Mediator A (temporary) solution has been found to the five-year conflict between the advertising broker AdX and PubliGroupe, but there is no end in sight. The solution: After PubliGroupe relaxed its commissioning guidelines at the beginning of the year, AdX submitted a request for reconsideration. "This was successful", AdX owner Werner Baumann announced on request. What's more, a second advertising agency is also said to have been granted commission authorization by the P. This means that both agencies will now be remunerated for advertisements that they place on P's leased titles. P had previously rejected this on the basis of its previous guidelines.
Nevertheless, the conflict is not over. This is because P still has reservations about AdX. In addition, the matter is still before the Competition Commission. "We are in the final phase," says Deputy Director Patrik Ducrey. And he adds: A definitive decision is no longer expected this year. He does not want to give any reasons.
Markus Knöpfli

Accident prevention The agency Saatchi & Saatchi Simko has discovered a whole range of new advertising media for the Gurten campaign of the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention, and since the end of October, Swiss TV audiences have been able to see the continuation of the "A ribbon for life" commercial. In it, a man runs into a wall with full force. This is what it looks like when you crash a car at full speed. The new film now focuses on the need to wear seat belts even on short journeys. The statistics show that the Swiss are less likely to wear their seat belts in urban areas, even though paradoxically the likelihood of an accident is highest in local traffic. This "weaker" impact is illustrated in the commercial with the smashing of a shop window. This prevention message is also spread through a sponsorship campaign based around traffic news on the radio.
The Geneva-based agency Saatchi & Saatchi Simko has now discovered the elevator doors and exit barriers of over 250 parking garages as a particularly direct medium. Anyone passing by in their car can no longer avoid the message "A ribbon for life". This claim is just as conspicuous on the lift doors to these parking garages. An additional effect is created here when the safety belt is also figuratively "clicked in" when the lift door is opened and closed.
In French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, the campaign is also being reinforced with rear posters on buses in Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano and Bellinzona. In a competition on the subject of seat belts on the website sicherheitsgurt.ch, there are driving courses organized by the TCS to be won. In addition, the safety delegates of the Accident Prevention Council and specialists for health and safety at work are currently carrying out various awareness-raising campaigns for drivers.
The extensive resources invested in the seat belt campaign are already bearing fruit. After four years of stagnation, the proportion of people wearing seat belts in the rear seats has risen by 15 percent in just one year.
All communication materials are available on the attractively designed website www.sicherheitsgurt.ch, under Communication & Media. The seatbelt campaign is being carried out jointly by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu), the TCS and the Road Safety Council and financed by the Road Safety Fund.
Andreas Panzeri

Fundraising Schmid & Zoller has come up with bold yet sensitive ideas on the subject of integration for Pro Infirmis. stirring, provocative and aesthetic: the fourth poster campaign by the disability organization Pro Infirmis builds on the success of the first three editions. "Integration" is the theme of the new image and awareness-raising campaign. The claim: "We will not be hindered." The four new subjects were designed by the well-known Swiss photographer Hannes Schmid and the Schmid & Zoller agency. They show siblings - disabled and non-disabled. The provocative exaggeration is intended to make the viewer think. In one of the posters, for example, the non-disabled sister throws the bouquet and her sister with Down's syndrome catches it ...
Since 2000, Pro Infirmis has regularly displayed posters depicting disabled people in an unusual and direct way. "Our aim is not only to raise awareness of our organization and increase donations, but also to anchor new images of disabled people in the minds of the Swiss public," says Mark Zumbühl, member of the Pro Infirmis Executive Board. The messages on the posters are always playful and not pointing fingers.
Previous campaigns from the "Wir lassen uns nicht behindern" series have been awarded ADC cubes and the Effi Prize on various occasions.
Andreas Panzeri

Regional newspapers Tamedia has launched its four new regional editions for the Tages-Anzeiger. The cut-throat battle has begun. The editorial teams of the four new regional offshoots of the Tamedia flagship in Bülach, Stäfa, Uster and in the city of Zurich have been preparing for a month and got started on November 6. On the left bank of the lake in the district of Horgen, a test editorial team has already been working since March 2005. The only thing that had to be done there was to switch from tabloid to broadsheet from the parent newspaper. As is well known, the regional editions figure as an additional regional bundle in the Tages-Anzeiger and are only available on paper - for logistical reasons - in the corresponding catchment areas.Initial effectsThe test editorial team on the left bank of the lake has had an initial effect: although the volume of advertisements has so far been modest, the reason for the regional strategy, the decline in circulation of the Tages-Anzeiger, has been halted. If this effect also occurs in the other regions, the goals of the first round of strategy will have been achieved. It is well known that the Tages-Anzeiger is suffering from declining circulation and a poor reach of only 36 percent in the core area of Zurich, which has millions of inhabitants, compared to other daily newspapers.
The second step in this long-term strategy is the displacement of the traditional Zurich regional newspapers. It is assumed in the industry that Tamedia will spend far more than just under ten million francs, as the media company once vaguely communicated the costs of the offensive. Distribution and the financing of the new editorial offices are the main costs. At the most recent meeting of the editors-in-chief, Tagi publishing director and regional strategist Rolf Bollmann presented this aspect bluntly, as did ZSZ publishing director Erland Herkenrath in a recent discussion published in the Zürcher Landzeitung. "I see the only opportunity for growth in the Zurich area. So the Tagi has to regionalize ... at the expense of the regional press."
For Bollmann, it is clear that Tamedia should have launched regionalization years earlier. The irony of the story: thirty years ago, publisher Hans Heinrich Coninx was already working on a secret project. Bollmann is now the executor, so to speak, who is basing his strategy on other concepts, some of which have been waiting in Tamedia's drawers for ten years.
The busy publishing director reckons that in the reader market, the public will opt for the Tages-Anzeiger in the long term. "If the journalistic and editorial performance of our editorial teams is roughly the same as that of the competition, the better cover section of the Tages-Anzeiger should be the deciding factor for readers to switch," he says. But sometimes Bollmann also doubts whether this quality is even in demand among readers.
However, the Tagi local editorial offices are not in a bad position. After all, alongside experienced and long-serving Tagi journalists, the editorial team in Bülach, for example, includes people who previously worked as journalists at the Unterländer. For the Tagi regional editorial office in Uster, 5 out of 35 people from the Zürcher Oberländer have changed sides, and there have been smaller shifts on both shores of the lake, with know-how moving from the Zürichsee-Zeitung to the Tagi.
From a journalistic point of view, one of the biggest difficulties remains the triage of topics between the Zürich-Bund and the regional sections of the Tages-Anzeiger. There is no concept for this. The topicality and quality of the stories decide what negotiations between the editorial teams mean.
Regional newspapers remain calm And what is the first impression of the Zurich regional newspapers? "You can't reinvent local journalism," says Christine Fivian, long-time editor-in-chief of the Unterländer and familiar with the local trade since time immemorial. On the journalistic side, she has no concerns, there are more people and more to offer. "There is normal competition. We have to be faster, and I hope we can manage that," says Fivian. Ultimately, however, financial stamina is crucial.
On the right bank of Lake Zurich, too, the tense anticipation at the headquarters of the Zürichsee-Zeitung in Stäfa eased after the publication of the first Tagi regional edition. "There was nothing in it that could have worried us, stories that we didn't have," says ZSZ editor-in-chief Benjamin Geiger. The situation is similar to that at the start of the test editorial office on the left bank of the lake. "We can handle it well," says Geiger. On the other side of the lake, people are also somewhat disillusioned by the thin broadsheet of the new Tagi-Bund compared to the previous tabloid edition.
Editor-in-chief of the Zürcher Oberländer Christoph Vollenweider does not yet want to comment on the first Tagi issues. "It's still too early to judge." He shares the disillusionment of the other editorial teams of the three Zurich regional newspapers that the Tages-Anzeiger has not come up with any more content in view of the extended preparation phase. The Tages-Anzeiger will not be rewarded for the painstaking work of establishing itself with the population in the regions.
At least the response in the city of Zurich to the Tagi split from the associations was positive. However, the traditional newspapers are well aware of the threat. Even if competition stimulates business: the Tages-Anzeiger will remain, probably forever. "The scenario is doomed to success," says Benjamin Geiger. 
  
Welcome to Uster In Uster
the Tagi may have an advantage. Observers believe that the new SP city government under Mayor Martin Bornhauser is hardly adequately represented in the Anzeiger von Uster, the front page of the Zürcher Oberländer. The town is undersupplied with local media. When the city administration, suffering from a lack of space, wanted to rent the same premises as Tamedia for its new local editorial office, the city is said to have given way to the Tages-Anzeiger. The Tagi is obviously very welcome in Uster. Christian Vollenweider, editor-in-chief of the Zürcher Oberländer, confirms the matter. Following the change of editor-in-chief at the Oberländer, the paper has moved away from its strictly liberal stance and is now striving for journalistic openness. "If the city government feels underrepresented, you have to correct that," says Vollenweider. René Worni

Health Actually, there would be nothing to say about this poster subject (see column title: "noticed"). In fact, the cartoon on the platform at Rüschlikon station has caught the writer's eye for days. The idea advertises the sports park in Thalwil. In this health center, you can train for survival, as the claim says. This is proclaimed with a likeable little joke that always stands out positively in the poster landscape. At least the corners of the mouth are subtly trained to smile just by looking at the poster. But the brain also gets its money's worth in the end. Who will actually survive here? Is it the dinosaur? Or the human with the overweight belly? Andreas Panzeri

Print A city split, as recently introduced by the Tages-Anzeiger, is not a suitable model for Bern, Basel, St. Gallen or Lucerne. "Advertising in the Tages-Anzeiger was previously of no interest to SMEs in the city of Zurich, as a third of the Tagi readership lives outside the canton of Zurich," says publishing director Rolf Bollmann. Since November 6, this has changed: the Tagi circulation (around 240,000 copies) has been split: of the five new regional editions, one split with around 50,000 copies is specifically tailored to the city of Zurich. It is intended to provide readers in the city of Zurich with even more city-specific news and thus enable the Tamedia flagship to achieve greater household coverage in the city in the medium term. In addition, primarily local SMEs will have an attractively priced advertising platform with less wastage than before - and the Tagi will benefit from an additional source of income. But national customers also have the option of booking the Tagi city split on its own - or, if necessary, booking it with other Tagi splits or even with the Züriland newspapers.this model is currently unique in a large German-speaking Swiss agglomeration. Although the Berner Zeitung also has a kind of city split, called the city edition, unlike the Tages-Anzeiger this is a mix of both Bund and BZ copies. It is also reserved exclusively for local customers. Will the Tagi model now be taken as a model in Bern? At the time, some advertising clients and media agencies demanded that the BZ city edition should also be opened up to national customers.
"No," says publishing director Franziska von Weissenfluh, "a change is not up for discussion." The reason is clear: unlike the Tages-Anzeiger, the BZ city edition with 148,000 copies does not just make up a fifth of the total circulation, but a good half. There is a risk that national customers will be satisfied with the city edition, which could significantly reduce the BZ's overall sales.
The St. Galler Tagblatt has been going the exact opposite way to the Tagi - since this year. In April, the previous eight SGT regional editions were reduced to six - and the former St. Gallen city edition (30,000 copies) was merged with that of Gossau (5,000 copies) and Rorschach (8,000 copies). SGT publishing director Daniel Ehrat justifies this with the fact that the three communities are growing together. Of course, there were initially complaints from some readers. "But these have died down in the meantime," says Ehrat. Advertisers, on the other hand, had hardly any problems, probably not least because SMEs from Gossau and Rorschach can book the new 41,000-copy St. Gallen edition at a rate that is only slightly more expensive than that of "their" previous split.
Split not an issue in Lucerne The situation is different at the Neue Luzerner Zeitung: splitting into a city and a country edition has been discussed several times, "but it's not an issue at the moment", says Managing Director Jürg Weber. This is because the Neue LZ already has a high coverage of around 60 percent, so there is hardly anything to be gained from splits. "What's more, readers in the city want to know what's happening in the countryside and vice versa," says Weber. So far, there has also been "no huge demand" from advertisers. This is because local advertisers who want to advertise in the Neue LZ can choose a special marketplace offer in the regional association. This offers a much more favorable rate (less than half the price of the advertisement). However, if the advertiser wants to limit himself to the Lucerne agglomeration, he is already well served with the Anzeiger Luzern and the Luzerner Woche, says Weber.
Is a city split on the Rhine knee an issue? After all, the approximately 100,000 copies of the BaZ regular edition are split roughly equally between the two Basel half-cantons. But Beat Meyer, CEO of Basler Zeitung Medien, waves it off. BaZ has only just launched a large print run in the Basel region, which can be booked as a split, either on its own or together with the main edition. "And a strictly political split is of no interest to either advertisers or readers, as the large municipalities in the lower Basel area are too city-oriented for that," says Meyer.
Tagblatt am MittwochThe daily newspaper of the city of Zurich,
the free newspaper owned by Tamedia (60 percent) and NZZ (40 percent), will no longer be published five times a week from November 29, but only once a week, on Wednesdays. The contract with the city of Zurich, which runs until 2015 and for which the paper is the official publication organ, contains a clause that allows changes to be made to the publication frequency "for economic reasons", says city spokesman Urs Neuenschwander. The fact that, in this case, it is the majority owner Tamedia itself that is harming the Tagblatt's financial situation with its Tagi-Stadtsplit did not play a role. "We didn't go at each other with lawyers over this," says Neuenschwander. The city had examined what it needed as a minimum option. The new Tagblatt concept fulfills this requirement. Neuenschwander did not answer the question as to whether Tamedia was being asked for compensation. After all, the city has to take potential concession income off its hands. This is because the fee that Tamedia and NZZ pay for the Tagblatt is dependent on turnover above a certain level. This limit, which by all accounts has hardly ever been reached to date, is now definitely illusory.
Markus Knöpfli

Insurance company Wirz Werbung has filmed claims sketches for Die Mobiliar for the first time.advertising for Die Mobiliar has been astounding and amusing the public in ever new forms for seven years now. More than 150 funny "damage sketches" have been put on paper so far. Not in the form of such cartoons, but in the style of elaborate films, Wirz Werbung has also appealed to audiences in cinemas and in front of the television on a second track. The film "Fotograf", directed by Ernst Wirz, won a Lion in Cannes this year. All of these commercials with real images are constructed from letters to the insurance company to the familiar commentary "Dear Mobiliar ...". Now, for the first time, four films have also been realized in the style of drawn damage sketches. The animated cartoons have "breathed life into the static sketches", as CD Matthias Freuler explains. As in a classic cartoon, a funny short story is told. In keeping with the style, the gags are also brought to life by a witty soundtrack with typical cartoon noises. However, the mini-dramas are not intended to compete with classic TV commercials, but are used for special purposes, such as virals.
Wirz Werbung always aims to "break out of the mold", as Freuler says, with a surprising idea when placing advertisements for Die Mobiliar. On the very day of this year's Street Parade in Zurich, a three-page spread was placed in the Tages-Anzeiger. "Thirty Love Mobiles and my car" explained the text accompanying the damage sketch.
The publisher was also particularly flexible with this advertisement. The witty three-page strip was even allowed to appear above the headline in the Tages-Anzeiger - a major exception. A similar advertisement recently appeared in 20 Minuten.
special form with a "ricochet" over two corners around a report on Martina Hingis at the Zurich Open.
Andreas Panzeri

René Worni praises the Aargauer Zeitung: "Total chaos reigns in the regional section. Everything is always in a different place. And mistakes are a nuisance. Otherwise, I'm satisfied," says Werner Diebold (72), a retired bricklayer from Baden. Flight attendant Heike Bösch (37) from Aarburg is more specific: "When I'm on the ground, I always read AZ. (...) I miss a counterpart to the feuilleton of the NZZ." Retired electrical engineer Gerhard Krische (74) from Nussbaumen has a hard time: "I don't like two-page reports at all. And why are Anglicisms used when there is a German expression?" And hairdresser Vittoria Mastronardi (17) from Rietheim says: "AZ's appearance is too youthful, a touch of NZZ couldn't hurt." (!) The Aargauer Zeitung celebrates its tenth anniversary. In the Extrablatt, it confidently puts up with audience responses to the legendary "cleaning woman question." Ten years is actually a cinch for an anniversary. But publisher Peter Wanner's flagship, a merger of Aargauer Tagblatt and Badener Tagblatt, has been the model for success in the Basel-Bern-Zurich media triangle since the launch of the Mittelland-Zeitung cooperation model: the inclusion of Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (thanks to a negotiating vacuum on the Rhine) is just the icing on the cake.
The anniversary makes us aware of how print media and audience habits are changing. AZ Editor-in-Chief Peter Buri talks about the new multimedia and multitasking generation. Making more newspaper with less money, offering one thing and not leaving the other, offering content multimedia on many channels, that's the motto of today's multimedia company.
But content needs to be cultivated. The strategy of customer orientation stems purely from economic calculations, to which journalism cannot be reduced, warns media scientist Mirko Marr. But fortunately, audience behavior remains unpredictable, even at AZ.
Sandra Sollberger (12) from Unterentfelden says: "I read everything about plane crashes and always cut out the reports. I've flown before, but I'm not afraid." Hopefully no one wants to add to that, do they?
René Worni, Editor

Radio Ruf Lanz sends out letters of application from international stars on behalf of Radio Energy. They are looking for a job as a salesperson. "My name is Madonna. I am applying for a job as a bedding saleswoman. I believe that I have the necessary experience for this job". This is how a letter from the pop star to the advertising manager of Ikea Switzerland begins. On her letter of application, Madonna lists as experience "successful presentation of bed pillowcases" (on the record cover of "Like a Virgin") or, even more clearly, "intensification of sales promotion measures" with the film "In Bed with Madonna." In the appendix to her letter, the singer and would-be saleswoman cites 554,210 Google hits under the search term "Madonna+bed" as references.Pretty cheeky B2B campaignThe Zurich radio station Energy has long been bringing the stars to its fans' homes. Now Ruf Lanz is bringing those stars to the business world, too, with a pretty cheeky B2B campaign.
The genre campaign for radio commercials starts with well-worded job applications. Stars such as Robbie Williams, Shakira or Christina Aguilera apply to companies that could somehow fit their job as a salesperson.
In flawless CT style - Ruf Lanz has purchased a guidebook "Wie bewerbe ich mich richtig?" ("How do I apply properly?") especially for this purpose - Robbie Williams wants to offer himself as a salesman for underwear via this route. As a reference, he can add that it is one of his strengths to put the ladies into such an ecstasy with just a few notes that they "instantly feel compelled to take off their panties, bras and other lingerie items" and throw Robbie onto the stage. In all seriousness, however, the singer attaches to his letter the photo that is obligatory for Swiss companies.
Shakira, who is applying for a job as a perfume saleswoman, has also got involved in the action in this very high-decent style. The rapper 50 Cent recommends himself as an "ideal salesman for insurance". Snoop Dogg sees his application chances more with the car producers, as he "makes it clear again and again that a man without a solid sled is nothing," as lyricist Thomas Schöb knows on Ruf Lanz.
In a further phase of the campaign, these letters of application go not only to potential individual companies, but also as a dossier to media agencies. Head of Marketing Dani Büchi from Radio Energy presents himself as a headhunter who has a whole range of promising sales talent in his portfolio.
All the stars agreed to this publicity stunt "with fun and a great sense of self-irony" and signed off on their "letters of application" without any requests for changes. Büchi attributes this to a good understanding between his station chain and the top stars in the industry. Here it was a courtesy. With the audience campaigns, he says, it was "a mutual give and take."
The idea is also supported by advertisements in the trade press. The factual section reveals that thanks to the stars' hits, 220,000 people listen to Radio Energy Zurich every day. "So Swiss companies can only benefit by placing their radio ads in the environment of these stars." And even though such prominent job applications should be treated confidentially, Energy wants to reveal in this campaign: "The salary expectations of the star salesmen are surprisingly modest."
As far as the success of the campaign is concerned, Markus Ruf is convinced that, especially in times of an endless flood of mail on the Internet, such a "personal" letter with a photo of Shakira or Robbie will hardly end up unread in the wastepaper basket.
Andreas Panzeri

Corporate Identity Swiss Television has commissioned the production of a series of new trailers for SF zwei, with the aim of giving the channel a youthful styling.the red blocks, which float through the Swiss landscape to a spherical sound and are condensed in the SF logo, are to have competition. Alex Hefter, who has been responsible for CD design at Schweizer Fernsehen since October 2004, wants to contrast the red blocks with even more colorful celebrities from Swiss showbiz. The celebrities with their statements are the new identities for SF zwei. The blocks will remain the identifying mark for SF 1, giving the two channels an even more independent look in future. SF zwei naturally "younger". Hefter is convinced: "Today, the packaging is just as important for a media brand as the program." In a first series for the new station Idents, the ten celebrities DJ Bobo, Roger Federer, Tanja Frieden, Baschi, Melanie Winiger, Carlos Leal, DJ Tatana, Nadine Strittmatter, Miss Switzerland Lauriane Gilliéron and Stress appeared in front of the camera. The film was directed by Michel Comte. The short films were produced externally by Lea Rindlisbacher and her Zurich-based company Eqal.
"The shape of this staging at 35 millimetres would not have been typical for the tpc," says Hefter, explaining why the contract was awarded externally. In addition, he also "found the best price-performance ratio" with Eqal. They did business together because Eqal had already worked with Michel Comte several times - and for Alex Hefter it was important "to realize this story with an established Swiss star". The CD was struck, for example, by the "outstanding artwork" in Michel Comte's Jaguar commercials.
The campaign idea for the new idents was developed by Alex Hefter. On the set, the team also spontaneously put into practice an idea for new image clips that had been dormant for some time.
As the stars were already in front of the camera, Comte simply placed them in front of a white wall and staged an additional series of black and white image clips in this simple setting. These clips were dubbed with off-screen voices of the respective celebrities. All clips culminate in the claim: "My Switzerland, my television". Thanks to this dual use, the 30-strong team was able to work very efficiently. Up to four commercials were produced per day.

Rapid success in a short space of timeA dozen or so statuettes with design awards from all over the world are stacked on a shelf behind the desk of new CD Alex Hefter. "We've won at least one prize at every competition in the past twelve months," says Hefter happily. He denies the question of whether the budgets have also increased for this yield. "My budget is the same as my predecessor's." The prices are therefore based more on the conceptual nature of the work and the quality of the design. "We make more out of less budget here," calculates the former head of design at ZDF.
Swiss television in New York was also recently recognized for the "Tagesschau" studio and "10 to 10". "If we want to compare this work internationally, there is a clarity in the lines, a refreshing reduction, while the Americans in particular are currently becoming very baroque, with a lot of wood and emotional background," says the CD, explaining the style of his work.
Overall, he feels that the appearance of Swiss television is "modern, reduced to the essentials and necessary". Hefter wants to see his work in the world-famous tradition of Swiss design. He developed the look of the new studios together with the Swiss furniture designer and architect Hannes Wettstein.
In terms of idents and image clips, Hefter is also planning versions with Frank Baumann, Marco Rima, Trudi Gerster, Peach Weber and other identification figures for SF 1, but the landscape images with the red cubes are to remain. The series for SF 2 can also be continued with new faces that are currently in the spotlight.
In an initial phase, the idents on SF zwei will now be broadcast very intensively. The makers were therefore aware during filming: "You have to be able to watch the story several times."
Alex Hefter, CD Design SFStudy as a graduate designer
at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. Freelance designer for various German TV stations. 1994 permanently employed as conceptual designer at ZDF. Assigned to the Corporate Design department from 1996. 2001 Head of the ZDF Corporate Design department. In addition, teaching assignments as a visiting professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz and at the Ravensburg University of Cooperative Education for media design. Since September 2004 Creative Director Design for Swiss Television.
Andreas Panzeri

Advertising impact Anyone who takes the trouble to let advertising affect them with open senses learns a lot about the client and their target group(s). That's why advertising is instructive. And "Advertising Now! Print" from Taschen Verlag is the perfect textbook for this. Julius Wiedenmann has collected the best advertisements from over 40 countries and shows how they work in surprising, funny, emotional or sometimes shocking ways. A must for advertisers. Roger Hausmann
Advertising Now! Print
by Julius Wiedenmann; Taschen, 2006, 640 pages, 50 francs.

The Internet company Yahoo launched the beta version of a platform for graphic advertising on cell phones on Tuesday. With a click, cell phone users can access product information from an advertiser or even call them directly, reports Netzwoche. Yahoo's mobile Internet service is available on most US networks. Since 1999, the company has repeatedly launched services so that customers can also use Yahoo products on their cell phones.