The Swedish clothing chain H&M is once again investing more in poster advertising. Four poster campaigns for H&M will be launched in mid-August, as Ivan Schultheiss from APG Sales Management Switzerland told Handelszeitung. With backlit and glued posters in the usual size, H&M wants to set visual accents, particularly in the major Swiss cities. Last year, advertising via this channel was significantly reduced. Instead, TV commercials were produced and it remains a secret whether the posters feature the new figurehead Madonna. According to the Handelszeitung, however, it is clear that H&M has entered into a partnership with the international star for an advertising campaign starting in mid-August. H&M does not yet want to reveal exactly what the campaign will look like: "We want to surprise customers," says Verena Cottier, Head of Marketing and Communication at H&M Switzerland. The fashion house also wants to establish a second chain of stores in the higher price segment with a new brand name for men and women. The first boutiques are planned for 2007.

Roland Dekker joined the team of the Ittigen-based advertising agency Comvex as advertising manager on June 16. Dekker will focus on acquisition and consulting in all areas of advertising. Most recently, he worked at the advertising agency 1,2,3 in Lenzburg, where he was responsible for customer acquisition and consulting for clients such as AMAG, FKSZ, Suissetec and Sommer Services.

The Zurich agency Werbeanstalt Schweiz AG has won the Igeho communication budget in a competitive presentation. Igeho is Europe's leading international trade fair for gastronomy, the hotel industry and out-of-home consumption and takes place every two years in Basel. The next trade fair will take place from November 17 to 21, 2007, and the first works by Werbeanstalt Schweiz AG will already be on display in August 2006. As part of the communication budget, the first step will be to acquire exhibitors for the trade fair with mailings. In a second, later step, visitors will be attracted to the trade fair with advertisements, posters and "sophisticated guerrilla marketing", says Reto Dürrenberger, responsible for strategy and consulting at
Werbeanstalt Schweiz AG, told Werbewoche.

The French-speaking Swiss news magazine L'Hebdo received the Ringier Media Prize on Thursday - in recognition of the Bondy Blog. In the Bondy Blog, members of the L'Hebdo editorial team reported on the riots in France. The editors had settled in the Parisian suburb of Bondy for several months and reported on the youth riots in the blog "with great commitment and expertise", as Ringier writes in a press release. Ringier awards the media prize annually to its own media professionals. L'Hebdo receives prize money of CHF 15,000. The Bondy Blog, which is being continued with interested young people from the Paris banlieu, will also be supported with an equal amount.
Ringier also presented an internal Photo Award for the first time: The winners were Horia Calaceanu and Darius Mitrache from Romania and Miklos Teknös from Hungary.

At the Best of Corporate Publishing (BCP) awards ceremony in Munich on Wednesday, the Zurich-based communications agency Infel was honored with one gold and four silver awards. In the business-to-consumer category, the "Strom" magazine produced by Infel was honored with the gold BCP award as the best publication in the "Energy" sector. "Switzerland is a prime example of how to design an appealing energy magazine," the international jury stated, as Infel reported in a press release.
Infel received silver awards for the customer magazine "Wander Contact" for the customer Wander AG, for the employee publication "piazza" for Swisscom, for the "SBB-Zeitung" and for the title "energy forum" for BKW FMB Energie AG.
With more than 500 registered publications, the BCP is Europe's largest competition for corporate communications. The jury consists of 50 renowned experts and presents awards each year in the areas of business-to-business, business-to-consumer, employee communications, newsletters and special publications. The event is organized by Forum Corporate Publishing, Europe's largest corporate publishing association based in Germany.
The communications agency Infel specializes in corporate publishing and marketing communications.

On Thursday, the search engine giant Google launched an online payment system in the USA that is likely to compete with the payment service PayPal, which belongs to the Internet auction house eBay. "Google Checkout" is also to be launched in Europe and Asia, although the date is still unknown.
The new payment service will be closely linked to Google's Adwords advertising system. Online retailers can use a symbol in the text ads to indicate that a purchase is possible with the Google payment system. However, the service can also be used independently of Adwords.
The service is financed via online trade and customers do not incur any fees. Google receives 20 cents per transaction and two percent of the transaction amount from online retailers. In return, Google grants merchants discounts if the transaction was made via Google Adwords.

The international company DoubleClick, a leading provider of digital technologies and services in online marketing, is acquiring US giant Klipmart. Klipmart is the largest US provider of online video advertising for web publishers, advertising agencies and advertisers. This acquisition positions DoubleClick at the forefront of the online video market, as DoubleClick writes in a press release. "Klipmart has an outstanding reputation for innovation and video services," said Ben Regensburger, President DoubleClick International, according to the press release.

A total of 9 Swiss agencies were nominated for their work at this year's Best of Corporate Publishing (BCP) Awards in Munich. Three of these agencies were awarded gold. From over 500 entries, the jury nominated a total of 130 corporate publishing products, as can be seen on the BCP website. The requirements to be nominated are correspondingly high - especially in view of the fact that Swiss CP projects generally have smaller budgets than those of large German corporations, for example. The following Swiss agencies were awarded gold:
Corporate Publishing Services GmbH for the publication "VHB Journal" of the client Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GmbH
Infel AG for the publication "Strom" for various energy supply companies in Switzerland Process for the publication "One" for the client Credit SuisseThe following agencies received silver or were nominated:
Arnold Design AG for the publication "Global Investor" of the client Credit Suisse Global Research
Infel AG was awarded silver four times - for the customer magazine "Wander Contact" for the client Wander AG, for the employee publication "piazza" for Swisscom, for the "SBB-Zeitung" and for the title "energy forum" of BKW FMB Energie AGJournal International Verlags- und Werbegesellschaft mbH for the publication "Coop Beaty & Life" of the client Coop AGPrimafila AG / Independent Medien-Design for the publication "Credit Suise Bonviva" of the client Credit SuisseRaffinerie AG for design for the publication "Swiss Magazine" of the client Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.Unicom Media for the publication "Unimagazin" for the client University of ZurichThe submission period for BCP 2007 begins in January 2007.

From August 21, 2006, Swiss television will broadcast the short program from Monday to Friday shortly before the main edition of the Tagesschau on SF1. This will change the program structure and the sequence of the advertising blocks, as announced by marketer Publisuisse in its newsletter on Thursday. The advertising block before the stock market magazine will no longer be shown on SF 2, and the blocks on the two channels will now be booked separately. A new single-spot block will be broadcast between "SF Börse" and "Tagesschau", which will also be shown on SF zwei.

For Griesser, the Swiss market leader for blinds and roller shutter manufacturers in Aadorf, the agency at the airport has developed an advertising idea with door hangers that exploits the curiosity of the neighbors. Griesser employees, who are busy retrofitting blinds and roller shutters or automating sun protection systems in single-family home neighborhoods, hang the door hangers on the neighbors' front doors. The hangers are provided with a pre-paid reply card that only needs to be sent off.

Christian Gartmann, Director of SevenOne Media Switzerland and Sat.1 Switzerland, will join PubliGroupe's General Management on January 1, 2007 as Head of the "Electronic Digital & Interactive Media" business.Following yesterday's announcement that Christian Gartmann is leaving the Swiss ProSiebenSat.1 Group as Managing Director (Werbewoche reported), PubliGroupe is today announcing Gartmann's new position within the company. As head of the "Electronic Digital & Interactive Media" business, Gartmann will develop strategies and create the necessary structures at Group level to further expand business activities in the areas of electronic and interactive media as well as print media and directories.
Over the past two years, PubliGroupe has greatly expanded its activities in the electronic media sector and has also developed its online offerings. With the acquisition of Cinecom in 2004, the formation of web2com and the cross-media unit in 2005 and the takeover of Radiotele this June, PubliGroupe is now able to market advertising services covering the entire range of electronic and interactive media.
Stefan Staub, who as Project Manager "Electronic Media" is responsible for the group's developments to date, will take on other important management tasks within the group in future, as PubliGroupe writes in the press release.

The Lucerne-based advertising agency has added three new clients to its portfolio: The company Marlin in Cham has decided to relaunch its corporate identity and all its communications. Marlin designs and builds swimming pools and equips concrete pools according to customer requirements. Kobalt was also awarded the contract by Trumpf in Baar, one of the world's leading companies in production technology. The first task here is to realize a service brochure and an innovative trade fair concept. The third new member of the team is InterCheese in Hildisrieden. The specialist for cheese trade and affinage is having a new image tailored. The first works will be on display after the summer break.