Radio It's the norm in France, Germany and England. From autumn 2007, Radio DRS will also go on air with a non-stop news program. The official launch is now just a formality. According to SRG information, the Central Council of SRG SSR will give the green light for another Swiss Radio DRS program these days. The DRS managers have no doubt that the DETEC department responsible will grant the license. In just under a year, in autumn 2007, the Swiss-German radio station plans to go on air with a 24-hour news program. The planned program is to be produced by an editorial team of around 20 people. Unlike SF Info on Swiss television, the new radio channel will not simply recycle contributions from the other DRS programs, but will offer its own editorial services. Comprehensive news bulletins are planned on the hour and half hour. In between, there will be short news items every quarter of an hour. Weather reports and traffic reports will supplement the news.
No program segments with music are planned. In the initial phase, the info channel will also take over the existing background programs Rendez-vous am Mittag, Info 3 and Echo der Zeit integral. According to Radio Editor-in-Chief Rudolf Matter, these will later be replaced by in-house contributions from the new news editorial team.
Flagships as role modelsThe decision to enrich the program range with non-stop news was made not least after looking beyond the country's borders. France Info, BBC and Bayern 5 showed that the market potential for a news channel was there. And: a country's radio offering can only be successfully expanded with special interest programs or news programs, SRG SSR stated when announcing the project. While the flagship European info radios may be useful models for the design of the program, there are hardly any analogies with regard to the market potential of a new Swiss-German program. The various national radio landscapes are too different.
In terms of resources, foreign broadcasters can operate on a completely different scale. B5 aktuell, the information channel of Bayerischer Rundfunk, for example, employs around 100 journalists and technicians who share around 50 full-time positions. Radio DRS can only dream of such generous staffing levels. Critical voices in the Bern studio, where the new news program will one day be produced, wonder whether the planned 20 positions will be enough to successfully produce seven 24-hour programs per week.
Ten percent market share is the targetAccording to radio director Walter Rüegg, the news program is aiming for a market share of five to ten percent. This roughly corresponds to the figure currently achieved by DRS 2. For the time being, this figure must be regarded as wishful thinking, as those responsible for the project have no specific figures on which to base reliable statements about the acceptance of a non-stop news channel in German-speaking Switzerland.
A key factor that will contribute to its success or failure is the further development of digital radio. The new program will be broadcast terrestrially exclusively via DAB, but not via FM. In order to achieve the targeted market share, more than 100,000 radio listeners would therefore have to buy a new set with digital reception. According to optimistic estimates, there are currently some 10,000 DAB receivers in operation in Switzerland. "The motivation to buy a new radio set," says Radio Director Rüegg, "is known to only increase when programs are broadcast exclusively digitally, when we offer the audience clear added value." Nevertheless, it is more likely that the news program will initially reach the audience via other distribution technologies. For example, as an internet stream or podcast.
DAB confusion resolvedProminent critics of DAB digital radio,
such as Giuseppe Scaglione from Radio 105, have once again felt confirmed in recent days in their rejection of SRG's heavily promoted radio of the future. The reason: a new compression process for DAB, which will soon be adopted as an international standard and will one day also be used in Switzerland. Programs that use the new standard could no longer be received with today's commercially available devices. "Today's DAB devices can be thrown away," triumphed Scaglione in the Abendzeitung today. The confusion was all the greater when even a Bakom spokesperson confirmed that new radios were needed. On Tuesday, SRG SSR and Bakom jointly gave the all-clear: "Contrary to recent rumors, SRG SSR will continue to broadcast its DAB programs in the current format."
Nick Lüthi

The 37-year-old Simon Bärtschi will take over the position of head of news at SonntagsZeitung on February 1, 2007. As Tamedia spokesman Christoph Zimmer confirmed to Werbewoche, he succeeds Philippe Pfister, who is moving to the news magazine Facts (see ). Bärtschi has been news editor at SonntagsZeitung for a good three years and recently took over from Philippe Pfister. He studied geography and media sciences at the University of Bern and was media editor of the Aargauer Zeitung before joining SonntagsZeitung.

Children The children's charity Terre des hommes uses almost empty billboards to promote its cause so that it doesn't go empty-handed during the Christmas season.Every year, when the pedestrian zones smell of gingerbread and mulled wine, people are open-minded and want to do good. For many fundraisers, the weeks leading up to Christmas are particularly important. Christmas time is donation time. This is when many aid organizations make their presence felt. This includes Terre des hommes, the largest private children's aid organization in Switzerland. Because more children's aid organizations are vying for monetary charity on the Swiss donations market this year, Terre des hommes has launched an image campaign together with Publicis to make the French-speaking organization better known in German-speaking Switzerland. The aid organization is advertising for children in need on billboards, in cinema commercials and advertisements.
Not in the traditional way, as Caritas is currently doing (see
Cry for help against hunger
), but with almost empty, white posters. The viewer finds a cry for help written by a child at the bottom, where a child would write because of its size. According to Markus Gut from Publicis, the motif aims to highlight the helplessness: "The concerns of disadvantaged children are drowned out and marginalized." The silent distress call is taken up by the claim "When children can't defend themselves" and finds its answer in the sender, the Terre des hommes logo. For Markus Gut, the concept works because the white emptiness also has a refreshing effect and thus tends to encourage reflection. Indeed, the Terre des hommes posters are thought-provoking. Various posters at locations close to the train station have been vandalized. Nevertheless, the concept is to be continued in a second wave in 2007. Publicis won the pitch for the Terre des hommes campaign in the spring of this year. The image campaign is not a pro bono action by Publicis, but "professional marketing".
Christian Lüscher

On December 1, 2006, Marc Reinhardt will take over as head of PR at the PR agency Freicom. At the same time, he will become a member of the Executive Board. Reinhardt was a partner and member of the management team at Zahner & Partner from 2000 to 2005. Since the merger of Zahner & Partner with Trimedia Communications Switzerland in June 2005, he has headed the Trimedia branch in St. Gallen. After eleven years working for Radio Aktuell, the qualified PR consultant entered the PR industry at the communications agency Mediapolis. Freicom Relationship Management and Communication offers all integrated communication services and employs around 30 people.

Cheese Burson-Marsteller in Bern has opened the fondue season with a series of new commercials for Emmi's Gerber brand. 50 years ago, fondue achieved the status of Swiss national dish. At that time, the melted cheese made the leap onto the official menu of the army and from there increasingly into private households. Because of its origins, fondue cooking was therefore a purely male preserve for a long time. But as men were not yet so well versed in cooking in those days, many were certainly relieved when Gerber launched the first ready-made fondue on the market around 40 years ago. The mixture was frowned upon by real fondue lovers, but managed to catch on - because after two glasses of Kirsch, a real Gerber fondue could hardly be distinguished from most hand-grated special mixtures. Gerber has been part of the Emmi dairy group since 2004. But the cozy atmosphere surrounding the fondue is still the same for today's generations, as Burson-Marsteller is now reminding us in a new campaign for Gerber.
The commercials tell short stories in which you see people in situations that are initially incomprehensible. For example, an ice hockey player does a pirouette like an ice queen. This is followed by the question: "When was the last time you lost your bread in a fondue?" This is about the old custom that someone has to pay a penalty if they lose their bread in cheese.
The commercials were produced by Recycled TV in Bern. The final image shows the fondue group smiling comfortably into the camera and a pack shot of a new "Fondue & Dip". This new convenience product brings the "fondue for dipping" in a special double chamber cup. One part of the cup contains a small portion of Swiss cheese fondue for the microwave oven. The other compartment contains crispy Italian dip tronchetti.
Andreas Panzeri

The young Zurich-based company Highfive has developed a new web-based project management application for compact communications agencies, project teams and individual companies. With Ninetofive, addresses, jobs, meetings and budgets can be organized efficiently via an Internet browser. The tool is already in use at Ruf Lanz, DD Com Communication Arts and Kilian Gasser Werbeakquisition und Verlagsberatung. The demo version can be tested free of charge on the website. The application was created by two programmers, two designers and a project manager.

Over a thousand entries from almost 50 countries were subjected to an intensive jury process at the John Caples International Award in New York last week. René Eugster, CD of the agency at Altenrhein Airport, represented Switzerland this year. Only creative directors or creative directors with at least ten years' experience are accepted as members of the final jury. The jury became aware of Eugster because he and his agency are the only Swiss to have already won a precious metal at the John Caples International Award and achieved a further place in the final. Founded in 1978, the John Caples International Award is considered to be the world's most prestigious competition for creative direct marketing alongside Cannes Direct. This year's finalists will be announced at the end of December 2006 and the winners will be announced on March 8, 2007 at the Caples Night.

Freiburger Nachrichten will continue to be printed by Paulusdruckerei in Fribourg. The offer from the Bern-based Espace Media Groupe was not successful. However, the newspaper would like to intensify its work with the media company in future. The two offers from Paulusdruckerei and Espace Media Groupe were comparable, Felix Bürdel, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Freiburger Nachrichten, told the news agency SDA on Wednesday. The decision was therefore made in favor of the Fribourg printing company, which has been printing the newspaper since 1875, with comparable conditions for the next three years. A decision in favor of the Bernese offer would probably have made political waves in the bilingual canton of Fribourg. Fears about the cohesion of the language communities and the marginalization of the bilingual canton of Fribourg were voiced in the run-up to the decision.
At Paulusdruckerei, Freiburger Nachrichten will also benefit from a modernization of the rotary press and the renewed forwarding system, the Board of Directors explained its decision in a press release on Wednesday. In future, all pages will appear in four colors. This will also allow advertisements to be better placed.
Cooperation with Espace to be intensified The Board of Directors of Freiburger Nachrichten intends to maintain its cooperation with the Bern-based Espace Media Groupe. The cooperation that has existed for five years in the areas of editing, advertising combination and IT is even to be intensified and expanded in the coming years. Negotiations are planned for the coming year. The Board of Directors justifies this step with the major upheavals in the Swiss press landscape. Cooperation models are of existential importance for the regional daily press. However, the Freiburger Nachrichten is to remain an independent and autonomous newspaper.

Advertising Week receives dozens of media releases every day. With some of them, it is not always recognizable where the core message lies or what they are aimed at. This is what happened to the editorial team with a message from U1 TV. Did the TV station want to announce an explosive message here or simply amuse the readers with a cheerful school essay? We disagree, decide for yourself: "On Tuesday afternoon, the great search began. Mr. Kieser of Kieser Training reported to the reception of U1 TV for the recording of a program. Nobody knew who was supposed to have ordered him into the studio for a recording - the great search began...
Mr. Kieser from Kieser Training AG is at the reception desk of U1 TV and asks for Ms. Muster*. But there is no Mrs. Muster* employed at U1 TV and no Mr. Kieser registered as a guest. Has Mr. Kieser perhaps simply ended up at the wrong TV station? He is convinced that it must be here, since he has already contacted another TV station and they sent him here to U1 TV. Mr. Kieser has already been a guest of Klaus J. Stöhlker once and felt at home accordingly. But who was this ominous Ms. Muster* and what kind of program, which was not on the broadcast schedule, was it supposed to be about?
Finally, Ms. Schartl, the managing director, rattled around the entire editorial office with Mr. Kieser, looking for information - without result. But Ms. Schartl's detective instincts were aroused; she would not give up until she had solved Mr. Kieser's riddle. Determined, she got on the phone and called a number of television stations to find out where a Ms. Muster* was employed. Finally, she found what she was looking for at the very TV station that had sent Mr. Kieser to U1 TV! In order to avoid any further misdirection, Ms. Schartl actually took Mr. Kieser to the aforementioned TV station in order to drop him off safely there." *Name changed by the U1 editorial team

The creative agency Lowe Zürich has created a wide-ranging advertising campaign for the world's most comfortable business class seat. It can be seen in France and Switzerland. Passengers flying between Zurich and Paris can now also enjoy the 2-meter-long lie-flat beds with massage function. The African hippopotamus Humphrey is the eye-catcher of the campaign. It can be seen on the posters and also "live" as part of the promotional event at the airports, which runs until November 29.

In order to strengthen the advertising business of its numerous print products, Ringier Verlag is pushing the Internet as a medium. As publisher Michael Ringier said at the fall media breakfast in Zurich, this is the only way to secure advertising income in the future. The Internet has massively changed the business basis of Switzerland's largest publishing house. For this reason, Ringier is pushing ahead with digitization in 2007. Ringier wants to profit from the current gap between Internet use and Internet advertising business. Young people already get around 20 percent of their media consumption from the Internet. At the same time, however, less than 5 percent of the advertising business is generated on the Internet. A training ground for multimedia: Cash daily Cash daily is an example of where his publishing house is heading, Ringier continued. The close connection to the corresponding Internet platform and other products in the Cash family brings readers multimedia offerings ranging from web papers and audio offerings to videos, TV and podcasts. According to Ringier, the new multimedia offering has been well received by customers, although specific user figures are not yet available. With a daily circulation of around 70,000 copies, the free Cash daily currently reaches around 120,000 readers. Sales of 100,000 copies are targeted for next year. Hard user data will follow in 2007.
According to Ringier CEO Martin Werfeli, the free newspaper Heute, which was launched in May, has also made a good start with 170,000 copies distributed daily. However, he conceded that both newly launched free papers have been given three to five years to become profitable.
Blick to be relaunched Ringier only made hints about the tabloid Blick, whose circulation continues to decline. Ringier said that "very far-reaching thoughts" are currently being given to this issue. Changes and investments at Blick will be a focus in 2007. It is clear that - in line with the Internet strategy - Blick-Online will be significantly expanded. The publisher is currently looking for 150 people from the cantons of Lucerne and Zurich to undergo a reader scan on the Blick website. They are looking for data that shows how Blick is read.
 
In connection with all the new launches, Werfeli spoke of an absolute record year in 2006, with the publishing house bringing 14 new titles onto the market - a good proportion in Osteueropa. The new launches led to a further single-digit percentage increase in sales in 2006 (2005: 1.26 billion Swiss francs). Due to the high costs of new launches, however, profits will shrink.

The Herrliberg event specialist Lanz Events has a new service on offer. It analyzes the quality of events for interested companies. Available are the EventCheck "Standard", an on-site check of over 80 checkpoints, the EventCheck "Complete", which covers the check from the invitation process to the on-site check to the post-processing, and the EventCheck "Individual", which allows individual checkpoints to be checked. "The EventCheck is intended to be a complete project," says Rolf Lanz from Lanz Events to Werbewoche. The costs for the EventCheck "Standard" do not exceed the thousand mark. The check is particularly suitable for companies that organize their events on a regular basis. Whether it is a customer or supplier event, a press conference or a general meeting is not important. "The check is also conceivable in the sponsorship sector, for example if you want to know whether you are perceived as a sponsor of an event," Lanz continues.
The EventCheck is an analysis based on a checklist by an event specialist. The event specialist visits, analyzes and evaluates the event from the perspective of a guest or VIP and records the findings according to objective facts and subjective perceptions. The client receives a written report with the assessment, taking into account the objectives, the message and the company's personality. This report shows where there is a need for action in terms of event quality and which measures are promising for optimizing future events.