Automobil Revue has had a new look since the beginning of October. In addition, the weekly title has been given a fifth section for used car advertisements.publishers The four main sections News, Test & Technology, Economy & Politics and Sport will no longer contain classified advertisements in future. The new layout allows for more generous articles and photo spreads. The changes have also been introduced in the French-language sister publication Revue Automobile.

The Basel advertising agency Flavian Kurth ASW was commissioned by the Basel Air Hygiene Office to develop an awareness campaign. It won through in a competitive presentation. The campaign will be implemented in January and includes direct marketing measures as well as brochures and PR material.

The Kuoni travel group has awarded its entire communications budget for 2004 to Fisch Meier Direkt. The Adliswil-based dialog agency prevailed against three competitors, with Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett as the budget holder. An image campaign is to be launched in the first half of 2004. Agency head Gilbert Fisch did not want to reveal any further details.

Messe Schweiz has commissioned Source with the communication of the new Swiss motorcycle and scooter trade fair Swiss-Moto. The Zurich-based design agency came out on top in a competitive presentation. The mandate includes the conception of the brand identity and the implementation of all communication media. Swiss-Moto will take place from February 19 to 22, 2004 at the Zurich Exhibition Center.

Below-the-line What does freeriding have to do with a bare backside? "A lot," say the creatives at Fruitcake's Lucerne agency branch, who are convinced that sprinkling a little powder on the pink cheeks will make the viewer long for snow-covered hills. With the cards-for-free motif for winter sports equipment supplier Rossignol, Fruitcake joins Advico Young & Rubicam for Hakle and Blue Spirit for Sloggi in the guild of butt advertisers. In Lucerne, however, there was no subsequent work on unsightly fat pads or cellulite marks. After all, the bottom photographed by Thomas Zimmermann - in keeping with the slogan "Born to be a Freerider" - had only spent a few months in diapers. Whether the baby's bottom will really be recognized as such and thus build a bridge to the headline is doubtful. Who still believes in so much authenticity in advertising today?

Publishers Tamedia is shrinking its overheads, streamlining its management and divesting shareholdings.
The Zurich-based media group Tamedia is restructuring and heralding a new round of savings. It will affect the "Central Services" division, where around 55 jobs will be cut. The aim is to save CHF 23 million compared to 2002. The structure will thus be adapted to the current capacity utilization, Tamedia announced. At the same time, the "medium-term expected earnings situation of the media industry and Tamedia's strategy" have been taken into account, which is to concentrate on newspapers, magazines and electronic media. Tamedia is divesting strategically unimportant holdings (see box). The Investments division, previously managed by CEO Martin Kall, will be dissolved. The minority stake in Berner Zeitung and Express Zeitung AG, through which Tamedia intends to acquire a stake in 20 Minuten, will be transferred to the Finance division. The film production company Condor will in future belong to the electronic media, Werd Verlag and Finanz und Wirtschaft (FuW) to the newspapers. The management of the newspaper division will be divided between Kall and the previous head Jürg Brauchli. Kall will take over the Tages-Anzeiger (TA) including the magazine as well as Werd Verlag and FuW.
The Magazines division now consists of central units for the reader and advertising market. The publishing managers are no longer needed. The readers' market will be managed by the previous head of Facts, Sari Simola, while Alexander Theobald will take over the advertising market. Caroline Thoma and Roland Wahrenberger, publishing directors of Annabelle and Schweizer Familie, are leaving Tamedia. Head of Human Resources
Peter Höhener is stepping down at the end of the year for personal reasons. In future, Group spokesperson Franziska Hügli will be responsible for personnel management.
The reorganization at Tamedia is not yet complete. The purchase of new newspaper printing presses will result in the loss of around 50 further jobs by the end of 2005. This year, the analyses on the future orientation of TA are to be completed. For the further development of the news magazine Facts, the dice will already be cast in the fall.
tamedia:What is still for sale Tamedia has already sold its stake in the publishing distributor BD Bücherdienst AG (72%) to the co-owner Stuttgarter Verlagskontor and Diogenes Verlag, which founded the company in 1985. Tamedia has concluded a multi-year contract with BD for the books of Werd Verlag. The liquidation of the Regor lettershop in Rorbas has not yet been completed. It is to be sold to an as yet unnamed interested party. A letter of intent has already been signed. At the
Waser Druck AG, the Zurich media company joins forces with Meier+Cie. Tamedia and the publisher of Schaffhauser Nachrichten bring their sheet-fed printing plants into the joint Meier Waser Druck AG in Feuerthalen. The Waser site in Buchs will be closed. The Competition Commission still has to approve this transaction.
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Stefano Monachesi

Posters The chocolate brand Frigor is becoming the postillon d'amour and is providing some not-so-cheap advertising space: "Proclaim your passion on posters. "For months, linguistically witty, sensual or dreamy proofs of love will adorn billboards throughout Switzerland. The most original messages, judged by a jury, will be displayed for a week in the regions chosen by the winners. Anyone can take part. Entry cards are available in the Frigor multipack and on the website www.frigor-passion.ch, where you can also send "passionate e-cards", according to Nestlé Marketing Manager Olivier Bailly. The campaign is being launched this week in 14 cities, was designed by Hermès Communications, Geneva, and has only one drawback: what if your loved one lives abroad?

Bank marketing Raiffeisenbank is targeting the needs of urban customers with a new campaign. To this end, it is using TV and cinema spots realized by Pucci Sulzer.Swiss people are polygamous - when it comes to their banks. On average, every Swiss person has 1.7 banking relationships. In recent years, more and more Swiss people have entered into a partnership with Raiffeisenbank. "In large part thanks to our services and our credibility," says Thomas Gmünder, Head of Advertising at the Swiss Association of Raiffeisen Banks (SVRB). On the other hand, the competitors "certainly didn't prevent this trend", adds Gmünder mischievously. The customer base of the Raiffeisen banks grew by a whopping 35 percent between 1998 and 2002. Even more impressive is the increase in the number of members over the past four years: up 44 percent. Around 1.1 million Swiss are now also co-owners of one of the approximately 480 independently and cooperatively organized financial institutions. As a result, the balance sheet total of the banking association has increased by almost 40 percent (see box).
High sympathy ratings
Image studies also paint a positive picture of the Raiffeisen banks. For example, Reader's Digest's consumer study "European Trusted Brands" named Raiffeisen the most trustworthy financial institution among domestic brands - far ahead of the cantonal banks and the financial groups UBS and CS Group.
It is equally unsurprising that small banks have the highest recommendation rate in the sector. No other bank benefited as much as the Raiffeisen Group from the loss of trust and customers among the big banks, i.e. from the counter-trend towards globalization. Gmünder attributes this effect to the institution's strong and good brand, which, in contrast to the heterogeneous local and cantonal banks, has a uniform, recognizable profile and has done so for years. "Of course, images and statements are adapted to the spirit of the times and modernized," admits the advertising manager. "But the basic idea of what the brand stands for remains."
History as a brand bonus
Raiffeisen's USP, customer proximity, is not only guaranteed by its nationwide network of bank branches. It gains its credibility through the traditional, down-to-earth social position that the financial institution has always held, especially in rural areas. The great brand advantage of the solid, conservative bank is primarily due to the history of the institution and the high moral standards of its founder Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. The fact that the rustic image still persists today is partly due to the fact that the Raiffeisen Group only had a uniform advertising presence developed throughout Switzerland at the beginning of the 1990s. And it was to take another few years before the Group ventured into the medium of TV with the launch of the "Wir machen den Weg frei" campaign in 1998.
However, the successful expansion into urban areas has broadened the range of needs of Raiffeisen customers. In addition to the previous core competence in savings and mortgages, which was also at the forefront of communications, the more advice-intensive investment and pension areas have been added. And it was precisely in these areas that the communication managers identified a shortcoming. This image problem now needed to be addressed, especially with potential new customers and members.
Reliable partner
In collaboration with those responsible for communication at the SVRB, the Zurich agency Pucci Sulzer developed a strategy and concept to further develop the brand promise, which has been successful since 1998, in order to anchor Raiffeisen in the target group as a financial company with a strong advisory service for retail customers. "We not only show, as before, that Raiffeisenbank clears the way, but also how it does this in an emotional way," says CD Däni Sulzer. "Namely as a reliable partner that stands by you at all stages of your life and helps you when it comes to money matters," adds Gmünder.
The creative team used this concept to create one cinema and three TV commercials in which short episodes from the lives of fat friends Tim and Marc symbolize the personal relationship that Raiffeisen banks maintain with their customers. "With the commercials by Icelandic director Agust Baldursson and the accompanying advertisements and posters, we want to focus on customer proximity and position Raiffeisen as a partner for complex financial matters such as home financing, investments and pensions," explains advisor Frank Mitteldorf. The new image also gives an idea of the path the regional banking group is about to take: from an almost unchecked rise to consolidation.
Raiffeisen is the third largest Swiss bankWith 1,300 branches, Raiffeisen banks are represented throughout the country. According to the bank, it is not just geographical proximity, but "pronounced customer proximity" that means that around two million Swiss residents are customers of a Raiffeisen bank. Over 1.1 million people can also consider themselves co-owners of one of the 480 Raiffeisen banks as cooperative members. On June 30, the association of all these institutions had total assets of 93.3 billion Swiss francs and managed 72.4 billion Swiss francs in customer assets, putting it in third place in the Swiss banking market. In the traditional customer deposits segment (savings deposits, medium-term notes), the cooperative banks hold a market share of 17 percent. Almost every fourth mortgage loan in Switzerland originates from a Raiffeisen bank, resulting in a mortgage total of 71.2 billion Swiss francs and corresponding to a 13 percent share of the Swiss mortgage market volume. (la)
Raiffeisen banks and their customers are like good friends and stick together for a lifetime.
Luca Aloisi

At the beginning of October, Annette Truniger and Georg Twerenbold founded the event agency T'NT Events with offices in Zurich's Westend. They previously worked for the marketing agency Wunderman as project manager and unit director for events. T'NT's services include corporate and public events, incentives, sponsoring and promotions. The young agency has already won a pitch against three competitors and is now in charge of the promotional budget for the herbal digestif Fernet-Branca (Campari Switzerland). From mid-October, Fernet-Branca will be on the road in German-speaking Switzerland with a three-month promotion.

German press In addition to political and economic panaceas to combat the newspaper depression, this year's Publishers' Congress also featured innovative editorial thinking. And this came from an advertiser of all people.
We have no chance, but we are using it all the more resolutely and efficiently: The paradox of the 49th annual meeting of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) was not only its "subdued mood of optimism" (Springer boss Matthias Döpfner). Many of the analyses and concerns exchanged by the 600 or so participants at the capital city meeting, most of whom came from the media provinces, were also contradictory. "We are not consensus fetishists," BDZV President Helmut Heinen made clear right at the start. And provided Gerhard Schröder, who rushed here on foot from the nearby Chancellery to encourage the publishers, with an unintentional steep template. The German head of government spoke out in favor of a revision of the 1976 press merger law, which was "long outdated by market reality". However, Schröder failed to provide the binding time commitment that the major publishers in particular had hoped for (see WochenInterview page 29). The reason for this was that the parties concerned would first have to agree on a common position.
The industry representatives also disagreed on the question of whether and, if so, how the industry cash cow "classified ad" should be integrated into
can be kept in their paper stable, the newspapers. While Heinen considers the ongoing shrinkage of the car, real estate and job markets to be "largely cyclical and quite reversible", star advertiser Sebastian Turner sees the small commercial cattle as nothing more than "uncreative ballast" that sustainable newspapers will have to discard anyway. Friedhelm Haak, on the other hand, does not welcome the trend towards migration to the Internet, but believes it is unstoppable. For the CEO of the Hanover-based Madsack Group, newspapers that continue to simply rent out millimeters instead of upgrading online are "in principle no longer competitive today".
Digital workflow magic formula
According to Haak, consistent digital workflows in advertising and subscription management not only enable medium-sized publishers to stand up to classified advertising giants such as eBay, but also to reduce their personnel costs from an average of almost 50 percent to a "reasonable 30 percent". Madsack, for example, has been able to halve its workforce since the start of the changeover ten years ago and - despite high initial investments and the current advertising recession - is now back in the black. "After all, there have long been a few robots on the assembly lines of car factories instead of hundreds of craftsmen," he said, explaining the role model function of those industries that have already undergone structural change.
Like the (association) political ones, such entrepreneurial patent remedies also met with a divided response and - as is usual with self-presentations - largely fizzled out without effect. No wonder, since the audience included newspaper group managers alongside local publishers and advertising managers alongside editors-in-chief. Sebastian Turner's answer to the panel question "Do we have to reinvent the number one advertising medium?" made the latter in particular sit up and take notice. The CEO of Scholz & Friends did not call for sexy special forms of advertising as expected, but for editorial reforms. The most important: In order to stand out more clearly from the online journalism search engine, the newspaper must be understood and designed even more as a "search engine".
"In the German cultural sphere, it has so far been criminally ignored that readers are usually already partially informed by 'Tagesschau' or radio before they pick up their favorite newspaper," says the advertiser. Which is why even good articles often contain "30 to 60 percent redundancy, i.e. boredom", which could be elegantly eliminated through content management. The current ADC President used the English-language Montréal Gazette as an example. Wherever possible, its articles are divided into the three consecutive categories "background", "news" and "outlook". Turner denies that such radical reader guidance inevitably results in agency-like snack journalism. "It finally gives us direct access to the fillet pieces of your products."
Called for a joint publishing position: Gerhard Schröder.
Oliver Classen

Michel Rutschmann, previously Head of Sales, Marketing and PR at Daewoo Switzerland, is to become the company's new Managing Director. He succeeds Bock Yong Choi, who is moving to the French branch of the American-Korean car manufacturer. ...
Sandro Giovanoli joins the Zurich advertising agency Advertising Art & Ideas as Creative Director (CD) Text. He has worked as a copywriter at Bolt, Publicis, Bosch & Butz and Euro RSCG as well as Creative Group
Head at Lintas Zurich and CD Text at the dialog agency Fisch Meier Direkt.
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The Zurich advertising agency TBWA is strengthening its team with Cary Steinmann. As the agency's new Chief Strategist, he joins the TBWA management team. In April, he left Wirz Werbung, where he was also responsible for strategic planning as Planning Director.
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Andrea Hemmi is to become the new Head of Communications at the Swiss travel group Kuoni. She replaces Stephan Wehrle, who is leaving the company at his own request at the end of October after 15 months with the company.
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Unisono has strengthened its team with Vera Matta. She has been working in project management and event management since the beginning of October. Nathalie Moral is also new at Unisono. She is responsible for the secretariat and administration.
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Markus Will took over as of October 1
has taken over the management of the newly created Ringier Magazine Readership Department for German-speaking Switzerland. He was previously Head of the Customer Contact Center and will continue in this role until the election of
of a successor.
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The Keystone photo agency is parting ways with its editor-in-chief
Andreas J. Minor. His duties will be taken over by chief photographer Alessandro della Valle with immediate effect. The management has decided to merge the positions of Chief Photographer and Editor-in-Chief and rename them Chief of Service.

Mobile phone market The more cell phones with color displays are in circulation, the greater the appeal of mobile erotic services. The most popular mobile erotic service in the world, Wapsexy .com, which sells hot pictures and videos on cell phones, is recording monthly growth rates of over 30 percent in page views via cell phone. Another trend: erotic games, the most popular of which is strip poker. The Wapsexy service is mostly used during the lunch break and in the evening. According to the market study, people with a Sony Ericsson are said to be more sexually active than users of a Nokia.