Ragusa cR DDB Basel has a squirrel, a bee, and a St. Bernard promote Camille Bloch’s chocolate bar. A great idea? Share your thoughts at www.werbewoche.ch/adratingEichhof Oops, Lesch + Frei! Several ad critics had some very harsh comments about the beer-fueled shenanigans set in a stuffy shared apartment.
Top 36.6%Flop 63.4%

Radio advertising To mark the launch of the new Opel Astra, GM is launching a competition with the Swiss Radio Pool. "We want to raise awareness of the Opel Astra, which celebrated its Swiss premiere at the Geneva Motor Show," says Samir Saydjari, Head of Marketing Communications at General Motors Switzerland (GM), outlining the aim of the launch campaign. To promote the new model, GM is relying on a broad media mix that includes advertisements, TV spots, billboards, and online and radio advertising. This time, GM is placing a special emphasis on radio advertising, or at least giving it greater weight than in previous GM campaigns.According to Saydjari, there are three reasons for this: First, there were personnel changes in GM management last year - "and thus new strategic opinions and ideas." In addition, GM has "had good experiences" with the previously small radio budgets (less than five percent of the total order volume). Especially during the day. Says Saydjari, "People watch TV in the evening, but in the car, at work, or at home, we're very close to them through radio all day." The third reason: Belcom's concept for a three-week game on seven stations of the Swiss Radio Pool (Radio 24, Basilisk, Pilatus, ExtraBern, Aktuell, One FM and Lausanne FM) was convincing. Especially since Richi Gasser, sales manager of Radio 24, was able to present experiences and figures from last year's first attempt - with a different car brand and only on Radio 24 (see box on the left).
Only listeners with a chance of winning
Here's how the game works, with a total of seven Opel Astra as the main prizes - one car per participating radio station: For three weeks, from April 5 to 23, 2004, each of the seven stations will broadcast short tips every hour between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., each with a two-digit number. Listeners have until the top of the hour to send the number by SMS (from cell phones only, fee 50 centimes) to the short number of the radio station they are listening to (participation is also possible by postcard). The SMS are sent to Voice Publishing AG (see box below right), where the number of the cell phone is recognized and a points account is opened for it. Each time an SMS is received from the same cell phone, the new number is added to the numbers already reported on the account. The more numbers sent by SMS to the target number, the larger the account balance of the respective player thus becomes. Whoever has the highest account balance at the end of the three-week game hits the jackpot, so to speak, and wins the main prize.
Cross-media support
Listeners who only join in during the course of the game or only send text messages sporadically still have a chance to win one of the 105 additional daily or weekly prizes (such as road safety training). Before and during the game, trailers will run on the stations explaining the game and also naming the sponsor - GM and Opel Astra. In Zurich and Bern, the game is also supported cross-medially with advertisements and TV spots. GM has also booked commercials on the Swiss Radio Pool one week before and one week after the game.
"Such a jackpot is unique in Swiss radio history so far," Richi Gasser is pleased to say. And it is also the first time that seven German- and French-speaking Swiss stations have come together in such a broad cooperation. Saydjari is also excited. GM has no expectations regarding the number of SMS, he says. And yet, "If the game goes well, we might consider something similar for the launch of the Opel Tigra in the fall."
How big the budget for the game is, could not be found out on any side. But if you consider that 50 spots cost around 114,000 Swiss francs on weekdays over two weeks in the Swiss Radio Pool, and that the seven Opel Astra cars to be won cost 300,000 Swiss francs each, you can at least roughly estimate the budget used.
Lessons learned from experienceThe first game of this kind was conducted by Radio 24 with another car brand in the fall of 2003. The value of the main prize was about 50 percent lower compared to an Opel Astra. According to Peter Brun, program manager of Radio 24, about 50000 SMS were generated at that time (and only a few postcards). The main prize was finally won by a woman and three men who had organized themselves virtually around the clock with the same cell phone and thus achieved almost the maximum points. These experiences now fed into the Opel Game. "We realized that five weeks was too long," says Brun. In addition, the company now wants to motivate latecomers to participate with weekly or daily prizes. (mk)
Jürg Wildberger counts the SMSManaging director and co-owner of Voice Publishing AG in Rümlang ZH is Jürg Wildberger, once head of TV 3. The company, which according to its homepage is one of the leading providers of voice, fax, SMS and MMS applications, solves problems in the interactive field. For the Opel game, it generates the numbers broadcast every hour and ensures that its system correctly allocates the incoming SMS, stores the cell phone numbers and correctly accounts for the numbers. In addition, the senders receive a confirmation in each case. Each player can call up his or her account balance. According to Wildberger, the respective radio station also has access to the data. The radio station can call up players for an interview. (mk)
SMS with a chance to win: General Motors launches the new Opel Astra with a contest decided by cell phone.
Markus Knöpfli

Advertising statistics In February, Swiss newspapers recorded 9.5 percent lower advertising volumes than in the same month of the previous year.The decline affected the daily press sold in all categories and in all parts of the country. The free papers were a different story. Free dailies were up 1.8 percent. In the regional free weekly press, the larger titles increased by 3.4 percent, while the smaller ones (under 50000 copies) lost 27.6 percent. The Sunday press increased its advertising volume by 10.1 percent, also thanks to the leap year and an additional Sunday. The general-interest press again reported growth after January, albeit at a lower level (1.7 percent versus 9.2 percent). The magazines in French-speaking Switzerland increased by 49.2 percent, while the German-language magazines lost 6.0 percent.

Health Migros customer Silvia Huber's advertising idea - to publicize Migros' commitment to fitness in its stores - seems to have won over the Grey Worldwide agency, which printed a Migros bag with weight plates from fitness machines to publicize the new M-Fitnesspark Puls 5. "Get fit for the fitness park", reads the inscription, and the photo makes the ambitious goal clear: Migros customers should be able to lift a whopping 100 kilos. Consumers can start lugging their groceries around before the opening on August 16.
do something for their body.

Its outgoing editor-in-chief recently outed himself as a harmless FDP voter. However, Weltwoche continues to serve as a nostalgic projection screen for left-wing Zurich journalists.imitations On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the (red) Fabrikzeitung is now practising the art of hostile takeover after WOZ. The fact that Weltwoche appears in its old look says more about the world view of the journalistic pirates than any mushroom cloud.

Advertising bans The Lauterkeitskommisson (LK) has dealt with two complaints against a campaign by the "Allianz gegen Werbeverbote" (Alliance against advertising bans) and dismissed both.Werbeverbote The Lauterkeitskommisson (LK) has dealt with two complaints against a campaign by the "Allianz gegen Werbeverbote" (Alliance against advertising bans) and dismissed both. The first complaint was based on the assumption that the Alliance's TV commercials were political and criticized their broadcasting as unlawful, as political advertising on TV is prohibited. The First FCC Chamber did not accept this claim: The complaint had not criticized the content of the campaign, but its broadcast on TV, which was a question of media policy and not fairness law.
In the second case, the complaint was directed against newspaper advertisements from the same campaign. These were described as misleading as they gave the impression of a general advertising ban. However, the LK did not consider the statement "Stop advertising bans" to be misleading. "It is known that efforts are underway in Switzerland and the EU to introduce advertising bans outside the areas of alcohol and tobacco," it wrote. For the average informed consumer, it is recognizable that the campaign is directed against an impending proliferation of advertising bans.
(mk)

Jürg Waeber, former copywriter at Euro RSCG and Lowe GGK, has been working as a copywriter/concept developer at Ruf Lanz since the beginning of March. In May, another copywriter/concept developer, Patrick Suter, joins the agency. Suter also previously worked for Euro RSCG....
Since mid-February, Enrico Bachmann has also been responsible for the creative direction of Grey Geneva. He replaces Francis Gerber
who has set up his own business. Bachmann has been working as Creative Director for Grey in Zurich since last July.
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Euro RSCG Switzerland now has its own proofreader/editor. Gernot Mair has joined the Zurich agency from Advico Young & Rubicam after nine years in the same role.
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The Biel-based web service provider Aseantic has appointed Günter Bader as Head of Account Management. Bader ran his own marketing and web company Digmar AG in St. Gallen for 13 years.
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Peter Renggli, Marcel Suter and Walter Keller founded Second Opinion GmbH, a service company, in Aarau at the beginning of February.
for marketing, sponsoring and communication concepts. Among other things, Renggli was Head of Marketing Communications at Eurocard, MasterCard and ec-Direct for many years. Suter was Managing Director of AZ Wochenzeitungen AG, and Keller is still working as APG Branch Director Aargau-Solothurn until the end of the year. Heinz Alber, currently Director of Regional Business Contacts at the Swiss National Bank, will join the team in the summer.
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Christoph Bürge is to become a program developer in the "Culture and Entertainment" department at SF DRS. He will take up the position in mid-May. Bürge is currently Creative Director at the Hungarian broadcaster TV2.
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The new private channel U1 TV Station has hired TV journalist Urs Bachofner. Bachofner will be responsible for the daily news, but also for current affairs productions.

Affinity of ads among supporters in the "Christian camp "Gold (178) Padma AG Disruptions in the system (fischerwerbung)Silver (167) Sunrise In 5 years (Wirz)
Bronze (164) Honda Civic (Rossell)

Credit cards The dialog marketing agency Alex Schmid BSW announces three new clients. The agency is realizing several smaller and larger projects for the credit card company Swisscard AECS, while the electrical group Legrand and its subsidiary BTicino are also advertising with Alex Schmid. The first project to be launched is a multi-stage campaign that will run throughout 2004. Outside Switzerland, Alex Schmid will be working for the satellite operator Astra. In a pitch, the agency won the mandate to market Astra services in five European countries.

Magazine The Edipresse publishing house in French-speaking Switzerland is planning a comprehensive relaunch of its women's magazine Femina, which is scheduled for the 4th quarter of 2004. The management of the project will be advertised internally and externally with immediate effect. The project manager will later also become editor-in-chief of Femina. Marie-Pierre Dupont, who has headed the editorial team since 1978, will hand over the reins by January 1, 2005 at the latest.

The BSW seminar for strategic planning will be expanded and held every two years in collaboration with the University of St. Gallen. Dominique von Matt and Professor Torsten Tomczak on the new offering.Mr. von Matt, Mr. Tomczak, information and planning are familiar tasks for every advertiser. Why the new BSW seminar for strategic planning? Dominique von Matt: Our seminar aims to fill the vacuum that represents a real problem for the competitiveness of local communications agencies. This is urgently needed because we are facing international competition, are increasingly losing international budgets to other countries and, conversely, rarely attract an international budget to Switzerland. This is actually grotesque: which country would be more predestined for such commissions than Switzerland thanks to its expertise in terms of differences in mentality, graphic design tradition and level of education? Other industries also manage to operate successfully worldwide. Why not us?
Your seminar series seems to have the answer: Switzerland has a major deficit in strategic planning.
von Matt: There are certainly deficits and problems in other areas too. What is certain, however, is that we are lagging behind in the high-end area of communication know-how.
Torsten Tomczak: That's the point: high-end training. What worked excellently in the past may already be outdated today. There is no doubt that the challenges for advertising agencies have grown and will continue to grow. In an agency, the strategic planner has to fulfill the important hinge function between the needs of creation and the clientele. From my point of view, it used to be easy enough to create good or very good advertising campaigns. Today, the agency must have a deep understanding of how its client's marketing and brand management work. As a strategic planner today, I have to be able to advise the client on their brand architecture, communication, distribution and price management and so on. And here the question arises, does this still fit in with traditional training? From experience, I can say that the days of pure gut feeling are over. Of course, this is still needed - after all, we work in an industry in which creativity is the most important asset - but if I can't back this up with well-founded facts, then I will certainly have more problems articulating myself to the customer today. What's more, communication with the traditional division of labor according to disciplines has no chance today. What is needed is broader, deeper know-how.
Integrated communication is not a new phenomenon for the Swiss strategist, is it?
von Matt: Of course not. However, we are not concerned with the profession of strategic planner in an agency - there are very few of them due to the size of the market - but with their function. This has to be taken on by certain exponents in every agency. Until ten years ago, the classic advertising consultant was still able to assert himself.
cheat, he has a problem today if he doesn't have networking under control - we are all sick of hearing the term integrated communication. This is where our course comes in. And the overarching theme - the most important asset in any company - is brand management, which is becoming increasingly important in training everywhere.
Tomczak: We are sure that they will learn about the cutting edge of developments in each discipline, as we have tailored the seminar to the needs of advertising and media agencies and can address the specific strategic issues of the communications industry. We will also have a very intensive exchange of experiences. In concrete terms, you will be able to develop networked communication concepts. Methodologically, they will be given strategy tools for developing campaigns and trained in managing this process.
von Matt: Comparable offers for experts in strategic planning are hard to find, even internationally. We are not only working very hard on the topic of brand management here, but also have the current state of the art in this area. So a typical Swiss problem will be: How do I accompany my client abroad and develop international communication concepts?
This makes it sound as if the agencies have so far managed their mandates without any planning or leadership.
Tomczak: Our assumption as an institute is never that we are dealing with people who have no idea. Things change and expand. That's why one challenge, no matter what field I'm working in, is continuous professional development.
von Matt: It's not as if the industry has overslept something. This deficit was actually identified years ago, which is why the BSW launched a very successful planning seminar. We are now expanding this course and taking it to a higher level. Even though the industry has been experiencing a strong headwind for several years, we must not stop trying to solve the long-term structural problems.
Then you are also pursuing higher-level goals?
von Matt: It is indeed the case that we have to fight against the trend of relocating decision-making centers abroad. We are seeing this internationalization not only in the case of mergers, but increasingly in advertising itself. Due to the extreme cost pressure, companies are working on entire language areas with a single campaign. Especially in the fast-moving consumer goods market, one agency in Frankfurt, Paris or London usually covers several countries. In contrast, we have to go on the offensive with outstanding expertise.
So the migration of advertising budgets was more a question of costs than strategic planning?
von Matt: On the one hand - on the other hand, we have perhaps not been successful enough in convincing international marketers of the efficiency of a local approach.
The strategic planner should be able to do much more than that. But how can they plan long-term strategies given the flood of information and non-transparent markets?
Tomczak: That really is the critical point. Of course, planning used to be somewhat easier because environmental developments were more predictable. This will undoubtedly become more difficult in the future. This makes it all the more necessary for me to understand even better how trends can develop. One answer is that we must certainly not deal with this future with rigid concepts, but must build flexibility into our concepts from the outset. What we can do is improve the validity of forecasts and deal with them better. However, the trend is also moving towards shorter planning cycles.
Is it even possible to gain a competitive edge in such timeframes?
von Matt: The art - and for us more and more the daily routine - is to equip a concept so flexibly that it can be adapted to a wide range of trends and requirements.
scenarios quickly. This is a new requirement.
Tomczak: Your question is the central theme of our seminar. During the seminar, we approach these questions from a wide variety of perspectives. I think that a strong brand is the decisive constant in the face of dynamization and increasing complexity. This explains why even in the most typical B-to-B industries, companies are increasingly investing money in building a strong brand. My vision is as follows: The strategic planner is not the true father of a brand, because it belongs to the customer; but he should at least be its good advocate in all matters, and not just a good advertising campaign. He must completely understand the client's business.
The strategic planner should therefore develop the brand from an ambassador to a value creator.
von Matt: The realization that investing in the brand is sustainable has become established. In highly successful companies, the brand has long since arrived in the management ...
... and from there outsourced again to agencies and consultants, although their hype has often contributed to the weakening of brands.
Tomczak: Buying the entire brand management externally is usually a mistake. Successful companies specifically buy in consulting services, especially in communication, where there is a wonderfully well-functioning market.
von Matt: The pilot doesn't have to be able to build his own plane. He has to know where he wants to go and bring the plane safely to the ground. The more he is supported, the more he can concentrate on his work.
Exclusive seminar for advertising strategists1999, the industry association of Swiss advertising and communication agencies (BSW) held its first seminar on strategic planning. The Account Planning Group Switzerland has since been founded. It also aims to offer more comprehensive further training. The two seminar leaders, Cary Steinmann, CEO of TBWA Switzerland, and Joachim Kernstock, Head of the Brand Management Competence Center at the University of St. Gallen, have combined theory and practice and, in addition to distinguished university lecturers, have also been able to engage renowned exponents from the business world for the 12-day course (four three-day blocks). In interactive lectures, teamwork and project work as well as the optional "Best Practice London" block, cases are presented and the latest knowledge in marketing, brand and communication as well as agency and campaign management is imparted and deepened. Information: www.imh.unisg.ch/weiterbildung or contact Petra Eichholzer, phone: 071 227 62 82 (from March 30: 071 224 71 50), e-mail: [email protected] (la)
Luca Aloisi

Lebensmittel Bossard Kommunikation is now responsible for the advertising budget of Pistor AG, and the Lucerne-based agency is realizing an image campaign for the purchasing cooperative of Swiss bakers and confectioners. Pistor has an annual goods output of 67,539 tons. Its customers now also include Swiss confectioners and restaurants.