The Weinhalle in Zurich has commissioned the advertising agency Weber Harbeke to redesign its corporate identity. The implementation is true-to-life and convinces the management, according to a press release. The Weinhalle was founded in 1861 by the Jtschner brothers. Pascale Kohl has been managing the company since March 1, 2006. In addition to reasonably priced wines, the range also includes a selection of pasta, sauces and chocolates.

Blick has discovered that the Zurich Oberland is a great place to watch TV. In the municipality of Hittnau, residents receive more radio stations than anywhere else. The 1200 households in the village of 3000 people enjoy 370 television and radio stations in digital quality. There are also 50 analog stations. Cable network operator Fabian Heil offers its Hittnau customers this comprehensive package for 24 francs. Those who take out a two-year subscription pay just 21 francs. Compared to Cablecom, the people of Hittnau get off lightly. There, the cheapest digital TV channel package with 91 channels costs CHF 25 in addition to the basic fee of CHF 21. In Hittnau, 15 percent of households are already digitally connected. Recently, High Definition Television (HDTV) has also been transmitted to the living rooms in Hittnau. These are razor-sharp images. HDTV will not be offered by most cable network operators until next year.

The Swiss entries were successful at this year's Golden Award Montreux. Finalist Award Certificates were awarded in the Direct Marketing category to "Double Business Card" by Euro RSCG Dialog and the "Bikini" ad for Diogenes Audio Books. In the Media Outdoor category, the agency Spillmann, Felser, Leo Burnett received a Finalist Award Certificate for "Announcement" for Pet Recycling Switzerland. Euro RSCG was awarded such a certificate in the Creative Use of Media category with Zapping "Coupé/Convertible" Suisse. Only gold prizes are awarded at the Golden Award of Montreux. The most successful international agency was Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO from the UK, which received the Grand Prix for its client Guiness. The Talent Award went to Martin Dvorak from the International Academy of Arts in Prague.
This year, a 14-member jury evaluated entries from 34 countries in the categories TV/Cinema, Print, Poster, Radio, Campaigns, Interactive Media, Best Use of Media, Direct Marketing and Event Marketing. The jury members from Switzerland were Timo Kirez from McCann Erickson for Print and Jürg Aemmer from Euro RSCG for Film.

With the conviction of journalists Martin Stoll and Viktor Dammann, Switzerland has violated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This is the finding of the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. According to the Court of Human Rights, the freedom of expression guaranteed in Article 10 of the ECHR has been violated, reports the news agency SDA. Martin Stoll had been fined 800 francs for publishing official secret negotiations. In January 1997, Stoll had published excerpts from a document classified as confidential by the then Swiss ambassador to the USA, Carlo Jagmetti, in the Sonntagszeitung. The document detailed strategies for resolving the dispute over the dormant Jewish assets. Jagmetti came under pressure as a result of the aggressive vocabulary contained in the document and resigned. The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs subsequently filed charges against Stoll.
Viktor Damman was fined 500 francs for inciting a breach of official secrecy. The Blick reporter had received details of suspects' criminal records from an employee of the Zurich public prosecutor's office in connection with the Fraumünster post office robbery in 1997, but did not publish the information.
The Federal Supreme Court had confirmed the two judgments of the Zurich judiciary. The Court of Human Rights has responded to complaints from the two journalists. The victims will not receive any compensation.
Those affected as well as the President of the Press Council Peter Studer, the journalists' organization Impressum and the publishing house Tamedia were satisfied with the rulings of the Court of Human Rights. Blick reporter Viktor Dammann commented: "I am glad that the Court of Human Rights agrees with me that a mere question can never be incitement. And questions belong to journalism like flour belongs to bread." The Press Council sees its stance in the Martin Stoll case confirmed. It had judged the publication itself to be justified. In this case, the public interest outweighed the protection of confidentiality. Tamedia had also asserted an overriding public interest in this specific case.
According to Studer, the ruling from Strasbourg could put further pressure on Article 293 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits the publication of secret official documents. The article has already attracted a lot of criticism, including from the journalists' organization Impressum: It could not be acceptable that journalists have to break the law in order to do their job.

Nowhere else in Europe do professional football clubs make as much money from advertising as in Germany. For the 36 professional clubs, the advertising business is the most lucrative source of money at 416 million euros. Even the top football leagues in Italy, Spain and England do not generate this amount, writes Der Spiegel. At 302 million euros, TV broadcasting rights are the second highest source of revenue for German professional teams. The oversaturation of German stadiums with advertising boards, logos and slogans has been criticized by German experts. They question the efficiency of advertising in German Bundesliga stadiums, which are overcrowded with advertising. Der Spiegel, for example, quotes Berlin-based designer Markus Deecke, who works as an interior designer for sports arenas: "You lose a lot of impact through overloading. Less would be more, that's still true, but it only causes a yawn in the scene". Sports rights marketers such as industry leader Sportfive are now also convinced that the advertising boom in stadiums is showing its downside. "Some clubs are slowly realizing that you can't go on like this. Over the next few years, we will see a significant reduction in advertising messages per square meter," explains Sportfive CEO Thomas Röttgermann.

Planetactive Zurich, the agency for technology-enabled marketing, has announced a new client. The Gstaad Palace Hotel has commissioned the marketing agency to relaunch its website. Planetactive was able to prevail against the competition in a pitch. The redesign of the website was necessary because the corporate design of the Gstaad Palace was revised. The restructuring of the website includes the implementation of the Open Source TYPO3 content management system, which should make it easier to update the site in the future. 
Planetactive employs a 70-strong team at its offices in Düsseldorf, Zurich and Vienna. The agency serves clients such as AOL, Bluewin, Orange, Sony and TeleZüri.

The new Internet search platform local.ch is now available in pilot operation. The search function is part of the joint venture between Publigroupe's Publidirect division and Swisscom Directories. It offers users private and business directory entries, guide and event data and provides access to local information. The aim of the pilot operation is to ensure processing and evaluate user feedback.

On April 20, 2006, the Columbus Trophies of the Austrian Direct Marketing Association for the strongest direct marketing campaigns of 2005 were awarded at the Fight Night. Among the winners was a Swiss agency: Agentur am Flughafen, Eugster Kommunikation. In the category for foreign campaigns, the Swiss agency won silver for the acquisition mailing disguised as a bathing cap for the Staader wellness facility planner Aquatec.

(pr) With immediate effect, Cinecom has created the position of an independent ombudsman for cinema productions. The aim is to provide film producers as well as customers and agencies with a contact person who is very familiar with the world of film productions and can respond very quickly and competently to questions and problems relating to digital cinema film productions. In the person of Andrew Katumba, this position has been filled by an extremely competent specialist. At the age of 23, Katumba founded the multimedia production company Crambambouli and, as a producer, has realized TV specials, 3D animations and interactive commissioned films. He has continuously trained in the field of digital production and projection techniques at home and abroad. In 1999, he and his team won the "Grand Cristalli di Locarno" for the best Swiss commissioned film. He subsequently worked for MetaDesign and Bluewin, where he was heavily involved in the development of iTV (interactive television via ADSL lines). In 2004, Andrew Katumba founded his own production company Bossa Films AG with Luzius Rüedi with the aim of bringing the first fully digital film to the cinema. As an ombudsman, Katumba will be present at the spot screenings offered by Cinecom and can thus address questions directly on site. The insights gained will be incorporated into a forum at a later date. This forum will be made up of selected experts and will work closely with the Swissfilm Association to develop and publish benchmarks for digital cinema films.

The Swisscom Annual General Meeting on April 25 elected Anton Scherrer to succeed Markus Rauh as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The former Vice-Chairman has also held other positions over the past four years, including Chairman of the Executive Board and Chairman of the Executive Retail Committee of the Migros Cooperative. Catherine Mühlemann and sHugo Gerber were newly elected to the Board. For the 2005 financial year, Swisscom paid out a dividend of CHF 16 per share, an increase of CHF 2, and reduced its share capital by 7.75 percent following the share buy-back. In his speech, outgoing Chairman of the Board of Directors Markus Rauh welcomed the complete or - if politically unfeasible - the partial sale of the federal government's stake. However, full privatization is the long-term goal in any case.

The law firm RGS Law, which specializes in mergers & acquisitions and corporate law, is an industry pioneer and is venturing into classic advertising. The Zurich-based advertising agency Matter & Gretener, together with the consultancy firm Richterich & Partner, is responsible for positioning RGS Law. Advertisements in the business press, a company brochure, a newsletter and a homepage are intended to support the PR work.The fact that law firms are allowed to advertise is a relatively recent achievement. On June 23, 2000, the Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers stipulated for the first time that lawyers may advertise. However, this included the proviso that advertising must remain objective and meet the public's need for information. The Canton of Zurich was the first to liberalize its Code of Professional Conduct in the summer of 2004 to allow lawyers to advertise. The other Swiss cantons followed suit on July 1, 2005.

A new platform for students and anyone who wants to maintain their acquaintances enables its users to stay in touch. To ensure that acquaintances do not come to nothing, www.letscontact.ch offers the possibility of finding acquaintances and communicating after a free registration and filling out a profile. In this way, students can find each other through their common lectures and save them in their "friends list". The idea was realized by the two students of the University of Bern Reto Hostetter and Marc Zesiger. With the website they want to enable the establishment of social contacts and break the anonymity at Swiss universities. The website is also aimed at people of all backgrounds and ages, as the problem of losing acquaintances does not only affect students, according to the communiqué. 
Platforms for refreshing lost acquaintances are big in fashion. For example, the website Klassenfreunde.ch has already implemented the idea of searching for old classmates.