The Web2com index for online advertising rose by 4.3 points to 137 points in September. The Publigroupe subsidiary Web2com reported that the index thus once again achieved the same growth rate and the highest value of the year after the already excellent August. According to Web2com, the Internet and online business continues to offer excellent growth prospects. And the fact that Internet usage has already overtaken print usage shows that the Internet has found its firm place in the European media mix (see also ). The Web2com Index is based on monthly surveys of investments in commercial advertising on national and international online platforms. It is thus intended to show how Internet advertising is developing in Switzerland.

The 13th Swiss PR Day on Wednesday in Zurich focused on PR and media in the digital age and their perspectives. What was created as a challenging topic was ultimately a case of deja vu for the 200 or so visitors. Internet & Web 2.0 are now established in editorial offices and PR factories alike, and the fact that there is a high level of dependency between journalists and PR consultants is no longer entirely new. What is more surprising is that no one is protesting against it. Prof. Stephan Russ-Mohl from the European Journalism Observatory (EJO) at the University of Lugano addressed the still tense question of where PR ends and journalism begins in the media. Using the principal-agent model, the communication scientist explained that not only journalists are dependent on PR agents, but ultimately the audience is also dependent on journalists. Today's media users are in a similar position to a child who sits at the end of the "Silent Post Game" and only receives the actual news in a distorted form or not at all.
Russ-Mohl emphasized that the balance is currently shifting in favour of PR, not only between PR and journalism, but also between PR and advertising. This development endangers journalism, on which PR remains dependent, because good journalism will continue to be financed by advertising in the future. We need to educate readers so that they are aware of this interdependent relationship,' he demanded. The public needs journalists for selection, and journalists need time to research. The more information is put online, the more important it becomes for journalists to make a reliable selection.
Russ-Mohl ruled out the possibility of journalists becoming superfluous in the age of information overflow in PR and the media. However, there are dangerous tendencies, so-called 'hybrid working models' among editors who work for media and PR clients at the same time. What he foresees for the future is a stronger division of the media market into a ?quality segment? with first-class researched journalistic information and a ?mass market? with free information, which is already emerging today with more and more free newspapers, PR platforms and the Internet.
The Internet specialists among the speakers at the PR Day, Marcel Bernet and Jürg Stuker, delivered the kind of information that is hammered into prospective PR students in every course today, such as speed is an important success factor, networking creates trust, online is indispensable or that Web 2.0 with its developments such as weblogs, wiki or podcasts should be observed and that the new Internet generation is rebelling against the existing media monopolies. Of course, the Internet is turning the classic information pyramid on its head, but does that mean that every ego-publisher with his intellectual outpourings is a problem for PR specialists, the audience wondered. Millions of blogs are about as important as millions of letters in the yellow post - they have to be read first. What news is it that a company's press office has to respond to inquiries from concerned consumers - whether they come from a blogger or not? And why is it so unusual when a blog topic makes it into the big media?
There are currently 2,000 weblogs in Switzerland, said the successful author Bernet, whose PR tips on handling the new Internet world and setting up media corners are well worth reading. Weblog operators are committed, numerous, networked and "exhausting". Bernet called them "ego-publishers" who benefit above all from the free infrastructure of the Internet. He did not call on every press office to set up a weblog, but his thesis that the so-called ego-publishers bring risks and opportunities for the reputation of large companies was considered daring.
An exciting practical contribution came from Klagenfurt-born Peter Warne, who has been active in the UK since his apprenticeship, most recently as external Communications Manager at Nestlé. Internet & Co. are not just for kids - the people who use Web 2.0 features are over 30, well educated and have money. This should be of interest to all PR professionals. Warne explained that the new Internet features pose completely new challenges not only for the media, but also for companies, but left unanswered the question of how to master the simple task of communicating quickly, efficiently and clearly in an increasingly complex world.
The "brave new world" in the media business was illustrated by the Managing Director of the CASH Group, Christoph Bauer, using the development of his print company into a "multi-channel offering". Bauer confirmed the trend towards advertising market financing and that new business models are emerging from this. There is a change in the behavior of the advertising industry and sectoral convergence is leading to new competitors. According to Bauer, who recently launched the business daily Cash Daily, which is to be distributed as eBooks in the future, multimedia offerings and even in-game marketing are playing an increasingly important role in the battle for advertising revenue.
The value creation of tomorrow will be 'multi-channel', said Bauer. CASH is exemplary with its concept - print, online and TV under one roof - but in good company. Topics and content are not simply played across several channels, but are ?networked? Bauer spoke of a 'new dimension of journalism', but failed to provide an answer as to what this would look like. The subordinate clause that print must continue to finance online was noteworthy. This led communications scientist Russ-Mohl to conclude that multichanneling tends to increase production costs for media.
An audience member who complained about the close link between PR and advertising in the regional daily media caused amusement at the end: 'They only want to sell advertisements as compensation for PR contributions. They increasingly feel like water carriers for the media. Russ-Mohl countered: 'We have known for over 20 years from research that 70 % of editorial news is based on public relations activities.

This week sees the launch of the new 18 18 telephone directory assistance service. The Zurich-based advertising agency Lowe implemented the market presence of the new provider, which claims to be the legitimate successor to 111. 18 18 is operated by 18 18 Auskunft, a subsidiary of The Number Inc., which already operates successfully in six European countries. The new Swiss directory enquiries service offers national and international directory enquiries at a standard price and sends free text messages with the desired entry.
 
The launch of 18 18 is accompanied by a campaign from Zurich agency Lowe, which ironically alludes to the glorious 70s of skiing. In it, the two quirky but fully committed exponents 18 and 18 are sent on a SKISS tour through the country. You can find out how they fare in a series of sequels. The TV commercials are followed by online advertising and posters.

Dominik Woodtli recently joined the team at the Karl F. Schneider communications agency in Schlieren as a junior consultant and editor. The 28-year-old marketing planner and newly qualified PR specialist previously worked in the Marketing Services department of the Migros Cooperative Zurich.

Swiss journalist Philipp Cueni has won the first prize of the Academy for Journalism in Hamburg. The journalist from Basel will receive the award, which is endowed with 2,000 euros, on November 16 in Hamburg. 37 authors, reporters and journalists submitted texts on the competition question "What is good journalism". Philipp Cueni's text, which has now been awarded the prize by a jury, will be published on the media page of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", as reported by the SDA on Thursday.
Philipp Cueni is the editor in charge of the media magazine Gazette and secretary for media policy at the Swiss Syndicate of Media Professionals (SSM). He teaches media ethics at the Swiss School of Journalism MAZ in Lucerne and heads the Association for Quality in Journalism.

The Goldbach Electronic Media Index (GEMI) published on Thursday shows media investments in September with a strong increase of four index points for TV and six index points for the Internet. Electronic media as a whole increased from 332 to 335 index points. Overall media investment in September was again up slightly, with the index climbing from 172 to 173 points. These figures confirm the continuous growth in media investment over the last few months. The clear winners of the month were once again the electronic media, TV and the Internet, with very clear gains, while the index for radio remained at 250 points and teletext even finished four points down at 144 points.
The index is based on the data published by Media Focus for advertising investments in Switzerland and the WEMF advertising expenditure statistics for Adscreen with index 100 in December 2004.

The Betty TV remote control allows viewers to interact directly with the television program. For viewers it is entertainment, for marketers and advertisers it is a new channel for placing products and messages.With the Betty TV remote control officially launched on June 9, viewers can interact with television. During certain programs, messages with background information, quizzes or sales offers appear on the display. Viewers can answer questions or take part in competitions at the touch of a button. Betty is a stroke of luck for the marketing and advertising industry, as the system allows the target group to be reached more directly and cost-effectively than any mailing. Television is thus increasingly becoming a direct marketing tool, writes Weber Harbeke in a press release issued on Thursday.
Weber Harbeke wants to make these advantages of Betty attractive to new B2B customers by means of advertisements in the trade press. The advertisements will run from November this year until spring 2007.   

The cable network operator Cablecom is planning a further reduction in the conventional range of channels. The selection of the channels concerned will be based primarily on audience ratings. It is not yet known which channels will be affected. However, there are limits to the reduction: according to the Radio and Television Act, SRG channels as well as local and regional stations that have a license with a performance mandate must be broadcast. In addition, the Federal Council or the responsible department can designate stations that are to be broadcast due to their contribution to education, cultural development or opinion-forming. This is expected to happen in the spring when the ordinance to the law comes into force, as Bernhard Bürki from the Federal Office of Communications said. At the beginning of October, Cablecom recently removed the English channel BBC Prime and the Spanish TVE from the analog program and postponed the Austrian channel ORF 2. The decision was met with criticism from customers and authorities. The Spanish ambassador also intervened: he sent a letter to Cablecom, according to an embassy spokeswoman. She confirmed a report in the Berner Zeitung newspaper on Thursday. This is not unusual when foreign-language channels are affected, said Cablecom spokesman Stephan Howeg. The channels RTP, France 3, NDR and Italia 1 had already been switched off earlier. Cablecom regrets having to restrict the analog offering, Howeg told the news agency SDA. However, for reasons of frequency space, there was no other option. Frequencies are becoming increasingly scarce, and one analog station takes up as much space as 10 digital stations.
In addition to the switch-offs, Cablecom's digital offering has also come in for criticism: the price watchdog and the Consumer Protection Foundation have criticized the price of the offering and the fact that customers have no choice of digital television reception device. Cablecom wants to counter this criticism with improvements. The company is currently working on a solution, Howeg added. The content is not yet being communicated. The aim is to make the transition from analog to digital television easier.

Pharmaceuticals Since the pharmaceutical industry has been running informative promos in the U.S., advertising spending has exploded. Just two years ago, TV commercials for the potency pills Viagra, Cialis and Levitra could be seen by the dozen during commercial breaks. Sporting leagues such as Nascar and the NFL were more than happy to let Pfizer & Co. sponsor them, and the clips sometimes even showed men with a lascivious blonde in their arms. But that was soon over. One advertising campaign after another was criticized by the U.S. regulatory authority, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), either for neglecting its duty to inform or for untrue or exaggerated content. The head of the regulatory agency, FDA Commissioner Thomas Abrams, even let it be known that he was "generally concerned about the declining quality" of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, especially in the category of "Erectile Dysfunction" (ED). The campaigns have been banned from the airwaves, and the NFL even canceled its $18 million sponsorship of Schering-Plough's drug Levitra earlier this year.
To prevent further bankruptcies, the pharmaceutical lobby pulled itself together. Since the beginning of the year, the Pharmeceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has issued new guidelines for DTC advertising. Among other things, they state that prescription drugs must be clearly identified as such, that the content should describe the benefits of a drug as well as its risks, and that target groups that are "not age-appropriate" for a particular drug should not be advertised: in other words, children and teenagers should not see any Viagra commercials.
In addition, it was stipulated that any new DTC advertising campaign should first be submitted to the FDA for review. No longer allowed are so-called "reminder ads" in which a drug's brand was touted without providing sufficient information about what they are good for and what risks they may have. "The rules are a step in the right direction," comments John Mack, publisher of Pharma Marketing News. However, he believes it will be impossible for the FDA to sign off on all new DTC campaigns because it simply cannot do so in terms of staff. "This is more of a PR move than a realistic goal. It's widely expected that only a few companies will comply."
The guidelines are a measure of voluntary self-regulation. They were also introduced because various politicians threatened to introduce legally binding rules for DTC. "The rules are a preemptive strike against possible measures that legislators might come up with in an election year," Mack says. Congressional elections are in November.
In one area, the new guidelines have already gained a foothold: in advertising for potency pills. In the Levitra commercials of the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), two men discuss impotence and how it is related to other diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure. The Internet campaign Mensfacts.com, sponsored by the three groups Bayer, GSK and Schering-Plough, has the same goal.
The discussion about DTC in the USA is as old as the practice itself. Especially since 1997, when the FDA issued new guidelines for prescription drugs, advertising spending on DTC has exploded. Since the pharmaceutical industry has been allowed to run radio and TV ads, DTC spending has increased from $700 million in 1997 to a record $5 billion in 2006. The total was slightly lower last year after Merck had to withdraw the DTC-advertised arthritis drug Vioxx from the market in late 2004 because of its potentially fatal side effects.
Physician associations, in particular, point out that people seeking help who go to the doctor often pressure their doctor to prescribe certain drugs they've seen in DTC ads. "I'm skeptical that the industry can satisfactorily self-regulate," also says Matt Hollon, a professor and internist at the University of Washington in Seattle. "DTC ultimately remains a haphazard way to promote health."
"We won't see how good the industry is in its self-regulatory efforts until next year at the earliest," says Michael Santoro, a business professor at Rutgers University and co-editor of the book "Ethics and the Pharmaceutical Industry." "It depends on how serious they are about being able to transform themselves from just a lobby into a professional industry."
"Becoming cautious "Interview with Michael Guarini,
Executive Group Director of Ogilvyhealthworld.com.WW: What impact are the new rules having on pharmaceutical advertising?Michael Guarini: We are seeing an acceleration of a trend that was there before, and that is that more alternative forms are being done, such as more relationship marketing. Also, "help seeking" spots with doctors are popular, so we see lots of men and women in white coats talking about diseases in the spots. What doesn't work anymore are the "reminder ads," which are these 15-second clips that say ask your doctor about this or that medication. WW: Have any other practices been addressed?Michael Guarini: There have been protests before about those clips where entertainment stars were shown talking about a drug. There was discussion about whether or not they were really taking that pill. That's where companies have become more cautious and are using fewer celebrities in DTC ads.WW: How does the FDA's new review process affect you?Michael Guarini: Everything now has to be submitted to the FDA before publication. That means a lot more work for them and that everything takes a little longer.Gerti Schön
Swissmedic wants a partial advertising banIf Swissmedic, the Agency for Therapeutic Products, has its way,
information or advertising for prescription drugs should no longer be found on the Internet. The reason: pharmaceutical companies were increasingly mixing information with advertising. However, the regulation does not affect information approved by the authorities, such as that which is publicly available on the Internet via the Medicines Compendium. According to the NZZ am Sonntag, doctors and pharmacists will only be able to access certain information with a password from 2007. However, the regulation is considered rather absurd and not well thought out enough, because the Internet does not stop at Swiss borders. The pharmaceutical industry is also anything but enthusiastic and is considering legal action against Swissmedic.
The happy medium that allows consumers to be protected from inadmissible advertising while at the same time providing patients with comprehensive information options has not yet been found.
Kathrin Fischer

Large formats The company Movingposter.ch knows how to make advertising stand out in the most unlikely places, and at the Zug trade fair these days, the funny object cannot be overlooked by any of the 75,000 or so visitors. Exclusively suspended above the grounds with around 500 exhibitors, the gag awakens people's desire for coffee. Or even for a coffee machine. It doesn't have to be as big as the gigantic balloon. The special advertisement for Nespresso measures 3.5 by 5 meters. The flying poster was put up in the air by the specialist company Movingposter.ch in Hünenberg near Zug. This municipality has been home to a new development in the Swiss printing industry since February of this year. Movingposter.ch has moved from Holzhäusern to Hünenberg to much larger production premises. With a total of ten printing and finishing machines, specialists here supply the communications industry with mega posters in all possible special advertising formats.
Before the current balloon for Nespresso, a wrapping of the famous Lucerne water tower for Emmi Lacto Tab had already amazed passers-by. Measuring 17 by 15 meters, this mega poster was emblazoned on the historic tower for a few hours in April 2006. The campaign was not authorized by the police and thus generated a huge media response. Emmi was delighted: the new Lacto Tab product launched with this poster was immediately on everyone's lips throughout Switzerland.
Swissair trolleys with advertising covers for the same product also caught the eye at the Olma. On the A1 between Bern and Zurich, the large-format printer positioned a 260 square meter mega poster for the company Oel Brack, which distributes Kendall and Midland products in Switzerland. The poster system was stuck directly onto a façade. An advantage and at the same time a challenge, because "a mega poster should be able to be stretched as hull-free as possible, which also requires precise measurement," explain the specialists. If a poster is stretched in the open air, the statics, substrate and wind force must be measured depending on the size.
It doesn't always have to be gigantic. Movingposter has designed inflatable arches for natural gas. The cult brand M-Budget and the Lucerne event agency Premotion also rely on scissor tents and lettering from Movingposter. The tent and counter, which can be set up in just a few simple steps, are of course designed in the M-Budget look.
It doesn't always have to be advertising. In Zurich, a wrapping on the Hotel Florhof is currently causing confusion. At least from a distance, arriving guests are asking themselves: is this façade real or just painted?
"The photomontage for the Florhof was a major challenge, and the prints also had to be adapted to the scaffolding with centimetre precision," explains Philipp Gloor from Movingposter. The façade of this romantic hotel in Zurich is undergoing extensive renovation. In order to present guests and passers-by with a more attractive view than bare scaffolding during the renovation work, Movingposter.ch covered it with large-format prints on a grid. Elaborate photomontages are used to show the façade as the hotel should look after the renovation. "The client, architect and passers-by are delighted," says Gloor. Anyone walking up Florhofgasse in Zurich does not actually see at first glance that the building is being wrapped.
With five large-format printing systems with a print width of up to five meters, Movingposter.ch can offer "high quality even with short delivery times". In addition to tents in various shapes, large-format product replicas or inflatable advertising pillars, advertising blimps from 2.5 to 9 meters in length are also available for purchase and hire.   
Andreas Panzeri

Marketing must become increasingly aggressive to have any impact today. We know revolutionary ideas buzz, viral and guerrilla marketing. So it is only logical that now also the guerrilla guide par excellence is marketed as a brand. "Start the price revolución now"! With this Slogan the virtual portable radio offerer Che Mobil Che-mobil.de starts these days its service on the German portable radio market. The low costs for most domestic and international calls are advertised. The executive committee of Che Mobil shows up very optimistically over the success of the total concept of the company. They are the first on the German market to avoid expensive roaming charges, they say. A revolutionary project, in other words. The old 68ers, who would rightly be upset by the misuse of an anti-capitalist icon, are excluded from the target group of 14 to 49-year-olds, thanks to the marketing idea.

Radio Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett visualizes the digital radio programme of SRG SSR idée suisse as the future of today. The technology is still mainly used by insiders. But that is set to change very quickly. We are talking about the radio of the future.DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting and is a process for the digital transmission of radio signals. With DAB, ten radio programs can be transmitted on one frequency. The reception quality is much better than FM. And above all, DAB allows eleven SRG-SSR stations to be received in German-speaking Switzerland. "Many of these stations can otherwise only be received via cable or medium wave," enthuses early adapter and copywriter Stefan Ehrler at Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett.
To anchor DAB in the population, SFLB designed a campaign with various key visuals. The silhouettes of a conductor, jazz musician, pop star or alphorn player appear on the loudspeakers of a DAB radio. These are used on posters, in advertisements and animated in cinema commercials. The message: listen to your favorite sound anywhere and anytime. With a digital radio on DAB.
Andreas Panzeri