The Swiss affiliate platform www.werbebooster.ch can look back on a successful and interesting first six months. Over 100 Swiss advertisers are already using the services of the Swiss affiliate network.In the highly competitive online marketing segment, www.werbebooster.ch was able to hold its own against the mainly German affiliate programs. Thanks to continuous expansion and constant quality control, over 100 Swiss companies are now already using Internet advertising on an affiliate basis.
The top advertisers are the health insurers Helsana and Groupe Mutuel, followed by the flower store Fleurop, the gift store Geschenkidee and the company search engine HELP.ch. On peak days, over 200,000 advertising materials are already delivered. Thanks to state-of-the-art technology, the statistics can be called up by the participating companies on a daily basis. In this way, the advertising campaigns can be optimally tracked and controlled.
André Nisple, Head of Development Werbebooster.ch: "The last months showed us that affiliate advertising is a need in the Swiss Internet market. Our system is equipped to run an advertising campaign from an SME business to the branding of a new product of the major Swiss distributors."
About affiliate advertising:
The merchant (example Helsana Versicherungen AG) presents itself to a large number of Internet users of the connected network without fixed costs. Costs are only incurred when the defined success is achieved: the four tried-and-tested billing systems are available on an impression basis (cost-per-impression), a click basis (cost-per-click), a lead basis (cost-per-lead) and on a
Sales basis (cost-per-sale).
About Werbebooster.ch:
Werbebooster.ch is the Swiss affiliate network and stands for qualitative online marketing. The system is operated by HELP Searchengines AG. The operator stands for modern and user-friendly search technologies. It operates 50 different search portals, such as essen.ch, autos.ch, reisebuero.ch, casinos.ch or krankenversicherung.ch. This makes it the largest Internet operator of search engines in Switzerland in terms of volume.

Basler Zeitung and the four local newspapers belonging to the group - Allschwiler Wochenblatt, Birsfelder Anzeiger, Muttenzer&Prattler Anzeiger and Reinacher Zeitung - have renewed their advertising agency contracts with Publicitas. Publicitas will assume full responsibility for advertising placement and sales promotion for the Baslerstab. At the same time, according to the communiqué, a "yet to be determined number" of publishing house employees will transfer to Publicitas. The services and offers of the above-mentioned titles will remain unchanged. In addition, a new marketing and coordination committee under the chairmanship of Basler Zeitung Medien will create the basis for rapid decisions in the commercial area. The shareholder relationships have also been confirmed on a long-term basis.

Lowe Zürich has won the mandate for the relaunch of Nestea in a competitive presentation. The new look will be launched this spring, according to the agency. Lowe Zürich will also be responsible for the Nescafé Xpress, Disney Adventures and Powerade brands on behalf of the Coca-Cola Company.

Andrea J. Treichler will become managing director of Weiss Medien AG, which publishes the Affoltern district gazette, on May 1. He succeeds Ernst Oertle, who will retire at the end of April. The 55-year-old Treichler has been Director of the Davos Book Printing Works and Delegate of the Board of Directors for the past 14 years. Prior to that, the trained letterpress printer worked for Ringier Print in Adligenswil and the Publicis Group, among others. Weiss Medien is part of the AZ Medien Group.

The UK has the highest number of households in Europe that can receive TV programs digitally, as reported by the information service Funkkorrespondenz. At the beginning of January 2006, 16.2 of the 25.8 million British television households were equipped with a corresponding connection. At the end of 2004, the figure was 13.5 million. This means that the proportion of digital connections increased from 53.1 to 62.8 % within twelve months. Of the TV households with a digital connection, 7.9 million receive their programs via Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB satellite platform. 3.3 million use digital cable and a further 6.4 million are connected to DTT, also known as Freeview. With the rapid progress of digitization, Prime Minister Tony Blair's planned analogue switch-off date of 2012 is looking increasingly likely. Analog television channels are to be switched off gradually from 2009.
In Switzerland, Ticino is a pioneer in Digi-TV (see Newsmail of 01.02.2006). On July 24, 2006, the sunny canton will be the first region to switch to exclusively digital terrestrial reception. SRG plans to provide the entire country with digital coverage by 2008 and gradually discontinue analog terrestrial broadcasting by 2009.

In the opinion of the Swiss Press Council, it is ethically permissible in the media to illustrate reports on the cartoon controversy with examples in view of the worldwide controversy. It is journalistically unsatisfactory to describe such a dispute without showing examples. This was announced by the self-regulatory body of media professionals on Friday. For this reason, the publication of one or more of the controversial caricatures in Blick, Le Temps, 24 Heures and NZZ am Sonntag, among others, is not objectionable, and the committee justified its statement with the "unusually large number of inquiries" it had received regarding the media-ethical assessment of the Danish caricatures about Mohammed. At the same time, the Press Council announced that it would take up the fundamental problem and comment on it. It will examine the question of whether and which professional ethical barriers to freedom of expression and artistic freedom exist. In particular, it wants to clarify the extent to which the sensitivities of religious communities and minorities of all kinds must be taken into consideration in the case of caricatures.

ProSiebenSat1 Welt is to become the first private German foreign program to be received via cable in the USA. This was reported by the German Netzeitung. The foreign television program was launched in February 2005 and now has more than 12,000 subscribers in the States, according to the broadcaster. It was previously only available via the satellite platform Dish Networks. The German private broadcaster has now concluded a marketing agreement with International Networks. The company specializes in marketing original foreign programs in the USA to cable network operators and other providers. This cooperation is an important step for ProSiebenSat1 Welt to further increase the station's reach and number of subscribers and to make the program available to households with cable and DSL connections, the German television giant explained. Around two thirds of all American TV households are connected to the cable network.

Swisscom Mobile has secured the mobile communication rights for Switzerland for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. As the official mobile video broadcaster, the company will offer exclusive content live on Vodafone. Video clips ranging in length from 15 seconds to four minutes can be subscribed to or downloaded individually. The offer includes highlights of individual matches as well as daily summaries. In addition, Swisscom Mobile is the only mobile provider in Switzerland with the right to broadcast football matches live and uncut, as the company announced. Summaries of the latest matches are broadcast on a dedicated replay TV channel on Vodafone live. However, only owners of an EDGE or UMTS-capable cell phone can use the replay and live TV as well as most of the video clips. The rights license was awarded by FIFA subsidiary Infront Sports & Media.

The French agency group Havas achieved revenues of 1.461 billion euros in 2005. This corresponds to a loss of -2 % or 30 million euros compared to 2004, as reported by New-business.de. The Havas Group, which includes Euro RSCG, Arnold Worldwide and Media Planning Group, benefited from new business. In terms of billings volume, the group achieved an increase of 24 % compared to the previous year. On the other hand, the loss of the two clients Volkswagen and Intel in the USA had a negative impact. The detailed balance sheet figures will be presented in March.

On January 1, 2006, Sébastian Fabbi took over the operational management of Rive Gauche\TBWA. He is the new Managing Director of the TBWA sister agency, alongside Creative Director Pierre-Alain Brandt. Fabbi has gained experience on the client side as advertising and direct marketing manager at Citroen Suisse SA. According to the press release, he also worked for several years in media agencies in Switzerland and abroad.

The industry association Viscom and Andreas Käppeli Consulting are organizing three inexpensive short seminars on marketing and sales for SMEs, aimed at sales managers, marketing and sales executives from all sectors. Andreas Käppeli, federally certified marketing manager and owner of the marketing consultancy Andreas Käppeli Consulting, teaches the most important tools, techniques and ideas on topics such as conducting sales conversations, acquiring new customers and developing marketing programs: 1st seminar: Elegantly parrying customer objections
Thursday, March 2, 2006, 6:15 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.    
       
2nd seminar Winning new customers - surprising ways to attack
Thursday, April 6, 2006, 6:15 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.    
        
3rd seminar: Marketing menus with salt and pepper
Thursday, May 11, 2006, 6:15 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.                                   
Content: Participants can be inspired by the approaches and practical examples presented and take home a basket full of valuable ideas.
Location: Suitable location in the Regensdorf area, exact details will follow with the confirmation of participation.
Price single entry per impulse seminar: For Viscom members Fr. 120.-, for non-members Fr. 150.-, incl. VAT.
Price for subscription (three for two!): CHF 240 for Viscom members and CHF 300 for non-members, incl. VAT.
Information and registration at www.andreaskaeppeli.ch.

Logitech's customers are now giving free rein to their creativity in the recently launched "Mouse Design Contest" project on the Cordless Club.  
The template for the design is Logitech's award-winning Cordless Laser Mouse MX 1000, whose surface will be redesigned by the participants. Design drafts can be uploaded to the Cordless Club website until March 1. Unfortunately, submissions by e-mail or fax cannot be considered. Each participant can submit as many designs as they like, but can only win one of the prizes.
 
Winners are determined by online voting Not everyone has a designer in them; however, every visitor to the Cordless Club website is invited to help select the best designs. The top 20 designs that emerge after the participant voting will be rated by a jury of experts on a scale from 1 (very bad) to 10 (very good). In the event of equal scores, a run-off vote will decide the winner. The jury consists of Logitech product managers, the creative director of a web agency and editors of the German high-tech magazine SFT.
Attractive prizes for the best design The best thing for a designer is to see their own designs realized. That's why the main prize is a limited and numbered edition of 100 copies of the winning design. The winning designer will receive copy no. 1 of 100. The remaining 99 copies will be used in special promotions, such as auctions or raffles, but will not be available in stores. The winner will also receive a weekend for two at the Fox design hotel in Copenhagen, including a flight and all the extras. 
2nd - 50th prize is a Logitech diNovo Media Desktop Laser, also an award-winning Logitech design. In addition, 50 MX 1000 Laser Cordless Mice will be raffled off among all participants in the voting. 
 
Announcement of the winners Logitech is organizing a daily birthday show at CeBIT to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary. The winners of the design competition will be announced there and then notified by e-mail.