Ms Mail Service St. Gallen and Rbc Feldmeilen are merging. As a result, the two service providers will operate shoulder to shoulder in the field of dialog and direct marketing. CEO and founder of Ms Mail Peter Stössel is taking over the majority of Rbc shares from Rbc main shareholder Heinz Rohrer. As Ms Mail writes in a statement, Rbc will remain operationally independent and will continue to operate under its current company name. The aim of the merger is to achieve joint, integrated growth. For customers, there is added value in the attractive overall range that the two companies can now offer together. The merger will result in one of the strongest pooling of forces in the dialog and direct marketing sector. The new organization operates from St. Gallen, Feldmeilen, Chur and Lauterach in Austria.
Rohrer and Stössel are among the pioneers of direct marketing in Switzerland and have been closely linked since their companies were founded.

 Gutzwiller Kommunikation und Design has won a pitch for the AZ Medien Internet portal. The agency from Aarau launched the best basic advertising campaign for Azonline.ch, as it writes in a press release. For once, the agency impressed with a headless solution. Gutzwiller is currently working on the implementation of the campaign, which will be launched in the middle of the year in the entire Azonline.ch catchment area. 

 Since the new Telecommunications Act came into force, spamming has been banned in Switzerland. Spamming is considered a criminal offense and professional spammers face fines and even imprisonment. For this reason, Nemuk, which specializes in online direct marketing, has developed a guide with tips on the new anti-spam law. In a five-page PDF file, the agency provides recommendations on how to behave in the gray areas that are not clearly regulated by the law. They are based on the agency's many years of experience with email marketing. 

 Roland Imboden is taking on a new challenge after 17 years with Zermatt Tourism. The tourism director is moving to the marketing department of Amag Retail, as reported by the SDA news agency. Zermatt is still looking for a new director. Imboden will leave the tourist resort at the beginning of September, but his resignation could also be postponed depending on the start date of his successor. 

 Following a pitch, Local.ch commissioned Wirz Werbung to develop a new, integrated campaign. The simple search function for private and business directory entries, guide and event data as well as classified ads offers users quick access to local information. The launch of Wirz's campaign is planned for mid-May. The Publigroupe division Publidirect founded Local.ch in 2005 as part of a joint venture between Publidirect and Swisscom Directories.

 The editor-in-chief of the Coop newspaper is looking for a new challenge and is leaving the paper at the end of July. She has worked for Coop Presse for almost twelve years. She has headed Switzerland's largest weekly newspaper since January 2005 and was deputy editor-in-chief for four years before that, as the SDA news agency reported on Tuesday.  

 In a competitive presentation, Heads impressed the jury with a new concept for the Swiss Biotech Report. The publication promotes Switzerland as a business location to entrepreneurs and investors abroad. Ralph Hermann, Managing Director at Heads, writes: "Heads is delighted to be able to communicate the multifaceted advantages of the Swiss biotech sector internationally. The report was published on Tuesday.  

A week of guesswork at Zurich main station has been solved. The huge poster, which showed nothing but a lush green lawn, sprouted 2494 flowers overnight. Since Monday morning, they have formed a mouth with gleaming white teeth. At the beginning of next week, a signal toothpaste tube will be added to the large poster - and then it should be clear to everyone who was hiding behind the 50 square meters at the end of March. The poster was realized by Paron for Unilever. The agency wants to further develop the independent medium of the large poster with unconventional, fresh ideas and make it even more attractive, writes the Managing Director of Paron, Renato Schena, in a press release from the agency.

 During 500 days, six volunteers are to test a manned mission to Mars under almost real conditions. As announced by the European Space Agency ESA, the test is planned to start in spring 2008 with Russian partners in a Moscow suburb.  
According to the SDA, the volunteers have to get along in metal tanks on 200 square meters full of high-tech equipment for a year and a half and master a series of psychological and technical challenges. This is somewhat reminiscent of crammed
Would-be stars in a container. In fact, ESA researcher Marc Heppener admits that the project is similar to reality TV shows. At the same time, however, it is a "serious scientific experiment. Well, here's to science! And should Daniel Küblböck feel the urge for a little publicity again, he can throw himself into an astronaut outfit.

 The full-service agency Kunz Marketing & Kommunikation is moving into new premises. At the new domicile, which is only a few minutes away from the old one, the agency continues to realize concepts for SMEs. Kunz has also given its own online presence a new look. Together with his multimedia partner Alex Brändle from 100pro, he created a new company presentation for himself.

 The Contexta agency was successful at this year's Spotlight Festival at the Neue Messe Friedrichshafen. Their Beck & Bondi campaign for Swisscom received a special prize from the expert jury and the festival management.  
Rolf Lang, a student at the SAE Institute Zurich, was also honored for his spot Red Smoke. According to the festival office, Lang received both a Silver Spotlight Award from the expert jury and a Gold Spotlight Award from the audience jury.
 
The largest advertising festival in the German-speaking world celebrated its tenth anniversary yesterday with new content: First and foremost, the premiere of the "Web & Mobile" category, a competition for the Internet and cell phones to complement the classic "TV & Cinema" category.

 Activemobile is launching an MMS competition for the Swiss book lobby. The aim of this campaign is to establish the virtual library Readme.cc as a forum for exchange between book and Internet culture. The full-service agency created a competition under the motto: "Show me what you're reading! And take a picture of yourself with your favorite book! Anyone can send their picture via MMS and take part in the competition. The virtual library Readme.cc is a Europe-wide exchange forum for books. It arose from the need to mediate between book and Internet culture, according to the press release. The aim of this platform is to establish a forum about books in which everyone can submit tips and reviews on books.