Computers The computer group Lenovo has entrusted Ogilvy & Mather with its global communications budget, thus ensuring continuity: Ogilvy is the core agency of IBM, whose PC business the Chinese company has taken over. The agency is to build up Lenovo as a global brand on the one hand and promote the "Think" product range with the ThinkPad laptops and ThinkCentre desktop computers on the other. OgilvyOne will be responsible for dialog marketing, Ogilvy Interactive for online measures and the sister agency Mindshare for media. Lenovo has also appointed Ogilvy PR Asia-Pacific as lead agency for investor relations. The amount of the mandate was not disclosed. According to Advertising Age, IBM's PC division spent over 113 million dollars gross on advertising last year.

Advertising bans The German government has passed a draft law for a general ban on tobacco advertising on the radio, in the press and on the Internet, as well as on tobacco sponsorship at cross-border events. In doing so, it is following an EU directive that must be implemented by the end of July. However, the government is sticking to its appeal against the directive to the European Court of Justice. It is of the opinion that the EU has no jurisdiction over media that exclusively serve the domestic market. It is assumed that the lawsuit will be successful, but a ruling is not expected before the end of 2005 ...

Point of Sale With immediate effect, IP Multimedia Switzerland (IPM) is taking over the exclusive local marketing of Swiss Kiosk Screens (SKS).IPM was already active in national sales for SKS. The network of 17-inch screens will soon comprise 200 kiosks throughout Switzerland.

Banks II In hardly any other canton is the diversity and density of banks as high as in Aargau. With FCBLK's first campaign, Neue Aargauer Bank wants to keep itself top of mind.
Several banks operating exclusively in their canton look after the financial affairs of the people of Aargau. Alongside Aargauer Kantonalbank, Hypobank Lenzburg and Raiffeisenbank, which is active in the canton, Neue Aargauer Bank (NAB) - a subsidiary of the CS Group with total assets of over 16 billion Swiss francs and around 300,000 customer relationships - is the number one bank in the canton. It is also the second largest regional bank in Switzerland. However, the advantage of NAB's cantonal orientation and brand personality due to its size is not always easy to recognize for some people from Aargau. Who is who, and which bank offers what? Among other things, the similar CIs of the best-known Aargau banks have contributed to the generally prevailing confusion. For example, most of them use a blue logo and blue as their corporate color.
Basic attitude as a starting pointDespite the large variety of providers and the choice available - the people of Aargau value above all a bank that has a strong connection to the region, is close and is personally committed to its customers. Provided, however, that it is efficient and competent.
Neue Aargauer Bank, whose roots go back to 1812, offers both - proximity and professionalism. However, the Walliseller agency FCB Leutenegger Krüll did not find the creative platform for the new campaign in the local color, which other institutions have taken to absurd extremes, such as in the claim "Wir Aargauer". Rather, Mike Krüll's team focused the concept on NAB's overarching business philosophy - its solution orientation. Positioned on this meta-level, service offerings ranging from personal contact to coaching resonate.
The new claim "We solve that" is both a promise and a commitment to bring values such as proximity and professionalism to customers. The agency developed a campaign that implements solution management in a very playful way and for various concrete needs - for private banking, mortgages as well as for corporate clients. The campaign idea, derived from the sliding game in which numbers have to be sorted by sliding, underlines this approach directly and strikingly.
"We'll solve it" thus becomes NAB's program both internally and externally, spurring us to actually find the best solution to every customer need, a promise that must be kept.
Focus on solutions instead of local color: FCBLK sets new accents in Aargau.

Luca Aloisi

Online Züritipp, the Tages-Anzeiger's guide to going out, is relaunching its website, with a refreshed layout that will provide even more useful information from the Tagi databases from May 19. Interactive features such as "Movie Rating" and "City Blog" are also new.

Digital photography The Dimage X60 is an elegant, high-resolution digital camera with a 5 megapixel CCD and a 3x optical zoom lens that is perfectly protected in the camera body. 6.3 cm display, versatile functions, integrated memory (15 MB) and high-quality workmanship are the highlights. The camera is available in blue, red and silver.

Design image processing is an art that requires a great deal of empathy and imagination, a good eye and the latest technological working methods, and Atelier Straumann has made a name for itself among connoisseurs in this sector. Publicis' campaign is intended to further increase the level of awareness. The chosen solution dispenses with spectacular image manipulation and instead focuses on subtle image processing. "As real as life itself" is the claim, even if it is Atelier Straumann and not time that has left its mark. Further original advertisements will follow.

Participations The tug-of-war over Vogt-Schild is almost over: Peter Wanner is the winner. What was announced on May 11 in the Solothurner Zeitung and its partner papers Aargauer Zeitung (AZ), Oltner Tagblatt (OT) and Zofinger Tagblatt (ZT) came as a surprise to SZ publisher Fritz M. Schuhmacher. "The four partners have agreed to continue the Mittelland Zeitung in the long term," it read. "I was astonished to read this sentence, as nothing has yet been decided regarding the extension of the MZ association. Talks are ongoing," Schuhmacher stated in response to an inquiry from Werbewoche, which raises a question: How did this sentence get into the joint communiqué of the MZ partners without Schuhmacher's knowledge? Inquiries quickly reveal that CEO Christian Müller approved the wording on the part of Vogt-Schild (VS/H). "At my level, I think MZ is a successful product. I don't have to have anything else," he says. He agrees with the partner CEOs on this. But he also knows that the MZ contract was signed at Board of Directors level at the time. CEOs don't have to pretalk here.
The fact that VS/H CEO and VS/H Chairman of the Board of Directors do not coordinate their communications is strange. But it is even more strange that Peter Wanner, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of AZ-Medien and figurehead of MZ, also agreed to the announcement, although he must have been aware that his publisher colleague Schuhmacher wanted - or needed - to wait and see. What's more, Wanner's statement that he wants to participate in VS/H effectively portrays Schuhmacher as a hesitant.
Even if Wanner only expressed an intention to participate, he would never make such a statement if he was not sure of his intentions. Wanner did not want to comment on this to Werbewoche. He had already leaned too far out of the window and had heard haggard comments from the MZ partners and PubliGroupe. This all points to one thing: Wanner knows more than Schuhmacher.
The latter is only surprising at first glance. However, if one considers Schuhmacher's delicate situation, his ignorance becomes quite understandable: Schuhmacher is not only SZ publisher, but also Vice Chairman of the Board of PubliGroupe, which holds a 35 percent stake in VS/H. It is because of this dual role at VS/H that Schuhmacher is being targeted by the Competition Commission. Because of this dual role at VS/H, Schuhmacher is known to be in the sights of the Competition Commission. No wonder, then, that the lawyer is anxious to behave extremely correctly in his delicate mission. For this reason, he emphasizes, he "demonstrably takes a stand at PubliGroupe Board meetings when VH/S is on the agenda."
If this is the case - and there can be no doubt about it - then Schuhmacher is currently unaware of how PubliGroupe's negotiations with AZM and Espace Media have been going. However, Wanner's statement, the preemptive MZ communiqué and the reaction from Bern (see box) indicate that Wanner has almost reached an agreement with PubliGroupe. It remains unclear exactly how.
The main open question is what the cross-involvements offered by Wanner will ultimately look like. One thing is certain so far: AZ Medien has a 5 percent stake in the OT publisher Dietschi AG and a 5 percent stake in Zofinger Tagblatt AG. There is no more, as both publishing houses have a corresponding transfer restriction clause in their articles of association. However, both are also interested in acquiring a stake in AZM, and it is likely that they will also intertwine with each other - again up to a maximum of 5 percent.
This is confirmed by the editors Arthur Tabeling (OT) and Hans Gresch (ZT). That leaves the cross-shareholding with the fourth in the alliance, SZ. This is where it gets tricky: How much of its stake will PubliGroupe sell? All of it - or just 15 percent, i.e. five percent each to the three MZ partners? And what does it get in return? Shares in AZM as well as OT and ZT? The AZ management? Or the possibility of contributing the entire package to the NZZ subsidiary Freie Presse Holding (FPH) in order to strengthen the young partnership with NZZ?
Wanner does not wish to comment on this. Arthur Tabeling, on the other hand, ventures: "We have no interest in giving PubliGroupe any more shares beyond the few friendship shares it already holds with us. In addition, it already holds 100 percent of Stadtanzeiger Olten. That's enough for this area." And on the speculation that PubliGroupe might want to integrate MZ into FPH, he says firmly: "PubliGroupe will take MZ forward and nowhere else." Hans Gresch takes a similar line: "The investments of over CHF 20 million in our new building and the new newspaper press show how much the ZT wants to remain independent."
Nothing new for the Solothurner TagblattWhat does the rejection from Solothurn mean for the Espace Media Groupe? And how is it reacting? Does Bern see any scope for turning the tide after all? And what will happen to the Solothurner Tagblatt, which continues to print its obituaries free of charge? Werbewoche sent these questions to Bern.
The answer came immediately from Albert P. Stäheli, Delegate of the Board of Directors of Espace Media. He wrote: "Even if the Solothurner Zeitung and VS/H are now seeking the support of AZ to overcome their economic difficulties, this is nothing new for the Solothurner Tagblatt. Its development - we are already expecting a figure of around 5000 copies (!) at the next circulation certification - shows that there is a real need for this editorially well-made newspaper. It is obviously an enrichment for the people of Solothurn to have the choice of two newspapers every day. The recently introduced public transport fare network brings Solothurn and Berne even closer together. And it doesn't look like this trend will change in the foreseeable future." (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

Events /The Pestalozzi Children's Village and the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC) have commissioned the Zurich agency Viva with the overall communication for the "Play for Peace" youth camp.Events The Pestalozzi Children's Village and the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC) have commissioned the Zurich agency Viva with the overall communication for the "Play for Peace" youth camp. Viva was awarded the contract following an agency evaluation. The youth camp is organized by the Children's Village as part of the SDC's special "Sport and Development" programme. It will take place from August 13 to 27 and is a highlight of the Year of Sport, which the UN has proclaimed 2005. Around 200 disadvantaged children and young people from over 20 nations and Switzerland are invited to the camp in Trogen.

Column How many commercial messages are really hidden in editorial articles? Some time ago, my colleague Gabriele Siegert published a research report in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on so-called "hybrid forms of advertising". This refers to what we used to call surreptitious advertising, i.e. hidden advertising in the editorial section, and the Zurich communication scientist rightly notes: "Current studies assume that the use of hybrid forms of advertising has increased significantly in many countries in recent years. However, she then says: "In contrast to these results, the advertising experts surveyed assume that this phenomenon only plays a minor role in Switzerland." Only one expert (out of twenty) admitted to having used pressure tactics against editorial offices, such as threatening to withdraw advertisements.
The question is whether expert interviews can reveal anything at all about commercial messages in editorial. There can be no doubt that newspapers and magazines, which are suffering from both an increasing lack of readers and a weaker advertising market, have become more susceptible to pressure. But what representative of a large company that places a lot of advertisements is going to tell an interviewer in confidence what kind of pressure they are under? Not even the downtrodden editor will tell, because then he is likely to get into trouble with his advertising or publishing manager.
You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of Swiss print products that can afford to do without advertising series (for example in connection with IPOs) because of a critical article. Incidentally, the problem also affects television broadcasters. Even the public broadcaster ZDF has received hundreds of thousands of euros for the fact that some companies have appeared on "Wetten dass ...?". If even there such (now deeply regretted) mores break down, you can imagine what goes on at RTL or Pro 7.
In plain language: Anyone who sits down with a real, unbiased expert and leafs through our lifestyle magazines is likely to come to the conclusion that every second article is somehow "sponsored".
We have long had this suspicion when it comes to automotive and gastronomy journalism. However, this bad habit now extends far beyond that. Daily and weekly newspapers have also long been affected. If you want a supplement from a particular energy provider, it is difficult to refuse to place a nice article about that company in the editorial section. It goes without saying that neither sponsors nor sponsored parties are interested in their countertrade being publicized.
So anyone who wants to investigate the problems of "special forms of advertising" (a soft-laundry term) should start at the most diverse corners and ends. They will have to compare advertising and editorial content in order to discuss the results with agencies, publishers and editorial offices. He will probably even have to go to the border between social research and journalistic research.
For example, interviews with dismissed and retired heads of communication or editors-in-chief would be a good idea. The only question is who pays for such elaborate studies. Publishers, television stations and advertising agencies are unlikely to do so. So the Swiss National Science Foundation? The topic is probably too practical for them. So who will put a few hundred thousand francs on the table to inform us truthfully about "special forms of advertising"? Volunteers first.
> Peter Glotz is a publicist and Professor Emeritus of Media Management at the University of St. Gallen.

Frank Foster from Erin Media on consumer-specific advertising.WW What can Erin Media's technology do? Frank Foster We can find out exactly what the individual viewer is watching, when they change channels, where they zap to and how long they stay there.
How does the advertising industry benefit?
We can use video on demand, for example, to identify specific groups of viewers. For example, the group that is interested in Formula 1 races and what else they watch. And they get our data much more cheaply and quickly than from other providers, where they sometimes have to wait months. Medium-sized companies such as a restaurant or a local car dealer can get data from a very small geographical region and tailor their advertising directly to it.
Aren't video on demand and Tivo technologies that are only available in very few television households today?
That's true for today, yes, but the next generation is already on its way. My children, for example, hardly watch TV as we know it anymore, they use the hard disk recorder as a matter of course and switch back and forth between information sources such as the Internet, cell phone or TV. It's the technology of the future.
Interview: Gerti Schön

Trade press Edition Colibri in Wabern takes over the publishing house Rittmann from Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM) at the end of June.Rittmann publishes the Internationale Transport-Zeitschrift and the trade journal Fördertechnik. Edition Colibri, a subsidiary of Süddeutscher Verlag, publishes Technische Rundschau and the magazine Logistik. The sale means that BZM will continue to concentrate on its core business in north-western Switzerland. The publications of Rittmann AG will continue as usual.