The Zurich-based advertising film producer around director Ernst Wirz has now built up an impressive portfolio of directors. Names such as Hiam, Wejgaard, Pohorsky, Weber and Grassl have graced the list of directors for some time now. Now Sebastiàn Alfie is an interesting new discovery. With his quirky storytelling, the 34-year-old Argentinean is putting happy faces on his clients, which include Amstel, Vodafone and Smart.

Clubs True to the motto "Exceptions are
the salt in the advertising soup", I am not discussing anything sexist today,
Kinky or otherwise exciting. This time I would like to
pastoral and spiritual attention to a delicate and sensitive
poster campaign, which, unfortunately, is not being used on a daily basis.
Avalanches of scandalous advertising motifs and fervently presented
buried in marketing banalities. A shame when you consider that
the fun-filled work of a Burgdorf agency for the
Christian movement Cevi received the "Poster of the Year 2005" award
has won. In view of the customary practice in the industry of awarding
even for the photographer with the plumpest, scale-free
parting the hair, many suspected that it was the
APG Prize is just another of many awards.
The club proves that this is not the case on its homepage
himself: "Thanks to the clicks of hundreds of Cevi friends, the
Cevi poster won the award!" Almost one in five votes went to the
poster on himself. Actually, this achievement itself deserves
a prize. Two suggestions: Introduction of a "Fairness Award" for the
most credible application of statistical methods. And a Red Bull for
the boys. (la)

The media trade union Comedia has relaunched the internet platform www.freie.ch and equipped it with additional features. The "Freelancers à la carte" database presents freelance media professionals, while clients can search for specialists. According to the press release, the database now includes not only journalists, but also specialists from all media sectors, from print and multimedia to graphics, advertising, art and technology. Both freelancers and clients can use the database free of charge - regardless of whether they are members of Comedia.
In addition to "Freelancers à la carte", the database contains daily updates from the world of media and information on events, training opportunities and publications. The website also provides information on fees, insurance and the annual Freelancers' Day organized by the Comedia Freelance Commission.

Exhibitions "Gay Chic - from the
Subculture to mainstream" is the title of the new exhibition at the Museum für
Gestaltung, Zurich, which opens on April 26. The exhibition follows
in the five subject areas of advertising, fashion, film, party culture and
Pop music, how the style emerged from the homo subculture into everyday visual life
of heterosexuals and provides new impetus there.
One of the reasons for this trend is the changed social environment.
Perception of gays and lesbians, the mutual influence
homosexual and heterosexual lifestyles and postmodern desire
playing with role models of men and women.

The Swiss PR Award honors outstanding PR projects, PR concepts and student research projects on public relations. PR - public relations or public relations work - should be at the service of the general public. This year, the FFFH, the Festival du Film Français d'Helvétie, received the award trophy in the business and politics category. In particular, the FFFH was honored for its goal of bringing two predominant language cultures in Switzerland closer together. There are too few projects that attempt to combine the two most relevant language cultures in Switzerland. Public relations is often described as a means to an end, but in this case PR acts as a motor for uniting cultural, economic and political players and realizing a project, according to a press release. The Swiss PR Award is presented annually at the Juniorcom in Davis.

Magazine network Last year
Solothurn, now Baselland. Where is the Mittelland Zeitung (MZ) going as a
What's next? How much more can this network take? And where does it position
themselves? Answers from AZ media boss Peter Wanner.WW: Mr.
Wanner, after your latest coup in the Basel region, you already sounded off,
that you are not yet full. Where are the limits of the
MZ growth?
Peter Wanner: The MZ is
already a strong, "rich" network. But one thing is clear: high readership figures
are becoming increasingly important in the advertising market, provided that the
thousand contact price (CPM) is falling. There is therefore a race for high
ranges take place. With our growth in the Basel region, we achieve
now 450000 readers. This motivates us to look for further candidates.
to look around.

WW: Will the name Mitteland Zeitung remain?
Wanner:
For the time being, but that could still change. Because we are talking
internally from the Central and Northwestern Switzerland region. And when the politics of
Northwestern Switzerland, then the cantons of Aargau,
Solothurn, Basel-Landschaft and Basel-Stadt. This is a
standing term. We are now number 1 in this area.

WW: Keyword
Golden Triangle: The Metropool focuses on the magazine, 20
Minuten, the free newspaper Heute from Ringier, Cash daily probably also
...
Wanner: All
This is happening in the centers, not in the countryside. That is our
Opportunity: We are closing the gap between Zurich, Berne, Basel and
Lucerne completely. In my opinion, too much money is being spent in the centers.
areas, however, where single-family homes with two cars
tend to be under-advertised. This potential is usually
underestimated.

WW: Doesn't the MZ want to penetrate the centers?
Wanner: Our model is open, even for centers. We have no fear of contact.

WW: So the non-aggression pact with Tamedia is not set in stone?
Wanner: You
do you mean the gentlemen's agreement? We said to Tamedia: If you are in
Aargau, we go to Zurich. And they told us that
The same in reverse. So far, we have respected each other.

WW: And in the direction of Basel: would an MZ-BaZ advertising combination make sense from your point of view?
Wanner: Yes,
a job combination in northwestern Switzerland, for example, I could well imagine
imagine. There would also be further opportunities for cooperation with BaZ.
It was not our intention to attack the BaZ, rather we wanted to
of the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (bz). I was therefore
surprised by the strong reaction of Matthias Hagemann, as we had
generally seek cooperation.

WW: You
are now present in the Basel region with print, but still lack a TV. With
NW1 there is now one for sale. Are you not interested?
Wanner: That would be nice, but according to the new RTVA you are only allowed to own two TV stations. With Tele M1 and TeleTell, we already have two.

WW: With
Tele M1 will take you as far as Pratteln today. Expand its
broadcasting area as far as Basel, which you have already applied for.
had (and canceled again), at the same time you could use the name
and at best buy the studio from NW1.
Wanner: The
could be a possibility. But that's your idea (laughs). Correct
is, however, that because of the cooperation with the bz we are now also able to
are interested in broadcasting with Tele M1 in the Basel region.

Interview: Markus Knöpfli

The Valais publishing house Rhône Media, which publishes the daily newspaper "Le Nouvelliste", has had a successful financial year, according to a report by the news agency SDA. The company was able to increase turnover by 2 percent to 37.9 million francs. Consolidated profit rose by 6 percent to 1.3 million francs.

PR consultant Ernesto Kunz has been a member of the management team at the S&W agency in Baden since March 1. The communications expert looks after clients from industry, trade and commerce, which he has brought with him to his new place of work from over 20 years of self-employment. He also acquires new clients and supports the two owners Urs Wiezel and Alfredo Biffi with existing accounts. According to Kunz, S&W has untapped potential in the areas of quality, creativity and efficiency.

The Swiss Advertising Association SW regularly selects the "Communicator of the Month". For the month of April, the project managers of the Corporate Communications Award, Jolanda Eggenschwiler and Roland Bieri, received the award for launching the prize for integrated communication. Eggenschwiler is the owner of the PR agency PR Words in Lohn. Bieri is the founder of the advertising agency Bi-Com in Solothurn. The call for entries for this year's Corporate Communications Award runs until May 31.

In the course of this month, Managing Director Christoph Vogler will leave Grey Worldwide, advertising agency BSW, Zurich, as a partner and member of the management board. According to a statement, Vogler is leaving Grey Worldwide on good terms and handing over his life's work to his younger colleagues. Grey will now be headed by Client Service Director Reto Baumann (38) and Creative Director Enrico Baumann (41). Charris Yadigaroglou (38) will remain CEO of Grey Switzerland. Over 23 years ago, 49-year-old Christoph Vogler founded the advertising agency B,T&V together with his brother Stefan, which became majority-owned by the world's fifth-largest agency network Grey Global Group in 1997.

The French-speaking Swiss publishing house Edipresse, which owns the newspapers 24 Heure, La Tribune de Genève and Le Matin, generated a profit of CHF 40.3 million in 2005. Compared to the previous year's result of 10.4 million, Edipresse has almost quadrupled its profit. With sales of 894.4 million (previous year 844.7 million), Edipresse achieved an operating result of 85.7 million (+ 7.9 percent) in 2005 compared to 79.4 million francs in the previous year. Edipresse CEO Tibère Adler told the SDA news agency that he was satisfied with the result, although profitability was not yet where it should be. Edipresse owes the jump in profits in 2005 above all to the good result abroad, especially the growth in Eastern Europe. In Switzerland, the magazine segment grew by 17.3 percent to CHF 410 million, while newspapers declined (-0.7% to 354 million). According to Alder, the Swiss regional press is "under pressure". However, the title "24 heures" has returned to the growth path and the free newspaper "Matin Bleu" has exceeded all expectations - despite the Tamedia competitor product "20 minutes". In view of the tougher competition, Edipresse is expecting less growth in daily newspapers in 2006. Additional savings will be necessary, but the company did not disclose exact details.

(pr) The Swiss Media Tool developed by Aadlink now offers a separate category for topic and target group pools. In addition to the two online pools already launched, Superpool and Online Youth Pool, advertisers and agencies can now also find 17 other online pools at www.swissmediatool.ch with detailed descriptions as well as all advertising-relevant data and booking conditions. "Thanks to special topic pools such as the IT technology pool, an advertising message can be placed easily and attractively in a customized environment. Pools have been a familiar advertising medium in traditional advertising media for years. Online pools combine monothematic sites with relevant content from horizontal sites into one category and thus enable a targeted approach to the desired target group. Familiar offerings such as pools also make it easier for media planners to plan for the Internet medium. By creating more attractive planning options, higher budgets automatically flow into Internet advertising." Says Martin Radelfinger, Managing Director of Adlink. With over 180 online advertising media and 19 online pools, the Swiss Media Tool is the most comprehensive Swiss database for online advertising.