Contexta reacts to the "Dream Job" program for Swiss Lotto at least twice a week in Switzerland - namely when the six correct numbers are drawn in the Swiss Lotto on Wednesday and Saturday. Some dream of a trip around the world, others of buying a house. As Contexta's previous advertising suggests, others post a sports car or afford a dream boat. After all, 29 lucky people were able to realize such dreams last year thanks to a first-class Swiss Lotto win. Some of them may now be living like Jürg Marquard. Switzerland's most dazzling millionaire is known for enjoying life thanks to his wealth - and for showing it. The Bern-based advertising agency Contexta has now used this fact to put a surprisingly different and fresh spin on the statement "Nobody makes more millionaires". Jürg Marquard meets Jürg Marquard in a sophisticated hotel lobby. Several versions of the millionaire can be seen playing the piano, reading, drinking coffee or making small talk at the same time. The bon vivant is not a clone, however, but a witty take on the claim "Nobody makes more millionaires" or Marquard's than the Swiss numbers lottery.
The idea takes advantage of the popularity that Jürg Marquard is currently enjoying with his show "Traumjob". The subject will therefore appear as a double-page advertisement in the Sunday press in time for the next show.
You can "see from the picture" that Jürg Marquard also enjoyed the shoot, according to CD Jürg Brechbühl at Contexta.
Lottery advertising: Modeling is Jürg Marquard's dream job!
Andreas Panzeri

Nadine Borter wants the importance of advertising and the work of agencies to be recognized appropriately.
At 30, Nadine Borter is already one of the top ten advertising agency owners in Switzerland: is she a career woman? She laughs at this question. Actually, women in management positions are "no longer an issue" for her generation - but of course people still talk about women in management positions. For Managing Partner Borter, "nothing really changed" when Bene Abegglen and Daniel Hartmann made her the offer to join Bern's largest advertising agency as a third partner. With her commitment and experience, Nadine Borter will lead Contexta into the third generation. She has accepted the challenge with great enthusiasm. Nadine Borter started her first job as a junior advertising assistant at Contexta in 1995 after graduating from commercial college. Since then, she has worked in all positions from planner to advertising assistant and head of marketing communication to consultant and consulting group leader. In 2002, she became a member of the management team and has been a business partner since January. "There have never been any major changes, but rather constant growth," she says in pleasant Valaisan German.
She grew up in "Natersch" - i.e. Naters - and then wanted to conquer the wide world and "purely by chance" got a taste of Contexta for a week in Bern. An alternative would have been to study business at university. But at the agency in the Mattenquartier, Borter quickly realized: "This is it! This is what I want to learn from scratch."
And Nadine Borter obviously does what she wants to do right. When, as a teenager in Valais, she had to decide between staying in the ski squad and her second hobby, swimming, the mountain climber opted for swimming, much to the surprise of those around her. And promptly became Swiss champion in the backstroke. She owes more than just her love of travel to her time in the national team. Her experience in top-class sport also helped her time and again in the areas of self-discipline and motivation.
The next decision was between sport and work, because she doesn't like to do anything "halfway". She opted for the profession, and swimming turned into diving during the vacations.
At Contexta, Nadine Borter has seen the agency grow from 20 people to 50, plus another 28 in the subsidiaries. She played a decisive role in shaping this growth phase and got to know the various work processes in an advertising agency from the ground up. For ten years, she was involved in various roles in the creation of campaigns for new clients - Basler Versicherungen, Swiss Lotto and the gold-winning Swisscom campaign.
And then, of course, the work for Appenzeller cheese. It is indeed true that Uwe Ochsenknecht was paid in cheese for his role in the commercial and still receives his regular deliveries today.
For Nadine Borter, advertising supports efforts to differentiate oneself in an increasingly competitive environment. On the other hand, the challenges for advertising agencies have increased in an increasingly complex market environment. Effective advertising requires a much higher level of strategic, conceptual and creative expertise than in the past. This is precisely where major investments are needed. Contexta will continue to attach great importance to this in the future.
"Developing" is a recurring theme in the interview with Nadine Borter. And what if you've already achieved everything by the time you're 30? She laughs. At her age, there is no problem behind such a question. "It's only really starting now."
The third partner at Bern's largest advertising agency: Nadine Borter. Photo: Iris Stutz
Andreas Panzeri

Body care Unikat won the international Fenjal budget as part of a competitive presentation, starting with the launch of "Sensitive Touch" in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The agency has already created the naming and product design for this new product line. Unikat's initial work will be seen in TV and print in Germany and mainly in print in Switzerland and Austria from the summer. At the same time, Unikat's partner agency cR Kommunikation is developing the PR presence for "Sensitive Touch".

Webspidering Publi- Groupe builds its own webspider. Also for Class. Webspidering, the targeted search of the Internet for specific information, is almost as old as the World Wide Web itself. Every search engine works according to this principle. Web spidering becomes problematic when information, such as classified advertisements, is collected and published for which a fee has to be paid elsewhere. Various providers, including anzeiger.ch and insernet.ch, have been doing this in Switzerland for a long time in a targeted, professional manner and, according to a recently published Federal Court ruling, with the blessing of the judiciary. Now another web spidering service, albeit one that has only just been planned, is causing new unrest in the industry: PubliGroupe, Switzerland's largest advertising intermediary, is in the process of developing its own web spider. This is clear from the documents that P recently published in connection with the Class project. One person who is watching this with suspicion is Patrick C. Price, Chief Marketing Officer of Scout24 Schweiz AG. "Spidering cannot be in the interests of a commercial online marketplace. If everyone starts spidering each other, then the advertiser will no longer pay for an advertisement anywhere in the long term," he says. The fact that the P, of all companies, is now also developing a web spider is beyond him. "In doing so, the P is driving the price erosion in the classified section even further, thereby reducing the business model of Class and the situation of the publishers to absurdity."
However, this is also the view at P. "If we were to collect advertisements from everywhere like anzeiger.ch, Class would make no sense. An industry solution that costs a good 10 million francs would then actually be superfluous," says Andreas Göldi, head of the new P contact point PubliConnect. The web spider that P is developing will therefore only be used to collect online advertisements. For example, a bank that advertises its vacancies on its own website can commission P or another Class partner to collect the advertisements and publish them on the Class network for a standard market fee.
But Göldi also admits that P is pursuing a second goal: "With our web spider, we are conveying the message that we would be technically prepared if this became necessary." This would be the case if online platforms, search engines and other providers were to increase their use of web spidering, as has already been announced in some cases. Class would then "spider back". The result would be as follows: The member platforms would first show their own advertisements, and on a second click, the spidered hits would appear.
However, Göldi is aware that, from the searcher's point of view, web spidering could result in a loss of quality in terms of accuracy. "Spidering brings cabbage and turnips together. A precise search or meaningful linking is hardly possible without a structured database in the background," he says. Multiple mentions of the same hit, lack of topicality, loss of credibility by separating the advertisements from the original environment - these are all further possible consequences of spidering. Göldi: "We don't want that. On the contrary: Class has high quality standards." This is precisely why it makes sense for Göldi to invest millions in Class despite the threat of web spidering.
Peter Müller, CEO of Unio, a solution provider for cross-media advertising and print management, takes a different view: "With this expensive investment, Class is quite risky," he says. It is true that web spiders still have tricky problems to solve with updating the ad inventory, excluding multiple entries and clean cataloging. "But that's only a matter of time," he is convinced. This raises the question of whether the resourceful mind of Peter Müller and his Unio are in the process of developing the corresponding software themselves. Müller's answer is short and sweet: "No comment."
Markus Knöpfli

Christoph Matejka has rechristened the agency Wings as a new partner and is setting off for new shores with it.
Federal Councillors or top managers usually give their first interview after 100 days in office. Christoph Matejka also allowed himself this much time before revealing more about his goals and ideas with the Wings advertising agency in Baar. The new partner and managing director can also announce on this date that Wings, which became famous with the "Wings" advertisement for Red Bull, will in future be called Kastner & Partners. This is a sign that Matejka's agency no longer wants to be perceived solely as "the graphic design agency" for the campaigns of the famous energy drink from Salzburg. New clients such as Schaffhausen-based Jezler Silbermanufaktur are also set to lend wings to the agency "with international connections and a national focus". Kastner & Partners wants to develop a comprehensive brand redesign for them. The task, which has now taken a whole year to work on the strategy, is a prime example of the tasks with which Matejka wants to distinguish itself. After the success with the brand development for Red Bull, agency owner Johannes Kastner has realized that his network has "good potential for further clients".
More than ten years ago, Kastner and energy drink pioneer Dietrich Mateschitz launched the Red Bull brand with an unmistakable communication technology. As part of the market expansion from Austria into the wider world, various reference agencies were founded. The latest of a total of ten agencies has been opened in the USA. Kastner & Partners is headquartered in Frankfurt. However, the head of the agency lives in Baar. The connection to Matejka is correspondingly close. Kastner will act as CD for him.
Red Bull works with the same spots all over the world, dispenses with advertisements and communicates particularly successfully via events. Matejka is convinced that the brand was able to celebrate its triumphant success because the concept was never pitched to a new agency and was therefore unfaithful to a basic line.
Red Bull will also remain the most energizing client for Kastner & Partners in Baar. However, the decision on another, completely different budget with an international focus will be made in June. To handle such jobs, only two people work permanently in Baar. The rest of the varying teams are made up of specialized freelancers, depending on the job.
Matejka has worked on the client side as well as in various agencies and has a correspondingly broad network of contacts.
The world of advertising was opened up to him as a KV pen at Wirz Werbung. Adolf Wirz himself gave him the most important books "on advertising" to read. "This luminary shaped me. I still benefit from that today," Matejka recalls gratefully. At the time, he would actually have preferred to have chosen a different career. The talented footballer was offered a contract as a young professional at GC. But Matejka's father showed him the red card. So the budding advertiser dribbled his way through the marketing department at Jelmoli and fought for his victories as a buyer.
When Jean Etienne Aebi founded his first agency, a former apprentice manager at Wirz remembered Matejka and brought him back into advertising. After two pioneering years as a consultant at Aebi, his next stations were GGK Zurich with Swissair and finally Grendene and Lanz with Ikea. "Then I had enough of the agency sector for a while," he says.
Lying under a tree in the WK, he responded to an advertisement at Migros and, after the departure of Fredy Collioud in 1987, worked for ten years as Advertising Manager Non Food, together with Paul Riesen.
Apparently always attracted by iconic brands such as Ikea, he moved to Weber Hodel Schmid in the Smart Factory in 1996. There, in addition to consulting, he also built up the international sales network with the glass sales towers. "That was exciting because we had to market a product that was still virtual." When Nicolas G. Hayek had to hand over his idea of a Swatch car to Daimler Chrysler, Matejka no longer wanted to continue implementing his ideas in this new environment. A fresh industry lured him to the SWX Swiss Exchange in 1998 as Head of Corporate Communications.
Matejka has worked as a freelance business management consultant since 2003. During this time, he completed a postgraduate degree in business administration in St.Gallen and was appointed as a lecturer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Winterthur. After a three-day test to see how well he was received by the students, he "stuck with this fascinating job" and is now also teaching a new course on corporate communications at the Zurich School of Business and Administration. "Integrated Corporate Communications", but basically he would simply "show how a brand works" based on his varied practical experience.
As a "hobby", he, who sold smuggled Red Bull in illegal cellar clubs when he was young, mentions the refreshing arguments with his 16-year-old daughter and his 21-year-old son.
More than the "graphic office" of Red Bull: Christoph Matejka has already landed new clients for the advertising agency Kastner & Partners.
Andreas Panzeri

Online Until now, Internet advertising was more or less a matter of luck. Now there is finally a guide for media planners.the Internet has no table of contents. It has no publication rhythm, no circulation and no program grid. But it does have masses of users - the basic prerequisite for an advertising channel. There are already numerous success stories of online marketing. But so far, the web has only managed to secure just under one percent of the Swiss advertising pie. One of the reasons: Advertising clients and media planners lack clear, relevant data on the online market. With currently 69,600 registered .ch domain names, the Swiss network alone is already unmanageable.
Handy reference book
Publicitas webservices and Publimedia webadvertising are addressing this handicap with the Online Media Planner 2005. The pocket-sized handbook is based on the print media planner that Publicitas has been publishing for print media for years. "We thought it was time to provide a handy reference work for the Internet as well," says Ueli Weber, Managing Director of Publicitas webservices.
The core of the online media planner is the media data of 130 Swiss websites relevant to advertising. Three quarters of these come from German-speaking Switzerland, 20 percent from French-speaking Switzerland and 5 percent from Ticino. For each site, socio-demographic data of the users (gender, age, education, income), narrower user group and page impressions as well as the prices of various booking variants for full banners and skyscrapers are provided. Controversial forms of advertising such as pop-ups are missing, as are more innovative formats (expandables, overpage). "We concentrate on the two forms of advertising that can be placed on 99 percent of all sites," explains Weber. Space is limited by the small format.
The online media guide provides an overview of standard and special forms of advertising and shows what is possible in addition to the banner. The media data is probably the heart of the brochure, but only makes up a quarter of the 76 pages. Users also receive background information on Swiss demographics in general, on the advertising market (including a comparison of intermedia) and on Internet use in Switzerland. It also presents the most important market research studies and explains how ad management technology works. To round things off, the planner also provides an overview of e-mail marketing, mobile marketing and cross-media.
Neutral selection "There is no way around cross-media," begins the corresponding chapter. So why wasn't the online media planner merged with the print media planner? "We considered this option for a long time," explains Ueli Weber. In the end, the size of the book spoke against it: at around 170 pages, it would have been a rather thick book and not the handy tool that the creators had in mind.
"We are excited to see how the online media planner is received on the market," says Weber. Although the brochure cannot be used to create a professional plan, it does provide initial basic information for selecting suitable websites for planning. Weber emphasizes that the aim is not to push certain offers, but to make a neutral selection. For the German-language sites, the creators drew on data from MA Comis. The most representative sites were selected for French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.
The online media planner can be obtained from Publicitas webservices and Publimedia webadvertising. It is available at schools and will also be distributed free of charge at the Orbit-iEx IT trade fair from May 24 to 27.
Data from 130 advertising-relevant sites in paperback format.

Stefano Monachesi

Job market The Berner Zeitung (BZ) and the web portal Espace.ch have launched a cooperation with the jobs platform Jobs.ch.Espace.ch/stellen and Jobs.ch are offering an online combined advertisement with a 15 percent discount. SMEs can also book the online combination as a contingent of five or ten advertisements. In addition, advertisers in the BZ job market now have the option of also having their advertisement appear online on Jobs.ch for an additional charge of CHF 390.

Zurich More and more animals at Zurich Zoo are being given more space to roam in their natural habitats, which not only pleases tigers, snow leopards and visitors, but also the creative minds at the Lesch + Frei agency. They thought the consequences of the spacious enclosures through to the end: with so much space and room, the animals are pretty exhausted in the evening. And so the advertising message on Zurich's billboards features an exhausted Red Vari, an extremely tired tortoise and an exhausted panting tiger (page 1).

Banks I Last year, financial institutions spent a whopping 34 percent more on mortgage advertising than in 2003. Creativity and GRPs are following the positive market trend. As much as the US key interest rate is only moving in one direction, namely upwards, mortgage interest rates in Switzerland remain at historic record lows. Buying an apartment or a home has never been so accessible to such a broad section of the population. The market potential in Switzerland is still very high. In a European comparison by the FSO, Switzerland has by far the lowest proportion of homeowners (2000: 35%). Statistically, a good 65 percent of the population dream of owning real estate.
Their dream was financed by rents, which have risen by over a third in ten years. On the other hand, mortgage interest rates, which have fallen significantly in the same period, and the tax package that was rejected a year ago, which would have abolished the deductibility of debt interest.
Last but not least, the discussion fueled by the pension funds about safeguarding retirement provisions played its part. In the years following the stock market crash, fewer and fewer bank customers pulled out their calculators to calculate profit-taking. On the other hand, the number of people who compared their rental costs with hypothetical mortgage interest rates increased.
The consequences can be seen in the construction industry statistics: With the exception of the construction crisis around 1993, between 11,000 and 14,000 new detached houses have been built every year since 1983. The type of property purchased is also revealing. In 2003, three out of four new residential buildings were detached houses.
Advertise while the boom lastsThe positive trend in the mortgage lending business is therefore not surprising. According to the credit statistics of the Swiss National Bank, the volume of mortgages used by Swiss private households amounted to CHF 384 billion at the end of 2004 - around seven percent more than a year earlier. This figure does not include mortgages granted by insurance companies, pension funds and the federal government.
In contrast to other loans, which continued to stagnate, mortgage products have not been running so smoothly for a long time. According to the Monthly Bulletin of Banking Statistics for April, the volume of mortgages continued to rise in the first two months of the current year.
With the active support of the banks, which operate a core business with low risks and stable returns in the lucrative mortgage business. The discontent that has affected many small savers and driven them away from the stock markets and financial investments has attracted many to the safer investment form of owner-occupied property. As they shifted their asset portfolios, the banks also adapted their advertising budgets to the new potential customer needs: Over the last four years, advertising expenditure for the "mortgages" product group has developed more rapidly than the mortgage volume itself. According to Media Focus, financial institutions spent over CHF 18 million - around ten percent of their advertising budgets - on this product group in 2004. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of over 34 percent. Since 2000, this item has even more than doubled (+ 229%).
This trend in bank advertising was influenced most strongly by the regional and cantonal banks and least by the big banks. While UBS and CS were responsible for 80 percent of spending on mortgage products in 2000, their expenditure accounted for around 41 percent in 2004. However, they have not lost their share of the mortgage market as a result. How can this be interpreted? Does advertising have any influence at all on the choice of lender?
The rising advertising expenditure alone is the best proof of this. But who are the campaigns aimed at? According to a recently published study by the comparison service Comparis.ch and the GfS market and social research institute, the answer is clear: the largest target group is still younger first-time buyers, as they are the most likely to switch to a new bank when taking out a mortgage - 35%. After that, the likelihood of switching decreases because customer loyalty and the effort involved have often increased significantly by the time of renewal. The influence
The potential of the big banks' mortgage advertising is therefore probably already so well exhausted that it can only be increased by disproportionately high advertising expenditure.
As practically every bank sells mortgages and the transparency of the market is high, the campaigns usually focus on the bank's top-of-mind position. In the Markom implementations, factors such as proximity and trust are implied, the benchmark rate or the image - important USPs or UAPs - are visualized or then the appearance of the homeowner is idealized.
The Association of Raiffeisen Banks in Switzerland was able to take an even bigger slice of the growing mortgage cake in 2004. With an increase in mortgage loans of over eight percent, it succeeded in "snatching customers away from the big banks and, in some cases, the cantonal banks", according to CEO Pierin Vincenz. The Group now has a market share of 13 percent "and sees further opportunities for growth". Franz Würth, Head of Public Relations at the Raiffeisen Group: "Trust in the Raiffeisen brand remains high." The high recommendation rate and the unpretentious advertising presence brought the Group an increase in membership of 44 percent between 1998 and 2002. The brand is therefore skillfully positioned with
The company is now even more clearly recognized as a reliable partner and a likeable alternative to the big banks.
They are also feeling the effects of the tougher competition, but so far they have hardly suffered as a result. The increasingly fierce competition is particularly worrying for local banks, which still benefit from the competitive advantages of local proximity and close customer contact. The Swiss would buy mortgages like they did toothpaste in the village store 50 years ago: One had it in the range, it was bought at the asking price. This is how Martin Scherrer, CFO and Head of Finance and Controlling at the comparison service provider Comparis.ch, illustrates the results of the study on mortgage purchases in Switzerland. But the criteria for deciding on a particular provider - price before personal contact and good advice - are changing more and more in urban areas as well as in the agglomeration. Many banks complain that some lenders have responded with sell-out concepts in their advertising strategies.
Roger Wiesendanger, Head of Product Management Mortgages at ZKB, told the business newspaper Cash that he was concerned about the ruinous competition, which "has now taken on dimensions reminiscent of discount strategies from the retail sector".
PostFinance annoys competitorsIt's not just the big banks that are being particularly aggressive with surprising offers and conditions. Many banks have been annoyed by the promotion of the market newcomer PostFinance. In order to quickly gain recognition, PostFinance's advertising for its "yellow mortgage" uses the familiar yellow zebra stripes on a neat detached house. So far, so good. But the real bang for the buck is in the headline, which promises new customers half a year's free living. Hardly any other institution seems to be adopting this tactic with similar offers, even though many have greatly reduced their margins and could stand up to them. This is probably because they fear that similar campaign concepts could tarnish the bank's reputable image.
What may appear at first glance to be a noble restraint, however, contradicts itself on another level: the advertising campaigns of all banks exclude the solvency of the borrower. Low target interest rates, better conditions, high advisory competence or the good feeling of home ownership are dramatized. In the advertising world, mortgages are affordable for everyone.
Thanks to the low interest rates, the current Credit Suisse mortgage campaign suggests that even the boldest architectural dreams can be fulfilled. The major bank is also promoting its mortgage products with a competition in conjunction with partners such as furniture store Interio and coffee roaster Nespresso. The lucky winner can win a dream home worth half a million francs. A further 500,000 francs can be used to purchase the property and cover other costs. The competition with the attention-grabbing prize money serves as a popular framework for the detailed presentation of CS offers and, not least, to deliberately correct the impression that CS prefers wealthy customers to normal earners when granting mortgages.
Its biggest competitor, market leader UBS (26% share of private mortgages), had its in-house agency Advico Young & Rubicam design a more emotional campaign and abandoned the house number concept with the low benchmark interest rates. Although this bold campaign was very successful, most potential customers were unable to judge whether the offer presented was actually the cheapest or not. The advertising motifs now show hands and fingers forming a house and protecting the future homeowners inside. "The subjects of the campaign appeal to a broad spectrum of potential customers: From first-time buyers and builders to so-called 'redemptioners' and existing customers. In line with the UBS advisory approach, advertising is primarily based on the advisory service. However, striking images and catchy slogans ensure that the campaign supports client advisors in achieving their goals. Internal studies show that the current campaign has achieved a very high level of relevance for the target segment," says Marc Tutzauer, Head of Mortgage Marketing at UBS Marketing & Sales Development.
The focus of UBS's advisory offering is not on the content - the "what" - but on "consistent quality of advice" - the "how". "UBS advice should become a trademark that is perceived as a benchmark by clients and competitors," says Tutzauer about the ambitions that flow into the large mix of measures at a tactical level. Ultimately, however, customer care and advice are decisive for business success. Despite the new, emotional implementation, UBS also relies on tactical notices and advertisements by Bürgi & Partner at local level, as in the canton of Aargau, which boldly advertise the attractive reference rate in the UBS corporate colors.
As client advisors have the greatest influence on the conclusion of a mortgage, they are often at the center of advertising campaigns. In order to win over potential borrowers for a consultation, mortgage market leader UBS is currently taking a new, indirect approach. With one of its popular drawing competitions, the big bank is playfully targeting children between the ages of four and six who already have a UBS account. "Build your dream house with Topsy (the friendly looking UBS fox)", the mailing invites the youngest internal influencers to take part. The coloring sheet, which is probably brought to the UBS branch by a parent, also contains an advertisement for the special Family Plus offer and a reply coupon - "From dream home to dream house. With a mortgage from UBS". The potential consultation should therefore be based on a solid foundation with a sympathy bonus.
Home advantage is played outA certain relationship to the house number platform can currently be seen in the new mortgage campaign of Zuger Kantonalbank. Its agency, Metz oder Vieli, has launched a "housing offensive" with the aim of consolidating and expanding ZGKB's position as market leader - as a "house bank" - in the mortgage sector. To this end, it wants to play to its own strengths and home advantage: The Zurich agency is using the Zuger subjects and the staged street signs to profile the bank's regional ties and avoid common real estate clichés such as happy people in their new homes. Signs such as "Gärtliweg" - for the lower middle class - or "Parkstrasse" - for the well-heeled - allude to the different aspects and preferences.
The cantonal banks that are also using new campaigns to promote their mortgages include Graubündner and Basellandschaftliche. Although their starting points are similar, the creative concepts of the agencies Clus in Chur and Schneider Berthoud in Basel are very different. While the former has the widespread multiple-choice approach of the Dove or Schweizer Illustrierte campaigns, thus suggesting a partnership with the "Bündner Haus-Bank" to the viewer, the Basel creatives have elevated the familiar, colorful building blocks to the eye-catching and uniform leitmotif of BLKB's new image.
Their creative concepts are similar in one crucial respect: both, like other regional banks and savings banks, avoid cliché images. The big banks, on the other hand, have far fewer scruples and reservations in this regard when it comes to using relevant mortgage world motifs with magnificent houses and happy homeowners.
Sometimes luxurious, sometimes suitable for children: banks are courting potential builders like never before.
Would you prefer a toy house after all? This is how UBS attracts people.
Gambling and discount promos: a discreet industry in transition.
Luca Aloisi

Packaging printing Esko-Graphics, which specializes in production solutions for the packaging industry, has gained Glanzmann Verpackungen AG from Scheuren as an important reference customer for the production of large-format displays, stand-up displays, POS materials and signs for outdoor advertising. Since April this year, the long-established company has been producing small batches of up to 400 units on the Kongsberg DCM 24 digital sample table from Esko-Graphics with optical registration.

Out-of-home advertising JCDecaux is pleased about greater transparency at Clear ChannelAt the beginning of May, the US media group Clear Channel (CC) announced that it would spin off its global out-of-home advertising business - which includes Clear Channel Plakanda in Switzerland - at the end of 2005 and then float it on the stock market as a separate company with sales of around 2.5 billion dollars.French out-of-home advertiser JCDecaux, CC's main competitor worldwide with sales of 1.6 billion dollars and a 30 percent stake in the market leader Affichage in Switzerland, is pleased about this split. François Decaux, Co-Chairman of the Management Board and member of the Affichage Board of Directors, is triumphant: "For us, this is confirmation that radio and out-of-home advertising do not work together."
In fact, the conglomerate CC, the largest radio marketer in the USA, had tried for years to market radio and billboard advertising in packages. JCDecaux and Affichage pursued a mono-strategy. JCDecaux came under pressure from investors at times because the CC conglomerate was once valued much higher than the pure player. But the French company stuck to its strategy: "Customers want to be free to decide which medium they want to book. If they want to combine two media, they can do so anyway. But if they are forced to do so, they demand a huge discount."
Decaux also hopes that the division of his competitor will lead to greater transparency: "At last, CC can no longer mix its outdoor advertising figures with those of other areas," he says. In future, the outdoor advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) will be measured against JCDecaux and other outdoor advertisers.
However, Decaux is not considering acquiring a stake in CCO, primarily for antitrust reasons. JCDecaux remains interested in Viacom's out-of-home advertising. This group has also announced a split. François Decaux therefore explained earlier: "We are interested in Viacom Outdoor Advertising because it and JCDecaux complement each other perfectly: we are number 1 in Europe, Viacom is number 1 in the USA. We are number 2 worldwide, they are number 3."
Markus Knöpfli

Education The communication agencies AConcept and Comicfactory have developed the website www.lovegame.ch together with the pharmaceutical company Schering (Switzerland). The online education game on the subject of contraception, which is unique in Switzerland, is aimed equally at young women and men. It provides information on contraception in a fun and entertaining way, introduces new methods and helps to find individually suitable contraceptives. In order to find the individual solutions, the youngsters have to cross three rooms in the game in which questions about the respective contraceptive methods are hidden. This exploration tour takes them through a celebrity hair salon, the latest lounge, a boutique or a sushi bar in a cheeky design. The teenagers are accompanied by a suitable soundtrack as they explore.