Tourism The Geneva-based e-marketing agency Agence Virtuelle is now also supporting the online travel agency Ebookers in Italy.Agence Virtuelle is taking on the e-marketing activities, including cost-per-click activities. The Geneva-based agency is already working for the travel agency in Switzerland.

Private television managing director and editor-in-chief Beat Alder is leaving Baselbieter Lokal-TV Nordwest 5, clearing the way for a new start for the station, according to a press release.Alder had achieved a great deal in setting up the station, Chairman of the Board Adar Tavor told SDA. However, the "enormous financial requirements" for further expansion could hardly be managed with him. Alder is vacating his chair voluntarily. Partner and designated Chairman of the Board of Directors Christian Heeb will take over the management on an interim basis.

In the article "Rate increases are the rule" (WW 39/04), we published an incorrect rate in the table: The Walliser Bote now charges 4590 francs for a full-page b/w ad and 6860 francs for a four-color ad, which corresponds to a rate increase of 1 and 0.7 percent respectively. The table incorrectly stated a price increase of 5 and 3.3 percent respectively.

Sports marketing A study reveals surprising preferences of the Chinese Everyone is looking expectantly to China, where the opening up of foreign trade is unleashing huge growth potential and also attracting Swiss companies. However, in order to be successful in the Chinese market, communication and advertising specialists are just as much in demand, and those from the sports industry are now being helped by a new study by the Fritz Kaiser Group (FKG), which was carried out with the market research institute IHA-GfK in the four most important economic regions of China. The aim of the study is to correct the distorted image of sports marketing in the West. Because: "It doesn't always have to be football or Formula 1," is the essence of the study, which came to some surprising results. According to the market research, King Soccer is still significantly less popular in China and attracts fewer spectators than other sports. Contrary to the claims of its promoters, Formula 1 has also done anything but establish itself. The extensive media coverage of Barrichello's victory with his Ferrari in Shanghai gave motorsport fans and marketers a one-sided picture.
Golf is considered a "sexy" sport
According to the FKG, gymnastics ranked at the top of the list of sports with the value attribute "intelligent", ahead of tennis and volleyball. At the bottom of this ranking were Anglo-Saxon disciplines such as cricket, golf and rugby. When asked about "sexiness", swimming, gymnastics, figure skating, fun sports and golf are the clear favorites among Chinese sports fans. On the other hand, Formula 1 and football are only in mid-table. The latter is considered the "trendiest" sport, ahead of basketball, swimming and action sports. The Chinese respondents rated sailing, cricket and ice hockey as "old-fashioned and traditional". The study also shows that rallying is the "most exciting" sport for the Chinese, ahead of alpine skiing, football and Formula 1.
Bianca Simon from FKG in Zollikon recommends that anyone who wants to make the best and most efficient use of their advertising investments in sporting events in China should first take a closer look at the sporting preferences of this nation of billions. The study is available from her together with the media data and the interactive evaluation tool "FKG SportsMaxx".
(la)

Newspapers Because the Burgdorfer Tagblatt will merge with the Aemme Zytig from 2005, the Berner Zeitung (BZ) is taking a closer look at Burgdorf, and BZ Board of Directors delegate Albert P. Stäheli held out the prospect of increased involvement in this region. He did not want to be much more specific about his own paper, but said: "The BZ will be expanded. We will certainly do more in the future."

Foreign press publisher Ringier has cut off funding for the Hungarian daily Magyar Hirlap and ceased production on November 4, having made a loss of nine million Swiss francs over the past year and a half. The editorial team was recently looking for a buyer for Magyar Hirlap, but was unable to meet a deadline set by Ringier. Ringier apparently rejected an offer from the employees to take over the newspaper themselves: the publisher did not want to sell the newspaper "for zero forints or for a minimal sum", said Editor-in-Chief Pal Szombathy.

But something must have happened that founding members of the Golden Ear association, such as Leos Gerteis from NJP-Tonstudio or Radiotele, as well as Swiss private radio stations, are no longer part of the OC of the event of the same name and have largely stayed away from the award ceremony. And they have already announced that they will set up their own event, the Swiss Spot Award, next spring. Such a move naturally had painful consequences for the Golden Ear. The absence of potent sponsors usually results in a massive loss of quality for an event - and it is interesting to note that the only sponsor of this evening was a printing company.
The offer was also grandiose: mineral water and Christmas prosecco (with cinnamon flavor and so sweet that one had already had enough after one Cüpli). Other drinks had to be paid for by the guests themselves, and for the rumbling stomachs - the "Apéro" started at seven, the award ceremony lasted until ten o'clock - a few grissini sticks (sic!) had actually been provided. The statements collected from the guests that same evening were scathing, and most of them are not even fit to print.
Well understood - the criticism concerns the event. Because in the composition of the jury, the organizers proved just as good a hand as the jury in the selection of the winning spots. From Barney to
Weber, the 14-member panel included only seasoned advertisers who made a comprehensible selection from the spots submitted. Which, however, only reinforced the discrepancy with the event.
Beat Fritschlang bored himself to death with the other guests at the Golden Ear awards last week. The event was an insult to the audience, the likes of which Peter Handke couldn't have done better in his most productive years. Nothing good to drink, nothing right to eat and a rather dull "show", which barely scraped the two-hour mark.
So it's no surprise that even before the end of the rental process, there were more advertisers at the sausage grill of the Vorderen Sternen than at the Mascotte. The only bright spot: The quality of the excellent spots (but not their sound quality in the Mascotte) was really superb.
Golden ear for JvM/Limmat with (from left) pen Sabina Meyer, graphic designer Kathrin Bänziger, CD Michael Rottmann and AD Steffi Lehmann.
Witless presentation: Gerry Reinhardt could never hold a candle to last year's host Roman Kilchsperger.

Organizer Frank Bienenfeld (l.) with Simone Künzler, Michi Rottmann from JvM/Limmat and Priska Heger from Swiss (2nd from right).

Juror Steffi Hugentobler (l.) with Wirz consultant Andrea Staub and her favorite customer Hanspeter Hürlimann from Brockenhaus.

Visit from Werbewoche publisher Media-Daten AG: Ginette Peter (l.) and Nadja Cardoso with Werner Schlatter.

Christian Wick (l.) from Wick-PR with Tereza Stäheli and Sebastian Rundy from the Acapulco advertising agency.

Melanie Auerbach from Creative Services with Denner advertising manager Stefan Maegli.

Creative gentlemen's circle: lyricist Alain Picard, Advico CD and jury member Urs Schrepfer and Contexta CD Jürg Brechbühl (from left).

Couldn't get too many p(r)ositive things out of the sweet prosecco: Copywriter Arne Völker with Isabelle Aebi from Blue Spirit.

They meet (for the time being) at the Golden Ear Event: Roger Müller Dupont (l.) from the Betonierwerk recording studio with Flo Hodel, SF DRS.

Urs Walter and Markus Holenstein from the Holenstein and Walter agency with Daniel Kunz from Cheese & Chocolate (from left).

Once again an award for the Blind Home Campaign by Ruf Lanz, represented by Danielle Lanz with companion Thomas Schöb.

Egon Blatter, Michel Pernet and Daniel Siegenthaler, Sales Manager Teletext at Radiotele (from left).

Placed themselves near the emergency exit and thus kept their backs free for the imminent escape: Andi Gedenk and Jana Nyvltova.

Tania Quispe (r.) of the Peter Droz advertising agency came to Mascotte with paralegal Viktoria Szekeres and boyfriend Stefano Dusan.

Consumer goods Following a pitch, the Unilever Group has chosen Mindshare as its European media agency from 2005.Mindshare was previously responsible for the German and Italian markets and had to share the EUR 1 billion mandate with Initiative. In addition to the two account holders, Carat also took part in the pitch. It was unclear at the weekend whether the consolidation would also affect Switzerland. The local account holder is not one of the agencies involved, but Universal McCann.

Supplements From 2005, a new bi-weekly cultural agenda will be published in Berne. The agenda is intended as a replacement for the "Ansager" supplement of the Berner Zeitung (BZ) and Bund and will be enclosed with these newspapers. The publishing services were entrusted to the agency 141 Worldwide AG.

Gastronomy On the seventh day, you should rest - or do something good. Preferably something that benefits yourself ... That's why the trendy Giesserei restaurant in Oerlikon now also opens its doors on Sundays - from brunch to dinner. From now on, connoisseurs can also spend their holy day in the unique industrial atmosphere of the converted foundry of Ursin Mirrer and Michael Bellert. The motif, developed by ViznerBorel, is used on various advertising media and reminds all food lovers that you don't have to do without anything in life.

Newspapers Ringier wants to anchor the brand values and product benefits of the SonntagsBlick in the minds of its readers The economic downturn and its negative impact on the purchasing behavior of the media audience also affected the SonntagsBlick (SoBli) last year. The certified circulation fell by 3.8 percent to 300300 copies. Ringier explains this development primarily with the difficult economic environment, the reduced delivery to Swiss and the significant reduction in the number of newspaper vending machines. The Sonntagsblatt also lost around two percent in terms of reach, as the Mach Basic 04 figures confirm. Despite the negative trend, the SoBli is still at the top of the Swiss Sunday press. New boss - new appearance
The newspaper now wants to underline this position with a new appearance and thus increase its circulation again. The Wallisell agency FCB Leutenegger Krüll is once again responsible for the campaign concept. The agency gave the Ringier-owned Sonntagsblatt a new image last year with puzzle triptychs on posters, advertisements and on television. This was followed last spring by three TV commercials that replaced the motto "More perspectives" with "Time for the whole picture". With the change in the SoBli editorial team - Christoph Grenacher replaced interim head Werner De Schepper - the agency and client checked whether the campaign still matched the product. "Each editor-in-chief sets a new focus for the content. Accordingly, we had to adapt the advertising without losing consistency," explains Creative Director Mike Krüll.
On November 15, the SoBli is now launching its new message: "If it's in the SonntagsBlick, it's an issue". In the visual implementation, the creative team uses current buzzwords that are supported or contrasted by surprising images. In this way, the brand values and product benefits of Switzerland's largest Sunday newspaper are to be anchored in the minds of the readership. "The strengths of SonntagsBlick are tabloid journalism with class and the relevance of the topics, which are written concisely and presented in color," says Krüll. The newspaper wants to use these attributes to establish itself under Grenacher
differentiate itself from the competition.
In order to anchor the competence in the topic setting as broadly and quickly as possible among the readership, the appearance starts with a large poster display in German-speaking Switzerland. This will be supported by advertisements in Ringier's own press and in selected third-party titles.
Successful reader involvement
As with the puzzle subjects, the agency and client are also relying on direct reader involvement in the new campaign concept. To this end, additional promotional advertisements will be placed in which the topics of the subjects have to be guessed. This engagement strategy proved to be very successful in the last appearance, as Mike Krüll confirms. The competition generated a response of over 3000 entries. The integrated campaign is to be supplemented next year by a TV implementation that follows the print concept "pretty closely", as the CD reveals.
A father's hobby for days gone by doesn't make everyone happy: subject from the new SoBli campaign by FCB Leutenegger Krüll.
Stories for Sunday: the cop on the offside, the officials on a normal working day.
Topic leadership among the Sunday titles: FCB Leutenegger Krüll dresses this self-confident claim of the SonntagsBlick in surprising social portraits >> page 7
Simone Keller

Tourism The British Tourist Board recently teamed up with travel book publisher Lonely Planet to publish the "Youth Guide Britain", which Visit Britain commissioned Hesskiss to develop a campaign to promote to the young target group. The agency solved the task by means of a flyer: with a folding mechanism and English question words and answers, the target audience learns everything about the guide. Who published the guide? How much does it cost? What do I get from it?