Swiss Television SF has taken its threats against 3+ seriously: last Thursday it filed a lawsuit against the new private broadcaster with the Commercial Court of the Canton of Zurich. The primary issue is that 3+ uses the term "Schweizer Fernsehen" in capital letters, as SF spokesperson Urs Durrer confirmed to Werbewoche in a report by Sonntagsblick. This spelling has been registered as a trademark by state television. Durrer is also bothered by the fact that 3+ wants to profit from the SF image. The TV makers at Leutschenbach are therefore not happy that the new TV station is using SF presenters for its advertising campaign.
Shortly before the launch of 3+, it had already become public that SF was threatening to take the new channel to court (see
). Dominik Kaiser, the head of 3+, reacted to the complaint with a shake of the head, according to Sonntagsblick. The term "Schweizer Fernsehen" is not a protected brand name in its own right.

At Coop, the dear little birds have chirped out as a department store sound system. The retail giant wanted to use birdsong and other sounds of nature to create a pleasant ambiance in its stores (see ). But the project was stopped. Customers liked the sounds, said Coop spokesman Felix Wehrle to the news agency SDA. However, some of the staff had complained. Above all, the constant repetition of the same sounds was criticized. Therefore, music now runs again instead of the forest sounds. "Finally, the satisfaction of the staff is also important to us," Wehrle said. With the nature sound backdrop, Coop wanted to enforce a uniform appearance and thus also distinguish itself from the competition.
A new sound solution is now being developed. Wehrle did not yet want to reveal what the stores will be equipped with in the future. However, the new concept has the support of the majority of customers and staff.   

The German tabloid Bild, together with the Bertelsmann Lexikon Institut and Club Bertelsmann, has launched a book project called the Knowledge Library. The first volume of the twelve-part series was published on Monday and is dedicated to the topic of "Earth and Space". The series is edited by the journalist and theater studies professor Hellmuth Karasek and Ulf Merbold, astronaut and physicist. 288 pages of each volume of the Picture Knowledge Library deals with one area of knowledge in 1000 questions and answers and costs 9.95 euros. A new volume is published every week. The complete encyclopedia will be available on December 4, 2006. Club Bertelsmann will offer the volumes in its 300 stores and also use the Internet and catalog distribution channels.
According to Kai Diekmann, editor-in-chief of Bild, his newspaper offers more than eleven million people "a wealth of information and knowledge" every day. This claim is to be extended with the knowledge library.

The advertising marketer APG Traffic investigated the advertising impact of hanging posters in public transport in the Basel area. It determined a weekly reach of 55 percent. A total of 600 people were interviewed by telephone. Regardless of gender and age group, 46 percent of all persons reached pay attention to hanging posters frequently or practically always. 77 percent find this form of advertising informative, 55 percent entertaining. In the run-up to the survey, a test campaign with new subjects was specially launched for Basel Zoo. This campaign was known to 45 percent of the respondents. 8 percent were able to recall the first subject unaided, and 10 percent the second subject. The zoo campaign was well or very well received by 89 percent of the respondents. The hanging boxes also triggered measurable responses: The response rate for the contest associated with the test campaign was 5 percent, and visits to www.zoobasel.ch increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the week prior to the posting.
APG Traffic believes that the results of the study on advertising in the vehicles of BLT Verkehrsbetriebe in Basel support earlier findings. Previous studies on hanging posters had shown a weekly reach of 55 percent for the Lucerne conurbation and 66 percent for Zurich. According to APG, transit advertising is the third-largest outdoor advertising segment in Switzerland, with a share of 6.8 percent, behind billboards and neon.

The Aargau-based web service provider Three Way is creating the website for the anniversary event of the Swiss Marketing Club (SMC). As part of the club's 50th anniversary, the agency is supporting the association with extensive sponsorship and delivering a completely new website. The website
informs about the anniversary event in Basel on September 22/23 and still offers the possibility to register. The Aargau-based web service provider Three Way also celebrated an anniversary in 2006, according to a press release. The agency for communication systems has been offering all services for database-based e-business solutions for ten years.
 

On Saturday, the Swiss Advertising Agency had the Basler Zeitung (BaZ) read aloud by trained actors. The speakers were positioned in three places in the Liestal shopping arcade, just like in London's Hyde Park. The reason for the guerrilla action is that since last weekend the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung has been published with the cover page of the Mittellandzeitung (see ).
Cardboard signs with statements also addressed the current situation in the Baselbieter newspaper market: "Basel-Land = Rüebli-Land?", "Baselbieter Pressefreiheit ade? Aargauer Zeitung juhe?" and "Aargauer Rüebli instead of Baselbieter Chirsi?".

The European communications agency group Pleon is further expanding its location in Zurich, Pleon C-Matrix. It is relocating its international "Crisis Communications & Issues Management" practice to the city on the Limmat. This area will be headed by Jens Krämer, who was previously a partner in the Berlin office and moved to Switzerland on September 1. According to a press release, Krämer will also strengthen the core competence of Pleon's Swiss team in corporate communications. Alfred Köcher, CEO of Pleon C-Matrix and board member of Pleon, is quoted in the press release as saying that the new appointment underlines the importance that Pleon Europe attaches to the Zurich office for the further growth of the group.
In recent years, Krämer has built up the "Crisis Communications & Issues Management" practice into a mainstay of Pleon Europe. He will be responsible for national mandates and will be involved in the expansion of new business. In addition, he will continue to work for a number of German clients.

SBB is optimizing its customer service at Zurich main station by installing a new information desk in the station concourse. This affects a big poster area that is rented out by Paron. The large poster specialist appears to be expecting a decline in bookings, as it has lowered its prices. In the past, the media price for the space was CHF 43,900 for one week - now it is CHF 35,970.

The Web2com index for online advertising rose by 4.3 points to 132.7 points in August. There can therefore be no talk of a summer slump in Internet advertising expenditure. In fact, the index reached its highest level of the year in August, according to Publigroupe subsidiary Web2com. A higher August value has never been achieved in the last five years. However, the index did not achieve the growth of this year's month of May. In the merry month, the increase amounted to 6.6 points, in June 3.6 points and in July 2.8 points.The Web2com Index is based on monthly surveys of investments in commercial advertising on national and international online platforms. It is therefore intended to show how internet advertising is developing in Switzerland.

At the beginning of December 2006, Jürg Stähelin will assume responsibility for the Vontobel Group's communications activities as Head of Corporate Communications. He replaces Claudia Kraaz, who is leaving the Vontobel Group in mid-October. According to a press release, after 14 years in Corporate Communications she wishes to develop her career further and is moving to another area of activity.
 
Most recently, Stähelin was Head of Group Communications for the Julius Baer Group. There he was responsible for media relations, internal communications and brand management. Prior to this, Stähelin worked for three years as a consultant at a Swiss communications agency.

The Biel-based film production company Twin Productions is shooting a TV commercial series on behalf of the Swiss Road Safety Fund (FVS). The protagonists in the commercials are ex-Mister Switzerland Renzo Blumenthal and ex-ski racer Daniel Mahrer. Unusual scenes are dramatized on the Schallenberg in Emmental: Renzo Blumenthal is riding his motorcycle. A cow appears unexpectedly behind a bend, crossing the road at a leisurely pace. Thanks to his perfect braking technique, Blumenthal brings the bike to a halt in time, Twin reports in the press release. A similar story is being filmed on the Susten Pass, this time with ex-ski racer Daniel Mahrer, who gets in the way of a grass skier.  
The Siebensinn agency is responsible for the TV commercials. They will be broadcast next spring and are part of a three-year campaign by the Road Safety Fund (FVS). The aim of the campaign is to reduce the number of fatal motorcycle accidents by 30 percent.  

On September 20, the Italian-Bavarian Hypo- und Vereinsbank sells the contract for a new magazine called "Wealth Management" at auction. Naturally, it is not the highest price offered that wins, but the lowest.
 
The bank's unconventional way of awarding communication contracts is not met with enthusiasm. The CP-Knowledge editorial team writes: "Questionable terms and conditions, empty phrases and language clauses accompany the procedure". Apart from the strange nature of the price dumping, there are also doubts about the approval process. According to CP-Knowledge, it has been leaked that some communication companies have been courted. They have received private invitations to a preview on September 5 with some insider information about the auction. Whether it will be of any use is questionable, as the product and its objectives or anchoring in corporate communications are still a mystery. Industry insiders are not exactly impressed: "If communication services are sold off in this way, quality will inevitably fall by the wayside in the long run," says Michael Höflich, Managing Director of Forum Corporate Publishing.