Public relations Swiss PR agencies are growing again after three years. In 2005, fees rose by 2.9 percent to 61.5 million Swiss francs. The public relations industry is on the upswing: in 2005, agencies recorded growth of around 3 percent. A sharp increase in inquiries from new clients in the last six months gives the industry confidence for 2006, as the Association of Public Relations Agencies in Switzerland announced last week at its annual media conference. The new board of directors was also presented at the conference.
There is continuity - with Christian König (Farner Consulting, Zurich), Peter Felber (int/ext Communications, Basel) - and new strength with Roman Geiser (Burson-Marsteller, Zurich) and Peter Knobel (Knobel Public Relations Consultants, Zug). The latter replaces Ulrich Bollmann (Burson-Marsteller), who has worked for the BPRA for many years, as President. For Knobel - "our preferred candidate" - the new board is "an ideal mix with representatives from large and small agencies".

The BPRA is proud that this association is "one of the only ones in the world" that is still able to map the market transparently with figures and a ranking. Publication of the figures is still a clear condition for a PR agency to be accepted into the BPRA. Two agencies had to be warned about the current statistics. If there are still no figures, they face exclusion next year.

Burson-Marsteller and Trimedia have found a legally "courageous" and elegant solution. Because the American Stock Exchange Act also prohibits partners of a US network from publicly disclosing profits or losses, Burson-Marsteller and Trimedia deposited their figures anonymously with a trustee. The trustee then compiled the ranking for the BPRA. "Now Trimedia can work out what Burson-Marsteller earns and vice versa," joked Christian König at the media conference. Whether the model with the reports protected by a fiduciary office would also be possible for BSW agencies is doubtful. "Too complicated for so many agencies," believe the PR people.

There have only been minimal shifts in the ranking. The five largest public relations agencies in the BPRA have a market share of 67 percent. Farner Consulting remains at the top in terms of net fee income with 11.2 million, followed by Burson-Marsteller (figures confidential due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act). In third place is Peter Bütikofer & Company with 8.4 million, followed by Trimedia (undisclosed figures). In fifth place for the first time is an agency "outside the PR Mecca of Zurich" - freicom St. Gallen with CHF 5.5 million in fee income. "A real PR market is emerging in Eastern Switzerland," interpreted Knobel.

The outlook for the current year is "intact" according to a survey by the association. Three quarters of all agencies have received significantly more inquiries for new business in the past six months. However, the difficult situation of the last three years has also left its mark. Seven agencies no longer appear in the statistics.

Wirz Corporate and Mediapolis no longer appear in the market statistics because the two agencies have withdrawn from the traditional PR consultancy market. Zahner & Partner no longer appears due to the merger with Trimedia Communications, DBCOM due to discontinuation of business and the three agencies PLEON c-matrix, Creafactory and idtcom Hugo Schmidt for commercial reasons.

Of the 19 agencies organized in the association, 13 have already joined an international network or a PR group. "This trend towards international networks is on the rise. Cross-border mandates are also growing," said one at the media briefing. Both incoming business and exports of Swiss PR concepts abroad are developing positively.
Of course, small agencies can no longer keep up here. They are also "at risk in the face of increasing competitive pressure". In an international comparison, growth here is not yet as pronounced as in Germany, for example. There, fee revenues are said to have increased by 11.4 percent.

As seven agencies no longer appear in the market statistics, the market recorded in this way has fallen from 81.2 million francs to 61.5 million francs. The number of employees increased by 1.8 percent. Per capita income thus remained virtually unchanged at CHF 220,000. It has thus remained at practically the same productivity level since 1998. "An unmistakable sign that the agencies are managing their business soundly," commented the new President.

The agencies of different sizes show a largely balanced market structure. According to the statistics, the previously missing midfield has closed from top to bottom. The BPRA's statistics do not include an estimated 50 million that are generated by "individual agencies", for example with ghostwriting or local assignments.

The outlook for 2006 is good: all agencies report higher or at least the same level of budgets from their clients for 2006. Every second agency was invited to competitor presentations more frequently in the last six months than in the same period of the previous year.

The trend today is for large companies to want to rethink their relationship with an agency every three years with a competition or to have to do so for reasons of corporate regulations. Since a serious participation in such pitches costs around 30,000 francs, many agencies are not only enthusiastic about this development. "There are other ways of evaluating an agency," says Christian König.

One important trend shows that - obviously a sign of the expected boom - crisis PR is increasingly taking a back seat. Marketing communication is more in demand instead. Many PR agencies are increasingly teaming up with traditional advertising agencies at the pitch stage. "The fear of contact is diminishing."
On the other hand, the BPRA clearly rejects PR agencies that are only affiliated with advertising agencies as small units. If such units were included in the association - even if their work is appreciated - the BPRA would "massively lose profile".

New quality assurance with CMS IIAs Peter Felber explained at the media briefing, the new quality assurance project with CMS II enjoys a high priority within the association. Over the last twelve months, seven BPRA agencies have already signed up to and been certified to this, the world's highest consultancy management standard in the PR industry. Five more agencies are on the waiting list. More information can be found on the Internet at www.bpra.ch.
Andreas Panzeri

The recent takeover of Bern-based film producer FaroTV by Condor Films shows that consolidation is also underway in this industry. This is likely to intensify. Condor is spreading its wings and is on the lookout for further prey. "We are in talks with two to three other locations, so it could be that one or two more will be added by the end of the year," says Thomas Sterchi, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Condor Films. The aim is to "maintain a critical size" in Switzerland and also gain a foothold abroad.Condor Films is one of the oldest in the industry. The company was founded in 1947 by the Fueter family of filmmakers. Tamedia acquired a stake in the company in 1994 and today holds 70 percent. However, the founding family always remained involved and present on the Board of Directors, even when Tamedia sold its majority shareholding to Sterchi and Kristian Widmer, the Chairman of the Executive Board, on January 1, 2005. Today, Condor Films is active in the areas of commercials, feature films, corporate communications and documentaries.
Turnover in 2005 totaled CHF 13 million, with spot production alone generating CHF 10 million. "We are probably the Swiss market leader in the areas of commercials and corporate," says Sterchi. Depending on the area, however, Condor Films has to compete with big names such as RingierTV, the SRG subsidiary Tpc or B&B Endemol - to name but a few. One of Condor's biggest successes was the 1991 Academy Awards for the film "Journey of Hope" by Xavier Koller, which was produced by the company.
With FaroTV, Condor not only increases its turnover by 30%, the company also gains a foothold in the TV format sector. The Bern-based company is currently successful in this area with "Celebrations" and "Joya rennt". "FaroTV complements us perfectly, it's the perfect match for us," says Sterchi happily. Thanks to FaroTV, Condor can also set foot abroad for the first time. A year ago, the small company entered into a 30:70 joint venture with RingierTV called Zana Media, through which both companies contribute their formats to Sparks Network, an international format hub. FaroTV currently offers "Celebrations" and "Joya rennt" there, while RingierTV is present with "Gesundheit-Sprechstunde" and "Al Dente".
RingierTV not pleasedIt will be interesting to see how this partnership develops. There have not yet been any direct talks between RingierTV and Condor, and in an initial reaction RingierTV was "not very happy" about the new situation (WW 15/06). Possibly with good reason: FaroTV is probably at a disadvantage with Zana Media, as "Joya rennt" is more successful internationally than RingierTV with its offer. However, as the majority shareholder of Zana Media, RingierTV is the primary beneficiary. So did the FaroTV owners want to free themselves from Ringier's grip with the sale to Condor? And is Condor now insisting on a 50:50 joint venture with Zana Media?
"Your interpretation could make sense, but it's wrong," says Mathias Ruch, one of the founders of FaroTV. Although "Joya rennt" has "certainly served as a door opener in some situations", the partnership at Zana Media is "very satisfying" and both sides benefit. The composition of the shareholder base "is satisfactory for us", he says.
No fear of contactThings sound a little different at Condor. "It's possible that FaroTV is missing out on something with Zana Media," says Thomas Sterchi. In any case, he is "not quite sure yet whether Zana Media is really a win-win situation". In any case, he is going into the upcoming talks with RingierTV "without fear of contact, but also without a fixed opinion".
"Exclusive" talks Has Condor RingierTV
snatched the partner from under your nose? The surprised reaction at RingierTV gives this impression. RingierTV Managing Director Marc Görtz, however, denies having any interest in FaroTV: "We would probably be too differently oriented for that," he says. FaroTV co-founder Mathias Ruch, on the other hand, leaves open whether takeover talks have also taken place with RingierTV. "I won't comment on that," he says. Thomas Sterchi from Condor is of a different opinion: he considers earlier talks between RingierTV and FaroTV to be possible, but emphasizes that the negotiations between Condor and FaroTV were conducted "exclusively". Markus Knöpfli
The picture shows Thomas Sterchi, Chairman of the Board at Condor Films

Magazine On May 11, the newly revised Facts appears. It immediately becomes clear what was previously arbitrary.New layout, new magazine structure and new content had Facts recently announced. Werbewoche reported (WW 14/06). Since the new editor-in-chief Andreas Durisch took office on December 15, 2005 - he continues to head the editorial department of the SonntagsZeitung - the paper has undergone a general overhaul. New people from the environment of Welt- woche, Tages-Anzeiger and Cash complement the editorial team and the chief editors. They are to guarantee that Facts also delivers what its creators understand to be a Swiss news magazine: Relevant news from politics and business, hot topics from culture and lifestyle. To illustrate the changes, Durisch looks back ten years: "Facts was exciting and more than just a marketing success during its first five years. The magazine fell into the sometimes journalistic offside when the founding crew, "a dozen good people from SonntagsZeitung and Weltwoche," changed jobs. Facts was "waffling on politics and often too innocuous on business," says Durisch. Under these circumstances, the Facts scandal of 1999, when the paper alleged that Federal Councilor Kaspar Villiger had relations with a prostitute, was nothing more than an accident. The last layout correction in 2004, as the start of a new era of journalistic seriousness, was then too well-behaved in the appearance of the paper and did not make the breakthrough with the readership. Young and female readers jumped ship. Time and again, there was thematic confusion, especially in the short news items, where fashion stories were juxtaposed with drug stories. But even with bigger stories - the editorial team cut the piece on devil exorcists next to the exclusive interview with Sharon Stone - the news magazine's direction caused frowns. "It was too colorful, and you didn't know if Facts was a society magazine or a lifestyle magazine," Durisch says.
 
Vitality of the founding years and seriousness of the most recent era should therefore merge. "I believe there is a place for Facts between Schweizer Illustrierte and Weltwoche," says Durisch. When he took the job, it quickly became clear that a change was needed not only in terms of content, but also visually. The design was created by Adrian Hablützel, longtime art director of Annabelle. Hablützel is a permanent member of the new crew. The advantage of this is that the pitfalls of the layout can be mastered in-house. The redesigned paper is already prominent at the beginning. The title font takes up a quarter of the front page, headed with a topic outline. Three more follow at the bottom of the page.
 
Compared to the old layout, the booklet has a clear structure and visual language, complemented by additional graphics, info boxes and further supplementary texts on a hypertext level. These make the pages visually lively and balanced at the same time. The text supplements are intended to make the content of the main article comprehensible or at least guessable when browsing through the pages - in contrast to the image legends of Spiegel, for example, which consistently pose riddles. High-quality images will be given more prominence in the future, even sometimes double-page spreads. "This was neglected in the past, but we don't want to become a magazine" says Durisch. Readers will find their way around more easily because the page headings are now no longer eye tests, but clearly recognizable.
Showing identity more clearlyThe restructuring of the departments is intended to emphasize the identity of the paper as a Swiss news magazine more clearly: Cover Story, Switzerland section with political and social topics, the Business section moved more prominently to the front, followed by the Facts classic Knowledge. Lebensart, which combines culture and lifestyle, offers a new stage. There are articles and tips on fashion, design and technology, literature, film and music. In second-to-last place, ahead of Sports, is the Foreign Affairs section. This is astonishing for a news magazine, but it can be read as an emphasis on Switzerland as a location. Thus Facts, which was founded shortly after Focus and ten years ago had copied a lot from the German model, continues to Swissize. "Today, Facts is more classic than Focus," says Durisch.
 
With its own interweaving, the new Facts sees itself almost as a counter-model to the author's paper Weltwoche. "In approach, we are closer to Weltwoche, in implementation closer to the Sunday press." Where the three Sunday titles are fixated on the weekly rhythm, Facts relies on a more analytical approach and on topics that - overrun by topicality - remain lying. "Only a magazine can condense latent topicality, for example the story about poor doctors in Switzerland, into a cover story," says Durisch, describing the niche for his paper.
Facts needs economic successThe readership figures of Facts,
which over the years has been repeatedly predicted to die, or to merge with Weltwoche, are, according to the latest Wemf half-year results, showing a minimal upward trend (439,000 readers). The new appearance is being celebrated with a large Facts advertising campaign with the claim "I want more Facts". In this way, the paper is to achieve a turnaround and become a premium magazine. "Facts must have more economic success," says Andreas Durisch and is convinced that the editorial team can make the journalistic contribution to achieve this. René Worni

Dialogue and content play an important role in Sélection's communication strategy. Exxtra chose a cross-media approach for this, and the new advertisements also provide an insight into the production process with authentic reportage photos. The carrier media for these were selected very carefully, qualitative criteria were rated higher than pure performance values, explains Stefan Erhart from the Exxtra agency. A similarly critical approach was taken when selecting the websites for the banners, in which the production process is shown in the form of animated photo reports. A media cooperation with Saisonküche provides monthly reports on the producers and the matching recipes with Sélection products. Facts prepared for the mediaThe Sélection website is the information platform of Migros Sélection and contains all the facts, which in turn are prepared for the media. In addition to product information, all tasting dates can also be found there. The website is therefore also an important platform for dialog measures. An e-newsletter reports regularly on the latest news about Sélection.
However, potential and active customers are also contacted in the traditional way. For example, a carrier bag was sent to 50,000 potential Migros premium customers for the launch, with a gentle invitation to fill it with the new Sélection products in-store. Almost half of those contacted responded to the call. In January, Sélection thanked the 10,000 best customers by mailing them a small personal gift, a Sélection bistro apron. This was promptly acknowledged with several hundred letters of thanks from the recipients.
A series of tastings were held in several Migros stores in time for the Easter holidays. At the same time, a product brochure with all the new products was available in the stores. The new products are presented in parallel on the Migros online portal and in strip advertisements in the Migros magazine.
Luca Aloisi

Insurance company Wirz shows that Die Mobiliar distributes surplus As a Mobiliar customer, you get money paid out even without a claim if business goes well. Mobiliar, a cooperative since its foundation in 1826, does not just focus on its policyholders with fine words. The insurance company also allows its customers to share in its economic success. It regularly allocates a portion of its profits to the surplus fund and makes periodic payouts to policyholders. This began in the 1940s, and since 1981 alone, Die Mobiliar has paid back 422 million francs to its customers. This year, all SMEs with MobiPro insurance are participating in the success. And this is exactly what Wirz Werbung has put in a witty, surprising and new way on the ads. Around 130,000 small and medium-sized companies can share CHF 18 million. So the slogan is right for them: "You have money to spare. Even without damage."   
Andreas Panzeri

Radio Time and again, Radio 105's music editorial team proves to have a good nose for upcoming hits. Months before other stations have the courage to do so, the youth radio station focuses on new artists and plays them on Powerplay. The latest example is Ne-Yo. In December 2005, Radio 105 played his current single "So Sick" for the first time - a Swiss premiere. Now the song is also conquering the official charts. Meanwhile, Radio 105 has also launched a new advertising campaign with Ne-Yo. Print ads and Internet banners are planned. In the coming weeks and months, the campaign will continue with other artists.

Showbizz Last Sunday, the Prix Walo took place at the Bernhard Theater in Zurich. Although the term "theater" is rather nostalgic for the Bernhard stage. Since there is no continuous repertoire, it would be better to call it an event location. That would also have been true for the award gala. The Prix Walo proved to be a successful event. At most, there was some theater behind the scenes - because Swiss television unfortunately no longer wants to broadcast this 32nd Prix Walo. SF prefers to do the "Swiss Awards", for which the Swiss show scene should actually give the Leutschenbächler an honorary Walo for the best copying of a successful idea. Nevertheless, the media flickering in the Bernhard Event Box was not missed. After the combined stations of Tele News Kombi had to broadcast a program last year in which M1, as the producer of the live broadcast, even apologized with advertisements for the technically poor quality, U1 stepped into the breach this year. One positive aspect that "caught the eye" was how the station was able to impress with an extremely professional performance. The only question that remains is who - apart from the audience on site - noticed this in front of the screens.Andreas Panzeri

On April 28, the Wall Street Journal Europe will include the first of four annual issues of the new fashion and lifestyle supplement Style Journal. The lifestyle magazine for men is published in cooperation with the British publishing house Slow Media. The 64-page Style Journal is dedicated to celebrities, design and fashion trends. Among other things, the first issue focuses on the design company Louis Vuitton, trends in functional luxury watches and high-end boutiques in Europe. A portrait of Hollywood actor Ralph Fiennes is also included. The Style Journal is aimed at the target group of "high-earning and internationally oriented managers", according to a communiqué. The launch will be accompanied by a sampling campaign aimed at business commuters in London.

Using articles that have already been published, ViznerBorel is drawing attention to the new Schaffhauser Nachrichten look in an ironic way. Advertisements, posters, bus hangers, Internet and radio spots are being used. The campaign is also accompanied by advertisement subjects. After the relaunch, the newspaper will continue to go on the offensive with an image campaign and an advertising campaign.

Ralph Egli will start as Key Account Manager at the St. Galler Tagblatt at the beginning of May. He succeeds Brigitte Engler, who is taking on a new challenge at the Publicitas Group, according to a press release. In recent years, Egli has worked for Assa Wohlen, Publicitas Aarau, Lucerne and Zurich. Most recently, he marketed the sports advertising for the Stade de Suisse in Bern.

The Schnelli print shop for small print products, which is part of the Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM) company, is to cease production in Birsfelden. Schnelli AG will be integrated into Birkhäuser+GBC in Reinach, which also belongs to the BZM Group, with effect from July 1 in order to maintain and further expand its services. The continuation of the print shop would have required extensive modernization, which would not have been feasible at the previous location, according to the press release. The reopening of the small print shop in Reinach will result in the closure of the parallel stationery store on June 16. This will be discontinued for market economy reasons. The changeover will affect 13 print shop employees. Nine employees will be taken on by Birkhäuser+GBC and will remain in their current jobs. Four Schnelli AG employees, including two stationery staff, have been made redundant. One of the four redundancies will be settled through early retirement.
The Birsfelder Anzeiger, which is published by the Schnelli printing company, is not affected by the relocation and will continue to be published at its current editorial site. In addition, the technical production of the local newspapers Allschwiler Wochenblatt, Muttenzer & Prattler Anzeiger and Reinacher Zeitung, which belong to the BZM Group, will be concentrated in Birsfelden from July 1. The editorial contact points in the various municipalities will be retained. The support and advice for advertising customers is also guaranteed within the proven framework.

After 15 years, Chief Creative Officer Reinhard Binder will be leaving Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux in mid-2006. He wants to take on new challenges, according to a press release, in which the topics of identity and brand development will continue to play a central role. CEO Jürgen Häusler does not believe that the agency's creativity is at risk: "We are a healthy and successful company and will now continue on our current path with the next generation of creatives."