René Gehrig, initiator and publisher of "Cracks for Kids", believes in his independence and the advertising market.WW Mr. Gehrig, officially Ringier is only your logistical partner. How far does the influence of Switzerland's largest publishing house really extend?René Gehrig Not a millimeter beyond technology. Ringier has an industry-standard contractual relationship with us and provides us with an integral print and service solution. A small newcomer like us simply doesn't have the necessary infrastructure. The fact that CfK is published in cash format made this choice of partner easier.
You could also imagine a children's newspaper in a trendy tabloid.
Not if, like us, you want to produce a critical and competent quality newspaper. The only thing we have in common with 20 Minuten is that our name says it all. Above all, we want to offer young people a real newspaper feel. As I was able to observe with my nine-year-old son, the Cash intermediate size is ideal for this because it roughly corresponds to the span of children's arms.
Are sensitive topics such as child labor or brand addiction addressed in "CfK"?
treated? After all, potential advertisers such as
Nike will come off badly.
If such a story comes across as well-founded, then I would have no problem with it. Journalistic independence is our top priority, but this is directly followed by the preparation and presentation of topics in a way that is suitable for children...
...for an extremely heterogeneous target group. After all, 9- and 13-year-olds have very different interests and reading skills.
This plays a decisive role in the choice of topic and design. We will choose the language style and font size so that a 9-year-old can easily read us, but a 13-year-old is not underchallenged or has the feeling of standing in front of a poster. Comics will have an integrative function here.
Do you offer introductory discounts to advertisers?
We will only do this indirectly: our initial print run will be around 25 percent higher than the 50 to 60,000 copies we are aiming for in the medium term, but will cost the same at CHF 9,900 per page.
Your long-term partners will probably support the launch with PoS measures.
That's right. In January, we will be distributing CfK on Saturdays in front of the major MediaMarkt stores. In addition, during the introductory phase - i.e. in the Christmas business - the relevant DVDs and CDs will be provided with information stickers. These will read "CfK - Your Sunday newspaper at newsstands from January":
Oliver Classen

The web agency Mitlinks is redesigning the website of the Department of Film Studies at the University of Zurich. The Institute for Body-Centered Psychotherapy (IKP) is also having its website redesigned and an extranet created for students. The web agency also received a mandate from Puressence Würsten AG to create an e-shop for them at Aromaworld.ch.

The Federal Office of Culture (BAK) is organizing the competition "The most beautiful Swiss books". Book designers, publishers and printers can register their products until January 10, 2004 and at least one of the three partners must be active in Switzerland. All books published this year are eligible for the competition. The winning titles will receive a certificate and will be exhibited at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich and the Musée de design et d'arts appliqués in Lausanne. Entry forms are available at www.bak.admin.ch.

Fundraising Caritas Switzerland's new campaign turns the fate of the poor around. The media consumer is fed wars, conflicts and disasters ad nauseam. What is the individual supposed to do about all this misery? Too much negative information creates a breeding ground for resignation. This was the premise of Caritas Switzerland's new fundraising campaign to encourage the public to take active action - despite all the feelings of powerlessness that are trying to arise in the face of misery. Caritas encourages media consumers to turn the negative into the positive, quite literally.
The aid organization has been using the services of the agency Grendene Ogilvy&Mather for three years now. Their new TV commercial begins with a scene of misery that is shown upside down. The accompanying message is: "Please turn around!". Irritated, the viewer follows a nine-year-old girl who collects plastic bottles at a garbage dump in Rio de Janeiro to earn a living.
Only then does the picture turn, and the resolution follows the new setting: by joining the local Caritas care and education program, the child is one of 1,000 to receive food, shelter, training and work. The first goal has been achieved. The orphaned child has been taken off the streets. Through care and manual work, Caritas helps to give the child a perspective for the future.
The 30-second spot can be seen on SF DRS from November. Reto Salimbeni filmed it at the beginning of October in the favelas of the Brazilian city. The camera was operated by documentary filmmaker Felix Karrer. Spinas Gemperle is responsible for direct marketing for the payment slips that are just as important for the commercial.
Documentary filmmaker Karrer turns the Caritas commercial on its head to arouse compassion through irritation.
Andreas Panzeri

Bank marketing Luzerner Kantonalbank is positioning its private banking business as a nearby service provider with globally focused products. Not that Luzerner Kantonalbank (LUKB) has suffered from the recession. Thanks to successful cost management and a well-considered risk strategy, LUKB has proven to be resilient. This is reflected in the share price, the increase in total assets and the ratings from the rating agencies.Compared to the Retail and Corporate Clients divisions, Private Banking (PB) performed less well (-22.7%) as a result of the lower sales volume and share price losses. However, instead of just aiming for stabilization, the turnaround plan also seems to have focused on a growth strategy. This is because LUKB has kept the autonomous PB communications budget constant for the area introduced in 1999.
No risk of dilution
However, the range of media has expanded. While Ottiger & Partner was initially appointed as the agency for below-the-line measures, the Lucerne agency is now also responsible for the image campaign. In terms of imagery and claim, the campaign differs from the LUKB umbrella image, but "we are not afraid of dilution because we are clearly committed to the parent bank," explains Sacha Johann, LUKB marketing manager. With this targeted approach, the bank is consciously walking a tightrope between traditional customers and potential investors.
The increasing number of institutions that manage this customer sector makes the independent campaign plausible. The campaign and the similar claim were not intended as a reaction to the ZKB offensive. Rather, the aim is to strengthen trust in the Lucerne economic area, but also in other German-speaking countries and in Ticino, and to expand the bank's own market share.
Because values such as security and expertise offer little scope for differentiation, the decision was made to focus on customer proximity. "Here too, the creative team avoided well-trodden paths and developed a concept based on the idea of 'why wander far afield'," says René Amstutz, consulting group leader at Ottiger & Partner. Unusual views of Lucerne are shown, which at a cursory glance are reminiscent of well-known landscapes or sights from all over the world. With self-deprecating headlines, LUKB not only creates image capital from the tourist region of Central Switzerland, but also builds a bridge to attributes that are usually attributed primarily to the big banks.
Ottiger & Partner plays coquettishly for LUKB with the image of tourism that Lucerne likes to convey.
Bank marketing Ottiger & Partner enchants the obvious with poetic irony for LUKB Private Banking.
Luca Aloisi

Advertising bans I The National Council should seriously examine a ban on tobacco advertising based on the European model.advertising bans I The National Council should seriously examine a ban on tobacco advertising based on the European model. Its Committee for Social Security and Health (SGK) requested that it follow an individual initiative by 11 votes to 7 with 2 abstentions. Christian Grobet (SP) had submitted it because various initiatives to protect young people had not been successful with the Federal Council.

Women's magazines Ringier merges Edelweiss into Bolero In February 2003, Ringier entered the women's magazine market in German-speaking Switzerland with Edelweiss, and now the title is being merged away: It will be absorbed into Bolero, which Ringier acquired 100 percent retroactively as of July 1, 2003. "Ringier intends to expand its position in the fashion and lifestyle segment by merging the two products under the Bolero luxury magazine brand," the communiqué states. The last Edelweiss issue will be published at the end of November (December issue), followed at the end of January 2004 by the merged Bolero issue with a slightly increased circulation. This is because Edelweiss previously had a circulation of "around 10,000 to 20,000 copies, including trial subscriptions", explains Johannes Hummel, Deputy Head of Ringier Magazines German-speaking Switzerland. The media company is taking over the entire Bolero crew, but is making Edelweiss redundant. All Bolero activities will continue. Bolero and Edelweiss in French-speaking Switzerland will work together editorially and in publishing; details are still being discussed. (mk)

Rates 20 Minuten raises its rates and lowers the CPM. The 36.9 percent increase in reach of the commuter newspaper comes at a price: advertisements in 20 Minuten will be 18.5 percent more expensive nationally and will now cost CHF 28,600 (gross unit rate for a full page). This also improves the price-performance ratio, as the new CPM is 39.75 francs, says publishing director Rolf Bollmann. The rates for the regional editions will also increase, but in different ways: the rate for the Bern edition will rise by 34.7 percent to CHF 9,200, the rate for Basel will now be CHF 8,000 (+27.5 percent) and the Zurich edition will increase by 24.9 percent to CHF 1,3800. In addition, 20 Minuten is responding to a demand from Swiss advertisers and creating a uniform millimeter rate for jobs and other sections. This is now CHF 8 nationally, CHF 4 for Zurich, CHF 2.5 for Bern and CHF 2.15 for Basel. Incidentally, the Zurich edition generates 56 percent of all 20-minute readers, the Bern edition 27 percent and the Basel edition reaches 17 percent of all commuter readers. (mk)

The Basel-based chemical group Novartis intends to bundle its generics business under the name Sandoz in future. According to press reports, Ogilvy Healthcare won the account for the relaunch of the brand in Germany against Euro RSCG Life and Publicis Vital. A campaign focusing on specialist advertising will be launched at the beginning of 2004. Sandoz replaces the Azupharma brand in Germany; in Switzerland, Schönenberger Pharma is part of the new Sandoz.

Half of employees at Swiss media agencies got their jobs through referrals from friends and acquaintances.half of employees at Swiss media agencies got their jobs through referrals from friends and acquaintances. Only 65 percent have media-specific training
and hardly benefited from it: In a study by Media Trend Journal, 88% said that their specialist knowledge had increased as a result. However, more than 60 percent said that the training had not paid off in terms of entry into the industry, salary or career progression. You can read more about the results of the study in the
November issue of the Media Trend Journal. Single issues can be
can be ordered directly at www.mtj.ch.

Column Unlike Moritz Leuenberger, Christoph Blocher doesn't want or need Bea Tschanz. Instead of PR consultants, he relies solely on his instinct for issues. However, the people's tribune's greatest trump card is his authenticity - is this still Switzerland? The country is literally vibrating - because of politics! On the scene: three driven people and a sly driver. And he chases the whole pack laughing through the village, exactly in the direction that suits him. Anyone who ever needs a course in agenda setting: The ideal lecturer would be Christoph Blocher. Or would he? He probably wouldn't even be able to explain why he does everything right and how the other party members regularly fall into his communication trap. The man is simply incredibly instinctive. Whether you like him and his ideas or not, you can always learn from him, but instead you insult him. No other politician has been so fiercely attacked by the media in recent years. Apart from fornication with children, they have accused Blocher of everything: Wage dumping, arms dealing, stock market speculation, neo-Nazi involvement... All howlers of air, in some cases even slander, worse than the Borer story. And how did he react? Did he take legal action? Did he at least call in advisors? Nothing of the sort. His tribunal is the public, and he contemptuously regards PR people as "façade cleaners" anyway.
You can learn, for example, that politics is nothing more than public relations work in and - above all - for itself. The fact that a politician who needs spin doctors, whisperers, hand-wringers and body-painters is no good, because sensing and (re)setting issues would actually be his genuine job, is something that a caliber like Blocher only lets his competitors feel in passing, but all the more clearly.
Switzerland's most hated politician, however, is more accessible than ever. Recently, he has even been talking to Ringier newspapers, which have been fighting him for years by stable order. Because he knows that the more willing he is to serve them, the cheaper they get his business. Blocher is an entrepreneur; from the headwind blowing in his face, he uses the reverse thrust as his own energy, so to speak.
You may or may not like him, but he shows that an authentic type is well received by the majority of the public, regardless of media influence. Other politicians also benefit from this effect: 30 years ago it was James Schwarzenbach, today it is personalities such as Kaspar Villiger, Peter Bodenmann, Ernst Mühlemann and sometimes Franz Steinegger. That's why Moritz Leuenberger now needs Bea Tschanz to finally tell him what's going on in his home market of Zurich when it comes to aircraft noise.
Politicians have always made use of the media. In the 19th century, when most of our newspapers were founded, they served as platforms and loudspeakers for the parties behind them. A lot has happened to Switzerland since then: education, mass tourism, urbanization, authority crisis, women's emancipation, consumer explosion, informatization, acceleration and global simultaneity. Today's citizens no longer need the media as pulpits or as cathedrals, but rather as search engines, as stages, at best as a mirror of the times. Smart politicians realize this. Meanwhile, the others are trying to make the media, which are no longer so easy to control, compliant with constitutional articles, the carrot-and-stick strategy of the RTVA, with treacherous press subsidies and at the same time with the club of Jacobin advertising bans.
This will probably all fail. Because the media image of the 19th century is no longer much use in the 21st century. Blocher knows that. The others still have to learn it. Whether from him or in spite of him doesn't really matter.
PS: If he conducted political business as well as he has been maneuvering the public for the past two weeks, he would make an excellent Federal Councillor!
Karl Lüönd on Christoph Blocher's sure media instinctHas Helvetia firmly under control and is a sly driver: not-yet-Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher.
> Karl Lüönd is a journalist, author and head of the Media Institute of the Swiss Press Association.

Erectile dysfunction Every man has obviously imagined this in his wildest fantasies: A bulging balloon takes off and the woman rips the tie off his shirt. His coat has long been overboard. Finally, she takes off her high heels. They too fly out of the basket in a high arc before the couple plummet to the ground. And again and again, the burner flickers a fiery flame into the balloon envelope. "Not everyone can be so carefree," says the sobering ad for the homepage www.erektionsprobleme.ch. In most cases, they are physically caused, the (bumpy) text continues. The idea behind this ad also seems a little impotent. Bayer and Glaxo Smith Kline promise help here, the website visitor learns. It also states that 152 million
men are affected. How many of them will resort to flamethrowers in the future for their flights of fancy remains a mystery.
(pan)