The shortlist for the Cyber Lions was announced on Tuesday. The category recorded 2502 submissions - 7 works from Switzerland were represented. However, none of them made it onto the shortlist. Switzerland can now still hope for Media, Film and Titanium Lions. The winners of the Media category will be announced next on Tuesday evening. More soon and here.

Agence Virtuelle, the Geneva-based e-marketing specialist, and the online travel agency Ebookers are strengthening their collaboration, which began six years ago, in order to intensify their e-marketing activities. The Geneva-based agency has signed a two-year contract with its client Ebookers. The exact budget, a seven-figure sum, is not being disclosed. Sabine Bourdinière, Head of Clients at Agence Virtuelle, explains that this will allow Agence Virtuelle to accelerate client development and continue the geomarketing strategy it has been implementing for several years. The European Internet travel agency Ebookers has been operating in fourteen countries since 1999. In Switzerland, Ebookers.ch has been online since April 2000.

The World Cup in Germany is a media event - on the internet too. The official Fifa World Cup website http://www.fifaworldcup.com already had over 1.2 billion page views in the first week of play. By comparison, the 2002 World Cup attracted a total of 2 billion visitors to the site. Fifa announced that the website, which provides information in nine languages and is compiled by 50 Fifa editors, currently has around 5 million visitors per day.
Fifa now offers highlights from the matches as free streams on its website. These have already been downloaded 31 million times. The World Cup manager game, which is offered on the site in collaboration with Yahoo, has also recorded over 600,000 registrations, according to FIFA. Fifa now intends to publish the weekly access figures for the official World Cup site on Mondays with immediate effect.

After Banque Cantonale Vaudoise launched a new financial product on the market, the magazine is facing criticism from journalists' associations. "Bilan", the business magazine published by Edipresse, helped to put together the share basket and will provide editorial coverage of the new financial product for a year. The journalists' associations see this approach as inadmissibly blurring the line between advertising and content. The fact that Edipresse titles are included in the share basket is also extremely suspicious. Christian Campiche, co-founder of the "Info-en-danger" association, told the SDA news agency that it was unacceptable from a professional ethics point of view to be involved in the launch of financial products. Bilan" is now calling for rigorous self-regulation. Negative reports about companies that are represented in the share basket must neither be glossed over nor forgotten.

McDonald's is fulfilling ten Swiss children's dream of one day standing on the pitch with a big soccer star: They will be allowed to accompany the players onto the pitch at the World Cup in Germany. McDonald's organized elimination competitions around the world to find the kids who would be allowed to run in with a player. In Switzerland, the castings were carried out in collaboration with the Ringier media house. Blick, SonntagsBlick and Sat.1 Switzerland accompanied the campaign from the call to the children's participation in the games - with advertisements, call trailers, online voting and publicity reports. 8-year-old Fabien Burkhalter from Adliswil was even allowed to attend the final game and accompany a player hand in hand onto the pitch. As McDonald's announced, Fabien won out over around 1,700 other applicants.

Germans' interest in mobile TV has risen from ten to fifteen percent in the last three months. Industry experts assume that, thanks to the latest figures, money can also be made with this offer. However, before profits can be realized, there are still hurdles to overcome. This is shown by a joint market analysis by the two consulting firms TNS Infratest and Theron Business Consulting. "Customers prefer short, up-to-date clips and previews that cannot be seen on stationary television," explains Stephan Zimmermann from Theron Business Consulting. To achieve this, the formats must be optimally adapted to the portable end devices and usage situations. The main sources of income for mobile television are general usage fees, additional paid services and advertising. The technical prerequisite for revenues from usage fees is the encryption of the broadcast program content. However, despite the willingness to pay, it could take some time for the money to flow: The majority of mobile operators (97%) are currently not prepared to buy a new TV-capable cell phone outside of the usual procurement and investment cycles. In addition to an adequate technical infrastructure and target-group-oriented marketing, a prerequisite for the breakthrough of the medium is a willingness to cooperate between the main market players involved, such as broadcasters, producers and mobile phone companies. TNS Infratest conducted 1000 interviews for the study in February and May 2006. Theron Business Consulting interviewed numerous decision-makers from the mobile communications industry, broadcasters and independent market experts.

Following the print and TV campaign, the Zurich agency Hesskiss is now also implementing the poster campaign for the credit and leasing company Cashgate. During the summer, Swiss streets will feature spaces in which special customer wishes are manifested - such as a sailing boat, a safari trip or an art object. In German-speaking Switzerland, these wishes appear on busy roads and highly frequented traffic junctions in the Cashgate look, i.e. in the characteristic typography and with the logo addition. Cashgate is a bank specializing in consumer finance that was founded by Graubündner, Schwyzer, Thurgauer and Zürcher Kantonalbank and has been on the market since March 2005. In the meantime, ten other banks are already working with the institution.

The three most important topics for online marketers are email, search engine and affiliate marketing. Internet telephony, mobile marketing and accessibility are gaining the most importance. This is the result of the new study "Online Trends 2006" by the service provider directory Marketing-Börse. 95 percent of the 1,500 online marketing experts surveyed consider e-mail marketing to be an important topic, as it is considered to be one of the most efficient customer retention tools. Many companies are pushing ahead with the development of their own mailing list. According to the study, the challenge here is to retain readers by continuously providing relevant information. In addition to search engine optimization, affiliate marketing is also very popular among those surveyed. It brings in visitors by linking your own website to partner sites. Systematic link building is also an important instrument of search engine marketing. One successful example is the online retailer Amazon: 23.6 million hyperlinks point to its German website alone. 88 percent of study participants consider Internet telephony to be an indispensable marketing tool. It offers customers the opportunity to call with questions or problems about a product at the click of a mouse and communicate immediately with a real person instead of a computer. The authors of the study also consider it important to keep an eye on weblogs: Those who regularly check a forum such as Technorati.com to see what is being written about their company in blogs can prevent many a PR disaster.

The Creative Director of the Zurich agency Sulzer Sutter, Francis Sulzer, is representing Switzerland on the jury of the 23rd international "Das Plakat" competition. The award honors ideas that set new standards in the creation of consumer goods, media and culture. The submission deadline expired on June 12. The gold, silver and bronze advertising pillars will be awarded in Munich at the end of October.

Switzerland is clearly showing what it can do not only in football, but also in advertising. The Lions were awarded in the Lions Direct category at the 53rd International Advertising Festival in Cannes on Monday evening. One gold and two bronze Lions go to Switzerland! Gold: Ruf Lanz for the Mühlehalde home for the blind "Featuring Worldhits" The task was to generate donations for the Mühlehalde home for the blind in Zurich. In two sensational TV and cinema commercials, Ruf Lanz had the blind and elderly residents of the Mühlehalde home for the blind interpret two world hits by Stevie Wonder and Andrea Bocelli. What they lacked in vocal talent, they more than made up for in charm and passion. At the end came the conclusion: not all blind people can earn millions by singing. Thank you for your donation to PC account 80-21096-3. The result exceeded all expectations: the volume of donations rose by 64.7 % to 2.3 million francs. Bronze: OgilvyOne for Volvo with "Volvo Inscription "The "Volvo Inscription" mailing has already won silver at the German Dialog Marketing Prize (DDP). The external address launch mailing had the task of publicizing Volvo's new "Inscription" equipment line - Scottish leather and other fine materials. The effect of the mailing was convincing: 18 percent of the 15,000 recipients responded and sent back the enclosed piece of tartan. The target response rate was only 1.4 percent.Bronze: Lang Gysi Knoll for Swiss Post with "Emptying Post Boxes "The task was to make Swiss Express Post's business customers aware that not only parcels are delivered, but that post boxes are also emptied and their contents delivered. Lang Gysi Knoll relied on an optical illusion and had post office employees in the Bern region prepare post boxes in such a way that an image simulated the empty post box when the post box was opened and drew the customer's attention to the Swiss Express Post service.
 
The Grand Prix in the Direct category went to the "Need a Job?" campaign by the Belgian agency IDO Brussels on behalf of the business newspaper "De Tijd." The first prize in the Promotions category went to the US agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky from Miami for its "Fast" promotion for Volkswagen. This category has been awarded at the Advertising Festival since 2002. "Cannes Lions Direct" is an annual forum for creative, innovative approaches and solutions in the field of direct marketing and also a meeting place for direct marketing professionals from all over the world.Kathrin Fischer

More than 200 invited guests attended the tenth anniversary of rotor Agentur für Kommunikation. After a first refreshment with food & drinks in the agency's courtyard, 64 racing enthusiasts signed up for the qualifying of the Tenth Grand Prix of Zurich. Whether as a Carrera driver or as a spectator, the excitement went on until the end. After the award ceremony, which was performed by the charming Miss Carrera 2006, DJ Steve McQueen and the unplugged band Los Bandidos led the way deep into the night with their Tequilla Racing Punk.The subsequent race was held in pairs in a knockout system 1 against 1. Between the races, Beat Engeler of Fischer Architekten AG and Martin Hauser, co-owner of rotor, talk shop about the drivers' performances.Great amazement in the VIP grandstand: Bernd Götz of Swiss Re with his wife Inge, Lorenz Hauser, music and events specialist, and Gilles Bachmann of Fauxpas Grafik.Peter Burri, marketing manager of Health Promotion Switzerland coaches his son Tim. Miss Carrera 2006 Oxana Fedorova presented the prizes to the finalists. The runner-up André Becchio was taken comfortingly in the middle. And the winner Oliver Fitze owner Hum Records was happy about the hard-fought Carrera package.Afterwards the racing circus celebrates until the early morning hours the rotor anniversary Grand Prix to the legendary Tequilla Racing Punk of Los Bandidos. Text & Image: rotor
 
Upload: Beat Fritsch
Support: Kathrin Fischer
Good Job: Urs Bühler
 From next Monday (19.6.06), the daily shortlist coverage from Cannes will be available here.Image captionImage captionImage captionImage captionImage captionImage captionImage captionImage captionThe night from Sunday to Monday served as a warm-up for the important World Cup match against Togo. Most suitable for that is the Martinez Bar, focal point for festive advertisers from all over the world. On Sunday, however, the Swiss and the Germans were clearly in the majority. Monday was then all about the round leather. Just in time, Cinecom flew in a fifteen-strong group of fans (otherwise known as customers) from Switzerland. They met for lunch at the beach of the noble hotel Gray d'Albion and then went to the Havas Café, which is just a stone's throw away. There was great joy when Switzerland was already in the lead after the first half hour. Web2com boss Ueli Weber even let himself be carried away to a little dance of joy.The lion round was also opened today. With two bronze and one gold cat, the start can be called quite successful. And the six shortlist placements at the Media Lions sweeten the whole thing even more. However, the Swiss still had to swallow one toad. Unfortunately, there are no Swiss entries on the press and outdoor shortlists.
 The race organizers open qualifying for the Tenth Zurich Grand Prix. Sascha Kieslinger, Art Director rotor and Alexander Gessert, Creative Director and co-owner rotor.Maurizio Scarpa from Sfax Hairstylist welcomes two beauties to the paddock.Christine Roth, the former Marketing Manager of Freitag Lab enjoyed herself together with Daniel Kistler from Ringier.Ludwig Dörr, the former advertising manager of Coop Switzerland found time for a lightning visit to Zurich despite his retirement.Music meets film: Phonogen.com founder Rino Meyer poses with Beat Lenherr of panimage.With enough fuel in the tank, 64 drivers fought for thousandths of a second to qualify for the race on the rotor Speedway at Club Zukunft.

With Marlis Ackermann, Feldschlösschen Getränke AG has a new Head of Marketing and a new member of the Executive Board. Ackermann holds a degree from the University of St. Gallen and most recently worked as Director Marketing Private Banking International at Credit Suisse in Zurich. Prior to this, the 41-year-old worked for various international companies, including Nestlé and Procter & Gamble, in several countries. According to Feldschlösschen, Marlis Ackermann is the only woman on the company's eight-member Executive Board. At the same time, she is the first woman ever to head up the marketing division at the beverage company, which has around 30 employees.