Advertising bans The board of the Swiss Advertising Association (SW) continues to fight against the threat of advertising bans. It has decided to launch another campaign, probably in the fall, but it is still unclear which one will be used. In addition to the "Stop advertising bans" motif from Publicis, in which original campaigns from various companies are covered with black bars, there is also one from Contexta and one from FCB Leutenegger Krüll. The selection is made by SW on behalf of the Alliance Against Advertising Bans. In order to continue the current campaign, there is a lack of companies willing to make their subjects available. (mk)

For employees, 2004 is not a year to be proud of: there is hardly a public holiday that does not fall on a weekend, and the cigarette company British American Tobacco (BAT) in Lausanne will also be celebrating these festivities from April. It's not that its employees have been given a few extra days off. No, they are allowed to solve the new Parisienne puzzles on the billboards on their way to work. For the spring campaign, in-house agency Sulzer Sutter has immortalized six public holidays, including the street battles of 1 May. Of course, it's not just BAT employees who can guess the puzzles - the new public holiday posters are being used nationwide.

Newspapers From April, the Tages-Anzeiger will be charging fees for vacation detour, vacation extras and delivery interruptions. seven francs will be charged per order, which will be invoiced when the subscription is renewed. This does not apply to orders placed via the Internet: These remain free of charge. The Tages-Anzeiger cites economic reasons for the new fees. In return, it wants to grant a credit note on the subscription in the event of delivery interruptions from the 7th issue onwards.

Commuter newspapers The advertising agency McCann-Erickson, Zurich, has won 20 Minuten as a client. "First of all", it has realized an advertisement for the commuter newspaper congratulating Media Markt on its 10th birthday, according to a press release. McCann planner Urs Jaermann told Werbewoche that the order came about through personal contacts. McCann had already applied for 20 Minuten when there were still three commuter newspapers in Zurich. An overall concept has now been presented, but it has not yet been decided what will be implemented. 20 Minuten has not run a major campaign since its launch at the end of 1999 (back then with Simko). "We don't have a full-service agency," explained publishing director Rolf Bollmann. The commuter newspaper only buys artwork as required, as is now the case with McCann. There are still no plans for a publicity campaign.

Market data The new Advertising Index Switzerland (AIS) advertising sales statistics show a decline in gross expenditure of 3.6% in February, with advertising worth CHF 250.15 million placed in total, according to the AG für Werbemedienforschung (Wemf). 9 of the 14 client categories in the AIS invested less than in the same month last year. The media (down 24.6 percent) made the biggest savings, followed by clothing/shoes (17.3 percent), consumer electronics/photography/watches (15.7 percent) and transport (14.6 percent). The telecommunications (+36.4%) and office supplies (+23.1%) sectors recorded significantly higher advertising expenditure. The other categories were at most 10% above or below the previous year's figures.

Retailer Rotor communicates Coop's freshness expertise with humor - via the carrier bag medium. Often trivialized and underestimated, the good old shopping bag is currently being given a new lease of life: Coop and Migros are reflecting on the qualities of the mobile advertising medium. What is striking about this bag offensive is that it carries the positioning of the store chains more strongly than the customer cards, corporate brands or sponsoring commitments that are usually discussed. While Migros uses the bulging bag as an ambassador for its price policy in a current advertisement, Coop uses its bags to profile itself as the fresh food store. The entire fresh range - from vegetables, fruit, fish and meat to baked goods and dairy products - is presented on the bags in an independent and varied way.24 motifs, 18 million bags
Rotor-CD Alexander Gessert and his small team have developed a concept "to sink your teeth into", "thanks to which consumers carry Coop's freshness expertise out into the world". The products to be advertised act as the main characters. "With minimal intervention and no tinkering, the products personify freshness and naturalness in a very appealing way and become a strong key visual," says Gessert.
In order to convey the freshness as an important advertising message in a sustainable way, but without a goods-out effect, the 24 different motifs appear in a run of around 18 million bags, which are replaced at a rapid pace: In four waves with an average deployment time of ten weeks each, onion bunnies and papaya pigs, banana fish or lychee chicks and other funny creatures take over. The only thing that remains the same throughout is the text: "Better fresh. Better Coop."
With its vitamin-rich appearance, the retail giant from the Rhine bend is proving that it is now also putting imaginative motifs on its bags. Swiss television also seems to be convinced of this, as it will be broadcasting a report on the creation of the vegetarian creatures in a few days' time.
Coop customers know how the hare runs.
Luca Aloisi

Sports associations The Zurich-based advertising agency Sulzer Sutter has been awarded the contract as part of a two-stage agency evaluation process. It will support Fifa in areas including B2B, the licensing program and event PR.

Magazines Next week, Facts presents itself in a new, pleasantly discreet spring dress.
The announced end of showmanship is taking on clear contours in view of the zero number. The images of the first and (still) only Swiss news magazine, launched exactly nine years ago to the day, are richer in content, the white spaces are larger and the typeface has become more legible. The latter is exemplified by the streamlined logo, which has been trimmed for objectivity. But wait, haven't we seen this exact lettering somewhere recently? Exactly, that was at one of the Berlin newsagents that stock the eleventh (!) issue of "Testmagazin fürs moderne Büro", which is only distinguished by a black "S" in the title, and there are other things that seem familiar about the new look of the former showpiece from Tamedia's magazine stable.
According to editor-in-chief Stefan Barmettler, the cover, for example, should continue to be "not art, but simply our weekly sales poster". Nevertheless, the front of the zero issue - as well as the departmental opening pages, which are barely recognizable as such - looks much more stylish, tidy and clearly structured. This shows the signature of Hamburg media designer Dietmar Suchalla, who has turned the hectic, sometimes shrill Facts into a magazine for facts that gives the new claim "Knowing what counts" an authentic face.
More capacity for searches
In addition to the previously colorful reader guidance, the color background of boxes, graphics and the increasingly popular "Time Lines" is more uniform and unobtrusive. Barmettler sees these information elements as the editorial core competence of its news magazine and therefore wants to give (even) more space and weight to all types of this compact news communication in future. The paper has also been toned down and thus upgraded. Advertising customers will be pleased, as the more opaque basic tone should put an end to the shine-through and reflection of particularly color-intensive (advertising) pages.
Barmettler would be very surprised and even somewhat ashamed if the spring-fresh Facts did not regain its traditional leading position in the Swiss magazine market "within a reasonable period of time". The course for this has also been set in terms of content. There may be shifts in the editorial team, but certainly no cutbacks. On the contrary: "We have further increased our research capacities. This will be clearly evident in the first relaunch issues."
"More valuable and elegant "Stefan Barmettler, Editor-in-Chief of Facts, on role models
and sustainable primeurs.
WW The first thing that strikes you about the new Facts is its comparatively calm color and visual language. Do you want to save costs by using fewer and larger photos?
or is the visual lack of fussiness a concession to zeitgeist media like Weltwoche?
Stefan Barmettler We have not taken our cue from other media, not even from Weltwoche. In future, our visual language will be less decorative than informative. To visualize a story in a gripping way, you have to focus clearly, i.e. reduce it to the essentials. At the same time, however, we are expanding our traditional expertise with the quick-read elements. And anyone who knows the business knows that good infographics designers are at least as expensive as star photographers.
Nevertheless, you and your advisors at Der Spiegel probably had role models for the general overhaul of the title, which was last renovated in 1999.
At most the Economist, at least as far as the integration of text and graphic elements is concerned. Otherwise, the visual and content-related clean-up campaign was carried out according to internal criteria and ideas. And with the aim of making the almost ten-year-old successful product even more elegant and valuable.
In addition to the aesthetic problem, Facts also had a credibility problem. How do you intend to regain the trust of readers and advertisers after the Villiger and other scandals?
A magazine that has over half a million readers cannot have a credibility problem. Otherwise, we work on long-term, well-researched stories - with spin, but without ideology. Of course, sparkling primeurs remain important. But sustainable news value that lasts at least until Sunday is almost more important to me. (oc)
Oliver Classen

Creative Award The Golden Award advertising competition will take place in Montreux from April 13 to 16. Launched in 1989, it was previously part of the Montreux Golden Rose TV Festival. While the Golden Rose will be presented in Lucerne from this year, the Golden Award will remain on Lake Geneva. It will be expanded to include the AdForum and Creative Campus, where marketing experts will share their specialist knowledge and experience. Advertisers in training are particularly targeted. Among those invited are Benetton AD Renzo di Renzo and Nadine Critchley, Global Director for Consumer Insight at Nestlé. The event is supported by the Association Creatifs Romands. More information is available at www.goldenawardmontreux.com

Oliver Classen believes that Comedia's appeal to pay two months' severance pay retrospectively to those made redundant at the Jean Frey publishing house is naïve. Without salami-slicing tactics and 40 redundancies, the Weltwoche publisher would not have achieved a double-digit million result, the author complains. But beware: Comedia did not demand the subsequent withdrawal of the redundancies, but merely the payment of minimal benefits, which are usually regulated in a social plan in the case of such mass redundancies. You do the math: Two months' pay for 40 redundant employees with an average salary (highly estimated!) of CHF 7,000 gives a total of CHF 56,000,000. In relation to the 10 million profit proudly announced by CEO Filippo Leutenegger, this is really nothing.
Tina Hoffmann, Regional Secretary Zurich at the media trade union Comedia, on the editorial "Courtship rituals and nasty letters" in WW 8/04.

Anniversary II When the Foundation for Consumer Protection (SKS) published its first product tests, criticism rained down and opponents predicted that the SKS would soon come to an end, but the crystal ball was clearly no good: The SKS is celebrating its fourth decade of existence this year. In keeping with the militant SKS slogan "40 years and not a bit quiet", no still water is suitable for toasting this event. Migros and the Reinhold advertising agency certainly think so. In line with the motto "Only the best is good enough", the creative team led by ex-WHS boss Reinhold Weber put Migros' "Champagne" on ice for a small budget.

Werbewoche is surprised that U1's viewer figures are lower than those of the largest Swiss regional TV stations, unfortunately making the mistake of comparing apples with oranges. TeleZüri, for example, took ten years to reach the figures mentioned, while U1 has only been officially on air since the beginning of March 2004. Anyone familiar with the TV business should know that launching and establishing a new television station takes an enormous amount of time and patience.U1 takes the necessary time to gain the trust of viewers. And it puts a lot of energy into producing attractive programs, which incidentally are rated extremely positively by opinion leaders and the trade press. For example, the U1 talk shows receive praise from newspapers such as the NZZ and NZZ am Sonntag, which reinforces our commitment to quality.
U1 is convinced that quality comes before quantity and that viewer numbers will increase steadily if we continue to do our job well.
Beni Leoni, editor-in-chief of the private broadcaster U1 TV Station, on the article "U1 still on a dry spell" in WW 11/04.