After the Brazilian GP next Sunday, British American Tobacco (BAT) will finally withdraw from motor racing after many years of sponsorship involvement in Formula One. The tobacco manufacturer is thus complying with the new international marketing standards that BAT and its two major international competitors Phillip Morris and Japan Tobacco Internation agreed in 2001, as SDA writes. BAT had agreed to abandon Formula One by the end of this year. The International Marketing Standards for Tobacco Products, which apply worldwide, go beyond the requirements of local legislation in some countries.
Marketing Director Jimmi Rebiszewski said: "Public opinion and many of our associated interest groups no longer consider it appropriate for Formula One to be sponsored by the tobacco industry. We have listened to their views and agreed with them." BAT's marketing strategy has been adjusted for years to focus on the point of sale in stores frequented by adult smokers rather than mass media.

The new advertising agency for Orange in Switzerland is responsible for the new national product campaign. Following a smaller product campaign for Orange Click, which was mainly seen in commuter newspapers and as bus displays, the campaign for Orange Optima is the major market offensive. Smaller tactical measures will follow until the end of the year. From now on, posters with pictograms will attract the attention of passers-by in the larger cities throughout Switzerland. The eye-catching poster campaign was developed in collaboration with Mediaxis MPG and APG. The special feature: posters placed next to each other are linked with 3D pictograms.
These pictograms are also used in advertisements in newspapers and magazines and in animations for TV sponsorship on Swiss television. The campaign is also supported by radio spots.

Since the beginning of October, 32-year-old Andy Waar has joined the team of Zurich-based crossover agency Angelink as managing director and consultant. In addition to client consulting and project management, he will primarily take care of the agency's commercial and organizational matters. Waar has a degree in law and previously held various management positions in marketing and communications. Owner Markus Gabriel will remain the contact person for conceptual and strategic tasks. With this division of labour, Angelink intends to broaden its organizational structure, according to the agency.

Admittedly, it's confusing: 40-year-olds look like 25, 13-year-olds too. And grannies are no longer concerned with mothballs or Mozartkugeln, but rather with the question of which i-Pod model is the best. Gone are the days when the over-50s were relegated to the consumerist afterlife. Now they are in, the oldies, they have become an interesting target group. They have money, and their purchasing power is greater than that of young people - a lack of apprenticeships and high unemployment figures among young adults up to the age of 25 are a sign of things to come.
The advertising industry has now discovered this fact for itself. Publisuisse has just stretched its advertising-relevant group by ten years, and other industry insiders also confirm that 15 - 49 is now an old hat. People are now calling 50- to 59-year-olds an "interesting potential," "a new currency," and they are already wondering whether the youth craze that has been running wild for years will now be followed by the oldie craze. Experts wave it off, saying that the elderly are much harder to influence and less homogeneous.
And yet the change is palpable, the goodwill of older consumers increasingly important. Some point to pop singer Madonna as the reason why the advertising-relevant group is now allowed to be up to 59 years old. Because she'll be 49 next year, and that would have been something if the world's richest artist had soon slipped out of the advertising-relevant target group.

ARD man Ernst-Marcus Thomas (33) can now be seen on Star TV. His show is called "Talk with Mr. Thomas". In it, he meets prominent Swiss personalities from the fields of film, television, culture and shows, Star TV announced in a press release. The program premieres on Thursday evening and the first interview guest is Martin Frischknecht, editor-in-chief of the esoteric magazine Spuren, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Thomas studied theater studies and is a trained newspaper editor. After years of presenting on the radio, he moved into television presenting at NDR. Most recently, he presented the ARD Buffet program.

Under the name "Espace TSR", information screens were put into operation a year ago in 100 Naville kiosks and sales outlets in French-speaking Switzerland. Publisuisse and Neo Advertising have now concluded a cooperation agreement to strengthen sales activities. As part of a permanent "out-of-home presence" of French-speaking Swiss television, the screens show a program loop updated twice a day with short news items, weather, sports program trailers as well as advertising and sponsorship messages.
Publisuisse was previously the sole marketer of advertising and sponsorship. Now Neo Advertising, which specializes in the installation, operation and marketing of ad screens, is joining as a partner. Neo Advertising currently manages over 700 screens in supermarkets, shopping centers and retail chains.

Publimag has recently published the new issue of Infomag - news from the Swiss specialist and trade press. The content focuses on a brief outlook on the day of the trade and specialty press, a case study on the topic of postcast offerings by trade and specialty magazines and a background report on online projects by trade magazines. The magazine can be downloaded or ordered via the Publimag website.

ProSieben Sat.1 has launched the first full mobile program for cell phones. It offers a 24-hour program that changes daily and is specially tailored to the viewing habits of mobile TV viewers. The program will also focus on a specific genre every day of the week, e.g. comedy on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Competitor RTL already has a service on the market (see ). Mobilcom with mobile TV on the market Since the beginning of the week, the mobile service provider Mobilcom has also been offering mobile TV in twelve German cities. Mobilcom is using the DMB standard. This competes with the DVB-H standard, which is currently being tested and is not yet available nationwide. In addition to the ProSieben Sat.1 channels, the Mobilcom offer includes the full program of the news channel N24 and ZDF. Mobilcom is cooperating with Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland (MFD), which has received the nationwide broadcasting license for the DMB standard and is currently negotiating with other broadcasters about feeding in their programs.
Burda and Holtzbrinck do not want to stand on the sidelines The Burda media group and the Holtzbrinck publishing group are taking a stake in mobile media specialist Neva so as not to stand on the sidelines in the mobile TV business. They are each acquiring a 33.3 percent stake in Neva. In the new company structure, the company will operate its platform business under the name "Mobile 3.0". Neva is focusing on the mobile standard DVB-H. DVB-H is to be rolled out as a largely nationwide network in Germany in the coming months (see
). However, the Federal Cartel Office has yet to approve the deal.

The Grey advertising agency network wins the "Agency of the Year" title at this year's Euro Effies for the second time in a row, taking gold, silver and bronze. However, no Swiss agencies were successful in Brussels. 
At this year's Euro Effies awards ceremony in Brussels, Grey was honored again in 2006 after winning in 2005. This is the first time in the history of the Euro Effies that a network has won this award twice. The Euro Effies are awarded by the EACA, the European Association of Communication Agencies. In the field of advertising effectiveness, they are among the most prestigious in the world for both agencies and clients, as they reward campaigns that help brands grow beyond their national borders. The Grey network received Euro Effies in gold, silver and bronze - in highly competitive categories such as Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Beauty, Healthcare, Retail, Tourism and Automotive.
 
The winners of this year's Euro Effies:
http://www.adforum.com/affiliates/creative_archive/2006/AW598_EUROEFF/start.asp

The Worldwide CEO of the Publicis Group, Maurice Lévy, made a trip to Switzerland last week to congratulate Saatchi & Saatchi Simko on winning the Orange advertising account (for the account win see
). The team (see picture) showed its commitment in cheerful orange. 
"Saatchi & Saatchi Simko has given important impetus to the Saatchi network and, with an annual growth of over 100%, is one of the fastest growing agencies in the entire group," said Maurice Lévy, praising the Geneva agency. "This visit is a great honor for us and shows that our agency has become an important international hub," said Pedro Simko, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Simko. The Publicis Group, which includes the Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett networks, is the world's fourth largest advertising group.

Like August, September was also a good month for the advertising industry. Compared to the previous year, it was up 6.6%. This figure confirms the year-to-date trend, as Media Focus reported on Thursday. Cumulatively, the advertising year to date has seen an increase of 6.5%, which points to a record year. The Internet and television in particular are showing strong growth with increases of 42.4 percent and 12.8 percent respectively. However, print media are also in good form, with both increasing by between 5.8% and 9.3% year-on-year. However, cinema advertising and teletext both fell by more than 20%.

The following key markets recorded the strongest year-on-year growth: Energy (+61%), Cosmetics/Toiletries (+29%), Food (+28%) and Consumer Electronics (+27%).
The key markets of tobacco products (-52%) and telecommunications (-28%) invested significantly less.
As in the previous month, Migros is the leader in the ranking of the largest advertisers. It is followed by Coop, L'Oreal, Swisscom and Procter & Gamble.
Media Focus has been measuring and recording gross advertising investment in the traditional advertising media of print (newspapers/magazines), television, radio, posters, cinema, teletext and the Internet in Switzerland since 1990. Media Focus is a joint venture between the two global market research companies IHA-GfK AG and ACNielsen SA/Nielsen Media Research.

The sponsoring association Berner Kulturagenda, the City of Bern's Department of Cultural Affairs and the publisher of the Berner Zeitung (BZ) Espace Media Group have agreed to collaborate on a joint event portal for the city and region of Bern. Espace Media has been operating an event database for five years, which is used both online at Espace.ch and by the in-house print media. The Berner Kulturagenda already obtains some of its data from Espace.ch. This database is currently being completely updated. The Berner Kulturagenda and the City of Bern are now part of the ongoing project organization. The three parties will jointly define the requirements and needs for the implementation of the new event database, as detailed in a joint press release.
 
The press release from the three project participants also states that the new Bern event portal will open at the beginning of 2007 as part of an interim solution. Events from the fields of culture, sport, business, church, leisure and gastronomy will be listed. The portal with new technology will be launched in the fall of next year. Editorial articles will also be available on the events portal from this date.