The online picture agency ImagePoint is offering a new placement service. Customers can now submit individual image requests, which are forwarded by e-mail and web to around 1,000 photographers who work with the agency. Based on the image description and the deadline set, the photographers deliver images; the customer selects from the photographs presented without being obliged to make a purchase. ImagePoint recommends that customers place orders with a lead time of one to two weeks. "For the time being" the service is free of charge, the agency announced. ImagePoint's database currently contains around 300,000 images, which can be downloaded immediately at a flat rate.

The Therwil-based advertising agency WS Kommunikation is the new lead agency of the Swiss subsidiary ADO Gardinenwerke for advertising and PR. ADO is the European market leader for curtains and decorative fabrics and would like to continue to successfully position its brand in Switzerland and strengthen and expand its market position. WS Kommunikation will stage the planned measures. The first works can be seen at the end of March.

SRG SSR idée suisse has booked a transponder on the new Hotbird 7 A satellite and intends to use it as a first step to improve the quality of some of the existing picture quality of the TV programs that are currently broadcast digitally on the Hotbird 3 satellite. SRG SSR will decide at a later date which additional channels will be available. As SRG announced in its newsletter Inside SRG SSR, this is a small step for mankind, but a big step for SRG SSR in order to secure the range and quality of services for the future.

The Biel-based Internet service provider Aseantic has redesigned the Ronald McDonald Children's Charity website. The website can be viewed on the web from Tuesday at 2 pm. According to a statement from Aseantic, the website has been put on a new technological footing and was implemented within a week using a Microsoft CMS framework. Aseantic has implemented several projects for McDonalds in the last six months: seven competitions with two voting platforms were realized. In addition, the Biel-based company supports the fast food giant with online marketing in the areas of banner tracking, visitor profiling and statistical analysis. McDonalds plans to further intensify its online activities in the near future. The company wants to expand its online community and make more intensive use of the medium's interactivity.

Hasbro, a supplier of games and toys, is moving its Swiss headquarters to Baar on March 27, 2006. The advertising agency BMB staged the move in line with the company motto "Making the world smile". For once, the figures of the game manufacturer are not used for playing, but for working. The claim "We are moving" underlines the illustration. The move to the new premises is communicated with an advertisement, mailing and integration in the company's e-mail correspondence.

The nationwide private broadcaster ATV Plus is to get a new owner, and there is speculation about interested parties. Corresponding plans by the current owner, the Austrian bank Bawag, to sell its 42 percent stake in the station were confirmed to the Financial Times Deutschland. The reason is a strategic realignment of the bank. Both the RTL Group and the US investor Ronald Lauder are said to have expressed interest in the purchase. ATV Plus has been on air since June 2003 and is the only private company to hold a nationwide broadcasting license.

The St. Gallen PR agency Complecta has invented a new word for architect Markus Hermann. Hermann, who comes from the canton of Glarus, had the idea of building a house in the shape of a "Zigerstöckli". Complecta took on the PR work for this. The word creation "Zigerloft" is intended on the one hand to express the connection to the Schabziger and on the other hand the term "loft" suggests various possible uses such as office or living, explained agency boss Stefan Grob. The term was trademarked and the construction project was presented to the public at a media conference in Glarus. Glarus government councillor Marianne Dürst and Johannes M. Trümpy, Managing Director of Schabzigerfabrik Geska, were invited to sponsor the project.

Luzerner Kantonalbank (LUKB) is announcing a new form of communication: On March 28, 2006, it is launching "Consultation hours with the CEO". On the last Tuesday of each month, the Chairman of the Executive Board, Bernard Kobler, will be available for two hours for personal discussions with customers and shareholders. According to the communiqué, people with questions about LUKB and the Swiss banking system who are not customers or shareholders of the bank are also invited to attend. According to Kobler, the CEO consultation is intended to foster an uncomplicated dialog with anyone interested in the bank or the Swiss financial center in general. The meeting should also be used to get to know the needs of customers and shareholders better.

In French-speaking Switzerland, two providers claim to be the initiators of the first free blog portal in French-speaking Switzerland: Romandie Blogs and Bleublog. The latter is sponsored by Le Matin Bleu and specifies the "We were the first" claim by stating that it is the first blog portal for "mobile people". The blue blogs offer services that are geared towards mobile devices: For example, users can send photos from a concert directly to their own blog via MMS. The weblogs on Romandie.com are "100 percent" free, as the reader learns at the very beginning. No advertising is forced upon them, it continues. Romandie.com has set itself the goal of democratizing the blog phenomenon in French-speaking Switzerland.
However, users of both portals have the option of flushing a little cash into their own blog coffers using Google Ads. Both Romandie.com and Bleublog.ch also promise simple handling and the creation of your own weblog in three steps. The score is currently 1:0 in favor of Bleublog: At the time of publication of this article, the Edipresse offshoot counted 3028 Internet diaries, while 2626 were in operation on Romandie.ch.
Carole Scheidegger

In an advertisement, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is looking for university correspondents "who write about what moves students on a weekly basis, who take up topics that are on the minds of others and encourage discussion." Candidates must be studying at a German-speaking university in Switzerland, be involved in student life and not shy away from contact with fellow students in their free time. Incidentally, the old aunt offers her potential employees the first name: "You enjoy writing and are able to formulate fluent and clever texts in German." It is not clear whether the articles are published in printed or electronic form. Martin Hitz wonders whether an NZZ student blog is being planned in his weblog on Medienspiegel.ch. The former editorial director of NZZ Online doesn't think the new initiative from Falkenstrasse is a bad idea in terms of reader loyalty. The project is also a good way to find new talent and provides a testing ground for gaining experience with reader participation and "citizen journalism".

Under the motto "Challenges of Change", the 40th World Congress of the International Advertising Association will take place in Dubai from March 20 to 23. The list of speakers at the anniversary event is impressive: WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell, Leo Burnett Worldwide Chairman Tom Bernardin, BBDO Worldwide Chairman Allen Rosenshine, OMD Europe CEO Colin Gottlieb, Publicis Group Media Chairman Jack Klues and McCann-Erickson WorldGroup CEO Marcio Moreira will give around 2,000 delegates an understanding of the challenges facing the advertising and marketing business. In addition to the congress, there will be an exhibition on advertising campaigns by public services, which is also open to the public.

Because the name no longer matched the current business situation, a new image had to be created. Founded in 1991, Grafikatelier Villotti is now a full-service advertising agency. The name should be the program: According to a press release, the Hofgrafen are graphic designers in the court, the counts who proudly serve the king customer and the court jesters who say what others dare not say.