U1 TV will be showing the reality series "Gstaad - Between Tradition and Top Tourism" in the week commencing August 14. The Swiss broadcaster wants to take a look behind the scenes of the noble village in the Bernese Oberland, as detailed in a press release. The interviewees in the documentary series range from hoteliers to cheese farmers, from gallery owners to traditional artisans. The aim is to show how farmers and millionaires work side by side and what goes on behind the facades of luxury hotels.
The focus is on the polo tournament Cartier Polo Gold Cup, which takes place on August 20. U1 TV will show the preparations and final matches. The docu-reality series will run daily from August 14 to 19 from 8 p.m., with the broadcast starting at 1 p.m. on August 20.

The European Sponsoring Exchange (ESB) and the PR agency Photopress AG are now selecting the "Sponsor of the Month". The two companies justify this step by stating that sponsorship is increasingly becoming a socially relevant factor. ESB's Pascal Gerster told Werbewoche that a Swiss company is not necessarily chosen as sponsor of the month. It could also be an international company, but it must be active in German-speaking countries or in Europe. The winners are chosen by jurors from ESB and Photopress. The Sponsor of the Month for July will be announced on August 14.

Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett points out black sheep for the Beobachter. In line with the current Obacht campaign, the consumer magazine is also warning of dangers in its new motif. This time, the now established care arrow points to the famous black sheep. Whether these are dubious companies or dubious businessmen, for example, can be read in the Beobachter.Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett uses F12 and F200 posters. In addition, there is an online game at www.obacht-schaf.ch that requires good observation and quick action: black sheep must be identified as quickly as possible among a herd of white sheep and eliminated with a single click.

The Zurich-based Internet service provider Unic Internet Solutions is expanding its Information Design division and welcoming new employees. According to a press release, the Information Design service includes the classic disciplines of consulting, conception and design. On the other hand, existing websites are analyzed and optimized with regard to clarity of content, brand conformity, usability, accessibility, process visualization and information architecture.
Unic has already recruited additional staff for this area (see
Nicole Schaller new Creative Director at Unic Internet Solutions). Since the beginning of June, Stefan Pieren has been the new information architect responsible for the development of content access concepts. In addition to his work at Unic, Pieren was recently appointed as a private lecturer for information architecture at the University of Bolzano (Italy). Florian Stürzinger also joined the team as Art Director at the beginning of August. After working as a designer in classic advertising, he worked as an art director at R.Ø.S.A. and most recently at Netarchitects.

The creative competition is all about aviation and the airport as a communication hub. This is why Munich Airport, together with CommClubs Bayern and various sponsors, is once again looking for creative advertising ideas relating to aviation. The call for entries covers the entire German-speaking region and ends on August 28, 2006. Creative ideas with an intelligent connection to the medium and the airport and aviation environment can be submitted in two categories: Switched category and free category. Three awards will be presented for each of the two categories - in gold, silver and bronze. The submitted motifs also have the chance to take part in the Internet vote for the readers' prize of the industry magazine Werben und Verkaufen. The award ceremony will take place on October 26, together with the award ceremonies for the Advertisement and The Poster competitions and the Werben und Verkaufen Readers' Award.

Preparations for Euro 08 are in full swing. The public can now choose a slogan for the Host City Bern until September 9. Four suggestions will be presented on flyers and placemats, which can be chosen by SMS. As part of the preparatory work, the City of Bern is also responsible for marketing and communication. The canton is primarily responsible for promoting the location via economic development. As reported by SDA, according to Mayor Alexander Tschäppät, the preparatory work is on schedule. However, the difficult negotiations with UEFA regarding the Host City contract are delaying the adoption of the necessary credit by the city parliament until the beginning of 2007.
For example, the legal and financial issues surrounding the fan zones, such as sponsorship, must be negotiated with UEFA. The fact that the planned fan zones in Bern's city center alone will offer space for a total of 70,000 fans shows that the amounts involved are not likely to be small.
According to SDA, the promotion of Bern as a location is expected to cost CHF 5 million. In addition to the city and canton, sponsors are also to be involved in the financing.

The Bern-based PR agency Gretz Communications is taking over the communication tasks for the Victorinox Swiss Army watch line. The first watch models in the "Victorinox Swiss Army" collection date back to 2002, and the collection has since been expanded to include the Active, Classic and Professional product lines, as Gretz Communications writes in a press release. Gretz Communications communicates in the watch and jewelry industry, tourism, aviation, hotel industry and lifestyle products and has partner companies in Munich and Vienna.

Coca Cola and Apple have announced their partnership in the music business. In Switzerland, Austria, the UK and Germany, Coca Cola and Apple are offering millions of song downloads from the iTunes Music Store, among other things. The deal is very promising: as part of this collaboration, Coca Cola is creating another advertising platform to appeal to "music-loving teenagers and young adults". Apple, on the other hand, wants to further expand the distribution of iTunes and offer European fans "even more great music", as Eddy Cue, Apple's Vice President for iTunes, said in a press release from Coca Cola. "We are very pleased about the partnership with Apple," emphasizes Dominique Reiniche, President Coca Cola European Union, according to the press release. To mark the start of the partnership, live concerts were held in Zurich on August 9 - and simultaneously in Vienna, London and Berlin.
In Switzerland, Coca Cola offers the Coca Cola iTunes range via the MyCokemusic.ch platform (see
Coca Cola Suisse is targeting young people). There, consumers can redeem MyCokemusic points for free songs or ringtones, logos, wallpapers and videos for their cell phones. To access the points, special codes must be sent in by SMS and converted. The codes can be found under the caps and labels of Coke bottles. The two large corporations also want to promote young musical talent in Switzerland, Austria, the UK and Germany as part of the collaboration. For example, the young artists will be given the opportunity to be recorded in Coca Cola podcasts, which will then be distributed throughout Europe via iTunes. In Switzerland, Coca Cola has been promoting young musicians with its Soundcheck program since 2005. Accordingly, the collaboration with Apple is seen as an opportunity to offer musicians a platform at European level.

On Tuesday, September 19, the Zurich Advertising Club will be showing the best advertising films of the year and excerpts from the 2006 Cannes Lions advertising event. Swiss advertisers won a total of five Lions - one bronze in the "Advertising Film" category. Accordingly, the event is a must, as the Zurich Advertising Club writes in its invitation. The event takes place with the support of Cinecom at the RiffRaff cinema from 11.30 am. Registration at: [email protected]

Cigarette consumption is steadily declining in the USA. The tobacco industry is therefore looking for new products to make up for the losses: And finds them in oral tobacco, for example. And what sounds so unappetizing must also be heavily advertised. The US company Blue Wale, for example, is investing 13.5 million dollars in an advertising campaign. Market leaders Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds have also launched advertising campaigns for oral tobacco, which is widely used in the Scandinavian countries, according to Pressetext. Of course, not everyone is happy about the new trend: consumer advocates, for example, fear that the products could appeal to young people and tempt them to smoke cigarettes.

A new book shows that 37.3 percent of all advertising budgets in the United States are wasted. "What sticks!" (What sticks!), as the book is called, will not be published until next month, but the leading industry newspaper Advertising Age already considers it "arguably the most relevant research in the media and advertising sector since the publication of 'How Advertising Works' in 1990." The authors of this monumental tome are Rex Briggs, the experienced market researcher and founder of Marketing Evolution, and Greg Stuart, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Over the course of five years, authors Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart crunched the numbers of the 36 largest advertisers by volume in the United States. In other words, they analyzed how advertising money of over one billion dollars flowed. They concentrated mainly on marketing giants such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Kraft Foods, but took care to ensure a good mix of industries.
The book reveals surprising and even shocking facts. Author Greg Stuart, once an "agency guy" himself, says: "I always felt like a charlatan - I knew that we, not just me, but the whole agency, had no idea what we were actually doing with our clients' money".
"What sticks" also reveals that even well-considered plans by agencies often don't stand a chance with their clients' marketing departments. For example, the authors found that it was common practice among the three largest car manufacturers to base their budgets not on marketing plans, but on the budgets of their competitors. When the authors confronted the car manufacturers with their results, they simply said: "We don't believe anything the agencies tell us - just as we have no interest in this study
". This is balm for scolded agency souls. The authors see the blame for the marketing misery not mainly with the agencies, but with the marketers. Only two of the companies surveyed, Procter & Gamble and Cingular, had a precise definition of what "success" actually means in relation to a campaign. However, the authors identified the biggest problem in the personal sphere of the individual: the fear of failure and being fired.

The cantonal government of Bern also spoke out against an amendment to the Federal Act against Unfair Competition on Thursday. Although the cantonal government supports the concerns of the federal government to create good framework conditions for the 2008 European Football Championship, the existing legal basis is sufficient for this. The Bernese government also criticized the fact that the bill would not create the legal certainty sought by the Confederation.
Zurich, the venue for the European Championships, has also spoken out against the change in the law. In its response to the consultation, the Zurich government took the view that it would be problematic to amend a law because of the commercial interests of a single event organizer. This would cement the market power of the organizers of major events and their sponsors. The Zurich government is also of the opinion that the existing law offers sufficient means of protecting the commercial interests of UEFA and other organizations of major events.