Trade fair organizer Iris Sorgalla is confident about the X'04 marketing trade fair and the Xongress.WW: Compared to 2002, the X'03 marketing trade fair recorded a drop in visitors and "more profitable sales talks" instead. What are the forecasts for the upcoming X'04?
Iris Sorgalla: In difficult economic times, we generally find that at our trade fairs only those companies that are responsible for procurement decisions visit the trade fair. This can mean a slight decline in pure visitor numbers. The quality of visitor demand, on the other hand, is positively influenced by this. Experience shows that the predicted upturn in the industry will be reflected in the marketing sector with a slight delay. We are noticing the first positive signals and a slight mood of optimism. Ultimately, the decisive factor will be the sales contacts and leads generated at the trade fair. We assume that these can be converted back into concrete orders as a result of the economic recovery. In addition to such quantitative
In addition, a visit to a trade fair always focuses on qualitative objectives such as networking. You can't do without that in this industry.
Wasn't it still difficult this year to attract companies from the exhibition areas and partner associations to the trade fair?
Of course, it is not easy to get companies to come to a trade fair in an industry that has been through such a deep slump. The sales talks are correspondingly more intensive and the consultation more comprehensive. But especially now, when things are supposed to be picking up again, it would be important to make your presence felt and benefit from the incipient upswing. X'04 is ideally timed to present itself to an audience that is once again in a position to invest in marketing measures. The partner associations, some of which have been supporting X for years, recognize the need for such an industry platform, which is also the only one of its kind in Switzerland.
You are organizing the trade fair for marketing, communication and events for the seventh time. What developments have you noticed in the individual sectors?
If we analyze the development of the X over the last few years, we see only slight percentage fluctuations and shifts within the various sub-sectors. However, it is clear that companies that offer pure services are more critical of trade fair participation than companies that sell products or hardware. There is great development potential here for the coming years. Especially in a country that consists of 75 percent service companies, the value of such a presentation platform should be recognized.
What has attracted so much attention from visitors and the media in recent years?
Of course, our accompanying congress has always attracted a great deal of media interest in recent years, and this year, as every year, it features top-class international keynote speakers. Incidentally, it is the largest European congress in this field. Our auditorium in the media café, which we organized together with Swiss Marketing SMC for the first time last year, also met with a positive response from visitors and the media. The interesting presentations and round-table discussions were highly appreciated by visitors. This year, top Xongress speakers will be available to answer questions live in the auditorium. Visitors should not miss this "treat".
The industry associations SMC, Swiss Direct Marketing Association, Expo and Event Swiss Association, Swiss Screen Printers and Digital Printing Group have been joined by the Association of Visual Communication Viscom, which is taking over the patronage of the trade fair this year. Isn't there a risk of dilution?
I don't see any danger of dilution, as our trade fair represents precisely these sub-sectors under one roof. On the contrary: we are very pleased that Viscom has given us the patronage for the Print & Sign area within X. The associations each support a specific sub-sector within the trade fair, which is strengthened by the association sponsorship on both the exhibitor and visitor side. We have a strong partnership with the SMC, which relates to the qualitative content of the trade fair and thus creates real added value for visitors. In principle, associations are the main pillars of the Swiss economy, and cooperation can certainly result in valuable synergies in public relations work.
Another new feature is the creation of the e-marketing exhibition area. Although the Swiss are the second most diligent Internet users in Europe, only half a percent of advertising investment in our country still goes into the Internet. Are you not starting a new hype with the upgrading of e-marketing?
According to expert estimates, e-marketing will play an increasingly important role in the future and grow disproportionately. By integrating this topic more strongly, we are picking up on this trend. However, we have noticed that for most providers, the topic is currently still a "sideline" and not one of their core competencies. In some cases, these companies are still unclear as to which target group they actually want to address with this topic. The X does not deal with this topic from a technical background, but from a marketing-related perspective. This distinguishes the visitor to an X from the visitor to an Orbit-iEX. We provide the appropriate platform for this. A possible hype will only arise if there is a corresponding supply and demand.
What is the booking situation for the trade fair? We are still in full swing with exhibitor acquisition, as decisions in this industry are always made at short notice. As a result, we do not have a closing date for registrations. The booking situation is comparable to last year, as most companies have not yet felt the effects of the economic upturn. However, we are currently noticing a sudden increase in demand, so a lot can still happen before the starting signal. So far, over 300 exhibitors have already registered and we will definitely be presenting an interesting range of products and services. On Wednesday, August 25, even until 8 pm.
Marketing TotalFrom August 24 to 26, renowned experts such as Holger Rust, Professor at the University of Hanover and business journalist, and Peter Hauptvogel, Communications Director of Air Berlin, will provide insights into consumer trends; Lars Thomsen, CEO of Future Matters, and Daniela Reichlin, Marketing Manager of Bio-Familia, will talk about marketing innovations. Experts such as Martin Spillmann, Partner at SFLB and Advertiser of the Year 2004, Peter Spuhler, National Councillor and Managing Director of Stadler Rail, and Reiner Pichler, CEO of Strellson, will speak about international marketing. Lifemarketing and international event shows will be discussed by experts such as Peter Sloterdijk, Professor of Philosophy and Rector of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Tony Seaford, Marketing Manager Europe at Xerox, and Polo Looser, Director of MCI Switzerland. Further information can be found on the web at www.xpage.ch.
X also stands for versatility: in addition to specific orders and factual information, qualitative objectives such as networking are becoming increasingly important for trade fair participants.

Lots of experience: Iris Sorgalla is organizing the X for the seventh time.
Interview: Luca Aloisi

Advertising market The Publicitas Index lost 0.5 points in May and now stands at 93.6 points. The index measures advertising expenditure in the daily press. According to the advertising agency Publicitas, the main reason for the decline is that two issues were missing compared to the same period last year.

Daily newspaper The new BaZ comes with two tabloid sections, a clear regional focus and a more critical approach When the Basel government met with the management of Basler Zeitung Medien (BSM) for a discussion last week, the government's reservations about the new concept of the Basler Zeitung (BaZ) were also discussed: the government fears that a tougher journalistic wind could blow against it in future. BaZ publisher Matthias Hagemann was unable and unwilling to dispel these concerns. "BaZ reporting needs to move away from the journalism of announcements, it needs to become more pointed and focus on research, always within the framework of fairness. It is understandable that the government council is concerned about the partial loss of a communication channel," he said on request (see also box below).
Something of this new wind has already been felt in recent months. But it will be part of the BaZ program from September 4 at the latest. The new editor-in-chief Ivo Bachmann refers to the research team that he has put together in the last few days. And at the presentation of the new BaZ concept, he held out the prospect that press texts in the new regional edition will be reduced - if at all - to what is absolutely necessary. Own stories are required.
However, Bachmann can dispel one concern: BaZ will not become
of a quick-read newspaper, but with quick-read elements. These consist of the double page "Today" (pages 2 and 3), which provides an overview of international and national news. In addition, there are wide bars at the top of the section opening pages that summarize or graphically depict the most important events of the day.
The new edition will start with three broadsheet bundles and a fourth bundle in tabloid format. International and national news will now merge with the economy to form the first bundle, the second fascicle will be dedicated to the region (previously the third bundle), followed by sport and finally, in small format, culture with an evening agenda and TV program. But why is BaZ putting culture on tabloid format of all things? Editor-in-chief Ivo Bachmann explains: "We know from market research that the small format is particularly popular with women and young people and that they are equally interested in cultural topics. As we want to appeal more to these two target groups, it was an obvious choice to publish Kulturbund in magazine format."
New vehicle for local contentWhat was previously unknown: BaZ is getting a second tabloid, the RegioMagazin. In contrast to the daily KulturMagazin, this will only be published on Tuesdays. "We want to get even closer to the people than before by publishing local
events in communities and neighborhoods," says Bachmann. Specifically, RegioMagazin will report on events at weekends, local developments, small businesses and popular sports. The previous Friday market supplement (flea market) will also be integrated into RegioMagazin.
A RegioMagazin, a research team and a Regiobund that moves to the front - all this points to the main focus of Bachmann's new concept: BaZ focuses on the local and
regional reporting. Its subtitle now reads "The newspaper of Northwestern Switzerland". What is also striking is that with a series of daily special pages in the first Bund, in the Sportbund and in the KulturMagazin (16 in total), it is attempting to cater more strongly than before to a wide range of interests and needs. It is still unclear whether and how Tamedia's magazine will one day be added to BaZ (see interview on page 21).
The layout created by the designer duo Schwerzmann/Rotenfluh is a particular novelty. The Broadsheet-BaZ is now based on a 19-column grid, an in-house development by the two designers.
The red double line was tabooThe large number of columns makes it possible to play with the column widths - from article to article, from picture to picture. What is interesting is that there is still no disorder. On the contrary. "This allows you to make the weightings and the entire page architecture more visible," says Kurt Schwerzmann.
According to Schwerzmann, working on the new BaZ was a particular challenge. On the one hand, he struggled with the typical BaZ red double line, which - according to the only requirement - was to remain together with the logo. On the other hand, the current BaZ layout is by no means outdated. "It is probably unique in Europe," he praises. The duo therefore tried first and foremost to "improve on what was good" and translate it to the new technical possibilities.
The BaZ has high hopes for the new concept. After years of sluggishness, it should not only herald the start of a new editor-in-chief era, but also help the paper to increase its reach again despite a round of cost-cutting. For economic, but above all for psychological reasons, the aim is to prevent the current circulation of 102,000 copies from falling any further. This is no easy task, as the BaZ has lost a good 13,000 copies since 1999 - the expanded Baslerstab and 20 Minuten send their regards.
Discussion about an "unfortunate sentence "At the meeting between BZM and the Basel government, the government's statement on the license extension application from TV station Nordwest 5 (NW5) was also a topic of discussion (WW 13/04). Matthias Hagemann confirms this. While the Basel government supported NW5, the Basel government council spoke out against it, partly because it feared that a media company could join NW5 and thus "pose a threat to Basler Zeitung Medien". This "very, very unfortunate" sentence (Hagemann) came across as an attempt by the Basel government to take control. "Of course that's not possible with the 'Zeitung für die Nordwestschweiz', we want to represent the interests of the entire region
and not any particular interests," says Hagemann. He has therefore asked the government "to ask us for our opinion in future before mentioning us in a statement". (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

is the new Bern branch manager of the Plakanda AWI out-of-home advertiser, having previously been a customer advisor at NZZ am Sonntag.Philipp Bühlmann is the new Bern branch manager of the Plakanda AWI out-of-home advertiser. He was previously an account manager at NZZ am Sonntag. ...
Peter Matthys is to become the new Head of Communications at the Bern-based agency Hofer Kommunikation. He takes over from Adrian Haas at the beginning of September, who has been elected Director of the Bern Trade and Industry Association with effect from next year.
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Thomas Schwabe (photo) is the new CEO of Xmedia Annoncencen. He replaces Jakob Spring. Schwabe was most recently Head of Advertising at Aargauer Zeitung.
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Creative Director Patrick Lienert is leaving the advertising agency Seiler Zurich - formerly DBB - in Zollikerberg. Lienert joined the former Seiler DDB from Publicis in April 2000.
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Together with Lötscher & Egli Corporate Communication
Oliver Rodau joined the Kraftwerk advertising agency in St. Gallen. Rodau was previously agency manager at Lammoth Mailkonzept and personal assistant to Friedhelm Lammoth.
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Gebi Bischoff, the former managing director of the Zurich web agency Update, has founded his own company. WebDirekt specializes in Internet projects.
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Hans Ulrich Wernli is to become the new Head of Finance and Administration at PR agency Farner Consulting. He replaces Rosmarie Widmer Gysel, who is withdrawing from the agency due to her candidacy for the cantonal government. Wernli was most recently Head of Finance, IT and Logistics at the shoe retail chain Pasito.
At the beginning of July, Roland Bieri (photo) will take over as Head of Sales and Marketing at IT service provider T-Systems Switzerland. The former head of the "Rail" sales department will replace Gregor Stücheli, who will take over the management of T-Systems Switzerland at the same time.
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Angela Prisciantelli is the new Key Account Manager of the Romandie Combi newspaper combination in French-speaking Switzerland. She previously worked at Publicitas Swiss Press as Sales Coordinator.
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Ingenti Switzerland now also offers its advertising and exhibition systems in French-speaking Switzerland.
Cédric Ronzi has been appointed Sales Manager for French-speaking Switzerland. Ronzi joins the Killwangen-based company from the hotel industry.

Outdoor advertising The advertising spaces at Zurich Airport will continue to be managed by Plakanda in the future, and the operating company Unique has extended the contract with Plakanda for three years, with an option for a further two years. The previous exclusive contract, which was concluded at the beginning of 2001, expires at the end of the year. Unique had also considered putting the contract out to tender and an in-house solution.

Services The Zurich agency Aaron Advertising has two new clients. Ristorante Napoli in district 3 has had new postcard subjects created, and Aaron Advertising is designing a new line of advertisements for the hair stylists at Degas Lino Marra.

Direct Marketing The Jung von Matt/Limmat agency developed an innovative advertising campaign for the landscape architecture firm Tur & Partner: the lid of a flat plastic box shows a development plan with holes in the green zones. If the box is watered a little every day, delicate greenery will sprout from the holes after a few days. This first living mailing is aimed at architects and private or institutional developers.

Cinema With 260000 visitors, Swiss cinemas recorded the best result of the year so far in week 22. In the same week last year, only 15,000 cinema-goers were counted, with the start of the disaster film "The Day After Tomorrow", which 92,000 people wanted to see in the first week, making a major contribution to the record result. It was followed by "Troy" (48,000 admissions) and "La mala educacion" (16,000 admissions). Thanks to further highlights such as "Harry Potter 3" (theatrical release June 3) and "Shrek 2" (June 24), cinema marketer Cinecom is also expecting excellent audience figures for the coming weeks.

Magazines Since the relaunch, Facts has found more buyers at the newsstands. Advertisers are holding back.Finally, a positive signal from Facts. Two months after the magazine's relaunch, those responsible are talking about encouraging signals. "Compared to the first quarter, newsstand sales have risen by an average of 30 percent," reports Sari Simola, Head of Reader Market Magazines at Tamedia. However, consistency is still lacking. "The upward trend is also confirmed by a marked increase in the willingness of trial subscribers to switch to a fixed subscription. "The conversion rate is 10 percentage points better today than it was a year ago," says Simola.
The respectable developments in the reader market are all the more astonishing because they came about without any increase in the marketing budget. There were no additional measures at the POS, nor were large promotional runs flooded into the market. And also the strategy with generous bonuses (Half-Fare, home electronics, etc.), with which Facts had lured subscribers in earlier years, is definitely a thing of the past. "Back then, it was purely about quantity; today, durability is the most important thing," explains Sari Simola.
Bright spots in the advertising market
Facts still has a lot of catching up to do in terms of advertising revenues. The relaunch was preceded by a dramatic development in the advertising market. Since the fall of 2003, the news magazine had "dropped out of the media plans on a relatively broad front," according to Marcel Tappeiner, interim head of advertising market magazines at Tamedia. Now, advertising sales in the first four months of the current year are "about 30 percent below last year." "To make up for the accumulated losses, we probably need the entire second half of the year," Tappeiner said. But he is optimistic that the race to catch up will succeed. "We are feeling a lot of goodwill from advertisers. Many advertisers who had said goodbye, arguing that the old Facts was no longer an attractive platform for them, can identify with the redesigned magazine again and are coming back." According to Tappeiner, these include such major advertisers as Microsoft, SBB, Ovomaltine, Cartier, Jura and Zurich Insurance.
However, Facts is in good company with its poor advertising revenues in the first four months of this year. Of the titles that belong to its direct competitive environment, only NZZ a. S. was able to rejoice with an increase of almost 30 percent. All the others - Cash, Bilanz, Weltwoche, HandelsZeitung, SonntagsZeitung, Stocks - were down, in some cases massively (see table).
Profits only at the expense of others
There is no prospect of a rapid improvement. "We're facing another tough year for the press, with a particularly difficult June due to the European Championship," explains Weltwoche's publishing director Uli Rubner. However, she is not worried that the new Facts will pose a threat to her title (see box).
On the other hand, Facts is aware that the air is thin. Tappeiner: "The market segment in which we are positioned is full, both in the advertiser and reader markets." In plain language, that means you can only gain readers or ads by taking them elsewhere. "If the economy doesn't pick up in the medium term, there will be too many titles in this segment," Tappeiner fears. But Facts will certainly not be among the surplus.
Weltwoche maintains momentumIn the previous year, Weltwoche was the big winner in both the reader and advertiser markets, and this was particularly at the expense of Facts. Now that the Tamedia news magazine is showing positive signs following its relaunch, one would have to assume that Weltwoche, its most important competitor, is now in trouble.
But this is not the case. "I don't see any trend reversal in favor of Facts," explains Uli Rubner, publishing director of Weltwoche. "Only in the first two weeks after the relaunch did we have fewer ads." But after that, the tide had turned back in Weltwoche's favor.
The new Facts also left no traces on newsstand sales. "During the relaunch week, Weltwoche even sold above average," Rubner said. (dse)
Acceptance study announcedAt the end of July, we will know more precisely how the new Facts is received by the readership: Then the acceptance study by Tamedia Market Research will be available. Individual adjustments were made after the first two issues of the new concept. "We have slightly increased the proportion of pictures and the number of charts," explains Facts Editor-in-Chief Stefan Barmettler. Also eliminated are problems with the legibility of the typeface, which came across as gray instead of black on individual sheets due to the absorbency of the new paper. In the meantime, the portrait column by illustrator Peter Gut has also been relaunched. The fine-tuning is not yet complete. "This week, we are discussing with the department heads where we might still need to make improvements," says Barmettler. (dse)
Daniel Schifferle

Underwear After Switzerland and France, the campaign for Sloggi strings is now also stirring things up in the UK.Leaders of the Islamic communities in Bradford and Leeds have complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the posters featuring half-naked women because they were displayed near mosques. The self-regulatory body upheld the complaints and called on Sloggi manufacturer Triumph to take more care in selecting poster sites. Triumph showed a willingness to cooperate. The ASA rejected another complaint by Muslims against a Sloggi poster showing three rugby players in less-than-skimpy underpants, according to a Guardian report. The controversial campaign was created by the Blue Spirit agency in Schlieren.

Public transport In the competitive presentation for the budget for ZVV's image profiling in the coming years, the previous budget holder Publicis has successfully prevailed against two competitors As a company of the Canton of Zurich, the Zurich Transport Association must also officially put major investment projects out to tender in accordance with cantonal tendering regulations.

Lease agreement Basler Zeitung and Publicitas are in the process of redefining their old cooperation The lease agreement between Basler Zeitung (BaZ) and Publicitas (P) does not actually expire until the end of 2005. However, it is now to be renewed ahead of schedule and the cooperation is to be relaunched at the beginning of 2005. This is confirmed by both Matthias Hagemann, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM), and Otto K. Walter, Head of Advertising at BaZ and member of the Executive Board of P Basel. As a reminder, the P parent company PubliGroupe holds a 37 percent stake in BZM, but it is not yet clear what the new collaboration will look like. While Hagemann wants a "more publisher-friendly lease", Walter speaks of an "already friendly collaboration that is to be further optimized". One thing is certain: a working group, which includes Walter and BaZ publishing director Daniel Sommer, has examined the current situation and presented this analysis to the BZM management. They have also taken a closer look at the Lucerne model.
In this form of cooperation between P Luzern and Neue Luzerner Zeitung, which has existed since 2001, P and the publisher each work together in an operational and a strategic committee. Both are made up of equal numbers of members, but in the case of Lucerne the management lies with the publisher. For both P and the publisher, the model results in a more balanced distribution of profit and risk than a normal lease agreement.
It's not quite that far in Basel yet. What is clear is that P Basel will move its Basel headquarters from the city center to the BZM main building on the outskirts of the city in December. Around 100 employees from P Basel, Publimedia and Publicitas International will then move into the vacant 3rd floor. They will share this space with BaZ-Verlag, which is relocating from its current location on Aeschenplatz back to Kleinbasel.
The BaZ editorial office will remain at Aeschenplatz, where P will expand its sales counter in order to maintain its presence in the city. Walter is looking forward to the move: "Being closer to our most important partner will make our daily work easier. For example, BaZ publishing director Daniel Sommer and I will have our offices next door to each other."
Markus Knöpfli