TV Tamedia is thinking about more television again: The Zurich-based media company has secured the Tele Plus brand. Tele uncovered a "secret plan" last week: Tamedia is once again getting ready to roll up its sleeves in the Swiss television market, reports the Ringier program magazine. In mid-March, the Zurich-based media group registered the logo of the planned station - "Tele Plus". However, the Federal Office of Communications has not yet received a license application, which is hardly surprising. Tamedia is unlikely to tackle the venture of a regional language station as hectic as Tele suggests. In fact, Werdstrasse has been thinking about TV expansion for much longer. The logo was registered by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property on March 15. However, Tamedia had already submitted the application on September 1, 2004, and the Tele Plus word mark had already been submitted at the end of June and registered on August 19.
Room for speculationTele Plus is not Tamedia's only inactive television brand. Even though the loss-making TV 3 was put to sleep at the end of 2001, the media company still retained the rights to the name. And just a few days after TV 3's last broadcast, Tamedia reserved the name "Tele25". Under this working title, Markus Gilli and Peter Canale were looking for financial backers for a successor to their discontinued channel Tele 24.
It is possible that the new TV plans are no more mature than they were back then. At any rate, this is how Tamedia wants it to be understood: "We are keeping all options open and have prophylactically registered the Tele Plus brand in the trademark register," announced the Group's press office.
However, the parallel design of the logo to that of TeleZüri invites speculation. Tele believes that the local station's program can also be exploited nationally without excessive effort. TeleZüri already has a national appeal and produces news of interest throughout Switzerland. In addition, programs such as "Lifestyle" and "Swissdate" are also successfully broadcast by other regional stations. The move to become a regional language channel would only cost three to four million francs, Tele quotes unnamed TV experts.
However, costs are only one side of the coin. The other is interest from the audience and the advertising market - a difficult matter, as U1 TV is currently experiencing. Bruno Oetterli, head of the marketing company Radiotele and new managing director of the TeleNewsCombi (TNC) broadcasting network, is also aware of this. He expresses slight doubts as to whether Tamedia can generate the necessary response outside of Zurich. Especially if the hourly loop system is retained, it could be difficult for a possible Tele Plus. However, Oetterli does not want to comment specifically on the question of a Tamedia channel for the whole of German-speaking Switzerland. "I've only read the brief announcement from Tele, I just don't have the information," he says cautiously.
Tele Plus would definitely be a tough nut to crack for the TNC. On the one hand, a new competitor would emerge - on the other hand, the station would lack the important coverage in Zurich if TeleZüri were to leave or even merge into Tele Plus. It is also questionable what would happen to the existing program cooperations.
Revenue giant TeleZüriLooking at the advertising revenues of the regional stations, TeleZüri already stands out from the TNC. The Advertising Index Switzerland, whose figures were also used by Tamedia CEO Martin Kall at the annual results conference, puts the gross revenue of Zurich television at CHF 21 million. This is almost twice as much as the combined revenues of Tele M1, TeleBärn, TeleTell and TeleBasel. TeleZüri is experiencing a strong upswing. According to Martin Kall, TeleZüri will reach the black in 2006. In the first three months of the current year, the station was 30 percent over budget. March was completely sold out, sales manager Tarkan Özküp is pleased to report. In fact, the limited advertising time under the current radio and TV law could prove to be an obstacle to growth. The idea of expanding the reach instead is an obvious one.
Tele Plus is likely to be well received in the advertising market. TeleZüri is already strongly represented in the national media plans. According to Özküp, the proportion of national customers in the first quarter of 2005 was around 90 percent. However, one of the station's strengths as an advertising medium is its regional anchoring. Özküp says that TeleZüri is the "window to the courtyard" for viewers. He also plays on this emotional connection in the advertising block by deliberately mixing regional information with national campaigns. According to the sales manager, anyone who switches on TeleZüri during the TV commercials should realize that they are not watching RTL. As a result, the station achieves a conspicuously low take-up rate of just 25 percent.
Tele Plus will not be able to hope for such an identification of the audience. Tamedia is also aware of this. Spokeswoman Eta Pavlovic makes it clear: Despite the thought games about going national, there is currently "no intention to change anything in the TeleZüri concept". Tele Plus will remain in the secret drawer for the time being.
TV peak summer Tamedia quietly registered the Tele Plus brand in the summer of 2004. At that time, it was peak season for TV projects:
At the beginning of August, Christian Heeb joined Nordwest 5, which was preparing to conquer the entire Basel region. U1 TV announced its integration into Publisuisse's MediaOptimizer and its own programme guide. Cablecom submitted a license application to expand its info channel into a regional language channel, and Swisscom launched the Bluewin TV field test. RTL 2 announced a Swiss program window at the screen-up at the beginning of September. (sm)
Evolutionary learning effect: Tamedia could become a national player in the TV business again.
Stefano Monachesi

Newspapers The Zürcher Oberländer, the Zürcher Unterländer and the Zürichsee-Zeitung will have a uniform layout in future, and according to Konrad Müller, Publishing Director of the Oberländer, the mutual adaptation of technical parameters will also facilitate editorial exchange. This will also lead to closer cooperation between the editorial teams of the three regional newspapers in future. However, merging the editorial teams is not under discussion.

Food The Anna's Best ready-to-eat range has a low profile among younger consumers. Two Exxtra commercials are intended to strengthen the brand and sales.Anna's Best, Migros' convenience food brand and especially its ready-to-cook range, is well established among householders. Its brand profile is surprisingly different among the younger segments and professionals. Although the range of ready-to-eat products appears to be tailored to their needs, an analysis of the Brand Asset Valuator has shown that the more active and urban target groups are less oriented towards a specific brand. Instead, they head for the wide range of sales channels in the take-away sector. Here, where consumers often spontaneously opt for one ready meal or another, providers such as Gourmessa, private labels from other retailers, fast food outlets and kiosks are competing fiercely.Anna's should become the leaderDespite this, those responsible at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives recognize great growth potential in this target group, especially as the broad Anna's Best range with its consumer benefit "More time to live" can easily occupy a top-of-mind position. What the food designers develop should be made palatable to consumers by marketing specialists. In order to anchor Anna's Best as a leader in the fresh convenience product segment, they are focusing on the shake salads in a campaign pars pro toto.
For the target audience with its specific habits and attitudes, the creatives from the commissioned agency Exxtra opted for a cheekier and more unusual implementation: in the two commercials that will be running soon, the simple handling and quick preparation are not dramatized with the usual hand movements or dance interludes. The salad dressing, which is only applied to the lettuce leaves by pressing on a capsule, is shaken in an unusual way.
In a quickly edited film, two young men play around deliciously with the salad packet by catapulting it backwards onto an escalator. The salad prepared in this way returns to the sender, where it is received and eaten with relish. In the other commercial, a young woman has the dressing spread evenly over the salad by shaking a vigorously operated pinball machine. During the preparation, she has enough time to savor the admiring glances of the player. Even if you only come across this kind of serving method in the advertising world, it is likely to stick in the minds of the target audience for precisely this reason.
Crisp salads for young people.

Luca Aloisi

Head of Consulting Christoph Bürge (pictured) is moving from Matter & Partner to Krieg Schlupp Springer & Jacobi, where he will take on the same role. He will be succeeded at Matter & Partner by Marcus Gretener, who was previously head of consulting at Ruf Lanz. ...
Christoph Beckmann is the new Head of Marketing and Product Development at the airline Swiss. He is taking on these tasks in addition to his role as Head of Corporate Development. The previous Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Oliver Evans will concentrate on the management of Swiss WorldCargo.
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At the beginning of July, Moreno Cavaliere becomes Director of the Basel branch of Publicitas and Head of the Central Region. At the same time, he will join the management of the PubliPresse holding company. Cavaliere was previously Account Director and Head of Consulting and Sales at Publimedia.
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Advertising consultant Sacha Steiner has set up his own business. Under the Punktsteiner brand, he offers his services to agencies as a troubleshooter. Steiner has worked for Advico Young & Rubicam and TBWA Switzerland, among others, as well as for Unique on the client side.
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The Audience Council of SRG Deutschschweiz has elected Roger Blum as Deputy Ombudsman for Swiss Radio and Television DRS. The Bernese professor of media studies will take up the post at the beginning of August.
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Sacha Johann and Martin Koch are joining the management team of Lucerne event agency Premotion as equal partners alongside the previous agency head Pedro Llopart. Koch previously worked for several years as advertising manager at Migros Lucerne. Johann will continue to work as Head of Marketing Private Banking at Luzerner Kantonalbank in a 50 percent position.
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Adrian Fetscherin (picture) replaces Michael Meier as presenter of the press TV program "Fussballtalk" on SF 2. Meier takes over the management of the new football magazine Rotweiss. Fetscherin also works as a commentator for "live ran" on Sat 1 Switzerland. He also runs the online service Sportradio.ch.

The topic you have researched is indeed very exciting. If the PR pressure on IT titles continues to grow like this, there will ultimately only be losers: the advertising companies, who will no longer reach their target group with their editorially concealed public relations work; the readers, who will no longer find any interesting content in their computer magazine; and last but not least the publications themselves, because in the long run nobody will want to read them. What remains is the difficult economic situation for many publishers and the question of how to counter the dwindling advertising business. But there may be solutions. The topic is certainly a good one for Werbewoche, and more could be made of it. For example, it would be interesting to hear what advertisers and PR people have to say about this problem.
Karl-Heinz Müller, Managing Director of Binkert Medien AG in Laufenburg, on the article "Print this text!" in WW 14/05.

Event At the Visual Days, Antalis and other exhibitors showed, among other things, how a wide variety of advertising materials are produced Contemporary production methods and a wide range of printing materials were on display at the Visual Days 2005 in the industrial setting of the former Gugelmann textile factory in Roggwil. The trade fair, initiated by Antalis and organized together with partners, attracts a large number of production specialists every year. The specialist presentations are an important element of the Visual Days. The range of topics covered a wide spectrum: Developments in the paper environment or in digital printing were just as much the subject of the presentations as the latest product trends and application techniques for films or the topicality of screen printing. The specialist presentations were very well attended, says Karin Locher, Project Manager at Antalis. An average of 30 listeners were registered. ContrastsAt the NexPress stand, the Kodak NexPress 2100 provided a live demonstration of the "state of the art" of digital printing. With this digital printing system, it was learned, new paper types can be processed that were previously not possible in digital printing or only possible with increased effort - for example, by pretreating the substrate. The sheets of the give-away calendar printed live on site were printed on 13 different papers from the Antalis range.
The new image personalization software presented by AWZ was also interesting. This allows image elements integrated into a photo to be used variably for personalization. For example, a name can be composed or written using small stones or clouds in the sky. The technology opens up new ways of addressing customers individually and opens up new design possibilities for mailings.
A particularly popular demonstration object was the lithographic press, which was used to produce lithographs by hand.
Car wrapping The complete wrapping of vehicles with the help of special films also attracted many spectators. At the Avery and 3M stands, the large areas were applied to the car with meticulous precision using a felt squeegee and adhesive glove. At the Avery stand, visitors were told that it costs just half as much to completely re-wrap a vehicle with film as it does to repaint it.
Service providers from the large format printing sector and manufacturers of sun protection films for advertising were also present at the Visual Days. The embroidery machines on show also exerted a great fascination. The sewing machines embroider their designs in large format at breathtaking speed on any type of fabric such as T-shirts, baseball caps and other give-aways.
The young talent competition for apprentices held at the Visual Days is worthy of praise, with impressive work being submitted again this year. Some of the works show great talent. School classes from the graphic design trade also came to these exhibits time and again to admire the work of their colleagues - or to comment critically on it. The fact that this area could perhaps be placed more at the center of the exhibition next time was actually the only criticism voiced by the young visitors. Incidentally, the first three places in the apprentice competition will be announced in around two weeks' time.
Mixed reactionsPositive feedback was received from the majority of exhibitors. The partners were rather unsatisfied, as neither product demos nor other presentations were shown. Jürg Pletscher, Managing Director at Antalis, thinks that the Visual Days will be a clear winner with even more presentations. He also has an expanded evening program in mind for next year.
One of the attractions of the Visual Days was the lithographic press.

Jürgen Franck

Electronics The Korean group LG Electronics has entrusted Euro RSCG with its entire European advertising budget, winning the tender against Young & Rubicam, Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett. The London office will take the lead. The new pan-European agency for media planning and buying will be the Publicis subsidiary Starcom. LG Electronics produces cell phones, plasma screens, household appliances and other electronic devices. Until now, the group has operated on a decentralized basis in Europe. The consolidation of the budgets follows the establishment of a European headquarters in the Netherlands last year. By centralizing and strengthening its marketing communication activities, LG Electronics aims to increase the perception and recognition of its brand name.

Posters Reality sometimes surpasses fiction in its absurdity, as is the case with the new Sloggi poster campaign: Days before the teaser poster was put up, a rash person had the resolution published in the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten. The solution to the mystery: Blue Spirit, the underwear manufacturer's Swiss agency, had pimped up the internationally presented new edition of the campaign with masterful retouching and high Teletubby grass to create a funny teaser. The question is, of course, whether the eyes will be on the ice cream umbrellas on mowing day or on the familiar rear views.

Real estate market Following an agency evaluation, the Southern Region Management division of SBB Real Estate has decided to work with Kobalt Marketing und Kommunikation, the Lucerne-based agency that will be SBB Real Estate's communications and public relations partner for the next three years. SBB Real Estate is the second largest landowner in Switzerland. The first works by Kobalt will be on display from May 2005.

Digital printing Xerox has opened a customer center in Rochester, USA, which is the world's largest permanent display of digital products for the production printing and publishing industry, with 9300 square meters of space. The showroom has been specially designed to give customers an insight into the innovative printing technologies of the future.

The first ordinary General Assembly of the Association of Swiss Publishing Professionals under the leadership of the new Board was held last week in the NZZ Bistro. A lot has changed in the meantime: for the first time there was an SAAM ski weekend, the homepage was adapted, the publishing course compendia of the Media Institute are freely accessible to SAAM members and the monthly meetings on the first Wednesday of the month in the terrace are also new. President Markus Will quickly got to grips with his initial uncertainty and, with over 50 guests and 205 members, was able to record an almost intimidatingly high attendance rate for an industry general meeting. It will be interesting to see how the SAAM will continue to develop.
Le Temps also did the honors in Zurich. With the Geneva title, another important Swiss daily newspaper has completed its redesign project. When the guests first arrived at the Giesserei, both Romands and Zurich residents were still a little stiff - but that quickly changed. After all, Welsh charm goes down well on the Limmat, and so after the Edipub party at Aeschbacher, the Le Temps party was another extremely successful event from French-speaking Switzerland. If only more publishers from there would organize parties in Zurich. And also that the local publishers would have to be careful not to fall behind in terms of event quality.
The same thing could also happen to the renowned Publicis. Not in creative terms, of course, but in terms of the (future lack of!) view of the Sechseläutenwiese. This was probably the last time that the agency at Bellevue was able to provide such a magnificent and direct panorama of the burning pyre at its Bööggen event. The agency is to be relocated back to Stadelhoferstrasse this summer - together with the Publicis direct marketing unit Fisch.Meier.Direkt. And without a direct view of the Sechseläutenwiese.
It will be interesting to see what the Publicis bosses come up with as an alternative to the Bööggen bash. According to official timekeeping, the white waddling man exploded at 18:17:44. For an accurate estimate, Publicis offered a prize of a meal in the Kronenhalle, commonly known as the Publicis company canteen. Speaking of Kronenhalle - we've learned that Tagi cartoonist Nico is working on a book about Zurich's best bratwurst and roast beef restaurant. The Cannes resident has recently been represented in Zurich by Karin Giger, who became famous as an art buyer at Publicis and WHS. She is also in charge of this book project.
BÖÖGG FRED & BÖÖGG CHÄSCHPI have been given special honors as hosts of the Publicis Sechseläuten event! Almost 80 percent of those present spontaneously declared this motif to be their favorite on one of the invitation cards they had brought along. Incidentally, the agency's traditional Bööggen party at Bellevue is where the event spring really gets going. The people in charge of Le Temps moved from Geneva to Zurich to make their redesign tasty.
to make. The Association of Swiss Publishing Professionals, on the other hand, opened the series of the currently abundant
General meetings in the NZZ bistro.
The time was ripe for a redesign: Le Temps.
First ordinary AGM of the new Board of Directors with Treasurer Martin Coninx, Vice Däni Allemann and President Markus Will (from left).
Women's group in the NZZ bistro: Christine Rennhard, Eva Keller and SAAM board member Francine Bruni (from left).
Guido Eberhard, Automobil-Revue, Kathrin Spross, Spross Verlag, and Edi Lindegger, Publicitas Lucerne (from left).
A small aperitif before the AGM: Ludwig Binkert (left), IZA, with Jörg Salzmann from Mengis Annoncen AG.
Although they were not on the list of participants, they were still very welcome: Brigitte Schatzmann (l.) and Isabel Kaiser.
Ready for the upcoming voting procedure: Aled Evans (l.) from Betty Bossi Verlag and Roli Winkler, Ringier AG.
Bienvenue à la Giesserei: publishing director Valérie Boagno (l.), editor-in-chief Jean-Jacques Roth, advertising manager Marianna Di Rocco.
Happy trio: Cécile Boulant (l.), Carat, Le Temps Sales Manager Julien-V.-A. Vogel and Carol Trachsler, Initiative Media.
Enjoying the Giesserei evening: Isabelle Kropf (l.), P-International, with Vitto Genovese and Astrid Kägi from Le Temps.
Discussing at the bar: Claudia Mühlebach (l.), mm&b media agency, and Astrid Gartenmann, Publimedia.
Testing the latest trendy way to drink champagne: Jenny Best (l.) and Andrea Brack from Apple.
Arrived just in time for the welcoming speech: Toni Vetterli, Head of Marketing at Swiss Press, and Patrizia Serra, Stocks.
Andrea Fuchs (l.) and Nadine Müller Universal McCann Zurich, with Philippe Meyer, soon to join McCann-Erickson Geneva.
Intensive lounge discussion between Ivo Knüsel (l.) from Publimedia and Kilian Gasser, independent publishing consultant.
Also taking part at Le Temps: TBWA CCO Hans-Joachim Timm and Ursula Guhl, Client Unit Director.
Encountered in the entrance hall: Reto Cina, Davidoff CEO, Christine Purgly and Fredy Collioud (from left) from Publicis.
Guild members and advertisers: Weggenzunft member Beat Fingerhuth (l.), Ikea, with Martin Bürki, Head of Communications Publisuisse.
In the entrance hall: Fisch-Meier boss Christian Hansen with his wife Christine Benguerel (right) and Tagi publishing director Maili Wolf.
Kurt Zimmermann's golf columns in the SonntagsZeitung are almost legendary - but only almost, thinks Jürg Trösch (left).
Caught on the bench: Benno Gut (l.) and Markus Gyhr, post-production specialists with their company Ultra Productions.
Lukas Tenger, photographed in the terrace tent with the friendly Publicis consultant Muriel Asté.

Anniversary The German handmade paper mill Gmund celebrates its 175th anniversary. In snowy Gmund am Tegernsee, around half an hour south of Munich and just a few kilometers from the Austrian border, Büttenpapierfabrik Gmund (Gmund) celebrated its 175th anniversary at the end of January. A little late, actually, because strictly speaking the company's anniversary should have taken place in 2004: Büttenpapierfabrik Gmund - the oldest paper mill still in production in Europe - was founded back in 1829 by Johann Nepomuk Haas. But various obligations made this impossible, explained Florian Kohler, Managing Director of Gmund, to over 200 guests from the paper trade and advertising industry, among others, at the Gmund Congress in the Baroque Hall of Tegernsee Castle. Small and fineFor 100 years, the paper manufacturer Gmund has belonged to the Kohler family. When Ludwig Maximilian Kohler, who died last year, took over the factory after the war, he decided that the company should remain small and independent. This strategy is still paying off today. The company employs "only" 100 people - "only" around 5000 tons of ultra-fine paper leave the mill every year. Nevertheless, Gmund has long since developed into a globally active company. From an export share of 3 percent 55 years ago, over 70 percent of the paper produced is now sold in more than 70 countries - mainly to Western Europe, Asia and America. Production takes place directly on the banks of the Mangfall River, which flows out of Lake Tegernsee, with two paper machines: an old machine installed in 1883 and a newer one from 1978.
Haptics and opticsFlorian Kohler has been responsible for the company's fortunes since 2004. He believes that high-quality paper will not disappear, that it is capable of conveying emotions and values. The Internet, on the other hand, mostly "only" provides information.
He is often asked how the many new papers are developed. Kohler explains that the process is very analytical. They deal with haptics ("Paper must feel good."), optics ("Paper must look good."), sound ("This parameter has a lot to do with paper, as paper has a sound that users appreciate."), smell ("We can't/won't put too much smell into the paper.") and taste ("This parameter is not yet an important test criterion.").
Paper design and marketingIn addition to craftsmanship and high-quality raw materials, the company's success factors are creativity and innovative paper design on the one hand and marketing on the other. The combination of these is the recipe for success. Florian Kohler demonstrates this at the anniversary celebration: "If paper feels like leather, then it must be from Gmund." He explains how the feel of Alezan paper was improved again and again until it met his own requirements. The result is a paper that actually feels like leather and is even embossed like leather.
Or the new Gmund Kaschmir collection: the paper manufacturer has reworked this classic. The color range has been supplemented with deep, intense shades. The Kaschmir Cloth paper from this collection, which is available in deep blue, true red and white, has a velvety surface that Gmund achieves using a special process. Kohler allows guests to feel the paper and immediately makes the reference to luxury with a pattern printed on Cashmere True Red for Bulgari: "Paper thus becomes a valuable accessory."
However, Gmund's high design standards do not only extend to the papers themselves, but also run like a thread through the company and its products: The elaborate collections are beautifully designed, regularly receive awards and are among the most sought-after collections. It will be interesting to see what creations and collections the papermakers from Tegernsee come up with next.
Paper marketingGmund masters the art of marketing perfectly - corporate identity through and through. From the written greeting in the hotel room on an original letterhead created for the 100th anniversary celebrations, to printed drink labels on the fruit juices served during breaks, to the printed napkins and beer mats in the Braustüberl: the Gmund logo was omnipresent. But above all "on stage", Gmund knows how to sell paper with emotions and thus also the brand.
The many paper collections - distributed by Baumgartner, Sihl+Eika and Thalo Papier (Antalis) - are also ideal marketing tools. They inspire creative people, but also provide technical information for print shops. (jf)
175 years of Gmund - the most important milestones1829 Johann Nepomuk Haas buys a burnt-down mill, rebuilds the mill and starts producing paper.
1860 The mill burns down and is rebuilt a year later.
1904 The factory is taken over by the Kohler, Pfannenberg and Stahl families.
1921 Ludwig Alois Kohler dies in an industrial accident; the partnership rights pass to his nephew Ludwig Wilhelm Kohler.
1952 Ludwig Maximilian Kohler joins the management.
1984 Ludwig Wilhelm Kohler dies, Florian Kohler joins the management.
1991 The first Silencium brand collection is launched on the market.
1994 Son Korbinian Kohler joins the management.
2000 Gmund founds the company LakePaper.
2004 Ludwig Maximilian Kohler dies, Florian Kohler becomes the fourth generation to take over sole management of the company.
Excerpt from the book "Die Geschichte der Büttenpapierfabrik Gmund" published by Gmund.
The oldest paper machine still in production in Europe is still doing a good job for Gmund.
Gmund presented the renewed cashmere collection at the Gmund Congress.
The Gmund handmade paper mill is still strongly influenced by the Kohler family today.
Jürgen Franck