Sponsorship On August 15, Sat 1 Switzerland began coverage of the autumn round of the Football Super League, with Pepsi becoming the new main sponsor of the program "live ran". An annual contract was signed. Pepsi is already present with perimeter advertising in all Super League stadiums. The tire brand Continental remains the second main sponsor of "live ran".

Children's marketing With the start of the new school year, Migros' popular little Lilibiggs are set to make a big splash. "There's a lot that's unique about this project," says Reto Alborghetti, owner of the Zurich-based communications agency of the same name and himself the father of two target group children. He is referring to the Lilibiggs marketing idea, the products and the team of creators who, after a year of development work, have taken the three-strong comic family to the level of totally comprehensive networking. Caught up in license death
For years, Switzerland's largest retailer has relied on comic figures as ambassadors for its product range for the younger customer segment. Most of them, such as Pingu and Globi or Asterix and Obelix, had a predefined life expectancy due to their license agreements. The problem, however, was that this expired more quickly than that of the advertised products. As a result, the established characters disappeared from the packaging and shelves. The identification and ambassador function was abruptly ended for both buyers and consumers. Cristina Regazzi and Reto Alborghetti, together with Michael Meister, Hugo's original illustrator, were able to put a definitive end to this long and costly rise and fall of popular figures.
After the small strategy team had clarified the market, needs and opportunities, the internal Migros team, Beat Mühlemann and Claudia Haueter, gave the go-ahead for the innovative program in March 2003. A real exploit for Alborghetti, who - together with Markus Rottmann and Felix Zimmermann - never dared to hope that a project of this size could be managed from concept to realization by a non-top 20 agency. "Only a handful of people were involved right from the start," says Alborghetti, who is familiar with youth marketing.
At home in the chestnut tree
At the beginning, the lean team had to find a name. The family name had to have both a brand and identification character. It had to sound appealing and still be unprotected and allow for an extension of the comic family, as the character Hugo had already been able to gain a few months of market experience with the orange M. His sporadically appearing white dog, on the other hand, was still nameless and not yet entirely sure of his function. Right from the start, the name Lilibiggs was the creators' favourite, Alborghetti recalls, "even though it was very polarizing and was discussed accordingly".
The communication tools and measures were developed practically in parallel. The basis for the development work was the new marketing program. The three funny cartoon characters were to act as Migros ambassadors for children, taking up their needs and wishes and interpreting them with their own means in various media: Hugo, the chaotic, talented sportsman, Nina, the clever, fashionable organizer, and Tobi, the clumsy yet smart amateur gardener and slipper collector. Together they live in a tree house on a huge chestnut tree, go to school, play pranks, actively enjoy their free time and take care of everything that moves children.
Fun makers and life helpers
By the end of this year, Hugo, Nina and Tobi will be looking out at us from over 150 products and forging a family bond with Migros customers. In all stores and in the Food,
Nearfood and non-food products will be clearly identifiable for children and adults. It goes without saying that all these products are developed and manufactured according to nutritional, health, environmental, fun and enjoyment-specific criteria, the client explains.
However, the Lilibiggs' activities do not focus on products. Nutrition, hygiene, leisure, exercise, respect and tolerance are the topics that the three figures address and offer tips and life advice. The M-Infoline telephone helpline and nutritional advice, the Club Minu for children with weight problems and the wide range of services, including children's play areas in almost 80 Migros stores, are all part of the Lilibiggs' activities.
Restaurants and mailboxes on the specially created Internet site are intended to convey a clear willingness to engage in dialog with children and their parents.
The world of the Lilibiggs was introduced in an initial introductory phase at the end of 2003 by means of a series of comic ads. In it, the small family explained, for example, how to let the spaghetti run out of the shower head or how Tobi the dog defines his version of "going to work". They introduced themselves as refreshingly childlike and funny and cheerful, but with a sensible and serious side.
Rapid anchoring
These comic strips have been appearing weekly in the Migros press and on the Lilibiggs website since the beginning of the year. At the same time, the comic heroes became active at POP as inflatable figures, animated shelf stoppers, floor stickers and on store and window posters. And for the virtual space, Alborghetti developed the animated and interactive online presence lilibiggs.ch in collaboration with the web agency. The weekly Lilibiggs information page in the Migros magazine and Azione as well as in every issue of Saisonküche is intended to ensure that the brand is quickly and strongly anchored. With its sticker promotion (see box), the major distributor is putting the economic icing on the cake of Michael Meister's M-sympathizer.
The campaign is accompanied by F12 and F200 posters, which were planned and purchased by Konnex, and by an interactive game on the Lilibiggs homepage.
Alborghetti is enthusiastic about so many activities: "For the first time in Migros' history, if not in the history of retail at all, a major distributor has developed such a consistent and long-term marketing program around the concerns, needs and problems of children and families." The future will show how independently and credibly the Lilibiggs can support Migros' social and cultural commitment.
From the sticker campaign: Dragons are also keen on these pictures.
The main protagonists of the Lilibiggs world: Tobi, Hugo, Nina.
Even ghosts love the Lilibiggs.
The Lilibiggs awaken children's collecting fever.
Sticker album for freeThe Lilibiggs sticker promotion is running in weeks 34 and 35 along the lines of the Italian Panini stickers. An album for 30 stickers - 6 of which have a glitter look - is designed to provide children with fun and entertainment. Unlike the expensive kiosk stickers, everything is free at Migros. The fact that the promotion runs at the same time as a planned focus on POP activities is no coincidence, but a tactic and synergy. During these weeks, albums and stickers will be distributed free of charge in all stores, restaurants and other M partners such as SportXX and Micasa. The stickers themselves can be found as promotional give-aways on many products. The points of sale will also be decorated with innovative POP material and ten Cumulus points will be awarded. (la)
Luca Aloisi

Welfare Thanks to Wirz advertising, the Zurich Brockenhaus has three new subjects that praise its flair. "Collect the leftover scraps so that nothing is lost": this instruction from Jesus to his disciples gave the German pastor Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the name Brockenhaus. Under this name, he opened a collection and sales point for used goods, the proceeds of which were used to finance a social work. In accordance with the wishes of its founding fathers, the Zurich Brockenhaus is also a charitable institution and makes contributions to various institutions. Last year, the company, which is organized as an association, achieved a record turnover of almost 2.7 million francs - a nice present for this year's 100th birthday.
However, the assumption that the good result can be attributed to the fact that people are currently more likely to shop at the affordable Brockenhaus is wrong. Customers at Neugasse 11 in Zurich are also shopping more cautiously. The advertising should therefore be all the more eye-catching. A wish that the Wirz creative team, which has been supporting the Brocki on a voluntary basis for around four years, is only too happy to fulfill.
The key visual of the three new poster subjects is still the delivery van with the Brockenhaus logo. While last year it carted dusty items from the Swiss hangar or Ruth Metzler's office to Neugasse, this year it is going abroad again: whether in the eternal ice of the Antarctic, in the
Australian outback or in the depths of the ocean, the Brockenhaus truck can reach any hidden treasure. And who knows, maybe astronomers will soon spot a white truck on the moon - after all, there are still a few dusty flags to be picked up there.
Mobile truffle hog: the Brocki truck finds treasures everywhere.
Simone Keller

Ambient media The screens are not yet generating the hoped-for sales. When Swiss Post equipped its CanalPoste network in German- and French-speaking Switzerland with 320 new screens, steles and dispensers almost a year ago, project manager Andreas Etter calculated that sales could be increased from CHF 1.4 million in 2002 to CHF 4 million in 2004. "We were too optimistic," he admits today. Sales from local customers in particular were under budget. They stayed away from the new medium, although the individually bookable screens should have attracted them in particular. The planned expansion of CanalPoste in Ticino was postponed due to the drop in sales. Etter: "We have to earn money first. The investment in Ticino will probably take place in 2005. "At Goldbach Media, too, the turnover of the young outdoor medium "did not quite meet expectations", as Fredy Grau, Head of Business Development, explains. "It takes more time to build up trust in the new medium," he says. But he notes: "Anyone who has tried it once will use it again." In any case, he still estimates the market potential at between 40 and 50 million francs a year.
Roger Baur, head of Plasmedia, a company belonging to Cinecom, also "imagined the introduction of the screens would be easier". "The battles are tough and it often comes down to price," he says, referring to the competition. Nevertheless, he is satisfied. The screens in the Coop front stores in particular are doing very well, and he expects revenues to rise in 2005.
The Affichage subsidiary E-Advertising has a different balance sheet. It markets APG's big screens on the one hand and interactive terminals from the Zumikon-based Terminal Company (TC) on the other. "The big screens are doing very well, we are seeing more customers and a double-digit percentage increase in sales," says Ueli Ritschard, Managing Director of E-Advertising. The situation is different with the terminals. The reason: TC wanted to set up 1000 terminals by 2005, but only has 132 locations, including in post offices, city disc stores, youth hostels and Mövenpick restaurants (www.terminalcompany.com). "The locations are too heterogeneous and the networks are still too small for national customers. That's why we have hardly made any active sales," says Ritschard.
TC itself justifies the delay with the necessary ADSL lines, which would not be available within a reasonable period of time. Maybe so. But the stagnation probably also points to the main problem with screens: the high investments for hardware and software. The industry's decline has made various investors more cautious.
Jürg Knecht, whose poster company Citylights operates eight 50-inch screens in Zurich, was also cautious. By the end of the year there should be twelve. "I wanted more once," he says. However, he no longer relies on large networks, but on a few highly frequented locations. What's more, Citylights does not show spots, but only still images - electronic posters. It is said in the industry that Citylights is the only company already making money with screens. "Screens make up 10 percent of my total turnover today, next year it should be 15 percent. That covers the investment costs," says Knecht.
Despite the rather weak sales and some expansion problems, there is no general standstill in the screen sector: Goldbach Media in particular has acquired new screen networks in the last six months. There are now 523 screens in Manor stores, 370 at Tamoil petrol stations, and Goldbach is marketing more at the Migros-Center Limmatplatz, in M-Electronics stores in Eastern Switzerland, in ladies' and men's toilets in upmarket bars and on three bus networks (Chur, Schwyz, Zurich Oberland). Cinecom has not been idle either, with Baur announcing "two to three major stories" for the near future.
Cinecom, which has recently become part of PubliGroupe, is ahead in one respect: it is the only company to offer the screens cross-media - together with prints on popcorn bags and spots on the big screen and on Sat 1. At Goldbach, on the other hand, screens are currently primarily sold separately, and e-advertising does not have any screen-poster packages either.
Screen advertising at petrol stations and supermarkets: the possibilities are still being explored, but the medium has not yet achieved a breakthrough.
Step on the spot with generic marketingFormat, price per second, CPM, technology, loop length - the screen scene is as diverse as a flower meadow. Nobody disputes that generic marketing, or at least joint research, is urgently needed. But this is a long way off. As Werbewoche found out, at least four studies are currently underway on the acceptance or impact of screen advertising. Last year's efforts to found an association have also come to nothing.
Nevertheless, Cinecom and Goldbach will also be presenting their screen offerings for the first time at the screen-up on September 7. However, other providers are not (yet) participating. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

Daily newspapers From September 4, the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung (bz) in Liestal will have an advertising connection to the big wide German-speaking part of Switzerland - thanks to its competitor Basler Zeitung (BaZ), because the bz is now a co-publisher of the former BaZ job advertisement Stellefant and adds it to its own newspaper on Saturdays (see p. 16). This gives it access to job advertisements from the national market. Conversely, BaZ benefits from the better coverage in WG 31, but bz gains more: in future, it will also be able to access job advertisements from the Swisspool and its successor Metropool via Stellefant. "However, this only applies to Saturday job ads," emphasizes BaZ publishing director Daniel Sommer. Interesting: bz publisher Mathis Lüdin only realized his double luck when he received the Werbewoche inquiry.
(mk)

Agencies cR Kommunikation opened an office in Basel at the beginning of July, its third branch after Küsnacht ZH and Berne and a return to its roots, so to speak: the agency was founded in 1989 as the Zurich PR offshoot of cR Werbeagentur Basel. It became independent in 1999 as part of a management buyout.

Column As a German guest, one wonders about the provocative nature of Swiss advertising. Recently, a mother and her six-year-old son sat opposite me on the train. He was playing with Via and came across the back of the SBB magazine, on which - alienated but still clearly recognizable - all kinds of positions during sexual intercourse were depicted. In the center of each of the pictogram-like drawings, or more precisely, where the man penetrates the woman, was a pink circle. Clearly, an advertisement for the "Stop Aids" campaign. Don't do it without a condom, was the message, and it was a little agonizing to see the woman trying to talk her boy out of asking the relevant questions. "What's with the circles, Mommy?" was the most harmless. My question is different: is it okay to place such drastic subjects in a mass-circulation newspaper that is also accessible to children?
We know what the agency responsible for this would say. Aids is so dangerous that the issue cannot be given enough prominence. And if you want to sensitize the secondos and secondas in the urban areas, as well as the more carefree Swiss apprentices, hairdressers and students, you have to provoke them. Such a heterogeneous and hardened audience can only be reached by means of shock communication. Unfortunately, no consideration can be given to mothers with their children.
However, despite the hole in the ozone layer, the sun is not a plague. Which is why the advertising for sunglasses should actually be a little more toned down or gentle. But what do you see in the middle of the Limmatquai and on other boulevards? A huge poster: "Get a new face - cerjo sunglasses". It advertises a destroyed head with only the remains of a nose hanging in the middle. Apparently one of those cases where surgeons had to transplant hairy skin from other parts of the body into the face in order for the patient to survive.
If you get close enough to the poster, it becomes clear that the agency responsible is just playing with gray. A closer look reveals a partially shaved back of the head, from which the nose stands out teasingly as an arranged bundle of hair. A tasteless feint? Oh no, a little joke is still allowed!
The Swiss are actually much more discreet and inhibited than their neighbors, for example the Germans. North of the Rhine, not a cock crows when a tabloid puts the real or alleged mistress of an ambassador on the cover and in the picture. Here, on the other hand, something like this immediately becomes a tangible state affair. When journalism can tolerate so little in comparison: Why then does advertising in this country, which is still largely Calvinist in character, act much more provocatively than in Germany, for example?
I have no satisfactory answer to this question. Is the habitual conservatism of the Swiss-German bourgeoisie driving the creative elite (to which advertisers naturally belong) towards calculated taboo-breaking? Is the outflow of advertising budgets and the battle for attention so radical that the only way to assert oneself is to use provocative words like breast and ass? Is the best, therefore, what attracts the most attention?
And what about the "Question of Morality" that our good old Vance Packard raised half a century ago? We should argue about that.
Advertising provocations as an end in themselves: more of a distraction than an eye-catcher.

> Peter Glotz is Professor of Media Management at the University of St. Gallen, SonntagsBlick columnist and father of a six-year-old boy.

Kurt Hutab took over as publisher of the free weekly Winterthurer Zeitung at the beginning of August. Hutab manages the operational business in addition to his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the paper. ...
After eight years, Daniel Kraft is leaving Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux. He is moving to the branding and corporate identity agency Scholtysik Niederberger in Zurich as project manager and senior designer.
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Cornelia Wenk joined Euro RSCG Zurich as Junior Art Director on July 12. Wenk spent the last few years working at Publicis.
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The two art directors Stephanie Wespi-Haldimann, previously with MetaDesign and Impuls@TBWA, and Anja Ginter, previously with Schneider Berthoud, as well as the consultant Jasmine Gasser are new to the Basel advertising agency Kreisvier Communications.
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visuelt GmbH in Lucerne commenced operations at the beginning of August. The owner and managing director is Ueli Kürschner, who previously worked as an art director at the A4 advertising agency in Rotkreuz ZG. visuelt is a full-service company in the field of advertising and graphics.
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Since the beginning of June, Andrea Sonnenmoser has been working as a project manager/junior consultant at int/ext Communications, which specializes in internal and external communications.
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The Flashlight Event Innovations agency has expanded its team. Rolf Lanz is the new Key Account Manager, while Giuseppe Secreti will take over as Sales Manager from September 1. The new division manager for trade fair projects is Andy Klein.
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Marketing planner Sevinc Tekkilic is the new Head of Marketing Services at art insurer Axa Art in Glattbrugg.

Dating agency Clothes make the man: a teaser campaign has proven this once again over the past two weeks Dating agency Clothes make the man: a teaser campaign has proven this once again over the past two weeks. Hundreds of women were taken in by the pompous man with the arrogant attitude. However, the alleged Royal Angelo Prinz is from Olten and, apart from his blue-blooded name, is ordinary as hell - and like many of his peers, he is looking for his better half. So it's only natural that he likes to pose as a supposed prince for the dating platform PartnerWinner.ch and its agency Publicis. Since the beginning of the week, the impostor has been unmasked and only owes the ladies one more answer: which sweetheart will it be?

Advertising statistics The volume of advertisements in the Swiss daily press fell by 2.7% in July compared to the previous year, with weak commercial advertising and the lower number of issues contributing to the loss. Job advertisements in German-speaking Switzerland showed an increase of 58%. The Sunday and business papers in German-speaking Switzerland gained ground in July, increasing by 1.2% and 2.3% respectively. The general press gained 2.7%, the specialty press 7.8% and the trade press 0.8%. The main winners were the news and themed press in German-speaking Switzerland (23.6%), while the German-language women's papers suffered massive losses (minus 22.3%).

Travel The Zurich-based online marketing agency Planetactive has developed a new website for the RBM/Reisebaumeister Group to strengthen RBM's positioning as a travel specialist. The websites of the tour operators Wettstein, Sky Tours, Salina Tours, Sierra Mar, Falcon Travel, Opus Tours, Carib Tours and Eurotrek were transferred by Planetactive into a new, common design grid. The project, which Planetactive won in a pitch against five other agencies, included the design of a new front-end, the further development of the existing back-end and the integration of a content management system.

Festivals The British publishing house Emap is taking over the international advertising festival in Cannes for 52 million pounds and integrating it into the Communications division, which includes the industry magazines Shots, Screen International, Broadcast and Media & Marketing Europe. According to a press release, this will create a new, significant vertical B2B market with an annual turnover of 30 million pounds. It is not known whether and in what form the previous owner and Chairman Roger Hatchuel (71) will remain involved with Cannes Lions.