For the second time, the Glattbrugg media agencies m&m and mm&b have presented the award for the best advertising space provider presentations. All sales force presentations made in the agency are evaluated by the employees of the two agencies and the feedback is made available to the presenters. Last week, the ten best presenters from over 70 presentations were invited to the official awards ceremony in Glattbrugg, according to the m&m Media agency. Gold for the best presentation in 2006 went to Radio Energy Züri, represented by Markus Presta. Silver went to Angela Prisciantelli and Roger Köppel from Weltwoche and bronze to Thomas Estermann and Tom Übersax from Facts. Planning for the third award is already in full swing, and the 2007 winners are eagerly awaited. Marco Gasser from 20 Minuten, for example, is hoping to make the leap from the top ten to the podium next year.

 The NZZ Group closes 2006 with a greatly improved result. Compared to the previous year, the Zurich-based publishing house achieved a plus of CHF 17.7 million and posted income of CHF 31.3 million.  
Total operating income increased by 5 percent to CHF 505 million, as reported by the SDA news agency on Friday. The operating result increased from CHF 8.9 million to CHF 25.4 million, the best result since 2000. In particular, the NZZ division was able to significantly increase its earning power. NZZ am Sonntag clearly exceeded the break-even point after five years of existence. With a slight increase in turnover from CHF 207.8 million to CHF 217 million, the division's operating result improved from CHF -5.4 million to CHF +9.3 million. By contrast, the Group's headcount fell by 67 to 1,714 employees.
 
The NZZ Group includes the two business divisions NZZ and the holdings in regional publishers combined in Freie Presse Holding (FPH), including Neue Luzerner Zeitung and St. Galler Tagblatt.

 There will be a change at the top of Stämpfli Publishers in Berne: Manfred Hiefner will take over the management of the publishing house from Rudolf Stämpfli in mid-2007. Hiefner was previously Managing Director of the Zurich-based Orell Füssli Verlag. As a lawyer at Stämpfli Verlag, Hiefner will in future be able to devote more time to his favorite publishing field, according to a press release issued by SDA on Friday. Rudolf Stämpfli will remain responsible for the publishing house as publisher and Delegate of the Board of Directors of Stämpfli Verlag.

 Gion Mathias Caveltis' "Nipple Goddess" has been vindicated by the Press Council: the Weltwoche columnist has violated the privacy of the woman making the complaint by using the term. But Cavelti actually degraded himself the most.  
When a 15-year-old boy's world goes off the rails because his classmates' nipples are showing through their clothes, it's understandable - after all, his entire hormonal balance is in a state of emergency. But when an adult man gets as out of control as Cavelty at the sight of hardening nipples and can't think about anything else for weeks, it's nothing but disgusting. Especially when the person concerned has to communicate his thoughts to a wider audience. Because intelligent readers, regardless of gender, don't want to deal with such fantasies any more than with detailed descriptions of menstrual problems. The Weltwoche boys will presumably portray the courageous complainant as an uptight man-hater - and even if she were one, she deserves a prize for her move, as does the Press Council for its reprimand of Weltwoche. After all, this creates more space for the really exciting topics.

 The Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) of the Swiss Confederation has appointed new language-regional ombudsman offices for Swiss radio and television broadcasters. The new offices are provided for in the revised Radio and Television Act (RTVA), which comes into force on April 1, 2007. According to the law, SRG will continue to have its own ombudsman's offices. The ombudsman for German-speaking and Romansh-speaking Switzerland will be Guglielmo Bruni, as announced by the UBI. Bruni is an independent lawyer in Basel and will continue to run the Tele Basel ombudsman's office until the end of March. Oliver Sidler, a lawyer in Zug, has been appointed as his deputy.
The UBI has appointed Denis Sulliger, a lawyer in Vevey, for the French-speaking regions and Mauro von Siebenthal, a lawyer in Locarno, for the Italian-speaking regions. The ombudsman offices within SRG are held by Achille Casanova (German-speaking Switzerland), Emmanuel Schmutz (French-speaking Switzerland) and Toni Hess (Romansh-speaking Switzerland).
The task of the ombudsman's offices is to deal with complaints within the meaning of the RTVA. Within 20 days of the broadcast, any person can complain about a program to the competent ombudsman's office. Under the new law, however, it is not commercials that can be objected to, but the content of editorial broadcasts by Swiss broadcasters. The ombudsman's office examines the case and mediates between the parties involved. It has no authority to make decisions or issue instructions.

 Gone are the days when the most you got for membership of a customer loyalty program was a salt shaker: Migros is organizing a Rolling Stones concert for members of the Cumulus customer program. 30,000 Cumulus customers will be invited to the gig in Lausanne on August 11, 2007. Which of the approximately two million Cumulus customers will rock along to this event will be decided by lot. The concert is being held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Cumulus and is being organized in collaboration with André Béchir of Good News. In a press release, Migros Marketing Director Urs Riedener attributes the fact that the Rolling Stones could be won over for the event to the major retailer's commitment to culture.
All Cumulus customers can take part in the prize draw for the concert tickets. However, they must present a competition card showing proof of ten purchases worth at least CHF 10.
A total of 15,000 Cumulus customers will be drawn. Each winner will receive two tickets. The winners will be charged 6000 Cumulus points for the two tickets. However, according to the announcement, anyone who does not have enough Cumulus points in their account can also take part. The missing points will be deducted later. By charging the points, Migros wants to ensure that only people who really value this event take part, according to the press release.

 The pens were from Lowe. The notepads were from Scholz & Friends. The two networks announced in Berlin on Thursday that they intend to enter into a strategic alliance. The contract was signed on Friday, March 23. Lowe Worldwide will take over the representation of Scholz & Friends in all international markets in which the agency group is not yet represented. The focus will be on Asia as well as North and South America. Lowe has 49 offices worldwide. Scholz & Friends, with more than 1000 employees, was previously represented in 19 European countries. The new connection also includes other agencies from the Interpublic network. This guarantees Scholz & Friends' presence in over 180 countries.
For Switzerland, where both networks are represented, 'nothing will change' for the agencies concerned, as Steve Gatfield, CEO of Lowe Wordlwide, assured Werbewoche. It's like when someone gets married. Unknown people suddenly become related or related by marriage. But that doesn't change anything in their lives. But the Swiss can organize a joint employee training course,' said Tomas Heilmann, Partner and CEO of Scholz & Friends. When asked who made the better match in this "marriage", Heilmann said: "Lowe had a small problem that had to be solved at short notice. Scholz & Friends was able to offer the best solution at short notice. It is a win-win situation. Gatfield added: 'We share the same vision for our companies. The deal could make it possible for Scholz & Friends to be ready for the stock market,' as Heilmann said.
In addition to the international alliance, there is another level of cooperation. Together with the Scholz & Friends investor Cognetas, Lowe Worldwide is founding the new agency Lowe Deutschland. All of Unilever's budgets are already to be pooled here. And Nokia is on the mat.
Andreas Panzeri

 Andreas Dietrich, the former editor of Weltwoche, is returning to the magazine as editor. From April 1, 2007, the 43-year-old will join the editorial team of the weekly title. Dietrich already worked for the magazine in the 1990s. He was then a member of the founding team of Facts, editor at NZZ Folio and deputy editor-in-chief of Weltwoche until October 2006.
Over the past few months, Andreas Dietrich has been working in Berlin on the development of a new magazine for Germany.
It was announced on Wednesday that Res Strehle, the previous editor-in-chief of the magazine, is moving to the Tages-Anzeiger. Finn Canonica, the current deputy editor-in-chief of the weekend supplement, is taking over from Strehle at the magazine.

The Zurich agency ZürichTokio was commissioned by Sony United to advertise the launch of the new Playstation3 and the national Full High Definition campaign in a product advertisement. As some people already knew that the Playstation3 could do a lot, the agency decided not to communicate the technical details. It was much more important for the agency to explain the advantages of Full High Definition and the new integrated Blu-ray storage medium to "non-gamers". It was also important to communicate that Sony is the only manufacturer to offer the entire product range in Full HD, from mobile cams and notebooks to televisions, home cinema projectors and games consoles. The advertisement is now appearing nationwide as a double-page spread.

 Wemf AG für Werbemedienforschung is unable to realize its planned new statistics on media sales. In the course of the cooperation with Media Focus, the research company had planned to establish monthly media statistics that would reflect net sales in the various media categories. The new statistics would have ensured that only group values are shown and that no conclusions can be drawn about individual media, according to a Wemf statement. The aim of the statistics would have been to show the effective advertising expenditure in Swiss francs for advertising in the media.
According to Wemf, talks with representatives of the various media categories have shown that there is interest in such data. On the other hand, however, not everyone is willing to make net advertising revenues available on a monthly basis. The decisive factor was the decision of those responsible for television and cinema: since they do not want to provide net advertising revenues, the basis for launching cross-media media statistics is currently not given.
Wemf intends to continue its efforts to compile and publish cross-media media statistics with net advertising revenues in the future. It will make the data available should this be requested by representatives of the media, advertising clients and agencies.

In a recent campaign, the Zurich agency Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett (SFLB) shows that Swissprinters offers much more than just attractive printing media. Swissprinters is the name of the merger of the printing companies of the Swiss media houses Ringier, NZZ and Edipresse. Thanks to the merger, the individual print shops can offer their customers more for their printing projects: More to do with printing, but also more for communication, such as cross-media, direct marketing services, publisher marketing for magazines and a calendar publisher.
Swissprintes has been working with Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett since 2006 in the area of brand development and for the development of its communication presence. Last year, they jointly designed and introduced a versatile formal language for corporate communications - implemented, among other things, as a website and in the form of numerous themed brochures. Market communication comes into play for the first time in 2007. The key visual for the current campaign is a stack of paper that takes on a different shape depending on the message of the subject. Finally, the claim summarizes the added value briefly and succinctly: "Get more."
SFLB is currently also present with other new work: a tactical campaign draws attention to the St. Galler Kantonalbank in a charming yet offensive way. For Swisscanto, the joint venture of the cantonal banks for investment and pension products, SFLB is using children's subjects to advertise new climate and capital protection funds.

 At the end of 2006, there were more cable TV connections in Switzerland than ever before, namely around 2.9 million. Compared to the previous year, this corresponds to growth of 1.2 percent. This was announced by Swisscable, the association of cable TV companies, at its general meeting on Friday.
Digital cable television also made gains. At the end of 2006, almost ten percent of all cable TV customers were watching digital television. This corresponds to 280,000 connections and growth of 12% compared to 2005. Cable Internet also grew, by around 10 percent. At the end of 2006, around 660,000 customers were using their cable connection to surf the Internet. Around 280,000 customers made phone calls via TV cable at the end of 2006, which equates to growth of 40 percent. The association is satisfied with these figures overall, according to the press release.
Swisscable faced competition from the launch of Bluewin TV and the increased sale of satellite systems. Only the use of digital cable television has fallen short of expectations. "We therefore need to communicate the advantages of digital TV even more clearly," commented Association President Hajo Leutenegger in the communiqué. HDTV connections should also be promoted. Swisscable wants to make the cable networks HD-compatible by the 2008 European Football Championships at the latest.