Microsoft calls the technology AdCenter - and it is technically and visually reminiscent of Google's AdSense advertising model. Launched in the USA in May - AdCenter has been running in France and Singapore since September 2005 - it was recently launched in the UK. A major European rollout is planned, and AdCenter will also be available in Switzerland. However, the software giant is not yet willing to name a date. Previously, the classified ads on its websites were supplied by Yahoo, but with its own technology, Microsoft is now in a position to replace the ads with its own. With AdCenter, Microsoft is entering into direct competition with Google's AdSense and Yahoo's Ouverture Services.
AdCenter allows advertisers to place ads on Microsoft's online presences such as MSN and Windows Live. Unlike Google, it will be possible to select target groups for the placement of ads specifically according to age, gender and income. If several advertisers book the same space or search context for their ads, the one with the higher bid will be awarded the ad.

(pr) To cater to the on-the-go lifestyle of modern consumers, Nespresso, the global pioneer and market leader for high-quality portioned coffee, is launching a special mobile website for online orders from your own PDA. At www.nespresso.com, coffee lovers can use their PDA to order not only the Grands Crus portioned capsules but also the latest coffee machines and the most attractive coffee accessories - anywhere and at any time.
"Nespresso always has its finger on the pulse of the latest technological developments," explains Gerhard Berssenbrügge, CEO of Nestlé Nespresso. "With PDA sales on the rise worldwide, we want to offer our coffee connoisseurs practical new solutions to make it easier for them to order Nespresso products online and accommodate their increasingly mobile lifestyles."

Once PDA users have registered for the Nespresso Club on their computer, members can order their Nespresso items online on the Nespresso Club website, just as they do from home or the office. Thanks to this solution, which is synchronized with Nespresso's online ordering system, PDA users can order coffee directly and securely from anywhere.

More information about the high-quality Grands Crus from Nespresso, the innovative new range of machines and the 24-hour service can also be found with just a few clicks of the mouse at www.nespresso.com. Whether in Zurich, Paris or Amsterdam, coffee lovers with their own PDA have the contact information for Nespresso boutiques all over the world at their fingertips - and can pick up the latest coffee accessories on their way home.

The new PDA option will be available to Nespresso customers in the following countries from mid-June: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. From July, the service will also be available for club members in Canada, Sweden and the USA.

Online access to coffee recipes and music

As part of its extensive premium service offering, which is available to club members via state-of-the-art technology, Nespresso now offers the option of downloading recipes for coffee-based drinks and music in MP3 format. Four new recipes are presented twice a year. Whether on the computer, at home or via a portable MP3 player, Nespresso fans will be able to enjoy music to their heart's content. The latest updates are registered by the computer and automatically downloaded as podcasts. The podcasts are available in English, French and German.

About Nestlé Nespresso S.A.
Nestlé Nespresso S.A. is one of the fastest growing businesses of the Nestlé Group and the global pioneer in portioned coffee. The Nespresso concept consists of a trilogy of: hermetically sealed, perfectly portioned coffee capsules with a rich selection of Grand Cru coffees; the specially designed and easy-to-use coffee machines; and the Nespresso Club with its unrivaled, personalized service.

Furthermore, Nespresso offers a range of portioned coffees, machines and services with its special Nespresso Business Coffee Solutions, which are tailored to the needs of upscale restaurants, hotels and cafés; premium event caterers; customer care and exclusive retail outlets; first class passenger care; and small and medium-sized businesses.

Nestlé Nespresso S.A. is headquartered in Paudex/Lausanne, employs more than 1,400 people, sells its products to end customers in more than 35 countries and currently operates more than 40 exclusive boutiques in the world's major cities. Nestle Nespresso S.A. is the market leader in portioned premium coffees and has grown by an average of more than 30 percent per financial year over the past five years. In 2005, the company achieved sales of 819 million Swiss francs. Further information can be found at: www.nespresso.com and www.nespressopro.com.

Brunner Verlag, publisher of guide-bleu.com, plans to launch a new gastronomy magazine for consumers at the beginning of 2007. The publication will start with a print run of 20,000 copies. The new magazine will report on Swiss gastronomy four times a year with a changing regional and seasonal focus. The focus will deliberately not only be on Michelin stars and top chefs. The central theme is the generally high quality and specialty of Swiss gastronomy in terms of its products and their presentation in restaurants.
The new restaurant guide will be an attractive platform for advertising, from drinks to culture and lifestyle. The first issue will be published in September and will focus on the Lake Maggiore region, Valais and the Bernese Oberland.

The campaign with which the new Swiss private channel 3+ is calling for presenter castings starts today (see Presenters wanted: 3+ in casting fever). However, the first subject shows Kurt Felix - one of Swiss television SF's flagship presenters. Consent was not obtained from Swiss television, reports the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten on the front page. The report goes on to say that the broadcaster was clearly in breach of the law even before the start of broadcasting. Further subjects with speakers from the Tagesschau and presenters of major entertainment shows will follow. It is not yet known whether the people concerned will take legal action against the improper use. This is because the use of a photo for advertising purposes requires the consent of the person concerned. According to 20 Minuten, 3+ channel boss Dominik Kaiser wants to appease the advertisers with flowers and wine. But Swiss television may also want to have its say. Whether legal action will be taken, however, can only be decided once the advertisements have appeared. The advertising campaign was designed and implemented by the creative agency Ruf Lanz (see Elevator TV hires suitable agency: Ruf Lanz) - and has brilliantly managed to get 3+ into the headlines.

Media With a comprehensive advertising offensive by Gruner Brenneisen, the Basler Zeitung aims to consolidate its role as the leading medium in north-western Switzerland in the long term.all business is local - even in the Internet age. In line with this motto, the Basler Zeitung (BaZ) is expanding its offering with an additional regional section and doubling the scope of its regional reporting from August 18. While the first regional bundle will deal with issues affecting the entire region, the new second regional fascicle will be dedicated to events in the Basel area and the neighboring districts of the cantons of Solothurn and Aargau. In addition, the paper will be published on Fridays in a large print run with a further 90000 copies. With this expansion, BaZ aims to underline its leading position in north-western Switzerland.
The attack on market share beyond the cantonal and national borders is heralded not least by the striking advertising campaign "hesch d baz" by the Basel agency Gruner Brenneisen Communications. It consists of posters and print ads, transit advertising, radio spots and various BtL activities aimed at expanding and confirming the BaZ community.
The core message is not a question, but a matter of course, explains CD Peter Brenneisen. The double red stripe - the BaZ signet - is used prominently as an identification element and recognition feature.
With concise statements, key words and authentic, generous reportage images in black and white, the campaign aims to underline and accentuate the diversity and density of the journalistic contributions. In this way, it expresses the central concern: BaZ brings added value to the entire region in terms of independent and exciting information as well as additional benefits with exclusive service offers.
The creative team led by Peter Brenneisen and Andres Gruner, who has overall responsibility, is positioning BaZ as a newspaper close to the public with five self-confident to controversial motifs for the time being.   
Luca Aloisi

Column No one has ever seen the Loch Ness monster, and no one talks about "pickles" anymore: thoughts after the big vacation For many years, my newsagent moaned when I went on vacation. Not because of the slump in sales. But because she was ordered to keep Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine and a few magazines. Back then, it was unthinkable to subscribe to foreign newspapers - they didn't arrive until the next day at the earliest. The local gazettes piled up in the post, and collecting and reading them was by no means just a professional reflex. It was a bit about not missing anything and not leaving any gaps in the dossiers. It was clearly an addictive behavior. That's why I was so fond of the late newspaper La Suisse. It appeared every day of the year, on December 25 as well as on Easter Monday. I didn't read it every day by any means, but always when everyone else left me in the lurch and alone. What's more, you could get the paper as soon as it left the printers and read tomorrow's newspaper, so to speak.
I despised those French newspapers that didn't include magazines for two months in the summer. Or the weeklies that sometimes skipped an issue. They didn't know what they were doing to their readers.
This dependency now has a new fetish. The Internet is everywhere, and everything is on the Internet. It manages journalists' dossiers and has turned the claim to completeness into an illusion. And it has also devalued the individual titles. Hardly anyone cares anymore if a newspaper is sold out at the newsstand. You get everything anyway - somehow. The rest is chance.
Media consumption in summer is characterized by this freedom and alienation. The media's carelessness encourages the absent-mindedness of our contemporaries. They snub their most loyal users. Television stops broadcasting because everyone is outdoors anyway. But that's not true. The commuter newspapers don't appear at all - and what if someone drives to work anyway? This year, even the respected Tages-Anzeiger magazine has canceled an issue on the grounds of "heat vacations". Did anyone notice or even get outraged?
Newspapers will be even slimmer in the summer than they already were during the crisis. Series have been pre-programmed. Topicality is cooked on the back burner. Backgrounds fall victim to the heat. But no one is talking about "summer slump" and "pickles" anymore. Nobody has spotted the Loch Ness monster. Summer consumption is no longer an issue. There is certainly no media criticism of it: "Persönlich" is not "im Netz", Werbewoche is not in the mailbox. Is it pure shame? Are they harbingers of the future - because the autumn of the media is looming in the summer?
In this drought, you suddenly discover completely new pleasures. On the plane on the way home, I spent two hours reading a three-day-old NZZ and was amazed at how much there is in a newspaper. Impressive! The weather forecast from the day before yesterday. Not the latest sports results. News from Switzerland. Iso Camartin's reflections on July 14 and August 1. Stock market prices without any binding force. Martin Meyer's comments on Schiller's concept of freedom. After the World Cup, the first games of the Swiss championship heralded a new beginning after the lockdown.
And in my old habit, I leafed through the magazines at home, which had been published after all. I read the monthly interview with Good News boss André Béchir. He had become wise and really likeable. He had brought Pink Floyd to Wetzikon in 1971. Yes, and I was there. I wrote "Good News - Bad News" in the Zürichsee-Zeitung. It was before I was expelled from the cantonal school in Wetzikon (because of other articles). My very first anger as a very young writer. I was impressed and reassured by Béchir's conciliatory tone in the magazine: he had forgotten. And his wise formulations made me realize that the change in media behavior in the summer is perhaps just a symptom of old age.
Jürg Altwegg is the cultural correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Geneva and an author.

The Zurich agency Station designed and produced the new website www.heineken.ch in collaboration with Publicis. Bottle or cow? When you arrive at the new Heineken site, you are sorted first. Those who are already 18 can enter the Heineken world. If you are not yet 18 and an honest surfer, you will be redirected to the website of the Swiss Milk Association.
In addition to the protection of minors, Heineken is committed to music and will be presenting a number of top-class events over the next few months. Under "Agenda" on the new site, the Heineken-Music concert series with interesting artists from outside the mainstream is announced. The "Products" section shows all the beers available in Switzerland and for die-hard fans of Dutch beer there is the "Shop", where various merchandising products are available. The "Campaign" section with the latest advertisements rounds off the Swiss Heineken world.

Competitions Good viral spots don't have to be expensive. But they go around the world. But first they have to be rescued from people's heads. Brilliant ideas, a treatment, storyboard or even just a synopsis can be submitted for the first Snap Viral Spot Contest until August 24. The spot idea must revolve around the topic of "deodorant". The viral spot should be no longer than 60 seconds. Further information can be found at www.snapfilm.ch. The jury consists of advertisers and filmmakers. The best idea will be realized by Snap Film and its partners Hastings and Treibhaus in collaboration with the winner and then posted on the Internet.

Internet Everyone starts small. And gets bigger and better. The campaign platform for the Bluewin ADSL entry-level subscription is no exception. With TV, print and radio campaigns, it always causes a stir and surprises. For example, with a small pedal car in an ordinary parking lot or floating wings for the Zurich lake crossing. This time, the advertising agency Jung von Matt/Limmat has taken the popular puzzle game Sudoku for a spin by leaving only a few number fields empty - ideal for beginners.

Free newspapers A Link survey has revealed that Le Matin Bleu has three times more fans than 20 MinutesThe two free newspapers Le Matin Bleu and 20 Minutes have been competing in French-speaking Switzerland for a good four months. This battle is far from over, but the first trends are emerging: Le Matin Bleu, which started with a six-month lead, is ahead: 51.3 percent prefer the free newspaper from Edipresse to its competitor. Only 16.1 percent prefer Tamedia's 20 Minutes, according to a link study conducted on behalf of Edipresse in three monthly waves between April 3 and June 26. A total of 1,069 people between the ages of 15 and 74 who live in the cantons of Vaud and Geneva and at least occasionally read the two free titles were surveyed.
Incidentally, Le Matin Bleu receives above-average approval from 55% of women, but the paper is also well received by 47.5% of men. In contrast, only 16.7 percent of men and 15.4 percent of women prefer 20 Minutes to the Edipresse title.
What is striking is that a third of respondents did not express a preference. This relatively large group of undecided respondents shows that the match in French-speaking Switzerland is far from decided. However, this indecision increases with age.
Young people have therefore largely made up their minds: 66% of those under 24 prefer Le Matin Bleu, while 16% are in favor of 20 Minutes and only 18% have not yet expressed an opinion. Among 25 to 34-year-olds, 52.2 percent prefer Le Matin Bleu, while 19.5 percent prefer 20 Minutes. And among 35 to 54-year-olds, 46.3 percent prefer the Edipresse title, while 15.7 percent are in favor of Tamedia's competitor. Finally, among 55- to 74-year-olds, 42.8 percent are still in favor of Le Matin Bleu, while 14 percent prefer 20 Minutes.
However, 20 Minutes still seems to have potential to catch up. At 76.5 percent, the proportion of people who read the paper occasionally (1 to 3 issues per week) is higher than for Matin Bleu (69.1 percent). On the other hand, the Edipresse newspaper has more loyal readers (heavy users): 30.9 percent of respondents pick up at least four out of five issues from the boxes, whereas 22.6 percent regularly reach for 20 Minutes.
This is the second survey to shed light on the new situation in French-speaking Switzerland. At the end of June, a survey conducted by the Lausanne-based institute M.I.S. on behalf of the Ringier title L'Hebdo came to similar conclusions: Of the 502 respondents between the ages of 18 and 74, 43 percent preferred Le Matin Bleu, just under 16 percent preferred 20 Minutes and 18 found both equally important. 11 percent rejected both and another 11 percent expressed no opinion.
A third survey is to follow at the beginning of September - an interim study by Wemf on Mach Basic 2006 - commissioned by Edipresse. 
 
Le Matin Bleu expands distributionLe Matin Bleu has been in the lead since its launch.
in October 2005 in Yverdon, Fribourg, Neuchâtel, Martigny, Sion and Sierre in a total of 730 boxes. Edipresse is now intensifying the presence of the title in Geneva: from August 21, all 237 buses and streetcars of Transports Publics Genevois will be equipped with dispensers exclusively stocked with Le Matin Bleu (additional circulation of 15,000 copies). The next expansion to Biel is also planned for the fall.
Markus Knöpfli

Posters The young Swiss graphic designer Annik Troxler has won the Grand Prix at the renowned Poster Triennial in Toyama, Japan. From a total of 3632 submissions, 420 were selected for exhibition and final judging, including 22 posters from Switzerland. In addition to the prize for the best poster for Troxler's "Intimities", two gold prizes were awarded to Japanese designers, three silver prizes and six bronze prizes. Another Swiss designer, Claude Kuhn, received a silver award. Martin Woodtli and Peter Frey also won bronze for Switzerland.
There are also successful Swiss posters to report from Germany: Publicis has secured a medal for the Heineken Music events in the most important industry competition "Das Plakat" in the German-speaking world. The award ceremony will take place in October.

The Bern-based cross-media agency Maxomedia and Jung von Matt/Limmat are promoting the milestone. While Jung von Matt/Limmat is presenting a congratulatory advertisement, Maxomedia is designing and implementing the online campaign. If you go to www.sbb-300000.ch, you will see an SBB locomotive. This consists of thousands of pixels, under which prizes with a total value of over CHF 13,000 are hidden. The main prize is, of course, a first-class GA travelcard worth CHF 4,700. But it's not just attractive prizes that await participants - they also have the opportunity to place their portrait photo on a special SBB locomotive with just a few clicks. Many of them will soon be traveling through Switzerland on the successful locomotive.