Negotiations between Lowe Worldwide and Lowe Switzerland are proceeding as planned and as announced, Lowe Managing Director Kurt Schmid told *Werbewoche* on Tuesday. He was responding to a report in *Werbewoche*—which had learned from insider sources—that the announced management buyout would not be taking place after all. Schmid has been in talks with Lowe International since April and has negotiated a fair solution (see ). Specifically, while it is true that some details remain to be worked out, the individual points should be clarified by the end of the year, Schmid said.
As he went on to explain, the agency is on the right track—both creatively and in terms of client business. On Tuesday, the agency also announced that it had won the pitch for telecommunications provider Conduit. The campaign for the new information number, 18 18, will launch next week (see
).

Sales growth amounted to almost 40% in the first nine months of the current year. The outlook is also positive thanks to the new distribution center in French-speaking Switzerland. Migros owns 80 percent of the online supermarket Leshop.ch. The latter is also enjoying a flourishing online business. By the end of September, Leshop.ch had 19 percent more customers. It's good that there is now a new distribution center to meet the demand. The existing one in Bremgarten has reached its capacity limit. Leshop.ch also announces that the head office will also be relocated to Ecublens. An expansion of the new distribution center from 40 to 100 jobs is also already being considered.
Online shopping is the growth market of the future As Urs Riederer, Head of Marketing at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives, told SDA, the expansion of online food retailing is one of Migros' most important sources of growth for the coming years. Competitor Coop agrees. The latter recently massively expanded its online offering (see
).

Zurich-based Futurecom invented it for telecom giant Sunrise: The telephone poster. A copy of this new species is hanging in Zurich's main railway station and offers passers-by free calls to landlines for a week. This is Sunrise's response to a promotion by Cablecom, which recently advertised a year of free calls to landlines to attract new customers. Customers can now also make free calls to landlines with Sunrise for one year: After signing an ADSL contract. As the new poster is to be publicized throughout the nation, it will move on to the main railway stations in Geneva and Berne after a week. Futurecom has also come up with an unconventional guerrilla campaign. Pizza couriers and promoters from the all access agency are attaching Post-ist to letterboxes, cars and bicycles. The fictitious sender "W." informs the reader that they have just missed each other. And that they would be in touch again later, but not until the beginning of 2007, thus communicating the main benefit of the campaign - free calls for a year - once again and in a memorable way.

14 ski and snowboard instructors from Swiss ski resorts show off their underwear for Migros. The result is so hot that you no longer have to fear the cold winter. For a year now, Migros has no longer been focusing on top models in its model campaign, but on people from everyday life in Switzerland. This time, it is the ski and snowboard instructors and their female counterparts who cut a fine figure as models for underwear. The agency responsible, Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett, is enthusiastic about this type of model: "Ski instructors are considered down-to-earth on the one hand and sexy on the other - like Migros underwear," the agency writes in its press release. The campaign, staged by Zurich photographer Claude Stahel, appears as an insert and advertisement in newspapers and magazines, in Migros itself at the point of sale and as a mega poster at Zurich main station.

On Monday, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published the Patent Report 2006, which records global developments in the international patent system. The current report once again shows a marked increase in applications. Globalized markets require global patents. It is therefore not surprising that WIPO's international patent system, which simplifies worldwide registration, is being used extensively. The organization is also satisfied, as the Director General, Dr. Kamil Idris, explains: "It shows that our patent system is being used as we intended, namely as an incentive for innovation and a driver for economic activity."
Patent applications via the WIPO system have increased by an average of 16.8% per year since 1990. In total, 47 percent of international patent applications were filed via the WIPO Treaty. The number of all patent applications - including those that did not go through the WIPO treaty - doubled between 1985 and 2004, from 884,000 to 1,599,000; in 2005 alone, 134,000 applications for international patent protection were filed. Applications from Brazil, China, India, Korea and Mexico have increased particularly strongly. WIPO sees this development as a sign of the constant opening of international markets.
Nevertheless, applications from the USA, Japan, the EU, Korea and China account for 75 percent of all applications. The situation is even clearer when it comes to the 5.4 million patents currently pending: 29% of these patents belong to the Japanese and 22% to the Americans.

Since 2001, the Wunderlampe Foundation has been fulfilling the heartfelt wishes of seriously ill or injured children and young people to give them joy and vitality. The corresponding campaign by the Zurich advertising agency Grey shows that almost anything is possible. While researching the topic, the idea for the campaign came about as if by itself: The vast majority of wishes received by the foundation can actually be fulfilled. But not all of them. By showing what is not possible, it is also made clear that the Wunderlampe Foundation can fulfill almost all wishes, according to the agency's explanation.
The campaign, which has been running since September, has been produced and advertised free of charge so that every franc donated can be used to fulfill the wishes of young people and children.

Record-breaking: health insurance premiums will rise by just 2.2 percent on average this year - not least because of the continuing boom in generic medicines. Reason enough to put Sandoz generic drugs in a new light in the current Beobachter. The Swiss advertising agency has therefore developed a new subject for the pharmaceutical company that is appropriate to the topic. The message: generic drugs are not only jewels for health, but also for the healthcare system and private wallets.

Ursula Jucker has been the new head of Switzerland's largest media portal since October 3. Before the 46-year-old journalist joined Bluewin in 2000, she worked for various print media such as Sonntagsblick and Annabelle. At Bluewin, she first headed the staff department, then the editorial department of the German portal. After various further training courses in business management, she is now Head of Bluewin Portal and will be responsible for the further expansion of the portal.  

It was not to last long: The Zehnder publishing house announced on Monday that it had reached an agreement with Daniel Sommer to part company by mutual consent. The former publishing director of Basler Zeitung had taken over the management of Zehnder Verlag in January following the handover of the publishing house from Rolf-Peter Zehnder to his son Andreas Zehnder (see ). The plan was then to go full steam ahead with the expansion of the publishing house with its 2 trade journals and 22 free titles (see ). But now Daniel Sommer is available for a new challenge with immediate effect, as he told Werbewoche. When asked about the reasons for the separation, he explained that the ideas were too far apart, but did not want to go into further detail.

T-Com and Interactive Media CCSP and media partner Horizont are once again looking for the best online advertising campaigns. Creative people from Germany, Austria and Switzerland can apply online until January 10. The renowned prize for advertising in new media will be awarded in three categories this year: Online, Young Creation and a special prize for efficiency. Submissions of cross-media or permission marketing campaigns are also eligible in the online category, as the magazine for marketing and sales Acquisa reports.
In addition, the Internet community will vote for its three favorites in the People category via the website between January 15 and February 15, 2007. Which personality from the online advertising industry will actually receive the award will be decided by the audience at the awards ceremony on March 29, 2007 in Düsseldorf.

Music competitions are popular - not only with bands, but also with young target groups. And the multimedia event "MobileActTM - Battle of Bands" organized by telecommunications giant Orange is aimed at precisely this target group. All media from mobile to Internet to television are involved. Media partners Sat.1 Switzerland and 20 Minuten are helping to maximize publicity. Eight TV programs - produced by Ringier TV - accompany the event. And this is how the MobileAct works: the registration period for bands ended on Sunday, 150 bands submitted 3 video clips online. Now it's up to the fans to vote online until October 20 to decide which band will go through to the next round. A jury will then be asked to select seven bands for the next round: The first of eight broadcasts on Sat.1 Switzerland on October 30. It will then be decided which four bands will progress and a multimedia advertising campaign will be launched: with Mobisodes (mobile TV formats), MMS, ringtones, online information, TV, radio and newspaper advertising. The campaign accompanies the bands on their tour through clubs in Switzerland. Sat.1 Switzerland broadcasts the episodes. And fans can vote with their cell phones to decide which band gets a chance at the MobileAct Academy.

Two bands will enter the Academy and complete workshops and training sessions. In the final show on Sat.1 Switzerland on December 11, the band that gets the chance to perform as the opening act at Christina Aguilera's concert in Zurich's Hallenstadion on December 14 will be chosen.
The dedicated Orangemusic.ch website also contains an unequivocal call for young people to get involved in order to make the bands stars in the age of cell phone music. It is all about contact: Filming meetings with the bands, blogging with photos or videos, talking to band members via video call. There are virtually no limits to the imagination, they say. And: "We'll keep you in touch any way we can". Obviously they are hoping for huge viral effects and to boost new formats in mobile communication. Anyone who sends in a video text message will be entered into a prize draw for a VIP ticket to the Aguilera concert.

The Basel agency for consulting services in the field of internal and external communication has a new project manager/junior consultant. Since October 1, Evelyne Piller has been using her extensive know-how in project management as well as in the planning and implementation of complex communication measures. She began her career with a commercial apprenticeship before gaining a great deal of practical experience in the communications sector, including setting up the Media Office for the Expo.02 national exhibition. During her many years in corporate communications for the Galenica Group, she trained as a PR specialist alongside her work.