Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Italian television group Mediaset submitted an initial bid for the German TV station group on Tuesday. The offer is still non-binding. According to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Italian media group could pay up to three billion euros.  
It is important to the Mediaset Board of Directors that synergies arise. If these are lacking, a commitment abroad is difficult to imagine. If an investment is made, it will - as already announced (see
) - is expected to be 50.5 percent. Mediaset, which owns Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4, among others, wants to diversify more and is looking to invest in more growth outside its home market and in less dependence on advertising. The largest German TV company is valued at 5 billion euros. The investors around Haim Saban hold 88 percent of the ordinary shares and 13 percent of the preference shares. As reported by the news agency SDA, the investment bank Morgan Stanley is said to have been commissioned to launch an auction. Other interested parties are still in the running, including financial investors, General Electric, Apax and Blackstone. This is the second attempt this year to sell ProSiebenSat.1. In the spring, a planned sale to Axel Springer Verlag failed due to opposition from the Cartel Office.

As the new managing director and consultant at Angelink, Andy Waar wants to take the pressure off the creative department so that the crossover agency will still have time for something new in the future. The experts are convinced of this. Today's vanguard with crossover will one day form the mainstream. And Angelink has now adapted its structure to accommodate this expected development. The crossover agency is recognized as a specialist in online advertising. Its core competence is the integration of online and offline marketing. Since its foundation in 1998, Markus Gabriel has managed his Angelink as CD and Managing Director at the same time. He has now delegated the administration to the young Andy Waar. The new member of the team will also act as a consultant. However, growing just to grow is not the order of the day.
"We want to make ourselves fit now to be able to absorb the expected new business in the industry," explains Markus Gabriel. The sole owner and creative wants to be able to work even more concentrated than CD in the future. The pioneer wants to be able to defend his position in the rankings as more and more traditional agencies discover the opportunities that lie dormant on the Internet.
Andy Waar will support him with a strong back office and customer advisory service. The new Managing Director brings with him a wealth of experience in banking, television and the Internet.
Andy Waar completed a law degree in Zurich. Nevertheless, he does not see himself as a career changer in the advertising industry. He has worked in various previous positions as Head of Marketing and Project Manager and has "always looked for jobs that had some kind of communication aspect".
As early as secondary school, Waar not only worked in a library, but also acted in commercials. He later earned his degree by selling merchandising at major events and concerts. "An ideal job, because it meant I could attend all the important concerts, was right in the middle of things - from Zurich's Hallenstadion to the Arena Stade de Genève - and was also able to earn money," he enthuses.
His enthusiasm for this world of shows is understandable, after all Andy Waar himself plays in a rock band (www.elverson.ch), which will soon be releasing a CD. As a drummer, he is also regularly hired as a session musician for TV appearances or individual showcases by stars such as Sophie Ellis Bextor or Ronan Keating. And why did the musically gifted man start with dry Jus anyway?
As a boy, he dreamed of a career as a lawyer. Then he realized that he was more and more interested in the communication side. But: even as a lawyer, you eventually learn to communicate extremely precisely. Today, Waar is glad of the analytical thinking he learned in law. The secondo, who grew up in Zurich, also explains his "communicative nature" by the fact that he is half Italian and half Dutch. "I inherited two completely different mentalities from my parents. Southern emotional and northern cool. I can now draw on this depending on the situation - paired with the Swiss hard-working attitude, it works really well."
After completing his studies, it was the Italian who first pushed forward. Waar "finally had to help my artistic side make a breakthrough". He seized an opportunity at Star TV and became the management troubleshooter for a year. There he did everything - from scheduling the teams to evaluating viewing figures, reporting, acquiring sponsors and even directing. Waar became more and more self-taught in computer skills and learned to edit films himself using Avid.
He experienced the world of TV as "an exciting interlude". But how could he continue without losing touch professionally? In the meantime, all his fellow students were starting their careers in court or elsewhere.
Around the time of this professional analysis, the Dutchman also returned to Waar for a short time. He moved to UBS. A staff position in management support opened up for him at the bank. "Fortunately, I was still very communicative," he says, because he was allowed to prepare files for presentation to the management. In four years at the bank, he experienced two mergers with different teams and eventually became the communications manager for internal projects such as the web, intranet and document management. As project manager for various communication platforms and as head of the project office for an international strategic project, he got to know the other side of the business.
During this cool time at the bank, the artistic Italian had of course not completely fallen asleep. Waar continued to maintain contact with the TV scene, shooting short films with partners and friends, for example a spot for the Lunch Cinema or various commercials for television as well as video clips for music channels. He also became more and more involved in programming websites - "but only for friends". Nevertheless, he is proud that they can still keep up in terms of functionality today.
He then gave himself another push towards Holland with a job as marketing manager at a renowned law firm, which, among other things, sets up products in the offshore business. During this time, he also completed an MBA on the side, "in order to demonstrate with a diploma that my professional life is not just based on law".
Waar realized that with marketing, he could finally combine the Italian and the Dutch in an ideal way. He knows the customer side. He knows the industry. And he knows the world of the web. In this situation, all he had to do was get to know Markus Gabriel personally. As an interested web addict, Andy Waar had been following Angelink's work for a long time.
In his new role, he sees himself as an "activator". Waar is looking forward to working in the team and with the sister company Angelink yourposition - where six people are employed in search engine marketing.
Angelink can already demonstrate its expertise in the crossover sector for clients such as UBS Investment Bank. In addition to traditional advertisements, micro-sites, banners and search engine marketing are implemented here for structured financial products. Other focal points are viral, blog and affiliate marketing. Key clients include Extrafilm, Wartmanns, IMTF, Möbel Galatti, Renggli (Minergie houses) and many more.
For affiliate marketing - also equipped for the big wave - Angelink works as a certified partner with the European market leader Zanox.
Andreas Panzeri

Recently, an e-mail fluttered into Werbewoche's house. The message was: "Why not for once give your employees the gift of pleasure and health for Christmas?" Well packaged and personally labeled, this would certainly spread joy among the employees. But would they really enjoy a bottle of potato juice? Hm.
 
The action of the marketing managers of Biotta will probably hardly trigger the appeal to buy, but rather the appeal to trash. Because juice, no matter how organic, is never "the ideal corporate gift". Christmas is the festival of love, but this love and above all the word "enjoyment" is not associated with 100% organic carrot juice, but with unhealthy luxuries such as chocolates, alcohol, tobacco products or salmon. The PR agency responsible should have noticed this. Why not start a funny campaign and ask the bosses to do something after the holidays? Giving organic juices as a gift in January - that would be good "why not marketing," according to Werbewoche.

Spelling The reform of German spelling is now official. Not everything that has been reformed makes sense. Theodor Ickler, "Germany's most important linguist" according to Bild, sheds light on much of it. In contrast to Bastian Sick and his trilogy "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod", he is not interested in making fun of linguistic grievances. He explains objectively and competently what has gone wrong and why. For Ickler, the spelling reform is a mess. At the end of his book, he makes his own reform proposals and shows his way out of this chaos. Roger HausmannWrong is right
by Theodor Ickler; Droemer, 2006, 272 pages, 26.80 francs.

The branding agency Eclat, based in Erlenbach, wins the pitch for the 2006 annual report of the Basel-based dental implant manufacturer Straumann, which was previously handled by Wirz. A Swiss and a London agency were also in the running. According to a press release, the content of the annual report is to be slightly expanded and the visuals completely revised. The company achieved a top position in the Bilanz value reporting ranking. The report will be published in February 2007. In 2006, Eclat was responsible for the concept and design of the annual reports of Bossard, Gurit, Jelmoli Holding, Medisize and ÖKK. Daniel Zehntner, Managing Director of Eclat, is an expert in the annual report rating of the business magazine Bilanz.

The canton of Solothurn wants to launch a campaign in 2007 to promote non-violence among young people. The cantonal council unanimously approved an FDP motion on Tuesday, as reported by SDA. The government has already reacted to various incidents of violence among young people and set up a "Youth Violence" working group last July. This group is to present the government with a concrete plan of measures for effective violence prevention by the end of March 2007. In the second quarter of 2007, the campaign for a violence-free youth is to be carried out in the form of a prevention campaign. The SVP, which is fundamentally opposed to "state-led campaigns", has agreed this time in view of the "weighty problem".

The TV cable network operators want to push ahead with digitization and distribute more channels in order to remain competitive. This is the response of the Swisscable association, to which 250 cable network operators are affiliated, to the launch of Bluewin TV, Swisscom's television via the telephone network (see ). However, digitization not only promotes the diversity of (special-interest) programming, but also demands sacrifices. One is the reduction of the basic offering. Swisscable President Hajo Leutenegger said on Tuesday at the cable network industry conference: "We have to assume that in a few years there will only be a limited basic offering." However, the second sacrifice will be in terms of costs. This is because digital television will cost viewers more than analog television. Diversity has its price.
Most important trends: individualization and quality The cable network industry considers the individualization of television consumption to be the most important trend. It also wants to jump on this bandwagon and thus counter the intensified competitive situation. This is because competition exists not only with Bluewin TV, but also with satellite television and terrestrial distribution. The company therefore wants to focus on diversification and better picture and sound quality. High-definition television (HDTV), which is in the starting blocks, also plays an important role here. The cable TV companies' networks are already ready for HDTV, Leutenegger continued. The most important trend for the future of television, however, is individualization. However, tailor-made program packages and new offers require the completed transition to digital television and basic encryption of programs. A ban on basic encryption is unrealistic because it is precisely this that makes it possible to offer customers an individualized service. However, television users would then need a set-top box for DigiTV.
No uniform timetable To make room for the digital offering, today's basic analog programming will inevitably be reduced. From 2010, only a limited analog offering will be available on cable. Which channels will disappear from the basic offering will depend on the capacity of the network and will vary depending on the cable TV provider. There is no uniform timetable. However, Leutenegger believes it is much more important to provide comprehensive information so that customers can switch to digital television quickly and easily.
Gap to be bridged in 2006/2007 Increasingly broad sections of the population are already interested in digital television and the corresponding technical innovations. While the innovators (approx. 2 percent of the population) and early adopters (approx. 15 percent) are already receiving DigiTV, the early majority group (approx. 34 percent) is now also being addressed. DigiTV is growing out of its infancy and is currently becoming suitable for the masses. According to Swisscable, we are right at the transition from the analog to the digital TV world.

According to new statistics from Swiss youth radio station Radio 105, the 105 web radios are used 636,000 times a month. In addition to its main program, the Swiss youth station operates three special-interest radio stations that are broadcast exclusively on the Internet. These are 105 Dope (hip hop and R'n'B), 105 Classics (club and cult hits from the 70s and 80s) and 105 Hitradio (the station for 12-17 year olds). Across Europe, web radio consumption increased by 35 percent in 2006. Today, around 20 million Europeans already listen to their favorite radio station regularly via the Internet, according to a press release. Radio 105 is also benefiting from this web radio boom and has been able to continuously increase its listener numbers over the last two years.

The Zurich-based advertising agency JWT+H+F wants to take a different path with a newly designed website than most Swiss advertising agencies do with their websites. While the majority of agencies in this country continue to focus on presentation with their online presence, JWT+H+F wants to follow the Web 2.0 trend, which allows web visitors to interact like a business card. In this way, the topic of advertising and the work of JWT+H+F are to be actively brought into the conversation.participating instead of watchingJWT+H+F wants to use this as a marketing tool. Debates about good and bad advertising are to take place on the company's own homepage and opinions are to be exchanged. There are also opportunities to rate the agency's work and individual articles. However, new entries and comments are checked before publication. Films are hosted on Google Video, with the advantages that streaming is outsourced and more visitors are directed to the agency website. Content and comments can also be subscribed to as RSS.
Every employee can publish articles directly via the system. A core team at JWT+H+F manages the site. The new website was developed by Core in Zurich and implemented by Jackfruitdesign in London. Core specializes in strategy, branding, usability and social interaction websites and led the project and developed the design and information architecture.

Stephan Peyer has been appointed a member of the Group Management of the Swiss Exhibition Group as of January 1, 2007. He succeeds Kurt Frischknecht, who is taking over the management of the European Exhibitions Division. In recent years, Peyer has worked as an independent consultant specializing in marketing and sales. In this capacity, he has held various consulting mandates at Swiss Exhibition. He previously worked for various companies in the consumer goods (including Unilever), IT (including Compaq) and luxury goods (including Movado) sectors.

At the end of October 2006, SRG SSR idée suisse submitted an application to the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) for two radio stations broadcast via DAB digital technology: the DRS News program and World Radio Switzerland, a news program for German-speaking Switzerland that provides information on current events every 15 minutes and is financed by Swiss Radio DRS from its own funds. World Radio Switzerland WRS is an English-language radio program for the whole of Switzerland. WRS is now a private company with the British BBC and SRG as its main shareholders. The station is financially supported by the City and Canton of Geneva, the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) and the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM).
WRS is due to launch at the end of 2007 or beginning of 2008 and will be affiliated to Radio Suisse Romande. It will replace World Radio Geneva. According to the SRG press release, the necessary funding is included in the notified financial requirements for 2007 to 2010. Both programs must first be approved by the SRG Central Council.

The renowned cookbook publisher and manufacturer of kitchen gadgets Betty Bossi is coming up with two innovations in the new year. The Betty Bossi newspaper is being redesigned and a magazine is to attract new target groups to the traditional brand. In January, the Betty Bossi Zeitung (BBZ) will have a new look. The monthly cooking newspaper, which has over 850,000 subscribers, is being expanded from 20 to 28 pages. More recipes, new sections and additional cooking tips are the positive result. It will remain free of advertising, as Betty Bossi's Head of Communications, Ruth Bannwart, told Werbewoche.
However, Betty Bossi will offer new opportunities for advertisers in the new planned and as yet unnamed magazine - as Werbewoche already reported in its printed form. This is intended to address the new target group of "fast casuals". At Betty Bossi, this primarily refers to men - but also women - who live in single or small households and have little time but high lifestyle demands. The magazine also wants to focus on topics such as enjoyment, quality leisure time and a different way of cooking.
Betty Bossi is also stepping on the gas on the Internet. On the one hand, the magazine is being combined with a cross-media offering and various services. On the other hand, the online area for BBZ subscribers is also being expanded: With a recipe database containing hundreds of recipes, shopping lists and useful information.