The Bernese PR agency Border Crossing has launched the campaign for the new red streetcars in Bern. The cheeky slogan "I'm your streetcar too" - reminiscent of VBZ's own advertising - is intended to get the people of Berne in the mood for the vote on November 28, 2006. They will then decide on the extension of the streetcar network to the western districts of Bern. The first proposal was defeated by a wafer-thin margin two and a half years ago.
The campaign is displayed in two subjects. One shows the village center of Bümpliz and the second the Tscharnergut. Both subjects can be seen on the specially created website www.meintram.ch. The images were not chosen at random, but were taken from an area where the campaign wanted to campaign particularly intensively for a Yes vote, according to the press release. The campaign is being financed entirely by private donations.

On Monday, the Bernese Grand Council unanimously decided that the Bernese government council must draw up a concept for alcohol and tobacco. This is intended to show how the legal provisions for the protection of minors are enforced. As reported by the SDA news agency, the new regulations are expected to come into force in the canton of Berne on January 1, 2007, which will severely restrict the sale of alcohol and tobacco to young people. To this end, the cantonal government has set out how it intends to implement the legal requirements. As the protection of young people requires many measures, service contracts have been concluded with various organizations.
The Blue Cross, the "Focus on Alcohol Prevention" organization and the Contact Network, which is responsible for cannabis prevention, are involved. The canton also wants to rely on information and control measures by law enforcement agencies, sports associations and major events. Test purchases are also to be carried out throughout the canton; for alcohol and now also for tobacco.

The Talent Screen film competition for up-and-coming filmmakers enters the next round with the Talent Screen Online Award: By the end of September, all 92 submitted film entries will have a new chance to win the "Golden Deer". For the first time, visitors to www.talentscreen.tv can rate the films online and discuss them in the forum. The winner will receive a Panasonic camera worth almost 5000 Swiss francs. Almost 600 people in 107 teams from Switzerland, Germany and Austria took part in this year's Talent Screen. In the sold-out Zurich Gessnerallee on Friday evening, ten film entries and eight film ideas competed for the two main prizes in the final round. The winner was chosen by the audience - or by the loud throats that sent the decibel level soaring.
In the "Movie Marathon" discipline, the task was to produce a film on the theme "I'll show you!" in 48 hours. The winners in this category were Simon Jaquemet and Matthias Huser. Their short film "Die Rakete" (The Rocket) is about an unnerved father's act of revenge on his pubescent son.
In the "Pitch Battle", the screenwriter Eduardo Carreno from the French-speaking part of Switzerland was convincing. He was able to inspire the audience with his film idea between Röschtigraben and breakdance and won against Luc Walpoth, last year's winner.
 

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch rules over a global media empire. He earned around $26 million last year and has an estimated fortune of more than seven billion dollars.

Now the man is under fire in the U.S. - because he has his rent in the Trump Park Avenue Building paid by his company News Corp. He moved into this apartment because his 44-million penthouse is currently being renovated.

In addition to rent, the company pays Murdoch $500 a month for upkeep and household appliances. News Corp. says it does so "because of professional needs and for the benefit of the company." However, it was not possible to find out exactly what kind of household appliances Mr. Murdoch needs for his job.

The Alliance of Swiss Advertising Agencies (ASW) is entering into a long-term partnership with the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI). From September 2006, ASW will be an event partner of the Pioneers event series. Innovative topics on developments in business and society will be presented there four times a year, according to a press release.
This series of events offers the ASW an ideal platform to offer its members inspiring, visionary and unusual topics. At the next event, which will take place on September 15, Andy Ruf, President of the ASW, will be in conversation with David Bornstein.

The 2006 World Cup has been over for two months and everything is already revolving around Euro 2008. More than 100 Swiss retailers and manufacturers surveyed want to exploit the marketing potential of the major sporting event in Switzerland. According to the study "Fit for Euro 2008" by the Swiss Marketing Forum, over 70 percent of Swiss retailers and manufacturers hope to benefit from the event and want to get involved accordingly. 60 percent of those surveyed are even increasing their marketing budgets for 2008 by up to 20 percent. However, the vast majority are not planning to act as official sponsors or licensees. Many want to make the most of the opportunity with ambush marketing. The focus here is primarily on the many tourists, but also on Mr. and Mrs. Swiss. It is also noticeable that women are becoming an increasingly important target group.Using experience from GermanySurveys of over 100 German retailers and industrialists have shown that the targets set for the 2006 World Cup were largely achieved. In the opinion of those surveyed, however, the targets could generally have been achieved even better if planning had been done in good time.
Swiss consumers are open76% of people surveyed in Switzerland during the 2006 World Cup did not find the hype in the stores before and during the World Cup annoying. Only 14 percent found the "footballization" at the points of sale to be excessive or even annoying.
Further information on the detailed study can be found at
http://www.marketing-forum.ch/aktuellpubli.html.

The Zurich advertising agency JWT+Hostettler+Fabrikant (JWT+H+F) has designed a large-scale campaign for Mazda under the motto "Casion". The aim is to lure customers into the showrooms after the big summer break and get them in the mood to play, according to a press release. As a basic element, JWT+H+F has developed an insert to showcase the respective models from the Mazda range. This will be inserted into the SonntagsBlick and Matin Dimanche newspapers and magazines such as Schweizer Illustrierte, Facts and L'Hebdo, and dealer advertisements, showroom material such as ceiling hangers in the form of tokens, window stickers in the casino look, car stickers and a competition kit with exclusive prizes have been produced to ensure that dealers are also infected by Mazda casino fever. Dealers can also inform their customers with a themed invitation and entertain them with a rental casino. The microsite www.mazda-casino.ch provides Internet surfers with casino games and further information about the Mazda Casino Weeks.

20 million listen to radio on the Internet across Europe. While European online radio stations had 15.1 million listeners per week in 2005, this year the figure has already risen to 20.4 million. As reported by Netzwoche, this was announced by the German Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (Bitkom) in Berlin on Monday. The figures come from the German market researcher Goldmedia.
According to forecasts, the online radio audience across Europe is set to rise to 31.9 million people by 2010. Bitkom sees the reason for the boom in the fact that online radio has discovered Web 2.0 and encourages listeners to participate, creating communities in which participants discuss music and news.
Due to the spread of fast broadband connections, the listenership will continue to grow: According to forecasts, there will be 31.9 million listeners in Europe in 2010.

There is a new alliance in the Swiss advertising market: the monthly cultural magazines ProgrammZeitung (Basel), Kulturmagazin (Lucerne) and Saiten (St.Gallen) have been working together for five years in the advertising sector. Another partner, Berner Kulturagenda, is now joining the pool. As the association announced on Monday, they are now operating together under the name "Medienpool Kultur+". According to its own information, the pool reaches 160,000 people with a total circulation of 81,000 copies. The Berner Kulturagenda alone accounts for 65,000 copies of this, which is enclosed with the daily newspapers Berner Zeitung and Der Bund in the Bern region.

Newly founded agencies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland can now apply to Econ Verlag for the Yearbook of Advertising as Newcomer Agency of the Year 2006. All creative agencies founded after January 1, 2004 are eligible. The competition has been taking place since 1991 and the presentations are evaluated by an independent jury of experts. It awards the silver megaphones to up to three newcomers each year. The winners are portrayed in detail in the 2007 Advertising Yearbook and presented at the awards ceremony: Date the agency was founded, quality of advertising work, commercial success and quality of self-promotion and PR. Participation is free of charge and the closing date for entries is October 20, 2006. Previous winners include the following Swiss agencies: Weber, Hodel, Schmid (Zurich), Hesskiss (Zurich), Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett, (Zurich) and KSB/SJ (formerly KSSJ) (Zurich).

Advertising on cell phones is set to grow strongly over the next five years. Sales are expected to double next year. The result of a recent study by Informa Telecoms and Media forecasts a sales volume of 11.3 billion dollars for 2011. However, the decisive factor for success will be whether advertising can be made palatable to cell phone users. Offering free content such as mobile TV or games is promising in this respect.
Mobile advertising is not new, but has been around since 2001, according to the report on the study. Major advertisers such as Coca Cola and Peugeot, for example, have been experimenting with advertising via SMS and WAP since 2002 and 2004 respectively. However, it is only in the last 18 months that there have been developments that have stimulated broader interest. In addition, more and more users have multimedia-enabled cell phones with broadband access. Customer acceptance of advertising on cell phones is high. With many advertising models, only those customers who have expressly agreed to this receive advertising on their cell phones.

Large Internet companies such as Google and Yahoo are also starting to transfer their products to mobile devices. Google launched mobile AdWords advertising in Japan in April. The mobile AdWords are between 12 and 18 characters long and enable a call to be made. According to a report by Pressetext, mobile ads will soon be launched in Germany, the UK and the USA.

On May 19, 2007, the new Saturday evening show "Happy Day" will flicker across the screen for the first time on SF1. In this in-house production, people make dreams come true for people, according to a press release. The focus is on the viewers and their heart's desires. In addition, Swiss comedians entertain with improvisational skills; they have to play a short role in a stage play. The new show will be hosted by Röbi Koller. The 48-year-old radio and television journalist is thus making his TV comeback on Swiss television after four years.