The creative minds at Zurich advertising agency Vizner Borel have given Migros subsidiary Denner a new look for the current year. According to a press release from the agency, the communication package includes a new corporate design, TV advertising, flyers and sales promotion at the POS. The two image spots "Trouble" and "Blind Shopping" form the heart of the new campaign.

Bfw Liegenschaften from Frauenfeld has entrusted Agentur am Flughafen from Altenrhein with the repositioning of the Webermühle residential estate in Neuenhof. With 370 residential units, Webermühle is one of the largest residential developments in Switzerland. The residential complex is located on a promontory directly on the Limmat and is well situated thanks to the nearby highway access and the train station within walking distance. Bfw Liegenschaften wants to reduce the fluctuation of the Webermühle on the outskirts of Zurich and reduce the vacancy rate with a clear profile. The kindergarten, which is located at the heart of the residential development, is to be reactivated to make life easier for the families who have moved in. The proximity to nature and the newly planned facilities for children are a further milestone in the family-friendly positioning. The first measures of the long-term campaign for Webermühle should be visible in summer 2007.

Stéphanie Bigler joined the team of consultants at Werbewerkstatt in Bern at the beginning of March. She is responsible for Marketing & Advertising. She also supports the managing director of the Werbewerkstatt team.

Auto Mercedes-Benz Automobil AG is realigning itself. Noise AG was commissioned with the brand development of meinmercedes.ch. The name meinmercedes.ch is intended to reflect the emotionality that customers and employees associate with the Mercedes-Benz brand. The magenta logo color, which is atypical for cars, is also intended to convey an attitude to life and modernity. Magenta also serves as a distinguishing feature in a highly competitive market. Noise AG is launching meinmercedes.ch with a new design manual that governs everything from the image brochure to the advertising campaign, from the POS to the job advertisement and from the occasion board to the Internet banner. 

Entertainment The Zurich agency Creative Assets has launched the first German-language platform for branded entertainment. Product placement in film and the development of targeted marketing activities in the world of entertainment are among Creative Assets' core competencies. The Zurich-based agency acts as an "interface between industry and entertainment". Company founder Manuel P. Nappo has long had the vision of developing a platform for branded entertainment for his industry. Such tools are already popular in the USA. Now Nappo has also launched the first portal for German-speaking countries. The site wonderland.creative-assets.com provides "up-to-date, independent and competent reporting on the boundless developments in the world of this new, promising form of advertising," says Nappo, explaining the aim. Wonderland is also intended to create an extensive and detailed knowledge database as well as a competence center for entertainment marketing.
News from around the worldProduct placements, celebrity marketing, opinion leader marketing and other film-related promotions: Every day at wonderland.creative-assets.com, information and news from branded entertainment from all over the world is compiled and presented in short articles with pictures or videos. "Whether CEOs, marketing managers, strategists, advertisers, lecturers or students, everyone should find the latest and most exciting news from the world of entertainment marketing easily accessible on Wonderland." Tilllate is also one of the partners.
Wonderland is in its first phase as a blog about the world of entertainment marketing and, as its name promises, allows "all ideas and visions to unfold freely". Any vision or marketing activity, no matter how incredible, should find its place here.
Andreas Panzeri

The Government Council of the Canton of Bern has appointed 48-year-old Christian Kräuchi as its Communications Officer. This new position is intended to strengthen the communication of government policy both internally and externally, as has been discussed in the context of the government reform. Kräuchi's task will be to provide comprehensive advice and support to the Government Council in terms of communication and information. After studying history and English at the universities of Washington and Bern, Christian Kräuchi took up the post of media spokesman at SBB in 1989. Between 1995 and 2001, he headed the company's media service. For the past five years, he has headed the communications division of SBB Infrastructure. Christian Kräuchi also completed a postgraduate course at the Bern University of Applied Sciences with an MBA in 2005.

City life Zurich's new Sihlcity district celebrates its opening on March 22. A fascinating world of experience has been created on the site of the former Sihl paper factory in the heart of Zurich. With shopping facilities ranging from high-class brand suppliers to retailers, elegant restaurants, a number of bars, a discotheque and a cinema with several halls for concerts, theater and dance events. And what's the quickest and most convenient way to get to Sihlcity? With the VBZ. The good public connections need to be communicated. That's why the Sihlcity co-owners' association, in cooperation with VBZ, asked the creative agency Ruf Lanz to come up with a special advertisement and poster motif. This is literally an eye-catcher: because Sihlcity almost feels a bit like London, the streetcar in the advertisement is double-decker - just like the buses in London.

Local TV Publisuisse is offering the new TeleRomandieCombi at CHF 104 per second.Publisuisse is set: just a month ago, the SRG subsidiary was appointed exclusive marketer of TeleRomandieCombi (TRC), the new advertising combination of local TV stations in French-speaking Switzerland. And the new offer, which has also been bookable online via Publiplan since February 28, is already available. Publisuisse, which has also been awarded the contract for marketing the Swiss Radio Pool, recommends advertising via TRC as a "local immersion" and as an "ideal complement to a campaign on TSR television in French-speaking Switzerland": TRC, which consists of eight stations, has a technical reach of 1.56 million people, i.e. 92 percent of all residents in French-speaking Switzerland. There is only a local TV gap in the canton of Jura. No figures are currently available on the actual net reach, but it is likely to be a maximum of 170,000 daily viewers.
As the stations' programs are (still) very heterogeneous, Publisuisse can initially only offer spot placement in a somewhat uniform broadcast environment, namely after news or weather reports. The first broadcast will take place between 17.58 and 19.45, depending on the channel, and a total of 90 broadcasts are promised. Combination offers with TSR programs are currently being examined.
The price: a second of advertising costs 104 francs, 20 seconds come to 1685 francs, which corresponds to a combined discount of 19 percent. The cost of delivering the spots is similarly expensive: this is done either by cassette to each station or digitally to Publisuisse, which takes care of cassette production and dispatch. The cost is CHF 1000. An electronic spot
distribution, similar to that of TeleNewsCombi, is still being evaluated.    
 
Markus Knöpfli

Auto The Zurich-based brand agency NOSE - which recently became the Swiss design agency - developed the new corporate design for the GM Europe dealerships. The bright, fresh design communicates the core values of General Motors, in particular the high quality standards. The entire appearance is characterized by the use of transparent blue glass, clear, precisely defined volumes and contemporary materials used in an unconventional way. The corporate design was developed in close cooperation with representatives of the Group and the GM Europe brands Opel, Saab, Chevrolet and Vauxhall.

Outdoor advertising companies Affichage, JCDecaux and Clear Channel Outdoor gave an insight into their figures.Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) and JCDecaux are not only the largest outdoor advertising companies in the world, both also have a connection to Switzerland. JCDecaux holds a 30 percent stake in Affichage and is its joint venture partner in Europlakat International. CCO, on the other hand, with its subsidiary Clear Channel Outdoor Plakanda (CCOP), is the second-largest outdoor advertiser in this country, far behind Affichage. Together with Affichage, CCOP was also involved in joint poster research, but dropped out a year and a half ago and is now working on Project More.CCO, the world's largest outdoor advertiser, reported a profit of 145.4 million US dollars for 2006, 2.5 times more than in the previous year. This was made possible, among other things, by a 9 percent increase in sales to 2.9 billion dollars, with a 10 percent increase in the home market of the USA, which grew more strongly than in other countries (plus 7 percent). Conversely, the Group's expenditure rose by only 6 percent to 2 billion dollars. CCO does not publish figures for individual countries and no more detailed information was available on business performance in Switzerland. Nevertheless, last year CCOP acquired Felice Display, a provider of megaposters at trade fairs and major construction sites, and the year before that CCOP bought Plakatron.
Significant increase in salesJCDecaux, which emphasizes in its press releases that it is the number one outdoor advertising company in Europe and Asia and number two worldwide, has so far only announced sales figures. According to these figures, it was able to increase sales in the 2006 financial year by a total of 11.5 percent to 1.946 billion euros compared to the previous year - not least thanks to acquisitions and exchange rates. However, even without these effects, i.e. in terms of organic sales alone, JCDecaux was able to increase its turnover by 7.7 percent. In France and the other European countries, JCDecaux achieved steady organic sales growth throughout the year. Sales growth was particularly strong in North America, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. JCDecaux is also in the process of conquering new countries: thanks to the contract for street furniture in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, the company set foot in Central Asia for the first time. And through a joint venture with the outdoor advertising company BigBoard Group, the poster company also entered the Ukraine and Russia. JCDecaux owns 40 percent of the new BigBoard BV.
There were rumors about CCO last year: After it was announced in November that the investment companies Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners were to take over the helm at CCO parent company Clear Channel Communications (CCC), reports appeared shortly afterwards that competitor JCDecaux was now interested in acquiring CCO. CCC and CCO reacted immediately and vehemently denied that they were in talks with JCDecaux or any other company. CCC has since refused to make any further comment.
Either way, CCO as a whole would probably be too big for JCDecaux and any other interested parties anyway, and there would also be competition law problems in some countries with a CCO presence. A split-up of CCO is therefore more likely (see below). For the time being, it therefore remains to be seen whether the CCC General Assembly will even approve the sale of its own company.
Markus Knöpfli

Placements Much in life is chance. When it becomes more tragic, chance is called fate. "Discover more" is the slogan for the new Camel advertisement. It is aimed at people "who expect more from life". The poster also contains the obligatory warning that smoking can lead to death. A poster placed next to it by chance visualizes even more drastically than this warning where this could possibly lead. A long barge, strikingly similar to a fag - i.e. a cigarette - plunges into nothingness at the end of life. On this poster, the claim "Discover more" is accompanied by the slogan: "Discover where Switzerland ends." That's how inspiring a silent dialog between two posters can be if you take some time to philosophize over a cigarette.

Shopping The Shoppi & Tivoli relies on Z. B. Advertising to communicate about the conversion of the new center mall. The ravages of time are gnawing away, even at Shoppi & Tivoli in Spreitenbach. The shopping centers in Spreitenbach are the pioneers of the industry. Switzerland's first shopping center in the style of an American shopping mall, Shoppi, opened in 1970. The Tivoli followed in 1974. Since then, the two shopping temples have undergone constant renovation. Last fall, the excavators moved in again, this time on a somewhat larger scale. The old connecting bridge between the Shoppi and the Tivoli was demolished. Since then and until the end of October, "public transport" between the two shopping centers has been handled via a temporary arrangement. The new shopping arcade, the Center Mall, will be opened on November 1, 2007. Until then, Shoppi & Tivoli customers will be exposed to construction noise. Shoppi-&-Tivoli-Management AG is asking for understanding and patience with a campaign by Z. B. Werbung. The agency, which has offices in Bern and Zurich, is staging the construction equipment itself. Bricks, a building barrier or a helmet draw attention to the renovation in the temporary transition, while excavators and jackhammers rumble right next door. The real construction equipment is either nailed directly to the wall (e.g. the helmet) or placed at the front of the construction wall (e.g. the jackhammer or the pallet with the bricks).
Patience is rewardedThe subjects change every month. The title counts down how long it will be until the renovation is finally over.
To keep customers happy during the construction phase, the management of Shoppi & Tivoli also surprises them once a month with a gift campaign. Information cards and small gifts are distributed in the shopping center to thank customers for their patience. These always match the current poster theme. For example, a patience game, a mini flower pot, a cream slice, a fruit drink or a voucher for two hours of free children's paradise will be handed out. The campaign runs until October 2007.
 
Andreas Panzeri