The creative minds from Jung von Matt/Limmat also qualified for finalist status at the New York Festivals with their work "Liberty Zoom" for Panasonic, "Non-Smoking Trains" for SBB and "Black Lung" for IG Westtangente. The Zurich agency is also represented twice in the final in the "Guerrilla Marketing Outdoor" and "Use of Outdoor" categories with its "Size" campaign for Mini. The campaign has already been awarded a Gold Lion in Cannes. The final award results will follow in September.

The cantonal government clearly rejects the SVP's demand for a cantonal media concept to safeguard press diversity. As Werbewoche also reported, the Thurgauer Zeitung (TZ) was surprisingly sold to Zurich-based Tamedia AG last September (see "Tamedia moves into Thurgau"). As a result, questions arose as to who would represent the canton's journalistic interests in the future and how. SVP cantonal councillor Andrea Vonlanthen, in particular, approached the government with several questions and motions. The core of his proposal was the demand for a cantonal media concept, and as the St. Galler Tagblatt announced on Friday, the response from the Thurgau cantonal government is now available. Unlike Vonlanthen, the cantonal government sees no danger of the Thurgau newspaper being sucked into the "Zurich media scene". On the contrary, it is convinced that this solution will secure the future of the newspaper and thus meet the journalistic interests of the canton. In addition, neither the appearance nor the editorial team had changed significantly since the sale. The Thurgau government council also rejected the idea of a media concept. This was justified by the fact that there is hardly any possibility of influencing the diversity of the press and a media concept is therefore unnecessary.

In its statement on the Radio and Television Ordinance (RTVO), the Board of the Interessengemeinschaft elektronische Medien IGEM has taken a stand. The IGEM is particularly opposed to the intention to patronize the population, which is evident in various places. IGEM advocates the most liberal possible regulation of advertising regulations and as few restrictions as possible on commercial communication options in all electronic media and for all providers.
 
As the IGEM announced in a communiqué on Monday, there is therefore no need to overprotect consumers in the electronic media. The vast majority of citizens would have sufficient competence in dealing with commercial communication and advertising. Accordingly, the IGEM believes that the extremely detailed regulation for split-screen advertising goes too far. However, it considers the principle that advertising should be clearly visually separated from the rest of the program and identified as such to be fundamentally important. IGEM is of the opinion that split-screen advertising must be permitted in all programs of all providers. Programmes with advertising interruptions IGEM considers the rule that consumers must confirm their exit from the program twice in the case of interactive advertising to be unnecessary and patronizing. A more liberal regulation for commercial breaks is expressly welcomed. The IGEM takes the position that all programs should be allowed to have at least one commercial break - similar to cinema and television. The application of this regulation to radio is still unclear, as the regulations regarding program interruptions are too one-sidedly geared towards television.problem case of alcohol advertising IGEM also rejects the regulation that advertising for non-alcoholic beer in programs with an alcohol advertising ban may not have any advertising effect for alcoholic beer. In effect, this would lead to a ban on advertising for non-alcoholic beers that are marketed under the same brand. This results in unequal treatment of the individual producers, argues IGEM. 
The new regulation also provides for a ban on alcohol advertising - before, during and after programs aimed at children and young people. According to the IGEM, however, this definition is unclear. Both the term "young people" and the definition of programs are vague. The IGEM therefore proposes replacing the term "young people" with the term "minors". The broadcasts could be defined in such a way that more than 50 percent of their audience must be minors.

Zurich-based creative agency Publicis is on the New York Festivals shortlist with 19 works
represented. Below is the list:

"Bicycle Rack", Guerrilla Marketing: Outdoor

"Flirting Eye", alternative: Interactive Tools

"Because Change Happens", Cinematography

"Because Change Happens", Original Music: Score

"Employees", Business Equipment & Services

"Halfpipe", Transportation / Travel / Tourism

"Love", Entertainment Promotion

"Garnier Bodytonic Banderole", Promotions Marketing: Display/Point of Purchase Support

"Chip Tuning", Promotions Marketing: Consumer Promotion

"Stuck Ball", Direct Response: Self-Promotion to the Consumer

"Stuck Ball", Promotions Marketing: Display/Point of Purchase Support

"Muddy Cars", Direct Response: Consumer Services

"Akut against AIDS - Brain", PSA: Health & Hygiene

"Voegele Soccer Jerseys", Promotions Marketing: Sponsorship

"Bicycle Rack", Use of Alternative Media

"Crystal Clear", Use of Outdoor

"Open Top", Use of Outdoor

"Corporate Stars", Beverages: Alcoholic

"FIFA Anniversary Book", Company Literature: Catalog / Brochure / Pamphlet

The New York Festivals have been honoring the world's best advertisements, films and posters for 50 years. The winners are announced in September.

The European Sponsorship Exchange ESB and the PR agency Photopress have named Phonak as the first sponsor of the month. In July, the hearing aid manufacturer experienced the extremes of a sponsorship commitment in the space of a week: after a brilliant Tour de France victory, the media celebrated Phonak and its consistent sponsorship strategy. The misstep of the winner Landis turned the media image into a super disaster. But it was this event and the fact that Phonak intended to give up the team's main sponsorship anyway that helped the brand achieve unbeatable ratings worldwide for the month of July. However, the question of the damage to the brand's image remains open, and even more so whether hearing aid sales will suffer. According to a press release, ESB suspects the opposite. The cycling doping victim Festina was already able to enjoy a 25 percent increase in sales after the 1999 tour scandal.

The Zug-based PR agency Peter P. Knobel has won Fujitsu Siemens Computers as a client. With immediate effect, the communications specialists will be responsible for all corporate and marketing communications for the IT manufacturer. The European IT company manufactures information technology such as handhelds, tablet PCs, notebooks, desktops, servers and IT infrastructure solutions.

With Silvia Finke, the agency is also strengthening its business area in terms of personnel. The proven IT expert, who previously worked for Debitel and the Association for Entertainment Software in Germany, was most recently Corporate Pr Manager at Intel Germany. Silvia Finke will take up her new position as Senior Consultant at the beginning of September 2006.

The former deputy editor-in-chief of the Saturday supplement "Das Magazin" of the Tages-Anzeiger, Basler- and Berner Zeitung is moving to Weltwoche as of January 1, 2007. There he will work as an author and editor, as well as taking on other as yet undefined management tasks. According to the Weltwoche press release, Teuwsen is one of the "most distinguished journalists in Switzerland". His interview with the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk recently made headlines around the world. The future publisher and editor-in-chief of Weltwoche, Roger Köppel, is "extremely" excited about the 39-year-old Peer Teuwsen. He will significantly strengthen the Weltwoche author magazine.

In connection with the relicensing of Teleclub, the Federal Council has addressed the question of whether the state may be directly or indirectly involved in broadcasting. Although the legal basis is disputed, the Federal Council considers a minority shareholding to be possible in the present case. After 10 years of validity, Teleclub's license was renewed in May 2006. The pay-TV broadcaster Teleclub is majority-owned by Cinetrade, which operates cinemas and exploits film rights. In September 2004, Swisscom acquired a 49% stake in Cinetrade and secured an option for a further 26%. This commitment has raised the question of the independence of radio and television from the state, especially as the Confederation is Swisscom's main shareholder. The Federal Constitution guarantees "the independence of radio and television as well as autonomy in programming". On the other hand, there is a Federal Council strategy paper on the development of Swisscom, which calls for Swisscom to step up its activities in the broadcasting sector.
OFCOM commissioned an expert opinion from the two constitutional law professors Jörg P. Müller and Markus Schefer. They came to the conclusion that even an indirect, minority shareholding of the Confederation in a TV broadcaster in terms of capital and votes would not be permissible. Swisscom, for its part, commissioned two expert opinions. The first assessed Swisscom's entry into the TV business as permissible. The question of state independence does not arise in practice, as the Federal Council is not subject to any temptation to determine the selection of the Teleclub Board of Directors. The second expert opinion is also positive and states that the legal structure of Swisscom and the Swisscom Group does not allow the federal government to exert any influence on the programming of Teleclub.
The Federal Council took the view that a majority shareholding would be tricky in view of the constitutional requirement of state independence. A minority shareholding, on the other hand, was possible in the present case, as Swisscom is not in a position to exercise a controlling influence over the company in view of the shareholder structure. Taking these arguments into account, the Federal Council considered it constitutionally possible to extend or reissue the Teleclub license on the basis of a 49% stake held by Swisscom in Cinetrade.
The stance of accepting a 49% municipal shareholding in a broadcaster is also in line with DETEC's practice: the local cable network operator 022 Télégenève, which is majority-owned by the City of Geneva, wanted to increase its shareholding in the local TV broadcaster Leman Bleu. Since the City of Geneva itself already has a stake in Leman Bleu, DETEC prohibited 022 Télégenève from increasing its stake in Leman Bleu. The municipality would otherwise have held more than 50 percent of a TV broadcaster.
At the end of May 2006, the Federal Council granted the pay-TV channel Teleclub a new television license until the end of May 2013, giving the channel the right to expand its own offering to seven channels and also to offer domestic sport.

The Zurich-based agency Uniqueworld is now a member of the Compresso communications network. The event and travel professional specializes in incentives, congress trips, event management, product launches and loyalty programmes. Uniqueworld is managed by Soraiya Spühler, who has been working in this field for over ten years. Compresso also includes the agencies ID Event, Fastbreak, Vogel Szenenmarketing, Eye Media and Primeur. 

The market research company Gfk has published its business figures for the second quarter of 2006. In the first six months, sales increased by 54.6 percent year-on-year to 523.4 million euros. The operating result rose by 76.3 percent to 63.8 million euros. The margin, i.e. the ratio of adjusted operating income to sales, amounted to 11.9% and was therefore significantly higher than in the previous year (10.5%). Gfk has now positioned itself as the fourth-largest market research company in the world. The reasons for the positive result are the good business performance of all five business divisions and the good progress made in integrating the former NOP World companies. In addition, significant progress has been made in resolving the operational problems of 2005, such as the restructuring of GfK Martin Hamblin and the retail panel in Switzerland. With regard to the annual forecast, the market researcher expects consolidated sales of at least EUR 1.1 billion for 2006, which corresponds to an increase of 18%.

Following an agency evaluation, Baggenstos IT + Services has decided to work with the Zurich agency Blue Spirit. The first step will be a CI/CD redesign, followed by various acquisition and retention measures in the fall.

The newly founded Swiss Poster Research Plus (SPR+) has set up an advisory committee in collaboration with the main media industry associations.

SPR+ has decided to create the "Research Advisory Council" with the task of advising Swiss out-of-home advertising research. The advisory council will also make recommendations on planning tools for users, SPR+ announced on Monday.

SPR+ is thus analogous to most other research conducted in Europe in the field of out-of-home advertising. The aim of out-of-home advertising research is to provide information on the performance of advertising media. It is therefore necessary to take the needs of advertising clients and media specialists into account when designing research and developing software solutions.

The new Research Advisory Council consists of the following members:
Martial Pasquier (Chair), Institut des hautes études en administration public, Lausanne
Dietmar Bemberg, BG Media
Ueli Custer, freelance journalist
Daniel Hartmann, Contexta
Andreas Huwyler, AMAG
Stephan Küng, Initiative Media Western AG
Georg Müller, GE Capital
Jürg Siegrist, SWA-ASA
Felix Mende, SPR+
Florian Walz, Affichage
As SPR+ also announced on Monday, additional members can be admitted to the commission if they represent industry associations.