With the exception of the Cyber Lions and the Titanium Lions, whose deadline is Friday, 24 March, the organizers of the advertising festival have once again extended the submission deadline. The new deadline for the competition is now April 7, 2006. Submissions for all categories will be handled exclusively online. Registration for delegates and young creatives for the 53rd International Advertising Festival in Cannes is also already underway.

Due to falling advertising revenues, media titles are not inspiring stock market players. Expansive media companies such as Edipresse have a future, however. The Lausanne-based media company is on the rise. Even though the share price is still more than half below its high from the year 2000, the business magazine Cash recommends buying it. Analysts estimate Edipresse's profit for 2005 at CHF 35 million - a figure very close to that of 2000. According to Cash, this is due on the one hand to the flourishing foreign business, which now accounts for almost half of sales, and on the other to the strong French-speaking Swiss titles such as Le Matin, 24 Heures and Bilan. Although the struggle between the free newspaper Le Matin Bleu and the Tamedia title 20 Minutes continues, experts see the regional roots of the Lausanne-based company as promising. Above all, however, they see great potential in the international and online business. Bank Vontobel believes that the media company will achieve average profit growth of 10 percent in both 2006 and 2007. The Edipress share is valued favorably by historical standards, but could experience a real boost if the Swiss advertising market improves. The only drawback: as a large proportion of the shares are family-owned, trading is not very liquid.

The communications agency Euro RSCG is using a fake hundred-franc note to advertise the Supernova mattress from Riposa. The note is actually a folded flyer that will be lying around on the floor at trade fairs. If a visitor picks up the supposed hundred franc note, they will find the solution on the back of the puzzle: "If you felt pain in your back when you picked it up, you should go to the Riposa stand immediately. If you hand in this voucher, you will receive CHF 100 off the purchase of our Supernova back mattress."

From July 3 to September 3, Publisuisse is offering a discount when booking a TV spot before the main news programs: Anyone who places a spot at 7.25 pm before the "Tagesschau" on SF 1 or "Le Journal" on TSR 1 and at 7.55 pm before "Telegiornale" on TSI 1 will be included with one additional spot for each of the other news formats on the respective program. This corresponds to a discount of up to 36 percent. Infopool subscribers benefit from the tnc discount of 10 percent in German-speaking Switzerland. SRG news programs achieve high reach and market shares. According to a press release, the main editions of the SF, TSR and TSI news programs reached over 1.2 million viewers in August 2005, which corresponds to a market share of around 60 percent in all three language regions.

There is great demand for video-on-demand VoD, particularly in the news and sports sector. With VoD in particular, Swiss television would meet a central need of viewers who want to decide for themselves when they want to watch a program. The head of SF's multimedia center told Netzwoche, which has published a comprehensive report on the multimedia strategies of the major publishing houses. The future of Internet television is self-determination and self-service. SF already has 2.2 million VoD views per month. The viewing time still leaves something to be desired, but once the VoD streams have found their way onto the TV in the living room, the problem will be a thing of the past. In future, SF wants to put every program it produces online as VoD, with a particular focus on the younger audience. According to Bachmann, VoD is mainly consumed in the early afternoon until around 4 p.m., i.e. in the office. However, VoD still has a number of problems to solve. Broadcasts in high resolution should only be accessed by users who also pay for the TV license. Access from abroad is not always legally permitted, but a solution already exists with live streaming and geotargeting. However, it will not be possible to stream feature films due to the legal situation. SF's strategy for series is to offer them for a limited time and only in Switzerland. However, SF is not yet as successful with its podcast offerings. These are only used sporadically. Nevertheless, there is a clear trend towards podcasts. Ringier TV, for example, is on the trend bandwagon and will be offering the dating show Joya rennt as a subscription podcast from March 27.

The main topic in Ringier TV's newsletter on Thursday was Elevator TV and an in-depth interview with initiator Dominik Kaiser. In the interview, Kaiser provides details on the program structure and planning. The channel still does not have a name, the decision on the marketer will not be announced until the beginning of April and the investors. Six in number, only at the start of broadcasting. What is new, however, is the information that Elevator TV is allowed to broadcast the station's soundtrack as a radio program and also has a license for two additional special-interest channels. Kaiser intends to expand on parts of the program there. What exactly has not yet been decided. The only question that remains is why Ringier TV, of all companies, is placing the new private channel so prominently in the foreground. Is it probably not a joint venture or a production partnership? In line with the Elevator information policy, Kaiser will scatter further tidbits of information in April, and the decision on the marketer will probably be announced next.Kathrin Fischer

Three days after the Tages-Anzeiger, the St. Galler Tagblatt is also announcing a restructuring of its regional reporting: but unlike the Zurich paper, the St. Galler Tagblatt will publish a joint main edition from March 31 instead of three local editions (for St. Gallen, Gossau and Rorschach). This is expected to reach 80,000 readers with content from the three regions. The locations of the editorial offices and their size will remain the same. According to an article by Editor-in-Chief Gottlieb F. Höpli in Thursday's edition, the reason for the new local section is the changing needs of readers. Municipalities and towns are growing ever closer together; people no longer live in the same place as they work. As a result, St. Galler Tagblatt readers want more information about the entire region, as confirmed by a survey conducted by the newspaper. The new local edition is intended to provide a view of the entire agglomeration and is expected to comprise 16 pages. There are no plans to reduce the existing content.

The advertising marketer Web2com is launching a youth pool on April 1. This combines the media websites of Pro7, Radio 105, Cineman, Tillate and 20 Minuten into one advertising pool and, according to MA Comis (WEMP), should achieve a net reach of 48.5 percent among 14 to 34-year-olds in German-speaking Switzerland, according to a press release. Competitor Adlink only launched a similar pool aimed at the same target group at the beginning of March - with three identical websites: Cineman, 20Minuten and Tillate. As Werbewoche reported in its latest issue, the two competitors are accusing each other of customer theft and commission dumping and are arguing about who launched the youth pool first.

The Zurich-based spot production company Manifesto Films has had its own advertising agency built in Cologne. The reason: Reto Salimbeni is shooting a new movie. In the lead role, star actor Til Schweiger plays a successful advertiser who fails in his private life. The film for Universal Pictures in co-production with Til Schweiger, Indigo Motion Pictures, Erfttal Productions and RheingoldFilms has a budget of CHF 12 million and is being produced in English for the global market. The two Oscar nominees Eric Roberts and Michael Clarke Duncan can be seen in supporting roles. The set of the fake advertising agency was recreated in Germany's largest studio hall in Cologne, where Salimbeni spent four weeks working on "ONE WAY". Before that, the 50-strong team spent four weeks filming in Toronto. More about the filming in the next issue of Werbewoche.
Andreas Panzeri
Caption:
Manifesto producer Shannon Mildon with Til Schweiger and Reto Salimbeni
in Toronto.

The internet agency Orange8 Interactive has won a pitch for the redesign of the website of Weinhaus Albert Reichmuth. The Biel-based agency is designing a modular, expandable platform with a wine store. Orange 8 is renewing the website for Zug-based E-Comtrust International, which specializes in the development, testing, certification and monitoring of standards, norms and guidelines in e-business. It also manages the website of Micro Crystal, a Swatch Groupe company, and designs the corporate website for the Controllig company Ibax. The internet agency will also be working with vacation home rental company Interhome in the future. It is reviewing the company's e-strategy and expanding its e-controlling.

The CEO of Lowe, Kurt G. Schmid, has been elected as the new President of BSW swiss leading agencies by the members' meeting. Schmid succeeds Peter Leutenegger. The new Vice President is Frank Bodin from Euro RSCG. The general meeting also elected Nadine Borter of the Bern-based agency Contexta to the board. Peter Felser from Spillmann/Felser Leo Burnett also rejoined the Board after a four-year absence. The General Meeting confirmed the following Board members: Geri Aebi from Wirz, Hervé Devanthéry from Synthese, Christof Kaufmann from OMD, Peter Leutenegger from FCB Leutenegger Krüll, Urs Schneider from Mediaschneider, Dominique von Matt from Jung von Matt/Limmat and Andreas Widmer from Futurecom.

The Bernese Grand Council decided on Thursday to restrict the advertising of tobacco and alcohol. The corresponding amendment to the law was adopted. However, the decision on alcohol was narrow. The Grand Council had already initiated the advertising restrictions a year ago by surprisingly passing two corresponding motions from the GFL and EVP. As part of the revision of the law on trade and commerce, it was now a question of implementing the motions. While the restriction on tobacco was hardly controversial, the government and committee wanted to avoid restrictions on alcohol advertising for economic reasons.