As CEO, Jakob Nef wants to make the new AZ Direct Switzerland the best address in direct marketing. In the past, dm-plus Direktmarketing AG in St. Gallen has repeatedly tried to encroach on the specialty of SPDS in Lucerne in the area of company addresses, says Jakob Nef. Conversely, this competitor had also started to work with addresses from the consumer sector. "Serious talks" about a merger of the two have therefore been taking place since October. "We soon realized that it is not ideal to have to make double the investment," explains Jakob Nef. At X'04, the former boss from St. Gallen was now presented as the new CEO of a merged company. At the same time, it was announced that the German direct marketing company AZ Direct is expanding into Switzerland.
The Bertelsmann Group subsidiary is taking over the two companies dm-plus in St.Gallen and dm michelotti ag in Rotkreuz as well as dm-plus Direktmarketing GmbH in Vienna from bwv-Holding AG, which belongs to IHA-GfK and is thus leaving the direct marketing business. dm-plus will be merged with the existing Swiss AZ subsidiary SPDS in Lucerne to form the Swiss AZ Direct AG; dm michelotti has also found its place under the AZ Direct umbrella brand.
"Our structures complement each other perfectly," says Nef, explaining the new form of collaboration. There is "practically no duplication of functions" and everyone involved works on the same platforms in terms of technical expertise. And: "In terms of corporate culture, we are very similar," says the CEO happily.
The new entity AZ Direct is now the largest provider in the sector in Switzerland. However, Nef emphasizes that quality is more important to him than size. "By merging, we basically have more data sources. Merging should also free up more resources for our customers," hopes the new DM leader.
Jakob Nef did not get into the direct marketing business by a direct route. After completing an apprenticeship as an electronics technician, he went on to study economics and spatial planning in St. Gallen and Munich. After completing his studies, the newly appointed location planning specialist took up his first position at Yves Rocher. More than location issues, however, he had to solve current problems with the planning of mail order activities. "That's how I got into direct marketing and never got out," Nef recalls. Künzler-Bachmann and the Curti Group were the next stages of his career before he joined bwv AG in St. Gallen, the former parent company of dm-plus Direktmarketing AG.
Jakob Nef prefers to relax while cycling. This summer, he cycled along the German-Polish border and the Baltic coast. Even his son and one of his grown-up daughters came along," says the family man happily.
Becoming a full-service provider through company merger: Jakob Nef, head of the new AZ Direct Switzerland.
Andreas Panzeri

Tennis The Swisscom Challenge has gained Rado as its second co-sponsor alongside Peugeot.tennis The Swisscom Challenge has gained Rado as its second co-sponsor alongside Peugeot. The watch brand, which belongs to the Swatch Group, has signed a three-year contract with the women's tennis tournament. Rado has been active in tennis sponsorship for 20 years. At the Swisscom Challenge, the brand has already been responsible for timekeeping and measuring serve speed.

Magazines Even in a nasty stock market climate, the investor magazine Stocks is holding its own.
Stocks could hardly have chosen a more unfavorable time for its launch in November 2000: Designed for the one-off boom on the financial markets, the HandelsZeitung publishing group's investor magazine was launched when the party was over and private investors were turning their backs on the stock market: While still in the launch phase, Stocks was confronted with a massive shrinkage and regrouping of its target group.The magazine successfully overcame the hurdle. "Readers have returned. We are selling more than 20,000 copies," said publisher Ralph Büchi at the presentation of the results of a reader survey conducted by Publicom. The marks with which the Stocks readership rates their magazine are above average. "A magazine can hardly do any better," said Publicom boss René Grossenbacher. Büchi expects the leanly produced magazine to break even next year.
Spit in the hands: Stocks defies the bear market.
(dse)

The Zurich-based agency TBS Identity is creating a new website for Sehhilfe Bern, which aims to communicate the institution and its services transparently, according to a press release. Sehhilfe offers living, working, counseling and rehabilitation opportunities to blind, visually impaired and people with multiple disabilities in the canton of Bern. It unites the three institutions Neufeldhaus, Vereinigte Blindenwerkstätten and Beratungs- und Rehabilitationsstelle für Sehbehinderte und Blinde des Kantons Bern.

Beverage market Feldschlösschen brews its Urtrüb just like in 1876. The same advertisers who recently raised a glass to the introduction of women's suffrage have recently been indulging in pre-emancipatory memories: "Beer like in the good old days - when women could still cook" and "when men didn't have to do any housework". As provocative as Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett's copy sounds, it applies to the new Feldschlösschen Urtrüb that they are to introduce. This is because the recipe for the rustic beer comes from company co-founder Theophil Roniger, who brewed his first Feldschlösschen in 1876. Boosting the specialty beer market
128 years ago, emancipation was still in its infancy. Nevertheless, the misogynistic headlines and nostalgic images, at least from a man's point of view, could be offensive to some women. Feldschlösschen Getränke AG accepts this and even expects it. Unlike watch manufacturer IWC, which uses chauvinistic headlines to appeal to women in particular, Feldschlösschen is aimed exclusively at a male target group. "The naturally cloudy beer appeals more to men in terms of product characteristics," says Matthias Kiess, Senior Brand Manager at Feldschlösschen. And he is even convinced that the traditional brew, almost as the mother of all beers, is a male product. According to Kiess, the campaign was designed to emphasize this characteristic.
In fact, the market segment for specialty beers, which includes naturally cloudy beers, is in decline. The Swiss population drank around 4.3 million hectoliters of beer last year. Of this, only 5.4 percent was accounted for by specialty beers. According to Matthias Kiess, the ratio between lager and specialty beers in the retail trade is 91 to 9. With the newly launched Feldschlösschen Urtrüb, the market leader wants to boost the consumption of specialty beers again. To this end, the brewery has withdrawn its predecessor product Quinto from the market. According to the senior brewery manager, this had more than passed its zenith and could not be properly positioned with customers due to the difficulty of communicating the five-grain concept.
This is now to be achieved with the broad campaign for Urtrüb. The young beer based on the old recipe enjoys the privilege over its predecessor of being recognizable as a naturally cloudy beer right from the name. And because the good old days were not only nicer for men at home, the SFLB creatives have not only designed misogynistic posters and advertisements for Urtrüb. The subject "When men were still men" shows the happy days when the stronger sex still shot the bear before selling the hide. Although unobjectionable from a woman's point of view, the image has already met with protest from hunting opponents.
And anyone who reads the headline "When there were fewer Aargauer in Zurich" in Zurich's main station and thinks that Aargauer jokes are hackneyed, even in advertising, must truly be from Zurich. After all, Feldschlösschen has been brewing beer in their canton for over 125 years.
Advertising like in grandma's dayPictures from yesterday for today's products: nostalgia seems to be catching on. Euro RSCG has already used yellowed portraits of famous men's wives for Swisscom IT Services. Hofer Kommunikation is also leafing through the family album for Visana Services and spicing up snapshots from the past with copies from today. The Zünd agency also conjures up old times, here for the trendy drink Cooler (see picture). The retro wave is
has also spilled over into creative agencies. No wonder: a shoot isn't cheap, and old photos are available after they expire
of the copyrights for free. (sk)
When beer was still cloudy and men were still in charge: Feldschlösschen recalls its founding years, and SFLB contributes some contemporary macho posturing >> page 9
Manly times at Feldschlösschen: After the hunt, it's straight to the beer.
Simone Keller

Telecom Sunrise has entrusted Advico Young & Rubicam (AY&R) with its entire marketing communications as of the beginning of 2005. AY&R has been responsible for business customers since January 2003, while Wirz Werbung has been in charge of the telecom group's private customer account since 2001. This collaboration will be dissolved at the end of the year. Wirz is thus losing one of its largest customers. The consolidation is intended to facilitate cross-segment marketing communication.

Program press Tele wants to attract more young readers with pure TV and cinema. German papers have shown the way - and are already much further ahead.Tele wanted to become a real media magazine with its last relaunch in the fall of 2002. In order to remain attractive to the young target group, editor-in-chief Klaus Kriesel put the spotlight on the Internet, electronics, music and DVDs. two years later, publisher Ringier is turning back the clock. After Kriesel left the magazine in the spring, Tele is positioning itself as "The Swiss TV and cinema magazine" from October 15. Everything is to revolve around film and television - with a clear Swiss focus. As a result, 8.1 editorial positions will become redundant and the scope will be slightly adjusted. According to Alexander Theobald, Ringier's magazine director, readers should not notice much of this, however: content that is not expected in a program guide will be omitted.
For Theobald, the relaunch does not mean that the previous concept has failed. He speaks of a further development that builds on existing strengths. Nevertheless, one thing is clear: as a "media magazine", Tele has not been able to stop the decline in circulation. For 2002, Wemf reported a decline of 4.3 percent. In 2003, circulation fell by a further 6.4 percent to 5,500 copies.
"Internationally, all TV magazines are losing circulation," says Theobald. The exception is arch-rival TR7 from the house of Jean Frey. It grew by 0.6 percent in 2002 and 2.1 percent in 2003. Theobald believes that TR7 owes this growth against the trend mainly to its sales cooperations with various newspapers.
Germany shows the way
Whether you see the relaunch as a U-turn or an evolution, the future direction is also clearly aimed at the young audience. A look at the market for TV program guides in Germany shows this. TV Spielfilm and TV Movie already carry Ringier's new concept in their titles. According to the German trade magazine Horizont, these two publications have the youngest readership in the dense forest of so-called "program guides". Average age: around 39 years.
Theobald denies that Tele's readership is ageing. Tele has a fairly young audience. In fact, Mach Basic shows that 66.5 percent of the 711,000 Tele readers are between 14 and 49 years old. However, 88.5 percent of TV Spielfilm's Swiss audience is in this target group. Three quarters are even under 39 years old.
And TV Spielfilm is read by 313,000 people in Switzerland. In addition to the magazine from the Milchstrasse publishing group, Bauer's TV Movie is also available here, along with a dozen other German titles whose Swiss readership is not surveyed. The challenge that Tele is facing with its new concept is to ward off this insult and win back the domestic audience.
Ringier has studied the German programmatic market and gained a number of insights, Theobald confirms. As examples, he mentions price sensitivity, publication intervals and the quality of listings, which is exemplary for German titles. However, the magazine director does not reveal what lessons the publisher has learned for Tele.
The learning process is proceeding with Swiss slowness. After all, TV Spielfilm was launched back in 1990. In the meantime, other developments are taking place on the German market. TV Sünde (erotica) and TV Spass (series) are programs aimed at special viewer segments. With TV Piccolino and TV 4×7, the pocket format is making inroads into this segment. However, digital television becomes the most important new battleground. It multiplies the number of receivable channels and thus also the need for a program overview. Six million German households currently have digital connections. This figure is set to rise to 35 million by 2010. After the subscription broadcaster Premiere discontinued its own TV magazine in June, the publishing giants Springer and Bauer are fighting over the homeless readership with the new launches TV Digital and TV World. Other publishers are offering supplements to their programs.
Digital program explosion
The digital TV train is also picking up speed in Switzerland. In addition to Teleclub and Cablecom, Swisscom is planning to get on board. Ringier is apparently taking a wait-and-see approach. For Alexander Theobald, launching his own magazine for digital programs would be "a big box". It is always questionable whether such projects could work economically given Switzerland's low readership potential. Theobald describes the proposal to include the digital program of Teleclub - in which Ringier has a stake - in Tele as a "charming idea".
TR7 has taken a first step towards digital TV. It presents the offerings of Cablecom's pay-per-view film channels in a concise form. However, TR7 editor-in-chief René Hildbrand also emphasizes the difference between Switzerland and Germany: TV magazines have a higher status in the German advertising market, "German advertising customers have understood how well these titles work. I sometimes look across the border with envy."
TV vier strengthens Ringier's market shareSimultaneously with the relaunch of Tele, Ringier has announced the purchase of TV vier. The content of TV vier is limited to program lists and puzzles. The monthly title is produced by external suppliers without its own editorial team. TV vier was launched at the beginning of 2001 by Vierwaldstätter Verlags GmbH. Initially with an allegedly wide distribution of 300,000 copies, the circulation was reduced to 80,000 after a year. According to Ringier, 60000 copies are currently being printed. TV vier contains almost no advertising pages. Nevertheless, according to Ringier magazine director Alexander Theobald, it is profitable.
"TV vier has had a clear impact on the circulation of the established TV magazines," says Theobald, explaining the takeover. With the magazine, Ringier is further expanding its share of the reader market in the program segment. Tele and the Tamedia joint venture TV täglich already covered 50 percent. "We will know the exact impact of the takeover of TV vier when the figures from Mach and circulation certification are available," explains Theobald. TV vier should participate in both as soon as possible. However, it was no longer possible to register this year. (sm)
The Tele becomes new: German newspapers were the inspiration for the concept.
Stefano Monachesi

Hotel industry The Lucerne-based design and advertising agency Ideart creates a new image for the Hotel Centrale in Poschiavo GR, initially redesigning the logo, lettering and homepage. Later, stationery and a hotel brochure are realized.

Film promotion war Schlupp Springer & Jacoby have given Swiss film a few new titles.Swiss films have been the talk of the town for a long time in recent years. "Achtung, fertig, Charlie" has reached over half a million moviegoers. "Ernstfall in Havanna" unanimously delighted critics and audiences. Studio films such as "Utopia Blues", "Strähl" and "Forget Baghdad" have won international awards. Nevertheless, such films can barely cover their production costs because their reach in Switzerland is too limited. Without public funding - as in other European countries - hardly any ambitious cinema project can be realized.massive increase planned
The Zurich region is the center of Swiss-German filmmaking. The city and canton want to reorganize their joint film funding and quadruple their annual subsidies to around CHF 8 million. The prerequisite for this is that the city's contribution of 3 million is passed in the vote on September 26. A film foundation would then be set up with a starting capital of 20 million francs from the cantonal lottery fund.
Voting campaign underway: Films solicit subsidies.
Logically, the Swiss film industry is behind this bill. However, film promotion is an issue that also affects the advertising industry - so anyone who can help to win the vote should do so.
Krieg Schlupp Springer & Jacoby has realized a creative voting campaign for the association Zurich for Film (VZF). Film posters and the film trailers of the most successful Swiss films are shown. These have been rewritten and set to new music.
"We were happy to serve the cause, and this campaign has also received a great deal of goodwill from the printers and repro department," the Zurich agency Krieg Schlupp Springer & Jacoby proudly announces. The newly edited film trailers are already cult. The original actors themselves were always in the studio for the new soundtracks. From Viktor Giacobbo and Mathias Gnädinger to Mike Müller and Melanie Winiger.
Andreas Panzeri

Genre marketing In the tough battle for advertising market share, Radiopower.ch is set to bring growth Whether boom or recession, the share of radio advertising in the overall advertising mix in Switzerland has been hovering around three to four percent for years, with no more than that being achieved to date. Compared to the average for all Western European countries (six percent), the industry has some catching up to do. It has recognized this and has intensified its efforts in terms of generic marketing in recent months. The first step was radio spots for more radio advertising, which could be heard on the stations last spring, and some stations also broadcast their own (local) radio advertising on the airwaves.now the private radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland have given themselves another jolt and founded IG Radiopower.ch together with the four intermediaries Radiotele, IP Multimedia, Spot Promotion and CoverMedia as well as four sound studios, which presented itself for the first time on Radio Day on September 1 with a large stand, its own logo and a flyer. The same applies to the homepage www.radiopower.ch.
Concerted action
From September 2, all stations will also be broadcasting a new testimonial campaign: In each of the ten commercials, an advertising manager or media consultant explains why they (also) rely on radio advertising. Stefan Nägeli from Denner does it because it allows him to reach a younger audience and convey the advertising messages to them in an "audible, original and entertaining" way. And Beat Fingerhut from Ikea describes radio advertising as "flexible, good quality and inexpensive". The entire Radiopower.ch presence was designed by the Aformat agency in Lucerne, while the spots were created by the Jingle Jungle sound studio.
"Our goal is that in future, all generic marketing will be
Radiopower.ch is up and running," says initiator Richi Gasser, Head of Sales and Marketing at Radio 24, and Felix Kilchsperger from Radiotele adds: "With the homepage, we want to make it easier to access the medium of radio. The leading pools, marketers and recording studios in German-speaking Switzerland can be found at the click of a mouse."
Initiators have ambitious goals
Michi Frank from IP Multimedia formulates another goal of Radiopower.ch: "We want to change the media mix by getting more advertising onto the radio." He believes it is possible to increase the radio share to six percent in three years. "Radio is not only suitable for short-term campaigns, but also for branding campaigns," he says.
Why do we need an IG alongside the Swiss Private Radio Association (VSP)? Genre marketing has always been an issue within the VSP, but the task force also dealt with political and programming issues. When the five city pool radio stations left the VSP at the beginning of the year, a new committee was needed for generic marketing (see also interview). Gasser's initiative should therefore be seen as a way out of self-isolation and "finally separating commerce from the association" (quote from Gasser) and genre marketing from politics.
Discounts and new radio spot awardThe further goals of Radiopower.ch: Felix Kilchsperger wants to include the radio stations in French-speaking Switzerland shortly. Efforts are also underway to ensure that all radio stations and pools submit their 2005 rates at the beginning of October. A uniform summer discount is being worked on for the summer in a year's time. Radiopower.ch will also be launching a new award for radio spots, which will be presented at the end of March.
A working group will soon define criteria and select the jury. It is clear that the award will compete with the previous "Golden Ear" prize. "At the time, we tried to get the radios to take part in the Golden Ear and pay for it," says Kilchsperger. "But now the private radio stations have suddenly been disinvited. We don't know why or how things will continue there." (mk)
A bleak comparison: In Switzerland, the advertising market share of radios is very low. Compilation: Allmediaconsulting
Markus Knöpfli

Column A concerted publishing campaign stylized the unspeakable spelling reform into an even more unspeakable summer slump filler. In the summertime, when there is little news, the media "discover" some topic year after year and blow it up into a sensation - be it the Loch Ness monster, the danger posed by fighting dogs or the East German flood disaster that overshadowed all other topics in the 2002 election year and contributed significantly to the outcome of the federal election. The only exciting thing, because it cannot be predicted, is what journalists or their whisperers, the PR strategists and media consultants, put on the agenda and then suck up for weeks on end.This year it was the spelling reform, first in Germany and then in Switzerland. In the spring, it seemed unthinkable that it would cause such a stir again - especially in view of all the other problems that people on both sides of the Rhine have to deal with. But then influential publishing houses such as Springer, Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung declared their return to the old spelling system and - together with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which had opposed the reform from the outset - staged an unprecedented media campaign to accompany it.
The Bild newspaper, for example, ran the headline "Away with the bad spelling reform" and claimed that the majority of Germans wanted to return to the old spelling. However, no representative survey was cited as evidence. Statements by football stars and other celebrities were sufficient, and it is doubtful whether they have ever mastered the old or the new spelling. For weeks, the FAZ filled its pages with reports and opinion pieces on the subject. An entire feuilleton page was given over to an article that used the example of China (!) to show how a failed spelling reform can be reversed without losing face.
Certainly, the spelling reform was and is the work of regulation-mad bureaucrats and politicians. On the other hand, the reorganization has only accelerated a process of erosion that seems almost unstoppable in modern societies anyway: that the binding nature of spelling rules is decreasing and uncertainty about spelling is increasing. Somehow, the bitter and belated resistance seems grotesque. According to publicist Ansgar Fürst, it resembles "the courage of a man who throws himself resolutely behind a moving train".
The protest also has an extremely questionable aspect. The unrestrained way in which publishers and their journalists make use of the concentrated power of published opinion as soon as their own interests are affected is annoying. This gives an idea of how unscrupulously television stations and publishers defend their positions when it is not just a matter of orthographic vested interests. So it is not so much this superfluous reform that is frightening as the audacity with which (executive) editorial offices - instead of concentrating on their role as "Merker" - bypass parliaments to make policy on their own behalf.
The true populist danger of the future does not come from the Le Pens, Finis, Schills or Möllemanns of this world, but from the media, warned journalist Roger de Weck some time ago. The hullabaloo surrounding the spelling reform in the summer of 2004 was not least a defeat for serious, detached journalism, which is careful to separate news from opinion. So it's high time we remembered a saying of the late "Tagesthemen" presenter Hajo Friedrichs
to remember: "A good journalist does not make common cause, not even with a good one."
> Stephan Russ-Mohl is a professor of journalism at the University of Lugano.

A total of 11670 people (+10.6%) visited the X'04 marketing trade fair. In 2003, it recorded a decline of 7.1%.Trade Fairs Exhibition Director Iris Sorgalla was extremely satisfied with the result and the improved mood among exhibitors. Visitors were particularly interested in the new e-marketing exhibition area, the joint SDV stand, the eStarter Park for young companies and the media café run by Swiss Marketing.