BSW Leading Swiss Agencies has included the agency Mrg Communications in the advertising agency category. The Basel-based agency was founded in 1999 by Andreas Mesmer, Marco Rosenberg and Michael Gerber. Today, Esther Weber is co-owner alongside Rosenberg and Gerber. Mrg Communications employs a total of 35 people in Basel and Zurich. The company's clients include Coop, Phillip Morris and Messe Schweiz.

The Switch Foundation will remain the registry for Internet addresses with the Swiss country code extension .ch. The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) has extended the contract by eight years until 2015. Switch spokesman Marco D'Alessandro told SDA that the number of .ch addresses is approaching the million mark. Last year, it climbed from around 760,000 to 856,336, or 903,669 if the .li addresses, which are also registered by Switch, are included. The foundation is owned in equal parts by the federal government and the university cantons and is not profit-oriented. In recent years, the monopolist's prices have been repeatedly criticized as being too high. At the beginning of March 2006, Switch abolished the registration fee of CHF 40 for .ch and ?.li addresses. In November, the annual fee was also reduced from CHF 35 to CHF 27 per address.

Senator Carl Krueger senses a safety problem on New York's streets. So far, so true - but his suggestions for alleviating it don't go in the direction of pothole repair (extremely insidious for bicycles) or pollutant reduction (beneficial to everyone's health) or an IQ test for cab drivers (see last parenthesis). No, Mr. Krueger is fighting for an iPod ban. With this, the Democrat wants to curb the use of MP3 players, Blackberries and other electronic devices. He says that pedestrians who walk in traffic while listening to music or talking on the phone are too distracted and a potential accident risk. If Krueger has his way, every iPod user moving on New York's streets should pay up to $100 in fines in the future. At the moment, he is still looking for more lunatics who would like to commit political suicide with him and an advertising agency that manages to get his message across in a funky way. Well then, good night ... and good luck.

In collaboration with Sophie's Kommunikationsdesign, Neue Medienhaus Mitlinks redesigned the Migros Culture Percentage event M4Music. This year's annual music festival will once again feature various discussion forums. In the course of these forums, the aim is to crystallize where digitalization will drive the market and musicians and makes strong reference to online communities.  

The Chur agency Clus is starting 2007 with a new partner: Robin Keller has come on board as an equal partner alongside the previous owners Kajo Bächle and Olivier Chauliac. They can make good use of the support: With an anniversary brochure for Holcim and new performances for the Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden and Mircropool, the order books are fuller than ever. With Robin Keller, Clus is once again becoming a full-service agency - he complements the small and powerful team as a copywriter and consultant. Robin Keller is no stranger to existing clients, and after a year in the lowlands he is returning to his home turf. The trained communications manager previously worked at Clus for 3 years.

MySpace is now also going mobile in Europe. Together with exclusive partner Vodafone, MySpace Mobile will soon enable access to the networking world on the Internet via cell phone. The mobile service will soon make its debut in the UK, with Germany, France and Italy to be connected to the service by the end of the year. Some Vodafone models will have MySpace pre-installed, while users of other devices will be able to download the service from the Vodafone Live! portal. In order to properly promote the mobile service, the two companies have also concluded a marketing deal, according to Pressetext.at. In future, MySpace will be advertised as part of Vodafone commercials in the UK. In the USA, MySpace Mobile is marketed via Cingular.

Andreas Schirgi joined the team of consultants at Unique People Switzerland at the beginning of February. The personnel consultant is responsible for marketing, web development and PR. He also supports Andreas Gloor as Deputy Managing Director in order to further expand Unique People Switzerland together with the team, according to the company's press release. Schirgi trained as a marketing planner after completing an apprenticeship as a typographer. He held various management positions in sales and processing in the graphic arts industry, media planning and sales of Internet services. Most recently, he worked as Head of Marketing at Switzerland's largest automobile importer.

According to the January figures from Angelin yourposition's Swiss Adex, the number of advertising spaces booked with the online giant fell sharply. In December, Google Switzerland was still showing around 39 text ads per search query. In January, this figure fell to an average of 34 booked advertising spaces, according to the Angelink press release. This is mainly due to industries that were heavily present during and before the Christmas period. The biggest overall decline was recorded in the telecommunications sector, where only 19 companies were present in January. Overall, the decline is almost exclusively attributable to foreign companies. Swiss companies, on the other hand, maintained their Google presence compared to December - figures that certainly don't make Google happy and probably not the former YouTube owners either. After all, the three founders own Google shares worth a total of 735 million dollars, as reported by the New York Times.

According to the European Marketing Survey, Eurosport is the most-watched international channel among the richest Europeans for the eleventh time in a row. 4.2 million top earners watch Eurosport every day. The way to the heart is through the stomach, and the placement of advertising messages for the business elite is through sport. The study also lists MTV, CNN International, Euronews and, in fifth place, the Discovery Channel, as Presseportal.ch reports.

Despite the moderate success of her show "You Can Dance" on Sat.1, the Swiss presenter is still in demand. Apparently, several broadcasting formats are interested in the young entertainer, as the Swiss TV magazine TV-Star reports in its latest issue. Anna Maier is said to be in talks with the makers of the new auction show "Die grosse Ricardo-Show" on Sat1. Similar to the online portal Ricardo.ch, viewers will be able to bid for items from Swiss celebrities in this show, which will be broadcast from March 1. The one-hour live show will also feature show acts, emotional stories and comedy about auctioning. The monthly show will be broadcast on Friday evenings during prime time.

Private television The new competition from Züri Plus in the Zurich, Glarus, Schaffhausen coverage area is hardly causing any red heads on Werdstrasse, where a delegation from TeleZüri recently visited the Schaffhausen government council together with representatives of Tamedia's management to discuss the expansion of TeleZüri with a program window in the small canton on the other side of the Rhine. The Tamedia subsidiary is interested in the cantons of Schaffhausen and Glarus, which, according to the proposals of the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom), together with the canton of Zurich, are to form a new coverage area for a future regional television station with a performance mandate, but new competition has recently emerged (see WW 04/07): Schaffhauser Medien (Meier + Cie.), Südostschweiz, Ringier, TV marketer Goldbach and the Glattal local broadcaster Züri Plus also want to provide up-to-the-minute Zurich regional television in the area in question.
There is little excitement about the new competition on Werdstrasse. "This is not surprising, there will probably be other competitors in Zurich, but also in other cantons," says Andreas Meili, UL member and Head of Electronic Media at Tamedia. Meili's calmness is easy to understand, as the federal government still has to finalize the new TV coverage areas, define the performance mandate and determine which stations to be licensed should receive how much money from the fee pot. The new licenses are expected to be put out to tender in June in accordance with the new RTVA. The station that best fulfills the performance mandate will be awarded the licence. "TeleZüri can do it, others have to prove it first," says Meili. "We definitely want to make attractive television for Zurich," says Meili, "and are therefore interested in the license for Zurich." The prerequisite for this is that the area is sufficiently large and that the performance mandate is reasonably defined. In any case, Meili wants to develop TeleZüri further, with or without a license or fees. "If the Federal Council provides for fees for the production of special program windows for Schaffhausen and Glarus, then we welcome this proposal," he explains.
From this perspective, the canton of Thurgau should also be of interest to the Tamedia broadcaster, as the group already has a local presence with the Thurgauer Zeitung. Meili makes no secret of the fact that the company is also committed to broadcasting TeleZüri in other cantons with strong links to Zurich. Not only Thurgau comes into question, but also Zug or parts of Aargau (Baden, Freiamt) would be of interest. "A reasonably large broadcasting area is important, also with additional program windows, for example in the canton of Thurgau."
The advantages are obvious. With the license and service contract, the company is far ahead of the regional competition and its place in the cable network is secured. In the event that the concession goes to a competitor, Werdstrasse has alternatives ready, which it does not want to reveal for the time being.
 
 
 
Coveted broadcasting slotsTo date, TeleZüri
Thanks to a private-law agreement with Cablecom, Tamedia's cable network is now available. Andreas Meili, Head of Electronic Media at Tamedia, assumes that broadcasters without a license will have to pay a distribution fee in future. The Glattal channel Züri Plus, however, which emerged from the former Hasli TV under former Olympic pentathlete Peter Steinmann in the fall of 2002, has a license. With a view to digitalization, however, Cablecom removed the channel from cable in 2003 in favour of U1. When allocating the analog broadcasting slots, Cablecom is officially guided by the reach values determined by Telecontrol.
The cable network operator remains silent about its contractual practice with non-licensed broadcasters. It has contracts with the international broadcasters CNN, MTV and HSE24, according to a Cablecom spokesperson.
As is well known, Cablecom's practice of removing low-coverage channels from cable and only offering them in digital format has not only massively annoyed the public, but has also occupied politicians: Following a personal protest by Italy's Deputy Foreign Minister Franco Danieli in Bern against the removal of Rai Uno and Canale 5, the federal government will in future stipulate to Cablecom which channels must be offered in analog format.
Although analog television is considered to be a discontinued model, it will still be years before it is completely replaced by digital technology. By 2009, Cablecom is expected to offer 25 analog channels prescribed by the federal government. The analog broadcasting slots are therefore still important, as the example of ORF2 illustrates. The station lost 2.4 percent of its reach after it was moved to a secondary broadcasting position in favor of 3+.
 
René Worni

Software Blue Spirit launched the new Windows Vista operating system for Microsoft in Switzerland with a mega event in Berne, which was promised at the end of 2006 and finally delivered on January 30, 2007. The excitement and expectations surrounding the international launch of Windows Vista were correspondingly high. The new operating system from Microsoft replaces Windows XP and is intended, among other things, to make the PC a more interesting platform for games. As a single version for end users, Microsoft wanted to launch it on the market with a big "wow effect". This was no easy task for advertising, as no information or images of the international launch campaign were available on January 30. Nevertheless, a national event was also required for Day X in Switzerland.
In a competitive presentation, Blue Spirit Communications in Schlieren won this pitch with an "extraordinary and spectacular idea", according to Marketing Director Daniel Moschin at Microsoft Switzerland. Blue Spirit wanted to launch tens of thousands of colorful Microsoft Vista balloons into the Swiss sky. But that is easier said than done.
A location was also needed where the target groups of media people, retail partners, VIPs and, of course, the general public could be equally impressed. For project manager Roger Wirth at Blue Spirit and consultant and owner Gerry Flückiger, the city of Lucerne would have been ideal. The transport director there was enthusiastic. However, the city council was less keen on the idea. And so, for once, "the slow Bernese" beat the Lucerne team, which is always lively when it comes to PR. A story that was also picked up with relish in various media. Which of course means additional coverage for the event, as Flückiger is pleased to report.
The quick decision in favor of the federal capital was also very favorable for media-related reasons, as all journalists throughout Switzerland were to be informed about the new features of this software release.
Vista logo in the skyThe agency worked with various specialists to put together a professional event concept within a very short space of time. The environmental compatibility had to be checked, as the visual goal was to create the Vista logo in the sky with this huge number of balloons. Exclusive tents with "grandiose catering" were expected for the many guests. The agency was also creatively challenged with competition cards for the audience. Three days before the event, radio spots were used to count down. The trickiest point was, of course, the weather. The organizers were lucky, "very lucky", according to Blue Spirit, because the sky was steel blue.
Both the public and the media came in droves. In addition to the balloon spectacle, the supporting program was also a hit. Viktor Giacobbo entertained with a humorous talk interlude. At the exclusive dinner, a clairvoyant read the future. IT specialists were on hand to answer questions from the technically interested audience. All of Blue Spirit's objectives were therefore met - from a high media presence to beautiful images with the "wow effect" required in the briefing.   
Andreas Panzeri