Zurich-based branding agency MetaDesign has developed a new brand identity for Rieter, one of the market leaders in the textile machinery and automotive supply industry. This development was accompanied by a series of workshops with the company management. In these workshops, the brand was evaluated against the background of the company's strategy and values were redefined in order to develop the new identity on this basis.
The main aim of the new brand identity is to present the Rieter brand in a contemporary and above all uniform way wherever it can be experienced. The first sign of the new image is the new annual report (Fig.). All communication media are currently being gradually adapted to the new image.
As Bruno Schmidt, Partner at MetaDesign in Zurich, is quoted in a press release, a consistent image strengthens the brand. "This is particularly true for manufacturers of capital goods, who generally do not have large advertising budgets. Today, with competitors from Asia coming ever closer to our understanding of quality, a strong brand is increasingly becoming the only non-interchangeable factor."

From August 26, TSR1, the television channel for French-speaking Switzerland, will be broadcasting a weekly cooking and quiz show on Saturday evenings. After six successful pilot shows last year, 16 shows of the quiz show produced by Ringier TV have been added to the program - the shows will be broadcast on Saturday evenings at 6.30 p.m. Ringier - or Betty Bossi - is thus bringing the successful "Al dente" model to French-speaking Switzerland. Since its launch in the fall of 2001, the sponsorship-financed cooking and quiz show has become a ratings hit. For example, Swiss television will broadcast 35 special programs from July 3 to August 18. In addition, the content can also be optimally cross-marketed via the existing media network.
In German-speaking Switzerland, an average of 678,000 viewers watched the show in 2005, which is now one of the most successful programs on SF1 with a market share of over 37 percent. Thanks to the media partnership with Schweizer Illustrierte, 4 "Al dente" supplements are produced each year and "Al dente" is of course also prominently featured in the Betty Bossi media (Betty Bossi newspaper, cookbooks, "Al dente" DVD, Internet).
In French-speaking Switzerland, the media partnership was entered into with L'illustré, which is also owned by Ringier. The first of the four annual "Al dente" supplements will be published on August 23 to announce the first broadcast on August 26. In addition, the recipe for the program will appear in L'illustré on the Wednesday before the broadcast. Al dente" will also be supported by the website, which is already available in French as a result of the six French-language pilot programs that have already been broadcast. In addition to background information, the recipes for all the programs are available there as PDF files.

 
The move westwards now also means that the "Al dente" publications are now consistently bilingual. Until now, "Al dente" was only represented in the German-language Betty Bossi newspaper and the "Al dente" cookbooks were previously only published in German.
As Betty Bossi announced on Wednesday, Miele and Coop have been secured as main sponsors and Butter, Baer, Spring and Kenwood as co-sponsors. The sponsors are the same sponsors that already support the German-language program.
The French-language version is hosted by Sébastien Rey (29), who has already presented several programs on TSR. In the TV kitchen, Anita Lalubie (25) and Olivier Villette (35) each cook a three-course menu. The team is complemented by wine connoisseur Gilles Besse (41), who provides the right wine and serves the cocktail with the aperitif.

With immediate effect, Andreas Schlauch is both the new Head of Newspaper Publishing at Oltner Tagblatt and the new Head of Customer Printing at Druckerei Dietschi. He will also become a member of the management board of Dietschi AG, as the Oltner Tagblatt writes in a press release. Most recently, the qualified business economist was Head of Marketing at Fachpresse Zürich AG / Vogel Medien Group, where he was responsible for advertising and reader marketing for special interest and trade journals.

Sports marketing in Germany is continuing to grow, with the highest growth in the internet and mobile rights sector in the future. This is the conclusion of a survey conducted by the Remagen Institute for Sports Management and Deloitte's Sports Business Group. The German professional football clubs are likely to benefit the most: In the Internet segment, 44 percent of the industry experts surveyed expect growth of over 15 percent. In the mobile market, on the other hand, 48% expect such an increase. For other sports such as handball, basketball and ice hockey, only 10 percent forecast such high growth rates. There will no longer be a distinction between TV and Internet rights in future: "In England, only live rights that include both TV and Internet coverage are put out to tender," Stefan Ludwig, Head of the Deloitte Sports Business Group, told Pressetext.
More than 60 percent of the study participants expect the sports industry to see revenue growth of at least 15 percent in sponsorship and television in the 2006/07 season. For Internet and mobile rights, 70 percent of those surveyed forecast roughly the same level of growth. However, more than 80 percent expect an increase in the area of new and mobile media, provided that the forecasts for sponsorship and TV for the coming season remain roughly the same until 2008. According to 25 percent, growth in these segments will be over 15 percent overall.
The future marketing of the various sports is viewed differently: over 80% of those surveyed believe that the DFL clubs will increase their sponsorship and TV revenues. For sports such as ice hockey and basketball, industry experts do not expect revenues to increase. Nevertheless, 45% forecast an increase in financial sponsorship and TV income for the handball league.
A ban on advertising for betting providers in Germany could have a significant impact on sponsorship income. This is currently the subject of much discussion. "The clubs could lose a significant sponsorship buzz," Ludwig told Pressetext.
In addition to traditional revenue areas such as ringtones, games and wallpapers, higher revenues are expected in the areas of betting, ticketing and single sports portals in particular. In contrast, mobile TV offers are viewed rather skeptically, ranking only in the midfield of mobile business services.

The Zurich-based advertising agency Malstube has won the Basel-based software company Itsystems as a new client and created the overall image for its latest product. This included corporate design, brochure, design templates and, of course, sophisticated texts - after all, not every copywriter is familiar with the vocabulary of information technology from an early age. Malstube is therefore not only pleased to have gained a new customer, but also many new words, the agency announced on Wednesday.

At the beginning of July, video news on demand was added to the website of the free commuter newspaper 20 Minuten. The number of hits has been far higher than expected. The articles previously purchased from Reuters will also be produced in-house from the beginning of September.
Peter Wälty, head of 20minuten.ch, talks to Werbewoche about the planned changes to the news channel's website.

Werbewoche: Video news on demand was launched on 20min.ch at the beginning of July. How are the usage figures looking after one month?
Peter Wälty: In July, between 4000 and 6000 hits were recorded per working day, up to 150 hits at the same time. Despite the hot vacation month, the number of hits was far higher than expected.
WW: Are there plans to expand or further develop the offering?
Wälty: The next steps are the introduction of video podcasts and the replacement of the Windows Media Player with a Flash player. In addition, the videos are to be embedded in the site.
WW: The video news is currently purchased from Reuters. At the beginning of July, however, there were already discussions about producing the video news in-house. What are your next steps here? Wälty: The editing suite was set up last week. Contracts are currently being negotiated with the agencies supplying the raw material. The team consists of three employees with radio and TV experience. We expect to start producing our own news reports on September 1.Kathrin Fischer

The general flirtation with Sunday editions has not come to an end, according to a report by the Swiss news agency SDA. The AZ Media Group is considering plans for a Sunday edition in order to get involved in the still lucrative Sunday advertising market.
According to publisher Peter Wanner, the AZ Media Group wants to decide this year what plans it wants to realize for Sunday. Wanner favors a seventh edition of the Mittelland Zeitung over other solutions such as a Sunday-only newspaper or a free Sunday paper.

According to Südostschweiz publisher Hanspeter Lebrument, the Basler Zeitung is also predestined for a Sunday edition. However, Daniel Fasnacht, deputy publishing director of Basler Zeitung, emphasized at the request of SDA that the newspaper's current priority is to expand the regional section. At the moment it is not an issue to come out on Sunday, but in general Sunday is always an issue, said Fasnacht.

This year, the TeleZüri live broadcast of the Street Parade will also be available on the Internet for the first time. The live stream will be provided by the Dübendorf-based telecommunications provider Netstream, which also operates ADSL.TV. "We are convinced that this service will delight an additional audience that we would not be able to reach with TeleZüri, as our broadcasting area is limited to the greater Zurich area," says Gerry Borer, Head of New Media at TeleZüri, according to a press release from Netstream. The live broadcast will be shown on August 12, 2006 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the TeleZüri and Street Parade websites as well as on the TV stations Tele M1 and Tele Tell.

From 2007, the Swiss Public Relations Institute (SPRI) will be offering the PR consultant course in Zurich and Berne - the University of Lugano will be designing a new module on the subject of management for the consultant course lasting several days. The demands on PR consultants are constantly growing and their tasks are becoming increasingly international, the SPRI reported in a press release. The expanded course is intended to take account of these developments. In view of the strong demand and the planned limitation of the number of participants to 24 for the first time, one class will be held in Zurich and one in Berne from 2007. The courses will now begin in May or June 2007 - around two months earlier than before.

The first Swiss Podcast Day will take place on October 5, 2006. This event is being organized by the Goldbach Media Group, which also includes IP Multimedia and Energy Zurich. Although terms such as podcast, podcasting and RSS feed are on everyone's lips, the question arises as to whether podcasts are marginal phenomena or media offerings with majority appeal for which new business models could emerge. This question will be explored at the 1st Swiss Podcast Day. At the event, podcast pioneers from Switzerland and abroad will report on their experiences with this medium. In addition, experts will present ideas and models, as the Goldbach Media Group writes on its website Further information and the registration form can be found on the website
www.podcasttag.ch. The program will be supplemented in the course of this week. The number of participants is limited and the event is subject to a fee.

Readers can now comment on most news articles on the Espace.ch Internet portal. With this function, Espace Media Groupe wants to intensify the exchange of opinions with users. However, this function does not affect the reporting of the individual Espace print media such as the Berner Zeitung or the Bund. The articles from the print media that can be found on Espace.ch do not have a comment function at all, and while access to many topics is open to everyone, only participants who have registered with their e-mail address are permitted to comment on more sensitive topics. Very sensitive topics are also not released for comment. In addition, all reader contributions are checked by the editorial team several times a day, as Beat Rüdt, head of the Espace.ch editorial team, assures Werbewoche. At the moment, the editorial team does not have much work to do with this; a random check by Werbewoche did not turn up a single comment.
In addition to the new article comments, Espace.ch readers have also been able to take part in the public discussion in the topic forums for some time now.

In a multi-stage selection process, the Zurich agency TBWA Health, a specialist in pharmaceutical communications, was able to win the contract and will implement a comprehensive health campaign for the Swiss Pharmacists' Association. The campaign on the subject of cardiovascular risks will be carried out in 2007 and 2008, as TBWA Health writes in a press release. TBWA Health will be responsible for the planning and implementation of all internal and external communication services. The aim of the campaign is to offer risk screening in the relevant population groups as part of a preventative measure and to position pharmacies as the first point of contact for health issues.