Radio marketer IP-Multimedia is committed to promoting the radio scene. On October 26, the company is holding its first IP Radio Workshop as a special seminar for radio and sales marketing, with American George Hyde, Vice President of the Radio Advertising Bureau, among others. IP Sales Manager Astrid Tellenbach comments on the opportunities and weaknesses of radio and radio advertising. WW: You are organizing a marketing radio workshop "to promote the Swiss radio scene". Astrid Tellenbach: With a share of four percent in Switzerland, radio as a media genre (still) has a relatively small share of the advertising market compared to other European countries. IP Multimedia has always been committed to the radio genre in order to increase this share. The workshop is intended to contribute to this and to appeal to radio salespeople and sales managers. The two speakers from the USA are known as specialists in this field and will accordingly present the latest trends and report on current developments and possibilities for market development.WW: Everyone is talking about cross-media today. This topic is part of the workshop. What does crossmedia mean in the radio environment?Tellenbach: Radio is a medium that is tailor-made for crossmedia and can be booked excellently with other media. Just think, for example, of the visual transfer that radio has with TV or posters. Contact optimization shortly before the purchase decision cannot be combined so successfully with any other medium.WW: What are the key factors for successful radio advertising?Tellenbach: The main question is: Do I want to do image or sales advertising? With sales advertising, high frequency is required within a short period of time, i.e. many spots in a short period of time. With image advertising, it is rather the length of the campaign that determines success. Sponsoring is ideally suited for this purpose. In any case, the quality of the commercial and its duration play a decisive role. Studies have shown that even cheaply produced and simply presented radio spots are quite successful.WW: How does radio (and radio advertising) hold its own in competition with other media (print, TV, posters, online)?Tellenbach: Radio has decisive advantages over the other media: Timeliness and speed. No other medium can place advertising at such short notice as radio. An example: An insurance company wanted to tell its customers how they could contact it most quickly in the event of hail or storm damage. So immediately after such an event, the corresponding spots were placed in exactly these areas. This cannot be done so quickly with print or TV. In addition, radio is the most used medium during the day and has a very favorable price per thousand contacts.WW: What are the weaknesses of radio advertising?Tellenbach: Radio has not been attractive enough for agencies in Switzerland. The reasons for this, however, have only limited to do with the media genre of radio. For example, at the beginning of 2007, Switzerland will have an RTVG based on European standards. This will make radio interesting for many new clients, just think of beer advertising. In Switzerland, we also have the special feature of the language regions. Another point is that radio cannot be booked directly online like TNC, for example. Finally, there are many political influences in the constellation of radio pools that are inscrutable to advertisers.WW: Does radio advertising still have potential?Tellenbach: Oh, yes. As mentioned, the new RTVG will open up new potential for radio advertising in 2007. In addition, discussions and developments are underway that will bring more transparency to the market. Radio is innovative and modern. IP Multimedia, as the leading marketer of electronic media in Switzerland, is convinced of the potential of radio advertising. This is another reason why we are organizing this workshop.WW: How do you assess the future of radio? Will new digital technologies have an impact on radio advertising?Tellenbach: Radio will always have a high status in Switzerland. At the moment, we are facing an important technological innovation, digitalization. There is a lot of talk at the moment about DAB, HD and other technologies. What will ultimately prevail will have to be seen in practice. It is interesting to note that despite the Internet, the I-Pod and other technologies, radio still achieves the highest reach, and the large private radio stations such as Radio 24, Energy Zürich and Radio Top are still able to make gains. For radio advertising, this will mean becoming more diverse in the future, for example in combination with podcasting or the Internet. This will further increase the opportunities for the medium of radio.Interview (via eMail): René Worni

Zurich-based creative agency Heads is supporting Nuance Group, the world's largest airport retailer, with location-specific sales campaigns. The first campaign puts the spotlight on the cosmetics offers of the duty-free branch at Geneva Airport. From October to November, a poster campaign, luggage trolley advertising and POS measures will support the range. Heads is also looking for the most beautiful kissable mouth: in the "Kiss&Win" competition, customers can win CHF 10,000 for applying lipstick. The Nuance Group has 350 stores and boutiques at international airports in 17 countries.

Radio A third major radio group is emerging on Lake Geneva: Lausanne-based private radio station Rouge FM is acquiring a majority stake in Geneva-based Radio Lac. Until recently, the radio landscape in western Switzerland was a pure idyll. The sun shone equally on the large public service broadcaster RSR and the many small, regional private radio stations, many of which still belonged to owners from the era of the radio pioneers. Under Director Gérard Tschopp, Radio Suisse romande is pursuing a far-sighted policy to defend the market against foreign competition. The regional public service works together with the regional radios in the "Communauté des radios romandes" (CRR). The unequal partners ensure mutual respect.
Those who want to participate in the CRR agree to play the complementarity card. This means, for example, that RSR will forego regional journals and the private stations will forego supra-regional or even linguistic regional ambitions. Rouge FM's majority shareholding in Radio Lac puts an end to this idyllic situation and has consequences for the radio market, but also for journalistic cooperation between Radio Lac and Radio Suisse Romande.
Bakom, which has never really understood the special nature of the small-scale radio landscape in French-speaking Switzerland, has also helped. In contrast to German-speaking Switzerland, where foreign stations have a market share of 7.4 percent, they already have an impressive 13 percent in French-speaking Switzerland. Bakom recently granted Lausanne-based station Rouge FM permission to expand its broadcasting area to Geneva.
Rouge FM is the former Lausanne radio station Framboise. The French businessman and millionaire Hughes de Montfalcon bought it in the summer of 2005 shortly before it went bankrupt and gave it a new profile. While Framboise was a quirky music radio station for young people, Rouge FM also offers a lot of information and talk shows. Director Frédéric Piancastelli announced that they wanted to become the largest private radio station in French-speaking Switzerland and take listeners away from RSR's first program.
The decision by OFCOM was not to everyone's taste. The Geneva government, for example, spoke out against it during the consultation process. The arrival of the new broadcaster in the Calvin city would be to the detriment of existing radio stations and put jobs at risk.
Gérard Schoch, founder and director of Radio Lac, shared the view of the Geneva government: "If Rouge FM takes away even five percent of our listeners, that would mean a loss of 250,000 advertising francs and 2.5 journalist jobs," he predicted. He has now drawn the consequences and sold the majority of his share capital. "Bakom is not entirely innocent in our decision," says Gérard Schoch. With its liberal policy and the new RTVA, it favors the big players, "the entrepreneurs with means". A small company like Radio Lac could not survive under the changed circumstances.
The deal changes the radio landscape on Lake Geneva. Three supra-regional groups are created: Lausanne FM with 7.1 percent plus One FM with 5.9 percent reach in the hands of Antoine de Raemy on the one hand, Rouge FM with 6.3 percent plus Radio Lac with 4.4 percent reach on the other, as well as the French commercial chain NRJ (Energy in German-speaking Switzerland), which has absorbed its biggest French competitor, Nostalgie.
No wonder that the remaining small stations, such as Radio Chablais near Montreux, Rhône FM in Lower Valais, Radio Fribourg and the regional radio stations in the Jura Arc (RTN, RJB and RFJ) fear that the lion's share of advertising will be divided up between the three big players. "In the end, the small ones will only be left with the crumbs," fears the director of Radio Chablais, Claude Défago.
However, the big worry for all radio producers in French-speaking Switzerland is the French competition. The arrival of the Lyon-based entrepreneur de Montfalcon was therefore viewed with suspicion. But Gérard Schoch puts his hand in the fire for the new owner: "I am convinced that Hughes de Montfalcon and we have the same ideas about making radio." Nevertheless, Schoch felt it was right to build in a guarantee against any desire to resell: "I can't imagine that Edipresse, as a major shareholder, would allow de Montfalcon to sell to a French group."
Gérard Tschopp, Director of Radio Suisse Romande, is also asking questions. Since 1999, RSR and Radio Lac have been producing joint regional news for Geneva, which is broadcast on the fourth transmission chain Option Musique. "The collaboration needs to be reviewed," says Tschopp. Now that two large groups have emerged, RSR cannot favor one of them by working together. Quite apart from the fact that cooperation between the public service and a local radio station is a different pair of shoes than with a station that expressly wants to become the largest private provider in French-speaking Switzerland.
However, Tschopp also makes the decision dependent on the Bakom transmitter network plan, which defines the new coverage areas and the number of radio stations to be licensed. According to Bakom, the draft will be submitted for consultation at the end of October.
"It would not be a problem for us to continue working with RSR," says Gérard Schoch, "but if RSR sees it as incompatible, then we will have to give up working together in future." The risk of continuing without RSR is smaller for Radio Lac than being without Rouge FM.    
Edipresse and RadioThe takeover of Radio Lac
accelerates the development of Rouge FM into a challenger to RSR. All the more so as the publisher Edipresse is also betting on radio and increasing its stake in Radio Lac to 25 percent. Edipresse is pushing ahead with the multimedia future of its two daily newspapers Tribune de Genève and 24 heures. The publishing house, which has so far concentrated on print, is looking to further develop modern information technologies together with Rouge FM; in addition to the traditional radio channel, the station also has two special interest channels distributed via the Internet.
Edipresse is not ruling out taking a stake in Rouge FM in a next step. At the same time, the Lausanne-based group has just acquired 20 percent of the Nyon-based start-up Virtual Network (Romandie.com), which specializes in content and advertising, and is planning a major private television channel in the form of Vaud TV, a merger of local television stations.
Helen Brügger

Tobacco Grendene, Ogilvy & Mather have launched the campaign for a whole range of new products for House of Pall Mall.The British American Tobacco (BAT) cigarette brand Pall Mall launched a whole range of new tobacco products on October 9. Grendene, Ogilvy & Mather in Zurich had the "honor and pleasure" of creating a comprehensive launch and information campaign. With this launch, Pall Mall will be the first tobacco brand in Switzerland to offer a whole range of different tobacco products in addition to cigarettes - from mini cigars to fine cuts and slim cigarettes. Now, for the first time, smokers "really have a choice", says Frank Wilde, Brand Manager at BAT Switzerland in Lausanne. With four new varieties, the traditional tobacco brand Pall Mall covers the most diverse needs of today's smokers far beyond the classic cigarette.
With the newly launched tobacco categories Super Slim, Small Cigars, Stix Tobacco and Roll Your Own, Pall Mall offers smokers in Switzerland the largest selection of tobacco categories within the same brand.
With these new products, Pall Mall is not only bringing more choice to the shelves, but also visibly more color to tobacco advertising. From October, strikingly colorful posters, advertisements and other communication media at the kiosk will clearly announce the new variety - as "The New Choice of Pall Mall."
The information campaign created by Grendene, Ogilvy & Mather for Pall Mall Switzerland promotes individual new products as well as the entire product range. The individual tobacco categories were assigned five very strongly differentiating colors, which set a visual accent for the corresponding new category when used at poster sites or kiosks as the respective basic colors of the advertising material. "The integrated listing of all products also makes the new, complete selection the core message," explains Account Director Jonathan Schipper.
The campaign aims to further increase awareness of the traditional brand in Switzerland. Pall Mall is one of British American Tobacco's leading brands worldwide and is the Group's fastest-growing brand. "We need to build on this success in Switzerland," said Creative Director Luigi Grendene of his team.
The campaign will kick off with a national poster display from October 9 to 22, 2006. This will be accompanied by advertisements in selected print titles.
The various bottom-the-line measures are also attracting greater attention. Back in August, current Pall Mall smokers were informed about the upcoming new products via in-pack and on-pack advertising, and the new product family was also presented to kiosk staff in a comprehensive sales folder. Particularly noteworthy in this context is a sales kit in the form of a presentation case containing all the new products and information.
At the point of sale, the introduction of the new selection is supported with numerous POS elements. These include displays, floor stickers, window stickers, flatscreen movies and more. Together, all communication tools create an appearance that is intended to be as diverse as the Pall Mall brand itself.
Andreas Panzeri

The German advertising market continues to soar. According to Nielsen Media Research, gross advertising investment in traditional media rose to a total of 14 billion euros in the first nine months of 2006. As Pressetext writes, this corresponds to an increase in turnover of 5.1 percent. The Internet is the frontrunner, albeit as a new medium. In the first three quarters of 2006, it recorded an increase of 57.5 percent, while every advertising medium in traditional media recorded growth and further increases are expected for the remaining months. According to Ludger Wibbelt, Managing Director of Nielsen Media Research, the end of growth is not yet in sight. It will remain exciting in 2007. Sorted by medium, trade journals (+9.2) and consumer magazines saw the strongest growth (+8.7%). These were followed by newspapers (+2.9%) and posters (+3.9). Television (+2.9TP3T) and radio (+0.7%) also brought up the rear with an increase. Even though TV is growing below average, according to Werben und Verkaufen it remains the largest advertising medium with a 40.2% share of total sales.

Mobile Spending on mobile advertising in the USA amounted to 45 million dollars in 2005, but is expected to exceed 150 million dollars this year. This increase in spending on mobile advertising has been estimated by the research company Ovum. Mobile advertising seems to be entering a boom phase in the USA. Three of the largest wireless carriers - Sprint Nextel, Cingular and Verizon - have now started to include video clips and other forms of advertising in their mobile content offerings. Years ago, the marketing industry in the U.S. had already prepared for advertising on mobile platforms to take off. "We launched our mobile service in 1999 and waited for the advertising boom that didn't happen," says Louis Gump, vice president of the Weather Channel, which today offers one of the most popular services and is accessed by 20 percent of all cell phones in the US.
Three years ago, the company even considered leaving the mobile sector altogether, as the low turnover did not seem to justify the high investment costs. However, Gump now believes that the time is right, as the Weather Channel has been recording double-digit growth rates in mobile usage since April. "Alongside e-mail, weather is the entry point for mobile use," he believes.
Cheaper, but with advertisingThe main reason for the initially sluggish spread of mobile advertising was the wireless providers' fear of offending their already advertising-saturated customers. "We have to make sure that the products being advertised are relevant and useful to users," says Suzy Deering, Director of Media Sponsorship at Verizon Wireless. "If the consumer doesn't want it, we won't continue to push it."
However, according to a study by Mercer Management Consulting, users are not so allergic to mobile advertising as long as it ensures that their cell phone bill is lower in the end. According to the study, 50 percent of all video content customers prefer an ad-free payment model. However, the other 50 percent prefer low prices, with advertising if necessary.
Mobile content such as sports highlights, movie trailers or even individual episodes of popular TV series are the tidbits with which telephony providers want to attract new customers. Exclusivity plays an important role here. "Our calculation is that a consumer will say: I'm a huge fan of 'Lost' and I want to be able to watch the new episode whenever I want, so I'll switch to Verizon," says Deering. In this way, content becomes just as important for the purchase decision as the reception quality and bandwidth of a provider.
In response to this need, Sprint launched a free additional service for its Sprint Vision customers in September, offering sports news and clips from various current football matches. For an additional fee, customers can even watch complete game films on their cell phones. Short advertising clips, usually only a few seconds long, are played in between.
SMS advertising still leadingThe most frequently used form of mobile advertising in the USA is still text messaging, which accounts for around 70 percent of mobile advertising. Banner ads account for a further 25 percent, and only a fraction of mobile advertising currently consists of video ads, although their share is set to increase dramatically in the coming year. "The problem is that no one is designing campaigns specifically for mobile," says Brent Breen, Director of Strategic Development at the Interpublic Group. "So far, the same elements are being used for different platforms."
The most attractive aspect of mobile advertising is the ability to precisely locate a certain target group. "Everyone is talking about hyper targeting," says Breen - a form of advertising in which a clip can be tailored to the individual customer.
Search functions are particularly popular with users, such as the "Find It" function at infospace.com. Here you can find the nearest movie theater, restaurant or locksmith in a matter of seconds.
McDonald's mobile advertising, for example, is based on this feature when it offers hamburgers at a special price. The coupon that appears on the cell phone can then be redeemed directly at the nearest branch, which the customer can also locate by cell phone. Google's mobile search service also offers local search functions.
Even futuristic versions of such localized advertising are already being considered: if, for example, a clothing store advertises a special offer that might appeal to a particular customer, a message can appear on their cell phone that makes the special offer appealing to them at the exact moment they walk past the store.
Production costs are risingIt is clear that advertising clips for cell phones must not be too elaborately designed so that they remain clearly visible on the small screen and can be downloaded quickly. Nevertheless, the costs for a sophisticated video campaign are many times higher than for simple text messages. While a mobile campaign that ran for four to six weeks only cost 25,000 to 35,000 dollars a few years ago, it now costs around 150,000 dollars.
"It's clear that there's a lot of money to be made here," says Jeff Janer, COO of Third Screen Media, an agency specializing in mobile advertising. "The only question is who will earn it and how."
Gerti Schön

René Worni on multimedia perspectives on Lake Geneva.The walls of the departments are falling - conventional editorial offices are a discontinued model. In their place, large-scale information centers, the newsrooms, are growing. There, editors are regarded as so-called information and news managers. Newsrooms are primarily a response to the burden of cost pressure. The new, department-neutral flexibility is more dynamic and reduces costs. Never before have so many newspaper publishers prescribed themselves a restructuring cure as in the current year. "Online first," was the motto at Springer in Berlin last July. Starting in 2007, Die Welt and Berliner Morgenpost will live up to this credo in a multimedia newsroom. As soon as a story is published and prepared, it will first go online and only later on paper. Days later, the Financial Times also announced the construction of an integrated multimedia newsroom in order to merge print and online editorially. Of course, Austria's enfant terrible, Wolfgang Fellner, is doing his tabloid, launched after the summer break, in a huge newsroom. The fusion of print and online is a concept.
In April, the Berner Zeitung newspaper here in Switzerland dissolved its departmental structure and replaced it with a thematic exchange - with ambitious plans for the future. Newspaper, online, radio and television are to be housed under one roof in the media network one day. And Ringier recently launched its cash-daily project, a hitherto unseen combination of newspaper and additional multimedia offerings.
And now Edipresse is also learning the lessons of the Internet invasion. The cornerstone of the multimedia regional newspaper on the Léman, consisting of Tribune and 24heures, will be the new joint online editorial team as of March 2007. Edipresse UL member Eric Hösli already demanded more flexibility from media professionals in July. It is conceivable that the online newsroom on Lake Geneva will one day suck in the two print editorial departments - there is no shortage of role models.
René Worni, Editor

Sappi, the leading manufacturer of fine papers, has presented the Sappi Print Media Efficiency Award 2006 to the car manufacturer Toyota. The award went to the integrated Europe-wide communication campaign "Aim: Zero Emissions". The central element of the campaign is a child sleeping peacefully in a bird's nest. Sappi received the award at the Euro-Effie Awards Gala of the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) in Brussels, which honors effective, cross-border European communication. The campaign for Toyota also won a Bronze Effie in the "Corporate" category. In a press release, Sappi described the Toyota car brand as a pioneer in the automotive industry in the field of environmental protection. One of the decisive factors for the award was that the car manufacturer used print products as its main means of communication.
Campaign increases revenueThe advertisement with Toyota's environmental statement was placed in important European titles. A survey of European opinion leaders was used to evaluate titles such as Time, Newsweek, The Economist, National Geogaphic Europe and the Financial Times. Obviously, Toyota has succeeded in conveying trust and credibility with the campaign. According to the press release, 69 percent of respondents ranked the Toyota car brand first in terms of environmental friendliness. Volkswagen (14%) and Honda (7%) performed significantly worse in comparison. The campaign was also effective in terms of revenue: every euro spent generated 2.58 euros.
The environmental campaign, which ran from September to December 2005, was designed by the English advertising agency Coast. The total budget amounted to almost 5 million euros, which is why the agency opted for a combination of print media and TV commercials.
This year, Sappi has launched the Sappi Print Media Efficiency Award for Switzerland in collaboration with the BSW Leading Swiss Agencies association. John Lay Electronics and Jung von Matt/Limmat won this award for the first time in March 2006 for the Panasonic "Cutting Edge" campaign.
 

Architecture During the day, the 70-metre-high Spreda Tower in Burgdorf is a gray giant made of concrete and glass. An industrial building in which tomatoes are processed into powder. At night, the grey giant becomes a colorful landmark, illuminated by computer control. The Bern-based PR agency Border Crossing AG has been commissioned to show one of the tallest towers between Zurich and Bern in its best light - in the truest sense of the word. Artists and private individuals will provide spectacular illuminations of the tower during the winter months. The project has an interactive component: anyone can help determine the color compositions on the tower from home with just a few clicks. The Forum for Architecture and Design in Burgdorf is in charge of the project.

Boat Building: What’s possible in Cannes can also be chic in Zurich. From October 13 to 15, the first regional boat show, Lakemotions, will take place around Lake Zurich. What makes it special is that it’s held decentralized, directly at the respective shipyards and showrooms. Over the three days of Lakemotions, 19 shipyards and accessory companies will showcase new products from their lineups. There will also be test drives, opportunities to try out various water sports, and demonstrations of the day-to-day work involved in boatbuilding. Various food and drink stands invite visitors to stop by. By pooling their resources in the area of communications, the boat and accessory dealers hope above all to generate greater public interest and foster a sense of community within the industry. Vitamin D in Zug is providing communications support for the fair, including a website.

A majority of the Swiss population is of the opinion that tobacco advertising trivializes the dangers of smoking. It also encourages young people to take up smoking. As the tobacco monitoring carried out by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) shows, the majority of Swiss people are in favor of only allowing tobacco advertising at kiosks. In the first quarter of 2006, the Link Institute surveyed 2,500 people in German-speaking Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino as part of its tobacco monitoring program. The results show that smoking bans, such as those already in force in Sweden and Ireland as well as in the canton of Ticino, will probably soon have an effect throughout Switzerland. According to the survey, 80 percent of respondents are in favor of smoke-free workplaces, reports the SDA news agency. 64 percent of the Swiss population are also in favor of a smoking ban in bars and restaurants.

The in-flight magazines of the national airlines in Europe occupy top positions in comparison to well-known sales titles. Inflight magazines are heavily used and reach absolutely top decision-maker target groups, as Gruner+Jahr announced on Wednesday. This applies to the respective national market and also in the context of pan-European campaigns.
Range of in-flight magazines in thousands / range in %
Lufthansa Magazine 1,246 / 12.3Air France Magazine 971 / 9.6High Life 641 / 6.3Business Life 587 / 5.8Ronda Iberia 533 / 5.3Ulisse 515 / 5.1Scanorama 474 / 4.7Holland Herald 293 / 2.9Swiss Magazine 244 / 2.4Blue Wings 186 / 1.8
Reach of international magazines in thousands Reach in %
Business Week 215 / 2.1The Economist 673 / 6.6Newsweek 402 / 4.0TIME 576 / 5.7Forbes 115 / 1.1Fortune 180 / 1.8Havard Business Review 272 / 2.7
The coverage is based on the Europe 2006 population, which, at 10.15 million people in Europe, represents a high-profile target group of decision-makers, 77% of whom are men. Of these, 60 percent are between the ages of 35 and 54; 74 percent have a high school diploma or a university degree and 69 percent earn an income of over EUR 3750 per month.