Mike A. Weber is to bring the newly founded Active Mobile Media "on air" at Goldbach Media.
The noise is terrible. Then it chirps in the ether. The waves roll over. And suddenly the connection is established. "It's sparking," says the look on his father's face. And for the first time, little Mike has the feeling of a wider world. "My father was one of the first licensed hobby radio operators in Switzerland with a two-digit HB9 number," says the new Managing Director at Goldbach Media. As a boy, he experienced what happens when you suddenly have a radio connection. Today, Weber still sees such enthusiasm for a product as the beginning of every entrepreneurial success. Goldbach Media founded a new mobile marketing company, Active Mobile, in January. "The cell phone is the first interactive and at the same time most personal mass medium without major wastage," says Weber, summarizing the idea. The radio advertiser joined the Goldbach Media Group from Swisscom Mobile to manage and drive forward the development of the new business unit.
Weber found his professional entry into the mobile world thanks to a restructuring at the Migros Cooperative Federation. He worked for the orange giant from 1996 to 2000 as head of advertising for the non-food division. Before that, Weber was "an agency kid" and went through all the stages from advertising assistant to consulting group manager and member of the extended management board.
He started out at Wirz Werbung, then came Aebi + Partner. After a job in the management of a smaller agency, he joined the US agency Matter Leo Burnett. With so much experience, after 15 years the decision had to be made: self-employment, working abroad or a move to the client side.
"Starting up and managing the specialist store at Migros was a lot of fun and opened the crucial doors for me," says Mike A. Weber, still convinced of the value of this change of front. His boss at the time was Paul Riesen, who has now also brought him back to Goldbach. In between, he spent almost five years at Swisscom Mobile. When the MBG's marketing department changed with the founding of Exxtra, Swisscom Mobile was also looking for a marketer from a communications area in which large budgets had already been managed. "I got the job thanks to my Migros background."
For the last five years, he was responsible for marketing communications in Bern. A unique job, because in
The telecommunications industry experienced boom years unlike any other sector of the economy. In 2000 alone, Swisscom Mobile acquired 1.5 million gross new customers in the domestic market. Differentiating itself from the other players was the big challenge. In particular, the very emotional appearance of Orange and the aggressive pricing behavior of Sunrise "challenged the marketing communication of Swisscom Mobile". As head, Weber restructured the department and introduced individual divisions. A separate online team and independent departments for direct marketing, sales promotion, branding, sponsoring and PPR were set up. "The big battleship Swisscom can only be positioned in the market with small and fast business units," was Jens Alder's strategy at the time. Weber succeeded in making the mobile division appear "young and dynamic" despite its origins in the rather traditional former monopoly.
In the meantime, the phone cards have more or less been distributed and Weber could wait for another call. People have been talking about mobile marketing for a long time. Thanks to mobile broadband technology, the multimedia dreams have now become reality. With the launch of UMTS and technologies such as PWLAN and WiMAX, which are still to come, completely new possibilities are entering the media plan. "We at the Goldbach Media Group believe in this area. It can be very interesting for cross-media," Weber calculates.
In Switzerland, mobile penetration is already more than 85% or 6.2 million users. In this environment or point of live, the conception and implementation of mobile campaigns, newsletters, voting, competitions and games or teaser campaigns will be part of the standard offering of the youngest Goldbach Media subsidiary.
"As a former telecom employee during the boom phase, I am aware that I have switched from a large ship, where everything took time to steer, to a single kayak, which is very maneuverable," says Weber happily. When building up this start-up, "I can feel the splash water again, which I missed a bit at Swisscom".
The new department aims to turn mobile marketing into an independent instrument. The new Managing Director, who is responsible for development, management, implementation in the market and expansion, will be supported by Tobias Fehrlin, a proven specialist in multi-channel and cross-media projects, and other partners.
The know-how acquired at Swisscom is Mike A. Weber's basis for

to set the tone in mobile marketing.
Andreas Panzeri

Column Those who fool (customer) kings play poker and lose big: CS can learn this from SBB On November 2, 2002, I became a better person. Back then, I mutated from "Homo sapiens" to "Homo sapiens platinensis". In other words: American Express informed me that, in view of my annual five to six-figure earnings from their commission business, they had "upgraded" me from a plebeian gold cardholder to an exalted platinum cardholder. I confess that this favor from the world's most renowned credit card company made me emotional. And after I was assured in the enclosed brochure that the Platinum card would also insure me against almost any kind of adversity, I was also overcome by a feeling of security I had rarely felt before.
Well, for the past month I have been plagued by existential fears again. In mid-December, I felt compelled to send the following e-mail to the Amex insurance company Axa Assistance in Munich: "I waive the refund of CHF 165.50. Please transfer the amount to a Swiss children's charity in my name. Thank you for your very accommodating and competent service. Your new Visa customer S. W." What had happened?
Quite simply, Amex did the worst thing a brand can do: break its promise. After I canceled a trip because my father had to have emergency surgery, I dared to ask Swisscard AECS, a joint venture between Credit Suisse and American Express, to refund the ticket cost of 550 francs.
This was followed by three months of back and forth with the people in charge, who asked for a doctor's certificate, then demanded to see my father's medical history, finally asked him to release his doctor from his duty of confidentiality and then reimbursed 165 francs on the basis of his second certificate. This was on the grounds that my partner's flight ticket was not insured - even though it was also paid for with my Platinum card - because she herself was only a Gold cardholder. I was also charged a deductible of 120 francs for claiming travel insurance.
In the hope that an amicable solution could be found, I even contacted the AECS CEO I knew, Urs Baumann. He wrote back politely and gave me 40000 air miles with Swiss. However, the effect of this gesture was
that he sent me the terms and conditions and drew my attention to subsection 10.3.2 "Travel insurance" with a red sticker.
I was already inclined to write this off as typical Swiss "Bünzli" service mentality when I had a completely different experience with another ticket. This time it was an SBB ticket for the Zurich-Winterthur route, and one that I hadn't bought.
I had rushed onto the S-Bahn in Winterthur with a colleague late at night after a meeting - but without a ticket. Of course we were caught. But instead of fining us both 80 francs each, as the regulations would have required, the train attendant listened to our apologies, looked at the thick briefcases and said: "I believe you and will therefore only charge you the 80 francs once." This SBB official suddenly restored my confidence in our country.
I would therefore make the following recommendation to CS boss Oswald Grübel: "Avoid products like American Express in your product range. Because their brand promise is based on individual customer treatment, not the recitation of small print. Or even better: ask SBB boss Benedikt Weibel to lend you a couple of train attendants. They can certainly teach your staff what customer service is. And if I know Mr. Weibel, he won't charge you McKinsey hourly rates for it."
> Sacha Wigdorovits is head of the Zurich-based communications agency
Contract Media.

Retail pioneer M-Budget is reacting to Coop's low-cost line launch and wants to spoil the market entry of German low-cost suppliers.While first mover Migros saw the frequency-generating potential of M-Budget in its nine-year-old low-cost product line at the time of its market launch, today it is about much more: market share and sales. Because what consumer organizations were unable to achieve with their price comparisons, foreign competitor chains such as Carrefour, Aldi and Lidl have managed to do by finding the right locations: Suddenly, alarm bells are ringing throughout the retail sector. With a remarkable show of strength, Coop pushed ahead with its permanently low price line (WW 01/05) and put the Migros budget brand in a tight spot despite its wider range of 250 articles. Apparently, the prevailing opinion is that M-Budget's pioneering role, cult status and high level of acceptance among shoppers will not be able to withstand the price argument for long. In order to defend its image as price leader, the response to Coop's "Prix Garantie" announcement was not long in coming. Even before Coop was able to present the new brand on the shelves on January 10, Migros placed the first ad for this year's "Prix Garantie" in the Sunday press.
M-Budget campaign. An original soundtrack that makes use of press articles and headlines that addressed the weak economic situation and hesitant purchasing behavior in Switzerland in 2004.
The large-scale advertising and poster campaign combines the sometimes demanding headlines from the press with the most popular M-Budget products and counters them with charming and succinct comments. In a striking green budget look and with the typical Migros tongue-in-cheek tone, the creatives at the Exxtra agency wanted to anchor the message that Migros is ready and willing to take up the challenge in the increasingly tough price war. And so the emerging competitive situation should not be limited to a price war. The M-Budget posters alone will be displayed in around 4,000 locations and at major railway stations.
Forecasts about the impact on the advertising industry are still too cloudy. We are therefore eagerly awaiting the industry statistics from Media Focus to find out more about retailers' media strategies.
Taken at its word: M-Budget turns headlines into reality.
The reality of the headlines catches up with Migros. M-Budget
reacts with a campaign by Exxtra >> page 14
Luca Aloisi

Inserts Since the beginning of this year, the Tamedia title Das Magazin has also been included in the subscribed editions of the Berner Zeitung BZ, the Solothurner Tagblatt and the Basler Zeitung.Inserts Since the beginning of this year, the Tamedia title Das Magazin has also been included in the subscribed editions of the Berner Zeitung BZ, the Solothurner Tagblatt and the Basler Zeitung. The McCann-Erickson agency in Zurich, which already realized the announcement campaign, will continue to inform the readers of these daily newspapers about the magazine issue appearing the following day with a current advertising motif until the end of January. An example of how editorial content can be reinterpreted for advertising purposes: For the first advertisement, McCann "re-contextualized" the cover story about the heavy boy Dieter Behring, thus building a bridge to the newspapers, which gained a few grams over the festive period thanks to the new supplement.

Computers The advertising network Euro RSCG Worldwide will not be taking part in the pitch for the global advertising budget of chip manufacturer Intel. The agency declined this offer. It had become clear that changes in Intel's business model would lead to a change of agency, writes Euro RSCG. Intel had been on the agency's client list since 1991; its budget is estimated at 300 million dollars. The decision also affects Euro's sister agency MPG, which was previously responsible for media planning and buying. According to press reports, agency teams from the advertising holding companies Interpublic, Omnicom and WPP are still in the pitch.

Advertising market TV advertising grew significantly in 2004, overcoming the 20 percent market share hurdle for the first time. This was reported by Goldbach Media in a commentary on its GEMI index, which grew by 9 percent to 304 points between December 2003 and December 2004, equivalent to CHF 62 million. The other electronic media also showed significant growth. Radio increased by 7.1 percent (CHF 10 million), the Internet by 51.3 percent (also CHF 10 million). Only teletext stagnated, with its index falling by one point to 197, while electronic media increased by a total of 9.4% to 302 points. However, the overall market only grew by 1.2 percent to 161 points. 100 points correspond to the level of December 1993 (August 2000 for the Internet). (sm)

Although the business press Bilanz and Bilan are switching to fortnightly publication at the same time, they are otherwise approaching their future in completely different ways.
The business magazines Bilan (Edipresse) and Bilanz (Jean Frey) have a common problem: as advertisements are booked at increasingly short notice, they often fall by the wayside as monthly titles due to the long lead times for customers. In addition, as many campaigns are placed at more concentrated times, the monthly magazines can often only be considered once - if at all. Théo Bouchat, who is responsible for magazines at Edipresse, says: "Our advertising customers confirm that Bilan is the best way to reach executives in French-speaking Switzerland, but they hold back because they cannot generate sufficient advertising pressure with our magazine in the desired time." This message was also heard in Zurich. Bilanz Editor-in-Chief René Lüchinger knows: "Our publication frequency is no longer compatible with the booking rhythm of our advertisers. That is why we are now increasing the cadence to 22 issues per year and thus becoming a valid alternative to the weekly press. "But with this problem and the simultaneous change to the
fortnightly rhythm, the two business magazines have already exhausted what they have in common, as their situations are too different. Bilan is now alone with its new rhythm in French-speaking Switzerland, while Bilanz is joining a tradition that is common practice with Beobachter and some women's titles. The starting points are also different: Bilanz has lost a lot of circulation, readership and advertising in recent years, but according to Lüchinger is clearly in the black and has a return on sales of a good five percent. Overall, its counterpart in French-speaking Switzerland is in a better position, fluctuating only slightly in the economic headwinds and even achieving higher advertising sales again last year compared to 2003. "Bilan was always profitable, in the double-digit percentage range," emphasizes Bouchat.
The respective competitive environments are also different: According to Lüchinger, Bilanz is in a "cut-throat battle" with several similar Swiss titles, while Bilan is confronted with Agefi, Le Temps and, above all, the French business press. The two magazines are tackling the future in different ways. Bilan is carrying out a veritable relaunch and has hired the newspaper designer Dominique Roynette, ex-AD of Le Monde, for this. The new concept consists of three parts: La quinzaine/Actualité, Enjeux/Enquêtes and Carrières/Argent. More importantly, however, the editorial spirit of Bilan is also changing. "We want to question more than just ask questions and also tackle political correctness," he says.
Borrowing from WeltwocheBouchat explains what this means: If, for example, Christoph Blocher spoke of thirty percent too many federal civil servants, Bilan would gather the facts despite all the booing, show who would suffer and who would benefit from a reduction in civil servants and how a reduction would affect pending cases, the unemployment fund and taxes. "We want to take an unbiased and close look at unconventional ideas in future," says Bouchat, referring to Weltwoche. "It already works in this spirit, but has become too ideological," he says.
Unlike Bilan, there is no change of direction for the balance sheet. Not even a layout refresh. "Overall, we're not changing much, we're just developing Bilanz organically," says Lüchinger. The background: When Lüchinger joined Bilanz a year ago, he didn't bother with the relaunch that his predecessor Medard Meier had initiated in spring 2003. He had the front redesigned again and gave the magazine a simple but unmistakable look with the same white frame around the cover. He also deleted seven of the maximum 14 annual Bilanz specials that were unprofitable. As a result, Bilanz published a total of 19 issues last year. He therefore sees the cadence change to 22 issues as a logical continuation of this reorganization: in future, Bilanz will dispense with specials altogether, but will integrate them with thematic focuses in the new fortnightly magazine.
Return to continuityThe line extensions have done more harm than good to the main magazine, explains the new publishing director Sandra Geiger. "The Bilanz brand has been severely neglected and watered down in recent years, we need to nurture it more again." After the turbulent change of ownership three years ago and the changes in the editorial team and publishing house, calm and continuity must now be restored to the product, she says.
The changeover is associated with major goals for the balance sheet. "We need to make gains among women and in the younger segment among people over 30," says Geiger. In the medium term, she would like to increase the paid circulation from 34,213 copies (interim certification) to 44,000 copies.
increase. She accepts the fact that the balance sheet will hardly show ten readers per copy in future. Geiger: "We even have to break that, because it's an enormous cluster risk."
Edipresse is also hoping for more momentum for Bilan. Bouchat anticipates growth from 20,000 to 150,000 readers within one and a half years. He is more cautious when it comes to advertising sales. "I certainly don't expect it to double," he says simply.
By-products: Different strategiesAlthough the "Bilanz Business Talk" on Press TV is an important channel in terms of a strong brand presence, René Lüchinger says that the audio balance is more important for reader loyalty. The CD with spoken balance sheet texts is intended for Sandra
Geiger will continue to do so, initially eleven times a year as before. An e-paper can now also be downloaded from the website, but like most web offers, it is subject to a charge for non-subscribers.
In contrast to the balance sheet, Théo Bouchat at Bilan is thinking of expanding the line extension. The four supplements per year, including on watches
and luxury, and is not ruling out further ones. He would like to make the weekly Bilan radio broadcasts on Radio Lac in Geneva attractive to other private broadcasters in French-speaking Switzerland. And Bilan's monthly television appearance on Vaud TVRL is to be broadcast fortnightly in future. (mk)
Hefty investmentsIn order to cope with the new rhythm, the Bilan editorial team is doubled to ten people, with Olivier Toublan remaining editor-in-chief. The single copy price is reduced from 11 to 6 francs, the subscription price is increased by eleven to 110 francs. The relaunch communication will take the form of posters and advertisements designed by the agency C'est un scandale. The advertising prices remain the same.
The Bilanz editorial team will be expanded only moderately and will continue to be able to adapt texts exclusively from the German Wirtschaftswoche and now also from the New York Fortune. The single copy price will be reduced from 12 to 8 francs, the subscription price will rise slightly to 140 francs, while the advertising price will be reduced by 2400 francs to 15900 francs. The advertising campaign for the changeover was designed by the Bolt Rohner agency.
The change of cadence is a financial tour de force for Bilan: "Due to the additional costs for the relaunch (paper, editorial and distribution), the operating budget will deteriorate temporarily, but afterwards it will look better than before," Bouchat is convinced. In terms of the balance sheet, the additional costs for the changeover are lower due to the many previous specials, but the budget still provides for 20 percent for investments. (mk)
Tactical differences: Bilanz focuses on consistency in its appearance, Bilan treats itself to a redesign.
Rejuvenate Bilanz readership: Sandra Geiger and René Lüchinger.
Markus Knöpfli

Campaign of the Year The readers of TR7 and Werbewoche have chosen their campaign favorites of 2004. Rings didn't just bring director Peter Jackson luck last year. With 19 percent of all votes, another "Lord of the Rings" came out on top in the campaign of the year (KdJ): tire specialist Pneu Egger. For years, the Aarau-based company has been urging drivers in spring and fall to adapt their tires to the season. The means to this end are humorous TV commercials. The first work from Wirz Werbung, which had previously taken over the budget from Advico Young & Rubicam, kicked off in 2004. The decision of the Wirz creatives to continue using high-impact TV commercials to generate laughter and attention and thus create the necessary recall value despite a modest media budget seems to have been the right one. Although the campaign with the likeable lady feeling the third spring was shown in the first half of the year, it was very well remembered by almost one in five CYP participants - and therefore garnered votes accordingly. FOPH a hair's breadth ahead of EmmiThe continuation of the Federal Office of Public Health's (FOPH) tobacco prevention campaign also made it onto the podium. Last year, this was dedicated to the topic of passive smoking. The corresponding advertising measures were designed by the agencies By Heart in Zurich and cR Kommunikation in Bern. In commercials and advertisements, the creatives dramatized the results of the FOPH study, according to which 71% of the Swiss population are non-smokers. And also do not want to smoke passively. This apparently also applies to a large proportion of Werbewoche and TR7 readers, as 11.5 percent of all calls, text messages and postcards were attributable to the FOPH campaign.
With just three fewer votes, the Emmi campaign for Gerber fondue also delighted TV viewers. The client and agency - Burson Marsteller - also relied on an appeal to the laugh muscles when updating the image of the ready-made fondue.
In the style of MTV formats such as Jackass, the short films were aimed primarily at a young audience. The fondue stories always focus on the "punishments" that are imposed when a piece of bread is lost. Maybe it's the season, maybe it's the witty execution, but Gerber-Fondue won the bronze medal out of the 17 works put forward for selection.
The top ten 1. Pneu Egger (Wirz, Zurich)
2 BAG tobacco prevention
(By Heart, Zurich)
3rd Gerber fondue/Emmi
(Burson Marsteller, Zurich/Bern)
4. home for the blind Mühlehalde
(Ruf Lanz, Zurich)
5 Migros Engagement/MGB
(Publicis, Zurich)
6. kuoni
(Fish Meier Direct, Adliswil)
7. m-budget/MGB
(Exxtra Communication, Zurich)
8th Ikea (Unikat, Küsnacht)
9th BeerTender/Heineken
Switzerland (Publicis, Zurich)
10th SBB (Jung von Matt/Limmat)
Top of the podium: The laughter campaign by Wirz Werbung for Pneu Egger came out on top.
Close your nose and go: The BAG tobacco prevention campaign by By Heart and cR Kommunikation was a hit.
Creamy: Gerber fondue appearance.
Simone Keller

Market Research Austria, Nivea and Migros placed the most popular ads in the Swiss media in the fourth quarter of last year.Best of NorthwestAffinity of ads among supporters in "Yuppieland"
Gold (143) GE Capital Bank Procredit - the account with credit limit (AY&R)
Gold (143) Seat Leon Cupra R The Beauty and the Car (Moritzi Advertising, Baden)
Bronze (140) Thierry Mugler B Men
In cooperation with the market research institute Demoscope, Publimedia presents the readers of Werbewoche with an excerpt of the results from the Advertising Index (AX-Print) five times a year. This index (see below) is a module of the Market Radar and measures the popularity of advertisements. In the boxes on the left and right are ads that achieved the greatest acceptance in the relevant psychographic target group. The three subjects that performed best across the entire sample, i.e., all four target groups combined, are shown under the heading "Top Three." (ww)

Market Research Austria, Nivea and Migros placed the most popular ads in the Swiss media in the fourth quarter of last year.Best of NortheastAffinity of ads among supporters in the "alternative culture".
Gold (121) WincareReliable health insurance coverage
(Saatchi & Saatchi Simko)
Silver (114) IG der Schweiz. Parquet Industry
Wood parquet - character you have or not (Bossard ASW, Lucerne)
Silver (114)Olympusu-mini Digital
(FCB)
In cooperation with the market research institute Demoscope, Publimedia presents the readers of Werbewoche with an excerpt of the results from the Advertising Index (AX-Print) five times a year. This index (see below) is a module of the Market Radar and measures the popularity of advertisements. In the boxes on the left and right are ads that achieved the greatest acceptance in the relevant psychographic target group. The three subjects that performed best across the entire sample, i.e., all four target groups combined, are shown under the heading "Top Three." (ww)

Pharmaceuticals The Bern-based advertising agency Freiburghaus und Partner (FuP) reports five budget wins, having been entrusted with a new direct-to-consumer concept by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline before the end of the year. For the Zurich-based medical company Medinova, FuP realizes all communication measures for a range of products as well as for Medinova itself. For Espace Media Groupe, the agency is creating the advertising communication for the Berner-Zeitung complete edition. FuP was awarded the overall account by the building materials company Xella Schweiz. According to the agency, it will not be able to announce its fifth new client for a few days for political reasons.

Television In the fall, the French-speaking Swiss television station TSR is introducing a new corporate identity. In addition to the logo, the typography, colors, animations and sounds will also be redesigned.Television In the fall, the French-speaking Swiss television station TSR will introduce a new corporate identity. In addition to the logo, typography, colors, animations and sounds will also be redesigned. A competition is currently underway and 20 entries have been submitted. The winner will be chosen in the spring, project manager Michel Cugno told the in-house magazine TSR.comm. The current logo with the two cubes was introduced seven years ago together with TSR 2. The new umbrella brand should take into account that TSR today not only comprises two channels, but also a website and perhaps even an information channel in the future.