On behalf of Her Majesty, Multimedia APG has realized the first multimedia poster site for Bond in Zurich's Shopville.Bond has long been shooting from all cylinders in the cinema, and the latest technical gadgets are also part of James' inventory. Now it's no longer just "For Your Eyes Only" in the cinema for such gadgets, but everyone out on the street should also be able to see how Agent James Bond goes all out in "Casino Royale". As part of Affichage's current innovation projects, APG is launching the first multimedia poster site in Shopville Zurich in collaboration with Buena Vista International.
In close contact with the customer, Buena Vista's partner Sony Overseas, a prototype of a poster site was developed that combines the poster with the current movie trailer of the new James Bond film "Casino Royale" in top quality.
"When we were contacted by APG with the idea of setting up the first Swiss multimedia poster site at the highly frequented Shopville location in Zurich, we were of course immediately ready to take part in this innovative project," says Matthias Keller, Marketing Director of Buena Vista International (Switzerland).
The timing couldn't have been better, and not just for the distributor, as the new James Bond film "Casino Royale" is full of the latest top products from Sony. "For this reason, the collaboration with Sony Overseas was an obvious choice," says Erik Peier at APG. Together with APG/Affichage, Burri and Sony Overseas, the project was planned and professionally implemented within just a few weeks. "Another exciting project that we were able to implement successfully and without red tape with our partner for outdoor, APG/Affichage," comments Markus Geiser at Sony Overseas.
The poster site is located in the highly frequented Shopville area of Zurich main station and will be present during calendar week 47.
Andreas Panzeri

As the new Head of Sponsorship, Controlling and Finance at Switzerland Tourism, Rafael Enzler wants to sell Swissness as advertising He knew very early on what his dream job could be. "Sponsoring in tourism", laughs Rafael Enzler, was the title of his degree thesis in St. Gallen. But before the business economist, who majored in tourism and transport economics, was elected as the new Head of Sponsorship at Switzerland Tourism, his professional journey first took him in a different direction. The operas "Nabucco" and "Carmen" in the Hallenstadion were major projects in which Enzler was able to gain his first experience in project management. He also worked on a feasibility study for Expo.02 for the same consulting company, B+R Event AG in Zurich. "That was at the very beginning" and the questions were: What kind of visitors will come to the Expo? How do you want to address them?
Enzler then moved even closer to tourism when he consulted on the construction of new spas in Scuol, Vals and St. Moritz. But before he finally wanted to devote himself entirely to his current industry, the "part-time" programmer and qualified marketing manager also took a detour into the Internet in 1996. In the pioneering phase of the Internet, he was lured to Ringier to set up "ZHOL Zürich Online". Enzler worked as Head of Marketing and Sales and found it "instructive in every respect" because he not only had to sell Internet services to people, but also first had to explain the new medium to himself and others.
Enzler then became operationally involved in tourism promotion with the reorganization of Toggenburg Tourism. His work must have attracted attention, because after just eighteen months, Switzerland Tourism headhunted him to become Head of Benelux Countries. From this time in Amsterdam, Enzler fondly remembers the mountain that he was able to "present" to the Dutch royal family for the birth of the daughter of William Alexander and Maxima. Piz Amalia in the Lower Engadine is now marked on official maps.
From the office in Holland with 12 employees, he moved on to New York. There, Enzler looked after the US and Canadian markets with 19 people for two years before moving to the head office in Zurich. "Of course, selling Switzerland in New York is a dream job," says Enzler. He is a little proud that it was his idea to exhibit the Federal Charter in New York for the "Swiss Roots" campaign, which attracted a lot of media attention. In the campaign, descendants of Swiss emigrants were asked to research their old roots once again.
Despite such successes, emigrant Enzler also wanted to return to his old homeland, because his three children should not completely lose their roots and should also go to school here for a few more years. Professionally, he was attracted by the challenge of being able to take on responsibility as Head of Finance and Controlling at the headquarters of Switzerland Tourism even before sponsoring. The new structure has arisen because the previous Head of Sponsorship, Jörg Krebs, is to devote himself entirely to international location marketing for Switzerland in the context of the Euro 08 football event. "Here, of course, we want to benefit from the wind of change," promises Enzler.
Switzerland Tourism receives CHF 46 million a year from the federal government for all its activities. That is 60 percent of the budget. The rest has to be generated from various tourism partners and sponsors. In the area of sponsorship, partnerships generate around CHF 4 million annually.
The fact that sponsorship has evolved significantly from former patronage to a marketing instrument was one of the core statements of his thesis "Sponsoring in Tourism" - and it has not lost its validity. "It is important to look for partners who really benefit from an image transfer." This requires professional support. "Otherwise a project like this will only work in the short term." And Switzerland Tourism is less interested in such individual campaigns. "We are looking for partners with whom we can build something," explains Enzler.
We are therefore looking for organizations that want to support the value of "Swissness" and the Swiss brand on Switzerland Tourism's platforms. Brands or institutions such as SBB, Swiss International Airlines, Hotelleriesuisse, Swisscom, Swiss Post, Victorinox, Zurich Airport, Bucherer or Swiss Cheese Marketing can benefit from a large international network thanks to their sponsorship - and not just on the "extremely well-used" MySwitzerland.com website.
One of these partnership projects that will soon be attracting attention is a new IMAX film. The same American production company that has already made fascinating monumental films about the Nile or Mount Everest around the world is now shooting a new film about Switzerland entitled "The Alps" in the most beautiful locations. "This film is a huge opportunity for us," says Enzler happily. And you can believe that, as a tourism expert, he knows how to sell no country better than his own.
Andreas Panzeri

Just in time for the ball and festival season, the Zurich agency Jung von Matt/Limmat is launching a campaign for the Blue Cross. The prevention agency wants to promote a responsible approach to alcohol and risk-free consumption during the festive season, according to a media communiqué. With the campaign, the organization wants to make its services and advice on the subject of alcohol known to a wider audience. The concern of the Blue Cross is illustrated by a crate of Bordeaux. It can become a coffin in case of excessive consumption of wine, representative for all alcoholic beverages. The lettering on the crate deliberately plays with elements of wine vocabulary and combines them to form an epitaph. With the invitation "Enjoy life. Drink with understanding", the first motif unmistakably calls for a healthy approach to alcohol.

Aktiengesellschaft St. Galler Tagblatt has acquired a 35% share package in Radio Ri from Goldbach Media. This makes the media company the new majority shareholder of the local Rheintal station. According to the news agency SDA, this commitment in St. Gallen is intended to secure the long-term development of the eastern Swiss radio stations Aktuell and Ri in the listener and advertising market. In addition, the existing cooperation between the two radio stations is to be strengthened. As part of the reorganization of the radio reception areas as of 2008, a joint concession area with continued strong local roots at the two locations Buchs and St. Gallen is planned. According to the St. Galler Tagblatt, the two radios together reach around 140,000 listeners. Radio Ri has been broadcasting for 20 years.

Advertising for hamburgers, chips and the like will soon be banned from British children's programs. The responsible media supervisory authority has decided that food with a high fat, salt or sugar content may no longer be advertised in children's programs. According to Aerztezeitung.de, this regulation will come into force at the end of January 2007 and will apply to program blocks aimed at children under the age of 16. The UK is one of the countries in the world where a particularly large number of children are overweight.

Advertisements: More and more self-publishing companies are considering offering compensation to agencies that book directly. Here's what Otto Meier, CEO of PubliPresse, has to say about it.
WW: Tamedia has apparently triggered an avalanche of direct bookings: More and more publishers are considering introducing compensation or a discount for agencies that book directly. What does this mean for Publipresse and its subsidiaries Publimedia, Publicitas, and Mosse? Otto Meier: Tamedia launched the direct-booking discount in response to our direct management of the NZZ. Tamedia wanted to reward agencies that bypassed Publimedia and booked directly. According to Tamedia’s own statements, this led to more orders for them, which in turn prompted Ringier to follow suit with its magazines because they felt they were at a disadvantage. From that point on, the direct-booking discount became a market-share discount, as has long been the case abroad: Tamedia may have gained market share in the intramedia sector, and Ringier felt provoked, but now appears to have regained market share with its own discount offer.Do you see this as a threat?
Yes, because the rate level will drop dramatically. That’s my prediction. This discount will have to increase because others will follow suit. But as soon as it evens out, one side will have to raise it again to achieve any effect at all. And so a downward spiral begins, which could cause the discount to rise to 5 percent—and suddenly everyone finds themselves at a significantly lower price level. That would be a problem for all publishers, including us, because it would reduce revenues. With unforeseen consequences.
Aren't you just painting a grim picture? It's also possible that self-publishing platforms could let the discount settle at 1.5 percent—as long as the payment is processed directly.
The battle for market share isn’t limited to in-house productions. P’s productions also address this issue to level the playing field. One thing remains certain: a new discount called the “market share discount” is being introduced, which could then lead to significantly lower prices across the board.
Conversely, lower prices make print media more attractive in the competition among different media.
That would be a positive side effect, at best. However, there are better tools for that. Take the rate reform, for example, which we strongly supported. As a result, major advertisers using standard formats can now place ads at significantly lower rates than they could a year ago. This approach is smarter because it is transparent.
What is opaque about an openly declared direct booking discount?
It’s not as if everyone benefits from this. In the case of Tamedia, for example, certain client groups are being discriminated against. In addition, there is a link to a volume discount, which calls into question the objectivity of media planning. The more publishers develop their own models, the less transparency there is.
Thomas Passen of Ringier said that, following Tamedia’s move, he had waited for Publimedia to take appropriate measures against the looming discount spiral—but to no avail. Why?
Just because Tamedia wanted to punish P, there was no reason for Publimedia to actively support foreseeable price erosion. Ringier has now followed suit, turning the direct-booking discount into a tool in the battle for market share.
Tamedia has been offering the direct-booking discount for almost two years, and Ringier for five months. Has this harmed Publimedia in any way?
Yes, Publimedia has seen a decline in revenue, though it was significantly less than 5 percent. So the decline was limited—no doubt in part because, given the discounts offered by Tamedia and Ringier, agencies have to consider whether they really want to do without Publimedia’s services or not. This is all the more true since Publimedia also introduced an offer for agencies known as the “administrative rebate.”.
Specifically, you pay agencies that book in-house productions through Publimedia five francs per order.
No, this has nothing to do with self-management. And I can’t confirm that approach. It’s something else entirely. The reimbursement is granted to those agencies that use Publimedia’s booking tools. This is because, by doing so, the agencies perform an advance service that makes Publimedia’s work a little easier.
You also considered imposing penalties on agencies that book directly, such as by raising license fees for tools. Did that actually happen?
No, but that’s not off the table. So far, we’ve limited ourselves to the compensation mentioned as a proactive measure to ensure that agencies using our tools aren’t at a disadvantage. However, Publimedia will be forced to reevaluate its free services starting next year and make some adjustments to how they’re handled. At Tamedia, we’re considering whether we should continue to assume the financial risk there and actively broker their titles under the current terms. However, nothing has been decided yet.
The del credere is covered in the commission agreement with Tamedia. Does that mean you are considering terminating the agreement at the end of 2007?
I can't rule that out.
When will you decide on further measures?
We didn't want to jump to conclusions. But of course, we are already thinking about how to position our companies. And developments regarding the direct ordering discount undoubtedly play a role in that.
What would be the consequences for Publimedia if Edipresse magazines, the Handelszeitung publishing group, and Espace Media were also to introduce the discount?
Then our loss in revenue will certainly exceed the 5 percent threshold. And we certainly won't just sit back and watch that happen.
Is your current reluctance a sign of uncertainty—or are you trying to keep the cat out of the bag?
More like the latter (laughs). Since the direct-booking discount has so far had only a minor negative impact on our revenue, we didn’t want to get caught up in the price war initiated by Tamedia. However, if the discount were to have a wider impact, we would also play a prominent role in this matter.
For example, by consistently positioning yourselves as a kind of media agency? Publimedia is already a kind of media agency today; it provides some of the services typical of traditional agencies—albeit only in the print sector and in the context of print promotion…
Exclusively in the print sector. That's very important, which is why we're not direct competitors to the agencies.
But that could change, because PubliGroupe can now offer a media portfolio—including print, online, radio, TV, movie theaters, AdScreen, and mobile—that is broader than anyone else’s. As a result, it could now begin to compete with traditional agencies.
Since its founding in 1994, Publimedia has always focused entirely on print and organic growth in the online sector, because the goal was to strengthen print and leverage the advantages of print media within the media mix. But you’re right—PubliGroupe is structured differently today, which means we’re rethinking our role.
After all, you’ve brought in Christian Gartmann from Pro 7-Sat 1, so there must be some strategic decisions already in place. Are you moving in the direction of taking the all-media business away from the agencies?
With these new acquisitions, PubliGroupe has expanded its presence in media marketing. It is true, however, that with Radiotele, Cinecom, and Web2com, we now have several instruments in our orchestra. But the score has not yet been written.
Espace is following in the footsteps of Tamedia and Ringier,
This is also an issue at the Espace Media Group: «Yes, we are giving very serious thought to introducing a direct booking fee,» writes Franziska von Weissenfluh, publishing director of the Berner Zeitung. She thus confirms what had previously been circulating only as rumors. Markus Knöpfli

Advertising as a genre Ten years of Cinecom advertising have been packed into a book by Markus Cavegn.Advertising is fleeting. You realize this not only when the waste paper is bundled up again or when the commercials flicker on TV. You also realize this when you clean out your archive once again. "It's a shame about all the good ideas," every creative person probably feels a little sentimental. But Matthias Luchsinger and Jean-Claude Bruhin told themselves that it doesn't have to stay that way forever. After ten years of "advertising for advertising", their Cinecom therefore wants to revive part of this history once again. "With this book, Cinecom would like to thank all those who have praised or insulted Cinecom advertising, who have attentively ignored or openly envied Cinecom advertising, and all those who have been made to think or smile by Cinecom advertising." This text for a foreword evaporated before it was even printed. Instead, all the campaigns, ideas, invitations and even some discarded highlights that have shaped Cinecom's self-promotion over the last ten years have been printed on 120 glossy pages.
The imaginatively designed and elegant book is being distributed in a limited edition of 1000 to all employees, customers and partners. "Cinecom would also like to thank all the creative people who have surprised it with fresh ideas, all those who have made the impossible possible and all those who have not prevented the extraordinary," says CEO Matthias Luchsinger in an accompanying text.
The Cinecom book shows that advertising can not only inform, but also entertain. As usual, Markus Cavegn designed the book entitled "Welcome to the world of great emotions" for his long-standing client. 
The illustrated subjects come from the agencies Contexta, Honegger von Matt, GGK Basel, Seiler DDB and Cavegnwerbung.
Andreas Panzeri

Planetactive Zurich, the full-service agency for digital marketing, has launched a new website for Bluewin TV. Interested parties can find out more about the Bluewin TV offer. They can also check which channels are available in their area and initiate the ordering process for the innovative TV service. With Bluewin TV, over 100 TV channels and more than 70 radio stations can be received. In addition to static product information, the new website also offers dynamic information updated daily. This includes the latest movie offers on Video on Demand or information about sporting events, which can be accessed under Live Events. Visitors to the website can also watch trailers of the films on offer.
The new website is Bluewin TV's central communication platform. This also includes an online campaign developed by Planetactive. In the first phase, high-reach websites will be used to maximize brand awareness and increase awareness of Bluewin TV, according to a press release. In the second phase, which will focus primarily on sales, special interest sites will also be used. In addition to standard and special formats, Planetactive will also use publicity reports and contextual ads.

The German government has defended the controversial raid on the magazine Cicero before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. Secretary of State for Justice Lutz Diwell justified the authorities' actions, as media representatives would be liable to prosecution for aiding and abetting the violation of official secrets in such cases. He rejected impunity for journalists for publishing secret documents.Wolfram Weimer, the editor-in-chief of the political magazine from Ringier, had filed a lawsuit with the supreme court in September because all of the data on the editorial computer was copied during the raid in 2005 (see
). At Wednesday's hearing, Weimer's lawyer criticized the search of the editorial office by the Potsdam judiciary in September 2005 as a violation of press freedom. The state was only allowed to enforce the confidentiality of confidential documents on its employees. Journalists should not be punished for receiving and publishing such information, he said. Otherwise, the state would have the power to remove information from public discourse. Publishers' and journalists' associations also warned on Wednesday that encroachments by the judiciary would undermine the protection of whistleblowers and make it more difficult for the press to access information of public interest, as reported by SDA.
The search and seizure operation was triggered by an article published in March 2005 by the journalist Bruno Schirra. He had quoted from a confidential document of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) about the top Jordanian terrorist Abu Mussab al-Sarkawi (see
). The accusations ultimately had almost no criminal consequences for the journalists: In February, the public prosecutor's office dropped the investigation against Weimer in exchange for a payment of 1,000 euros (see ). The verdict in the current trial is not expected until 2007.

Tabloid Blick wants to know how readers read Blick - and is turning them into media researchers. These days, Ringier's tabloid Blick is turning to its audience with full-page advertisements: "Blick of the future - join in!" is the paper's headline. Together with the opinion research institute Readerscan, they are looking for readers to evaluate Blick and "take part in an exciting study" of the paper. For the equivalent of a year's subscription and the prospect of a wellness weekend as a competition prize, around 150 newly qualified lay media researchers from the cantons of Zurich and Lucerne are to provide the Blick makers with information about their reading habits. Using small hand-held scanners, the test subjects are to scan those parts of the newspaper to which they have devoted their attention. The aim is to find out how readers look at the individual articles. "What do you read from top to bottom? Where do you only read the beginning and scroll on? What do you always read and what do you never read?"
 
Further declining circulation In the face of such questions, one might think that the Blick editorial team has lost its gut feeling for good stories, that the paper's editors have forgotten what the ingredients of a tabloid are. Indeed, at first glance, the campaign gives the impression of an editorial fear instinct. After all, circulation figures are still trending downwards, as Ringier CEO Martin Werfeli told journalists at the traditional fall media breakfast at the headquarters on Dufourstrasse.
The paper is clearly on the cusp of repositioning itself, as it tends to recruit its increasingly ageing readership from rural areas. The urban and younger audience prefers newspapers such as 20 Minuten or Ringier's own heute and Cash daily, which are all available free of charge. In the coming year, Dufourstrasse therefore plans to focus on the Blick package and also fundamentally overhaul its online presence. "This will go a long way," said publisher Michael Ringier. He described the corresponding investments as "central".
The current search for Blick researchers is just the beginning. This is confirmed by deputy editor-in-chief and Blick newspaper editor Rolf Cavalli. "But it is just one of various instruments that we will be launching from mid-January." For Cavalli, there is no compelling reason to use the Readerscan tool at this particular time, but the company does have the ambition to be the first major user of the technology, which it already started using two years ago. In Germany, the major daily newspapers regularly use Readerscan as an optimization tool.
The survey is to be conducted three times over a period of three to four weeks in the coming year. The first survey period will provide the current status of reading habits and allow initial conclusions to be drawn, the second period will provide the first comparative values and corrections and adjustments to the magazine will be conceivable and possible after the third period at the latest. The application is expensive and not yet ready for the market, says Cavalli. For this reason, there are no plans to use it permanently for the time being, as Telecontrol does to measure TV ratings. "We only use Readerscan as an optimization tool," explains Cavalli and does not want to make a new newspaper based on the results. Readerscan does not replace the paper maker or the journalistic concept.
Apparently, the instrument was also suitable because, according to Cavalli, Blick is more dependent on readers' reactions than other newspapers. One conceivable intervention would be to remove a section that is hardly read, for example, or to change the emphasis of the content if the values in the Culture section are lower than in the People section. "We are approaching the investigation with an open mind because we are a newspaper that has to constantly scrutinize itself," says Cavalli.
The investigation with Readerscan therefore does not decide whether daily columnist Jürg Ramspeck continues to write in Blick or not. But in which direction should Blick generally move? According to Cavalli, to where the paper has potential. "And that clearly lies with women."
Upgrading the InternetPublisher Michael Ringer
said at the publisher's traditional fall media breakfast: "The Internet is fundamentally changing our business." The Group therefore intends to push ahead with its Internet activities in the coming year. The end of 2006 was an absolute record year for the publishing house. The Group launched 14 new titles, most of them in Eastern Europe. With heute and Cash daily, Ringier launched two already successful free newspapers on the market within a very short space of time. The new launches resulted in a single-digit percentage increase in sales from 1.26 billion francs in the previous year. However, Ringier CEO Martin Werfeli said that profits would fall slightly due to the high launch costs.

With regard to the Eastern European business, Ringier said at the fall press conference that the publishing house had become a bit of a victim of its own success. "There is an incredible amount of competition," said the publisher. In the Czech Republic, the Group was at times fighting against three competitors with its tabloid Blesk. In Switzerland, too, competitive pressure is constantly increasing. "2006 was a tough year," said Ringier. In 2007, the Group intends to slow down the pace somewhat and concentrate more on Internet activities and the recovery of Blick.
René Worni

Strategy Do we actually still need the advertising idea? In London, top strategists discussed the art of their profession. Pascal Schaub from Publicis followed "The Battle of Big Thinking". They dish it out and not in short supply. When the Account Planning Group invited the English this fall to debate the future of us all, they all came: strategists, marketing experts, media professionals, market researchers, branding experts and top advertisers. Their 15-minute presentations made the good old advertising agency look like a scarecrow from the last century. In good planner style, almost everyone started with the consumer. Today's consumers are well informed, have a worldwide choice and are often just one click away from success. They know what they want, and almost more precisely what they don't want. But that's not the problem, says new media expert John Owen. The decisive factor is that consumers today can also tell us what they don't like.
Even crazier. He does it too. In daily exchanges with millions and millions of people in forums, blogs and chats. The smaller and more specialized the target group, the greater the intensity. Brand denunciators can be found just as easily as brand fans. Ivan Pollard from Hotshop Naked therefore believes that it is no longer the media that matters. What matters is what happens after the point of contact with a brand message. The only thing that counts is whether it is spread by consumers.
From there it is a small step to "consumer created content". The community shoots the commercials themselves, uploads them to web platforms themselves and sends them to each other. Goodbye creation, media, direct marketing. Recently, customers have already been calling for this. The CEO of Procter & Gamble, A. G. Lafley, has instructed marketers to stop controlling their brands and to relinquish control and listen more to their customers. Undercurrent: advertising agencies are far too expensive, marketers can't decide what is a good and what is a better creative idea anyway, and monitoring success is conveniently built into "consumer created content", because only what is liked is viewed and sent on.
Other speakers vehemently state that this is the most miserable solution, pure self-abandonment, possibly born of incompetence or quite simply communication laziness. The clearest counter-example comes, of course, from Interbrand brand expert Andy Milligan. A brand is most successful when it is meticulously planned down to the smallest detail and managed by its owner.
"Geek Squad", the "computer geek instant help squad" demonstrates what is meant by well-conceived branding. If you call them about a computer breakdown, a snappy sheriff answers around the clock, guarantees arrival in an hour, appears in Geek Squad uniform (note the white socks), marches to the scene of the crime, marks it with yellow crime tape, solves the computer problem on the spot - leaving nothing behind except the imprint on the sidewalk with the Geek Squad logo from the branded sole of the foot. Everything is branding and it always requires an ingenious idea.
However, the majority of speakers agree that the best ideas today can no longer be advertising ideas. Jim Carroll, CEO of Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty, put it most tamely. In a world of "bashful brands", it is now the order of the day to make fun of brands and their appearance. Carroll still recommends advertising as a way out of this. But only if it is staged as a communicative seduction that networks. The big idea as a networking idea.
John Owen sums it up clearly: "Today, we need ideas that can be promoted, not advertising ideas. The lead agency principle has had its day. Owen would always have several agencies pitch for each job, each of which is top in its discipline: Web designers, advertisers, branding specialists and so on. All would have to commit to working together on the idea selected by the client, and all would be paid the same. Advertising becomes a by-product, a side effect.
Internet brands do not advertiseNot for nothing do the speakers repeatedly quote that the strong brands that have become big on the Internet have almost without exception achieved this without advertising campaigns. Google, Amazon, Craigslist, flickr, MySpace, Odeo. The list is long and getting longer all the time. The big provocation in this context is put forward by Russell Davies, the brilliant planning guru: A media budget of zero? Bring it on! Every brain cell in the win-win-win link. The connectivity idea is everything. The community does the rest. The creative director's primacy of ideas collapses. With his track record as Global Planning Director at Nike, Russell knows what he's talking about. After all, he was voted "Big Thinker of them all" by the audience to thunderous applause.
Brand communities without the Internet - almost unthinkable. If you are online, you are interactive. Those who are interactive are engaged in brand building. But let's take a closer look at web users, says Andrew Walmsley, founder of i-Level. Almost all of them have a penchant for pseudonyms, nicknames. Depending on the study, more than half of them pretend to be someone else online. Old geezers as innocent teenagers. Girls as boys. Young people as professors. Rich people as poor. Heteros as homos. The joy of role-playing is nothing new in itself, says Walmsley, we all know it from the dressing-up box in the nursery. It's just the extent of it that is completely new. Gamers spend an average of 20 hours a week on it.
No wonder the advertising industry is looking for opportunities to advertise in game worlds. The challenge: We don't have the slightest idea what kind of people are romping around in the game world, because the same person can be schizoid and split into two as an online character and an offline person. Specifically, a girls' platform seems to be an excellent place for tampon advertising, but Kukident would probably be much more effective there if the majority of users are not girls in real life. Good night.
New fundamental questionsThe three central questions for the communications industry are no longer: What to do in the face of the galloping fragmentation of markets, media and target groups? Instead, the three fundamental questions are: 1. what actually comes after the media, after the purchased advertising space, after the touch point - how does a message live on, circulate, multiply and change beyond our access and control? 2. what actually comes after the advertising idea, i.e. after creation - when consumers take up an idea, modify it, implement it themselves, think about it further, when an idea can no longer be owned but, in the best case, shared? And finally: 3. what actually comes after the target group - when every single consumer is so and so and so and so, lives an unfathomable role-playing game with which he leads everyone around by the nose, including himself, and we never know who we are really dealing with and what he really needs?
There are already some assumptions and answers. Less certain findings. The explosive conference cocktail of substance, charm and show showed at least a rudimentary way forward. This can only mean interdisciplinarity, teamwork and planning. By the way, what if the Account Planning Group Switzerland were to bring this new conference format to Switzerland next year?
The Battle of Big Thinking The rules:
21 speakers, 15 minutes speaking time each, the TED audience voting decides live in the hall on discipline and day winners.
The disciplines:
Branding, Marketing, Market Research, Media, New Media, Strategic
Planning, advertising.
The organizer:
The Account Planning Group UK, the association of strategic planners in England.
More on this, incl. blog,
at www.apg.org.uk Big Planning Thinker and overall winner: Russell Davies (Open Intelligence Agency) The thesis:
People love complexity. The answer from companies must be: Simplicity. And not didactic simplicity that supposedly creates clarity. But simplicity that creates the required complexity. Example 1:
Multimedia artist Brian Eno has created an image that has 77 million versions, based on simple software with simple rules. The viewer sees a different version each time, the instant original. Example 2:
On nike.com you are asked to send in a video you have made yourself. The only condition: A ball enters the picture from the left at the beginning and leaves the picture on the right at the end. The rest is history: created by the Nike community. The future belongs to those who give up control. And inventing the connectivity idea for it. Big media thinkers: Ivan Pollard (Naked) The thesis: the future belongs to "transmedia planning". Everything becomes a medium. But the medium is no longer important. It's what happens to the message after the point of contact. How and whether a message is passed on to the target group and develops its own momentum. Only then is brand value created. In the brand community. For the viral effect to happen, "collision engineering" is needed - instead of GRP calculations.
Big Thinker from Communications Agencies: Trevor Beattie (Beattie McGuiness Bungay) The thesis:
Big thinking is big schminking. It's boring. And intimidating. It puts customers on the defensive and creatives in a corner. It is not motivating and not inspiring. On the contrary, it's the small thoughts that can make life great. Small thoughts are approachable, accessible, infectious. They are better because they can be shared, because they can belong to everyone (co-ownership). Example:
The Bank of South Africa with the claim "Trust us" had chained the plastic pens for the customers. Chained! We were the first to cut the chains. Big Brand Thinker: Derek Day, Helen Edwards (Passionbrand) The thesis:
The answers to five rarely asked questions can take a brand further. 1. what can a brand stop doing to stay true to itself? 2. how can you make a product worse - and thereby achieve an innovative breakthrough? 3. how is a category currently screwing its consumers with its regularities? 4. what is in our customers' photo albums? 5. what gives a brand the right to exist? Many brands don't like this last question, but the others will change the world.
Big New Media Thinker: Mark Cridge (glue) The thesis:
All media will become digital. TV anyway. But the others too. A recent study shows that by the end of 2007, around 50 percent of all media consumed will be digital channels. Everything will be transparent on digital channels. The entire exchange of opinions. Opinions will be formed on the Internet. Ordinary people will tell the most powerful stories about brands.
The internet has already become the biggest source of word-of-mouth advertising. To paraphrase a well-known marketing quote: If digitalization got us into this mess - it may be digitalization that gets us out of it.
Pascal Schaub

The author is Head of Strategic Planning at Publicis and President of the Account Planning Group Switzerland.

Free press A third edition for French-speaking Switzerland is launched by 20 minutes. The battle of the free papers is entering a new round. From January 3, around 90,000 copies of the French-speaking edition of 20 minutes will be distributed in the cantons of Neuchâtel and Jura and in the French-speaking areas of the cantons of Bern, Valais and Fribourg. According to the publisher, this increases the circulation of the commuter paper to 240,000 copies. As far as readership is concerned, no figures are yet available; Tamedia promises the first evaluations for the beginning of December. For comparison: The Wemf interim study from September 2006 confirms that the Edipresse competitor Le Matin bleu has 218,000 readers with a circulation of 150,000 copies.The Lake Geneva arc between Geneva and Lausanne - where the two free newspapers have been fighting for the best place in the sun - is an Eldorado in terms of advertising. The situation is different in the Jura Arc and the French-speaking part of the canton of Fribourg. There are no affluent metropolitan areas, no urban agglomerations with a young, urban target audience and no booming service industry. Advertising money is scarcer and the regional newspapers - Liberté in Fribourg, the merged newspapers L'Impartial and L'Express in Neuchâtel, the Journal du Jura in the Biel area and the Quotidien Jurassien in Delémont - are struggling to survive. Tamedia is now venturing into this difficult area. The expansion will create eight editorial positions and one publishing position, with more than 50 employees working for the paper.
Reason enough for Tristan Cerf, editor-in-chief of the Edipresse free newspaper Le Matin bleu, to put forward a bold thesis: "If 20 minutes is prepared to go to so much trouble, it could mean that they have not yet achieved their goals." Tamedia, of course, communicates otherwise: the third edition corresponds to the "extremely positive development" of the paper.
It should be noted that free newspapers are already omnipresent in the cities of Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Biel. And so the editors-in-chief of the regional newspapers concerned are wondering what the national edition of 20 minutes will bring in addition to a somewhat less "lemanic" view of things, centered on the Lausanne/Geneva agglomeration.
Louis Ruffieux, Editor-in-Chief of Liberté, is not afraid of Tamedia's expansion strategy and remains convinced that the Liberté concept - quality newspaper with in-house services - will prevail in the competition with the free newspapers. However, he sees problems ahead for the Matin Group: "The war of the free newspapers is intensifying and Edipresse could well be forced to sacrifice one of its two Matin products." In fact, the new appearance of the orange tabloid Le Matin is moving closer to the layout of a free newspaper, while the content of Le Matin bleu is becoming more tabloid. An indication of the forthcoming merger? Théo Bouchat, responsible for the free newspapers at Edipresse, denies any change in the business model of the blue-orange duo.
Things look a little different in the Jura Arc. There, publisher Philippe Hersant is in full swing with preparations for the "Projet arc", the collaboration between his Neuchâtel regional newspapers L'Impartial and L'Express with the Biel-based Quotidien Jurassien from Gassmann. The domestic, business and foreign sections as well as parts of the culture/society and sport sections will be merged: Around ten jobs will be cut by the end of 2007. The aim of the collaboration is to increase the profitability of the newspapers and make them more attractive for national advertising.
The competition from free newspapers is palpable, says editor-in-chief Nicolas Willemin: "20 minutes in particular offers national advertising at rock-bottom prices." The regional edition of 20 minutes aims to offer advertising customers coverage across the Romandie, but it will not break into regional advertising: "We are so well established in the region that we are not worried about the new competition." Fortunately, the losses in national advertising will be compensated by the regional and job advertisement business.
Edipresse reacts calmly. Théo Bouchat says that the company does not feel challenged by its competitors' plans to change its current strategy. Le Matin bleu is already present in the affected regions. Important topics are covered, perhaps even more so in the future. "As far as circulation, the number of employees and boxes are concerned, everything is open."   
Mountain of garbage in FreiburgIn the city of Freiburg,
at the interface between German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland, there are three free newspapers. The German and French editions of 20 Minuten/minutes and Le Matin bleu are in the boxes here. This has tangible consequences. According to a report from the city's waste collection service to the local police, around 90 percent of the free newspapers distributed in the center of Fribourg are thrown away on public property and have to be collected by city employees. The paper is so dirty that it cannot even be recycled. It ends up in the waste incineration plant.
Matin-bleu editor-in-chief Tristan Cerf, known for his ecological convictions, hopes to be able to limit the waste of resources: "In Geneva, we are negotiating the provision of special boxes in particularly critical locations in which the newspapers read can be returned." If the Geneva model is successful, it will also become established in the other distribution areas. Meanwhile, 20 minutes is trying a notice in the newspaper to sensitize readers.
Helen Brügger