Magazines The front page of a magazine determines the success or failure of the issue in question - so there's hardly any room for advertising, but what advertiser doesn't like to appear in the most prominent place with their customer? In its search for new forms of advertising, Euro RSCG Zurich has struck gold: A reply card integrated into the cover picture. The idea is currently celebrating its premiere on the cover of the magazine Kult. Visually integrated into the front page, the card teases "Yes, I want ..." on the front and solves the riddle on the back with the second half of the sentence "... Kult at home".

Condoms Advico Young & Rubicam wants to appeal to young people as closely as possible for a new product from Ceylor.And once again an inhibition threshold has been crossed. The new quick&easy condom from the Ceylor range promises no more awkward fumbling and thus no more inhibitions when it comes to handling. This is even easier and thus also faster to bring to the man, because the condom is provided with a special Abrollvorrichtung. The new quick&easy is on in three seconds. "After that, you can take as long as you like." Advico Young & Rubicam's campaign for the launch of the "world's fastest condom" is now also based on this product benefit, which no longer kills the pleasure of paws.
Three ads show the young target audience charming places where you can have sex, but you should hurry a little because you can be caught at any time. Suggestions are: a photo booth, on a park bench or in a changing room. Over the pictures of these delightful places, Ceylor's recommendation is peppered in the form of a sticker: "This place is tested and recommended by the world's fastest condom: quick&easy."
Preservatives for the youngFor the advertisers, these are "places where you spent the best time of your youth," as CD André Benker says. Benker has already worked for Advico on a campaign for Ceylor. Back then, the claim was "Make love not war". Now, however, a completely different generation is to be addressed. Until now, they have not been able to identify much with products such as Ceylor "Blausiegel". "Blausiegel" sounds too much like an old man's round. However, making it sound young is tricky. We didn't want to appeal to young people with the umpteenth snooper theme.
The subjects for the new product trust more in the cheeky joke and are stylistically real and authentic in their imagery as well, making them credible,
as AD Denis Schwarz thinks.
Marking places yourselfThe campaign also uses other youth media. For example, the same sticker used on the print subjects is also distributed to the public with Cards for Free. People can use it to mark places they would like to recommend to others. Another medium used is Cards for You, which is becoming increasingly popular among young people. These free business cards, which can be ordered over the Internet, feature the campaign's subjects on the back.
In the cinema, slides are switched, which also certify the auditorium in the dark during the movie as "tested and recommended".
The campaign reaches its first peak in April in magazines for people who like to go out, such as Forecast and Kult. On April 22, the new condom will also be presented at an event for the target audience at the trendy Toni-Molkerei pub in Zurich.
With its unaffected and direct language, Ceylor should continue to gain in importance, especially among the young core segment. An audience that, according to the Brand Asset Evaluator study, has not yet found its preferred condom brand and is still looking for one. Ceylor now wants to fill this gap with an innovation like quick&easy. For Ceylor, this development represents an important step, because until now it has lost out somewhat as a brand among a younger audience and as a
condom of the older generation is - or was - valid.
The condom manufacturer Ceylor advertises with posters for delightful, certified places where you can have fast sex.
Andreas Panzeri

Media Following a competitive presentation, the SRG Regional Association for German-speaking Switzerland has chosen Advico Young & Rubicam as its advertising agency to recruit new members for the SRG German-speaking Switzerland supporting organization. This is open to anyone who wants to get involved in the Swiss media landscape.

Beverages Publicis Zurich has won the overall Swiss account for the Heineken beer brand; together with its subsidiary agency Fisch Meier Direkt, Publicis prevailed against five competitors in a multi-stage competitive presentation. Heineken's image advertising was previously handled by JWT + Hostettler + Fabrikant. Heineken also worked with other agencies. Publicis is the first to advertise the BeerTender, Heineken's home tap system.

Newspaper design A year ago, Südostschweiz (SO) launched the youth supplement Haifaif as its fifth newspaper. From June, it will switch to tabloid format, and the SO is inviting young designers aged between 15 and 25 to take part in a competition for the new layout. The competition is open until April 13. The winner will be chosen by the target audience during the Higa trade fair in Chur from May 14 to 23. The winning work will be used "in whole or in part" for the Haifaif newspaper, according to a statement from the SO. For information call 081 255 55 55.

After a sabbatical, Alexander Theobald feels full of energy for his new job at Ringier.
He likes big fish. Once a year, Alexander Theobald therefore flies to the Maldives with his wife for a few days. There he dives and observes fish. This year, however, the colorful animals were surprised. The diver from Zurich stayed a little longer. Alexander Theobald used the three-month sabbatical between Tamedia and Ringier "mainly for traveling". He also visited South Africa. While doing nothing, the new Head of Group Division Magazines at Ringier also discovered: He is even more attracted by professional challenges than the busy life. "It was a huge opportunity to be able to take on this great and exciting task," says the new member of the Group Executive Board happily. Of course, it is exciting to work for the market leader. A "really big box with a large turnover and a correspondingly large responsibility towards the publishing house" lured him back to Dufourstrasse from Werdstrasse.
Theobald worked at Tamedia for seven years as Publishing Director of SonntagsZeitung, Marketing Director of Winner Market and Head of Newspaper Publishing, which makes the timing for a change seem fair to him. "Change and growth are the biggest drivers," he says of his motivations.
At the competition, he is now attracted by a "wide range of highly interestingly positioned products, some of which are polarizing and very diverse". At Ringier, the media man has always "admired the courage to be creative". The company is prepared to try new things, such as Cicero. At the same time, there is no hesitation in discontinuing certain things that don't work. "It's a very lively company." Theobald had already worked for Ringier in 1995, back then as publishing director of Schweizer Woche. The contact had started even earlier - with a thesis entitled "Blick and Bild, two tabloid newspapers in comparison".
Alexander Theobald, who grew up in Hamburg and Cologne and was "abducted to Switzerland" by his father at the age of 13, studied journalism in Zurich and worked as a journalist at Ringier on the side. And why didn't he stay a journalist?
Today, he blames former Spiegel editor-in-chief Werner Funk for the change. "You're probably not going to do anything really great in journalism," he said when the graduate was working on a new project for Gruner & Jahr. "That prompted me to switch to the management side," explains Theobald, who does not, however, want to rule out the possibility that he might one day return to his first passion.
And as for his return: it is of course a funny detail that Alexander Theobald has just moved into the exact same office where his father was employed in Ringier's Executive Board in the 1980s.
"I was there a lot as a boy. But you shouldn't overestimate it," says the son. Renovation work is also underway on Dufourstrasse and then the family tradition will continue in other rooms one way or another.
Alexander Theobald has moved from Tamedia to Ringier and is Head of the Magazines Division.

Andreas Panzeri

Mineralwasser Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett (SFLB) has been entrusted by Feldschlösschen Getränke AG with a project account for Rhäzünser, and the Zurich advertising agency is to launch a new mineral water line in June. A TV commercial, posters, advertisements and below-the-line measures will be used. Philipp Wetzel, head of marketing for non-alcoholic beverages at Feldschlösschen, did not want to reveal any details about the project. SFLB was awarded the contract without a pitch.

Magazines The French-speaking Swiss consumer magazine L'Illustré will appear in a new look from April 28, and the L'Illustré team is currently working on the editorial and graphic concept under the leadership of the new editors-in-chief Christophe Passer and Jean-Luc Iseli. New sections and new advertising formats are also in the pipeline.

Portfolio The Zurich-based advertising agency Meyer Schianchi has won a partial budget from Swissca Portfolio Management, winning a pitch with its proposals for the new "Asset Management" image brochure. An image brochure is also one of the measures that Meyer
Schianchi for the United School of Sports. The institute has entrusted the agency with its communications budget.

Magazines Four years after the turnaround in circulation, Schweizer Familie is being refreshed. The new Schweizer Familie is to be brighter, more cheerful and more modern. The magazine from Tamedia will appear in a new look for the first time on May 13. The fonts will be lighter, the pictures will have more space. With opening pages for the individual sections, reader guidance will be improved. "We are adapting the design to the needs of our audience," says Editor-in-Chief Daniel Dunkel. That's why Schweizer Familie will not only be fresher, but also a touch more feminine. Indeed, the proportion of women in the readership has increased to 60 percent since the subscriber base of the discontinued Meyer's was taken over last year. According to Dunkel, Tamedia has been able to retain 50 percent of these subscriptions.
This is the fourth time in a row that the Swiss Family has shown a slight increase in circulation in the Wemf certification, by 1.6 percent to 162555 copies. In small steps, the magazine is regaining what it lost at the end of the nineties: After a refocus on young families in 1994, circulation fell from over 200000 to little more than 150000. The relaunch apparently drove away regular readers without attracting enough new ones at the same time. "Our audience reacts very sensitively to repositioning," former publishing director Roland Wahrenberger later told Werbewoche. Only a return to the 35+ target group in 2000 was able to stop the decline.
Sticking to the target groupThe redesign is in no way intended to shake up the tried-and-tested concept. "We're sticking to the target group," emphasizes editor-in-chief Dunkel. This is precisely where he sees the secret of the magazine's success, on which hardly anyone in the media industry would have placed a centime five years ago. "The editors of Schweizer Familie know their readership and deliberately write for them." In the past, many journalists would have used family magazines as a transit station and dealt with the topics without heart and soul. But a good garden report requires as much commitment as a report on the Federal Parliament.
In the reader market, the Swiss family has regained its support with this approach. Dunkel is dissatisfied, however, with its anchoring in the advertising market. "Schweizer Familie is growing everywhere, but not in the advertising market," complains the editor-in-chief. It is true that the magazine was the only Tamedia print title to increase its sales in 2003, by 1.5 percent to 34.6 million Swiss francs. But according to Media Focus figures, gross advertising revenues of 10 million Swiss francs remained half as high as those of sister magazine Facts - even though Swiss Family has almost 30 percent more readers, according to Mach Basic.
"We are not perceived enough in the agencies," says Dunkel. The Swiss family has an image problem. Its name is misunderstood and referred to a very traditional image of the family. But the magazine defines the concept of family much more broadly and is aimed at a more open-minded audience than the title suggests.
To change this, the publisher is accompanying the relaunch with an advertising campaign in the ad market. A pitch is currently being made among four agencies. In the next few weeks, a decision will be made as to who will be allowed to help the refreshed Swiss family gain more attention.
The redesign of the Swiss family takes into account the high proportion of women in the readership.

Stefano Monachesi

Agencies The German advertising group Scholz & Friends returned to the black in 2003, posting a pre-tax profit of two million euros. In 2002, write-offs had led to a loss of 9.7 million euros. Scholz & Friends has also been represented in Switzerland since February 2003. In the annual report of the listed group, the share capital of the Zurich subsidiary is stated as 64,000 euros and the annual result as a loss of 30,000 francs.

Laundry detergent Omo has a new international account manager. Detergent manufacturer Lever Fabergé is withdrawing the account from Lowe and awarding it to Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), Lever has confirmed corresponding press reports. It is not clear whether the agency change will also have consequences in Switzerland. Erich Baumgartner, Managing Director of Lowe Zürich, was first informed of this by Werbewoche. Lowe Zurich is looking after the client on a local basis, said Baumgartner. He therefore does not believe that his agency will have to give up its budget in the current year.