Fashion catwalk in the movies: Giorgio Armani can use the world of Hollywood to market his various labels like no other designer. No designer started out with the dream of dressing Miss Müller for her wedding. The glamorous night of the Oscars, on the other hand, is the dream of every classic fashion designer. And this is where Giorgio Armani has been working for years. Last Sunday, he once again pulled all the important strings at Oscar 2007.film makes fashion - and fashion makes film. For decades, the two arts have formed a profitable alliance. New trends are created with fashion in the movies. Armani's label is not only involved in the gowns on the red carpet for Oscar, but also in the costumes for over 100 films.
With this "catwalk in the cinema", he can make his fashion known to an audience of millions around the world. What was just seen on the big screen is already a trend on the catwalk tomorrow. Cary Grant and Grace Kelly set such trends in the Hitchcock thriller "Over the Rooftops of Nice". Nicole Kidman was fashionable in "Moulin Rouge". After "Gladiator", sandals were wearable again. A simple cotton undershirt by Hanro from Switzerland caused a sensation after "Eyes Wide Shot". Uma Thurman triggered a boom for dark nail polish with her Chanel Rouge Noir in "Pulp Fiction". In this Tarantino masterpiece, Ving Rhames' everyday clothes are by Emporio Armani. Armani aviator glasses triggered a worldwide run after the film "Aviator" with Leonardo DiCaprio.
This "product placement" in the cinema began by chance. In 1934, it led to a huge slump in the sale of underwear when Clark Gable took off his shirt in the screewball comedy "It Happend One Night" without wearing an undershirt underneath. Not on purpose, it was later explained, as there was too little time for proper etiquette when reenacting the scene. Nevertheless, the fashion trend was born.
One of the first to consciously continue this development was Hubert de Givenchy. The French couturier dressed the still young Audrey Hepburn for Billy Wilder's "Sabrina" in 1952. The Oscar for best costume and best leading role did the rest, making the Audrey look fashionable in department stores. Every woman wanted to look like the celebrated actress.
A gigolo to kick things off
Film and designers have a long history of love affairs. The first Italian to make it in Hollywood with his tailoring was Salvatore Ferragamo back in 1914. However, he returned to Italy in 1923. Nino Cerruti also worked for the movies with "Pretty Woman" or "Basic Instinct". Jean-Paul Gaultier occasionally sewed for director Pedro Almodovar. But no one in Hollywood can be found around a camera as often as Giorgio Armani.
The love story began in 1980 with "American Gigolo". In this romantic thriller by Paul Schrader, Richard Gere plays a dandy who immediately has women's hearts at his feet and soon has them elsewhere too. The reason why this man is so successful is already shown in the film's title sequence. Richard Gere has his work clothes fitted in a fashion store as a "man for certain hours". Naturally, all the suits, shirts, ties and accessories are from Armani. As if he were acting in a fashion show instead of a movie, Gere changes his clothes again and again in the following scenes. "American Gigolo" made a star out of Richard Gere. The female lead role - also dressed by Armani, of course - also gave former model Lauren Hutton her breakthrough into a new career as an actress.
However, Giorgio Armani's most enduring career revolved around this film. With "American Gigolo", the designer revolutionized fashion by combining haute couture and mass-produced casual wear into one style for the first time. His blazer ushered in the era of casual fashion. "As a lifelong cinéphile, I find it fascinating how the world of fashion and the world of film influence each other," Armani later commented on this development.
Parallel to the film, he not only had the models in the style of Richard Gere displayed in the shop windows of Madison Avenue in New York together with the equally famous film poster. This was the first time that America came into contact with Armani's style. "The success of the movie was like inviting millions of people to a fashion show," says Armani. In fact, the success of "American Gigolo" brought him so much money in these times of yuppies that he was able to use this start-up capital to launch his Emporio Armani line, which was more popular alongside haute couture.
Armani was later also the first to actively encourage Hollywood stars to wear his fashion outside of the movies. This friendly business relationship with the women began with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jodie Foster. Michelle Pfeiffer has been a fan of Armani ever since she wore his costumes in "Scarface". "He has a lot of emotion and loves women," enthuses the actress. Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Arnold Schwarzenegger with Maria Shriver, Kevin Spacey, Warren Beatty in classy black or Samuel Jackson in a blue tailcoat are just a few of the other names who relied on Giorgio Armani for their impact at the Oscar night parade. Samuel Jackson from the film "Shaft" has since been regarded as the "King of Style", a title he owes entirely to Armani, as the black actor is now happy to admit. Tom Cruise has also been dressed by Armani for years. At last Sunday's Oscar party, however, he was styled by Victoria Beckham for the first time.
No models, no campaigns - just cinema. There is already a technical term for this deal, "promo-costuming", when an entire film is outfitted by a particular designer. Fashion designers supply film productions with their clothes in order to become better known and bring the label to the public. Everyone from Hugo Boss to Ermenesgildo Zegna or Nino Cerruti takes part in this competition to see who can dress the most famous stars. The sales departments are delighted with this cross-promotion. However, there is also a trend that even Armani can no longer supply all the clothes for its protégés in the latest films. Big business has become so big that superstars such as Foster, Pfeiffer and Cruise employ their own stylists. They create a very precise and long-lasting image for their stars. Only then is a suitable script and costume negotiated. Jennifer Lopez even has her own fashion line, "Sweetface".
Nevertheless, the most important event for promoting a label is still Oscar night. And this year, too, it was firmly in the hands of Armani and Versace. Smaller labels have to invest a lot of money to get a foothold here. The ritual with the golden statuettes is the most watched TV spectacle in the USA and in large parts of the world, alongside the Superbowl final. It doesn't matter how you're dressed. 
The designers go into action as soon as the five nominees for an Oscar are known. Then they make their offers to the right stars. There are rumors that designers invite their desired stars to private fashion shows with first-class flights in order to select the right ones. Those who accept - free of charge, of course - often receive a 50 percent discount on all further purchases from their designer for the rest of their lives. Female stars are usually allowed to keep their gowns. Only Chanel is said to regularly ask for the costumes and evening gowns back.
So much action led to Giorgio Armani being the first designer in Hollywood to be awarded a star on Rodeo Drive, Hollywood's exclusive shopping mile, in 2003. This "Walk of Style" was celebrated with a similar ceremony to the actors' "Walk of Stars". But where the latter are immortalized with a handprint on the sidewalk in front of the Chinese Theatre, Hollywood has erected a sculpture over four metres high for Armani. Armani is "the pinnacle of the fusion of fashion and film", applauded the almost complete guard of Hollywood superstars in attendance.
Giorgio ArmaniThe designer and founder of the Armani Group
with around 5,000 employees today, was born on July 11, 1934 in Piacenza near Milan. His family of three children was rather poor and his mother was a seamstress. Giorgio began studying medicine at the University of Bologna in 1952, was called up for military service a year later and then worked as a decorator, photo assistant and stylist at the Milan department store La Rinascente. Without any professional training, he became a designer for men's fashion at Nino Cerruti in 1964. In 1973, he attracted attention as a freelancer in Florence with his first own fashion show. In 1975, Armani founded his own label together with architect Sergio Galeotti. The Giorgio Armani Corporation in the USA followed in 1979. Today, Armani is present all over the world, as far away as China and Japan, with fashion, furniture, accessories and, from 2008, the first Armani hotel in Dubai. The entire empire, now valued at 5 billion euros, could possibly be sold to L'Oréal.  
Andreas Panzeri

In China, the number of young people addicted to the Internet is increasing all the time: according to state media, around 2.6 million Chinese teenagers are currently addicted to the Internet. This corresponds to around 13 percent of users in the under-18 age group. A 26-year-old Chinese man has now lost his life due to excessive internet use. The overweight man collapsed after playing an online game for several days at the end of the Chinese New Year vacations - after playing on the Internet for practically seven days without interruption. The internet addict lived with his family in the city of Jinzhou in the north-east of the country. Life there is considered particularly boring during the vacations, so many residents take refuge in the Internet.

Column Every year at the end of January, Davos mutates into an alpine spaceship. This year, WEF founder Klaus Schwab expanded his virtual realm into the second life of the Internet. A revealing expansion. Everyone wants a second chance. Or better still, another self that is available at all times. And preferably immediately and again and again. This desire is as old as humanity itself and connects us across all borders and cultures. Stories and characters with the potential for identification are the materials for satisfying this basic need, as literature has provided for thousands of years. For almost 100 years, film has provided another, almost inexhaustible source. And now the Internet, which is by definition infinite, is getting straight to the point, unlike books or movies. And this is - like almost everything in the dotcom realm - essentially of a commercial (and not artistic) nature. Even the pretty name of the three-dimensional online parallel world "Second Life" (SL) does not hide this fact. Even on the homepage, directly under the logo, there are basic functions such as "Buy Linden Dollars" (the currency of the second life), "Own Virtual Land" or "View LindeX" (a kind of internal stock market index), which immediately let the business spirit out of the bottle. Even the self-advertising suggesting emancipation and participation "Your World. Your Imagination" does not change anything. On the contrary: the guys from Linden Lab in California will soon follow in the footsteps of their predecessors from Myspace and YouTube and have their platform gilded by a media multinational.
The mother of all internet self-discovery worlds has long since mutated from a game to a marketplace. "US dollars spent last 24h: $ 1,215,748" reported the homepage proudly on February 21. No wonder, after the sex and gambling industry, more serious service providers are now also opening SL branches en masse. The week before last, the first Swiss advertising agency even advertised an SL branch. Mathias Döpfner also recently admitted in the Handelsblatt that SL is "not just a free pastime, but big business". And the CEO of Axel Springer AG should know, after all he publishes the first purely virtual newspaper with Avastar - in SL for SL. By his own admission, however, the online avant-gardist Döpfner "doesn't have the time" for his own avatar.
Not so Klaus Schwab. Although hardly underemployed as founder and organizer of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the self-proclaimed do-gooder took his second chance to (pseudo-)open up the exclusive economic club at the 2007 Davos Annual Meeting: SL residents were able to ask him questions via Adam Reuters, SL correspondent for the news agency of the same name, which were answered by a Schwab avatar.
 
This PR campaign was sold full-bodied as a programmatic "extension of the Davos Conversation" - also by compliant media partners. However, like the so-called Open Forum launched in 2003 under pressure from critics, it also had a mere fig leaf function. This time, the trendy means of Web 2.0 were intended to distract from the core business of the WEF.
And today, as in the past, that means "Connecting and Enabling Big Business" (Financial Times). So there is still a common denominator between the online parallel world and the Davos spaceship. However, this is neither transparency nor participation, but quite simply fraudulent labeling.
> Oliver Classen is press spokesman for the development policy organization Berne Declaration.

Out-of-home advertising II Affichage's figures are so good that the out-of-home advertiser wants to go it alone in Eastern and Southern Europe. "We are very happy about the past year, all companies in Switzerland and abroad have developed positively," said Affichage CEO Christian Kauter at the annual press conference. In fact, Affichage was able to increase its sales revenue by 12.9 percent and its profit after extraordinary income by as much as 44.1 percent. As a result, the distribution to shareholders is also expected to be 66.4 percent higher. Following the publication of these figures, the Affichage share price rose from CHF 223 to as much as CHF 244.  
The out-of-home advertiser was able to increase its sales revenue in Germany by 10 percent and abroad by almost 40 percent. Its goal is to generate 25 percent of its sales abroad by 2008. Currently it is 12 percent. "We need a second mainstay because the Swiss market is increasingly regulated," said Kauter, who has been fighting advertising bans for years.
 
In the middle of the year, the Swiss poster market leader intends to take a further step in Eastern Europe: It is leaving Europlakat International (EPI), the joint venture with JCDecaux. The countries previously managed jointly will be split up: Affichage has already been operating independently in Romania and Greece for around a year and will in future also work the markets in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia and Hungary on its own. However, this will continue to be done with the support of JCDecaux when it comes to street furniture. The French company will retain a 30 percent stake in Affichage.
 
Kauter expects to gain further market share in Eastern and Southern Europe in 2007. Just a few weeks ago, the company acquired Domisi Outdoor, the largest Greek outdoor advertising company. And if Clear Channel Outdoor is indeed split up, Kauter has further options.
 
Markus Knöpfli

Martin Platzer and his MPM Sponsoring Consulting, based in Vienna and Zurich, are ready for the kick-off of Euro 08. 
The Swiss eleven is "flagging somewhat at a high level", and the Austrian national team is "on the upswing at a lower level", Martin Platzer is tempted to make a forecast for Euro 08. A diplomatically well-chosen answer for someone who, with offices in Vienna and Zurich, advises companies that want to play a role in some form of sponsorship or ambush marketing at the European Football Championship. In about 400 days the European Championship will start with venues in both countries at the same time. Back in 2004, Martin Platzer took this as an opportunity to set up a branch office in Zurich in addition to his regular office with nine permanent employees in Vienna. This is managed by the managing director Christian Müller and three employees. The boss from Vienna drops by for a few days at least every two weeks. "With the first plane, I can be in the office on Limmatstrasse as early as half past eight," says Platzer, who as a former professional ice hockey player is used to living out of a suitcase.
Platzer has competed for the puck as a national player for Austria four times at a World Championship and twice at an Olympics. During this time, he also completed a degree in business administration on the side. In his thesis on the economics of ice hockey, he compared American ice hockey clubs with European ones. This gave him the idea for a sponsoring company.
Martin Platzer Management MPM is a below-the-line agency. "We advise companies to the effect that we develop a sponsorship strategy from their communications strategy," explains Platzer. MPM relies on the help of extensive studies of its own: What does the population think about sponsoring? How does image transfer take place? Which industries are suitable for which type of sponsoring? MPM regularly conducts such analyses in a wide variety of markets. Then a sponsoring strategy is developed and finally the entire business is handled, from the drafting of the contract with the sponsoring partner, through creation and implementation, to success monitoring with agencies, which collect the clippings for evaluation.
Sports, culture, social issues and science can be sponsored at MPM. In recent years, the portfolio has been expanded to include corporate events, trade fairs, TV productions in connection with sponsoring and TV commercials. Well-known in Zurich, for example, is the fun sports event Freestyle.ch, where MPM produces the entire appearance, including TV spots, for the client Nokia. In a similar segment, MPM launched the music show "Lautstark" on Star TV for Nokia and Sunrise. In addition to Euro 08, it was major clients such as these that brought MPM to Zurich three years ago, in order to be able to serve the entire Alpine region "comprehensively and with natives" from here.
In the area of culture, MPM also launched the Zurich Film Festival and "invented" the Movie Mobile Award for Nokia, which this year will be further expanded into a continuing audience competition in the run-up to the festival.
In Austria, MPM was founded 15 years ago in Villach. In 1995, Platzer moved to Vienna, where he also met his life and business partner Ute Riermeier, with whom he now has two children. Among the first big customers were T-Mobile, Bank Austria, Austria Tabak or Heraklith. For this manufacturer of refractory building materials, MPM launched a sponsorship of sports clubs in the vicinity of the Heraklith plants in its first case, similar to what Bayer does with FC Leverkusen, for example. If someone wins among these top tennis, athletics, soccer or ice hockey clubs, the employees can also "feel like winners" with the sponsor, Platzer explains the psychology of this commitment.
Also in MPM's kitchen, the T-Mobile Bundesliga was conceived, realized and communicated in Austria back in 1995. For this first league name sponsoring in Europe, MPM won the International Sponsoring Award for "the best networked sponsoring". The concept later became the model for the Axpo League in Switzerland.
In his work in Zurich, Platzer appreciates that people in Switzerland are already more receptive to strategic approaches to sponsorship. "In Austria, the social network is often still decisive." But, "To do successful sponsorship, you need a strategic lean." Sponsoring golf just because the CEO likes to play golf doesn't help. Brand values must be at the forefront of the decision.
For Platzer, sponsorship in the sports sector, for example, can raise awareness many times over in a very short time. One can make image corrections and also position oneself vis-à-vis competitors.
A study conducted by MPM in Switzerland in 2005 shows that sponsorship is "the most likeable type of advertising". Wherever you consume the advertising in an environment where you feel comfortable and it's fun, the advertising doesn't bother you. "But if the advertising is thrust in your face - for example, as an annoying insert in a magazine, then it's no longer likeable for the recipient."
Platzer can also prove higher recall values for sponsorship on TV than for classic commercials. "But you have to be more creative for that." However, sponsorship also has a limited effect, because "with sponsorship, I can't explain a product, only present a name and logo and transfer an image."
In Austria, MPM has now managed 15 of the top 20 sponsors. This was another reason why Martin Platzer was looking for a new playground. In Zurich, they now want to position themselves as the "local heroes" in order to be able to serve international companies on the local market.
Planning for Euro 08 has been underway since last spring. The biggest project is a public viewing road show. Trucks are to travel to 15 cities in Switzerland and Austria to show the games on a big screen. In Switzerland, these are towns that are not among the 17 cities served by the official Uefa sponsor UBS. MPM wants to eventually have these trucks run without the official Euro 08 logo, giving a chance to companies that can't afford an official Uefa sponsorship. "We are looking for creative opportunities in ambush marketing," Platzer reveals. And he doesn't hide the fact that he finds certain Uefa rules "bullshit." "But we have very good contacts with those responsible for marketing, who think differently than certain lawyers." In general, he hopes that Uefa "doesn't do too much negative PR for this football festival" in the run-up.
How can a company legally use the Euro for itself if it is not a Euro sponsor? For MPM, this is "a great challenge and also fun, because you have to be much more creative than in the troop of official sponsors. And that's where we have a lot of know-how to offer," says Platzer, who is otherwise co-founder and still vice president of the one-hockey club Vienna Capitals, which became Austrian champion two years ago. Another hobby he has turned into his profession is social commitment. Here Platzer is proud of his project "henkel-smile.com," where donations are generated around major events, for example for children who are blind or suffering from diabetes. But not in a snivelling way, but in a fully sporting and sponsoringly professional way.
Andreas Panzeri

Print Since February 27, Tamedia, under the leadership of UL member and Tagi publishing director Rolf Bollmann, has been increasing the pressure on the advertising business of the Zurich regional newspapers in the Lake Zurich, Zürcher Unterland and Oberland regions with a large circulation of the Tages-Anzeiger. Tamedia has a clear path, particularly in the districts of Horgen and Meilen on Lake Zurich, because the Zürichsee-Zeitung does not have a large circulation there. The ZSZ does not wish to comment for the time being, but will await further developments. However, ZSZ Managing Director Erland Herkenrath does not rule out the possibility of expanding its own large circulation into the districts mentioned.

The new Secretary General of the Romansh umbrella organization Lia Rumantscha is Urs Cadruvi. The 34-year-old will succeed Gion Antoni Derungs, who is stepping down for health reasons after several years. Cadruvi is a management consultant and managing director of the Institute for Media and Communication at the University of Applied Sciences in Chur. The Lia Rumantscha has adapted its structures to the times in recent years. Among other things, the organization wants to strengthen the areas of communication and marketing, according to a press release. In this respect, the choice of Cadruvi is the logical consequence of the strategic orientation; he will assume operational responsibility. With his strong qualities in the areas of management, marketing and communication, he will set new accents accordingly. He also knows large parts of Rumantschia and speaks the idioms Vallader, Surmiran and Sursilvan. The Lia Rumantscha currently employs 27 people.

Cinema The cinema spot "Joint" not only sets limits, but also overcomes them. The drugs department of the city of Frankfurt a. M. will also use the cinema spot "Joint", which Matter & Gretener produced last summer for the addiction prevention office of the city of Zurich, to promote low-risk behavior. Good ideas are also convincing abroad.

Last year, the Zurich agency Ruf Lanz designed a new reader and advertiser campaign for NZZ Folio under the motto: The most interesting thing you can do with letters: NZZ Folio. Ruf Lanz is now continuing the campaign with new subjects that will appear in popular titles throughout the year.

The cable network operator Cablecom is allowing its contracts with the Swiss private broadcaster U1 TV to expire. U1 TV now fears that it will be removed from the analog cable network and can only be received digitally. The German teleshopping channel HSE24 is also affected by the decision, as was announced on Monday. U1 TV feels endangered and launched a petition against the switch-off on Monday evening - and had already collected 1,200 signatures by 10.00 pm. Up to 20,000 signatures are to be collected at the Albisgüetli country music festival alone. In any case, the necessary signatures for the petition should be on paper by the end of May at the latest. The recipient of U1 TV's collection of signatures is the Federal Council. It will soon present a list of television channels that Cablecom must keep on the analog network. According to its own information, U1 TV would lose its economic basis if the analog network were switched off. The broadcaster is based in Schlieren ZH and employs around 50 people.
According to Cablecom spokesman Martin Wüthrich, the SDA news agency reports that it has not yet been decided whether the private channel will actually be dropped from the analog program. The background to the whole discussion is Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger's veto against Cablecom's planned switch-off of the channels Rai Uno and France 2 on analog television. Wüthrich said that the Federal Council will in all likelihood make these two channels mandatory in the analog service. Cablecom would therefore have to move other channels to the digital network because the capacity of the entire network is limited. With the precautionary withdrawal from the contracts with U1 and HSE24, the company has more leeway. According to Wüthrich, the migration of CNN, the third channel with which Cablecom has a distribution contract, is not currently under discussion.

The two Zurich agencies Open Up and Inform have won a competitive presentation by the Helsana Group. They are currently working on a joint concept that will realign the form and content of the three customer magazines of the Helsana, Progrès and Sansan brands. As the PR agency, Open Up is contributing its journalistic expertise in terms of content, while Inform is responsible for the design and visual appearance. The three health magazines will appear in their new look for the first time in the middle of the year, as Open Up announced on Tuesday. With Helsana, Progrès and Sansan as well as Avanex and Aerosana, the Helsana Group has well-established insurance companies. Each of these insurances is geared towards different target groups. This differentiation also plays an important role in the customer magazines of the three strongest brands. The magazines are published in German, French and Italian and have a total circulation of around 850,000 copies. With the relaunch, the Helsana Group aims to further develop the content and design of the three magazines and optimally adapt them to the needs and expectations of insured persons with a modern magazine style.

The team of the Zurich media agency Mediaschneider will be strengthened by Claudia Mühlebach as of March 1. She is a new member of the management team and deputy to agency owner Urs Schneider. Before joining Mediaschneider, Mühlebach worked for the agencies M&M and MM&B for many years.