Guest commentary Advertisers do not want to and will not cross-subsidize newspaper publishers' investments in the future, warns Jürg Siegrist.SWA President Gérard Stalder took the liberty of saying in a speech to members of the association and invited guests that our media diversity is in reality an oligopoly and that advertising prices have risen around five times faster than inflation since 2000 in some cases. He also expressed doubts about objective advice from media agencies, which receive discounts from publishers, and the reaction from the Swiss Press Association was massive: "Untrue, indecent, aggressive attitude ..." This despite - or precisely because - the statements themselves can hardly be refuted. Why so vehement? Discussions about ownership, market shares and prices hardly ever get people in a rage in this country. So where is the sore point?
The basic problem facing newspaper publishers is of a technical and social nature: the fact that advertising revenue for the press is declining is just one consequence of the fact that print media circulation has long since passed its peak. Daily newspapers in particular are losing their importance as a source of information among the younger generation. Teens and twens turn on the TV or radio briefly when they get up, then surf through the online world and have information from their areas of interest sent directly to their cell phones.
At the SWA annual meeting, Marcel Meier from Microsoft gave an impressive demonstration of what the new Windows platforms will bring: the de facto fusion of TV, computer and Internet, including SMS and all the trimmings. And this is not a dream of the future, but technology that is just around the corner.
Of course, newspaper publishers have long recognized this challenge: They are expanding the online editions of their newspapers, keeping regular readers loyal with low subscription prices (at the expense of high insertion prices) and diversifying into other media at the drop of a hat. This makes perfect business sense.
The SWA fully understands the publishers' approach. However, advertisers are also thinking entrepreneurially - and are by no means prepared to be saddled with the costs of this development. Instead, they will always advertise where they can establish the most effective and favorable contacts with their customers. And they expect newspapers to offer flexible and up-to-date services.
If publishers become aware of this, the basis for objective negotiations will be in place.
> Jürg Siegrist is Director of the Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA).

will become Head of Finance, IT and Human Resources at NZZ. He will be a member of both the Group Management and the Executive Board of NZZ.Alfred Hümmerich Hümmerich was Head of Group Finance at Tamedia from 1988 to 1994. Since then he has run his own consultancy firm. In his current position, he is Head of Finance at Finanz und Wirtschaft. Hümmerich will take up his position at NZZ in May and will expand it in coordination with the gradual disposal of his previous mandates....
Publisuisse has appointed Hasan Haybat as an additional Account Manager.
committed. Haybat was previously a sales consultant for TV and cinema at
Cinecom and for poster advertising at APG.
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Communications planner Michael Knaus founds his own company. Knaus Consulting offers services for marketing and publishing. Knaus previously worked for the BSW agency Knaus & Knaus and the Beobachter's reader and advertising marketing, among others.
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Susanne Brenner is taking over media relations and communications at the General Secretariat of the Swiss Academy of Sciences. Brenner was most recently responsible for public relations projects at the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention.
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Program director Andreas Krättli is leaving the St. Gallen local radio station Toxic.fm due to differences of opinion between him and managing director Urs Siegfried.
ObituaryMichael Steltz passed away on April 19 in Neu-Isenburg at the age of 73. The former Nestlé product manager and marketing director of Vereinigte Papierwerke in Nuremberg also worked as a correspondent for Werbewoche in the 1990s. He observed the German advertising scene and was particularly well known for his reports from the advertising festival in Cannes.

Football Football has become increasingly popular since Fifa was founded in 1904. Today, it acts as a global, unifying force. "A World United" is the title of the book for Fifa's anniversary year, and the content concept was developed by Contract Media on behalf of Fifa. What was still missing was an attractive, unique design. The strategic partner Publicis came out on top in a pitch. The word "United" is the starting point for the visual appearance. This unifying element is already expressed on the cover: the tricots of various national teams are sewn together. So when you hold the book in your hand, you don't feel cardboard or paper, but real fabrics. And because different tricots were used for each cover, each book is unique. The idea is continued photographically on the inside.

The Swiss Press Council had a lot of work to do in 2004: it took a position on a total of 67 complaints against reports in the print media. 25 cases were upheld in whole or in part. The main sins of the writing guild: violation of the principle of fairness, the right to privacy and the non-authorization of important quotes.

Retailer Coop wants to redefine its umbrella brand. According to a report in Facts, seven advertising agencies have been invited to develop proposals and the project, which was launched on the advice of management consultants BBDO Consulting, is "under the strictest secrecy", according to Facts. Coop has some catching up to do, because the brand of arch-rival Migros is stronger and its advertising enjoys a high reputation, while Coop has so far used a lot of pork belly advertising. The pitch apparently involves Jung von Matt/Limmat, Krieg Schlupp Springer & Jacoby, Lowe, Scholz & Friends, Harry Sulzer, TBWA and BBDO Germany. The winner should be determined by the fall.

Awards At D&AD, the British creative competition, Advico Young & Rubicam was honored for the ADC Yearbook 2004 and the infamous Sado-Maso yearbook "Slaves of Idea" was nominated in the illustration category. The "In-book" status - inclusion in the D&AD yearbook - was awarded by the jury to the "Living Mailing" by Jung von Matt/Limmat for the landscape architects Tur & Partner.

Search engines If you want to find something in the endless jungle of data on the Internet, you usually use Google. Often successfully. The operators of the search engine are also successful.440 million They not only find information, but also millions. In the first three months of 2005 alone, the cash register rang with a massive 1.5 billion Swiss francs - almost twice as much as last year. Net profit: 440 million francs - five times more than in the same period last year. The increase in Internet advertising at Google is like a tidal wave, said one analyst. The success is likely to continue for a while yet.

Generic marketing Magazines can be used for creative advertising. Ringier proves it with a luxury handbook Print advertising is more than just advertisements. With the new BlueBox, Ringier impressively demonstrates this to its customers. The elaborately produced ring binder in a slipcase brings together 56 special forms of advertising that can be placed in the publisher's magazines and in Cash. From inserts and scent ads to bookmarks - each form is described and illustrated on one page of the planning manual. Variants such as portal ads or poster cover pictures are even included in mini format to illustrate the possibilities.
The BlueBox is the brainchild of Thomas Passen (Head of Readership and Advertising Market) and Oliver Bernheim (Head of Internal Advertising). "When talking to customers, I noticed that some consider print advertising to be less emotional than electronic media," says Bernheim. He counters this prejudice with the variety of special forms of advertising. There was a forerunner of the BlueBox at the end of the 1990s in the Burda publishing house. But that was a simply made book, says Bernheim: "We wanted something more 'Ringier-likes' that would work as a popular medium."
Together with project manager Carolina Reiber, Head of Advertising Services Zurich, and the Aformat agency, Bernheim developed the idea into the BlueBox over a period of twelve months. The first step was to collect over 50 conceivable special advertising formats. "We then clarified with the editorial offices and printers where which forms could be implemented," explains Bernheim. While product samples are possible in all titles, only Schweizer Illustrierte and Tele currently offer scent ads.
Should this change, the BlueBox can be easily updated thanks to the modular ring binder concept. The tariff sheets are to be replaced annually. "Because we don't just distribute the BlueBox, but always hand it over to our customers personally, we also know where to distribute the updates," explains Bernheim. For him, the most important customers are the creative agencies, as this is where the first generic decision is usually made. However, media agencies and customers also receive one of the 2000 copies.
In mid-May, a special treat is added: Blue Eyes Marketing has researched the impact of eight of the most common forms of special advertising on the readership of Ringier magazines and Cash. The results will be made available on a CD-ROM as a supplement to the BlueBox.
A blue egg laidNot only the BlueBox itself, but also its introduction was elaborately designed by Ringier. Teaser advertisements were placed in the trade press from mid-March. Shortly before Easter, key customers and advertising agencies received a blue box with a giant blue Easter egg as an appetizer. The handbook has been distributed and presented in person since April 7.
"We wanted to announce the BlueBox in a playful way and make people a bit 'gluschtig'," says Oliver Bernheim, Head of Internal Advertising. The name was also created with the launch campaign in mind. At first, the project was prosaically called "Specialty Book", a term that was not particularly suitable for marketing. After the decision was made to put the manual in a box for protection, the word "box" came to mind. "We decided on blue," explains Bernheim, "because blue is modern and can be played with." (sm)
56 special advertising formats in Ringier's BlueBox.
Stefano Monachesi

Classifieds Two months after its launch in French-speaking Switzerland, the online platform Immostreet.ch is also launching a print magazine for real estate advertisements in German-speaking Switzerland. according to a press release, the monthly publication will present "the best properties for sale in over eleven cantons". It will also include editorial content produced by the Geneva-based press agency Largeur.com. The publication has a circulation of 100,000 copies and will be distributed free of charge at 310 post offices and soon also in real estate agencies.

Games of chance Rive Gauche TBWA brings the lottery balls to life for Loterie Romande.
The same six numbers win the Swisslotto numbers lottery throughout Switzerland. The jackpot is also the same from Romanshorn to Geneva. However, the game of chance in French-speaking Switzerland is organized by the independent company Loterie Romande in Lausanne, while Ticino and German-speaking Switzerland are served by Swisslotto from Basel. As a result, French-speaking players are not advertised with Contexta's "Nobody makes more millionaires than us" campaign. Following a competition held in June 2004, Loterie Romande decided to entrust its advertising budget for Swisslotto in French-speaking Switzerland to the Geneva-based agency Rive Gauche TBWA. The company employs ten people and also works for Valser Wasser, for example.
Campaign breaks new ground
With a total budget of 3.8 million francs - a rarity in French-speaking Switzerland - the lucky charms of Loterie are now launching a fantasy-laden image campaign with plenty of humor that breaks new ground.
In collaboration with producer Thierry Bourdeille from Le Studio in Geneva and Pierre Coffin, the Parisian pope of synthesis animation, Rive Gauche has "revolutionized the communication rules of the lottery", according to CD Alphonse Garcia. Instead of showing what you could do with a million-dollar prize, Rive Gauche has "breathed life into the product". The balls have been transformed into three-dimensional creatures in a hyper-realistic setting, just waiting to finally make people happy.
In view of the additional competition from Euro Millions, the new campaign is intended to boost Swisslotto's popularity. "If someone can win 99 million francs with Euro Millions, as was recently the case in Valais, it doesn't seem so amazing if I can buy two Lamborghinis from a normal lottery win," says Garcia, explaining his new approach. The new campaign no longer aims to advertise the millions, but rather a fundamental joy of gambling.
This is shown with various scenes from the fictional life of the lucky balls. One dog is called Joker and wants to go for a walk every Wednesday and Saturday. In the hospital, a ball has given birth to three lucky balls. If they had been sextuplets, they would have hit the jackpot. And in a family scene, the half-grown balls insist on their right to "sortir" on Saturday - in other words, to go out.
The campaign will run throughout the year. The program includes four TV commercials, cinema spots, posters, newspaper and magazine advertisements as well as POS material in kiosks. According to Garcia, it remains to be seen whether the ads will also be used in German-speaking Switzerland at a later date.
The other way round: instead of showing winnings or winners, the campaign focuses on the lottery itself.
Only triplets: six balls would have been enough to win the jackpot, suggests the lottery commercial.
Your millions come: Rive Gauche TBWA does not advertise Loterie Romande with winnings and winners, but lets the lucky balls themselves ensure (wealth) growth >> page 9
Andreas Panzeri

Media The online marketing agency Planetactive has been commissioned by TeleZüri to completely relaunch its website, with a focus on commercializing the online area, according to a press release. In future, the Tamedia broadcaster wants to be able to offer local cross-media packages. According to the press release, the new website will continue the station's concept and focus on news, talk and entertainment formats.

Banks Following a pitch, Luzerner Kantonalbank has entrusted Felder und Vogel with an image campaign and its mortgage promotion, with the Lucerne-based advertising and PR agency coming out on top against four competitors. The mortgage promotion will start at the beginning of May with a TV commercial, advertisements and a mailing with a folder. Activities at the POS round off the package of measures. The new image campaign will be launched in August.