As the new editor-in-chief, Dominic Geisseler wants to make Tele a program again.
You should never switch off your cell phone while eating truffles. Unless you want to be able to continue enjoying the following main course without suddenly having to think about something else. It was during the summer vacations in Piedmont when Dominic Geisseler was served the offer to become the new editor-in-chief of Tele over the airwaves. "I wasn't waiting for the job. But it was a good time to change." As Editor-in-Chief of the Coop newspaper, Geisseler had turned the customer magazine into the largest newspaper in Switzerland with a circulation of 1.66 million and 2.5 million readers. 400,000 new readers had been added during his five years on the editorial team in Basel. Further development hardly seemed possible. Not even for Geisseler.
"At Coop, the newspaper is an important but small cog in the big wheel. As a journalist, I would hardly have had an alternative within the company." In Ringier's vast enclosure, he feels more like a member of his own species again.
Although not yet at Grappa in Piedmont, the 43-year-old has accepted the challenge of getting Tele back on course for success and into calmer waters after a drop in circulation and redundancies.
Switching from the Coop newspaper to the TV magazine was also easy for the otherwise avowed non-zapper because he knew that a well-coordinated team at the Coop newspaper wanted to continue his line. Geisseler, who came from Schweizer Illustrierte at the time, spiced up the former cooperative newspaper with people elements, introduced entertainment and columns, offered more service and, with its "positive basic mood", arranged the whole mix in a trend-setting tabloid format.
Dominic Geisseler gained his first experience of such media work at secondary school. He founded a scout newspaper and supplied the Luzerner Neusten Nachrichten (LNN) with film reviews and reports from the theater. After graduating from high school, he immediately wanted to turn his passion into a career and worked for two years as a local editor and finally in the final editorial department of the LNN.
"It can't be that yet," he said to himself. Like other journalists, Geisseler took the opposite route and switched from a secure job to university. And unlike many journalists, he completed his degree in journalism and German studies in Zurich. His thesis on trivial literature was not without humor. The texts by Max Frisch and Mario Simmel were to be compared. The students only made scathing comments on Simmel's texts, while Frisch's language was praised to the skies. What they didn't know was that the texts had been swapped beforehand ...
He financed such academic jokes as a working student at LNN from ten in the evening until one in the morning. Later, he also briefly switched to advertising. But it bored him that he had to spend "infinitely more time" on a short headline than on an in-depth article.
Geisseler found the right rhythm at Schweizer Illustrierte. For ten years, he worked in a variety of roles, from entertainment and news editor to deputy editor-in-chief under Peter Rothenbühler.
At Tele, he is now tempted by the prospect of turning the program guide into an up-to-date television magazine, as it was in its heyday. Thanks to a "good connection" to the world of Leutschenbach, the
Tele will once again feature more news from the TV stars' sewing baskets. The new boss also "doesn't want to forget" that his Tele is "also the biggest film magazine in Switzerland" with twelve pages of cinema every week. In addition, there are over 150 film reviews in the TV program section. Six people rate each movie with stars. "Films are also one of my great passions in my private life," says Geisseler happily.
Another hobby is sports airplanes. Instead of a "boring language school", Geisseler attended a flying school during a sabbatical in California. That gave him two birds with one stone. He had already spent a few hours sweating in the cockpit of a helicopter. However, he had to give up this dream due to time constraints.
As a replacement, he now wants to steer Tele like a helicopter. Unlike a Coop newspaper, which, once on course, sails to success like a long-haul airplane without looping, a TV magazine constantly needs small corrections. "Today's TV world is very up-to-date and spontaneous," says Geisseler. After the truffles back in Piedmont, this is another thing that particularly appealed to him about his new job.
After turbulent phases, Tele under Dominic Geisseler is set to return to its heyday.
Andreas Panzeri

Allcomm Productions is once again responsible for the technical and organizational implementation of Bell's Annual General Meeting, which will be held on 13 April at the Basel Congress Centre for the shareholders of the meat-processing Coop subsidiary. Allcomm is the general contractor responsible for lighting, sound and projections for the AGM.

Self-regulation Last year, the Commission for Fair Trading received 290 complaints about unfair advertising - only six fewer than in the record year of 2003. Complaints on this topic increased from 15.1 percent to 23.2 percent, displacing sweepstakes (18.9 %) from the top spot.

Glücksspiele Ottiger & Partner is now responsible for the Grand Casino Lucerne. The advertising agency in Reussbühl LU won the mandate in a pitch and the Grand Casino is launching a new image supported by integrated communication. Ottiger & Partner was commissioned to adapt the Grand Casino's profile and image to the changing demands of the market. In addition to corporate identity management, the long-term mandate includes the entire advertising concept.

Guest commentary Die Zeit? Too bulky! The Times? Too small! The Guardian? The Guardian has hit the bull's eye with its switch to the "Swiss format", says Francesco Benini.a week ago I canceled my subscription to Die Zeit. The Hamburg weekly isn't bad, but I live in a three-room apartment and it was just too much paper for me. What's more, German journalism with its tendency to be long-winded is increasingly getting on my nerves. For example, this article about the Italian ban on smoking in public places. The journalist documents the fact that the Italians have so far been surprisingly disciplined in complying with it, not by visiting two or three bars, but with a tour of eighty-nine pubs. Interwoven into this are digressions on the cultural history of smoking and the development of the Italian national character since Garibaldi, and I would advise the German newspapers to do nothing more than take space away from their writers. This is a cruelty, as any journalist who was socialized at the NZZ knows, and ignores length specifications true to the credo of self-responsibility. But it works, just as the British have shown the Germans with their abandonment of the broadsheet. Of course, some newspapers are going too far, such as the Times, which is immediately switching to tabloid. When I hold a newspaper of this format in my hands, I always feel transported back to my childhood when my father brought me the Mickey Mouse magazine from the newsstand. It should be noted, however, that even today it still contains more information than 20 Minuten and Blick put together.
The Swiss tabloid has not solved any problems by changing its format. As long as Blick refuses to be a real tabloid, as long as you read clumsy theater reviews instead of creepy smear campaigns, it will continue to lose circulation. The fact that the Times has switched to tabloid is ultimately also an expression of a loss of journalistic significance. The reputation that the Times has lost over the last two decades has been gained by the Economist.
The Guardian is doing better. It too is downsizing, but not to tabloid size, but to the size of most Swiss daily newspapers. The good Swiss compromise between bulky wallpaper and pimped-up toilet paper is the right format for a newspaper. If Die Zeit also shrinks to a healthy size, I'll subscribe to it again. Or maybe I'll soon have enough for a bigger apartment.
> Francesco Benini is domestic editor at the NZZ am Sonntag.

Magazines The trendy magazine Schein, which was previously published every two months, will now only be continued as a website, with the last issue having been published four months ago, according to publisher Sacha Ercolani. The printing costs had become too high compared to the income, Ercolani told Werbewoche. In addition, he was busy with freelance journalism assignments, for example for SonntagsBlick. Schein was launched in spring 2004 as a free magazine and switched to newsstand sales in the summer.

Marketers PubliGroupe improves its operating result and is cautiously optimistic PubliGroupe increased its sales by 2 percent to CHF 1.98 billion in 2004. While sales in the domestic advertising market (PubliPresse) fell again by 1 percent compared with the previous year, the group achieved a 9 percent increase abroad (Publicitas Promotion Network, PPN). This was primarily achieved in the Asian and European markets; in North America, however, PPN lost 11 percent. The PubliDirect division (Yellow Pages) continued to develop positively and even exceeded expectations despite the three-year recession. This division improved by 7 percent in Switzerland and 10 percent in France, while total sales were 7 percent higher than in the previous year. 17 percent more sales were also achieved by the web services provider Namics, which expanded its activities in Switzerland and made significant progress in the German market. Cinecom, which was acquired in the middle of the year, was consolidated for the first time; its income from the sale of cinema and television advertising amounted to CHF 25 million in the second half of the year, with total sales for the same period amounting to CHF 40 million.
All the group's divisions were able to improve their results, whether through increased sales and/or further significant cost reductions. According to PubliGroupe, the operating result will exceed the CHF 60 million mark. The previous year's figure was only 34 million francs. The consolidated group result should be in the region of CHF 50 million. The detailed annual accounts for 2004 will be published on March 23.
PubliGroupe is cautious in its forecasts for the current year. The behavior of advertisers does not indicate a general trend, it says. While at the same time and sometimes in the same sector individual advertisers are increasing their communication budgets by leaps and bounds, others are reducing their budgets just as suddenly. The advertising markets have become very volatile as a result.
Only the individual categories are more predictable. Job advertisements, which recorded a growth spurt of 11.2 percent in the second half of 2004, are up year-on-year for the first time in three years (+1 percent), as are real estate advertisements (+5 percent). On the basis of current estimates, PubliGroupe is expecting slight internal growth in 2005, which should also be boosted by the takeover of NZZ-Regie and the full consolidation of Cinecom.
The PubliGroupe Board of Directors has also decided to create two new functions at Group Management level. With Brigitte Schleipen as Director of the new Group Human Resources department and Moritz Wuttke as Director of Business Development, it has appointed two new members to the Group Management.
Marcel Kohler becomes director40 percent of the Zürcher Unterländer and 20 percent of the Zürichsee Presse will be ceded by PubliGroupe to NZZ - in exchange for the advertising management of NZZ and a minority stake in the NZZ subsidiary Freie Presse Holding (FPH). However, the size of the P share in FPH has still not been determined. What is clear is that the Publicitas branch NZZ Media has now been established. The current NZZ advertising manager Marcel Kohler is the director, flanked by no less than three vice-directors, namely Stefan Bernet, Markus Stettler and Daniel Truttmann. (mk)
PubliGroupe was able to increase its sales in 2004, but the forecasts for the current year are cautious.
Markus Knöpfli

Driving service The agency Adam & Adam Unternehmenskommunikation in Forch ZH is handling the media relations for the Zurich start-up My Driver, which has been offering a driving service for anyone with a blood alcohol level of more than 0.5 but who doesn't want to leave their car behind since the beginning of the year. The guest takes a seat in the back of their own car and is driven home by a My Driver chauffeur - including amenities such as a glass of champagne on the way.

Magazines Edipresse launches a business magazine in Ukraine called Commerce, which is published quarterly in cooperation with the local US Chamber of Commerce. In English, Commerce provides advice on business activities. Innes Doig is responsible for the project. The Scottish journalist has been working for Edipresse in Ukraine since last March.

Sweets For Läkerol, Zogg Kettiger Gasser once again wants to get their advertising on everyone's lips.
Internationally, Läkerol's claim is: "Makes people talk." And this is exactly what the campaign created for Switzerland by Zogg Kettiger Gasser aims to do. "People will talk about it," hopes Client Service Director Max Winiger. The reason for the planned excitement: at first glance, the new posters for Läkerol lack a headline as well as the logo, and there is also no claim. But only at first glance. The headline is there. "Not in words, but in pictures," explains AD Beni Kurz. The logo is there too. "On the illustrated packaging." And the claim?" The Zurich agency Zogg Kettiger Gasser deliberately avoided text.
renounced. "With this campaign, we also want to show once again that less can sometimes be more, especially in this day and age of totally overcrowded messages with no space, a lack of courage for bold implementations and the obvious urge to clog up even the last centimeter of free space," Winiger explains. The management of Läkerol in Sweden liked the freshness of such thinking.
More sales thanks to competitionAlthough many Swiss consider Läkerol to be a domestic product, the throat and pharyngeal care products were invented in Sweden in 1909 as semi-medicinal sweets. In Switzerland, the brand has been on the market for almost 80 years. This is a competitive market. 1.25 million people reach for fruit gums, gummy bears and sweets at least once a week. In terms of volume, Läkerol has a market share of 6.6 percent. In this environment, the importer Cruspi SA in Dällikon sells the international product in Switzerland with its own communication structure.
Zogg Kettiger Gasser created a strong national campaign back in 2004. The claim: "Häschs derbii, bisch derbii." The clever thing about this campaign was a competition. Anyone carrying a pack when the Läkerol investigators turned up unexpectedly could win 2,000 francs for every 50 uses of the lucky charms in public places. As a result, almost twice as many people bought a Läkerol as before the campaign so that they would be prepared for the game if the investigators turned up. And the campaign became a talking point. "The old claim 'Makes people talk' was filled with new life."
From February 20, this will once again be the goal for the three flavors Red & Spicy, Eucalyptus and Blue Fruit, as well as for Läkerol Dents. However, no longer with a competition, but with more artistic aspirations. The agency describes the concept as "Colors & Flavours". Läkerol is advertised on e-boards with ten-second spots in the largest railroad stations in Switzerland and nationally with posters in F12 and F200 formats.
Courageous clientLäkerol is known to almost everyone in Switzerland. The brand is firmly anchored in the minds of consumers. But brands still need to be constantly reanimated. Especially in the luxury sector. Zogg Kettiger Gasser feels lucky that Managing Director Lorenz Vogel and Product Manager Alexandra Rohrer at Cruspi are not the kind of clients who "want to squeeze everything humanly possible into the advertising": the product even bigger, the logo even bigger, every conceivable feature and, of course, the entire range on the poster. "That has long since ceased to have anything to do with advertising," says Winiger. For him, advertising has to seduce, surprise and be able to trigger something in the consumer's mind. In the midst of these overcrowded messages, the Läkerol posters should "act like islands". Colorful and striking - "Colours & Flavours".
Because this campaign had to be "a bit of art" to attract so much attention, the image realization was also designed accordingly. Roth & Schmid did not photograph a neatly plastered packshot image. It therefore interpreted the "Colours & Flavours" theme artistically with colors that not only refresh the throat and pharynx, but also the eyes.
The agency would have "brainstormed for weeks on this campaign and questioned the idea again and again". In 16 years of advertising, Winiger has never realized a campaign without a headline and claim. "But there is simply no headline here that could reinforce the message."
Throat and pharynxThe market for pocket-sized sweets is highly competitive. Läkerol's strong competitors are Ricola, the number 1 in Switzerland, Fisherman's Friend, Tic Tac, Smint and Migros' own brand Larry's. These products are jostling for the most coveted places at the checkout and at the front of the kiosk sweeter.
A 2003 study conducted by the market research institute IHA-GfK among 1,000 people aged 15 to 74 showed that awareness of Läkerol in Switzerland was already at 95 percent before last year's major campaign.
In Sweden, the country of origin, advertising for Läkerol has always taken an unconventional approach. Adolf Ahlgren, the inventor of the "medicinal sweets", was one of the first to use product placement. As early as the late 1920s, he decorated postcars throughout Sweden with Läkerol posters. He also knew how to get celebrities such as show stars Josephine Baker, Maurice Chevalier and later tennis ace Björn Borg to make statements.
Islands in the midst of overcrowded advertising messages: The Läkerol campaign dispenses with headline and claim.
Andreas Panzeri

Gambling Contexta wants to fill the jackpot again for Swiss Lotto. Last weekend showed that you can win an incredible amount of money with Swiss Lotto. 12.6 million Swiss francs was won by a person with knowledge of the numbers because he or she left the correct fields on the lottery ticket blank. Now, however, the jackpot is empty again. But this low tide in the lucky piggy bank should not last long. There are more lottery millionaires than you might imagine. Last year, for example, 29 lottery players won millions. Since the introduction of the number lottery in Switzerland in 1970, a total of 389 million prizes have been paid out. Lamborghini in a multipack
The Bern-based advertising agency Contexta is using this convincing accumulation of luck for its current campaign and has realized two television commercials with the slogan "Swiss Lotto. Nobody makes more millionaires".
In the two new commercials "Lamborghini" and "Yacht", the fact that there are more and more lottery millionaires in Switzerland is communicated in the usual humorous and exaggerated way. For example, there are suddenly a conspicuous number of yellow Lamborghinis driving around on Swiss roads. And the uniquely luxurious offshore boat is suddenly no longer so unique - even if the realistic chance is still only 1:8145000 that you can buy one from your lottery winnings.
The new TV commercials produced by Wirz + Fraefel are perfectly timed and were first aired last Monday - the first working day as a multimillionaire tipster with the magic numbers 8, 15, 36, 21, 6, 22.
More millions, more millionaires: the hunt for fortune continues.
Andreas Panzeri

Oliver Classen on possible publishing cooperations in the ancillary business sector.Now that Ringier has finally broken the Swiss spell, it seems only a matter of months, perhaps even weeks, before the competition jumps on the ancillary business bandwagon. North of the Rhine, the battle for shares in the ancillary business with books, CDs and DVDs is already in full swing: Holtzbrinck's flagship Die Zeit is countering the "Cinemathek" of the Süddeutsche Zeitung (see page 16) with a 50-part film collection that is also distributed via amazon.de. And Stern is trying its luck with twelve Oscar-winning DVDs on its own.In contrast to the German market, the German market simply has the necessary size for lucrative side businesses: This is how Swiss publishing managers have justified their lack of imagination and courage in this regard up to now. The surprise success of the Blick experiment, which can certainly be optimized in terms of quality, exposes this killer argument as a mere protective claim. Where there is an entrepreneurial will, there is also a viable path.
This is preferably done with the help of valid partners. This does not just mean production and sales alliances. It would also be conceivable to extend existing alliances, such as advertising pools, to commercial sidelines. Why not distribute the same gadget via Tages-Anzeiger, Basler Zeitung and Berner Zeitung? Or why not team up with one of the major German publishers mentioned above?
whose book and film series could be marketed just as well in German-speaking Switzerland?
Because the following applies to this area: Only the masses make the difference. From which it follows: The smaller the market, the more expensive the product. That's why the rock CDs from the industry pioneer Blick are still far too expensive at 8.10 Swiss francs net. The fact that they nevertheless sell like hot cakes gives an idea of the Swiss potential for higher-quality newspaper supplements. The only question is who will be the first to smell a rat and serve their readers a menu worthy of their own brand.
> Oliver Classen, Editor