On November 1, Matthias Hunn (42) joined the extended Executive Board of Migros Bank as Head of Marketing. He is now responsible for the areas of product management, e-banking, advertising and public relations as well as marketing coordination. The business economist was most recently Head of Partner and Product Management at Allgemeiner Wirtschaftsdienst (AWD) Switzerland. Prior to that, he held various management positions within a major Swiss bank in the areas of retail and marketing.

Starting this week, selected US advertising customers can place ads in more than 50 newspapers at Google - in print newspapers. The whole thing is designed as a three-month, free test balloon and is limited to a group of just over 100 customers. They can use Google's automated solution, which is based on Adwords, to place print ads in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and Philadelphia Inquirer, among others.
The official launch of the system is scheduled for the beginning of next year. 
Although this could soon make some newspaper advertisers redundant, they see the development as positive. Owen Youngman, head of development at the Chicago Tribune, told the New York Times that Google could bring thousands of classified ads so that the space would no longer have to be filled with self-advertisements.
The system works in such a way that the newspapers do not have to guarantee space for the ads, but they can accept as many ads as they want at any time. This would allow newspapers to tap into a whole new segment of advertisers, said Denis F. Warren of The Times told The New York Times.
For ads that Google places on websites, the search engine collects 20 percent of the revenue. This is one step closer to Google's declared goal of creating a system that allows advertisers to place ads in any medium. Google wants to tap into new revenue streams with this strategy. Corresponding efforts are already underway in the video and radio business. Next, Google wants to tap into the magazine market, reports the New York Times.

The Aargauer Zeitung (AZ) celebrated its 10th anniversary last Saturday with a special supplement. The AZ was created from the merger of arch-rivals Aargauer Tagblatt and Badener Tagblatt. The first issue appeared on November 4, 1996. The venture has paid off," says AZ publisher Peter Wanner in the editorial of the supplement. Over the past 10 years, the AZ has established itself as a major journalistic force both inside and outside the Aargau region. Concerns were expressed during the merger that media diversity would suffer. President Moritz Leuenberger countered this in an interview with the AZ on Saturday, stating that media diversity does not only depend on the number of publications. The concentration of the media is therefore not all bad. The larger the newspaper publishers are, the larger the editorial teams they can afford. A uniform mishmash is often the result of laziness on the part of journalists: when they all copy from each other," said Leuenberger in the interview.
The AZ has a circulation of 104,235 copies. It has undergone several conceptual and design reforms in the last ten years. Since the regional supplements were converted to tabloid format in 2004, eight regional editions have been produced daily. The AZ editorial office is based in Baden.
Since 2002, AZ has been supplying the Mittelland Zeitung (MZ) section to the Solothurner Zeitung, Oltner Tagblatt, Zofinger Tagblatt and Limmattaler Tagblatt. The Basellandschaftliche Zeitung has been the fifth partner since September 16. With a total circulation of 210,275 copies, the MZ ranks third among newspapers sold in Switzerland. The MZ's cooperation model also includes the advertising section.

The Swiss Advertising Communication Association has named Bruno Ravaioli Communicator of the Month for October. Ravaioli is Head of Publishing and Marketing at the media company Südostschweiz. The association justifies the choice with Südostschweiz's commitment against advertising bans. According to the communiqué, as the umbrella organization for commercial communication, Schweizer Werbung sees it as its duty to fight against advertising restrictions such as the law recently approved by voters in the canton of Baselland. In this endeavor, the association is dependent on the support of its partners in the media. Südostschweiz has shown particular commitment in this regard, the press release continues. During the month of October, the various newspapers in the publishing group printed a campaign motif against the advertising bans 18 times. Schweizer Werbung is now recognizing these efforts with the "Communicator of the Month" award to publishing director Bruno Ravaioli, who is behind the campaign.

The cable network operator association Swisscable is terminating Swisscom Broadcast's membership. This was reported by Sonntagsblick. The reason is the launch of Bluewin TV, a digital television service from Swisscom (see ). "We don't want to discuss strategic issues that affect our industry with a telecommunications company that has now launched a competing offer with Bluewin TV," Swisscable Managing Director Claudia Bolla-Vincenz told Sonntagsblick. 261 cable network operators belong to the organization, representing 96 percent of the Swiss television market. Swisscom can now no longer represent its interests at Swisscable. It appears to be taking the exclusion in its stride: "Apparently, competition is something new for cable network operators that triggers fears," Swisscom spokesperson Sepp Huber told Sonntagblick. For cable TV operators, Bluewin TV does indeed create a competitive situation. According to Huber, the response to the launch of the new service has been very good. However, he also had to admit to difficulties: there were major delays in registrations on the Bluewin TV website this week.

Blick painted a bleak picture of the state of Swiss television SF on Saturday. Under the title "Deltenre's fateful year", it predicted all kinds of difficulties for 2007: There would be problems to report in terms of money, ratings, soaps and information. The Ringier newspaper also complained that the head of entertainment, Gabriela Amgarten, was seen as a "weak figure" and was zigzagging. A survey published in Sonntagsblick shows, however, that the Swiss are not so dissatisfied with their public television. 70 percent of the 604 people surveyed in German-speaking Switzerland are very or somewhat satisfied with the program overall, while 3 percent are not at all satisfied. The information programs came off particularly well: 93 percent consider the "Tagesschau" to be very credible, while the figure is 85 percent for "10 vor 10" and 77 percent for "Rundschau" and "Kassensturz".
Criticism of entertainment is echoed, however: 49% agree with the statement that SF too often copies foreign programs such as "Deal or no Deal" or "Music Star". However, this is to be maintained. As SF spokesperson Urs Durrer told Sonntagsblick, these formats are popular and successful. The soap "Lüthi und Blanc", whose imminent cancellation caused a huge media response, is apparently not mourned by everyone: only 28 percent of respondents think it would be wrong to cancel the show.
However, SF is losing viewers: 36 percent said in the Sonntagsblick survey that they watch less SF today than ten years ago. Durrer attributes this to the sharp increase in the number of channels.
It is not surprising that the threatened increase in fees is not met with approval: 76 percent do not consider the increase to be justified.
Deltenre defends herself Ingrid Deltenre defends the new mission statement in an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag and rejects the accusation that it is a paper tiger (see
). She also emphasized that the commercial entries were in line with the previous year. "Advertising revenues are down slightly, but income from sponsorship is increasing," said the SF boss. The marketer Publisuisse will consider a new pricing policy in order to react to the advertising windows of foreign rival broadcasters. Deltenre announced major changes in the evening prime time schedule for the coming year. The station will introduce a new family quiz and a new business program on Monday, a new knowledge program on Thursday, the entertainment format "SF bi de Lüt" on Friday and a new show on Saturday evening. SF 2 will also be geared more towards a younger audience.

The Internet, the evil beast, has been blamed for many things: Gambling addiction because of all the online casinos, shopping frenzy among Ebay shoppers, disintegrating morals because of the countless sex sites. Now an Austrian doctor is expressing suspicion that the Internet is having an impact on young people's addiction to nicotine and alcohol. "In my opinion, young people today have a communication problem," Reinhard Haller of the Maria Ebene addiction center in Frastanz near Feldkirch says, according to SDA. Young people can communicate perfectly via the Internet. Face to face, however, they have problems telling others something, expressing feelings or asking someone for something. This has led to substitute modes of communication taking the place of face-to-face, he said. "Smoking is a typical example of this," Haller said.
So the communications industry, with all its communications know-how, can take up a new mission: Preventing young people from hanging on to the bottle at a tender age and chiming like chimneys.

The four new regional editions of the Tages-Anzeiger will appear for the first time on Monday. The split editions will form the sixth edition of the daily newspaper. On up to seven editorial pages a day, they will deal with events in the respective region.  
In recent weeks, the Tages-Anzeiger has opened additional editorial and publishing offices in Uster, Bülach and Stäfa. The editorial office on Werdstrasse in Zurich has also been expanded, according to the Tagi edition on Saturday. The publishing house Tamedia has created 60 new jobs for the splits. According to Tamedia, this is the largest investment in the history of the newspaper. The launch of the split editions will be accompanied by an advertising campaign from Spillmann, Felser, Leo Burnett (see
). The Tages-Anzeiger took a first step towards regionalization a year and a half ago when it launched the first regional edition on the left bank of Lake Zurich and in the Sihl Valley. The new regional sections cover the Zurich Unterland and Oberland, the districts of Meilen and Horgen and the city of Zurich.
With the four new splits, the Zürichseezeitung, Zürcher Oberländer and Zürcher Unterländer are facing increased competition. They have joined forces and, since the beginning of October, have been producing a joint supra-regional edition under the title Zürcher Landzeitung. The 1000-reader price of most Tagi regional editions is significantly lower per full four-color page than that of the competition. One exception is the district of Meilen, where the Tages-Anzeiger sets its rate higher than the local Zürichsee-Zeitung.

The Swiss Packaging Institute SVI has been honoring the most innovative packaging developments with the Swiss Star for 37 years. This year, eight packaging products were honored, one of them twice.  
The competition has become the most important platform for presenting new packaging. The Swiss Star recognizes innovative strength, technical expertise, creativity and design, making quality visible and tangible. The award-winning projects also have the opportunity to apply for the prestigious international World Star packaging award.
 
This year, a total of 36 packagers from all major target markets entered the competition and nine prizes were awarded. The award ceremony took place in the Salon Rouge of the National Museum in Zurich, and these packagings were honored:
 
Category Sales packaging Aqua Flex Can (portion pack for drinking water) from Amcor Flexibles
Naldo (aluminum dowse for safety fuel pastes) from Firestar
3-chamber mobile menu tray from Bachman Forming
 
Category Shipping packaging/technical packaging Bakeware tray system for mini cakes from Pawi Verpackungen Octane 5-liter plastic canister for hazardous goods from Crown Vogel
 
Category Display packaging/sales aids Toblerone display of the Model
 
Special awards Design Lacto Tab Performance drink bottle from Emmi fresh products
ZetKlik SL bag packaging for peppermint candies from Limmatdruck/Zeiler
 
Audience Award Aqua Flex Can (portion pack for drinking water) from Amcor Flexibles

According to an international study by the Austrian company AC Nielsen, only 18% of companies are actually considered successful and unique. The prerequisites for this are awareness and emotional customer loyalty. Nielsen does not want to disclose which names are among the most successful brands, but the study does reveal some interesting facts.  
In a regional comparison, the study found that there is generally a higher proportion of dominant brands in the USA and Asia than in Europe, where medium-sized brands predominate. The study also attests that consumers in the USA and Asia have a higher level of brand awareness.
 
In a sector comparison, the automotive industry has the most strong brands. According to the study, the first rule is that strong brands are exceptions, not the rule. This means that 37 percent worldwide can be classified as weak brands. Strong brands have an average supported awareness of 95 percent in their target groups.
 
Successful products are more than twice as present in the minds of consumers than others. Strong brands are bought consciously and repeatedly. Two thirds of customers are loyal to a brand in the long term. "A clear brand line is important for customer loyalty," Irene Salzmann from Nielsen told Pressetext. Strong brands are recommended three times more often than medium-sized brands. Ideally, particularly successful brands even turn consumers into fans - even those who don't buy the product themselves.

Mediaset, the company owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is considering a bid for the German broadcasting group ProSiebenSat.1. The decision is expected next Tuesday.  
As reported by SDA on Friday, the Board of Directors will examine the possibility of an offer for 50.5 percent of the Munich-based broadcasting group. A spokesperson for the Italian media company confirmed this on Friday after the newspaper Il Messaggero made the plans public. ProSiebenSat.1 did not wish to comment on the matter.
 
The report stated that Mediaset was already in contact with advisors of the German broadcaster - but not for the first time. In the past, such takeover plans by Mediaset have fallen through. Prosieben's majority owner, an investor group led by US billionaire Haim Saban, which holds 88 percent of the ordinary shares and 13 percent of the preference shares in ProSiebenSat.1, is currently planning to sell the German broadcasting group again. According to Reuters, the investment bank Morgan Standley has been commissioned to conduct an auction. Axel Springer Verlag already wanted to take over the ProSiebenSat.1 broadcasting group, but this failed due to resistance from the Federal Cartel Office.

Süddeutsche Zeitung honors the beginning of television advertising in Germany 50 years ago. It describes the development of the television commercial as a success story and calls it a miniature representation of society.  
"If you wanted to, you could use what television advertising was and is to explain the entire cultural history of modern Germans in small format," writes Christopher Keil. You would find out that television advertising represented waves of consumption, starting with the food wave in the 1950s, followed by the clothing, travel, car, health, nutrition and globalized lifestyle waves.
 
Keil recalls how, in 1984, private broadcasters joined the public broadcasters and television advertising soared to new heights. For 2006, the Central Association of the German Advertising Industry reports that 120 nationwide, regional and local program providers will earn four billion euros, with between 3.6 and 3.7 billion going to the private broadcasters.
 
50 years ago, on November 3, 1956, the first commercial was shown on television, on Bayerischer Rundfunk. Played by the popular actors Beppo Brem and Liesl Karlstadt, it was about Persil, about, oops, housewifery and family. The actor Axel Milberg now presents the beginnings of product marketing on the History Channel mini-channel. In this Jurassic Park of advertising, the manipulative has a touchingly honest charm. But back then it was still about the product, not the image.