Commissioned film The quality competition organized by the Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA and the Swissfilm Association is becoming increasingly popular. This year, 128 entrants submitted a total of 187 films. This represents a 20 percent increase in entries. The Edi Award ceremony will take place on November 15 at the Schauspielhaus Pfauen in Zurich. Judging will take place in the categories Commercials, Corporate and Clips & Trailers. In addition to the directing and technical awards, there is now also an Edi for overall impression.

Up to now, classified obituaries were taboo for newspaper marketing. Riccarda Mecklenburg had the idea during her time at the Aargauer Zeitung. A storm of indignation broke out when there were problems with vacation redirection and some subscribers only received their paper three days late. The main reason: the temporary Exilaargauer wanted to know as quickly as possible who had passed away in their home canton and under what circumstances.Mecklenburg concluded that "the death of a person interests a wider circle than a regional newspaper can physically cover". As publishing director of Fricktaler Boten, she is now putting this insight into practice and offering the bereaved the digital preparation and distribution of their obituaries. These look exactly like the paper originals, but can also be viewed by homesick Fricktalers without a Boten subscription. According to Mecklenburg, the local newspaper, which has only been on the Internet since its relaunch at the end of August, is currently generating "more revenue with the new service than with banner advertising".
Which is why the Fricktal online service, which costs 50 extra francs, is soon to be expanded further, for example with acknowledgements and necrologies that can be linked to the obituary. The Jungfrau Zeitung, which has always been unorthodox in Internet and marketing matters, could serve as a role model. Its electronic gravestones are listed on the homepage under "Our deceased" and are intended to signal that they are intended to promote reader loyalty.
or (church) community building and not for the sake of filthy lucre.
Expansion to "Bereavement dossiers"
"Anyone who places obituaries in the Jungfrau Zeitung will receive a place in our virtual cemetery free of charge," assures its publisher Urs Gossweiler. For his heavily web-based newspaper, creating such "funeral dossiers" with a picture, curriculum vitae, obituary and acknowledgements hardly means any extra work. The local newspaper from the Bernese Oberland's archive of deaths, which now goes back to the year 2000, is probably unique in Switzerland. Gossweiler's declared aim is to create a digital place where the dead can rest for at least 50 years instead of the usual 25.
More conservative regional publishers observe the management of the taboo area of death with a mixture of skepticism and curiosity. After all, experience has shown that this probably oldest of all categories not only attracts the highest levels of attention, but is also relatively insensitive to economic fluctuations. The former also prove the immense reader loyalty effect of the black-bordered advertisement category. Private obituaries in particular are probably the ultimate sign of confidence in the Leibblatt and a correspondingly reliable indication of its local roots.
Indicator of anchoring
The Managing Director of Zuger Presse, Florian Hofer, knows this too. And accordingly has a problem with the fact that there is hardly any public mourning in his paper. In order to catch up with the local competition, "more emotional closeness to the people of Zug must be established" - through daily reporting and not via the Internet. Although the Zuger Presse adopted the Jungfrau Zeitung's online software some time ago, Hofer considers its virtual cemetery to be "macabre to irreverent" and in no way worth emulating.
The Zürcher Oberländer also rejects the idea. However, if the other classified ad markets shrink (even) further, publishing director Konrad Müller wants to "go over the books again". After all, the approximately three percent that the obituaries contribute to total sales is "nöd nüt". This does not, of course, include the 300,000 francs that Müller - like many other regional publishers - generates annually from the printing and distribution of obituary circulars alone.
Morbid advertising environment?
It is not just the proportion of advertising revenue accounted for by this type of advertisement that varies greatly, but also the level of discount traditionally granted by publishers in this sensitive area. While national newspapers such as the Tages-Anzeiger or NZZ usually offer 40 percent discounts, these are generally somewhat lower in the provinces, at around 30 percent for the Oberländer. The Schaffhauser Nachrichten discounts only 15 percent of its standard millimeter price. And this is only because, since last year, obituaries have only been accepted and printed in a five-column standard format. "As nobody wants to place commercial ads in this environment any more, we have to fill our five-column pages completely," says Marketing Manager Stefan Wabel, explaining the creation of this internal standard.
The fact that advertisers avoid paper cemeteries like the devil avoids holy water is one of the paradoxes of this genre, which is probably not only the most attention-grabbing among the older generation. In contrast, there is hardly any fear of contact on the Internet. For example, those who pay virtual visits to their deceased via Fricktaler Boten are also courted by Miele and Mitsubishi. And on the online service mortalino.ch, a banner from Zürcher Kantonalbank even asks (with probably unintentional tragicomedy) "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
The Mortalino death portal, which is financed purely by advertising, offers many practical tips on the number one social taboo topic as well as a cost calculator for calculating obituaries. Who knows, perhaps a virtual cemetery will soon round off the range of services. After Car4you and Homegate, this resourceful death service provider could then also become a takeover candidate for Tamedia (or another major publisher) ...
Peacefully united: In contrast to newspapers, obituaries on the Internet are lively advertisements.
A 100-million-franc marketHuman all-too-human things such as lust and grief are just as statistically taboo as they are socially. In any case, there is no official data on the quantitative development of obituaries - as there is for erotic and personal ads. Wemf's Advertising Index Switzerland, for example, only records the percentage share of the total classified advertising business in the press advertising volume. Between January and July 2004, this fell by a further 1.1 percent to 28.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
The chart shows that this is hardly due to the comparatively cyclically resistant
death market. The number of deaths in Switzerland has risen steadily over the last 40 years, but has gradually reached a ceiling despite the ageing population. According to Otto Meier, the same is also likely to apply to the number of advertisements and the turnover they generate. The Publicitas Director General currently estimates the print business with obituaries, necrologies and acknowledgements at "a good 100 million francs a year". (oc)
Oliver Classen

Guest commentary A review of the annual conference of the Swiss press in Lausanne by Urs Gossweiler.
As in Monopoly, Lausanne and Zurich are the most expensive and valuable locations in the real world of Swiss media. The annual conference of us newspaper publishers has never been held in Zurich, but this year it will take place in Lausanne. In the same way, the leading role in the media alliances that are increasingly taking place between these two cities seems to be clearly distributed. Be that as it may, we Swiss-German publishers met for the annual meeting in Lausanne, as always in the finest hotel on the square. But that didn't stop us from spending three days debating mainly about state funding for press TV, regional press television, publishers' radio stations, contributions to private publishing organizations (preferably only those owned by the press, of course), direct contributions to the national news agency, media institute and other further training, technology support and much more.
At the same time, we encourage our business editors to write for more deregulation and privatization. Does anyone see a credibility problem here? No. And if we did, we would rather change the course of our economic reporting than our attitude towards more and more state subsidies. What is actually tragic is not the begging for state money that has become fashionable in the last three years. Nor is it the embarrassment of repeatedly doing so in the best and most expensive hotels, even though the association does its utmost to save on drinks and lunches during breaks. The real tragedy is our almost naïve attitude towards what the state demands of us.
For example, we have been fighting for a seat on the Press Council for a year now, even though it performs its duties professionally and prudently without us publishers. At the same time, we almost don't care if the National Council approves the media article that is supposed to pave the way for comprehensive "supervision" of the press in this country. Freedom of the press, journalistic responsibility, new business models and entrepreneurial action were almost non-issues at our annual meeting.
The trend of the last three years was confirmed in Lausanne: if we continue like this, we will soon overtake the farmers' association on the right. The fact that we voted clearly in favor of deregulation when it comes to social partnership does not change this. Farmers, too, occasionally struggle to comply with social rules when dealing with harvest workers from abroad.
> Urs Gossweiler is the publisher of Jungfrau Zeitung.

Association The Swiss Press Association (CHP) has approved the formation of a Department of External Relations, which will be headed by Peter Wanner (AZ Media Group). Other members are two political figures: National Councillor Filippo Leutenegger (Jean Frey) and Councillor of States Filippo Lombardi (President Telesuisse). The association has also renamed the "Technology" department to "Electronic Media and Technology". This broadening is particularly beneficial to publishing houses that also operate television and radio stations.

Agencies The Frankfurt office of the Leo Burnett advertising agency is parting company with its name affix "Michael Conrad" and will now operate under the name Leo Burnett GmbH, where the 60-year-old creative had already resigned from all positions at the end of 2002. From Zurich, Michael Conrad is still working as a consultant for the network at European level.

Markom In 1971, creatives from Young & Rubicam (Y&R) in Frankfurt came up with the idea of coloring a cow purple for the client Milka.33 years after the start of the success story, the agency has to cede the account. Milka parent company Kraft Foods consolidates all confectionery brands with Ogilvy & Mather, which, like Y&R, belongs to the WPP holding company. The Toblerone brand is also affected, although Y&R London was the lead agency.

Siri Fischer has big goals. IP Multimedia is to become the first port of call for questions about radio, TV and the Internet.electronic media are booming. Compared to the rest of Europe, Switzerland is catching up and "online is taking off like a rocket," says a delighted Siri Fischer. The new head of research at IP Multimedia in Goldbach can follow the market up close every day from her office and sees the development very positively. "There are already visibly more bookings again." The woman can back up such optimism with figures. Siri Fischer, who is not yet thirty, has taken over from her predecessor Giordano Giordani as Head of Research for all IP Multimedia at Goldbach. In addition to the TV sector with the channels Kabel 1, M6, MTV, ProSieben, RTL, RTL 2, Super RTL, TVm3 and Vox, Fischer and her team also analyze the figures for around 50 private radio stations, look after Radio Energy Zurich exclusively, provide the analytical support for adScreen marketing and the Internet portals in AdLINK's network such as msn, sunrise, yahoo, gmx and the sites of the publishers Tamedia, Jean Frey and the Espace Group.
"Yes, that's exactly what I wanted," says the media woman, who loves "numbers, numbers and numbers" in this business. What she finds exciting, however, is not the purely accounting figures, but the knowledge that "there are people behind them who use the media and buy products. In her job, she now wants to look at that from different aspects and keep drawing new insights from it. "Gut feeling is not enough to be able to conclude about the audience. To explore this scientifically in addition is something I find very interesting."
The main area of its tasks is the research of TV programs. IP Multimedia conducts its own audience research. Siri Fischer makes analyses of the individual stations for specific target groups or timelines. This research serves as a basis for calculating prices and strategically setting CPMs. One important job is sales support. "I can show a client why a particular channel is a good fit for their product."
IP's research department works with various tools. Telecontrol and Radiocontrol form the basis, and the findings are supplemented with Demoscope, Mediafocus, Wemf, Mach Consumer and MA Strategy. "We want to provide our advertising clients with a comprehensive overview of the media behavior of their targeted audiences."
Before joining Goldbach at the beginning of the summer, Siri Fischer worked for two and a half years at Publisuisse in Client Service. Here, she didn't actually do research, but put together customized offers for clients with individual communication needs.
But Siri Fischer gained her most important professional maturity at private broadcaster TV 3. In Schlieren, she was there "from the first day to the last," for two and a half years. "At TV 3, I learned everything I can apply now."
The Zurich native with Danish and Norwegian roots on her mother's side studied Scandinavian languages "out of personal interest," along with journalism and media studies. When a job offer at TV 3 became known among her acquaintances, she immediately gave up her studies for the opportunity. "I said to myself, 'The experience of building a new station won't come again soon.' And I can still study for a long time."
"It was a good time. The exciting thing was that from zero with a station that didn't yet exist to the audience success with 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' or 'Big Brother,' we got to help build the whole structure of a new project," she says, still praising her time at TV 3.
In fact, she returned to university once again after TV 3 was discontinued. In addition to a part-time position at Publisuisse, she completed a licentiate thesis on the topic of "A Comparison of the Television Markets in Switzerland and Denmark.
What attracted her to IP Multimedia is that she can now "combine the structured approach" she learned at Publisuisse "with the dynamic and innovative approach of IP. IP has attractive channels in its portfolio for her. She also finds it exciting that she can do her work with television simultaneously in combination with radio, adScreen and online. "I learn a lot of new things there."
The newly appointed head of research can "count on a good team" with a total of three people in the research department and has "undergone an ambitious internal induction program. It also gives the young manager confidence that she can work with experienced external market research companies and "benefit from the know-how that is already available in the market.
As short-term goals in daily business, Siri Fischer wants to see internally that know-how is distributed and not just stuck in research papers. In addition to quality assurance, Fischer also mentions "a certain speed" as a goal for her work.
In the long term, the research center in Goldbach is to become the point of contact for both internal and external inquiries. "If you want to know something about electronic media in Switzerland, the first place to go is IP, because you can get competent information there," she explains.
As a current research project, IP wants to build a marketing tool for adScreen so that it can also be argued with valid standards that do justice to the new medium.
The woman with the Norwegian first name Siri has spent two semesters abroad in Scandinavia for her studies and could well imagine taking time out in the far north again one day. For the time being, however, there is "lots of cinema" and riding across woods and meadows with a foster horse to relax.
Siri Fischer, one of TV-3's first - and last - employees, skipped her studies for a job.
Andreas Panzeri

Cinema magazines Two out of four free titles have a high reach, two clearly lower. According to Mach Basic 2004, the Swiss-German cinema magazine Close-up has 177,000 readers - a first, as the magazine has not previously reported readership figures. "We are very satisfied," said Jean-Claude Bruhin, Head of Marketing at Cinecom, which markets the magazine on behalf of publisher Teleclub. Thanks to Close-up, it is now clear for the first time that the four Swiss free cinema titles generate a total of 750000 monthly contacts, with Close-up and Film demnächst (FD) together generating 432000 contacts in German-speaking Switzerland and Avant première (AP) and Live 318000 contacts in French-speaking Switzerland.
The performance of the magazines is very different. With 255,000 readers, FD not only reaches around 78,000 more readers than Close-up, it also achieves this lead with a significantly lower circulation. Specifically, FD achieves 2.5 readers per copy (LpE), while Close-up only achieves 1.1 LpE. The picture is similar in French-speaking Switzerland: AP has 2.4 LpE, Live 1.1 LpE. This was even more striking a year ago: FD's score was 3.2 LpE, AP's was 2.8 LpE, while Live was already bobbing along at 1.1 LpE back then.
But why? Qualitative differences are hardly the reason. The fact that Close-up is primarily available in the cinemas of the Kitag chain and Live in those of the Europlex Group, while FD and AP cover the others, does not explain the different LpE values either, as moviegoers are hardly guided by ownership. The fact that 59% of the close-up circulation is sent to CS-Cinecard holders could play a role. This was similar for Live until a few months ago. AP and FD, on the other hand, have no such partnership, having terminated an earlier one with Swiss Post in spring 2003. "I was worried that our reach would collapse as a result, but that wasn't the case," says Jean-Pierre Grey, Product Manager at FD and AP and Publishing Director of Live.
In short, the different performances of the magazines can hardly be attributed to the distribution channels. Bruhin suspects: "Film demnächst has the more memorable title than Close-up. This may have a negative impact on our magazine in the Wemf surveys." Grey agrees with him: "Qualitatively, the magazines are similar, but Film demnächst is probably more familiar than Close-up."
However, regardless of whether the titles have one or two LpEs, readership figures have generally declined. The total reach of the three titles that already had readers in 2003 fell by nine percent. On the one hand, this has to do with the main target group of the cinema medium - 20 to 29-year-olds - which has declined significantly over the last ten years (see WW 31/04). Jean-Pierre Grey sees another reason in last year's summer. "Good weather harms the medium of cinema - and we then also sell fewer copies." Cinema attendance did indeed fall last year, but less sharply than the reach of the magazines. In view of the many cinema-dependent distribution channels, there is probably only a limited correlation.
To each his own strategy
What happens next? For Bruhin, one thing is clear: "At Close-up, we have to work on the title image and be more present with the magazine." He describes the fact that the magazine has been doing a monthly split in 20 Minuten since May as a "step in this direction", although this effort will not be reflected in Mach Basic 2005 (see box).
For his part, Grey is working primarily on Live. He wants to try to revitalize the partnership that was terminated by CS. He also has another sales channel in prospect. What is certain is that Live will be
November will have a People section - thanks to a collaboration with Radio NRJ.
However, no significant changes are planned for FD and AP. Grey had greatly expanded its distribution channels last year (Mediamarkt, advance ticket sales outlets, video stores and video clubs), with the result that FD's circulation since last spring has been an uncertified 190000 copies and AP's 140000 copies. FD has also recently started cooperating with NRJ Zurich, albeit on a countertrade level (spot against ad). "We are also currently in discussions with Star TV," says Grey.
Four magazines that are used very differently: Why this is the case remains a matter of speculation.
Close-up creates the greatest insight Publishing range Free range Free range
2003* Edition 2004* Edition
in 1000 in % in 1000 in % Film soon Quorum 264 6.5 81232 255 6.2 99506
Close-up Teleclub - - 159840 177 4.3 160003
Avant première Quorum 222 17.1 78110 193 14.9 81230
Live quorum 144 11.1 125836 125 9.6 117673
Total 630 750
* The ranges for 2003 and 2004 are adjusted to the 2000 census. Source: Wemf
Significantly more movie admissions againThe number of movie admissions is on the rise again. "In the first half of 2004, cinemas recorded 12 percent more admissions than in the first half of 2003, and in the months from May to August there was even a (still provisional) increase of around 25 percent," says René Gerber, Managing Director of the cinema and film distributor association Procinema.
Gerber expects growth of around 12% for the year as a whole. "This would have made up for last year's decline somewhat," he says. (mk)
Wemf does not survey splits in 20 MinutenAccording to Mach Basic 2003, the event magazine Good News had 114,000 readers, this year it is still 79,000. A loss of reach of 30 percent? "No", says Harald Amschler, Head of Research at Wemf, "in 2003 the Good News split in 20 Minuten was also included, but this year only the Good News magazine was surveyed." Next year, the same will be done, also with the new close-up split. "We have to deliver reach for units that can be occupied, there is no separate rate for the split," says Amschler, explaining the change. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

What he would do if he were king of Germany, sang Rio Reiser, the brilliant poet and singer of the cult band Ton Steine Scherben, to a restless youth in the 1980s: Among other things, he would have two hundred castles! And so the guests at the annual congress of the Swiss Press Association (CHP) must have at least felt like kings of Switzerland when they were welcomed to the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne. The Art Nouveau building is in no way inferior in its opulence to the castles sung about. This is precisely what makes the annual meeting of the Swiss press aristocracy, also known in industry jargon as the Publishers' Congress, so special. In addition to the meetings of the association committees and the general meeting, the program on Thursday included a social evening. The Soirée Vaudoise was held in the tithe house of Château Vuillierens, where guests could fill their bellies with all kinds of local delicacies. Finally, Matthias Luchsinger from Cinecom, Schoscho Rufener from Rufener Events and Thomas Sterchi from Jobs.ch were responsible for the night program. The jointly organized suite cocktail, albeit only for hand-picked guests, lasted well into the night for some.
The second day of the congress was dedicated to specialist presentations in the morning, followed by the congress speeches by CHP President Hanspeter Lebrument and the guests of honor in the afternoon. The latter could have been given the title "The polemicist and the rhetorician" this year.
Christoph Blocher, a gifted polemicist in the Federal Council, spoke in his usual ponderous High German and often laughed at his own punchlines. Nevertheless, the speech cannot be denied a certain esprit. Gerhard Schröder on the other hand, Federal Chancellor and rhetorician, showed true "professionalism"; a blatantly stylistically confident speech with spontaneously interwoven bon mots. The content, on the other hand, was unsatisfactory - the German head of government did not need to travel to Lausanne to defend his political program. There was an aftertaste that the speech was a rehash of what he had already heard and could have been delivered in the same form to another large cantonal communal body. The words were simply tainted by the general arbitrariness.
The congress was traditionally concluded with the Publisher's Night and culinary fireworks. And of course with the congress disco, where you could dance off the pounds you had put on over the two days.
Beat Fritschat his attempt to contribute to the success of the annual congress of the Swiss Press Association: as "The Singing Editor" on the grand piano at the Beau-Rivage Palace. Incidentally, the show was a complete success. Various guests quickly invited the shortlisted author for several drinks - but only if he would immediately stop maltreating the noble instrument.
Further pictures of the two-day congress in Lausanne can also be found at: www.werbewoche.ch/shortlist
Bienvenue à l' hôtel Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne.
Loosely dressed appearance on the Château Vuillerens estate: Schoscho Rufener (l.) and Tobias Trevisan.
Argus Board Chairman Thomas Henne (l.) with Verena-Nicole Giese, now with her own consultancy firm, and Urs Wasserfallen from Pi.ar.
Did Bernhard Weissberg (left) get free tips from Kurt W. Zimmermann on how to deal with free newspapers?
Bernese newspaper nobility in the old subject lands: Charles von Graffenried (l.), Franziska von Weissenfluh and Albert P. Stäheli.
Cheers to the annual congress: Thomas Schenk, Toni Vetterli, Sari Simola and Pepi Burch at the aperitif of the Soirée Vaudoise (from left).
Touring Marketing Manager Reto Kammermann (l.) with Carine Lins from Wemf and Publimedia Marketing Manager Markus Ehrle.
Bruno Oetterli (left), Radiotele, and Ueli Eckstein, AZ Media Group, conducted their conversation in their usual jovial tone.
Old acquaintances from the Zurich scene: Hans-Jürg Klöti, Inge Willmann, Tagi sales manager Fridolin Holdener and Peter Leutenegger (from left).
Holding hands means nothing! Brigitte Schatzmann sat next to TR7 publishing director Roger Knabenhans.
Poking fun: Riccarda Mecklenburg with Werner Neunzig, Managing Director of Reader's Digest for all German-speaking countries.
Specialized in distribution: Alexander Pytloun, Prevag Basel, Roger Spycher, Bevo Bern, and René Brahier, Direct Mail Biel (from left).
Roselien Huisman, Head of Mobile Specialist Media at Espace Media, with Lorenz Brügger, Head of Sales Marketing at BZ.
Matthias Luchsinger (left), CEO of Cinecom , welcomed Ringier TV boss Fibo Deutsch and many others to the Suite Cocktail.
On the terrace of the party suite: star photographer Alberto Venzago with Verena Stauffacher and SW press officer Piero Schäfer (right).
Responsible for the physical well-being of the suite guests: Jana Nyvltova (right) with Eleonore Droux, Managing Director of MMV.
Only a few advertisers find their way to the Publishers' Congress: Mike Krüll (left) and Frank Bodin were among them.
Waiting for the big speeches: Michael Ringier with his majordomo Frank A. Meyer and publisher Egon Ammann (from left).
Waiting for Schröder: Urs Rellstab (l.), Economiesuisse Head of Communications, and Roman Geiser, CEO of PR agency Burson-Marsteller.
As jovial and magisterial as ever: Christoph Blocher elicited a laugh or two from the audience.
An expectant sideways glance: Silvia Blocher watches Gerhard Schröder and Hanspeter Lebrument after one of her husband's punch lines.
Filled to the last seat: The Salon Sandoz was packed during the speeches by Schröder and Blocher.
The finest friandises sweetened the wait for the guest speakers in the coffee room.
Hans Heinrich Coninx and Christine Gerber with fellow publisher Peter Wanner (right) and Roy Oppenheim (left).
Looking forward to Publisher's Night: Isabel Kaiser, Tamedia Job Market, publishing consultant Urs Zeier (l.) and Reto Kammermann.
When the PR specialists are among themselves, they always have something to laugh about: Barbla C. Schaerer (l.) with Klaus J. and Paola Stöhlker.
Looking forward to the ball night: Sylvia Lepiarczyk, Ringier Europe, with Ruth Deutsch, Markus Gisler and Eva Keller (from left).
Noblesse oblige: Franziska von Weissenfluh (with husband Polo Stäheli) once again wore the most beautiful styling.
They had a great chat over champagne and canapés: Kuoni press officer Andrea Hemmi and Frank Bodin, CEO of Euro RSCG.
Wherever the rich and beautiful of the media scene are, the editor-in-chief of Bilanz, René Lüchinger (left), with Andreas Meili, is not far away.
Adrian Bauder, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zuger-Media AG, was seen before the dinner accompanied by the charming Regula Laux.
Marcel Siegenthaler (l.), Editeur délégué at Edipresse, with Publisuisse Sales Manager Beatrice Kniel and Blick Publishing Director Bruno Blaser.
René Schmutz and Maja Steudler were also full of anticipation as they entered the beautiful Salon Sandoz.
Rhapsodizing about the luxurious ambience of the Beau-Rivage: Eleonore Droux, MMV AG, and Werbewoche editor-in-chief Pierre C. Meier.
Management consultant Michel Favre (left) talks to Marius Hagger, Head of Migros Press, and his wife Dagmar Steinemann.
Date with the surprise guest: publisher Ralph Büchi, Bernhard Weissberg, Beat Lauber with singer Michael von der Heide (from left).
Celebrating his birthday at the Publisher's Night from midnight: Tagi editor-in-chief Peter Hartmeier (right) with Leoluca Orlando.
"And then you just have to step on the gas, like this," advises Council of States member Filippo Lombardi (right) to PubliGroupe CEO Hans-Peter Rohner.
Successful coup: Hans Heinrich Coninx congratulated his son-in-law Daniel Kaczynski on his birthday with a warm hug.
Martin Kall (left) and Anne Gorgerat Kall with Fritz Schuhmacher, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of PubliGroupe.
On the way to the cigar lounge: Emil Bisig (right), publisher of Archithema, and Daniel Dunkel, editor-in-chief of Schweizer Familie.
Smoky pleasure: Urs Lüthi (l.), publishing director at Vogt-Schild/Habegger, and Andreas Mohler, publisher of Jagd & Natur.
There was a lot of steam here too: Hendrik Wiermer, Markus Jörin and Stefan Poth (from left) smoke the puros on offer.

Mathis Felsche, co-founder of Projekt GmbH, believes the hospital is a perfectly suitable advertising environment - and has other ideas up his sleeve.WW Hospitals are associated with illness, loneliness and fear. Mathis Felsche We have been working for over three years to improve the image of the hospital. Grumpy corridors full of old and sick people - that's a thing of the past. Many hospitals have changed, both in appearance and in operation. Today, 77 percent of all patients are outpatients. Children are born and people get well in hospitals. So it's more of a positive environment with peace and quiet and time. We also want to appeal not only to patients, but also to visitors.
How strong is the demand for hospital advertising?
Given the limited supply of advertising space, we are very satisfied. There are periods when we are fully booked. Many customers book for a whole year and then change the subjects according to the season: allergy remedies in spring, vitamin products in winter. Our customers come from the entire healthcare sector, from insurance companies to medicines and cough drops. Almost all well-known customers rely on the medium. Be it Generali or Visana, Novartis or Johnson & Johnson through to Ricola.
What place do ambient media such as hospital advertising have in the marketing mix?
Hospital advertising is an additional medium that reminds people of subjects they have already seen, at a moment when they are confronted with the topic of health and have time to absorb the advertising message.
Ambient media is conquering more and more areas of everyday life. Do you already have new projects in mind, and are there any taboos?
Nothing is actually taboo for us. We are too innovative for that. There are areas - alcohol, tobacco and sex - that we want to distance ourselves from. But otherwise we are open to all ideas.
Mathis Felsche.
Interview: Stefano Monachesi

Awards The International Forum Design in Hanover, Germany - organizer of the iF Design Awards since 1954 - presented the iF Communication Design Award for the first time. 15 gold, 15 silver and two special prizes were awarded among the 1003 entries from 34 countries. Two entries from Switzerland received silver: in the Digital Media category, the website of Basler Versicherungen for its user-friendliness (T-Systems Media Solutions, Stuttgart) and in the Print media/Publishing media category, Ava Publishing in Crans-près-Céligny, Vaud, for the textbook "Digital Layout". The design again comes from Germany, from the Berlin agency Kognito.

Internet Jung von Matt/Limmat has given Bluewin an aggressive advertisement for a free modem, offering things for free or cheaper every day. A few percent off here, something for free there - it's enough to make people jaded. Jung von Matt/Limmat has therefore developed a concept that for once deals with the campaign message in a humorous rather than blatant way. Under the campaign slogan "Bluewin throws the modem at you", the advertising agency shows what happens when this phrase is taken literally. Bluewin has been advertising this campaign since September 1: every new subscriber receives a free modem "thrown at them". Advertisements, posters and, of course, on the Internet show subjects in which a potential Bluewin customer has literally been struck by this advertising idea. A woman and two men lie motionless in the gutter, on a wooden walkway or on the lawn.
Stunning advertising
The viewer can hope that the three victims will be able to recognize the modem lying in front of them as a promotional gift from Bluewin when they regain their mental faculties and will not be angry with the donor. But a modem that has been thrown at you is like a gift horse: as we all know, you don't look it in the mouth. Once the sun has risen again and the headache has completely subsided, it can be assumed that the recipients will no longer see everything in orange and will be able to install the Bluewin modem in their living room at home, once again in full possession of their powers.
Beat Schlatter as a modem thrower
The unconventionally eye-catching idea with the customer benefit thrown in is also to be seen in a direct implementation in radio spots.
listen. Beat Schlatter, known as the "cat thief" and unsuccessful "comedian", is the right man for a new job as a modem thrower. Together with Reto von Gunten, he throws a barrel organ man and a mayor at two innocent passers-by. According to the text, the blow to the head with the free modem should be welcome, as the politician has just announced a new austerity program. Beat Schlatter, however, has his problems with this type of advertising at the end. In the last of the five radio spots, the joker has to give up because he has caught a "throwing arm". The commercials, which are unmistakably coarse and direct, were produced by Jingle Jungle. Tom Seinige and Alexander Jaggy are responsible for the creative direction of the head-turning commercials with their devastating effect.
Humorous: Jung von Matt/Limmat throws free modems at potential Bluewin customers - with devastating effect.
Andreas Panzeri