich and a stint at Advico, Young & Rubicam, she worked in the media business at TA Media, Radio Zürisee and the publishing house NZZ. As a key account manager and customer consultant, Lyoth was part of the launch team of NZZ am Sonntag.  

 Two more customer magazines from Switzerland return home with a medal from the Best of Corporate Publishing (BCP) in Munich. This is the third time in a row that the customer magazine Pending from Ticino-based writing instrument manufacturer Prodir has been named one of the best corporate magazines in the B2B / Media, Culture, Entertainment category. Feldschlösschen received the Silver Award in the Special Publications - Corporate Magazine category for its customer magazine Durst. The agency Yesway was responsible for the magazine.

 A study by Berlin-based IT service provider Strato concludes that a search query on Google consumes as much electricity as an energy-saving lamp needs to light up for one hour. The IT industry's contribution to CO2 emissions is equal to that of air traffic. This means that the global energy consumption of the IT industry and its users is seriously underestimated in the whole discussion about climate protection. Although the study comes to the conclusion that overall CO2 is of course also being saved thanks to digital communication, this is still only minimal in comparison to CO2 emissions. The only question is how we consumers and daily Internet and computer users want to and can reduce these emissions?