SRG SSR idée suisse has taken legal action against the football TV rights marketer Infront. As reported by the "Sonntagszeitung" newspaper, SRG has now taken legal action against Günther Netzer's company. SRG believes that its exclusive contract regarding the broadcasting rights for the World Cup in Switzerland has been violated, as RTL and M6 are also broadcasting Switzerland in their Swiss windows - with Swiss advertising. Among other things, SRG is claiming a loss of advertising revenue. The advertising revenue during the World Cup is used by the broadcaster chains to refinance their expenditure for the rights. However, the broadcasts of the public broadcasters ARD, ZDF and ORF, which can also be received in Switzerland, are not framed by Swiss advertising.

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.Picture captionPicture captionPicture captionPicture captionPicture captionPicture captionPicture captionPicture captionPicture captionTen years of rotor Agentur für Kommunikation were celebrated by over 200 invited guests. 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 entertained with their Tequilla Racing Punk until deep into the night. Text & image: rotorUpload: Beat FritschSupport: Kathrin FischerGood Job: Urs BühlerFrom next Monday (19.6.06), the daily shortlist coverage from Cannes will be available here.The race organizers open the qualifying for the Tenth Grand Prix of Zurich. Sascha Kieslinger, Art Director rotor and Alexander Gessert, Creative Director and co-owner rotor.Maurizio Scarpa of Sfax hairstylist welcomes two beauties in the paddock.Christine Roth, the former marketing manager of Freitag Lab amused herself together with Daniel Kistler of Ringier.Ludwig Dörr, the former advertising director 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.

From June 17 to 24, advertising agencies and clients will meet on the Côte D'Azur for the 53rd International Advertising Festival. Werbewoche reports on the event in text and pictures - read the daily news from our man on site here: Beat Fritsch. The candidates for the Golden Lion in the Direct category have already been announced: Out of 165 shortlist places, nine go to Switzerland.
 
Despite strong competition and very good works from the other countries on the shortlist, Switzerland performs strongly. Only one work from Austria made it onto the shortlist, while there are 29 candidates for a Lion from Germany.
 
And these are the nine candidates in the Lions Direct category:
 
In the Fast Moving Consumer Goods sub-category, the crown cork mailing for Heineken Switzerland by Fisch.Meier.Direkt.
In the Cars & Automotive Services sub-category, the work for Volvo by OgilvyOne.
In the Commercial Public Services sub-category, the empty letterboxes for Swiss Post Service by Lang Gysi Knoll.
In the Other Consumer Services sub-category, the Corporate Sponsor Program for Lowe's International Wrestling Assocation Switzerland.
In the Business Products & Services sub-category, the work for Rüegg-Nägeli from the Agentur am Flughafen.
In the same sub-category, the work Calustrophobex for Jungkind Interior Design by Alex Schmid Direct.
In the Flat Mailing sub-category, the work for Volvo by OgilvyOne.
In the same sub-category, the crown cork mailing for Heineken Switzerland by Fisch.Meier.Direkt.
In the Direct Response TV & Infomercials subcategory, the work "Featuring Worldhits" for the Mühlehalde home for the blind by Ruf Lanz.
The shortlist for the new category Promotion (sales promotion) was also announced on Sunday. Unfortunately, no Swiss entries made it onto the shortlist. A total of 96 shortlist places have been awarded in this category, 26 of which were won by Germany. In view of the respectable success in the Lions Direct category, the question arises as to whether Switzerland is a direct marketing country. Although Lions Direct is considered a "small category", it is likely to win Switzerland one or two of the coveted lions.

Following the market entry of M-Budget Mobile, Migros is now also entering the postpaid market together with Swisscom Mobile. Euro RSCG Zurich was commissioned to publicize Migros Mobile. The aim was to quickly get to the heart of the advantages of the new offer. Migros Mobile is positioned as the "simple cell phone subscription" without complicated contracts and opaque tariff structures. The campaign takes up these advantages and shows how simple and transparent mobile telephony can be. In the print ads, typical phrases for cell phone calls are put into Migros packaging and offered for sale. The campaign aims to show that with Migros Mobile you know what you are buying. This theme is also taken up in the TV commercials. The campaign and the Migros Mobile subscription were launched throughout Switzerland on June 1.

With Alpha.ch, the Tamedia job market is launching an online counterpart to the printed management job advertisement. According to a press release, executives can be notified of new vacancies by e-mail on an ongoing basis. The Alpha Know-how section offers additional information for job seekers and HR managers, such as the CEO forum, the university platform with articles on new courses of study, the employment law section, dossiers on topics such as health in the workplace and MBA training courses. In addition, all specialist articles published in the print version are also available online. With Alpha.ch, Tamedia Stellenmarkt aims to continue the networking of print and online media. The new service differs from Jobwinner, which also belongs to Tamedia, in that Alpha.ch only publishes jobs for specialists and managers. The aim is to offer attractive combinations for the publication of job advertisements in the printed and web editions.

The Blu agency based in Altdorf is strengthening its Public Relations division and has hired another communications specialist. Gabriela Knobel is a federally certified PR consultant and certified fundraiser VMI/University of Fribourg. She joined Blu in mid-April and will continue to develop public relations in general and the areas of public affairs and PR for non-profit organizations in particular. According to the agency's press release, Knobel has many years of professional experience in journalism, PR and non-profit organizations. She previously worked for PR agencies Farner and Wirz as well as Caritas Switzerland, among others.

Goldbach Media subsidiary ActiveMobile is launching a "World Cup Gossip Show" for Migros in collaboration with Cognition and Konnex. Under the title "Schwitzer Familie", newly produced video clips in cartoon format will run daily during the World Cup on www.schwitzerfamilie.20min.ch. They are intended to profile Migros as a presenting partner with exceptional content, according to Goldbach Media. The short video sequences can be viewed daily on the 20 Minuten Internet portal. In one to two-minute stories, the events surrounding the World Cup are commented on and satirized, according to the press release. The protagonists are Jakob "Köbi" Kuhn and Pascal "Zubi" Zuberbühler.

Stephan Rissmann has joined Japan Tobacco International in the position of Vice President. His role is Vice President Global Brand Portfolio and Corporate Strategy. The 40-year-old will be responsible for the global marketing strategy and the brand portfolio of the JTI brands at the global headquarters in Geneva. These include Winston, Camel and Mild Seven, three of the ten largest cigarette brands, as the company announced. Until last year, Rissmann was Head of Sales and Marketing at Arkona AG in Rostock. Prior to that, he was Global Brand Head for the Davidoff brand at Reemtsma.

Hanspeter Kellermüller was elected Managing Director by the Executive Committee of the Swiss Press Association. He has already been working for the association for three years as a legal consultant and member of the management board. As announced by the publishers' association, Kellermüller will take over from Daniel Kaczynski on January 1, 2007, who had already announced his resignation on this date some time ago. The 38-year-old Hanspeter Kellermüller studied law in Zurich and was admitted to the bar. He worked as a journalist before and during his studies and was also a delegate of the ICRC. Before joining the Swiss Press Association, he worked as a lawyer in a Zurich law firm.

The television producers Valerio Crivelli from Lugano and Michel Demierre from Geneva have been awarded the 2006 Catholic Media Prize by the Swiss Bishops' Conference (SBC). They were honored for their TV broadcasts of church services, as the SBC announced on Friday. Crivelli was until recently head of the Centro cattolico per la Radio e la Televisione (CCRTV). In this role, he took special care in realizing church service broadcasts as a planner, consultant and even celebrant. Demierre is a priest and director of religious broadcasts for TSR television in French-speaking Switzerland. He has created the broadcaster's liturgical broadcasts with exceptional expertise and careful timing of images, sounds and liturgical action.

An attempt to save the loss-making local television station "NW1" in Basel by its employees has failed. On Friday, the operating company NordWest Medien AG announced the closure of its operations. The 22 employees will be made redundant. In May, the main shareholder Elektra Birseck Münchenstein (EBM) had offered the employees of the struggling TV station to let them keep the station debt-free if they presented a concept to secure it. This concept was analyzed on Friday, as reported by SDA. However, the Board of Directors and employees came to the conclusion that 300,000 to 500,000 Swiss francs would have been necessary to survive a lean period. The employees would not have been able to secure these funds within the deadline.
All employment contracts will be terminated at the end of June, the sponsoring company announced. The Board of Directors is currently working out a social plan with the employees and the journalists' professional association Impressum. The employees will remain in employment until the end of September. "NW1" will continue to broadcast previously produced programs "until further notice".
However, EBM intends to hold talks until the end of July with other interested parties who may want to continue the station with new concepts. However, if the sale of the company as a whole does not materialize, individual parts will then be sold off, as an EBM spokesperson told SDA.
According to information provided by EBM Director Hans Büttiker at the delegates' meeting on Wednesday, EBM is expecting a loss of around CHF 5 million from its stake in "NW1".

DPV Direct, the direct marketing service provider of Gruner + Jahr's German press distributor DPV, is supplying the Ringier publishing house with a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) package. According to DPV Direct, Ringier is investing in modern customer relationship management "to better exploit its customer potential". The CRM package of IT and services has been adapted to the special requirements of the Swiss market. The core components are a campaign management module and a data warehouse for mapping comprehensive direct marketing processes in the fields of campaign planning, management and control, active contact management, data mining and list broking. The collaboration between Ringier and the German company is set to run for several years, according to the press release.