Program supplements The new television supplement of the French-speaking Swiss daily newspapers La Côte, L'Express and L'Impartial has a budget of CHF 1.5 million in its first year, Jacques Richard, the Swiss delegate of the Hersant Group's Board of Directors, told SDA. The new TV Plus will be added to the three Hersant newspapers from the beginning of 2005. According to the Tribune de Genève, the editorial team based in Nyon will consist of five people. Editor-in-chief will be Thierry Peitrequin.

Confiserie The Basel-based advertising agency Dialog Lucky Lack has won the overall account for Läckerli-Huus, coming out on top in a competitive presentation. The first work for the traditional Basel confectionery will already be seen in November as part of a Christmas campaign for the whole of Switzerland. In addition to Basel and Münchenstein, Läckerli-Huus also has branches in Bern, Lucerne, Zurich, St. Gallen and Lausanne.

Machinery industry Bossard Kommunikation advertises a new grinding machine in the English-speaking world for Niederberger Schleif- und Polierautomaten AG, an industrial company based in Kriens, Switzerland, which chose the Lucerne-based advertising agency on recommendation. Bossard's first project is a product advertisement for an English trade magazine. Also in the pipeline are the revision of the corporate identity and design as well as the website.

Advertising The current speeding debate has inspired AD Simon Staub and copywriter Martin Stulz from Matter & Partner to create a sarcastic advertisement for Backyard racing bikes, and the fate of the speedy Amir B. seems to have particularly affected the advertisers. His tuned car was confiscated just because of his parade role in the magazine Rundschau. Luckily, Backyard, the small, fine bike store from Zurich, has a remedy: its new racing bikes are just as good for racing - with or without a driver's license. And in cases of hardship, even in the courtyard of the local prison.

Oliver Classen on the exemplary nature of Sweden's tabloidization.Sweden and Switzerland have more similarities than their easily confused names - especially for Anglo-Saxon tourists. Both are traditional newspaper nations, and here and there the metrosexual commuter press celebrates particularly lasting success. Without the Stockholm metro, there would be no Zurich 20 Minuten. This shows that it is not the small Alpine republic but the largest country in Scandinavia that is acting as a test market in this area, which could also apply to the concerted tabloidization of leading quality newspapers. So far, Dagens Nyheter (Stockholm), Sydsvenska Dagbladet (Malmö) and
Gothenburg's posts "only" linked by an advertising combination. For ten days now, the metro competitors have also been appearing in the same trend format and marketing themselves with the same modular booking system.
However, potential "early adopters" of the Swedish alliance should bear three things in mind:
- The leveling of form is generally followed by the leveling of content.
- According to McKinsey, a newspaper's advertising revenue shrinks with its format, on average by 20 percent in Europe.
- Vife competitors such as Metro or 20 Minuten are not sleeping.
In this case, the mother of all free daily newspapers wants to counter the new alliance of the established players with merciless expansion. From October 20, the restriction to the three metropolitan areas will be over, as will the restriction to local public transport. In future, Sweden's highest-circulation newspaper will be distributed in 15 cities - including in front of schools, factories and in pedestrian zones.
This strategic omnipresence should be the horror story of every newspaper manager. Even in Zurichbaselbern. Which is why they warn against imitating the Scandinavian example. Because if you arrive too late, you will be punished first by readers and then by the advertising market. How much too late - Metro was launched in 1995, 20 Minuten in 1999 - hardly matters.
> Oliver Classen, Editor

Roland Wahrenberger sees great potential in his role as Business Manager of Reader's Digest Switzerland.The Swiss market is important for Reader's Digest. The Swiss offshoot of the international magazine has very good coverage and is still considered one of the biggest magazines in Switzerland. Best has an independent editorial team here. Some of the stories are taken from Germany. However, the topicality has to be covered in Switzerland. A third part comes from the international pool. The combined circulation of the French and German-language editions reaches 246,000 copies with 59,000,000 readers per month. "That gives us access to a very large number of households," says DM specialist Roland Wahrenberger. A large part of Reader's Digest's business is not generated by the magazine, but by other publishing products such as books, videos, audio books, CDs and DVDs. Wahrenberger is particularly looking forward to this diversity. "For me, it means a new dimension in direct marketing." In a perfection that he had never known before, although he claimed to be "one of the better DM specialists in the magazine sector".
The new Business Manager of Reader's Digest Switzerland has many years of experience in the publishing industry. Wahrenberger started out at the former Badener Tagblatt. As a career changer from the commercial sector, he "classically built up" marketing there 15 years ago, supported the advertising market, prepared media data and produced specialist studies.
After five years, the man from Aargau wanted to move to Zurich. At the Blick/SonntagsBlick publishing house, he took over responsibility for the so-called third bundles. These were countless editorial supplements, for example on Formula 1, where Wahrenberger acted as an interface between the editorial team, publishing house and advertising market.
The path then led to the weekly newspaper Sport at Jean Frey. "A difficult title," recalls Wahrenberger of this time around 1995. His task as project manager was to find new distribution channels. Among other things, he organized this with compulsory subscriptions for members of various sports associations and "learned a lot from this struggle over the years".
When he already suspected that the sport might be discontinued, he was offered the position of publishing director of the Swiss family by Tamedia. Although Wahrenberger was in the middle of his training as a publishing specialist at the time, he considered the opportunity of this job to be "unique" and accepted. A difficult time followed. The Swiss family was very poorly positioned at the time. Wahrenberger is all the more proud that he achieved a classic turnaround. Within five years, he was able to turn Schweizer Familie into the most profitable title in Tamedia's magazine portfolio today. Then came the structural change. The position of publishing director was abolished and Wahrenberger was subsequently made redundant.
Now he sees a new challenge at Das Beste. His tasks for the Swiss branch of Reader's Digest are "more varied than anything I've ever done before".
He is currently taking part in an international training program. In two weeks' time, he will be traveling to Portugal for a marketing meeting where the heads of several countries will meet. Before that, he spent a lot of time in Stuttgart. The German-language editions are organized centrally there. His boss in Stuttgart is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Swiss subsidiary. Wahrenberger therefore manages the operational business. Marketing is to be organized very independently in Zurich.
He sees a lot of potential in his new market. "I believe that the general public is not sufficiently aware of the high quality standard of our products." Wahrenberger himself is currently particularly taken with audiobooks on his many travels.
Series are another line. Three or four current bestsellers are condensed into one book and sold by subscription. But not in a club system. "Liberal offers are the basic principle of the company." Direct marketing can only work if customers are treated honestly.
Reader's Digest was founded in the USA in 1922 as a pocket-sized magazine that printed articles of lasting value from other international magazines in abridged form. Today, Reader's Digest is the most widely read magazine in the world. It is published with 48 issues in 19 languages and has a circulation of 23 million copies worldwide. In 2003, the company achieved a consolidated turnover of 2.47 billion dollars.
Roland Wahrenberger wants to make even better use of the cross-selling opportunities within the Reader's Digest readership.
Andreas Panzeri

Politics The government of the canton of Graubünden has submitted a partial revision of the health law for consultation, which also includes a ban on tobacco advertising, as demanded by parliament in a postulate at the beginning of 2002. The Graubünden government writes that it has chosen a formulation similar to that of the Canton of Geneva, which has already been judged by the Federal Court to be in conformity with the constitution.

This is not the name of a new Teletext page, but the epitome of the latest print technology that makes printers' hearts beat faster, but more on that later. First, we had to pay a visit to Swiss Txt, commonly known as Teletext, where, in addition to the cross-media application possibilities of the additional TV medium, an interview with TV director Ingrid Deltenre conducted by Katja Stauber was presented.
Incidentally, this was also the 20th anniversary of the launch of Teletext at the beginning of 1984 with around thirty pages of content. The French and Italian-language versions followed a year later. Deltenre, who is also Chairman of the Board of Teletext AG, therefore cut the multi-tiered birthday cake with great relish. The absolute highlight of the event, the duo Ohne Rolf, is unfortunately difficult to describe in words, although the two cabaret artists operated silently with just such words. Just one thing - if you have the opportunity to see Ohne Rolf live: go there immediately!
The Idée-VfW received a special honor last week. Just one week after the official inauguration, visitors were given an exclusive tour of the NZZ's latest press. With the Evolution 471, the last daily newspaper still produced in letterpress is switching to offset and consistently realizing the digital workflow. In contrast to conventional computer-to-plate processes with separate exposure units, the printing plate is exposed directly in the press (although only in a pilot at present). This means that in the foreseeable future it will be possible to expose the plates for the entire newspaper in less than 5 minutes and start up the press.
At the drinks reception: Markus Hollenstein (right) and Thomas Koller (left) from Publisuisse with Gregor Meier, SF DRS.
Culture of discussion: Rolf Koller (l.) from the
Media agency Koller Della Piana discussed with Swiss-Txt Director Max Frei.
Sunny dispositions: Cécile Wolfsteiner (l.) from Ringier-TV and Liliane Borer from Starcom Adplus with Christoph Meier, Carat.
Old acquaintances: Bruno Oetterli (l.), Radiotele, and Ueli Siegenthaler, Publisuisse, put their heads together over lunch.
Waiting for the presentation: Kuoni Marketing Director Gianni Moccetti, Karl Lüönd, Media Institute, and Arthur Deiss, SBB (from left).
The good side of her job: Swiss-Txt Board President Ingrid Deltenre cuts the birthday cake together with Max Frei.
Heinz Egli (left) from Idée-VfW and Daniel Truttmann, NZZ, in front of the gigantic rolls of paper in the NZZ print lounge.
Cheers - because for the first time there was a Cüpli to welcome the guests, which Elisabeth Hug and Peter Grob did not miss out on.
During the aperitif, Marco Stettler and Jacqueline Zygmont settled comfortably into the cozy sofa corner.
Urs Steudler, Steudler Grafik + Werbung, with Elisabeth Hug, Hug-Annoncencen, and Idée Managing Director Ursi Grob (right).
Rooster in the basket: Waser advertising manager Lukas Gschwind with Natalie Schneider (l.) and publishing consultant Yvonne Philipp.
Extremely enthusiastic about the new printing press: Ruth Mumenthaler with Rolf Ruch (left) and Hans-Heini Wirz.
Beat Fritsch between Dadaists. There is no better way to describe the cabaret duo Ohne Rolf, who asked the shortlisted author to join them on stage. The two artists presented extremely stylishly sophisticated nonsense at the Swiss Txt event. Then it was off to the printing press for the Idée - Association for Advertising Communication to assess the NZZ's latest achievement.

Pneuhandel Pneu Egger starts the winter season with a new TV commercial and a pinch of black humor The time to change your tires at Pneu Egger always comes in spring and autumn, like the Amen in church. For years, this has been associated with humorous TV commercials designed to make the driving public aware of the importance of seasonally appropriate tires. Last spring, the Zurich agency Wirz created a tire episode for the Aarau-based retailer for the first time after taking over the budget from Advico Young & Rubicam. In the film, a likeable old lady felt "spring fever" while packing her vacation suitcase, whereupon she cut her XL knickers into a thong.
For the autumn commercial, which has been flickering across screens since October 10, the Wirz creatives have brought out the big guns. True to the motto "Better to be surprised by Pneu Egger than by winter", the commercial shows a graceful rhythmic gymnastics athlete who is struck by a tire while demonstrating her skills. The time to change the tires obviously comes at the wrong moment for the young woman, who incidentally is a member of the Swiss national squad. Namely, when she was supposed to catch her light gymnastics hoop again after throwing it into the air.
With the black-tinged comedy of the plot, the team
CD Hanspeter Schweizer continues the Pneu-Egger tradition that advertising should not only sell, but also entertain.
Whether the entertainment factor is too macabre for one or the other - like the frog that was run over - will certainly become clear before the first snowfall.
Unexpected tire change: Wirz messes up the gymnast.
Simone Keller

Interior designer Iwan Colombo launches the new Colombo la Famiglia store together with Karin Bollinger, Peter Kern and Pablo Pabst in late fall.Colombo La Famiglia entrusted the Zurich agency TBS Identity with the creation of the visual identity following a presentation by a competitor. The decisive factor was the unconventional graphic implementation, in which TBS Identity deliberately dispensed with a figurative and word mark.

Agencies Advico Young & Rubicam strengthens its creative team: Urs Schrepfer joins the management team as CD. At the end of 2004, the advertising agencies Guye Benker and Advico Young & Rubicam will merge. Today, Edgar C. Britschgi, as Chairman, can already present a new line-up for his management team. AY&R, one of Switzerland's leading creative agencies, is strengthening its creative team. From October 2004, Urs Schrepfer will head the creative teams in Zurich Gockhausen as CD and member of the Executive Board together with Daniel Comte. Both CDs have their own clients, but want to benefit from discussing ideas together. Daniel Comte has been with AY&R since June 2002 and has been solely responsible as CD on an interim basis since July 2004. He is an ADC member and on the jury of "The Best of Best" of the Y&R network. Urs Schrepfer has been an ADC member since 1995 and was already with Y&R from 1992 to mid-2002
first as a concept developer/ copywriter, then as CD. For the last few years, he was responsible for the creative turnaround as managing CD at Jung von Matt/Limmat.
Why the comeback now? Urs Schrepfer: "After ten years at Advico, I came into contact with Dominik von Matt at the same time as Spillmann Felser was being formed." It was extremely valuable to see how other agencies work and to incorporate this experience into AY&R. Urs Schrepfer is now certain that "something incredibly exciting is forming in Gockhausen". So: "Not a return, but an entry into a new type of agency." The new management team at AY&R means that an important structural change is entering its final phase.
Opportunities for new talent
What has changed compared to Advico in the past? Back then, we had a large team of very good people. They all worked together for a very long time and always "developed very good stories". This made AY&R the number 1. "However, this also had the disadvantage that a certain sluggishness set in," says Schrepfer. "Now new talents should be given opportunities and deployed in the right place," reveals Comte.
The collaboration with David Allemann, Head of Strategy, and Thomas Städeli, Head of Consulting, is also new for both of them. Both are young and very talented. "We realize in the management that we are all pulling in the same direction. We have committed to various changes for the future." There are also plans to recruit new people for the creation department in the near future.
The goal for a good agency must always be number 1. As an interim goal, you can perhaps still specify number 3 in the creative ranking. It is also currently the case that creatives in the industry no longer rate just one or two agencies as the best. "This has expanded dramatically compared to just three years ago," says Comte. Today, a top creative can imagine working in five or six agencies. "There is no clear leader and there is a new generation of people spread across the agencies," says Schrepfer. "The top has broadened, but the level has dropped," confirms Comte. "Raising this level again is the big challenge."
Strong creative duo: Daniel Comte (left) and Urs Schrepfer.
Time for something newThe sale of Guye Benker to the international agency network of Young & Rubicam already took place in February 2003. This also closes a circle. Before Christophe Guye founded Guye & Partner in 1990, he was a senior consultant at AY&R. Now his new company is returning to the parent company, so to speak. Guye Benker developed well in the 15 years in between and grew to over 20 employees with fee income of CHF 4.5 million. Christophe Guye announced his departure as Managing Director of Guye Benker with the words: "Now it's time for new challenges". He will only be involved in the merger for a short time and will then act as a "business incubator" for the development and expansion of other companies. He has already accepted initial mandates in the clothing, food and cosmetics sectors, explains Guye.
Andreas Panzeri

Press TV BaZ launches "Fussballtalk". The cross-media sponsorship platform competes directly with SF 1. "I would never have thought that Swiss television could pull something like this off," marvels one FC Basel fan on FCBForum.ch. Not without good reason, because the new sports program "Fussballtalk" is actually a product of Basler Zeitung Medien and is not only broadcast on SF 2. "Fussballtalk" replaced the previous discussion round "BaZ-Standpunkte" on Press TV at the beginning of October. Instead of discussing political and cultural topics, every third Saturday evening the most beautiful minor matter in the world is now discussed. The brilliant idea came from Ivo Bachmann, editor-in-chief of the Basler Zeitung (BaZ). Bachmann wanted to bring BaZ's core competence in football to press TV, says Mike Helmy, Managing Director of Allcomm Productions and producer of "Fussballtalks". At Allcomm, Bachmann found open ears: "We had long thought that the broadcasting slot could be used in a more exciting way and with better ratings." An average of 20,000 to 30,000 people watched "Standpunkte". With "Fussballtalk", the Basler Zeitung is aiming for 200,000 to 250,000 viewers.
Multichannel strategy
To achieve this goal, the program was designed to be cross-media. Viewers' questions are dealt with in the BaZ on Tuesday after the first broadcast. A second broadcast on TeleTop, the regional broadcaster for Eastern Switzerland, increases distribution. In addition, "Fussballtalk" can be viewed around the clock for three weeks on Sportradio.ch.
The program also needs these additional channels. Because the broadcasting slot is anything but ideal. The press TV format competes directly with SF 1: on Saturday evenings it overlaps with "Sport Aktuell", while the second broadcast on Sunday afternoons overlaps with "Sport-
panorama". The first edition fell well short of the target. According to Helmy, it reached 83,000 viewers at its peak. The rebroadcast brought in around 30,000 viewers, with TeleTop and Sportradio.ch likely to reach around 15,000,000 viewers.
Web TV test
How much the young online platform Sportradio.ch can contribute to success remains to be seen. Usage figures will be presented after the first three weeks, says initiator Adrian Fetscherin. He expects between 30,000 and 40,000 hits. For Sportradio.ch, "Fussballtalk" is a test run. They are currently looking into picture broadcasts, but in other sports, says Fetscherin. Even if the quality is not yet optimal, he considers television via the web to be unstoppable.
"Fussballtalk" is significantly more expensive than "BaZ-Standpunkte". Industry experts estimate the cost at around 45,000 francs per program. The contribution from the press TV pot is nowhere near enough. "We are proud that we were able to secure 100 percent of the financing with a clever sponsorship concept," beams Helmy. The main sponsor is the beer brewer Carlsberg with its non-alcoholic brand. Beer was drunk eagerly at the first edition. The guests sometimes disappeared behind the beer bottles in the foreground. "We noticed in the broadcast criticism that the directors overshot the mark with the product placement," admits Helmy. Instead of bottles, the focus should be on the studio guests in future. Carlsberg's sponsorship appearance is legally watertight: Allcomm clarified this in advance with the Federal Office of Communications.
The new "Fussballtalk" is the successor to "BaZ-Standpunkte".
The main sponsor is the Danish brewer Carlsberg.
Stefano Monachesi