While the weblog hype is still going strong everywhere, the online edition of Switzerland's favourite tabloid Blick has cancelled its citizen journalism projects - "Blogstetten" and "Blogalisierung" - just four months after their launch. The problem: the number of hits was modest, online editorial manager Martin Baumgartner told Persoenlich.com. The bloggers involved in the project were not exactly motivated and the bloggers' entries have become less frequent. Baumgartner went on to say that from the outset, the block blog was only intended as an experiment with a duration of three to six weeks. For Blick, however, the topic is not completely off the table - they want to consider weblogs again for unspecified special occasions.

Jonas Eliassen will become the new area sales manager of Annabelle magazine as of September 1, 2006. Eliassen succeeds Alessia Freitag. He was most recently a consultant at Bemberg Gedenk Media.

Marcel Zwahlen joins the sales team of the advertising combination Metropool as Key Account Manager Switzerland as of August 15, 2006. Zwahlen is responsible for advertising sales at Tages-Anzeiger, Basler Zeitung and Berner Zeitung BZ. He was previously a member of the management team at IP-Multimedia.

Herta Kornetzky has taken over media consulting and advertising sales for the leading trade magazine in the commercial vehicle sector, inufa TransportRundschau. She succeeds Barbara Stangassinger, who will be taking on new challenges within the industry from September 1.
Herta Kornetzky is a proven expert in specialist communication and has worked in this capacity for the specialist publications of the publishing houses Hoppenstedt and GIT, among others. In Switzerland, she has already established herself for special and custom publications.

Scholz & Friends Zurich has won the overall account of Riso, the association for the promotion of rice consumption in Switzerland. The Zurich agency prevailed in a pitch against three other agencies. An orchestrated overall concept for Riso's positioning will now be developed. The mandate ranges from logo and claim to advertisements and PR measures through to viral marketing and events. Until now, the association has primarily provided information in schools and to nutritionists. Riso is now changing its communication strategy. The product rice is to be actively promoted. The campaign will be launched this fall. The aim is to achieve a sustainable increase in rice consumption, which has been stable for years.
Scholz & Friends Zurich was given a boost in spring 2006 by a new team of managing directors. Katrin Seegers (Managing Director Consulting), Jan Leube (Managing Director Creation) and Matthias Spaetgens (Managing Director Creation) now lead the Zurich office. For the agency, winning the Riso account is a starting signal for the new team and a signal for further growth. The Scholz & Friends Group is one of the largest advertising agencies in Germany and Europe. It was founded in Hamburg in 1981 by Jürgen Scholz and Michael Menzel.

The publisher of Mittelland Zeitung, Peter Wanner (62), has been named "Publisher of the Year" by industry magazine Schweizer Journalist. The award was presented for the first time, but in future it will be presented annually to personalities who are innovative and secure the future of their companies. According to the press release, this is also intended to send out a signal that editorial and publishing are one unit and that both need each other. The award will be presented at the upcoming Publishers' Congress in St. Moritz.
The jury justified its decision by stating that Wanner had managed to find a successful model for regional newspapers in an extremely difficult environment that would ensure their independence in the future.

Four years ago, as publisher of the Aargauer Zeitung of the Limmattaler Tagblatt, Wanner developed the Mittelland Zeitung cooperation model. It was Wanner who suggested to the other publishers that they develop a supra-regional section under the joint new Mittelland Zeitung brand, while continuing to produce the regional sections independently and remaining independent as publishers. The model works. With more than 450,000 readers, Mittelland Zeitung now ranks third among newspapers sold in Switzerland.

The Affichage Group, which is active in poster advertising, has presented a solid half-year balance sheet. The first half of the year was characterized by a significant improvement in demand, it was reported on Tuesday. The Group's net profit increased by 2.3 percent to CHF 13.4 million. Sales revenue increased by 12.1 percent to CHF 162.6 million - thanks to the strength of the poster medium in a positive economic environment, according to Affichage
writes. The operating result increased significantly by 40.8 percent to CHF 18.4 million, the margin rose to 11.3 percent (previous year: 9 percent) and the net result is also impressive with an increase of 2.3 percent to CHF 13.4 million.
Strong poster medium In the home market of Switzerland, sales increased by 10.1 percent to 144.8 million Swiss francs. In the home market of Switzerland, the consistent quality policy is bearing fruit and the restructuring measures implemented in recent years were the right ones.
The flagship APG in particular achieved significant successes. It was awarded 13% more marketing space in the city of Zurich alone, making it one of the winners of the tender process.
The term of the contract is five years. APG has also positioned itself as a marketer of outdoor advertising in shopping centers (see
Sihlcity billboards go to APG).Transparent mediumIn addition, Affichage has provided the industry with a planning tool that has met with enthusiasm among media professionals (see
Swiss Poster Research creates transparency online). With the new planning tool, the poster can be compared with other advertising media in the tough competition between advertising media - making both the advertising impact and the cost-benefit ratio measurable.abroadHowever, Affichage was particularly profitable abroad. Here, sales revenue increased by 31.4 percent to CHF 17.8 million and the operating result by 75.6 percent to CHF 2.7 million. Acquisitions accounted for 78.7% of the growth in sales revenue. Eastern Europe (Serbia, Slovenia) is currently proving particularly lucrative. It is therefore not surprising that efforts are being made to expand these markets more strongly.
Outlook Thanks to the positive economic trend, Affichage also expects moderate growth to continue. In addition, targeted acquisitions are being made abroad. The company also has high hopes for new products such as the "Rollingstar on the Road". The rotating poster was first introduced in railroad stations, but has now also been installed on important streets in major city centers (see
APG has installed the first Rollingstars on roads).

The Vevey-based telecommunications company In&Phone has chosen Sensus PR as its partner for the implementation of its PR strategy in German-speaking Switzerland: The Zurich-based agency supports the company in all aspects of public and media relations. According to Daniel Biemann, Marketing & Communications Manager at In&Phone, Sensus PR's industry know-how, craftsmanship and experience were decisive factors in the choice of agency. In&Phone has a national GSM mobile communications license and offers telecommunications solutions for business customers with high mobility requirements. The Campus-GSM concept makes it possible to replace existing devices such as landline telephones, cell phones or pagers with a terminal device.

The Parisienne cigarette brand wants to find out whether smokers are satisfied with their current packs. To this end, the Zurich agency Sulzer, Sutter has created a broad-based campaign that presents four new designs and the old design for approval - true to the brand motto "Something new every now and then". The broad-based campaign is visually based on the graphics of nostalgic voting advertisements. Fans can vote by text message, at the kiosk and after extensive registration at www.parisienne.ch. The vote will be advertised with GF, F12 and F200 posters, advertisements, a flatscreen movie, various means at the point of sale and via emails and flyers. 

Switzerland's largest stock photo agency is giving its image database a facelift. According to a press release, the changes are based on carefully researched customer needs. Clear structures and a customized design as well as new search aids should make it much easier for users to search for images, and the design of the revised database is to be implemented by professionals. Keystone is therefore looking for a web designer with experience and a proven list of references. The deadline for submitting the rough bid is September 18, 2006. The other deadlines, requirements and technical details are now available at
www.keystone.ch. The optimized database is scheduled to go live at the beginning of 2007.

The Aerni Group, headquartered in Arisdorf, has commissioned the Basel West agency to give its individual divisions a more uniform design. The company comprises four divisions: windows, steel and metal construction, apparatus engineering and IT. In order to emphasize the common denominator, the Basel West agency coordinated the company presences and relaunched the entire website. The subpages of the subsidiaries are now also linked to each other and offer in-depth specialist information for each division. The content management system allows all four divisions to edit the pages independently while maintaining the newly defined corporate design.

September will also see the launch of a campaign with posters, advertisements and direct mail advertising the new Aerni energy-saving windows. The posters will be placed specifically at locations where a new window has just been installed. A street sign will show the location and is intended to raise awareness of the new standard in the immediate vicinity of Aerni customers.

According to a study by the American market research company PQ Media "Global Product Placement Forecast", the global market for product placement is set to grow dramatically. For the current year, the global market is forecast to grow by 38.8 percent to 3.07 billion dollars. According to the forecasts, traditional advertising will lose market share. In comparison: last year, 2.21 billion dollars were spent on program-integrated advertising.
Strongest growth rates in television International decision-makers were interviewed and advertising market statistics were consulted for the study. The information on placement investments in cinema, television and other media was examined. Television has shown the strongest growth rates in the last five years. Product placement in TV media is the first choice for advertisers and will increase by 47.8 percent to 2.11 billion dollars in the current year.
Europe behind the USA In general, the development of product placement is slower in Europe than in other markets. The reason for this is the legal prohibitions. However, PQ" Media predicts that the expected approval by the European Union will provide a new boost from the end of 2007. Growth rates could then be in the three-digit range. The largest market with very strong growth rates is currently the USA.
On the way to becoming a key instrument PQ Media President Patrick Quinn even sees product placement as the next key marketing instrument. This is because conventional forms of advertising such as commercials are becoming less important. Ways are also being sought to counter the public's tendency to avoid advertising by means of new technologies. Product placement, on the other hand, enables the seamless integration of the brand into the program.