Reader advertising For the first time in Switzerland, you can tell the world what you think in public by text message. And it's completely legal. At the bus stop on Rosengartenstrasse in Zurich, there is a WOZ poster from SFLB inviting passers-by to express their opinion. The slogans can be sent by text message to the number 9988, and the best one is sprayed on the wall every day - under the WOZ motto "Have your own opinion".

Kosmetik Exxtra has stopped time in a commercial for the cosmetics line Zoé from Migros The fight against age is a central theme in the communication of many beauty and care products. In the cosmetics sector, Zoé is Migros' most important own brand. The products are divided into three lines - Revital, Ultra Sensitive and MoistProtect. These competently care for different skin types according to their specific needs. Now, of course, the Exxtra advertisers around CD Dieter Hofmann also know that true beauty knows no age and therefore does not need a cream that turns back the clock. Nevertheless, such a desire is always present in people's minds, as many other campaigns for corresponding cosmetics show. However, Zoé does not want to make any false promises here. The message is more charming: Zoé makes women more beautiful - regardless of age - but not younger.
The new TV commercial shows a woman grooming herself with Zoé. Time passes, which is easy to see from the various fashion trends visible in the film, from the eighties to the nineties to the present day. Ultimately, the woman has become older and more mature, but by no means less beautiful. On the contrary.       
 
Andreas Panzeri

Job placement Job placement in the construction and technical trades must above all be quick and uncomplicated. This is the secret to the success of Bellini, a specialized temporary and permanent placement agency with a total of ten agencies in the cantons of Zurich, Aargau, Zug and Lucerne. Bellini employs 600 to 800 workers every day, and the trend is rising. The Ustermer agency Walder Werber has now packed Bellini's strength into a campaign. The ten posters and advertisements show how you can successfully find work in the construction industry with a flick of the wrist.

Umbrella campaigns Publicis has produced even more commercials for Migros "due to high demand". Cinema and television audiences can rejoice, say the creatives at Publicis: the series of new short Migros image spots continues unabated. From now on, four more films will entertain all those who love Swiss products, cycling, culture and fresh vegetables. What if Migros didn't exist? Based on this premise, the new commercials creatively answer basic questions posed by Migros customers in funny short films. A customer would have to climb to all mountain heights for local products - if it weren't for Migros, which offers such specialties much more easily accessible in the store.
Another spot dramatizes how our country would actually be a lot poorer in terms of culture without Migros' famous Culture Percentage. What's funny about this spot is how Migros' long-standing signature tune is played in unexpected versions again and again.
The topic of "freshness" is illustrated with "flying salads". The resolution in the commentary: they are so fresh because, on average, a salad leaves a store every ten seconds in Switzerland.
The popular-looking films were realized by Condor and Patrick Senn. As CD for the entire campaign, Jean-Etienne Aebi oversees the creative freshness.   
Andreas Panzeri

Dairy farmer Ruf Lanz has taught Lovely the cow yoga, demonstrating that milk can still give you strong bones. The "Jungle Man" commercial is the first sequel to Lovely's story in Ruf Lanz's new barn. The film is now being followed by the print campaign. "Milk gives strong bones" is once again the nutritional message of the Swiss Milk Producers SMP. This time, the creative implementation is aimed particularly at women, as they are more frequently affected by bone fragility in old age than men. Lovely has therefore discovered yoga, which is currently experiencing a real boom in Switzerland - especially among women. With playful ease, Lovely demonstrates three yoga poses in which all the weight rests on her bones.
The cow shows off her amazing yoga skills in a national billboard as well as in advertisements ranging from double-page to small format. These appear in titles aimed at the general public as well as in women's magazines such as Annabelle and Femina.
 
Andreas Panzeri

Newspaper advertising In Paris, the Swiss took third place in the "best YET - best Young European Team". A respectable success. For three years, advertisers from well-known agencies created the "Only an advertisement can do that" campaign for the Swiss Press Association. Since 2006, the association has been focusing on young talent. As part of the Young Creative competition, young creatives are allowed to design the advertisements. And rightly so. The competition showed that young people are in no way inferior to the established players in terms of creative output. 86 entries were submitted this year - 8 more than last year. The 10 best advertisements can currently be seen in almost all Swiss print media. The best go to ParisIn addition, the jury selects two teams each to take part in the international "best YET - best Young European Team" competition. A meeting with prestige. The best young talents from nine European countries face each other there. The best idea wins an invitation to the Cannes Advertising Festival. This year, Isabelle Hauser (Advico Young & Rubicam), Martin Arnold (Felser Spillmann Leo Burnett), Beni Haslimeier (Wirz) and Iris Alder (Jung von Matt/Limmat) represented Switzerland.
36 creatives met in the French metropolis of Paris last weekend for the competition. The advertising talents were given their brief at the prestigious Atelier Richelieu. The aim: a campaign for Renault. Eco2, Renault's eco-label, stands for cleanliness, environmentally friendly production and recycling. All three aspects had to be put on paper in an advertising campaign. Not an easy task. Equipped with a few pens and white paper, the teams set to work. Incidentally, the assignment was not made up. Eco2 is an ongoing project at Publicis.
The Swiss team with Martin Arnold and Beni Haslimeier showed enthusiasm and immediately set to work. The task allowed plenty of room for creativity. There are many approaches. "As it has to be," say Arnold and Haslimeier.
Traces of fatigueThe Hauser/Alder duo took a break. The last few days had been too exhausting. The team left the studio immediately after the briefing. Later, they preferred the typical Parisian café to the studio premises for their creative work. Isabelle Hauser: "We wanted to break out of the stressful and restrictive environment of the studio on the first day."
The Swiss delegation was supported by Luigi Del Medico. Del Medico, who worked for Publicis in Zurich for a long time, now works as a freelancer. The creative coach was surprised by the output of the young people. Many good approaches with potential were presented. What surprised him most, however, was the fact that both teams came up with the same idea independently of each other - something that has happened to him before. The women's team was allowed to present the double piece. The shock came hours later: the French had sketched out the same idea. And the English and Dutch teams, it turned out at the presentation, had also designed a duplicate. The teams took it with humor.
Swift selection processThe jury, chaired by Olivier Altmann, Chief Creative Officer Publicis France, met briefly. There were no long debates. The winner had already been decided. Five of the eight top advertisers chose the Swedes, Martin Lundgren and Ted Harry Mellström, as the winners. Silver went to Germany and bronze to Isabelle Hauser and Iris Alder, a respectable success on the international stage. Last year, the Swiss team's ideas did not make it onto the shortlist. Hauser and Alder owe their good ranking to Austrian juror Tibor Barci and jury president Altmann. They were enthusiastic about the design with the wrapped organic car (see right) and, contrary to the opinion of their colleagues, included the ad on the shortlist in a second round. Nevertheless, the animal subjects from Ferrari, Saab and Peugeot went through with the statement "The car industry has since its beginning used nature as a front figure. Quite a big mockery if you ask us" emerged as the undisputed winner.
Del Medico, who had to return home early because of a customer, is surprised at the success of the Swiss women. The mechanism behind the idea is not new or particularly creative. But it simply works well. Del Medico praised the teams' achievements: "Putting such good ideas on paper in such a short time is testament to the high standard of the participants. Both teams mastered the task with aplomb."
Toni Vetterli from the Swiss Press Association and Sabine Tschopp from Publimedia were also pleased with how this year's best YET went. Despite the success of the event and the positive feedback, they want to improve it. The delegates agreed that the jury process in particular had been too loose. Clear instructions and guidelines were lacking. It was a shame that the jury chose the winner in a rush, two of the jurors said afterwards. Isabelle Hauser and Iris Alder are nevertheless satisfied: "At the end of the day, it always takes a bit of luck. We were surprised that we were able to convince the jury with our idea."
 
 
 
The "best YET - best Young European Team 2007" competition took place in Paris this year. 36 people from nine European countries took part in the creative competition. The winner will go to the advertising festival in Cannes. Participation in the best YET is made possible by Publimedia. The leading print marketer and the Swiss Press Association see the best YET as the ideal vehicle for promoting young talent and genre marketing. The host country in 2008 will be Sweden. The winners Martin Lundgren and Ted Harry Mellström, both from DDB, clearly prevailed in Paris.
Christian Lüscher

The Bern-based agency Matter & Gretener has designed a website intro on its own behalf that will hopefully not be skipped: The animation on www.mattergretener.ch neatly lines up one ad after another - for Dr. Oetker to Jeep, from Tribis to Hero. The subjects are presented in the form of stamps. With the intro, Matter & Gretener communicates the message "We make brands". The brand-brand idea is also used offline: In the form of an additional value stamp alongside the regular franking on agency mail.

Corporate Communications: Can number-crunching auditors and creative communications professionals work together? Mark-Steffen Buchele of the University of Leipzig discusses the still-young discipline of communications controlling. WW: The Art Directors Club—an organization consisting exclusively of advertising professionals—honors the industry’s most creative communications campaigns every year. Surely auditors should be the ones evaluating these based on efficiency criteria—following the principle that «creativity is whatever has the greatest impact on the market»?Mark-Steffen Buchele: Certainly, creativity must ultimately pay off in the market—depending on what is being communicated, the effects for companies or organizations become apparent in the short, medium, or long term. And usually in such a way that one cannot attribute the results to individual measures. So if you look at the creative process on its own, advertisers are certainly the best people to evaluate it. From a business perspective, the best solution is when both factors align: achieving the greatest impact through the best creativity. Comprehensive communication controlling helps interpret this. WW: Creative professionals don’t like having controllers «meddle» in their craft. How do you manage to convince creative experts of the value of your method? Mark-Steffen Buchele: No one is «meddling» in the other’s craft. On the contrary: both enter into a kind of symbiotic relationship—rational frameworks provide emotional, creative processes with the optimal direction for achieving corporate goals. Since none of us can predict exactly how communication will work, communications controlling helps identify changes early on. You can tell when something is getting out of hand, and strategies and measures can then be adjusted and optimized. WW: What exactly does the term «communications controlling» mean?Mark-Steffen Buchele: It means measuring, evaluating, and managing communications measures based on specific key performance indicators. It makes the communication management process transparent. This allows the contribution of communication to the company to be assessed. WW: Why does a company need communications controlling in the first place? Mark-Steffen Buchele: Every company already measures all kinds of areas, from sales to production, so why not communication as well? The central question is: How does communication contribute to achieving the company’s goals? WW: Which group is more skeptical of this discipline—auditors or communications professionals? Mark-Steffen Buchele: Our survey of controllers revealed that there is certainly an understanding of the specific characteristics of communications. What controllers want to know is: Were the communications goals achieved, and how were they achieved? Communications controlling is a process. The auditor must be brought on board and involved early on. Resistance from communications managers arises when it comes to disclosing processes and making measures verifiable.WW: If everything is viewed through the lens of controlling, isn’t there a risk that easily measurable activities will be favored at the expense of others? Mark-Steffen Buchele: Not if the focus is always on the goals rather than starting with the measures. Take the example of an annual poster campaign—often justified with the excuse, “We’ve always done it this way.” But is that really the appropriate means of achieving the goals?WW: Doesn’t communications controlling end up stifling creativity? After all, it isn’t measurable.Mark-Steffen Buchele: Creativity still has its place and is enormously important, because communications controlling is “merely” a navigator that shows: Where am I, and am I on the right path toward my goals? It’s not possible to directly link creative output to corporate value. It’s important not only to measure individual measures but also to keep the big picture in mind.WW: How does communications controlling resolve the contradiction between managers’ tendency toward short-term thinking and communications strategies that are long-term in orientation and don’t yield immediate results?Mark-Steffen Buchele: Just as corporate management does, communications management pursues short-, medium-, and long-term goals—covering the full spectrum across all relevant stakeholders. Long-term programs, such as a brand campaign, require not only a final evaluation but also ongoing evaluation while the measures are being implemented. For example, it’s important to review the communications mix, including with regard to different target audiences. WW: What does communications controlling mean for creative and PR agencies? Mark-Steffen Buchele: The methods themselves are likely nothing new for agencies. They have already been conducting impact assessments, for example, through pre-tests of a campaign for a new product or through surveys. The challenge is to integrate these methods in a way that makes sense for the respective client. And to make their own processes transparent. Because in the future, clients will have a better understanding of what they want in terms of communication. If not, agencies must provide targeted advice and implement it in a verifiable manner. WW: What will become of traditional methods of impact measurement, such as media response analysis? Mark-Steffen Buchele: Media response analysis will remain—as will all traditional methods. These will be integrated into a comprehensive communications controlling framework. All tools will be consolidated to make the communication process traceable and transparent.WW: What is the greatest risk associated with communications controlling?Mark-Steffen Buchele: You have to avoid getting lost in too many metrics. A pragmatic, goal-oriented approach helps focus on the relevant figures. And to achieve this, everyone must work together: management, communications professionals, and controllers. WW: How important will communications controlling be in ten years? Mark-Steffen Buchele: Information and communications processes will shape our society even more strongly than they do today. Investments in communication will need to be viewed in an even more nuanced way: Which strategy, at what cost, provides the greatest support for achieving corporate goals? I expect that by then, most companies will understand how their communications management works and where the levers are to further optimize it.
Interview: Cornelia Sidler
First Platform for Communications Controlling: At the first interdisciplinary symposium on communications controlling held on May 31, the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (HWZ) announced the formation of an expert group on communications controlling. The expert group will consist of experienced communications managers and controllers who will focus on best practices and the development of common standards for communications controlling.
About the Author: Dr. Mark-Steffen Buchele (34) is a project manager in the Strategy and Value Creation division of the Communication Management and Public Relations department at the University of Leipzig, as well as the managing director of Aexea – Communication Content Consulting, www.communicationmanagement.de, and www.aexea.de.
His book, *The Value Contribution of Corporate Communications*, is scheduled to be published in July 2007 by VS Verlag in Wiesbaden.

The Biel-based agency Erdmannpeisker has developed an international package of measures for the Smart car brand. DaimlerChrysler, the parent company of the small cars, is using it to advertise the wide range of services and offers that Smart customers can expect even after the purchase. The campaign also specifically addresses owners of older vehicles, for whom the original service is of particular interest. The benefits are staged using allegories showing scenes from everyday life. Erdmannpeisker is providing the DaimlerChrysler Global Services & Parts country representatives with two key visuals. They are implemented as advertisements, posters, mailings, flyers, PoS decorations and in guerrilla campaigns.

The Independent Complaints Authority (UBI) has upheld a complaint against the SF program "Schweiz Aktuell". According to the UBI, the program violated the diversity requirement with a portrait of Fribourg State Councillor Pascal Corminboef six days before the Fribourg elections. The complaint complained that the report was one-sided election advertising. "Schweiz Aktuell" had not addressed criticism of the activities of the State Councillor from the animal welfare side. According to the UBI's decision, radio and television can broadcast personally colored portraits of politicians without addressing political criticism. However, the program supervisor must ensure the undistorted formation of political opinion as an important element of democracy. According to the SDA, the UBI announced on Wednesday that the contested contribution therefore violated the information principles under program law.

Guides On a trip to Mallorca, Ralph Lindenmann discovered the model for his guides to going out. The third edition of "Zürich geht aus" is now on the market. Editor-in-chief Wolfram Meister and his 20-strong team have tested 240 restaurants with volunteer gourmets such as Walter Bosch, Medard Meier, Hermann Strittmatter and Dominic Geisseler. The "Heft" is available from newsagents, as is the newly published "Tessin geht aus". An edition for Graubünden is also planned. The series from Gourmedia Verlag is advertised by Reinhold.

The Swisscom subsidiary Bluewin TV expects to remain loss-making for some time to come. "In the next two years", Swisscom Fixnet CEO Ueli Dietiker told the Handelszeitung newspaper, the television division "will certainly not be in the black". In order to break even, the company needs 200,000 to 250,000 customers. With the current number of new registrations per month, this threshold will not be reached until the end of 2009 at the earliest. The highest hurdle is the average installation cost of CHF 1,400 per TV customer. These also prevented an aggressive advertising campaign for Bluewin TV, which was launched last November. "Before we go full throttle again, we want to optimize our costs," Dietiker continued. According to Swisscom CEO Carsten Schloter, the target is around CHF 500 per TV customer.
Television is currently installed in "30,000 to 40,000 households". According to Dietiker, 1000 to 2000 households are added every week. If things continue at this pace, the 100,000 customer mark will not be reached by the end of the year.
It will also be some time before Swisscom's competitors have their own offers on the market - although Swisscom's monopoly on the last mile of copper lines from the telephone exchange to the home connection was abolished at the beginning of April. "I expect broader offerings towards the end of 2008," said Dietiker. In an interview with the Handelszeitung newspaper, Dietiker predicts that there will be no nationwide offers with complete unbundling either way: "Everyone will cherry-pick and concentrate on the lucrative centers."