After a two-year break, Martin Denecke is building up the Swiss branch of Scholz & Friends and has never been bored. "Traveling extensively" and working on his two apartments in Asia every now and then: That was Martin Denecke's recovery program when, after more than ten years without a vacation, he was finally able to top the completion of the sale of his GGK to Lowe with some time off in 2002. One of his apartments in Thailand is by the sea, the other on a golf course. The handicap there: Martin Denecke does not play the white ball well enough for this sport to provide him with a satisfactory workload for the foreseeable future. He was "never actively looking" - but couldn't help but accept such a challenge: after three rounds of interviews, he was offered the position of Agency Manager and Creative Director at the Swiss branch of the Scholz & Friends Group. The newcomer will manage the agency on Zurich's Limmatquai together with Christian Binder. Denecke has already had his office there for some time, as the full-time professional and former 1995 Advertising Manager of the Year has of course not managed his two-year creative break without creative consulting.
Martin Denecke got his start in advertising with a traineeship at Jäggi in Bern, after feeling ready for something more creative a month before his A-levels. Despite this, he later went back to school to become an advertising assistant and completed a commercial apprenticeship before landing in the creative field.
The Bernese worked as a copywriter at McCann Erickson in Zurich for five years. Five more "great years in the heyday" at Aebi und Partner. Denecke then moved to Reini Weber at GGK in Basel. He first worked there as CD, later as Managing Director when Aloys Hirzel bought GGK in 1991.
After various interludes with new owners, Denecke finally took over the majority himself in 1994 with a management buyout in Basel. Within a few years, he achieved a turnaround and was able to increase income from under three million to over ten million. During this time, IBM was added as a new customer throughout Europe, cash was acquired, Canon was brought in and VW was retained. In the wake of these successes, GGK also expanded to Bangkok with an agency in 1993 - hence the two apartments in Asia.
Among numerous awards, Denecke fondly remembers a Silver Lion in Cannes for the Cash film with the six out of ten managers reading the business newspaper who stay sitting on the toilet, as well as Gold in New York for the Cash commercial with Columbus and the wise Indian.
In 1998, Denecke sold his shares in GGK to Lowe in Zurich. After an earn-out lasting almost five years, he left the company completely in 2002.
What attracts him to Scholz & Friends now is that he can "build something up" with this young branch. The new Managing Director and CD was "attracted by the bold way" that the network decided to try developing its own small agency in Zurich. "They didn't just want to buy something ready-made and change the sign."
Scholz & Friends Zurich does not want to "grow at breakneck speed". With good clients that suit the agency, the aim is to develop at a "slower, but qualitatively better" pace. Martin Denecke sees the possibility of making the "manageable store" appear like a large agency when pitching. "We can offer collaboration like an owner-managed agency, but this quality is complemented by a strong network." When it comes to strategy, services and research, Scholz & Friends Zurich can fully rely on "one of the most creative and the largest and only German network in Europe".
Andreas Panzeri

Award
Once again this year, Werbewoche subscribers are awarding the coveted
Egon. Once again, only male candidates are up for election. Besides five
agency representatives, for the first time a client was named Advertiser of the Year
nominated.Bene AbegglenHis
Bernhard "Bene" Abegglen (48) began his career in 1976 as a graphic designer at the
then twelve-member Contexta in Bern. Later, the graduate of the
Bern School of Arts and Crafts promoted to AD and then CD. Today, 28
Years later, Abegglen, alongside his partner Daniel Hartmann, is the owner of
of the Contexta Group with more than 70 employees, which is responsible for
Customers such as Appenzeller cheese, Basler insurance, Swiss Lotto and
Vals water are active. In 2004, the Bernese creative succeeded with the
Beck&Bondi mini-sitcom for Swisscom and the election campaign for its
friend Alex Tschäppät, through new and unconventional measures.
success - Tschäppät became the new mayor of Bern.
Abegglen's creative expertise has also been in
various juries of national and international advertising festivals
in demand - most recently at the EDI and in Cannes.
Markus GutNach
after completing his Phil. I studies, graphic designer Markus Gut (38) joined Wirz as a
Junior AD. Later, his creative career led him via GGK to
Publicis, where he was appointed Creative Director after five years as AD.
was promoted. Since 2001, Gut has operated as Managing Director Creation
and Executive Creative Director at Zurich's Theaterstrasse. At
In 2003, under his leadership, Publicis once again became the most creative
Swiss advertising agency. The following have contributed to this success several times
award-winning works, such as the NZZ pencil campaign and the
Performances for Sportplausch Wider. Recent examples from Guts
Creative Kitchen are campaigns for PartnerWinner, for APG and the
street magazine Surprise. In addition, in 2004 Publicis attracted various
landed new customers. In addition to its membership in the international
Publicis Creative Board by David Droga, Markus Gut was also appointed to the
Worldwide CD for Zurich Financial Services appointed.
Frank BodinOriginal
musician, Frank Bodin (41) began his career in 1992 as a lyricist with
GGK. A year later he moved to Aebi/BBDO and in 1996 as CD to
McCann Erickson. In 2001, he took over the reins at the commercially
then desolate Euro RSCG, which had just lost its largest customer.
had. Three years later, the Euro-RSCG star is shining. With
New business successes such as Letter Post, M-Electronics, Switzerland Cheese
and FOPH Stop Aids. With growth like no other major agency
in 2004. With around 150 awards to date - including
Cannes Lion. In addition, Frank Bodin prevailed this year
intensively for the advertising industry: as jury president of the Golden Drum
Festivals 2004, as a champion for the newly introduced qualitative
ADC judging mode as well as spiritus rector for new content and the
associated change of name of the Leading Swiss Agencies BSW.
Peter BrönnimannPeter
Brönnimann (39) was born on the day that in Switzerland for the first time
commercials were aired: February 1, 1965. 24 years later, the
he entered advertising after studying journalism. From 1992 was
Brönnimann at Advico Young & Rubicam as a copywriter and later as a CD
active. During ten years he shaped multiple award-winning campaigns for
Helvetic Tours, Milch or Flims Laax Falera and helped to make the agency
to become the number one company at the time. In 2002 he founded together with
Martin Spillmann, Peter Felser, Rolf Zimmermann and Michael Waeber the
Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett agency. This already counts after
among the top creative agencies in Switzerland for two and a half years, was named as the
"Newcomer Agency of the Year 2004" and looks after renowned
Customers such as Feldschlösschen, Swiss Life, Carl F. Bucherer, Baileys,
Mammut, Alpenarena, Lindt, Cantonal Banks and WOZ. As a copywriter and CD
Peter Brönnimann has worked for countless national and international
awards - including at the prestigious English
D&AD.
Matthias FreulerSeinen
Matthias Freuler (46) made his advertising debut in 1982 as a junior copywriter at
Wiener + Deville. Further stations were Advico Young & Rubicam,
Aebi/Strebel and Publicis, where he first worked as a copywriter/concept designer and
later worked as a CD. Since 1999, Freuler has been Executive Creative
Director at Wirz Advertising. Over 200 awards - including gold in
Cannes - Matthias Freuler has already been honored for his work.
receive. Best known are the dairy cow Lovely, the
Furniture damage protocols, the Angie Becker poster campaign and the
Works for Hiltl and Tibits. Under his creative direction, the
Wirz advertising even in times when the agency had a hard time,
maintain a consistently high level. 2004 was also a very
Successful pitch year with wins such as Kuoni, Mobiliar, Micasa,
Pneu Egger and Metropool.
Beat MühlemannAs
Chef de publicité Beat Mühlemann (54) joined TBWA Paris in 1973.
professional world. This was followed by consulting activities with renowned Swiss
Agencies such as Advico Young & Rubicam, McCann Erickson, Schellenberg
Ogilvy & Mather as well as Wirz Advertising, where he served as
consulting group manager and member of the management board. In 1993 Mühlemann
in the same function at Farner Publicis. After almost 30 years
on agency side, during which he budgets like Toyota,
Cantonal Banks Group and Swisscom Mobile, Beat moved to the
Mühlemann 2000 to the customer side: as Head of Marketing Directorate
Communication at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives. The company founded under his aegis
Migros campaigns were presented at national and international trade fairs.
advertising festivals received several awards and thus proved that
outstanding advertising is also possible in the retail trade.

Growth Global advertising revenues in traditional media grew by 6.9 percent year-on-year to 370 billion dollars in 2004. This means that growth in global advertising expenditure exceeded expectations for 2004. North America has the largest share of the global advertising market with 45.4 percent, followed by Europe with 25.5 percent. Within the next ten years, however, Europe will be displaced from second place by the Asia-Pacific region with China as the growth engine. With 136.7 billion dollars or 37.6 percent of total expenditure, television remains the largest advertising medium worldwide. The fastest growing advertising medium is the internet with 3.6% of global advertising expenditure.

Social affairs The Zurich advertising agency Soldini Bienenfeld was able to secure a campaign for the anti-racism commission in the fall of 2005, and the agency also received the budget from its existing client Verkehrshaus for its newspaper, which is to be published at least four times a year with a circulation of over 100,000 copies. In addition, new pharmaceutical client Schering has entrusted Soldini Bienenfeld with various marketing measures for a new contraceptive.

Neuromarketing People make decisions more often unconsciously than not, especially at the point of sale. This is the conclusion of Hans-Georg Häusel's "Brain Script." Neuromarketing has long been popular on the other side of the pond. Gradually, we are now also daring to take a look into our customers' brains. The NZZ Folio recently devoted three whole pages to this topic, and we have also already discussed "How Customers Think" here. What the author Gerald Zaltman is to the Americans, Hans-Georg Häusel has been to us for years: a prophet and propagandist of neuromarketing. He, too, seeks answers to the eternal question of what drives customers (hormonally or visually?), how they make decisions (consciously or not?), in short: why they reach for the shelf here and not there, but unlike Zaltman, who primarily wants to explain and sell his "Metaphor Elicitation Technique", Häusel does comparatively thorough groundwork. The psychologist and managing director of a management consultancy has been studying the biologically anchored motives of our purchasing and consumer behavior for ten years. He has discovered that chemical and electrical brain waves have a greater influence on us than we can or want to believe.
This realization means that
The end of some marketing myths. For example, that of the autonomous, rationally deciding customer. What we do or don't do has little to do with our conscious "brain scripts". According to Häusel, well over 70 percent of our decision-making processes take place unconsciously. And even the few deliberate decisions we make are not as free as we think, as they follow a genetic program that has proven successful in evolution.
The limbic system, one of the oldest parts of the brain, is primarily responsible for controlling instinct and intuition in humans. This system is the center of emotions and motives for action (balance, dominance, control, openness, revolution, stimulation) and, according to Häusel, must be addressed as directly as possible by advertising. To win customers, you have to appeal to their dominant motive and emotional field. The same applies to the benefit argument. An example: Dominant performers buy products that give them a competitive advantage and promote their career.
Häusel writes clearly and in German, despite the sometimes quite complex subject matter. However, for those who have already read his "Think Limbic" or "Limbic Success", "Brain Script" offers little additional information. For everyone else, it is worthwhile, not least because Häusel takes a self-critical look at the fundamental pros and cons of neuromarketing.
> Brain Script by Hans-Georg Häusel. Haufe Verlag, Planegg 2004. 239 pages, Fr. 44.40.
Roger Hausmann

This updated standard work is a virtuoso guide to the basics of Internet advertising and, in language that even newbies can understand, takes you straight from the technical lowlands (cookies, rotating banners, etc.) through the strategic middle ground (targeting, site promotion, etc.) to the lofty heights of new business models. Worthwhile reading - even for those not free from vertigo.> Web Promotion by Martin Bürlimann. 3rd edition. Midas Management Verlag, Zurich 2004. 318 pages, 55 francs.

Ethno food To draw attention to the fantastic view over the sea of fog and the prospect of a spicy fondue in the summit restaurant on the Kronberg, Bern-based Contexta has placed a large poster at the valley station of the gondola lift. This poster charmingly lets the viewer know that only a few meters of altitude separate them from their destination: a real Appenzell fondue.

Media The left-wing weekly newspaper WOZ is currently advertising with a white-bearded man who looks not entirely unlike St. Nicholas: Karl Marx, "so that a good man becomes a critical man", according to the advertising text. The SFLB creative team led by Stefan Ehrler and Peter Brönnimann advises potential do-gooders to simply buy a gift subscription.

Winter sports Get on your snowboards, people: Publicis is getting into the spirit of the season for Sportplausch Wider The creative minds at Publicis have no problem getting the new snowboards from Sportplausch Wider's board shop out to the public just before Christmas. What is a must for Pirelli is a must for the sports store from Wallisellen this year. A calendar with a pin-up that immediately makes every male snowboarder think of "boards". The anything but flat-chested idea finds its female counterpart in a motif with sanitary towels. Here, too, it would be absurd not to immediately think of a snowboard for women when seeing this advertisement. "If you haven't had enough fun yet, it's best to go to Wallisellen," the agency comments on this advertisement for boards that mean the world to any real creep. The advertisers at Publicis have also come up with something for the POS (does not mean point of sex). In Wallisellen, snowboards have been installed on the store ceiling, printed with the invitation to test the new freestyle boards right here.
To ensure that customers can enjoy their newly acquired board on the mountain lifts without stress, there is a give-away "Enter at your own risk" sticker that guarantees empty gondolas and chairlifts. "If it's only half as fun on the slopes as in the Sportplausch-Wider adverts, it will be a great winter," the boss of competitor Stierli Sport can only enviously admit.
If you don't see a board here, you have one in front of your head: Sportplausch Widers calendar page.
Andreas Panzeri

You have to have a pronounced weakness for academic theses and theories to want to weigh this brick, but the feat is certainly worthwhile, as this sociologically based mega-essay volume delivers nothing less than an increase in German thinking on the complex and archaic universal topic of advertising. The menu served up by media, cultural and political scientists (among others) is correspondingly wide-ranging and rich in content. Advertising is not only reality, it also creates realities, literally on all levels. This book of (communication) books takes this fact into account.
intelligent calculation.
> The Society of Advertising edited by Herbert Willems.
Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002. 1006 pages, 113 francs.
(oc)

For seven years, Radio Pilatus, Sunshine and Central paid CHF 23,000,000 a year to 3fach, which in return waived advertising and sponsorship. This contract was terminated in the middle of the year. Negotiations with Radio Pilatus about a continuation failed in November. Radio 3fach therefore intends to finance itself with broadcast sponsorship in future. Advertising and profits will continue to be dispensed with.

Posters In 2005, the Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft (APG) commissioned the Link research institute to conduct a total of twelve waves of its Poster Performance Index (PPI) survey, which is free of charge and measures advertising impact according to the criteria of recall, brand recognition and appeal.