The Zurich agency of the Euro RSCG Group is represented at the New York Festivals with five entries. In addition to three finalists in classic print categories, the "Love Lips" for the Federal Office of Public Health in the Interactive Tools category, which has already won several international awards, and the "Castro" TV spot for Euro RSCG Dialog are among the favorites for gold, silver or bronze.

Swiss agencies are successful in New York this year. Zurich-based creative agency Lowe has also announced that it can hope to win a precious metal award with four shortlist places:
The "A town called today" campaign for Winterthur Insurance made it onto the shortlist in the Financial Services TV category. The same campaign was also honored with a shortlist place in the Animation category.

In the PSA Environmental Issues category, the campaign for Greenpeace "Ocean Warriors" made it onto the shortlist. The Lowe Christmas film "Bad Santa" was also honored.

Blogging is the number one trend sport at Swiss television channel SF. Now the "Meteo" team is also running its own blog - where the meteorologists and presenters will post articles on a wide range of topics relating to weather and climate and enter into dialog with the interested Internet audience.
In addition to the "Meteo" blog, SF currently has the following blogs: CR blog by editor-in-chief Ueli Haldimann, "Aeschbacher" blog by Kurt Aschbacher, "Film- und Serien" blog by Michel Bodmer and "kulturplatz" blog with well-known authors from the cultural sector.

In future, SF will also be upgrading its blogs for cell phones. This will be made possible by means of QR codes (Quick Response Codes), which SRG communicates in its newsletters. The QR codes can be used to subscribe to blog posts and comments on cell phones. The cell phone's camera is pointed at the code, built-in software reads the grid and converts it into a hyperlink to the Internet, a message with words or a short piece of music. The two-dimensional barcodes come from Japan, where they already play an important role in everyday life.

Adlink Internet Media is very satisfied with the course of business. In the first half of 2006, the Internet marketer more than doubled its turnover and increased its profit tenfold. It was the best result in the company's history, Adlink announced on Tuesday.
2005 was already a record year for the European online marketer (see Adlink doubles turnover in 2005). Adlink is confident about the rest of 2006 - with the expectation that the online advertising markets will continue to boom.
Sales in the first half of 2006 amounted to EUR 86.4 million and earnings before taxes to EUR 9.3 million. All key financial and market figures increased significantly. All business divisions contributed to the positive result - in particular Adlink Internet Media Schweiz AG. Adlink Switzerland is owned 50 percent each by the Adlink Group and Goldbach Media.

In addition to the significant growth in the online advertising market, Adlink cites two other reasons: the display advertising market has been realigned. And: The acquisitions of Sedo, Affilinet and CibleClick in 2005 have significantly strengthened the market position. The first synergies from the interaction between the brands have also had an impact.

Adlink markets Internet advertising space and is Europe's leading provider of digital communication solutions with numerous subsidiaries. Sales cooperations also guarantee an international advertising network.

The Publicitas index on the development of advertising expenditure in the daily press remained unchanged in July compared to the previous month. The index level remains at 92.4 points. Commercial advertising continues to decline. According to Publicitas, this is due to the reluctance of car importers and telecoms companies to invest. Inserts have experienced a marked drop in sales compared to the previous year, as Publicitas announced on Tuesday. Occasional advertisements suffered from the decline in financial and political advertisements. It is therefore the real estate advertisements and above all the job advertisements that are compensating for the downward trend in the other advertising categories.
The job advertisements index continued its impressive development. It rose from 145.3 to 147.3 points in July. The real estate listings index rose from 96.1 to 96.4 points.

The consultation, in which the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) has called for comments on the draft of the new Radio and Television Ordinance (RTVO), will run until the end of the week. SRG SSR has also drawn up a position paper in which SRG Director General Armin Walpen speaks out against individual regulatory proposals on advertising and sponsorship.
As the SRG announced in its newsletter on Tuesday, the main problem with the draft is that it seeks to further restrict the already severely limited possibilities for commercial financing.

The SRG agrees with the far-reaching liberalization of the advertising regulations for other broadcasters, but cannot approve of a change to the current status quo. For example, there should no longer be interruptive advertising in feature films on SRG programs, which is currently permitted, and product placement should be generally prohibited. SRG should also be largely prohibited from using new forms of advertising such as split screens.

SRG is to be completely prohibited from commercialization opportunities in the multimedia sector. In the SRG's view, however, programs and multimedia complement each other within the scope of the performance mandate. According to SRG, the approval of non-discriminatory financing options for offerings in the public interest also means financial relief for fee payers.

SRG has also calculated the financial impact. The discontinuation of commercial breaks would lead to a reduction in revenue of CHF 8 million per year, the discontinuation of advertising revenue for non-alcoholic beer would lead to a reduction in revenue of CHF 3 million per year and the discontinuation of sponsorship revenue due to prohibited product placement would lead to a reduction in revenue of CHF 11 million per year.

The Zurich-based advertising agency Walker - formerly the "smallest agency in the world", which now has three employees - was able to secure nine shortlist places in New York.
In the Speciality Advertising: Consumer category, the "Cookie Cutters" campaign made it onto the shortlist. "Mother's Day: Haircut/Kiss/Hoover" is represented in the Low Budget category - the same spot also made it into the two other categories Humor and Performance. In the Cinematography category, "Mother's Day: Haircut/Kiss/Party" is on the shortlist, while "Mother's Day" also made it into the Short Spots under 10 Seconds category.

Also nominated in the Retail Stores category are "Mother's Day: Glasses/Spittel/X-mas". The "Not Here But Now" campaign also made it into two categories: PSA: Civic / Social Education and Use of Outdoor.
As the agency announced on Tuesday, the news from New York was a reason to celebrate: the three-man agency served chocolate mousse for 12 people.

Tele Züri in luck. 671,000 people tuned in to the Zurich regional station on Saturday to watch the techno parade. This corresponds to a market share of 46 percent. Tele Züri thus achieved the highest figure
in its more than 10-year history. Compared to last year
the reach increased by 11 percent. As Tele Züri reported in a
media release, the live transmission reached the highest
Values. From 15.00 to 17.55, the market share for the
advertising-relevant target group (15 to 49 years) at 46.1 percent. The
average market share (age 3+) during this period was
29.6 percent. During the live broadcast, the average
Viewing time at 34.7 minutes. Another 358,000 viewers
informed themselves about the parade in the "Züri News". The
Summary of "Best of Street Parade" at 9.30 pm was watched by 135,000 people.
People. Thanks to the live broadcast on the Internet, the
The station's homepage is very busy, with an incredible 700 percent more visitors
than in the previous year.

At the New York Festivals, Spilllmann/Felser/Leo Burnett and other agencies can also hope to win awards: A total of eight works by the Zurich-based agency have reached the final. The swimming pool announcements for PET recycling, which have already won several international awards, have achieved finalist status in the three categories "Promotions", "Outdoor" and "Alternative and Innovative Media". Also in the running for gold, silver or bronze: the Helvetas promotion for World Water Day, the Helvetas film "Naturally", the Switzerland tourism spot, the poster campaign for the national insurance company "Nothing is safe" and the poster subject with the bent skateboard for the Schtifti. The New York Festivals have been honoring the world's best advertisements, films and posters for 50 years.

For legal reasons, Google wants to put an end to the verb form "to google". The company's lawyers have launched a first strike. Googled today? If you search for something on the web, you "google" it. So nice, so practical. Even "Webster's", the American dictionary, adopted this verb creation in its last edition. A few years have now passed since this development began, and suddenly everything is no longer so beautiful and practical.
As reported yesterday by the British Independent, the search engine giant has now declared war on the practical term. The Californian company's lawyers have intervened in the matter with warning letters to numerous media companies: With immediate effect, "Google" should no longer be used as a verb. According to the Google spokesperson, the use of the verb form results in "various serious trademark problems".

The agency Assai, domiciled in Zurich, has been
watch manufacturer Rado was given the mandate to announce the new Rado True watch collection.
to make. Online communication was chosen as the means of communication,
according to a press release. Rado Watch in Lengnau is part of the Swatch
Group and is known for its innovative design and scratch-resistant materials.

Zurich-based creative agency Ruf Lanz has made it to the final at the New York Festivals with four entries. With "Red Flag" for Hesse & Partner Versicherungsbroker in the "Advertisements" category, with Suva's "Ski accident prevention" in the "Outdoor" and "Guerilla marketing" categories and with the heart-warming world hits covered by the Mühlehalde home for the blind in the "TV & Cinema spots" category. Ruf Lanz has already received a Gold Award for this campaign in Cannes this year. The New York Festivals have been honoring the world's best advertisements, films and posters for 50 years.