For the 31st time, the readers of Werbewoche have chosen the "Advertiser of the Year". Six personalities from the Swiss advertising scene were nominated, selected by a prominent jury consisting of former Advertisers of the Year. Unfortunately, once again this year there was neither a woman nor a representative from French-speaking Switzerland among the nominees. 2007's Advertiser of the Year is Peter Felser. The choice was clear: 28 percent of the votes went to the co-owner of the Zurich advertising agency Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett. His business partner Martin Spillmann had already received the trophy named Egon, designed by Swiss artist Max Grüter, in 2004.
Four years ago, Pius Walker founded "the smallest agency in the world". This year, he achieved an impressive second place with just under 15 percent of all votes. Alexander Jaggy, Creative Director and partner at Zurich advertising agency Jung von Matt/Limmat, came third with 14% of the vote.
For the eighth time, a broad public jury presented the "Campaign of the Year" award. Ten important works from ten agencies were selected. In addition to the readership of Werbewoche, the readers of the TV program magazine TV-Star also took part in the vote. With almost 30 percent of the votes, they chose the FOPH's Stop AIDS campaign as the winner. It was conceived and realized by the advertising agency Euro RSCG. In second place with 13% of the votes was the Beck & Bondi campaign for Swisscom Fixnet by the Bern-based agency Contexta. The Migros favorite product campaign by Publicis followed just behind with 12 percent.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief

Advertising More and more publishers are offering agencies direct booking compensation - on all kinds of terms. It is slowly becoming confusing. For media agencies that book directly with the publisher instead of via Publimedia, there is additional work involved - not only in the booking itself, but also in controlling and billing. Two years ago, Tamedia began to reward large agencies that book directly with Tamedia titles for their additional work. Since then and also in the current year, Tamedia has granted a "direct booking fee" (DBE) of 1.5 percent, provided the agency places a minimum volume of one million francs per year with Tamedia titles. If the agency also exceeds the previous year's volume, Tamedia increases the DBE to 2 percent.so far, so clear and straightforward. But in the meantime, the DBE wave has reached almost all independent publishers - and others are likely to want to join in. In addition to Tamedia's DBE offer for 2007, Ringier, Edipresse, the Berner Zeitung and the Walliser Bote have also confirmed their offers for this year. It is also clear that the HandelsZeitung group and Jean Frey AG will also introduce a DBE. "However, we have not yet been able to determine the conditions," says CEO Ralph Büchi. Weltwoche has not yet made a decision, while its own publications Freiburger Nachrichten and Schaffhauser Nachrichten have decided not to introduce a DBE.
From the media agencies' point of view, the problem is that the offers are completely inconsistent and almost as varied as the tariff documentation of the respective print titles. In addition to the extra work involved in booking, agencies also have to do more work consulting the various DBE conditions. Publimedia will certainly never offer a (free) tool for this. However, Werbewoche provides an initial, albeit provisional, overview here.
The Ringier offer also provides for a DBE of one percent in 2007; an increase in the rate, as initially considered, has been dropped. Instead, the Group is expanding its range of titles, which previously included the Cash Group and 15 magazines, to include Blick, SonntagsBlick, Sie + Er and Heute. This is remarkable in that there is a valid agreement between the Blick Group and Publimedia for the advertising commission. This is why the Blick Group had not previously granted DBEs. Thomas Passen, responsible for the readership and advertising market at Ringier magazines, explains the turnaround by saying that the NZZ is now also preparing a kind of DBE offer despite being P-directed (see p. 1). "If even P-directed titles participate, we see no reason why the commission agreement should be more binding for us. We would then really be at a competitive disadvantage," he says.
Ringier's DBE offer differs from Tamedia's in three other respects: The minimum annual volume that agencies must place with Ringier titles in order to be eligible for the DBE is only half a million francs. Furthermore, Ringier does not increase the DBE if additional volumes are achieved compared to the previous year. On the other hand, Ringier grants the DBE not only to agencies, but also explicitly to direct-booking customers - so as not to discriminate against them compared to agencies. Tamedia takes a different view: "Our direct booking compensation is geared towards the services provided by media agencies," says Tamedia spokesperson Christoph Zimmer.
Edipresse is handling its recently introduced DBE in a completely different way: for the time being, this is only being granted to the magazines, while the newspapers, which are on a P lease, are standing by. "We are still waiting for a solution proposal from Publicitas," says Marcel Siegenthaler, Head of Advertising Market Edipresse Switzerland, with a sideways glance at the NZZ. As with Ringier, the Edipresse DBE applies to both agencies and customers. What is special, however, is that Edipresse negotiates an individual DBE percentage (between 1.5 and 2 percent) and an individual minimum volume with each agency - according to their customer portfolio and scope of services. "The agencies' performance in terms of receipts, invoicing and payment deadlines varies greatly," says Siegenthaler, explaining the procedure. And he adds as a warning: "There are standard P services that are simply good. The DBE-granting publishers will have their own experiences in this regard."
Espace Media Groupe takes a different approach: It offers agencies and customers a DBE of 1.5 percent, but only for bookings with the Berner Zeitung and its split editions as well as on the portal www.espace.ch. The offer is initially valid for one year, "after which we will decide whether to keep the tool in this form or modify it," says Head of Advertising Matthias O. Hütköper.
The last known DBE variant for the time being comes from Upper Valais: the Walliser Bote (WB) also grants agencies - and only them - 1.5 percent. It does not stipulate a minimum volume for this. "We are also happy with small volumes," comments Jörg Salzmann, member of the management team at WB publisher Mengis Druck & Verlag.
The industry is now eagerly awaiting not only the decisions at the independent publishers HandelsZeitung, Jean Frey and Weltwoche, but also what will happen in Zurich. No matter how the course is set there, other P-directed publishers are keeping a wary eye on what is happening on Falkenstrasse. First and foremost the Edipresse newspapers. The Basler Zeitung, the first P-owned title to even consider a DBE (see WW 41/06), is also likely to be watching with interest. In any case, no definitive decision for or against a DBE has yet been made at Rheinknie, says CEO Beat Meyer.
Markus Knöpfli

Copyright Matter & Gretener is raising awareness with a campaign against counterfeiting and brand piracy: "Stop Piracy" The topic is highly topical: whether it's job destruction, damage to health, support for organized crime or undignified working conditions - when buying counterfeit products or pirating, someone always pays the price for the supposed bargain. In Switzerland alone, the economy loses an estimated two billion francs due to counterfeit products. Worldwide, five to seven percent of internationally traded goods are already counterfeit. The "trivial offenses" range from illegally copying films to buying counterfeit Rolex watches on vacation to buying medicines online. The Stop Piracy platform launched in 2005 - a public-private partnership under the leadership of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) and the Swiss Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Switzerland) - now wants to ensure greater knowledge and conscience. The campaign has been launched privately, but is supported by political Bern.
Appeal to fairnessMatter & Gretener won the contract in a pitch at the beginning of September. In their awareness-raising campaign, the creative agency is now working with pointed headlines. These are intended to cause concern and raise awareness of the consequences and dangers of counterfeiting and piracy. The campaign also aims to appeal to the fairness of each individual. The campaign is aimed at everyone involved in the product flow - producers, importers, retailers, authorities and consumers - and can be seen on billboards in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. Various other campaign tools are planned.
Over 500 interventions are already necessary at Swiss customs every year due to counterfeiting. In Switzerland, only one case is known to date, where someone in Graubünden was fined 300 francs for piracy. There is also no groundbreaking federal court ruling yet. We are therefore still to a large extent in a gray area as to what constitutes piracy and therefore illegal intellectual property. In the pharmaceutical sector in particular, numerous counterfeit lifestyle drugs, from Viagra to vitamins, are circulating "thanks" to the Internet. The campaign shows that such medicines are not only illegal but can also be dangerous for those who trust them. There are no hygiene regulations and no health checks. The installation of counterfeit spare parts in cars is similarly risky. This has already led to numerous serious accidents, particularly in South America.
The campaign aims to raise awareness: Anyone who buys counterfeits is not only harming the economy, but also themselves. A counterfeit is not a "good deal" - just because others pay more.
The campaign was presented to the general public by Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher on Tuesday of this week at Unique Airport in Kloten. The media conference of the Institute of Intellectual Property, which reports to him, was deliberately scheduled here because the temptations of piracy are very great during vacation trips.
Despite the Federal Council, the campaign is not financed by the Confederation. Various representatives of the industries concerned, such as Suisa (music), Safe (film), SMH (watches), Swissmedic, Interpharma and the cigarette industry association, are sponsoring the individual subjects.
With such a broad base of support, it was naturally not easy to find a common approach to the subject matter. The solution with a typo campaign was therefore ideal for CD Daniel Matter. Unlike visual implementations, the catchy texts can be used in the same way for all sectors. In addition, such simple text posters also save money, which is better spent on a broader distribution, as strategist Marcus Gretener calculates. The informative and witty texts can later be printed on various message carriers such as airplane refreshment tissues, boarding passes, invoices from Internet companies, envelopes from travel agencies or flyers in pharmacies.
For Matter & Gretener, the posters were also intended to attract attention through a deliberate mix of advertising and official communication - "work in public space instead of public relations". Nevertheless, the PR agency Richterich & Partner is using this in a targeted manner in the media in sync with the campaign. Further information on the campaign will also be published on a website, www.stop-piracy.ch.   
Andreas Panzeri

Agencies In the competition for the Advertising Yearbook, the Zurich-based Walker advertising agency was voted "Newcomer Agency of the Year 2006" for Switzerland and Austria.Every year, Econ Verlag awards prizes to the best advertising campaigns from Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the Advertising Yearbook competition and selects the Newcomer Agency of the Year. For 40 years, the Jahrbuch der Werbung has been the standard work for special industry-specific advertising from German-speaking countries. The awards ceremony and book presentation will take place this year on March 1 in Berlin. As Newcomer of the Year, after KSSJ and SFLB in recent years, Walker is once again an agency from Zurich that has won the award in the Switzerland-Austria region. Newcomer agency for Germany becomes Con Carne, Cologne. Walker, who in these days also reached place 2 as advertiser of the year, became thereby in only four years somehow the "Walker of Fame". Started to walk on the famous boulevard of stars has "the smallest advertising agency in the world" with a budget for the toilet duck. The big noise about the quiet little toilet could not remain without effect. In two years, the campaign for the WC duck has turned the demographically weakest target group into the strongest one within the clientele. The young and out-migrating consumers have come back. Sales for the duck grew by double digits.
Pius Walker's agency won several awards with its campaigns for other Düring products at the New York Festival, at the Klappe in Germany and at ADC Germany and Switzerland, and also represented Switzerland at Cannes in 2005 with a place on the film shortlist.
"We like to work for customers who want to be among the very best. Customers who know that their brand is unique and therefore must not be advertised with standard solutions", is thus more than just well-worded self-promotion in Walker's philosophy.
This also convinced Hans Beer in the summer of 2005. He switched from the customer side to Walker and has since been selling their advertising instead of consumer products. In addition to simple consumer products such as the WC duck, Walker's tasks have now also included flowers for Fleurop, mineral water from Passugger and human rights with Amnesty International. The agency, which is still small, can therefore no longer be considered a niche agency.
Walker is not a standard agency: "We are unashamedly independent and ambitiously small," says Pius Walker. This also formulates the goal of "offering quality that can also hold its own internationally thanks to the small unit". Walker does not allow himself "a hydrocephalus. What he does have is a solid platform and a growing international network of some of the brightest minds in the industry, both at home and abroad.
Shortly after its founding, the "smallest agency in the world" was included in the top ten Swiss creative agencies in the creative ranking of Werbewoche in 2005. One year later, it is now already ranked 6th.
For Beer and Walker, it's strategy that must make a lasting impression on any campaign. "We've won most clients with a strategy presentation. That's crucial today; you have to be able to set the right course. Then a lot of opportunities for creative potential open up automatically."
This principle is reflected not only in the sales of Walker's clients, but also in the major international creative awards. For example, Walker's campaigns were recently awarded gold at Epica, at the New York Festivals, and at Eurotest.
But what sets Walker's campaigns apart from the usual advertising mainstream? "Walker serves the consumer a tender steak, but seared vigorously on both sides. And not in pureed form with a Röhrli to go with it," says Pius Walker. For Hans Beer, it's advertising that speaks to the target group at eye level. Perhaps that's why it's so sustainable.
When Pius Walker returned to Switzerland after ten years of professional wandering abroad, he wrote down a list of ten dream clients for his own agency. Products that he absolutely wanted to promote. "This list was our business plan. Pretty adventurous when you think back today." In the meantime, three of the ten dream clients are in the can.
Andreas Panzeri

The CEO of Ziegler Druck operates skillfully on the battlefield of Zurich's newspaper turmoil. In an interview with René Worni, he explains his relationship with Tamedia, how the Landbote is finally breaking away from Publicitas and why he is hoping that his colleague Norbert Neininger will see reason.WW: The Landbote will become "Die Nordostschweiz" together with the Thurgauer Zeitung. Are you happy about this decision? Lothar Dostal: Absolutely. I believe that a newspaper like the Landbote with a circulation of 38,000 has poor prospects on its own in the tough regional newspaper market. Joining forces with a partner of roughly the same size is therefore certainly the more unsuccessful solution than waiting to see whether things will improve on their own at some point.WW: Why is a newspaper that is strongly oriented towards Zurich now aligning itself with the deep Thurgau region? Dostal: There is an old tradition in Winterthur that tends to set itself apart from Zurich, which is what led to the emergence of the Landbote in 1836 as a way of isolating itself from the Zurich newspaper. That is history. But today there is still a strong tendency in Winterthur and the region to distance itself from Zurich.WW: There are significant commuter flows to Zurich.Dostal: You're right. If you don't work in Winterthur, you work in Zurich. But the commuter flows go further, they come from Frauenfeld and from Thurgau.WW: There was an outcry from the Thurgau government, which fears for its integrative hand, because the canton, which has a weak center, threatens to split into two parts.Dostal: There was an outcry when Tamedia took over the Thurgauer Zeitung.WW: But now there are suddenly two newspapers, which is not exactly conducive to cohesion.Dostal: I don't think the current reaction was negative, because Thurgau is basically a divided canton. It is therefore only logical that the Thurgauer Zeitung should join forces with the Landbote and not with the St. Galler Tagblatt. Seen in this light, the Thurgau cantonal government is not so unhappy either. If politicians would occasionally take off their economic blinkers, they would also see that press companies today have to try to secure their existence under changed market conditions. You can only make an attractive newspaper today if it is of a certain size.WW: Sales and subscription management for Nordostschweiz are handled by the Thurgauer Zeitung, so the economic strings are pulled by the parent company Tamedia. This gives the impression that Landbote is becoming heavily dependent on Zurich.Dostal: When the association was founded, it was clear that the companies should retain their independence. We have a very good editorial team with over 50 employees and we relaunched the paper in 2005. The concept of our newspaper has proven itself and has also been rated as good by the partners. It therefore made sense to continue to use the core competence of the Landbote for both. Conversely, Landbote was previously dependent on Publicitas for its marketing. We had no resources of our own in advertising marketing.WW: You would always have liked to have done this independently of Publicitas?Dostal: Yes, or at least with more say and better conditions. And the Thurgauer Zeitung has this experience. It has always worked the local market itself. It broke away from Publicitas in national sales a little earlier than we did. For us, it made sense to use the experience gained there and transfer our expertise there.WW: As soon as the Zurichers bought the Thurgauer Zeitung, it was trimmed to a group course, and the Landbote is now doing the same. They're going along with the Tamedia strategy, which doesn't work with Publicitas.Dostal: What is the purpose of Publicitas for regional daily newspapers in today's advertising market? Although we have experienced very significant changes in the last four years - the Internet, free newspapers, Sunday newspapers and an increasingly fierce battle between local and regional newspapers - we have seen practically no movement in the Publicitas commission during this time. We tried to convince Publicitas within the framework of Kombi 1 as well as in the advertising association Nordostschweiz, which existed until 2004, that there must be a synergy effect if you have to market six newspapers instead of just one. Publicitas never acknowledged this and was never prepared to improve its conditions in a way that would have strengthened the alliances. That raised the question for us: Can Publicitas be the partner that can take us further in the long term? WW: Can Tamedia do that? Dostal: Tamedia is a partner that can take us further because it has know-how and a national presence and because its course does not run parallel to that of Publicitas, unlike that of the NZZ. That was a key point for us. For the first time ever in the recent history of the Landbote, we are in a position to break away from Publicitas, if you look at the last 15 years. We would never have been able to do this on our own. All our previous attempts to persuade Publicitas to see reason have unfortunately failed.WW: Why?Dostal: Theodor Gut, publisher of the Zürichsee Zeitung, who complained about Tamedia's printing at the Dreikönigstagung, was sitting here in this office. Without any pressure. We asked him what solutions we could strive for - together with the P, since it was involved with Gut - in the areas of joint marketing, editorial jacket and joint printing. Gut said that we would certainly have to think about such interesting questions in the next five to ten years. That was probably pretty much the position of the P. But we didn't see that much time left.WW: The ideal Zürcher Landzeitung lacks the Landbote. Apparently you insisted on the leading role in this association, which was not welcomed in Stäfa.Dostal: We always saw the Landbote as a complete newspaper. It was much stronger than the Zürcher Landzeitungen in its parallel position to the Tages-Anzeiger and was always in a better starting position. That's why we strived for a leading role, at least in the editorial section. Of course, we also saw centers of competence, for example newspaper printing in Oetwil or the editorial office with us. The greatest synergies are achieved by utilizing the respective strengths of the partners. But the Zurich regional newspapers were not prepared to do this. They have only now moved closer together under pressure from the regional editions of the Tages-Anzeiger.WW: What is the situation with printing for you? Tamedia spent a lot of money in Thurgau and has to force synergies. Dostal: There were no attempts at printing. The decision to move to north-eastern Switzerland was taken after negotiations and deliberations by the Board of Directors of Ziegler Druck- und Verlags-AG. Although Tamedia CEO Martin Kall is represented there as a member, he was logically not involved because he himself is affected. Naturally, Zurich tried to bring the two newspapers closer together in order to strengthen them economically. If Tamedia had wanted to turn them into head papers, it would have pursued other interests. There is certainly an interest in strengthening these two independent newspapers in parallel with the Tages-Anzeiger.WW: It is said that Tagi regional strategist Rolf Bollmann's hands are tied by contract to launch a Tagi regional edition in Winterthur as well. Dostal: That is a widespread misconception.WW: So there is a sword of Damocles hanging over the Winterthur press after all? Dostal: By way of comparison, the Berner Zeitung is trying to gain ground in Solothurn with an expensive newspaper in an area where it is very weak. It is only doing this because it has not succeeded in joining forces with the Solothurner Zeitung. The St. Galler Tagblatt tried in Thurgau without success. The Tages-Anzeiger would be in a similar position in Winterthur, because it has a relatively weak circulation here and the Landbote is much stronger.WW: Obviously, the long-standing Winterthur side of the Tagi hasn't changed anything.Dostal: That hasn't helped it much either. Unlike in the Zurich region, it would be a much more difficult battle for the Tages-Anzeiger here. As a result, we were right to say that we would rather ally ourselves with the Landbote than have to attack it. And conversely, we would rather ally ourselves with the one that could attack us than hold up the flag of independence only to go down with it in the end. However, the contractual agreement is a pure invention. Swiss competition law does not permit such market agreements. The Tages-Anzeiger is therefore free to launch a split in Winterthur at any time, which it must consider carefully for economic reasons.WW: What was your first thought when it became known that Tamedia would take over the Thurgauer Zeitung completely?WW: The industry was wondering just what the group wanted to do with this Thurgauer Zeitung.Dostal: For us, the Thurgauer Zeitung and also the Schaffhauser Nachrichten were always the logical alliance partners, and we would have very much liked to have seen a merger - even before a Zurich regional newspaper association. But here, too, the situation was difficult in part due to the ownership structure. We were unable to reach reasonable agreements. When Tamedia bought Frauenfeld, it was clear to us that the path with the Thurgauer Zeitung would be easier for us.WW: However, the Schaffhauser Nachrichten is missing from this association.Dostal: The two of us are now trying to convince publisher Norbert Neininger that we can cooperate sensibly even without mutual shareholdings and without having to found joint companies. I'm sure you'll believe me when I say that we didn't enter into this cooperation in order to save just over three jobs. Our synergy potential has been calculated and is much higher.WW: Where do you see further synergy benefits? Dostal: Apart from the online area, where we will also be working together, we also see opportunities for growth where we can provide a very good editorial service. The Thurgauer Zeitung will be much more interesting for its readers, will have a greater scope and will be very similar to the Landbote. We will be able to make an attractive offer in the advertising market thanks to the combination of advertisements. Nordostschweiz will therefore become one newspaper with two titles and a strong regional focus. We would of course like to see the same for Schaffhausen.WW: Publisher Neininger has already celebrated the relaunch of his Schaffhauser Nachrichten with great fanfare and is hardly going to turn its layout upside down and, on top of that, expose himself to the malice of having given up the independence that he himself praises so highly.Dostal: I agree with you, that won't happen on April 1. But is everything set in stone? The newspaper printing plant in Herblingen, for example, which you maintain together with AZ, cannot print in full four-color. Sooner or later, a better solution will be needed.WW: Why this confidence when Schaffhausen is looking more and more like a certain Gallic village? Dostal: I believe that Norbert Neininger also sees certain constraints. In the advertising market, he is, by his own admission, very happy to stay with us. Regarding his great fear that we would rob him of his independence, I can only say that we do not want to become shareholders in Schaffhauser Nachrichten. I believe we can find economically sensible solutions - with compromises on his side, of course. Not everyone can retain their own layout and structure one hundred percent, otherwise there will be no association. We are relying on voluntariness, a little better knowledge and even more on economic reason. Not pressure. We believe that the Schaffhauser Nachrichten, which ultimately has to secure its endowment capital and keep its foundation purpose in mind, will at some point realize that a three-person association is stronger than one with a circulation of just 20,000.WW: That would put Die Nordostschweiz over the magic limit of 100,000 copies.Dostal: Absolutely. Urs Lüdin in Frauenfeld and I make no secret of the fact that the door of Nordostschweiz is wide open and we are looking for new forms of advertising combination.WW: Tagi Plus, which Landbote entered into with Tages-Anzeiger, has disappointed the initially high expectations.Dostal: The Tagi Plus combination is an additional offer that we entered into after the takeover of the Thurgauer Zeitung by Tamedia. It has not met our expectations. As long as we are not part of the national metropool, it makes no sense for us. WW: But Northeastern Switzerland urgently needs a national connection.Dostal: That is the goal. We'll see how far we can get a national connection to another title there. First of all, we still have to get through the marketing of Publicitas this year.WW: How is the cooperation with Tamedia developing in the printing sector? Tamedia prints the Landbote and the Stadtanzeiger. This works very well on both sides.WW: So you were spared the purchase of expensive rotary presses.Dostal: We said goodbye to newspaper offset because you can't do it sensibly with one newspaper alone. It's better with two, and no problem with three. There was also a clear concept on the table to operate a joint newspaper printing plant together with Schaffhausen, Thurgau and us. But unfortunately that didn't work out. This left us with the option of running our own newspaper printing plant - economically pointless - or printing in Oetwil with the regional newspapers. In that case, we would not have found a replacement for the added value in-house. So we print at Tamedia, which was able to provide us with a substitute for added value by printing its magazines.WW: Publishing responsibility here, publishing business in Frauenfeld - shared responsibilities. Will this change your job? Dostal: One third of our newspaper business consists of the reader market. The subscription income remains with us. We are also responsible for the marketing costs. Only the operational management of the joint campaigns is done in Thurgau, but the marketing budget is drawn up and controlled by each company itself. We now have more influence over advertising marketing than we did before with Publicitas. From this point of view, my professional life will be more enriched.WW: You also used to work for Tamedia. Are there still old ties at play? Dostal: Hardly (laughs). There aren't many of the former crew left.Lothar DostalDate of birth:
1945Civil status:
Married (3 daughters)Place of residence:
BachenbülachThe business graduate and repro photographer has trained in the areas of prepress, printing and marketing in Germany and Switzerland. Dostal spent two years in East Africa, where he realized a marketing project. After completing his management training in St. Gallen, he held management positions at various large companies in the publishing industry from 1977 onwards, including Sales and Marketing Director at the Tages-Anzeiger printing center. Since 1999, Lothar Dostal has managed the business of Ziegler Druck- und Verlags-AG in Winterthur.
Zurich newspaper turmoil: This was triggered by Publicitas with its deal with NZZ and the simultaneous share swap of its stake in the Zurich regional newspapers. At the very least, there will be block formations.advertising price dumping: 20 Minuten has a 1000-reader price of around 35 francs, large daily newspapers 60, our advertising price is around 90 francs. You can imagine what the advertising industry expects. But that can't be dumping. We have to reduce our costs in order to be able to offer reasonable 1000-reader prices so that we can offer the advantages of the regional press and the subscription newspaper over the advertising industry's free press at a reasonable cost.

Gratispresse Ex-Jean Frey CEO Filippo Leutenegger launches a new glossy free magazine around the house and wants to boost reach When the representatives of Axel Springer and Jean Frey announced the takeover deal from the podium at the Hyatt Hotel in December, Jean Frey CEO Filippo Leutenegger was sitting in the front row of the audience. Main shareholder Tettamanti had decided against his CEO's attack strategy and sold JF to Springer. Leutenegger therefore had to vacate his chair. He took his magazine project with him, along with its project manager Rehné Herzig, who had already been working on it for eight months, and is now realizing it on his own. The new owners probably didn't want to pursue the project any further, which was only in the starting blocks. Leutenegger has since founded a new public limited company called Medienarena and appointed Herzig as CEO. Herzig held various management positions at Ringier for many years and previously worked for the Swedish media group Bonnier. Born in Denmark, Herzig has experience with the free press of Scandinavian provenance and ambitious plans. The new magazine with the title "Neue Ideen" (New Ideas) is to be distributed to all private homes in Switzerland with a circulation of 722,000 copies by the postal service and reach 1.2 million readers in the medium term. "We are not producing a real estate magazine, as has been erroneously reported in various media," says Herzig. Neue Ideen is aimed at all homeowners and residents. This target group has a wide range of interests. The content should therefore range from interior decoration and design to cooking, people and lifestyle. Home stories with celebrities exhibiting themselves in their own living spaces are a matter of course.
Herzig's reasoning is very simple. There are around 950,000 homeowners and residents in Switzerland, around 22 percent of whom use stop stickers to block unwanted advertising mail. The rest make up the circulation. Around half of the 90,000 or so planning applications submitted in Switzerland each year concern private individuals who prefer to invest their money in a new kitchen or a conservatory. According to Herzig, his target group invests around 13 billion Swiss francs a year. This market is highly interesting for advertisers, but hardly tapped into. When Electrolux advertises, for example, they don't just want to sell fridges, they also want to sell emotions. Ads of this type are best displayed visually in the 17 special interest titles in question.
However, none of them have a circulation of more than 30,000 and their publication rhythm is completely different. To compensate for the lack of reach, advertisers switch to the less suitable daily and Sunday press. Herzig sees his niche there and is convinced that he can easily achieve the expected reach. This would make the paper number three in the market after Migros Magazin and Coop Zeitung. In addition, the construction industry is booming; according to the Advertising Index, advertising in this segment increased by up to 28 percent between 2003 and 2005. Herzig's idea is not new. Ringier had already discussed the idea 15 years ago, based on Scandinavian models. But the time was not yet ripe for the free press in Switzerland.
If the advertisers really get on board with Neue Ideen, Rehné Herzig would like his magazine, which he sees as a new genre on the market, to be published 24 times a year. So far, ten issues per year are planned. The Dane does not see his magazine as a competitor to the Swiss Homeowners' Association's Hauspostille. This is more of a political organ and comes across as somewhat lackluster. "Many advertising customers not only need coverage, but also good print quality." An issue should have at least 64 pages - with no upper limit. Some advertisers are likely to jump at the chance of so much gloss.   
 
René Worni

Forwarding company Because Schaffhauser Nachrichten (SN) did not want to hand over its delivery organization to Zuvo, the contracting company of Tamedia and NZZ, Zuvo expanded to Schaffhausen at the beginning of 2007. Since then, Zuvo has been distributing around 5000 copies of the Tagi and NZZ in Schaffhausen, but no longer the SN. "Ecological nonsense," says SN publisher Norbert Neininger. But the Zuvo competition in Schaffhausen is one of a series of measures with which Tamedia wants to force SN into the Nordostschweiz association. This was founded last week by the Tamedia subsidiary Thurgauer Zeitung (TZ) and the Landbote. SN was also invited, but Neininger declined. This is probably why TZ and Landbote unilaterally lowered the rate of Kombi1, to which SN also belongs. The result: loss of revenue for SN. The Zuvo expansion is now intended to further weaken SN and make it compliant.
Markus Knöpfli

The two Bern-based agencies Agentur01 and Icoon Integrated have merged under the name Agentur01 as of January 1. In the future, they want to realize integrated communication solutions under one roof. With the merger, the new Agency01 wants to respond to a changed need for communication and strengthen the areas of new media and public relations in addition to classic advertising.  
In addition, Agentur01 is taking over the Bern-based advertising agency Camponovo und Partner as of February 1. After ten years, owner Daniela Camponovo is giving up her full-service advertising agency and handing over the business in order to reorient herself once again, according to a statement. The choice of Agentur01 ensures that all customer orders will be realized in line with the agency's previous credo, Camponovo said.
 
Camponovo will be available to Agentur01 in 2007 as needed. At Agentur01, which has now grown to eight people, Urs Bänninger (concept/text), Daniel Tobler (consulting) and Andreas Rupp (art) are responsible.

From fall 2007, Radio Rumantsch RR will broadcast 24 hours a day instead of the previous 19 hours. To this end, the program has been continuously expanded. In addition, the online presence has been redesigned and a new offering for children and young people is to be created in the course of the year.  
The program of Romansh radio has become more varied since the beginning of November 2006. Folk music can now be heard from 5 a.m. and music from Graubünden between 10 p.m. and midnight. The last news bulletin is now broadcast at 11 p.m., one hour later than before. In addition, a discussion program and a forum have been added on Saturdays, in which personalities from Rumantschia are given carte blanche.
 
The additional services were made possible thanks to additional funding from SRG, as Bernard Cathomas, Director of Radio e Televisiun Rumantscha RTR, explains. Four new jobs have been created in the editorial department. The expansion of broadcasting time from 19 to 24 hours will therefore be achieved without additional staff, says Cathomas.
 
Online presence expanded  
The website has also been redesigned. Under the address
can find everything "that is produced in Romansh", Maurus Dosch, head of the multimedia project, told SDA. There is access to all RTR broadcasts, but also to the reports of the Agentura da Novitads Rumantscha, the only news agency in Romansh. 
 
Radio Rumantsch is also breaking new ground with its offering for children and young people. Over the course of the year, an Internet platform will be developed that will allow children to interactively help shape music programs and content.
 
 
Listener numbers have risen  
The greater the knowledge of the language, the higher the proportion of listeners. 69 percent of people who can also write Romansh listen to the station. The number of young listeners rose from 45 to 55 percent, despite the fact that the music program has become "softer and more popular", as reported by SDA.
 
 
RR achieved a market share of 16% in the second half of 2006, 3 percentage points more than in the previous year. According to the AG für Medienforschung, the reach amounted to 24 percent. RTR has an annual budget of CHF 24 million, which represents 1.5 percent of the SRG budget. Including apprentices and trainees, RTR employs 144 people, who share 118 full-time positions.

With Action TV, the internet event channel for the Swiss advertising and media scene goes online. The streaming window is a service provided by the Zurich-based event and promotion agency Action Agency. After a successful test at last year's EDI awards, Action TV is now definitely going on air with coverage of the "Weber of the Year" party. The site has already been redesigned compared to the test. From Thursday, a longer report on the Advertiser of the Year event will go online. The ADC cube award ceremony, including a party and other events, will also be covered soon. Action TV can be streamed and viewed at

Exxtra won the Mobius Award with the TV commercial Molfina "Dressing Room". The Mobius Advertising Award has been presented since 1971 and confirmed its reputation as one of the most important creative competitions in 2006 with over 5,000 entries from more than 30 countries. It is an award that was created by representatives of the advertising industry and stands for "The world standard for excellence in advertising". To this day, the jury for this creative competition is made up of the world's leading minds in the communications industry, both from the agency and the client side. The award ceremony for the 36th Mobius Awards will take place on February 16 in Los Angeles.

The Swiss Science Pool provides Switzerland with a new advertising combination. This consists of five publications from the Universities of Basel, Bern, Fribourg and Geneva as well as ETH Zurich. From now on, advertisers and clients will be able to address "the top-educated, high-income earners" without wastage, according to a press release. The Swiss Science Pool is an advertising combination for the whole of Switzerland, as it is represented in five cities plus agglomerations with a circulation of 84,500 copies. 95 percent are sent to readers' homes by post.