The Zurich advertising agency Hesskiss is starting the coming year together with Radio 24. It has been commissioned by Tamedia's local radio station with an image campaign. The Zurich advertising agency Hesskiss is starting the coming year together with Radio 24. It has been commissioned by the Tamedia local broadcaster with an image campaign. It can be seen from next spring. With its creative concept, Hesskiss prevailed against three other Zurich agencies. Hesskiss has previously done advertising for competitor Radio Zürisee.

Food "We are faced with another unsolved riddle of the world," is how the famous Swiss bestselling author with his own amusement park would comment on the Carte d'Or ad - and write a handy bestseller to go with it. We, on the other hand, keep it short, although we would hardly describe the behavior of the person depicted as earthly. But since we don't believe in Martians or Mork the Orc and certainly not in table manners, we're guessing at a riddle from the advertising galaxy, the solution to which will probably take just a few lines. One possible explanation could be the following: In fact, in the present case we are dealing with
a well-trained but impatient representative of the cloven-hoofed animals, who is eating a sausaged conspecific. If there were
the spot version, you could hear the grunts of pleasure. But back to the motif: if you ignore the stunning facial expressions of the
table neighbors, one may further interpret that this household had run out of ketchup and mayonnaise and that the small catastrophe with
the delicious ice cream from the freezer. An idea worthy of imitation. After all, you are not only what you eat,
but also how you eat.
(la)

Private Radio II Since the launch of Energy, Radio 24 has been broadcasting even more news - with measurable success, says Andreas Meili, Head of TV and Radio at Tamedia.WW Radio 24 has gained a total of 26,600 listeners (Mon-Fri) in just three months, more than ever before in such a short time. Is the switch from Hitradio Z to Energy Zürich a real stroke of luck for Radio 24? Andreas Meili The new situation is a gain for the entire Zurich radio audience, because they now have a better choice. The repositioning as Energy Zürich has made the difference to Radio 24 much clearer. Listeners can now decide whether they want to tune in to our program, which is positioned higher in terms of editorial content. Or whether they would prefer a radio station that focuses less on editorial content but more on young music.
The enormous audience gain of
Radio 24 has hardly become a reality. What did the Tamedia broadcaster pay particular attention to in the start-up months of Energy Zurich?
We have concentrated more on the editorial skills mentioned above. Compared to before, we had an above-average number of primeurs, and we provided excellent coverage of the National Council and Council of States elections. We continued this at the same quantitative and qualitative level for the Federal Council elections. We have become somewhat trendier in our music program. This means that Radio 24 continues to play songs from the eighties and nineties, but at the same time we are increasingly and more quickly adding new songs to our program. This makes us more attractive to very young listeners.
Do you expect the momentum in the Zurich radio market to continue in the coming months? I hope that the upward trend at Radio 24 will stabilize at the current level - or that it will continue in the coming months.
in the best case scenario. We are on the right track with our program philosophy of positioning radio as an entertainment medium as well as an information medium.
But the matter is not quite over yet. Because after only three
months, Energy Zurich is unlikely to have fully exploited its potential in the Zurich radio market.
We will certainly have to wait and see over the next three months. Nevertheless, I consider the current trend to be very significant. The trend in other countries where Energy broadcasts also shows this: Outside of France and with the exception of Vienna, this radio is not number one anywhere. This is an indication that a station that is well anchored in its coverage area with a correspondingly strong information service can position itself better in the region in question than a station that conforms to an international pattern.
But Energy also emphasizes that a radio program only works if it is completely tailored to the respective audience.
region.
In my opinion, this is only true to a limited extent. What Energy offers in terms of information performance is a bit of narrow-gauge Zurich. The news is kept very short and often focuses on the entertainment sector. The political and social sectors, on the other hand, are not covered enough. Seen in this light, Radio 24 clearly offers the better information service, even from an objective point of view. Nota bene, we also invest more money in the news.
The upheaval in the Zurich radio market will enter the next stage as early as next year, when the new youth radio station will be launched. This means that the established stations will once again have to worry about losing their young listeners.
However, this youth radio station is only planned for the city of Zurich, so its coverage area will be much smaller than that of Radio 24 or Energy, which cover the entire region. For this reason alone, the new radio station will not be able to trigger any major migration from the established stations. In addition, the new youth frequency is geared towards a very young audience segment in the 15 to 25 age range in accordance with the licensing conditions. This means that stations such as 105, Energy Zurich and, above all, Internet radio stations are likely to feel the impact of the new station much more than the more broadly positioned Radio 24.
Interview:
Daniel Schifferle

Research From eye to attention tracking: The "Media Analyzer" takes attention measurement into the Internet age. At the same time, the new method corrects a number of perception myths. Today, more and more advertisers and media makers are finding the cost sensitivity of their customers and bosses to be at least as merciless as the fleeting nature of the consumer gaze. Convincing, innovative and at the same time comprehensible proof of effectiveness and success have therefore long played a key role in the crisis-ridden communications industry. And where demand is growing by leaps and bounds, new providers are naturally springing up like mushrooms. 4C Business Campaigning, for example, recently introduced a
"revolutionary method" for faster and cheaper, because
computer-assisted evaluation of so-called eye tracking studies. In this process, the course and dwell time of the gaze of a (still very limited) number of test subjects are analyzed using the usual apparatus in the
Laboratory measured. The only really new aspect of the development by Zurich-based market research company Management Tools is the targeted use of IT for data collection and processing.
The cursor as an eye extension Compared to this additional tool, which may save money and increase efficiency, but is still rather evolutionary, the invention of two cognitive scientists from Hamburg is in fact a minor revolution. The recent entry of the "Attention Tracking" method in Wolfgang J. Koschnick's industry bible "Focus-Lexikon" is evidence of this. According to this who's who of communication research, the technology "discovered" by Christian Scheier and Steffen Egner three years ago at the California Institute of Technology and refined since then differs from conventional eye cameras primarily in its "benchmark suitability".
In other words: The potentially unlimited number of participants in the online procedure generates sufficient case numbers to uncover and compare the perception patterns of entire target groups. And it works in such a way that test subjects at home, at work or in the laboratory, after two minutes of training, click on those parts of any image on a PC screen that catch their eye. The mouse pointer is thus understood and used as an extended, digitized eye - an immediately obvious analogy.
"The click is a glance, that's the trick," is the sales rhyme for this new Internet-based market research tool. Whether posters, print ads, TV commercials, magazine covers or entire kiosk displays: according to Christian Scheier, the "Media Analyzer", as the product and company is called, can be used to measure any visual communication format. The psychologist with a doctorate specializing in artificial intelligence calls his now patented software "a kind of X-ray machine for that mystery we call attention."
"Awareness controlling"
Like most of his guild, Scheier also assumes that we only have one, indivisible attention, which controls the human eye as well as the hand, heart and brain. And that alone is what counts for advertisers, packaging designers, newspaper makers and other professional eye and attention catchers. Because only what attracts the eye and can hold it for at least 250 milliseconds has any chance of passing through our increasingly impermeable filter of consciousness, leaving (image) traces and possibly even triggering a (buying) reflex. "Our visual system manages a maximum of three such fixations per second, everything in between is blindness," says Scheier. Which is why conventional eye-tracking provides a lot of "junk data" and far less relevant and precise information than its further development "for the communication controlling of the 21st century".
As a result, the eight-person start-up company mainly receives orders from brand owners who, in the face of increasing cost and efficiency pressure, are no longer satisfied with soft values for brand awareness, but demand hard, representative figures. "Actually, all communication designers should have a vested interest in objectifying their creative performance," says Scheier with a flirtatious mixture of idealism and optimism of purpose. In addition to various IT and Internet service providers (including IBM and Yahoo!), he already has two major German publishing houses in his portfolio: Burda and Holtzbrinck. The latter wanted to know whether and how attention management works at its flagship Die Zeit. After all, the match-decisive title pages and spreads are usually a mixture of the gut feelings of art director and editor-in-chief. The following three images provide the answers for the most successful of the nine front pages analyzed.
Perceptual psychologists like to describe the way attention works as a spotlight or flashlight: the cone of light only ever remains on those points that prima vista arouse our interest. The rest is not even ignored. The different ways in which the test results are presented speak a correspondingly clear language. The most suggestive and - for men who are presented with a magazine cover or an advertisement featuring a scantily clad model - the most embarrassing type of illustration is darkening: depending on the pose, tunnel vision involuntarily focuses on breasts or buttocks plus face. Women, for their part, generally hide female nudity and focus on parts of the text instead.
Either way, the recall values for the associated magazine title or perfume brand are negligible in both cases. Effect researchers are well aware of such cannibalization effects, which Christian Scheier is very happy about, as this congruence with the findings of conventional methods confirms the validity of his own method. In the course of his review of old industry laws - such as the fact that overly "sticky" images and headlines distract from the areas relevant to sales - the Zurich native has also debunked some previously unquestioned myths.
For example, that advertisements (like texts) are processed in the direction of reading, i.e. from top left to bottom right. At renowned institutes such as the Miami Ad School, this golden "Z" rule is still the official doctrine today. "However, the reality is different," says Scheier. "Which path the eye takes is completely different and depends solely on the layout and content of the ad or newspaper page." Theoretically, one or the other could be subjected to attention tracking in advance in future. In practice, the trial-and-error principle will probably continue to be followed. Unless the recession, and with it the pressure on communication designers to be efficient and legitimate, mutates from a temporary to a permanent state.
Eye tracking off- and onlineIn the laboratories of Management Tools (www.mgtools.ch) and other market researchers, test subjects are fitted with special glasses that track their eyes.
records eye movements.
This method only works for people who wear glasses or have dark eyes.
limited. The results obtained in this way are also distorted by
head movements and a certain situational self-censorship (for example, many people under observation avoid
standing women any visual contact with nudity).
In attention tracking (www.mediaanalyzer.net), on the other hand, the test subjects sit in front of a computer screen in their familiar environment and only need to be online. According to Scheier, after a two-minute training session reminiscent of the legendary digital grouse hunt, 92 percent of the candidates are fast enough to follow each of their glances with a mouse click. Special software records where and in what sequence this happens and uses this data to calculate collective attention images. (oc)
The arrows mark the attention paths. In this (ideal) case, the eye is first drawn to the central image, from there to the explanatory headline and back to the image, then to the newspaper headline and from there to the advertisement.
The green dots indicate where viewers are focusing their attention, according to the motto "Every glance a click and every click a dot".
The concentration of individual views in the thermal image forms the (red) hot spot. Interest decreases more and more towards the outside.
Oliver Classen

The Zurich-based agency Flowcube Communications is now advising the Similor Group.the Zurich-based agency Flowcube Communications is now advising the Similor Group. The sanitary fittings manufacturer unites the companies Similor Kugler, Arwa and Sanimatic under its holding umbrella. Flowcube was commissioned with public relations work as part of the repositioning of the Similor Kugler and Arwa brands. In addition to brand and product PR, this also includes media relations.

The Lucerne-based baked goods manufacturer Hug will be managed by Jung von Matt/Limmat (JvM) from next year, with the Zurich-based advertising agency announcing that the first creative implementations will be seen at the beginning of 2004 following discussions about the future direction of the brand. According to CEO Dominique von Matt
JvM was awarded the contract on the basis of workshops held as part of an agency evaluation. In the summer of 2003, Jung von Matt's PR unit realized a broad PR campaign in the Swiss public press for the launch of the Free product line.

Education The Media Training Center (MAZ) has been able to increase its endowment capital by over one million Swiss francs. 20 media companies as well as the SRG and the Swiss Press Association (VSP) have made contributions as part of a fundraising campaign, according to a press release. Further companies have pledged their support in the coming years. As the MAZ reported in May, the contributions from the SRG and VSP amounted to CHF 200,000 and CHF 1,800,000 respectively. When it was founded in 1984, the MAZ was endowed with capital of two million francs. Half of this is still available, the other half was used to cover earlier operating losses. The MAZ writes that the remaining capital is too small as a safeguard, as the current annual budget is over four million francs.

Training II Over the next two years, the Ringier School of Journalism will concentrate on internal training and further education and will not offer a course for newcomers; the next course for external applicants is expected to start in January 2006. From January 2004, Ringier will offer a program for its own journalists that includes courses and workshops as well as lectures on social issues. These lectures, entitled "Denkwerkstatt" ("Think Tank"), with prominent speakers from the fields of media, politics, business and culture, will be supervised by St. Gallen University professor (and Werbewoche columnist) Peter Glotz.

Samuel Helbling on the meaning and purpose of creative rankingsFor the fifth time, Werbewoche has published its ranking of the ten most creative Swiss advertising agencies (WW 43) - this time, too, not without some critical reactions. At the heart of the current hit parade is the ADC Switzerland awards ceremony. This has less to do with navel-gazing than with the fact that this is the only event at which practically all well-known Swiss campaigns compete against each other. For the ranking, the awards
of the most important creative competitions according to a differentiated
points system.
The fact that large agencies or networks can take part in international competitions more often than small agencies thanks to larger in-house advertising budgets cannot be dismissed. However, anyone who - like Andreas Prokesch in the guest commentary - also wants to bring headcount into play and break the whole thing down to awards per employee is ignoring reality: agency brands are relevant for clients - and that is what it is primarily about.
For them, creative and efficiency prices are the currency in which the core competence of an agency is measured. These determine its market value.
How many people have worked on a campaign or are involved in a
agency, on the other hand, is of no interest to the client. Whether a work is even submitted to different festivals does not matter to him. Because each jury is different and sets its own accents. Nor does it matter whether the client has a large budget or a modest one. A creative agency worthy of the name will do its best in both cases. Commercial communication is
a single dance around the golden calf of attention. And also for
advertisers, there is no beyond the media society. An advertising agency is nothing more than an attention bank, which creates the
The key to success is to convert invested money into attention and back into more money. The royal road to success leads via the level of awareness, for example by means of rankings. Only those who master the rules of the media society can be top of mind. And this is especially true for advertising agencies. Anyone who doesn't want to understand this should continue
advertise.
> Samuel Helbling, Editor-in-Chief

Politics The night before the Federal Council elections is a special one - the night of the long knives, the night that is the subject of various stab-in-the-back legends and the night when parliamentarians meet for their final strategy meetings in Bern's pubs. For example in the "Lorenzini". Reason enough for the pub team to take out a full-page advertisement in the Bund to draw attention to the fact that many a Federal Council election has been decided in their pub. The advertisement, designed by the Bern agency Contexta and published the day before the election, plays tongue-in-cheek with the concept of the night of the long knives.

Guest commentary The selection of the most creative agencies was arbitrary, criticizes Andreas Prokesch.
I am once again attempting to make myself unpopular. But first of all, kisses, kisses and congratulations, dear Fredy, dear Jean Etienne, dear Markus, dear Gilbert, dear Nick: Publicis (including Fisch Meier Direkt) is no longer the second most creative agency in the country, but the most creative. I also hug you, dear Danielle, dear Markus, after all Ruf Lanz has jumped from sixth to second place. And of course you also deserve praise and recognition, dear Edgar, dear André, dear Stefan, dear Dieter: Although Advico Young & Rubicam (incl. Exxtra) no longer garnished the gold medal this year, it still took bronze, and having just taken a Feldschlösschen out of the fridge to toast the good old Stewi-Libelle, I would have liked to toast you too, dear Martin and dear Peter. But Werbewoche's creative hit list only includes the top ten agencies in Switzerland. Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett is not one of them. As a consolation, neither is Guye Benker. And neither does Hesskiss.
How is that possible? It's simple: because Werbewoche did the math - and took all (im)possible factors into account. For example, Cannes and Clio each count as a factor of 6, while Silver in Cannes counts as a factor of 3. This results in 18 points for the Silver Lion, which Euro RSCG Switzerland won in the Direct Marketing competition. But it could just as easily be more points. Or fewer. Depending on the premise.
Other factors, on the other hand, are not taken into account, although they are anything but subjective and would therefore be all the more relevant. The number of employees, for example, plays no role. Wyler Werbung consists of Ruedi Wyler, Ruedi Wyler and Ruedi Wyler (plus a cleaning lady with a 20 percent workload), while Gross-Publicis now has more than a hundred employees. This means that the 708 points achieved by Publicis would have to be divided by at least 100. Wyler Werbung's 79 points, on the other hand, would have to be divided by 1.2, which would catapult the reigning Advertiser of the Year from 10th to 1st place.
The fact that the same work was submitted again and again and won something for it again and again is also not taken into account. Or whether different works were involved in different competitions. And in general: how many works you submitted in total and how often you were successful with them - or not.
It also doesn't matter what you win an award for. Whether for a commercial or a mailing, for a placemat or an integral campaign, for a fart for the Italian around the corner or the repositioning of a global corporation: everything is lumped together.
Well, what can you say? The best thing is probably this: Dear Werbewoche, be so good as to spare us this ranking in future. You still have the "Advertiser of the Year" as a marketing and PR tool.
> Andreas Prokesch is Chairman of the Board of the Art Directors Club
Switzerland.

Private radio I Advertisers are rubbing their hands: Energy Zürich has driven the audience to the private stations. Just three months after the launch of Energy Zürich, a small miracle has already taken place. The intruder DRS 3, which in previous years had constantly attracted more audience in the greater Zurich area at the expense of the private stations, has been thwarted. In the first half of 2003, the fee-financed station was still rapidly overtaking Radio 24. Now, after a loss of 11,000 listeners, the top position has gone back to the Tamedia station. This pleases advertisers, as it is in their interest for audiences to listen to stations that also reach them with advertising, but it is painful that it is precisely the station that has triggered the massive loss of listeners that is itself lagging behind in terms of audience expansion (see box). "A station that completely repositions itself must initially expect people to leave," explains Jürg Bachmann, Managing Director of Energy Zurich. "This is because many listeners leave quickly during a rebranding, but it takes much longer to gain an additional audience." However, Goldbach Media is completely satisfied, especially in view of the dwindling listener figures before the relaunch. "We have overcome the trough into which Hitradio Z had fallen - and have even gained a younger audience. That shows me that we are on the right track," explains IPM boss Michi Frank.
Open your ears for the oldies
However, in contrast to the announcement before the launch, Energy Zurich has redefined its target groups. Instead of focusing only on 15 to 34-year-olds, the station now wants to cover the entire spectrum between the ages of 15 and 49. "However, this redefinition is not in contrast to the original one," explains Bachmann. "If you want to include 15 to 49-year-olds in your audience, you first have to reach the 15 to 34 age group." Apart from that, the Zurich market is simply too small to attract a sufficient audience in this young target group, the Energy boss calculates. "We have a potential of around 1.1 million listeners in the greater Zurich area, but a good forty percent of these are over 50. This means that even for the 15 to 49 age segment, there is only a potential of around 700,000 people."
The media agencies, which are primarily looking for reinforcement among the very young target groups, are still unenthusiastic about the development three months after the launch of Energy Zurich. "You shouldn't overestimate the result, every new positioning needs time to establish itself," comments Axel Beckmann, Managing Director of Mediacom. And for Urs Rueb, Managing Director of Mediaedge|CIA, Energy Zurich has only "made a positive start". In terms of figures, however, the trend still needs to be confirmed in the medium term. Satisfaction is already being expressed in view of the marked loss of listeners to DRS 3. "We are happy for every listener who tunes in to private radio, because that's the only way to reach them with advertising," explains Beckmann.
For Energy Zurich, it is now a matter of fine-tuning the details. "For example with the news, where we will strengthen the reference to Zurich," explains station manager Bachmann. A large-scale listener market study is also planned for January or February, which will provide the basis for further fine-tuning. He is optimistic about the future: "The station is in the development phase - we will find even more new listeners."
Energy is more maleThe successor to Hitradio Z increased its audience by 9,000 listeners to 166,000 (net reach, 15+, Mon-Fri) in the period from August 15 to November 13. As expected, Energy Zürich achieved the greatest growth among the very young target groups. The number of 15- to 24-year-old listeners rose by 4,000 to 16,000, while the number of 25- to 34-year-olds increased by 2,000 to 23,000. 35- to 49-year-olds also experienced a slight increase to 33,000 (+1,000). Only the over-50s felt that the new program was no longer as popular
addressed. They decreased by 8,000 to 27,000.
There was also a shift in gender: While the ratio between male and female listeners at Hitradio Z was still
the male audience at Energy Zurich is now clearly in the majority.
The fact that all other private radio stations in the greater Zurich area benefited significantly more from the upswing is a bit of a downer for Energy. Radio 24 saw by far the biggest increase, gaining 26,600 listeners (15+, Mon-Fri). The second biggest winner is Radio Zürisee with 10,200 additional listeners. But Radio Top also gained 7500 listeners in Zurich. And even the small Radio Tropic is on the upswing with an increase of 900 listeners
sailed along. (dse)
Daniel Schifferle