Trade fairs The Munich-based IT trade fair Systems has entrusted Vibrio Kommunikationsmanagement with its PR mandate for Switzerland, focusing on maintaining contacts with the media and active topic management in order to further raise the profile of Systems in Switzerland as an effective marketing platform. The Zurich agency wants to use targeted measures to communicate the general importance of IT trade fairs in the marketing mix, but also the particular strengths of Systems as a "contact and decision-maker trade fair" for local companies. Systems 2005 will take place from October 24 to 28.

Agencies Fifty years ago, André Berner founded Werbe & Verlags AG. The Zurich pioneer looks back. "Advertising is not just publicity where you write that something costs 5 francs. Advertising works with ideas and strategy." This insight was known only to insiders when André Berner entered advertising with his first agency in 1955. Together with Viktor Cohen, the head of Advico in Zurich at the time, he came up with the idea of founding a company with the promising name Informaktion. "It was a composition of information and action. We were doing what is now called event marketing." The first thing Berner did in those pioneering days was to develop strategies for milk utilization from eastern Switzerland. He supervised these creative "actions" on the side, because in his main job Berner was "head of advertising - as they used to say back then" at the Zurich office of Hollywood producer Paramount.
Curiosity as the driving forceThe 79-year-old originally studied architecture. But because his father was editor-in-chief and publisher of the "Schweizerische Filmzeitung," André Berner had to - or rather was allowed to - work as a reporter in addition to his studies, interviewing the film stars from Hollywood who were increasingly traveling to Switzerland. "My father was a shy guy. I was very curious. So these meetings with the stars naturally fascinated me."
Alfred Hitchcock, the "Gone with the Wind" producer David O. Selznik and many other screen greats regularly used Switzerland as a base for their promotions throughout Europe at that time. Shortly after the war, Zurich was able to offer the best infrastructure of all surrounding countries, spared from bombs, with its airport and the Dolder Grand Hotel.
His good manners with the stars earned André Berner a job as advertising manager at Paramount in 1947. He earned 750 francs a month in those days. When his bosses in faraway America didn't want to see that a small pay increase was due after a few years, Berner told his Zurich boss: "Then they won't notice in New York if I take Wednesday afternoons off in the future!" André Berner used the time he gained, which was soon joined by Thursday and Friday afternoons, for his own activities.
Apart from the brief interlude with the Informaktion at Advico, the founding of Werbe & Verlags AG on January 27, 1955 was to become his most enduring project in the field of advertising. The idea was: a common poster for all Zurich cinemas. The Zurich Cinema Association wanted to limit the experiment to six months. One cinema owner deliberately put the wrong start times in his ad. When the audience promptly wanted to storm the cinema at the wrong time, the association was convinced of the effect of this new type of advertising.
Today, the agency on the fourth floor of the Corso building in Zurich provides this collective advertising not only for cinemas but also for theaters and concerts. In addition to the posters, the so-called magnet has come as a collective advertisement in various newspapers. Some activities are also running in Winterthur, Basel, Bern and Lucerne. As a further diversification, Werbe & Verlags AG today also supplies all Tamedia newspapers as well as several publications in Germany with the daily columns for the TV and radio program. On the Internet, the Berner company, which was transferred to son Thomas in 1994, is present with Agenda www.kulturinfo.ch. The agency employs 18 people. In the graphics department, 90 percent of all cinema ads for Switzerland are designed. Junior boss Thomas Berner is now also president of the Zurich Cinema Association.
It was "not necessarily only in America" where André Berner found the know-how for such ideas early on. Still, he likes to remember an advertising course he took in New York in 1956. "We were received like kings because Swiss poster graphics were very famous at the time. Donald Brun, Herbert Leupin ..."
From 1957 onwards, expert discussions about advertising took place regularly at the "Weissen Kreuz" near Stadelhofen station. Together with friends such as the graphic artist Fredy Sigg, André Berner founded the "very first advertising club in Zurich. They met once a week for lunch.
André Berner also founded the Zurich Jazz Festival in 1951. Ueli Prager and his Mövenpick were involved as sponsors "or patrons, as they were still called back then". Because the gastronomic pioneer Prager was impressed by Berner's ideas, he also offered him a job as head of advertising. But Prager's start of work with his entourage at six in the morning was not André Berner's style. As a person of evening entertainment, he preferred to rediscover his knowledge from his architectural studies. Berner was responsible for the remodeling of legendary night clubs such as Joker in the Kongresshaus, Red House, Kings Club and Mascotte in Zurich. In Lucerne, Bern or Montreux, he has restyled the casinos.
As an architect, he often preferred to agree on a profit share of five percent on the additional turnover after the renovation rather than a fee, so he later became co-owner or at least a member of the board of directors of various pubs. He owned the Mascotte in Zurich from 1955 to 1985, before Berner was able to sell the storied pub below his current office to Freddy Burger.
From 1968 to 1984, André Berner realized the Zurich Fashion Ball. In 1968 he created the Prix Walo with Walo Linder, then head of entertainment at Swiss Radio Beromünster.
"But these things were always just hobbies. I knew that the advertising agency was the stable part of my work. Something like that could also be carried on by my son one day," says André Berner. Nevertheless, he sees himself as an outsider in the industry. "Because the company name has the word 'publisher' in it, I've never really been accepted into the advertising scene - because as an advertiser, you're not allowed to be a publisher yourself."
But this is probably no longer written so clearly in the textbook at the courses in New York that André Berner once attended.
Cultural advertising in red, green and blueIn 1955, André Berner received the first signed contract back from a cinema owner to promote his idea of a joint poster
of all Zurich cinemas. Today, after 50 years, in addition to the red posters for Cinema, green posters for concerts and blue ones for theaters stand out everywhere throughout the city of Zurich. At the same time, Werbe & Verlags AG is present in all important newspapers with the collective advertisements Magnet for Cinema, Theater, Museums and Concerts.
The idea of collective advertising for Cinema has also been realized by the agency in Winterthur, Basel, Bern and Lucerne. The theater posters are also available in Basel.
All of this collected information also feeds into the www.kulturinfo.ch website.
Defying the short-lived nature of the industry with Werbe & Verlags AG: André Berner and son Thomas.
André Berner, Hazy Osterwald, Walo Linder and Stapi Landolt (from left) inventing the Prix Walo.
Lilo Pulver with André Berner during one of the numerous interviews for the Schweizer Filmzeitung.
Andreas Panzeri

Markus Ehrle, Marketing Director of Publimedia, on the current situation and future opportunities for IT magazines.WW There are around 20 IT titles in Switzerland, and the IT sector generates annual sales of over 9 billion dollars. Is this ratio correct when compared with similarly sized markets? Markus Ehrle Compared with Germany, for example, the absolute number of Swiss IT publications is rather small, because according to MediaService Wasmuth, there are 28 trade journals in the IT industry and 68 special interest publications in the IT/computer sector. However, there are two things to consider: Firstly, in no other sector is the transition between trade journal and special interest as fluid as in the IT sector.
In addition, the Swiss business press also devotes a great deal of attention to these topics and also features advertisements from this sector.
How has the market for IT titles changed in the last three years? Some of the IT publications launched in the boom years did not survive the dwindling advertising budgets of the last five years. However, those titles that were still on the market three years ago have managed to hold their own almost without exception; indeed, they have even had to raise their journalistic profile out of necessity.
Many titles from Germany also wanted to gain a foothold here. What does it look like today?
You would have to ask the German publishing houses. In Germany, however, the battle is tougher. It's obvious that the 100 or so German publications are less different in profile than the 20 Swiss magazines you mentioned. If you look around the station kiosk, you see a lot of
Special interest publications with a broad impact from the neighboring country. The foreign publishing houses will not give up this position so easily, even in the medium term. However, we have little or no information on sales figures. They are likely to fluctuate relatively strongly. In any case, there are no Swiss advertising split opportunities. Brochure inserts are an exception - on request.
Trade journals are one of the print categories that have lost the most advertising in recent years. Has this affected IT titles just as much, more or less?
In our view, it is not entirely true that trade journals are generally among the losers. On the one hand, all augurs such as the Swiss Advertising Statistics Foundation, Wemf with AIS and Media Focus only measure a marginal proportion of trade journals; on the other hand, demand for trade journals and special interests continues unabated, at least at the planning level. Due to the lack of data, it is not possible - at least for us - to prove whether the IT press has lost an above-average amount. Compared to the boom years, however, the volume has certainly decreased somewhat.
Many IT titles have neither certified print runs nor readership figures. Is that a disadvantage?
In principle, all publications find it difficult to generate advertising volume from professional advertisers without proof of performance. Especially in such important sectors as IT or construction, for example, it would be desirable if the relevant players came together at a round table and published industry surveys. The publishing house IDG Communications AG (Computerworld, PCtipp) has taken a major step towards meeting the needs of the advertising industry by launching the MA IT Business study. Incidentally, the study was made available in full for the first time this year via the Mach online planning tools.
In view of the latent investment backlog in the IT market in recent years and its great importance in the technology-driven future, we take a positive view of developments in this sector. However, we do not expect new publications to spring up like mushrooms, as they did at the end of the 1990s. The existing Swiss IT magazines and newspapers are more likely to grow stronger, as most of them have done their homework well.
Markus Knöpfli

Peter Hürlimann offers advice on design and visual communication in his Stäfner Atelier Hürlimann & Friends. His recipe: proximity to the customer.
"Because all the possible names around Hürlimann were already occupied, I found the solution in the Friends." By this, designer Peter Hürlimann means freelancers who now form a network for him depending on the job.Hürlimann's entry into the world of design took a roundabout route. After graduating from the Diplommittelschule in Basel, he "didn't want to come home empty-handed". That's why he applied for a job as a cemetery gardener at the Jewish cemetery on his way home. After being turned down, he also tried the Psychiatric University Clinic. Here the answer was: "Too sensitive."
His mother was not particularly enthusiastic about these hasty attempts to enter the world of work. "Why not become a graphic designer?" she said. A few weeks later, Peter Hürlimann "spent three days moving black paper around". He had found his future career.
He discovered photography at the School of Arts and Crafts. "I did nothing else for days on end and spent endless hours in the darkroom." While still at school, the picture hunter won the Golden Minolta in a photography competition with a postcard idyll of the Greek island of Santorini.
After school, a stage at TWBA in Zurich followed in 1982. This reference opened the doors to Sommer Marketing in Basel. After two years, Peter Hürlimann became a freelancer. He was responsible for the design of Marc Surer's Barclay Arrows team in the Formula 1 circuit at the time. He later also worked for Porsche in Stuttgart.
After an initial trip to Australia, Hürlimann took up a permanent position again. He got to know agency life as a junior AD at Young & Rubicam in Zurich and later as an art director at McCann
Erickson. Kodak with Faces, Coca-Cola and Schweizer Illustrierte were important customers. Max Weber and later Rodolphe Deville were his foster fathers. A second detour to Australia ended with Seiler DDB Needham in Zurich. Hürlimann worked there for six years, for example for Subaru, Jaguar and Frisco Findus. Later at Bosch and Butz, mainly for UBS, Philip Morris and Landrover.
When this agency was sold, Hürlimann had to decide on a new path. As he had won many prizes during his time at the agency - including from ADC Switzerland - and had also been honored several times in the German Advertising Yearbook, he took the plunge: at the beginning of 2000, the designer opened his Hürlimann & Friends GmbH in Stäfa. The fact that the studio is based in Stäfa and not Zurich is due to Hürlimann's sailing dinghy. "She has her mooring there." Hürlimann, who grew up "as a sea boy" in Herrliberg until the age of 12, has both an inland waterway and an open sea license.
In Stäfa, however, he has not only found his boat, but also his Colombian wife Liliana in his neighbor. He likes the atmosphere on the Gold Coast. "Stäfa is good, the people are friendly and there is a good infrastructure." Hürlimann works in a shared office. Yann le Cunff offers French translations here. Psychologist Patrick Seiler is setting up a company for coaching, training and development.
In his still young studio, Hürlimann has already won several prizes, for example the Swiss Star Consumer Award 2004 for his Heidiland mineral water design and several mentions in the Econ Ullstein List 2004 advertising yearbook, including for
the sports sponsorship campaign with Phonak for Team Alinghi - a dream job for the sailor Hürlimann.
Hürlimann's clients mainly come from the SME sector. He loves direct customer contact, "which was less common at the agency". As many of his clients are SME bosses and hardly have time for meetings with the passionate advertiser during the day, Hürlimann "can also be called at weekends or in the evening". During a spontaneous visit to his office, clients also appreciate "a quick look" at ongoing design work.
He is currently working on the logo and website for an international real estate holding company. Another three websites have also been ordered, as well as flyers, leaflets, brochures and other corporate design projects.
Hürlimann found some of his customers in the private network of his rugby club. After moving from Basel to Zurich in 1986, Hürlimann wanted to make connections and heard that you can quickly play National League A rugby, which is still rare here, "even if you only train once a week". There are people from over 22 nations in his club. Hürlimann likes to quote the saying: "Rugby is a hooligan sport for gentlemen - while football is a gentleman's sport for hooligans." His third passion alongside rugby and sailing is still photography. "I can increasingly incorporate this hobby into my job." Thanks to the encouragement of his "friends", Hürlimann, who has traveled to New York, Miami and the Maldives with Alberto Venzago on many photo shoots during his agency days, decided to hold his first photo exhibition in 2004. At the Villa Sunneschy Gallery in Stäfa in October 2004, Hürlimann showed pictures from his "Journey through time" with photos from Santorini, New York and Australia.
Good infrastructure and the boat on the doorstep: Peter Hürlimann prefers Stäfa to Zurich as a place to work.

Andreas Panzeri

Prevention Ruf Lanz warns on behalf of bfu and Suva of the horror of a bicycle accident - if no helmet is worn.
For sporty mid-thirties on the bike as well as nimble managers who cycle to work, a chic bike helmet is a "must" for trendy equipment. In the case of children, it is mandated by parents that a helmet be worn. However, there are still problems with the wearing rate among teens and twens. At this vain age, people fear that a helmet could destroy their carefully draped hairstyle. Ruf Lanz took this fantasy on the head to absurdity with a campaign in 2004. Posters across the country featured an attractive young woman with a conspicuous scar on her partially shaved head, accompanied by the unambiguous headline: "Not wearing a bike helmet can destroy your hairstyle." The subject has won several national and international awards.
Ruf Lanz now wants to build on this success with the new bicycle helmet campaign for Suva and the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu). The basic message is as simple as it is brutal: for cyclists without a helmet, an accident can turn into a horror with permanent damage in a matter of seconds.
This statement is impressively visualized by a bicycle helmet whose appearance is amazingly reminiscent of the masks from horror films such as "Scream". "The helmet for our horror template is actually real. We only had to make a few changes on the computer," explains CD Markus Ruf, who now "only sees masks in all helmets.
With this reference, the TV spot initially comes across like a trailer for a new horror movie, only to be surprisingly resolved at the end by a change of camera perspective: The supposed horror mask becomes a normal bicycle helmet. In addition, one hears the sonorous voice from off-screen: "Wear a bicycle helmet. So that accidents don't become horrors."
Effect in and on the head
With the advent of mountain bikes and the growing fitness awareness of the population, the popularity of cycling increased sharply in the 1980s. As a result, the number of bicycle accidents also rose sharply.
In 1987, Suva first launched a bicycle helmet campaign to do something about the numerous bicycle accidents and the potentially dangerous head injuries. By raising awareness and selling bicycle helmets, it has since been possible to ensure that more and more cyclists in Switzerland voluntarily wear a helmet. Since 2000, Suva and the bfu have been working closely together to promote the wearing of bicycle helmets.
The success of the campaign is sustainable: Since 1994, the bfu has regularly conducted surveys on the bicycle helmet wearing rate in Switzerland. Since then, the helmet-wearing rate has risen from 4 to 27 percent in 2003.
The goal for 2004 was to increase the helmet-wearing rate to 30 percent. The bfu's latest helmet count showed that this target was clearly exceeded at 33 percent. Last year's surprising poster campaign by Ruf Lanz was probably partly responsible for this.
The concise solution with the horror movie was arrived at after a thorough analysis of the behavior of the different groups of people. Adolescents and young adults are the largest risk group in terms of leisure accidents. They place a high value on values such as freedom and fun. This is probably the reason why the rate of bicycle helmet use among this age group is still below average. The campaign therefore aims to address this group in particular.
The horror trailer was produced by Condor. It was directed by Martin A. Fueter. The 3-D animation is by Dany Bittel. The horror-appropriate sound is by Space Train, Dave Kohler & Dean Montenegro. The German version of the film is shown on TV. For a possible later use in the cinema, an English version has already been mixed, so that the horror parody in the midst of conventional spots will one day look like a real movie trailer.
Avoiding damageSuva is not just an insurance company for occupational accidents. Anyone who works for a Suva-insured company for more than eight hours a week is automatically also insured against so-called non-occupational or leisure accidents. Suva therefore makes great efforts to support insured persons and companies in increasing safety at work and during leisure time. So that accidents and the associated costs do not occur in the first place.
The increase of leisure time safety is of great importance. This is because today there are significantly more non-occupational accidents (2253770) than occupational accidents (177442).
In the spot from the horror mask to the bicycle helmet: Ruf Lanz warns all those who don't wear a helmet about the real horror of a head injury.
Andreas Panzeri

Market data cantons are a thing of the past: communication takes place in dynamic spaces. The new atlas takes a close look at them. The heart of private television in German-speaking Switzerland beats in the Zurich Unterland. The airport region dominates the overview map "Reach of the strongest regional TV" in deep red. With the Communications Atlas 2005, the media consultancy Publicom provides a deep insight into the diverse media and consumer landscape of Switzerland. The overview maps on topics such as resident population, income and commuter balance at the beginning of the 290-page volume are really just a teaser. The heart of the atlas is the breakdown of the data into 65 communication areas, into which Publicom has divided the Swiss Confederation. If you take a closer look at the Zürcher Unterland, you will not only find out that TeleZüri has a closer user group (ENK) of 56 percent there, but also that the broadcaster, as a daily regional medium, easily outperforms competitors such as Tages-Anzeiger and Radio 24 in terms of reach.
Dynamic spacesPublicom defines communication spaces as geographically delimitable areas with an internal identity. Unlike political structures, they are subject to dynamic developments. For example, the number of areas decreased by five between the introduction of the concept in 1994 and the 2004 update. The criteria for classification include demographic factors such as language, religion, party preferences, mobility and subjective sense of belonging as well as topographical barriers or distribution areas of local media.
The individual communication areas vary greatly in size. At the top is the Zurich area, which is home to 70,7500 people according to the Publicom definition. At the bottom end is the Puschlav, here called "Bernina", with only 4427 inhabitants. The fact that even the smallest areas are regarded as independent units entails a difficulty: no statistical statements can be made for them due to insufficient case numbers for many topics.
This applies, for example, to the location in the psychographic space according to the Demoscope Market Radar or the distribution of consumer spending. The former not only provides information about the affinity of the inhabitants of a communication area to certain values, but also indicates suitable advertising and media strategies. Unfortunately, the atlas lacks an overall view of the latter, which is why Werbewoche provides a brief overview.
As is to be expected, most money is spent on consumption in the largest communication area, i.e. Zurich. More interesting is the consumer spending per household. Here, the Zurich Oberland is in the lead with over CHF 69,000. It is followed by Zug and the Zurich Unterland with around 68,900 and 67,000 francs respectively. Seven of the ten areas in the top ten belong to the Zurich S-Bahn area. The Basel region is in fourth place with 65350 francs. The most consumer-friendly areas in western Switzerland are located on Lake Geneva: Lavaux/
Vevey (62400 francs) and Geneva (61000 francs).
At the lower end of the scale are Bellinzona and Emmental with less than 52,000 francs. Interestingly, both are also among the areas with the highest expenditure on health. Emmental leads the way in Switzerland. If you take the national average as 100 points, the people of Emmental achieve a record value of 145, i.e. they spend almost one and a half times as much on health as the average Swiss. At the same time, transport spending here is among the lowest in the country at 71 points. One might assume that age statistics could be informative here. Unfortunately, this is not included in the Communication Atlas, which is actually a little surprising given the notorious fixation of advertising on 15 to 49-year-olds.
In the consumption areas of leisure and clothing, the differences between the communication areas are less pronounced than for health, where the scale goes down to 59 points. This value is achieved in Wil SG, where conversely the second most money is spent on clothing with 116 points. The Linth region comes top with 117 points. Toggenburg is the nation's fashion muffle with only 81 index points. The cheapest leisure activities are to be found in Solothurn (84 points), while the Weinland/Winterthur region spends the most on them (112 points).
However, due to the statistical difficulties mentioned above, only 40 of the 65 communication areas are included in this hit parade. Large parts of central Switzerland, for example, are not included. It is therefore quite possible that secret consumer kings are hiding in plain sight. For example, there is no data available for the region with the highest per capita net income: In Nyon, each inhabitant statistically earns 38532 francs. With 73,165 people, the western shore of Lake Geneva is also the largest communication area from which too little data is available for the consumption statistics.
Concentrated informationThe 2005 Communications Atlas of Switzerland shows the 65
communication rooms, each with four pages of information
- Population, number of households
- Net income, consumer spending
- Proportion of "Stop advertising" stickers
- Circulation, household coverage and reach of the strongest and second-strongest daily newspaper
- ENK of the strongest radio and TV stations
- Number of cinemas, screens, seats
- Commuter balance and commuter flows
- Position in psychographic space.
As certain data is only valid for one year, owners of the atlas can download updated data and additional directories from www.kommunikationsatlas.ch using a password. The Communications Atlas is published by Publicom AG and is available from the publisher Media-Daten for CHF 248. Subscribers to Werbewoche or MediaTrend Journal receive a special price of CHF 198.
Orders: Tel. 044 296 97 98 or [email protected]
Communications Atlas 2005: A rich source for optimizing media plans.
Stefano Monachesi

Guest commentary Nowhere is the desire to publish greater than on the Internet. Media companies are trying to profit from the free work of Internet users, writes Nick Lüthi.
In principle, it's too late. A look at the classified advertising markets shows that online is ahead, print is lagging behind and is in danger of being left behind completely. Efforts by publishers to stop the exodus of job, car and real estate advertisements with their own platforms are rarely successful; providers from outside the industry have long since taken over with thanks.a different picture for editorial content: Here, paper continues to be regarded as the appropriate medium for journalistic articles of all genres; the Internet remains - at least here in Germany - an often annoying, money-gobbling appendage that at best serves as an advertising window for the associated print product. Neither the situation with classified ads nor with editorial content is satisfactory from a publisher's point of view. But how can paper and pixels be successfully reconciled (commercially)?
"Reverse publishing" is one possible answer. Initial approaches such as Tamedia's partnership with the online vehicle market car4you.ch can already be observed. For six months now, the Zurich-based company has been publishing a used car magazine whose content is automatically generated from the online platform's advertising database. Le Temps predicts a future for the new newspaper as the "new bible of used cars". But even without the superlatives, the Car4you example shows what such a return of online content to print products can look like.
The main motivation for this is, of course, to reduce the editorial workload to an absolute minimum. The advertisements - i.e. the newspaper content - are entered by the car owners themselves; before going to press, only a control glance is cast over the flags, eliminating the need for time-consuming data typing. The Rheinische Post takes a similar approach with its Opinio supplement. Readers write articles on any topic on the newspaper's website, and the best are then published every two weeks as Opinio.
Although the optimization of resources is limited here - the citizen journalists write for free, but around ten editors work for the supplement - this is not the primary focus of the Düsseldorf reverse publishing project. The focus is on reader loyalty. And this seems to be making progress after just a few issues. In any case, the more than 500 registered Opinio writers have already written over 3,000 articles since the launch in February.
The Car4you newspaper and Opinio show one thing above all: the free culture of the Internet, which is often lamented by media companies, can also be used productively. Just as Internet users expect to read the articles of their favorite newspaper on their screens free of charge, they are prepared to make an effort that publishers can convert into cash without paying a fee. A win-win situation? Perhaps. The first attempts at walking on crutches are at least hopeful.
> Nick Lüthi is a media journalist in Bern with many years of online experience.
experience.

Magalogs Globus demonstrates its innovative spirit with its Shanghai catalog, which has been upgraded to a lifestyle magazine. And is starting to compete with magazine publishers.
The Swiss consumer spring is bringing many a Chinese bloom this year. Zurich's Chinagarten, for example, is using mailshots to advertise "particularly authentic finger food" at its new opening, and the department store Manor is promoting its "China Today" weeks on posters and in newspaper supplements. Competitor Globus, on the other hand, relies on a no less exotic mixed medium, the "Magalog" (see box), to advertise its exotic Shanghai promotions and products (at least here in Switzerland). Its content and visual concept, which was implemented for the first time last Christmas, was developed by Zurich-based corporate publishing agency Primafila - of course in close coordination with the Globus marketing department, as co-owner Viviane Egli emphasizes. For Egli, the 84-page customer magazine, which is published in a print run of 250,000 copies and four-fifths of which is sent directly to customer card holders, is also "not a magalog in the classic sense". By "classic", however, she does not mean Lucky, the American mother of all magalogs, but, for example, the domestic Kuoni catalogs, which have been based on the principle of product storytelling for a year now.
With Shanghai, Primafila, together with its Munich-based editorial design partner Horst Moser, has further expanded and significantly refined the new Swiss genre of the sales brochure with journalistic standards. None other than Urs Schoettli, the NZZ's China correspondent since 2002, reports on the local tea culture and handbag wearers. His reports - like all editorial articles - are accompanied by images of the Chinese goods on sale in the twelve Globus stores until the end of May.
As with other high-quality CP titles, companies are also becoming potential competitors to traditional magazine publishers with Magalogs. However, Globus marketing manager Urs Freudiger puts this into perspective: "We don't see ourselves as publishers." The long-term thinking required for this with regard to the reader and (third-party) advertising market is lacking. "As soon as Jelmoli, for example, copies the Magalog idea, we try something new. Until then, we benefit from our first-mover advantage."
Refinancing third-party advertisementsEven more than the innovative product, the fact that Shanghai offers attractive advertising space in addition to appealing content is likely to be a strategic headache for publishers. And markets it cleverly. Thanks to an estimated page price of 25,000 francs (Freudiger refuses to give exact figures) and 15 bookings, the Christmas edition was "almost completely refinanced". In the current issue of the biannual Magalog, however, there are only 2.5 paid advertising pages. But next Christmas it will "certainly be more lavish again", says Freudiger confidently. And if not? "No problem, unlike the publishers, we don't live from this business."
Hybrid print genreOne of the first German references to the American "magalog" can be found in the "Dictionary of trendy languages" published by the Hamburg Trend Office. As early as mid-2000, this dictionary defined the conceptual combination of magazine and catalog as a "blending of information, entertainment and advertising into a new medium". For the left-wing alternative daily newspaper (taz), on the other hand, the new bastards on the press boulevard are simply "editorially enriched and journalistically concealed shopping lists".
In the USA, magalogs are so successful in the reader and advertising market that the trade press has been celebrating them for years as the "shooting stars and cash cows of the magazine industry" (Media Week). The market leader is Condé Nast with the monthly title Lucky (paid circulation 2004: over 1 million copies) for the female target audience and Cargo (350000 copies), launched a year ago, for the male target audience. In France, too, money can be made with journalistically styled purchase recommendations, as Gruner + Jahr has been proving since 2003 with its quarterly Magalog Shopping.
However, its German version was reintegrated into the parent magazine Woman at the end of 2004. Shortly before this, Bauer Verlag had withdrawn Shop & Style from circulation and Milchstrasse had suspended its Amico. It will be interesting to see whether innovative retail companies and retailers - or rather their corporate publishers - will be able to find the
shing agencies - will have more luck with this new genre in German-speaking countries than the (for the time being) failed magazine publishers. (oc)
Product advertising journalistically prepared: Kuoni made the start, Globus is following suit.
Oliver Classen

Balance sheet I Thanks to extremely strong growth in Central and Eastern Europe, Ringier achieves record sales Ringier posted the best result in its history in 2004. Profit increased by 28.7 percent to CHF 55.6 million and cash flow rose by 8 percent to CHF 130.6 million. A return on sales of 11.7 percent was achieved. At 5 percent, the profit margin was up on the previous year's figure of 4.4 percent.The turnover of Switzerland's largest media company increased primarily thanks to significant growth in Central and Eastern Europe, two thirds of which was due to acquisitions. Business in the East is flourishing. One example illustrates this: In the Czech Republic, Blesk pro zeny (Blick for women), launched in 2004, has already taken second place in the weekly magazine segment. No wonder, then, that Ringier also launched a Hungarian counterpart, Blikk Nök, in March of this year.
Print Switzerland stagnatesIn terms of sales, the European business increased by a full 41.6 percent or 94 million francs in 2004. It thus contributed just under 29 percent to total sales of CHF 1,113.5 million; in 2003, this share had still amounted to 23 percent. No other Ringier division is growing so rapidly. However, activities in the Swiss print and publishing sector are still the mainstay, accounting for 66.7 percent of sales. Despite declining advertising revenues, at least the Swiss publishing division reported growth of 5.4 percent, while the Swiss printing division suffered from falling prices and restructuring and reorganization measures led to a slight drop in revenues of 1.1 percent. However, the result in the printing division improved thanks to job cuts, including in connection with the Winterthur printing plant.
Ringier's newspaper division remained stable overall with sales of CHF 197.9 million, although sales figures fell slightly while advertising revenue increased somewhat. Magazines, on the other hand, increased significantly by 8 percent to 235.1 million francs. Business media, on the other hand, were down on the previous year in 2004 at CHF 21.5 million (-2.7 percent).
Ringier reported a 26 percent increase in sales for its TV activities, which now total CHF 32.4 million.
Newly launched in Hungary: Blikk Nök - the view for women.

Markus Knöpfli

Telecom AY&R wants to position Sunrise as an innovation brand where customer wishes are fulfilled subito.
"By focusing on the needs of our customers, we create trust - trust in the Sunrise brand that pays off in the long term. For us and for you," says Sunrise in its own company portrait. The yardstick for the work is customer satisfaction. The latter also has their say in the product campaigns, which have been bearing the stamp of Advico Young & Rubicam (AY&R) for a few months now. The agency, which was previously responsible for Sunrise's B-to-B marketing communications, wants to give the brand, which aims to set itself apart from the competition as the human telecom provider with its brand claim "Always a smile", an additional strategic direction: Ideas take us further.Bridge to customersAnd in this pay-off, which is intended to position the brand even more clearly both externally and internally, the new campaign builds its bridge to Sunrise customers. They are the ones who come up with all the new services and offers and thus expand the product range. With this statement, Sunrise also proves that customer needs are important to it.
Not only that. As an uncomplicated company, Sunrise not only knows how to listen to customer ideas, but also how to put them into practice quickly. Because, according to the campaign concept, if you want to be close to your customers, you have to listen to them, explain CDs Urs Schrepfer and Daniel Comte.
To emphasize this focus on needs, the creatives at Gockhausen resorted to a trick: the cross-media campaign that cleverly quotes itself. Whether in the fashion boutique, while shopping or at the cinema: spontaneous ideas from customers are immediately captured, implemented and presented as a new Sunrise product on billboards in no time at all. "The cross-media mechanism makes the campaign even more effective," says Comte. The TV commercials also dramatize the creation of the posters, which actually adorn the streets at the same time.
While many thought that fierce price competition was a thing of the past, several providers have recently rekindled it, be it with new mobile networks for large conurbations, free telephony or half-fare subscriptions for the fixed network. The hustle and bustle of telecom service providers such as the TDC subsidiary Sunrise suggests that strategies are needed for the dawning period of stagnating growth momentum. The emphasis on customer optics in the Sunrise campaign must also be seen as a reaction to the fierce cut-throat competition.
Despite an increased profit margin, Sunrise is likely to be particularly hurt by declining customer numbers. According to its own information, these have not only decreased in the fixed network sector, as is the case with almost all providers. Sunrise even had to accept a negative trend in the mobile sector: At the end of last year, the company reported 1190000 active mobile customers, ten percent fewer than in mid-2004. Media spokesman Mathieu Janin puts this change into perspective: "The decline is partly due to the missed registration of prepaid cell phones and partly to the more restrictive definition of the active customer base, which was a technical adjustment for all telecom providers." In fact, however, the number of mobile customers at Sunrise has hardly changed.
According to Urs Schrepfer, the aim is to concentrate on fewer focus topics in future so that the product range can be better anchored in the minds of consumers. This does not mean that the budget will be reduced. After all, the current Sunrise Relax campaign was implemented for TV, print, radio and POS, the Sunrise Pronto campaign with advertisements, posters and POS media and Sunrise Message Xtra for the online and POS presence. AY&R will soon be using the same campaign to advertise Sunrise ADSL, Family and other offers.
Wishfully happy: The new posters signal that Sunrise has open ears for customer concerns.

The reality is faster: ideas that Sunrise customers develop in commercials have already been implemented.
Luca Aloisi

Awards The Zurich-based advertising agency Jung von Matt/Limmat has won a whole series of awards, including the Swiss DM Award for the entries "Steckmodem und Schaufensterpuppe" (Bluewin) and "Buschgesichter" (Angel Coiffeur). The "Reinschmuggel-Aktion" (Granador) and the "Lebende Mailing" for landscape architects Tur & Partner made it onto the shortlist. The latter also impressed in the USA, where it reached the final of the One Show creative competition and received a Distinct Merit Award at the ADC New York judging. Publicis and Ruf Lanz were also successful overseas. While Publicis Zurich was one of the winners of ADC New York with its posters for Médecins sans Frontières, Ruf Lanz's "I just called" (Mühlehalde home for the blind) spot received an award at the One Show.

Print executives can certainly be distracted from their money worries, for example by reading Geo, which according to MA Leader 2005 reader research is particularly popular with the Leader segment. Wyler Werbung explained why this is the case using a richly illustrated advertisement: 39 selected banknotes that ironically depict the magazine's world - landscapes, animals, personalities and plants from all over the world.