To further develop its press arm, AGEN Holding is focusing on two women's magazines. With the creation of Profil Femme and the acquisition of a stake in XXS, the group is expanding its media spectrum in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.With its circulation of 24,000 copies, Profil Femme should bring AGEN Holding an annual profit of 300,000 Swiss francs, according to a March 22 media release. The magazine, which is aimed primarily at female readers between 30 and 45, and the 50-percent-acquired watch magazine for women XXS are to round out AGEN's magazine offering. The Group also intends to restructure and improve its business magazine in the near future.
Accompanying the publication takeover and partnership is a shift in the holding company's management. Eric Valette, who conceived and still heads Profil Femme, will become COO of AGEN Press. Alain Fabrez, current CEO of Agefi and Chairman of the AGEN Board of Directors, will devote himself to the development of AGEN Holding within the Board. Furthermore, Antoine Hubert, current CEO of AGEN's healthcare division, will be appointed Group CEO. Finally, the Press Division will be headed by a triumvirate composed of Sylvie Gardel, Editor-in-Chief of Agefi, François Savary, Head of Editorial Services of AGEN publications, and Eric Valette.

 The British fashion chain Marks & Spencer has commissioned Amrein-Pieren to provide strategic advice for its flagship store. The agency is also overseeing the rebranding of the Geneva Trade Association, FAC. The agency's third new client is the software manufacturer Phoenix, whose new industry software for dental practices Amrein-Pieren Bern is providing communications support for.  

 For the tenth time, the Swiss media publisher Ringier is presenting an artistically designed annual report and looking back on a successful year. Last year, Ringier achieved a significant increase in turnover and a slight increase in profit. In addition to the increase, the publishing house invested 60 million Swiss francs in new products. Ringier Group CEO Martin Werfeli justifies the small increase in profits by a high burden due to investments in 27 new titles, as reported by the news agency SDA. Among other things, the 2006 accounts were burdened by the initial losses of the five newly launched daily newspapers (including Heute and Cash Daily). Publisher Michael Ringier explained that despite the large investments worth CHF 60 million, the business result for 2006 was very respectable. Profit exceeded the previous year's record figure by 1 percent and rose to CHF 67.8 million. Sales increased by 6.5 percent to 1.34 billion. In Central and Eastern Europe in particular, the company recorded significant sales growth of 15 percent. Business in Asia also developed positively.
While advertising revenues in Switzerland increased by more than 8 percent, circulation revenues fell by just under 4 percent. Newspaper sales fell by 3.6 percent. As Werfeli announced, the circulation development of Blick and SonntagsBlick was once again extremely unsatisfactory.
In the current year, the company would like to expand its existing titles in the direction of media networks. Ringier is aiming to intelligently link several distribution channels - from print to TV, radio, Internet, mobile devices and events.
This year's annual report was designed by New York artist Ryan Phillips. He based his layout on the works of the sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider from the 1930s. Eleven illustrations enliven the dry figures of the annual report and ensure that the annual report is not only of interest to number crunchers.  

Fundraising A fundraising campaign by the Protestant and Catholic churches in Basel was a failure: the campaign with 10,000 addressed direct mailings cost 25,000 francs, but in the end only brought in 50 donations totaling 4,913 francs. Xaver Pfister, spokesman for the Catholic Church, calls it a flop, saying that they had hoped to at least recoup the costs. The churches, affected by a loss of members, had tested whether they could attract donations from people far removed from the church with the advertising campaign. The trick: the pure direct marketing only brought in 2913 francs. The remaining 2,000 francs were donated by an individual - after the free newspaper Baslerstab reported on the flop in the fall. In April, it launches a testimonial campaign, this time via advertisements and cards: four people tell why they joined or rejoined the church. "We want to make the topic of church membership socially acceptable again," says Pfister.

 The advertising agency Agence Trio sends 35,000 top managers an invitation card to an IMD seminar in a direct mailing. In order to do justice to the program of one of the best management schools on the card, the agency communicates with a QR code. This is one of the latest technologies, according to the agency. The Quick Response Code stores information in pixel form. 

Science On March 17, 2007, the magazine "Wissenschaft DRS 2" was launched on DRS 2. Every Saturday, interested listeners can find out the latest in technology, science and medicine. For the launch of the new magazine, the advertising agency Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett opened up a digital radio. The visual of the radio's inner workings shows what's behind it. The headline breaks up the unusual image: "Wissenschaft DRS 2. The magazine for the curious". Advertisements and flyers were produced as part of the campaign. The latter was handed out at BrainFair, among other events.

 The cantonal government of Fribourg contacted the Press Council on Wednesday and asked for its opinion. It is concerned about the reporting on the Schmitten rape cases. The State Council finds it disturbing that protagonists of the rape cases have had their say in various media reports, as reported by the news agency SDA. So far, the State Council has shown great restraint in the Schmitten case and has respected the fact that an investigation is underway. 

Soft drinks Always Coca-Cola. From the valley to the summit. How the world's most powerful brand is active in ski resorts. Coca-Cola is an iconic brand. It is the star among soft drinks. But it has a problem in winter. Warm drinks are in high demand then. Coke is too cool for consumers. For the freshwater strategists in Brüttisellen, however, seasonality is not an issue. They want to push the brand intensively despite the cold weather. Because this can only fail in the foggy lowlands, they head for the heights instead, for example to Davos. Coca-Cola has been advertising to consumers in ski resorts for three years. The mountain is calling. No one at Coca-Cola wants to say where. The locations are kept as secret as the Coke recipe itself. The reason: no unnecessary information for the competition. But the activities immediately catch the eye. Many ski resorts present themselves in red and white. Coca-Cola literally covered the idyllic winter sports resort of Davos with advertising this season. From the valley to the summit, the bold logo can be found everywhere. The sparkling message is always the same: Coke is lifestyle, Coke is cool, Coke is everywhere. No one can avoid Coke: guests sunbathe on red sun loungers. The table decorations are "light". The service staff is "zero". Entire buildings are designed like colorful wonder bags. Even the cable car is a Coke ambassador. The gondola is packaged as a cup, the athletes inside are the bottles.
Little criticism of advertisingThe advertising dominance in Davos is made possible by the Küblis company Smart Promotion. An agency that specializes in marketing ski resorts and brings advertising to the summit in the truest sense of the word. It has secured all marketing rights in Graubünden ski regions. In Davos, it holds the advertising space for chairs, gondolas and large cabins in addition to the classic billboards. With Smart Promotion, Coca-Cola could place advertising on 3500 m2 in Davos. However, this has not been the case to date. Six advertising partners shared the space this season. These include international brands such as Fiat, Nivea and Snickers.
Coca-Cola marketer Erik Amstad is very satisfied with the winter activation and the sales figures in ski resorts such as Davos and says: "This strategy is necessary. There is competition among beverage suppliers." He does not reveal any more. Rivella and Ovomaltine are Coca-Cola's toughest rivals.
According to Peter Spescha from Smart Promotion, Coca-Cola's measures have been well received by customers and consumers. "We are observing sympathy effects," says Spescha. Harsh criticism of the dominance of advertising only arises sporadically. Advertising revenue is necessary for ski resorts. If the lucrative advertising boost were to fail to materialize, the costly slope maintenance, for example, would simply not be financially viable. "Without snow cannons, no ski resort can do anything anymore," says Spescha. Today's guests are spoiled and expect good conditions and low prices at the same time.
Something else to think about: the more Coca-Cola a country drinks, the freer, healthier, wealthier and more educated its inhabitants are. This is what the renowned business magazine Economist claims to have discovered. The only question is whether advertising dominance really makes people freer and more educated.
Christian Lüscher

 The cooking program Kochen.tv has had a successful start. For the past two months, chef Bruno Keller and presenter Joël Gilgen have been providing culinary delights on the regional television channels Tele Züri, Tele Top and Tele Südostschweiz. An average of 250,000 viewers tune in every week, according to a press release. 

Internet shopping Ruf Lanz has opened an entire chain of new shopping centers for ricardo.ch in Switzerland. Brand building in the truest sense of the word is what the Ruf Lanz agency is currently doing for ricardo.ch. The sales platform has been raised many storeys by the advertisers. The impressive shopping centers can be found not only in Zurich, but also in Valais and Lucerne - in fact, everywhere. This is because ricardo.ch is the largest Internet sales platform in Switzerland. With more than 400,000 fixed-price offers and exciting auctions, you can find everything on ricardo.ch - from paper clips and rare wines to luxury cars.
The new image campaign by Ruf Lanz now gives ricardo.ch the size it actually has for the first time. The creatives asked themselves the question: What if the countless shopping offers on ricardo.ch didn't just go over a virtual store counter? But over a real one?
Natural wonders become smallThe astonishing answer: a huge shopping center would have to accommodate this wide range of products - and would seriously threaten the idyll of Switzerland.
In spectacular images, the hypothetical Ricardo shopping center brings the magnificent landscapes to life and makes even natural wonders such as the Matterhorn or the Rhine Falls look small. The cityscapes of Zurich, Lucerne and Geneva, on the other hand, would have to sacrifice their loveliness for a completely new skyline.
But the headline silences the alarm bells of homeland security and environmental associations just in time: "Fortunately, Switzerland's largest shopping center is only available on the Internet." And so, in the end, only the customer benefits of ricardo.ch remain on the horizon: an unparalleled selection of products on offer throughout Switzerland. Convenient to buy at any time, without store closing times and parking stress.
The campaign consists of five double-page advertisements and megaposters. In addition, ricardo.ch can rely on a surprising guerrilla campaign from Ruf Lanz.
The uproar in the neighborhoods was pretty big, Markus Ruf reveals, when on Thursday and Friday last week in Zurich, Basel, Bern, Lucerne, St. Gallen, Geneva and Lausanne typical construction signs were put up in prominent locations announcing the construction of a gigantic Ricardo shopping center. With 57 storeys, 621,000 m2 of retail space and 84,000 parking spaces. "Passers-by stopped in amazement and couldn't believe their eyes" - people in Switzerland were not used to such dimensions.
Finally, in a second step, the tongue-in-cheek resolution followed: "Sorry, just kidding: Switzerland's largest shopping center is still only available on the Internet."
Andreas Panzeri

 To make it even easier for Swiss agencies to submit their work, the Zurich-based company Web2com, as the festival's exclusive Swiss partner, is covering the registration fees in the Cyber Lions category. The offer applies to all websites, online and cross-media campaigns; the only condition is that the official registration confirmation and a color printout of the submitted work must be sent to Web2com. The cost of a submission will be reimbursed for all entrants.

Magazines With the expansion of the consumer magazine Bon à Savoir, French-speaking Switzerland will probably have an independent health press in the longer term. Although German-speaking Switzerland has two health magazines with a journalistic approach - Gesundheitstipp (Puls Media) and Gesundheit Sprechstunde (GES) - and a total readership of over 1.2 million, no publisher in French-speaking Switzerland has yet dared to launch a similar title. "The topic of health is similar to that of the environment: unlike in German-speaking Switzerland, both are less important in French-speaking Switzerland," explains Ratna Irzan, who knows what she is talking about because she runs the Lausanne publishing house Editions Plus. It has been publishing the magazine Bon à Savoir, the French-language counterpart to K-Tipp or Saldo, since 1997 and Tout Compte Fait, the sister magazine to K-Geld, since 2003. The owner of Editions Plus, Hans Räz, is also no stranger to consumer issues: he was head of the editorial team at the SF program Kassensturz until 1996. No wonder, then, that the question has been asked several times in Lausanne as to whether a parallel title to GES or Gesundheitstipp might also have a chance in French-speaking Switzerland. "However, our market research has so far always shown that the French-speaking population is not interested enough in a health magazine," says Irzan.
Nevertheless, the publisher has now decided to serve the French-speaking Swiss the topic of health in the form of independent and competent information. Not with a new title straight away, but initially in small, enjoyable snacks within the Bon à Savoir title. Specifically, an eight-page health special will be inserted into the monthly magazine every quarter, for the first time in the April issue. The special will stand out visually from the rest of the magazine and will also have its own title, "Ma Santé" - as a magazine within a magazine, so to speak. In order to do justice to the topic of health in terms of content, the editorial team of Bon à Savoir was expanded to include experts.
Now Lausanne is eager to see how the expanded magazine is received by subscribers and advertisers. Depending on the response, Irzan can imagine separating Ma Santé from Bon à Savoir one day and launching a line extension. But she can't say at the moment whether this will ever happen.
But the chances of this are intact. Before Bon à Savoir was published, French-speaking Switzerland was considered a wasteland when it came to independent consumer press. Within just five years, the title had already reached over 300,000 readers, and with 368,000 readers it has now even overtaken Ringier's long-established Illustré (366,000 readers). In terms of reach (27.5 percent in French-speaking Switzerland), Bon à Savoir can also be compared with German-language titles such as TV-täglich (27.8 percent in German-speaking Switzerland), Schweizer Illustrierte (24.6), Beobachter (24.4) and K-Tipp (24.8) - all titles with around one million readers. It is therefore quite conceivable that Ma Santé will also be a hit.
Still with KI MediaMid-March
Publimag announced that it had been entrusted with four new marketing mandates, including those for Bon à Savoir and Tout Compte Fait. So has the agency KI Media, which has managed these titles since their inception, fallen out of favor with the publisher Editions Plus? On the contrary, says publishing director Ratna Irzan, KI Media continues to look after the titles and the agency is working the German-speaking Swiss market - "and doing so successfully". In French-speaking Switzerland, on the other hand, Editions Plus has been working with another partner since 2002, but the company parted company with this partner a year ago. After a transitional phase, a new partner was found in Publimag. Markus Knöpfli