The Zurich-based dialog marketing specialists Fisch.Meier win the pitch for the aftersales campaign. Fisch.Meier secured the contract from General Motors in a multi-stage pitch. This involves POS activities and a retention mailing for around 400 Swiss dealers. The print run is around a quarter of a million copies. General Motors wants to use the campaign to establish its brands more strongly. The first works will be seen in the fall.

In August, Direct Marketing Walker turned Swiss women and men into surprise victims with flowers from Fleurop: "To the nice blonde lady in the 13-seater streetcar," was the only thing written on the letter. The young teacher in the VBZ tram was astonished when a messenger suddenly pressed a bouquet of flowers into her hand as she was traveling at full speed along Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse. "How does my boyfriend know that I'm on the streetcar now?" the woman must have asked herself. Just like the second surprise victim. "To the customer at the Coop Luterbach checkout," was all that could be read on her little letter next to the magnificent bouquet of flowers. On Tuesday, August 22, a further 500 or so bouquets also surprised "the nice gentleman in the Row 14 cinema", the "pleasant lady in the station buffet", the "gentleman waiting with two heavy shopping bags outside Migros in Horgen at 12.30 p.m." and "the woman with the funny dog" on a walk along the lakeshore in Lucerne.The power of flowersWhen the random passers-by "ambushed" with bouquets in this way opened the letter, they found the answer to the riddle of the flowery message: "Surprised? That's how beautiful the effect of flowers can be. Put them to the test. Give the gift of ..." And then came the telephone number of a local flower store.
"Fleurop, the power of flowers". This was the claim in all these personal letters in a nationwide guerrilla advertising campaign by Walker. Well over a hundred flower stores from German-speaking Switzerland took part in the "Day of Surprise" campaign. The members of the Fleurop sales network were invited to take part at their last general meeting. The new Fleurop agency Walker presented the idea to around 400 flower store owners. Those who were prepared to distribute at least three representative bouquets in their region can now feel like the birthplace of a new "Day of Surprise" - because Fleurop may want to make this free promotion a fixed sales date in the florists' agenda. For Pius Walker and his consultant Hans Beer, such a long-term side effect of their advertising ideas would of course be more than just a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
Parallel to the public campaign, Fleurop also launched a B2B campaign on the same day. Florists also had 250 surprise bouquets delivered to targeted contacts at companies for potential customer gifts.
Trained ambassadorsTo ensure that the Fleurop messengers were able to deliver their surprise perfectly, the agency prepared them for their charming task in a workshop beforehand. In order to market the event professionally in the media afterwards, the Walker advertising agency worked together with the PR agency Richterich & Partner.
Walker also chartered four helicopters to give the whole campaign the necessary media attention. These were prominently painted with the Fleurop logo. Inside the four flying vases, Miss Switzerland Lauriane Gilliéron, Mister Switzerland Miguel San Juan and two other former Misses and Misters traveled across Switzerland to surprise the public with a further 600 bouquets of flowers at selected locations. Media such as Blick and Swiss television also flew along on this promotional tour.
Fleurop financed the surprise coup this year instead of participating in the X'06 event trade fair, in line with the motto "Breaking routines". Reactions that the messengers experienced when delivering their bouquets are to be documented on the Fleurop website for advertising purposes.
Andreas Panzeri

The Web2com Index for Internet advertising is still showing considerable growth, although it is no longer quite as high as in recent months. In July, however, the increase still amounted to 2.8 points and thus climbed to 128.4 points. In June, growth amounted to 3.6 points and in May to 6.6 points.
Compared to the last five years, however, the Web2com Index reached 128.4 points, the highest July value since 2001. Web2com also sees this as proof that advertising expenditure for the Internet is developing continuously.

The Web2com Index is based on monthly surveys of investments in commercial advertising on national and international online platforms. It shows how internet advertising is developing in Switzerland. The Web2com consultancy was formed in 2005 from the merger of Publimedia Webadvertising and Publicitas Webservices and reports directly to Publigroupe.

The Walker advertising agency surprised Switzerland on Tuesday with a nationwide guerrilla campaign. Messengers distributed more than 700 bouquets to unsuspecting passers-by on behalf of Fleurop. The flowers were accompanied by cards with mysterious addresses such as "For the nice lady in streetcar number 13" or "For the gentleman in movie theater row 14". The recipients were informed in a letter: "Surprised? That can be the effect of flowers. Put them to the test..." Then the telephone number of a local florist is given, where you can order such a surprise yourself via Fleurop. You can read more about this new "Surprise Day", during which four helicopters with the reigning Miss Switzerland Lauriane Gilliéron, the current Mister Switzerland Miguel San Juan and the former Mahara McKay, Bianca Sissing, Renzo Blumenthal and Robert Ismajlovic were on the move as ambassadors for Fleurop, in the coming Advertising Week No. 29.

The Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI) has upheld complaints by Swiss television against U1 and Star TV. The two private broadcasters U1 and Star TV both broadcast erotic night programs after midnight. As part of these programs, commercials are shown that advertise the downloading of porn videos onto cell phones. According to a press release issued by the UBI today, these are indecent and harmful to minors.
According to the UBI's reasoning, the commercials in question showed "a one-dimensional, degrading image of sexuality that largely eliminates all other interpersonal relationships". Young people in particular are at risk, for whom such depictions can lead to "a problematic attitude of entitlement and blunting in sexual matters". The fact that the commercials are only broadcast after midnight and, in the case of Star TV, with a warning, was also not accepted by the UBI as an exoneration.
The two television stations were given a 60-day deadline within which they must submit a report detailing the countermeasures taken to remedy and prevent such infringements in the future. The UBI decision can be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court by means of an administrative appeal.
As reported by Sda, Star TV managing director Paul Grau and the two Zurich porn providers Televox and Lava will have to answer to the Zurich District Court on Tuesday, August 22. The court is investigating whether the commercials also violate the pornography provision of Art. 197 of the Swiss Criminal Code. The public prosecutor is demanding CHF 5,000 each for the porn providers and CHF 2,500 for Star TV.
The defense lawyers, on the other hand, are demanding acquittals. Grau's lawyer emphasizes that it is not up to the advertising media to check advertising for legal conformity. The porn providers' defenders accuse Swiss television of double standards: on the one hand it brought the case, on the other hand it offers such services itself on its teletext pages. Moreover, it is not the media or providers who are responsible for the young people, but the parents. This is therefore a "non-punishable sin of omission".

A company's complaint that the Sonntagszeitung had reported unfairly was rejected. In an article published in December 2005, the Sonntagszeitung accused a company of persuading its investors to engage in risky share transactions by means of dubious telephone marketing. In addition, the company had made money with excessive fees.
The company then lodged a complaint with the Swiss Press Council. In it, the company criticized the one-sided reporting, which violated its personality and was unfair. In addition, the duty of truth and fairness had been violated and the complainant's point of view had not been presented "appropriately".
The company was unsuccessful with its complaint. After assessing the case, the Press Council came to the conclusion that the Sunday newspaper had even acted in an "exemplary" manner. In fact, the complainant itself had not responded to the various opportunities to comment. The article in question also clearly stated that the company completely rejected the allegations made. The Press Council only conceded that the presentation was "somewhat sensationalist".

APG congratulates the Swiss Marketing Club (SMC) on its 50th anniversary with a special Publicis advertisement.
In the ad, SMC is not presented with the obligatory bouquet of flowers on its birthday, but with a bundle of adhesive brushes. Because, as today's Publicis press release explains the reference, billposting is after all the core competence of the well-wisher APG - and competence and expertise are what the SMC is all about. In its 50 years, the SMC, the association of professionals and executives, has become an established forum for marketing and sales people. The SMC builds on the high level of knowledge and experience of its members and consistently promotes the active exchange of experiences, in line with their slogan "Those who consistently invest in the future will also have one!"

In its statement on the Ordinance to the Radio and Television Act (RTVO) on Tuesday, the Swiss Syndicate of Media Professionals (SSM) spoke out in favor of restrictions on advertising in radio and television programs. Public service providers such as the SRG in particular should act more cautiously in the areas of advertising and sponsorship than commercial broadcasters, as they should convey more credibility. SSM would also like to see a moderate approach to product placement.
However, the SSM considers the draft RTVO to be fundamentally good and recommends that it be adopted. Nevertheless, the five-page statement makes a number of comments and suggestions on the individual articles.

Transparent advertising In terms of the transparent labeling of advertising, the SSM proposes that commercials should be labeled as such from a length of 30 seconds and not just 60 seconds. The SSM is based on the principle of strict separation of advertising and program. Advertising running parallel to a program violates the autonomy of an author's work. Authors must be protected as far as possible from being misused as parallel advertising media. In addition, the audience must be able to decide autonomously whether they want to watch advertising or not. This is not possible with a split screen.

Interstitial advertising The SSM rejects this in principle for reasons of the autonomy of works, the strict separation of programming and advertising and the autonomy of the audience (who must not be forced to watch advertising). In this respect, it should only be permitted very restrictively. In the opinion of the SSM, news, programs on current political events, documentaries and programs with religious content should not be interrupted by advertising at all. In line with the status quo, however, the SSM agrees to a one-off interruption of long feature films and television films (90 minutes or more) - even in SRG programs.

Sponsorship One sponsor mention per ten minutes of broadcasting time seems far too much to the SSM and amounts to advertising - both for television and radio (which is not mentioned in 19 paragraph 3). The SSM proposes that sponsor mentions be limited to mentions before and after a program or part of a program. The naming of a sponsor during a program or part of a program (principle of separation of advertising and program) should be explicitly prohibited. In addition, sponsor mentions should be limited to a number of mentions per broadcast hour.
The SSM is in favor of absolute transparency and a moderate approach to product placement, but postulates that this should also be permitted for SRG in the area of feature films and television films.

The Edis, the Swiss commissioned and advertising film awards, will be presented for the seventh time on November 16. The members of the jury were announced on Tuesday. The Locarno Film Festival has shown that Swiss film is booming. The same picture can be seen in the Edi.06 organizers' office, which is why they did everything they could to hire a top-class jury to filter out the best of the year. They succeeded, and the following 15 personalities will determine the winners of the bronze, silver and gold Edis:
In the Commercials category: Markus Ruf, Giovanni Tammaro, Martin Spillmann, Monica Glisenti and Thierry Bourdeille.
In the Corporate category: Yvonne Zimmermann, Danièle Michel, Eric Stitzel, Christoph Jordi and Stina Werenfels.
In the Clips & Trailers category: Catherine Mühlemann, Philippe Cordey, Markus Welter, Jann Preuss and Carlos Leal.
The deadline for entries is August 31 (see
"The Edi 2006 advertising film prize has been announced"). The jury will convene at the beginning of October and the Edis will be presented in a festive setting on November 16. In their press release, the organizers write: "The Swiss advertising and commissioned film scene can look forward to this day, because even in times of a much-vaunted Swiss film boom, the representatives of this industry are the humus on which future successes will thrive."

Is there still a chance of salvation for Basel's local radio station? The Allschwil-based station ceased operations at the beginning of June and has been broadcasting endless reruns ever since. The last rescue plan by some of the staff to persuade local authorities to inject money into the station has also come to nothing (see Last rescue plan for Baselbieter local station NW1).
All 22 employees of the station were dismissed.
Now, according to a report in Onlinereport, the Basler Zeitung has expressed interest in the regional broadcaster. Chairman of the Board of Directors Matthias Hagemann told Onlinereport that Basler Zeitung had had no interest in the station as long as Christian Heeb had his fingers in the pie. With Heeb's resignation, however, the conditions for a possible commitment have changed. The possibility of a cost-covering operation is currently being examined.

NW1 was offered for sale to Basler Zeitung before the summer vacation. According to Hagemann, talks had already taken place with those responsible at the main shareholder Elektra Birseck Münchenstein (EBM). However, the price has not yet been discussed. If a cost-covering or even profitable operation is possible, a commitment could be considered. However, the station's market position is problematic; due to the strong competition from Telebasel, it would be difficult to establish a viable co-currency station. Telebasel could also expect to receive a share of the license fees under the new Radio and Television Act (RTVA).

However, a commitment could still be interesting for Basler Zeitung: So far, its portfolio includes the press, local radio and Internet media. The television sector is still missing.

The return of the controversial journalist and current head of Die Welt, Roger Köppel, to the helm of Weltwoche has barely been decided and he is already the main character of a watchblog. Enlightened readers, Köppel lovers, Köppel haters or people who simply want to vent their anger at the sometimes unnerving tone of Weltwoche now have a platform. The watchblog Weltwochenschau.ch is the new stomping ground for all those who no longer want to keep quiet but do not want to add value to Weltwoche itself by writing letters to the editor.
Following the example of other watchblogs, such as that of the commuter newspaper 20Minuten or the German Bild newspaper, readers are now also taking a close look at the Köppel newspaper. The young blog is not yet a sprawling repository of "collected Köppeliaden", but there are already some nice trouvailles. Like this Köppel quote: "I'm also flirting with it, with the bad guy image. Actually, when I come into the editorial office, the Darth Vader march should be played."

Three months after its launch, the free newspaper Heute is generally satisfied. The content and layout have been slightly adapted. According to an editorial note in yesterday's edition of Heute, the content and layout have been slightly revised for the first time. The layout has been streamlined and the events section now includes a party listing with tips.
The editorial team at Heute is delighted with the largely positive reactions from readers. The Ringier free paper has integrated well into the market, commented Editor-in-Chief Bernhard Weisshaupt to Sda on the launch of his paper. After the summer lull, Weisshaupt continued, more colporteurs are now being used again to distribute the newspaper.
Those responsible did not provide any information on the volume of advertising, because the advertising volume is generally weaker in the summer. In any case, the Abendblatt has given itself three years to "conclusively assess" the position of the free newspaper on the advertising market.