Sandro Gaemperle wants to get the advertising agency diebündner off to a flying start in the lowlands with a branch office in Zurich. In order to "serve its customers even more efficiently", the diebündner agency in Chur has opened an office in Zurich. The "high-flyers from the Alps" have found an ideal location in the Technopark. The rooms in the urban ambience match diebündner's headquarters, the postmodern industrial building "Mainstation 1901" near Chur. However, the loft is not a converted factory building, but was created by agency heads Sandro Gaemperle and Oliver Schulthess as a new building in the landscape. The building with fitness tower, e-tower, bar and offices has caused quite a stir in Graubünden. However, the architectural provocation on the outskirts of Chur is now appreciated. "Sometimes new ideas in the Alps just need a little more time," says Gaemperle. "For something to get better, it first has to get different," is a motto of the Alpine advertiser. In 1992, the tourism expert started his first agency in Chur. He named the company "kurz & bündig" ("short & sweet"), which for some people also meant quick and cheap. It served local businesses, banks, tourism and mountain railroads. At the time, there was only one other agency in Graubünden. As this larger player was increasingly "standing on its shoes", Gaemperle and his six employees no longer really saw the name as a program. The relaunch GGS (Gaemperle, Gantner, Schulthess) now sounded more like an advertising agency to be taken seriously, because 1996 was the era of the abbreviation agencies. Many clients from that era are still part of the portfolio today. "Maybe that's part of the region, people stay true to themselves." Across Switzerland, people are "not so married" in this respect.
Nevertheless, Gaemperle wanted to break out of the idyllic valleys with his ideas. The agency therefore took on its third name 18 months ago. For the advertisers in Chur, it was clear that many local clients and, above all, large companies also have their mandates managed in the lowlands. It is well known that the preacher never counts for much in his own country. So Gaemperle turned the tables: "If we call ourselves diebündner, then we are raising the bar in Graubünden, because there can be no second diebündner."
As the name was freely available on the Internet and the cantonal administration had not made any claims, the new label was boldly booked. With the location in Zurich and the claim to offer communication consulting for the whole of Switzerland in the future, this is of course a small provocation. diebündner, however, believe that their name has a sympathy bonus, similar to the one that many Valaisans exploit as television presenters, for example. "The people of Graubünden also have a value in Zurich that can be sold positively."
diebündner currently employs twelve people in Chur and three in Zurich. The agency is managed by three equal partners. After graduating from high school, Sandro Gaemperle "as a passionate vacation technician" turned his hobby into a profession at the Valais Tourism College. After many "trips in the form of internships", he got a job with St. Moritz spa director Hanspeter Danuser. Gaemperle got his start in advertising when he was marketing manager of Lenzerheide for three years. He then worked as a consultant for an Engadine agency before setting up his own business, "kurz & bündig".
The second partner, Oliver Schulthess, has been with the agency for almost eleven years and is the agency's flagship Graubünden native. After a stint in the advertising metropolis of Zurich, he was soon drawn back to Graubünden. Not an eccentric, but nevertheless polarizing and somehow the agency's bird of paradise, Schulthess is, for example, the inventor and spiritual father of the lifestyle magazine "Graubünden Magazin". Schulthess, who describes himself as a creative consultant and "doer", already brings several Unterländer clients to diebündner from his GGS days. Schulthess and his consulting and creative team bring special expertise in the area of customer magazines, in addition to creation and consulting.
Adrian Huwyler, head of the Zurich branch, joined the management trio 18 months ago. The consultant is the first person from Zurich to join the Graubünden team. However, he himself has no fear of contact with the mountain people. For example, he has already worked for Calanda in a previous agency. Huwyler learned his trade at an agency in the Stifti. He later worked on the client side at Publicitas, trained as a marketing planner and switched to the agency world at JWT. Then Heineken asked Huwyler if he would like to take over senior brand management. After three years, he ventured out on his own as a partner at diebündner.
diebündner is managed by three consultants - the personal commitment of the owners is important in daily business. "Even after the pitch, the boss stays on the ball," says Gaemperle, emphasizing one of the agency's qualities. He names full service for medium and small budgets as the most common offer. In the national sector, for example, this is the overall communication for Dynoptic Partner, the association of owner-managed opticians. Diebündner have already produced a new customer magazine for Valser. The concept and creation of the Heineken "Auslese 06" also originated in Graubünden. The communication for the upcoming guest session of the Federal Assembly in Flims in September is a kind of prestige assignment.
Somehow it's understandable that with so many tasks, not a single line has yet been written for our own customer magazine "diebündner Jagdzeitung". However, the next issue was promised for fall 06 in the previous issue. And somehow we will manage it, they say.   
Andreas Panzeri

Presse Tagi-Stadtsplit affects Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich On November 6, the Tages-Anzeiger launches further regional splits, including a city edition. This will affect the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, which Tamedia owns 60 percent of. So what will happen to the free paper, which is delivered five times a week to all letterboxes in Zurich? Nothing has been nailed down yet, but Rolf Bollmann, Publishing Director of the Tages-Anzeiger and also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Tagblatt, is drawing the first outlines of the new concept: the Tagblatt will remain the official publication of the city of Zurich - but it will appear less frequently and with a new layout. The NZZ, which holds a 40 percent stake in Tagblatt Verlag, supports the new concept, as do the city clerk and the city's head of communications, says Bollmann. He expects the city council to make a final decision by the end of August, which is surprising: according to earlier statements by Urs Neuenschwander, media spokesman for the city of Zurich, the Tagblatt contract, which is valid until 2015, requires, among other things, that the newspaper be published five times a week. But Bollmann disagrees: the Tagblatt does not have to be published five times a week, but must be tailored to the city's information needs. "The new concept is so contractually compliant that we didn't even have to consult the city," he says. There was no comment from Neuenschwander himself or the NZZ.   
Markus Knöpfli

In connection with gambling on Sat 1 Switzerland, Kabel 1 and German sports television, an unnamed German service provider has been acquitted in the second instance. On Tuesday, the Zurich District Court overturned a judgment against a German service provider. In December 2005, the Zurich district court had sentenced the TV broadcaster and the service provider that technically implemented the games to fines for violations of the Lottery Act. In addition, the winnings from the games had to be paid to the Canton of Zurich (see
"Verdict and fines against TV gambling"). The TV broadcasters accepted the verdict, but the service provider appealed against the verdict and demanded an acquittal. It was only responsible for the technical implementation and not for the content. In addition, it had assumed that such games were legal in Switzerland. The court followed the argument and acquitted the service provider of the charges.  
The canton of Zurich had filed a criminal complaint with the governor stating that the quiz games on the TV stations in question were illegal due to a lack of equal opportunities. The games of chance went like this: The broadcaster asks a quiz question, the audience can take part by dialing a 0901 number. A random generator picks out those viewers from the calls who are then admitted to the game. However, the fee of 1.50 francs was charged to all callers.

Swiss Post With the lie detector game "True or untrue?", the LGK agency wants to bind Swiss Post employees and their customers to the service provider. Bern-based LangGysiKnoll (LGK) has been implementing Swiss Post's brand world for several years with a testimonial concept that bears the meaningful working title "Vox Populi". Its guiding principle and content: consumers' personal relationships with Swiss Post. "It is precisely this emotional level that is the core and vehicle for our messages at all levels: People talk about Swiss Post or, more in-depth, they are encouraged to engage with Swiss Post and actively create a further relationship," says CD Daniela Jakab, explaining the interactive concept, which aims to position Swiss Post as a likeable, customer-oriented and trustworthy company.The "Vox Populi" concept, which runs through almost all communication channels, was expanded a few weeks ago to include a cross-media promotion. This is also intended to give postal customers a voice and further anchor the positive image.
With the help of Swiss celebrities, the "True or untrue?" competition aims to get the public into puzzle fever and at the same time - on a qualitative level - encourage them to become active themselves. LGK was able to win Ringier print and online products as media partners for the nationwide promotion - including SI, L'Illustré and il Caffè. The campaign kicked off with a multi-page SI article in which the "top postman in Switzerland", Ulrich Gygi, is accompanied on a hike through the Neuchâtel Jura. He talks about "his" company and its future - and provides an ideal transition to the competition.
Readers were able to vote on Gygi's claim that even his bathrobe was yellow - on the Swiss Post online portal, which is to be promoted, or via text message, telephone and postcard. The celebrities exposed as liars or angels in the voting include Lauriane Gilliéron, Tom Lüthi and Melanie Winiger. At the same time, readers are enticed to write their own stories each week with attractive prizes and the publication of the best true or untrue postal story. In October, the six winning stories will go through to the final round, in which the public will choose the very best.
The promotion has already successfully passed a "pre-test" - as part of an internal competition that was brought forward by a few weeks. LGK was also responsible for the "smaller" edition (a good 50,000 employees, of which a third of the intranet users had already registered after two weeks). The promotion included teaser posters with witty solutions, puzzles to find out what employees knew about their employer, flyers and fortune cookies containing great prizes.   
Luca Aloisi
Satisfied postmenFor the ninth time already
Swiss Post commissioned an independent institute to conduct a staff survey on activities and working environment. The survey now focused on motivation. The score of 70 out of 100 points for motivation was rated as "relatively good". The 67 index points for staff satisfaction are also described as a "good value in an environment of ongoing reforms". (la)

The former Hesskiss consultant becomes an account planner in the strategy department. Alain Ron Orlow has previously worked for Advico Young & Rubicam, Simko and Hesskiss. Most recently, he graduated from the renowned Miami Ad School.

"Schriftkultur" is the exciting story of writing and reading. And therefore a book for everyone who reads and writes. Peter Stein seeks answers to questions such as "Are we experiencing the end of writing culture today?" On the way to his answers, he tells how writing, writing tools, writing lessons, the book trade, libraries, the press, reading and non-reading people have developed. Stein begins with the earliest forms of writing and ends with the culture of writing and reading in times of increasing media competition. > Schriftkultur by Peter Stein; Primus Verlag, 2006, 360 pages,
58.60 francs.

Free press Romanian metro pulls emergency brake in Bucharest Those responsible for the city metro in Romania's capital Bucharest have a relationship to advertising and communication that has yet to be revised. When Ringier - the most important print publisher in the Carpathian country - launched the first free newspaper with Compact last May, negotiations were also held with the city's subway railroads about suitable box locations. They wanted to provide them with a regular page for corporate communications and self-promotion free of charge, recalls General Manager Thomas Landolt. "But they simply rejected our offer for incomprehensible reasons." Romania's capital is experiencing a chaotic economic and construction boom ahead of its planned accession to the EU on January 1. Within a year, around 40 percent more cars are on the streets of Bucharest. There is no urban planning. It is foreseeable that private transport will soon come to a complete standstill. The importance of the metro is self-explanatory. (rw)

Motive research HAP and its cooperation partner, the advertising agency By Heart, have presented the new, scientific tool for practical brand psychology: Brandezza. Why can no agency guarantee the success of its advertising measures? The question is of course rhetorical and can only be answered by the customer. A wealth of black-box models and theories are on the trail of their often unpredictable and emotional behavior. For over two years now, the Zurich University of Applied Psychology (HAP) and its practice partner, the agency By Heart, have also been investigating this. With the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, which guarantees the scientific nature of the research, the team, led by Professor Daniel Süss, has conducted extensive studies with hundreds of test subjects in order to determine more precisely what customers want and what feelings, motives and attitudes - both conscious and, above all, unconscious - are driving them. To this end, the partners have developed an innovative, interdisciplinary (psychology, marketing, communication science) yet practical and profitability-oriented tool that measures and visualizes the psychological potential of brands. Light into the customer darkness thanks to practical brand psychology

Theoretical principles and models of personality and communication psychology were transferred to the field of brand management and finally subjected to multiple practical tests. In addition to diagnostic methods that capture brand personality, it was also possible to develop consulting tools based on these methods that make it possible to determine the positioning of a brand in relation to the competition and systematically optimize brand communication. Where tools did not yet exist, we developed and tested our own. The research covers a broad field: from the factor structure of brand personalities and whether these are cross-industry or industry-specific, to the differences in the brand personalities received in different linguistic and cultural areas. Topics such as "Can certain communication styles and relationship offers be derived from the respective brand personalities?", "How must a brand personality be designed in order to be perceived by consumers as a concise figure and have a credible effect?" are also dealt with scientifically.
Even after the first two consulting tools have been derived, the scientific work will continue, explains Markus Bircher, project manager and co-owner of By Heart. New results and findings from market research are continuously fed into Brandezza's range of services and critically monitored by a renowned advisory board of scientists and practitioners.
The scientific brand analysis, the assessment, is based on three steps that take two to three months: In the scan, the personality dimensions are measured, from character traits and role behavior to the gender-specific characteristics of the brand and the comparison brands. In the second step, the analysis of the psychological brand potential, the brand is examined for its authenticity, coherence, fit, weaknesses and opportunities. Finally, a concrete package of measures is put together to strengthen the brand and its success. The Performance Developer is a practical tool that has been developed for briefings, workshops and everyday marketing. In addition to determining the personality potential of a brand, Brandezza also offers the "Motivation Tree" package, which determines why customers buy a particular brand and which of their conscious and unconscious motives are decisive in the purchasing process. This analysis leads to recommendations on how the brand can develop in a success-oriented manner.
Further information can be found at
www.brandezza.ch.Luca Aloisi

Guest commentary The federal authorities would do well to quietly bury the UWG bill, says Hanspeter Kellermüller.After the World Cup is before the European Championship. The upcoming major sporting event is currently also occupying the Department of Economic Affairs. It is concerned about UEFA's commercial rights and wants to give it a helping hand with a draft law. The consultation on the amendment of the Federal Law against Unfair Competition (UCA) ran until mid-August. The aim is to take measures against so-called parasitic marketing. Non-sponsors should be prohibited from acting as commercial freeloaders in the context of a major event. The approach of the federal authorities is already irritating. The consultation report starts with the "wishes of UEFA", an actual needs analysis is missing. UEFA justifies the necessity of the revision with the argument that otherwise the incentive for official sponsoring would decrease, which would endanger the feasibility of such sporting events. A look at the market development refutes this argument: official sponsorship contributions are constantly increasing, and there is no change in sight. For this reason alone, there is no need for legislators to take action. Moreover, unfair or trademark-relevant borrowings in the area of parasitic marketing could already be prohibited under current law.
The proposal also makes no sense from an economic point of view. Experience shows that references to major events can boost competition and thus the economy. Even the event organizers benefit from the wide range of promotions in the run-up to and around major events. Without Panini & Co. there would be no social "hype" that generates the enormous market value of these events in the first place. And it is only through media coverage that sporting and cultural events attract an interested audience in the first place. In the case of major events such as football championships, special publications are regularly issued that refer to the corresponding events. Such reference must also be possible in the future, not only for reasons of media freedom, but also for considerations of competition policy.
 
Irrespective of these fundamental objections, the proposed standards are also deficient from a technical legal point of view. Due to their vagueness, they are in any case unable to create the desired legal certainty.
So far, the bill has drawn nothing but scathing criticism. Perhaps the EVD is not that unhappy about it. This would be a good reason to quietly bury the unnecessary reform without snubbing UEFA. In this case, the mourners would not be too large.
Hanspeter Kellermüller is legal counsel and designated managing director of the Swiss Press Association.

Advertising market II Electronic media shifted up a gear in July, even teletext. The Goldbach Electronic Media Index (GEMI) confirms this: TV, radio, Internet and teletext all gained 5 points together - to a total of 327 points. Advertising investment in all media showed only a slight increase of one point to 171 points, with TV recording the greatest growth: the index climbed from 327 to 332 points. Radio improved by 3 points to 250. Internet advertising investments also grew by 4 index points to 220. And even teletext increased by 2 points to 148. The GEMI is calculated by advertising marketer Goldbach Media. The index is based on data from Media Focus for advertising investments in Switzerland. (kf)

Fundraising Basel's churches are trying out a new way of seeking donations Fewer and fewer Basel residents belong to a church - but many non-members benefit from their commitment to hospitals or schools, for example. That is why the Protestant Reformed Church (ERK) and the Roman Catholic Church (RKK) in the canton of Basel-Stadt are now taking a new approach to raise more donations from non-members: At the beginning of September, they will be sending 10,000 addressed envelopes by post to households in the Kleinbasel and Bruderholz districts. The former has a large proportion of foreign-language residents, while many well-heeled people live in the latter. The ERK and RKK use a brochure to present three joint projects (hospital chaplaincy, dispute resolution project at schools, industrial parish office) and ask for donations. "Thanks to the addressed direct mailing, we also reach all letterboxes with stop stickers," says ERK spokesperson Roger Thiriet. If the mailing, which alone costs CHF 25,000, is successful, the two churches are planning an extensive fundraising campaign in 2007 using direct mail. (mk)

This is not only the title, but above all the conclusion of Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin's classic. What the two wrote five years ago is even more true today than it was then, because people, companies, products and services are becoming more and more alike. Trout, who has written numerous bestsellers, and Rivkin complain that many companies are not even able to say what makes them special, how they stand out from the crowd. Without knowing what makes them different, they cannot build a strong brand - differences are the core of a brand and therefore the basis for branding. Trout and Rivkin describe various successful differentiation measures, explain how they work and why they are successful. In typical Trout fashion, the book is written in an entertaining and understandable way and is therefore well worth reading.
> Differentiate or die by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin; John Wiley & Sons, 2001, 230 pages, 31.20 francs.