Thanks to blogs and broadband connections, Americans are increasingly relying on the internet for political information. A study published on Wednesday shows that the blogs of the ten largest US newspapers attracted three times as many readers in December as in the previous year.  
The study by market research company Nielsen/NetRatings revealed that 15 percent of respondents in last year's US congressional elections obtained most of their information from the Internet. According to a report by SDA, digital online diaries, or blogs, are enjoying a particularly strong rise in popularity. The ten largest daily newspapers in the USA alone counted 3.8 million blog readers in 2006, compared with 1.2 million in 2005. However, anyone who fears that printed newspapers and other conventional media will now be replaced by the Internet can rest assured: For 69 percent of the 2,500 respondents, television is the most important source of information, 34 percent continue to rely on daily newspapers and 17 percent get their information from the radio.

In 2006, a total of 42 different poster subjects were chosen as Posters of the Week in public e-votings at Apg.ch. The task now is to determine the Poster of the Year. The jury is open to anyone with an Internet connection who would like to take part in the competition. The competition runs from January 18 to February 18, 2007, with attractive prizes up for grabs.  
Since 2002, all major Swiss poster campaigns have also been available on the Internet. By means of e-voting, anyone, whether an advertiser or a layperson, can choose their personal Poster of the Week from the current poster display and has the chance to win CHF 250 in Swiss Lotto vouchers every week. With the APG PosterAward, the winning posters themselves have also received a special award since 2003. According to the company, creative managers and enthusiasts can now find around 5,500 subjects in the electronic poster collection.
 
The winners of the APG Poster of the Year 2006 will receive an exclusive glass trophy. The first prize to be drawn from the e-voting participants is a luxury wellness weekend at the Hotel Palace, Lucerne, the second prize is a voucher worth 600 francs for the Kunststuben restaurant in Küsnacht ZH, which has been awarded 19 Gault Millau points, and the third prize is a Swiss Lotto ticket worth 250 francs.

Retailer Kuoni opened Switzerland's most modern travel agency this week. It stands out with a multimedia customer contact and customer loyalty concept from InciteMedia. The pioneering world of experience transports visitors into an interactive travel agency where they can see, hear and smell. In line with new customer needs, the branch symbolizes the fusion of travel agency, multimedia experience and digital advertising platform. InciteMedia was chosen by Kuoni as a partner and is responsible for the content concept, the technical solution and the content production and distribution. The technical core of the multimedia experience is the InciteMediaCenter. In the trendy lounge, guests can find out about destinations and travel offers using interactive terminals with travel browsers integrated into lounge tables. They are animated by images of countries near and far, which are shown on the video wall and bring the respective ambience directly into the store. And at the bar, travel offers can be selected and booked directly via Internet terminals. "With this travel agency of the future, Kuoni has recognized the trend towards a fusion of retailing and advertising. This type of marketing with interactive worlds of experience makes the offer more tangible and emotional for the customer," says Roland Kümin, founder and Managing Director of Incite Media.

Consumer press K-Tipp publisher René Schuhmacher no longer has the circulation of his titles certified by Wemf, but by a notary public.René Schuhmacher, publisher of his consumer info magazines (including K-Tipp, Saldo, Radiomagazin), no longer wants to have the circulation of his titles certified by Wemf. "It's a matter of credibility," Schuhmacher says. Although Wemf put new certification regulations into effect two years ago that are supposed to prevent cheating, as became known in the cases of the Winterthurer Landbote and Giornale del Popolo, Schuhmacher sees no reason to trust the new procedure. He is therefore having the conditions of K-Tipp & Co. certified by a notary public for the first time. For the first time, a lawyer certified the circulation figures of K-Tipp, K-Geld, Saldo, Haus & Garten, Gesundheitsmagazin and Radiomagazin last October. "We regret his decision," says Roland Achermann, circulation certification project manager at Wemf.
Ineffective finesAchermann defends Wemf's action. He does not see why a notarial certificate of conditions should be more credible than Wemf's approach. "According to the new regulations, we have every title checked by external auditors."
Schuhmacher counters that the certification is still based on the self-declaration of the publishers. And publishers could continue to have both sold and free copies certified. "De facto, nothing has changed with the new regulations." Schuhmacher considers the 50,000 franc fine threatened in the case of cheating to be ineffective in view of the marketing budgets of the major publishers. If, on the other hand, he made false statements to a notary, he would have to expect harsher sanctions. "I would then be clearly liable to prosecution."
Schuhmacher's decision to turn away from Wemf is not only due to criticism of its certification procedure. The consumer info publisher sees his flagship K-Tipp at a disadvantage compared to the competition because it was always included in the Wemf circulation statistics in the special press category - and not in the consumer, financial and business press category like its main competitor, the Beobachter. "For the advertising industry, we are invisible, so to speak, since it is largely oriented to Wemf's typology." Negotiations for a change in status were unsuccessful. The Competition Commission Weko also did not open proceedings despite a complaint by Schuhmacher.
Wemf does not consider itself responsible for questions of typologizing individual titles. According to Wemf's Achermann, they take the information from the Association of Swiss Advertising Companies (VSW) and stick to it.
Title Typology ControversialSince 2004, there have been defined title groups in the Swiss press landscape. This typology was developed by the Swiss Press Association (VSP) together with the VSW. The VSW Documentation Center under Stefan Gsell is responsible for the classification of the individual titles. For him, one thing is clear: "K-Tipp is not a popular magazine. You can ask anyone in the industry who you want, they would all confirm that." One person who has been asked is René Grossenbacher. The Publicom managing director was commissioned by Wemf to examine the classification of K-Tipp in the press typology - and came to the same conclusion as others before him.
Publishers have repeatedly asked him about ambiguities, says Gsell. To date, however, only K-Tipp has attempted to derive a problem under competition law from this. "The fact that the Weko saw no reason to initiate proceedings on this issue clearly shows that K-Tipp was obviously on the losing side with its request.
René Schuhmacher sees things differently. For him, Wemf, VSP and VSW form a cartel. Undeterred by the antitrust authority's decision not to take action in this matter, the K-Tipp publisher maintains: "The three of them undoubtedly have a dominant market position."
More bulletFive years after the last adjustment
of its appearance, K-Tipp is now getting another makeover. Publisher René Schuhmacher describes the gentle graphic relaunch as a "decluttering". In concrete terms, this means: more white space, a typeset with a larger throughput, which reduces the total amount of text by around five percent. Schuhmacher is convinced that this reduction can be implemented without sacrificing content. "We want," he argues, "to make reading easier." To this end, among other things, more tables are to be used as graphic supplements to the texts. The paper's title page header has undergone a "cosmetic" adjustment. Also new in the K-Tipp will be advertisements with a text link. The new format can be booked exclusively half-page for a surcharge of ten percent on the gross price. "There is a great demand for special forms of advertising," knows publisher Schuhmacher. The introduction of advertisements with a text link was a compromise that the company was prepared to make.
Nick Lüthi

Market research Wemf's planned successor to the previous AIS advertising statistics has failed. TV and cinema marketers are dropping the project. In the next few days, Wemf will publish the December data for its advertising statistics AIS (Advertising Index Switzerland) and the AIS full-year review - after which the competition between AIS and Media Focus (MF) will be over. This is because Wemf is discontinuing the AIS, as it announced last summer following an agreement with MF. MF, on the other hand, will continue to publish its own monthly statistics, which evaluate advertising expenditure at gross rates (advertising pressure), although Wemf had planned to launch a new survey for the print, TV, radio, poster, cinema, online, ad screen and direct marketing categories from 2007, which, unlike MF, would be based on actual advertising expenditure (net value) - similar to that of the Advertising Statistics Foundation. However, as the latter is only published once a year, the new study, like MF, should "ideally be published monthly". At any rate, this was the original idea of Wemf Director René Schmutz.
But a few days ago, it became clear that the project had failed. "The TV and cinema marketers informed us last week that they do not want to take part in the study," says project manager Rolf Blum. This means that the project will be discontinued, as the study makes no sense without TV, a medium with a strong market share. "We offer what the market wants and what it is ready for," says Blum.
The marketers Publisuisse, IP Multimedia (IP) and Cinecom confirm Blum's statements. However, the reasons for the rejections vary. "In addition to the monthly advertising pressure data from Mediafocus, the annual net figures from the Advertising Statistics Foundation are completely sufficient for us," says Siri Fischer, Head of Research and Product Management at IP. The Goldbach Media subsidiary markets the advertising windows of ProSieben, M6, RTL, Super RTL and Swiss channels such as Viva Schweiz and TVM3, among others.
Paying for your own dataAt Cinecom, the monopolist in cinema marketing and advertising time seller for Sat1 Switzerland, Kabel 1 and 3+, COO Claude Bruhin is more offended by the study's financing system: "As the only cinema marketer, we would have to pay for our own data," he criticizes. As this would also be directly comparable with MF's gross revenue statistics, "our conditions could be recalculated." However, according to the contracts with its customers, Cinecom is not allowed to publish comparable gross and net sales, says Bruhin.
SRG marketer Publisuisse dropped the Wemf project for completely different reasons. Head of Marketing Markus Hollenstein mentions three points: Firstly, the study would not collect real net-net data, but "merely net before deduction of the consultancy commission". Secondly, he criticizes the fact that, unlike the annual net sales study, the study is not embedded in the advertising statistics foundation. And thirdly, he criticized the fact that the study did not provide sufficient transparency within the TV genre: it either only showed a total TV volume or group volumes according to the broadcaster categories SRG, foreigners and private TV Switzerland. The former is useless and the latter only discloses Publisuisse revenues, but not those of the other marketers, says Hollenstein. "But I'll only drop my pants if the others do too." In order to be of use to him, the statistics would therefore have to show the net figures either by marketer or by individual broadcaster - which the other two marketers would hardly be able to accept.
TV and movie theaters have already crossed the line several timesWemf was warned.
After all, when it launched the AIS three years ago, it had already hit a brick wall with the cinema and TV categories - even though the AIS was not about net figures, but "merely" about the "invoiced gross". Nevertheless, cinema and TV also balked at the time - with similar justifications as today - and only provided Wemf with the gross figures that they also deliver to Mediafocus. As a result, even within the AIS, TV and cinema revenues were not comparable with the revenues of the other genres - a shortcoming that contributed to the demise of the AIS. former TV3 managing director Jürg Wildberger also tried to compile net statistics in 2000, but at that time only for the medium of TV. He was also unsuccessful.
Markus Knöpfli

A preliminary committee of the Zurich Cantonal Council is in agreement on practically all points of the revision of the Zurich Health Act. However, there was no agreement on the prevention measures against alcohol and tobacco consumption, as reported by the SDA news agency. To prevent addiction, the Commission for Social Security and Health (KSSG) wants to introduce a ban on billboard advertising for tobacco, alcohol and other addictive substances with comparable risk potential, as it wrote in a communiqué on Wednesday. The KSSG majority is in favor of a ban on advertising on public and visible private property. The minority, on the other hand, wants to restrict the regulation to public areas. The committee also wants to ban the advertising and sale of tobacco and alcohol to young people. A minority wants to extend the age limit to 18 in the interests of protecting young people. Two further minority motions call for a total ban on advertising and a ban on smoking in public buildings.

Competition The readers of Werbewoche have voted and Peter Felser, CEO Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett, has been named Advertiser of the Year with 28 percent. The strategist and top creative reveals what his career is all about.about his start in advertising: "Many people say they always knew they wanted to work in advertising. I didn't. It was a coincidence. I studied economics in Fribourg and didn't have a specific career goal at the end of my studies. Of course, that was also a time when it was easy to find a job. We had a really good time. I was allowed to decide: Do I want to go to UBS, Nestlé or IBM? Then I heard by chance that Advico was looking for a PhD student in the marketing department. Someone who works 50 percent and writes 50 percent of their dissertation. I thought that sounded good, especially working there only 50% and slowly entering the world of work. Then I looked at the agency - and I was fascinated by the fact that I could work for a lot of different sectors. Advertising really is very varied. That's why I stayed loyal to the advertising industry."
On the battle between creation and market research: "Back in 1986, there was a religious war between creatives and market researchers. The latter were highly stylized as the killers of creativity, the advertising testers who destroyed everything creative. I therefore wanted to investigate in my doctoral thesis why some test and do a lot of advertising research and others do not. On the one hand, this empirical study gave me the opportunity to take an in-depth look at advertising research and, at the same time, to gain an insight into a wide range of industries. To summarize, I found out that Advertising research is done because clients are looking for validation. It has nothing to do with the industry or the know-how, but more with the structure of the company. To put it simply: the more hierarchies there are, the more testing is done. If the owner can decide for himself, he is quicker to say: Come on, let's do it."
About 16 years at Advico: "I started at Advico as a Junior Marketing Assistant and left 16 years later as CEO and Delegate of the Board of Directors. Actually a boring CV. Or at least one that doesn't necessarily correspond to the management books that say you should change companies every three to four years in order to gain as many different insights as possible. But I have realized that You can also have different experiences if you stay in the same place and everyone else changes. The experience is the same. Maybe it's even better if you stay in the same place, because then you have to pay for what you've done - but you can also see what you've achieved."
On his impact: "At Advico, I experienced the merger with Young & Rubicam in 1989. We went from being a Swiss agency to an international company. Young & Rubicam were the creative high-flyers and Advico was more structured and down-to-earth. Together they complemented each other well, which certainly helped the agency move forward. In 1991, I set up the strategic planning department - Account Planning. It was the first department of its kind in Switzerland. We worked intensively on strategies, conducted studies on consumer behavior and developed the Brand Asset Valuator. That certainly helped me to develop a personal understanding of brand management. "
On founding the agency: "We felt comfortable at AY&R and also identified very strongly with the agency. Then the situation changed, a British financial holding company took over the agency, and from that point on there were differences of opinion about the agency's strategic direction. As thoroughbred advertisers, our decision was quickly clear. We founded our own agency on July 1, 2002. With hindsight, we can say that it was a very good decision, and a foolhardy one too. But it was the right one, and we achieved exactly what we wanted: a beautiful agency. We are independent, our own boss and master - and that's really fun."
On growth: "We started out with ten people. Today we are over 50, but we are not worried about the strong growth. We have already successfully managed an agency of over 100 people. We also set our own limits with the size of the agency building. We feel very comfortable at Aemtlerstrasse and don't want to move again. We will soon have reached an optimal size."
On fixed structures: "You need a certain size to be able to work at all. It is also important to us that we can have our employees around us. You can look them in the eye and not just communicate via a virtual network. Direct presence is good because employees work more responsibly. You clean up what you've done and you also work with customers on a long-term basis. It's always this situational throwing together - I have my doubts about that."
About teamwork: "I have been working with Martin Spillmann and Rolf Zimmermann for 20 years. We are a team of partners who have been working together successfully for light years by advertising standards. This well-coordinated team is certainly one of the main reasons for our success. We understand each other blindly. Our customers realize and appreciate that."
About the network: "The collaboration with Leo Burnett is characterized by mutual respect. Thanks to the network, we can also support some clients from here worldwide, for example Mammut, Carl F. Bucherer or Switzerland Tourism, for whom we manage worldwide projects."
About Michael Conrad: "The former creative director of Leo Burnett is a member of our Board of Directors. We thought that we should also have outsiders on the Board of Directors - and we like to have people who understand the business, who are advertisers and not just lawyers or bankers. For us, he is the ideal person for a Board of Directors."
On the change in his work: "Unlike certain network agencies, we don't waste our time with internal reporting. Here, I can concentrate my energy and strength fully on the clients again. All partners devote 100 percent of their time to our clients and we have very few internal discussions. We also talk very little internally about our agency philosophy because it is absolutely clear to us in which direction we want to go. And we don't have to report internationally to Leo Burnett. So we can work properly for our clients."
About the goal: "Yes, we want to be at the top. When we founded our agency, we said clearly: we want to be the best agency in Switzerland and not somehow number 12 or 25. By "best agency" we mean the optimal combination of sound strategy, outstanding creativity and entrepreneurial advice. This also requires a certain size."
I'm proud of campaigns that have a clear core idea and have been running successfully for years. I'm thinking of the commercials for the cantonal banks ("Growing together"), the Annabelle campaign ("Women are like that.") or the Swiss Life campaign ("Ready for the future."). However, the most beautiful works are always the most recent: Mammut (Mary Woodbridge), Switzerland Tourism (World Cup spot), Migros Mode (models) and the Tages-Anzeiger campaign with the municipal coats of arms."
About the agency's style: "We always try to put the brand to be advertised in the foreground, which then results in the tonality and style. What we want, however, is to get the maximum out of it every time. To make advertising as good as possible. Good advertising moves something, touches something. Sometimes it can be humorous, other times we work with great emotion, other times it is surprising, touching and very serious. We never wanted to have a typical SFLB style."
On the media impact of advertising: "It is intentional, but you can't control it strategically. You can help make it happen by picking up on topics that are relevant. If we can do that, then the media will pick up on our advertising. Mammut was a big hit in this respect and triggered discussions worldwide. The film for Switzerland Tourism did the same. This spot was widely reported on. The effect was thus extended editorially. This led to no less than an additional 750 million contacts worldwide."
On changes in advertising: "The fact that there are new channels and new methods of reaching consumers is undisputed. These are big changes. But I'm not sure whether the mindset has to be completely different as a result. It's still about reaching consumers efficiently and being able to inspire them with the right message. Whether the idea then comes to fruition on the Internet, in the cinema or on a poster is secondary. In my opinion, the creativity of consumers is also overestimated. There are people who say that creativity is brought in by the consumer, keyword MySpace, YouTube. It's not the case that everything that's on there simply becomes a huge success and millions of people want to see it. There are some great ideas, but there are also millions of flops. To simply believe that you can leave brand management to the consumer is questionable to say the least."
On his involvement as a lecturer: "Like many others, I taught the advertising managers at Sawi. Together with my colleagues from the Account Planning Group, I organized the intensive seminar on strategic consulting for the BSW. Now we are going to initiate a new seminar on the subject of advertising effectiveness research. It is important that advertisers know how to measure success. I also teach at the universities of applied sciences in Olten and Winterthur and at the University of St. Gallen. That is an enrichment. The exchange of experiences is very interesting."
On personal goals: "We also want to have fun at work. That was one of the main motivations why we started ourselves. We want to be able to decide who we work for - and who we don't. And I can say that we have a really great customer portfolio. Customers who suit us. That also has something to do with age. We say to ourselves: we're still too young to be frustrated and just have to pull something off. But we're also too old to keep getting on our nerves. We're at an age where we want to say: It has to be right."
About his orienteering: "I used to compete intensively in orienteering, over 50 competitions a year. In total, I have around 700 competitions under my belt. What I like about orienteering is that it challenges you physically. But you also have to keep your head in the game. I've been Fribourg champion several times, have run at the front of national races and have enjoyed taking part in international competitions lasting several days in Sweden and Finland."
About his family: "As a father with two daughters (15 and 16), there's never a dull moment. The intensive family life also helps me to keep my feet on the ground and to be able to correctly classify media reports about "the youth of today"."
Interview: Andreas Panzeri

The Yearbook of Advertising has named the Zurich agency Walker Newcomer Agency of the Year 2006. The Cologne-based Con Carne, which is active in the new media sector, also received this award. The jury gave the following reasons for Walker's selection: "The young Swiss agency quite rightly describes itself as a creative agency. Equipped with outstanding creative power and a wealth of ideas, they have created campaigns that have gained recognition far beyond Switzerland's borders. Walker Werbeagentur also delivers convincing results in the criteria of economic development and self-promotion." Pius Walker founded the agency in 2003. Since 2005, Hans Beer has been a partner in the two-man Walker agency - the "smallest advertising agency in the world", as they call themselves. Walker previously held management positions at Leagas Delaney in London and Scholz & Friends in Berlin. Beer worked as Head of Marketing at Düring before joining. Walker produces in a network of over 100 creatives. Thanks to this philosophy, the agency won large budgets from international clients such as Fleurop and Amnesty International shortly after it was founded.
The "Newcomer Agency of the Year" competition is organized by the Yearbook of Advertising, which is published by Econ Verlag in Berlin. A jury of selected experts evaluates the work submitted. According to Econ, the aim of the competition is to give newly founded advertising agencies a visible, public platform and to present them. The quality of creative performance, commercial success, agency presentation and PR will be assessed. Agencies that were founded no more than three years ago are eligible to take part. The winning megaphone will be presented at the official awards ceremony on March 1 in Berlin.

After Tamedia and Ringier, Jean Frey AG, the HandelsZeitung Group and several other independent publishers are now also offering a "direct booking fee" (DBE) to agencies that book directly instead of via Publimedia. This puts publishers that have their titles under P-management in more trouble, as agencies may be more inclined to book titles with DBEs.NZZ is one title with a full P-lease that is facing particular problems. Publishing director Daniel Hofer stated in December that he had not yet felt anything from Tamedia or Ringier's DBE. However, this could soon change, as all major business titles, as well as SonntagsZeitung and SonntagsBlick, now grant a DBE. This means that NZZ is practically the only title in the Zurich business press segment and in the Sunday market without a DBE. In other words: With clever argumentation, NZZ and NZZ am Sonntag can be replaced on some media plans by similar titles that grant DBEs. 
This substitutability has now prompted the NZZ and its management partner NZZ Media, a P branch, to "also develop an offer for agencies and major customers", says Markus Ehrle, Head of Advertising Market at the NZZ. He does not want to reveal what the offer will look like, but it will be presented soon. Of course, the P will hardly offer a hand for an actual "direct booking discount", as the DBE is called in the P-Chargon. This is also confirmed by Ehrle, who was still Marketing Director of Publimedia until the end of October 2006: "It will not be an answer that can be compared one-to-one with the direct booking discount," he emphasizes.
The industry, especially the P-directed publishers, has pricked up its ears. The Edipresse newspapers in particular, which are marketed by P, are waiting for a solution, perhaps one based on the Zurich model.   
Markus Knöpfli

Television The weekly magazine Automobil Revue (AR) is launching a car program of the same name, which will be broadcast on eight regional TV stations from March. TeleZüri, the largest private TV station, is not taking part; it is being replaced by Züri Plus, which can currently be received in analog form in 12 rural communities in Zurich. "TeleZüri didn't want to or couldn't give the program a slot, but the exact reason is a mystery to me," says Marc Friedli, Director of TeleBärn, which is producing the new program. Andreas Meili, head of TeleZüri, justifies his decision not to broadcast the show by saying that "the quality of the show would certainly be good enough to be broadcast on TeleZüri, but TeleZüri has more lucrative alternatives for the slot in question."
AR will be a ten-minute program that has two sponsors on board: the Swiss Automobile Importers Association and tire manufacturer Vredenstein. However, "Automobil Revue will not just broadcast publicity reports, but has journalistic aspirations," emphasizes Friedli.
Markus Knöpfli

Banks Contexta has realized a much-noticed online promotion for Bank-now, and the banks are discovering viral marketing and demonstrating it: This is how quickly dreams can come true. With a viral teaser promotion, Contexta laid the first foundation stone for the market launch of Bank-now, the new bank for loans and leasing. From November to Christmas, anyone who wanted to could publish their greatest wish at www.dream-now.ch. Every week, the community voted to decide which dream would be supported with CHF 10,000. The dreamers showed a lot of creativity during the campaign.

One wish was even worth a story in the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten: a group of young people from Bern dreamed of traveling to the Mediterranean in a combine harvester. With skill and commitment, the winners were able to win over 1,200 votes. In total, Dream-now.ch had over 14,000 registered users.
In this teaser phase of the brand launch, the community was introduced to the topic of "dreams" and at the same time familiarized with the branding of the two product brands Credit-now and Lease-now from Bank-now. The Credit Suisse subsidiary only revealed itself as the originator of the campaign at the very end. The promotion enabled valuable and recurring contacts to be established with the target group. At the same time, Dream-now.ch offered a foretaste of the numerous promotions that Bank-now offers its customers on its online platform. The campaign was advertised very cautiously and its success was primarily based on the high level of viral distribution.
Andreas Panzeri

The Zurich agency Wunderman has launched a direct marketing campaign for Chesterfield: A door mat welcomes newcomers to the Chesterfield world. The give-away with the imprint Welcome is placed unannounced on the doorstep of potential customers. The new Chesterfield magazine, which was produced specifically for this DM campaign, is also placed on the door mat. The magazine contains fictional stories and presents the Chesterfield product family. By taking part in the integrated short story competition, customers can even play an active role in shaping the Chesterfield world. As a brand, Chesterfield wants to stand for the individual, unconventional lifestyle of a young target group, according to a press release. Wunderman specializes in dialogue marketing and works closely with the Zurich agency Futurecom.