The advertising agency Krieg, Schlupp, Bürge / Springer & Jacoby has won over the AMAG management in a competitive presentation for the Volkswagen passenger car brand. As of July 1, 2006, the creative Zurich-based agency will be responsible for VW's entire passenger car business in Switzerland. The first works will be on show from summer 2006.

According to the overview of advertising sales by industry and media in Wemf's AIS Advertising Index Switzerland, advertising sales in April 2006 were CHF 344 million, up one percent from a year earlier. Growth has thus slowed somewhat (previous month + 2.6 percent). However, the April data was published without online data, as an important supplier was unable to provide the figures "due to technical problems". The gross values of newspapers, general-interest magazines, trade magazines, radio, teletext, billboards, TV, cinema and adscreen were measured.
Significantly higher advertising spending in April than a year earlier was seen in the apparel/shoes (+29.2%), telecommunications/Internet (+28.0%), UE/photo/optics/listening (+18.3%), politics/economics/administration/industry (+18.1%), pharmaceuticals/health (+14.3%), tobacco products (+13.0%) and finance/insurance (+10.6%) sectors.
The following industries invested less in advertising: watches/jewelry (- 21.7%), media (- 12.6%), office/computer science (- 12.4%) and services (- 10.5%). The remaining industries' investments were a maximum of 10% above or below the advertising expenditures of the corresponding month of the previous year. The overview of advertising revenues in April 2006 by industry and media is available free of charge at www.wemf.ch.

For weeks, the Basel television station "NW1" has been looking for solutions to cover its costs. According to the Basler Zeitung, the main shareholder Elektra Birseck Münchenstein (EBM) has now come up with a rescue proposal: The electricity supplier has offered to hand over the TV station to the employees. However, the team must develop a concept by the beginning of June that will enable the station to survive in the long term. In return, EBM wants to hand over the share capital free of charge to the editorial team and pay off debts worth around four million francs. In mid-February, EBM announced its intention to leave "NW1". At the beginning of March, Christian Heeb, Chairman of the Board of Directors and second main shareholder, also left the loss-making broadcaster and sold his share package to EBM. The latter now holds 90 percent. Beat Alder, publisher of the Basel free newspaper Stadt-Zytig and former head of "NW1" predecessor station "NW5", offered to save the day (see current Werbewoche No. 20). However, as the separation did not go smoothly, both parties are skeptical about this solution.

The Federal Chancellery's years-long battle over the official domain names for Switzerland has come to an end: the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recognizes the Confederation's exclusive right to its Internet addresses. Unless the opposing party appeals against the decision of the official dispute resolution body within 20 days, the transfer of Schweiz.ch, Suisse.ch and Svizzera.ch will be carried out automatically, according to a communiqué. With this decision, WIPO recognizes the importance of the country names and also protects the rights of countries to their own names. A private individual is registered as the holder of the three domain names with the official domain registry Switch.

Over the next few days and months, a field near Munich Airport will be transformed into a huge advertising space: a gigantic Victorinox pocket knife will be displayed on 33,000 square meters. In order to maintain the "giant billboard" during the advertising period, it has to be thoroughly cared for: For example, the grass around the advertisement is regularly mowed and, where necessary, the natural milk-based paint is renewed. The idea for the "field advertising" project came from Swiss farmer Thomas Stutz. With his company FieldCom, he turns nature along busy traffic routes into an advertising medium.

The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is expanding the Young Creatives competition with the new Film category. The challenge: Teams from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Portugal, Spain and Sweden are to film a 30-second commercial using the new Nokia N93, which has "Advanced Mobile Video" functions. The 10 teams of 2 people each have 72 hours to film and complete the commercial. Since 1995, when the Young Creative competition was launched, the film category has been discussed and now, in view of the growing importance of mobile advertising and the new technical possibilities, Cannes Lions has decided to include it. It is the right time to give young creatives the opportunity to show their creativity in the face of this new form of advertising. The films will be judged by the Cannes Lions Film Jury and awarded at the Film & Titanium Awards on June 24.

The Swiss national football team advertises Carlsberg non-alcoholic beer. The problem: out of 27 centrally located stores in the largest Swiss cities, only two carried the prominently advertised beer, while 50% of the others had the five percent Carlsberg on the shelves instead. The professional association for addiction therefore considers the advertising of alcohol-free beer to be a ploy to sell alcoholic beer. The association also criticizes the link between beer and sport. Young people are being targeted in this way. The frequency of beer consumption among young people has doubled in the last 20 years, and binge drinking with beer has also increased. As reported by the SonntagsZeitung, Feldschlösschen, which sells Carlsberg, wants to work on better representation of the non-alcoholic version in stores. The Swiss Football Association has no problem with beer advertising. This is socially accepted everywhere. However, the Foundation for Consumer Protection now wants to examine a complaint to the Swiss Advertising Fairness Commission. According to managing director Jacqueline Bachmann, the advertising for alcohol-free beer is ingenious, as consumers primarily associate it with "real beer".

A Californian court ruled last Friday that bloggers and online journalists are protected by the freedom of the press, just like their colleagues in the traditional media. Computer manufacturer Apple wanted to force employees of the websites Appleinsider.com and Powerpage.com to hand over emails in which Apple employees allegedly passed on company secrets about new products. According to the ruling, the editors do not have to disclose their sources. According to the ruling, it is contrary to the constitutional protection of the press if journalists are not allowed to publish internal company information. The appeal judges thus overturned a ruling from last year and declared an interim injunction ineffective, with which Apple wanted to force the publication of data from Internet service providers.

The Federal Council has approved CHF 50 million for a new university in Geneva and appointed Roger de Weck as Chairman of the Foundation Board. The foundation is due to start work in 2008. The university is planned as a kind of "hybrid" between a university and the ETH and will be called the University Institute for International Relations and Development (HEID) or "Maison de la paix", reports the "NZZ am Sonntag". The 53-year-old de Weck, former editor-in-chief of the "Tages-Anzeiger" and "Die Zeit", has presided over the existing HEI Institute since 2004, which is to be merged into the new university.

As part of the restructuring at Liechtensteinischer Rundfunk, the Board of Directors has taken another important decision. It was decided to terminate the contractual relationship with Editor-in-Chief Harald Reiterer. At the same time, Petra Matt has resigned from her position as Deputy Director General. In future, she will focus exclusively on editorial projects within the radio station, as the Board of Directors announced in writing. Until further notice, the long-standing music editor Roland Blum will take on the role of deputy director.

Nokia, the Finnish and world's largest manufacturer of cell phones, wants to challenge Coca-Cola as the world's most valuable brand. According to Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the new CEO from June 1, 2006, the company aims to become the "most popular and most admired brand in the world". According to the index of the consulting firm Interbrand, Nokia is already the most valuable brand in Europe; in the global ranking, Nokia is in sixth place - behind Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, General Electric and Intel. Kallasvuo wants to achieve this goal by pushing ahead with marketing. The focus is primarily on the brand and the design, but without necessarily increasing marketing expenditure. Nokia invested almost 690 million euros in marketing and sales in 2005.

Special forms of advertising on TV are becoming increasingly popular. In the first quarter of 2006, so-called "blue ads" increased their share of sales in total German advertising to 7.1 percent. In the same quarter of the previous year, the share was 5.9 percent. These are the findings of a new study by marketer SevenOne Media. The study analyzed the advertising impact of special advertising formats on all German private stations except MTV and Viva. According to Werben & Verkaufen, the public broadcasters were not included. The special forms of advertising include split screens, sponsorship of certain programs and permanent commercials. In terms of brand recall and popularity, they performed well in the new study. "Blue ads are characterized by a close connection to the program and exclusive placement. Their success is primarily based on the individuality of the design," comments Daniel Haberfeld, Director Research at SevenOne Media, on the study results. The advertising industry has recognized the specific function and effectiveness and is now using special forms of advertising in addition to classic spots to intensify its campaigns.