Since the beginning of July (Weltwoche) and August (Bilanz), the Hamburg-based Internet dating agency Parship has had a second Swiss media partnership with Jean Frey Verlag. NZZ Online thus loses its six-month exclusive status (WW 14/03); the cross-media platform "Kennenlernen" with the astro column by Monica Kissling will continue to be published only in the NZZ am Sonntag, according to Parship country manager Martin Dobner, who is "extremely satisfied" with the initial figures - 1000 registered customers in 30 days. She attributes the fact that the NZZ generated more than three times as many users in the same period at the beginning of 2003 to the higher frequency of use of daily newspaper websites.
(oc)

Travel industry A campaign by McCann-Erickson Switzerland aims to lure German travelers to CityNightLine (CNL).The price spiral in international passenger traffic seems to point in only one direction: down. Tourism experts are predicting fat years for low-cost airlines, with growth rates of almost 20 percent. An active to aggressive pricing strategy, growing networks, combined with clever communication tactics that neglect the creative in favor of a permanently high media presence, are obviously hitting the nerve of the times. What's more, airlines like Germania Express, German Wings and Air Berlin are also making life miserable for their direct and indirect competitors on the ground. These include the night trains operated by CNL, a subsidiary of DB Reise & Touristik AG.DB struggles with image problems
Nevertheless, the brand has enjoyed growing popularity since its launch more than six years ago - in 1996, the first night trains rolled from Zurich to Berlin and Hamburg. Rising passenger numbers are proof of the popularity of the comfortable means of transport: in 2002, for the first time, over 500,000 passengers were rocked to a "brisk" sleep. In order to prevent an impending dip in occupancy figures, the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary wants to position itself even more clearly as a premium brand - without getting involved in a ruinous price war.
There will therefore be hardly any change in the mission statement - but all the more in direct communication with the customer. So far, this has been limited primarily to the point of sale, a key visual with a woman who has just woken up from sleep and interchangeable cities, as well as an implementation of the travel experience in the benefit claim "Sleep - travel - fit at destination. However, the targeted increase in brand awareness - from an unaided 8 to 15 percent - and the targeted sales figures are hardly achievable. Especially not among Germans, whose favorite child is the car and among whom the railroad traditionally enjoys a rather poor image. The introduction of the new price structure last fall further confused and angered DB customers.
CNL is therefore looking for added value. The train company sees this in individually usable travel time, in a trusting atmosphere, and in the positive surprises that offer imaginary added value and clear advantages over the worst competitor: the car. Secondarily, air passengers are also to be addressed, because the intended target group is made up of business travelers and commuters (25 percent each) and vacationers. No easy task with a budget of only seven figures in a market with 82 million potential train passengers. After the launch in Germany, the campaign will also be used in the CNL market in Switzerland, Austria and, in the medium term, in the Netherlands.
The winner in the international competition for the budget was the Swiss agency McCann-Erickson, which until a few years ago was responsible for the SBB advertising campaign. In its advertising campaign for the German transport company, it contrasts CNL's USPs with private cars and the price argument.
The premium character of the night train is captured in an emotionally ironic appearance on various print and poster motifs as well as in the copy ads. While the headline "Taking the kids to Austria? You can do it in your sleep." is aimed at families, the creative team addressed traffic jam-plagued motorists with mischievous humor. The new claim "I think I'm dreaming" rounds off the image of cultured travel on rails.
Progressive Swiss
And since a Swiss campaign is not an everyday occurrence for Germany, anecdotes make the rounds all the more frequently in such cases: The motif with a pregnant woman's belly and the copy "Could you have done that on a plane?" was left on a siding for a long time. Too provocative, was the verdict of those responsible at CNL. At least Switzerland showed itself progressive in this matter and allowed this B12 poster. In Germany, where the birth rate is much lower, people continue to be conservative.
With sweet consequences of a night train ride CNL advertises only in Switzerland.
Luca Aloisi

Orange Network Orange: The campaign must be pretty good if the Zurich-based Lowe's is equipping half the globe with it. Other opinion? Also good: Clicks: www.werbewoche.ch/adratingEnergy Zurich
Radio Energy Zurich barely made it across the finish line from the start - at least in terms of the launch campaign.

Commentary If Switzerland doesn't want to degenerate into an advertising province, it needs to invest in its young creative talent, says Luca Aloisi.Lowe Switzerland has been invited by mobile phone company Orange to compete for an international image campaign. Certainly, with two other local Orange agencies, Mother from London and Paris-based BETC Euro RSCG, the Zurich-based company faces tough competition. But the Swiss are by no means without a chance: in two previous pitches for smaller international contracts from the same client, they were able to come out on top. However, before a decision is made, the proposals will first be tested in detail.
The Geneva agency Simko has already completed this intermediate step. In the fall, Carlsberg's marketing managers will decide which markets they want to export the Swiss concept to. McCann-Erickson Switzerland also recently landed a seven-figure international account - for CityNightLine, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn. And the image campaign developed by Matter & Partner, Zurich, for No-vartis is currently enjoying a global presence. The market results of the post-test are so successful that the chemical multinational has decided to buy the worldwide rights right away. So much for a brief résumé of the current successes of Swiss advertising.
But the bright side is deceptive. It is with growing concern that we see more and more budgets of Swiss global players migrating to England, France or the USA, foreign agencies taking part in national pitches, while local creatives regularly come away empty-handed from international competitions. Not to mention the long withered and forgotten Swiss agency networks that used to set the style. Seen in this light, the exemplary success stories that we take a closer look at in this issue are certainly not just cases of luck, but nevertheless clear exceptions.
A few weeks ago, Dominique von Matt, co-owner of JvM/Limmat and BSW President, explained in the HandelsZeitung that we actually have everything we need to design European or global campaigns. "Actually", because established values such as the very high level of Swiss education (if we disregard the results of the Pisa study) and our outstanding graphics tradition are in acute danger due to current cost-cutting plans. In contrast to journalism, we have also completely overslept the academization of commercial communication. But without universities there can be no top performance. Lip service and declarations of intent are no longer enough. Otherwise, in the globalized advertising landscape, "Switzerland calling" will only be perceived as a cry for help and not as a defiant, self-confident battle cry.
> Luca Aloisi, Head of Marketing

Relief organizations "There are many children in this world who need our help. That's why FIFA and Udo Jürgens are committed to their cause. "Relief organizations "There are many children in this world who need our help. That's why FIFA and Udo Jürgens are committed to their cause." This statement is under an advertisement with
which the world football association wants to promote the SOS Children's Village. Fifa's commitment to the world's largest private children's charity has long been part of its program, as has its support for Unicef and the fight against racism and child labour. With the SOS on the football pitch in place of the kick-off circle, Claude Catsky, who designed the advertisement, wants to formulate a "cry for help from world football's governing body to everyone". The motif appears on the occasion of Udo Jürgens' fall/winter tour. The advertisement is the first result of the collaboration between FIFA and Catsky&Partner.

Special forms of advertising Never seen before: at Parisienne, smokers can currently have their very own personal classified ads printed on cigarette packs, from "for sale" to "I'm looking for" to "I'm swapping", leaving plenty of scope for the imagination of the participants. "Now there's even more in every pack," says the Zurich agency Sulzer Sutter, which developed this latest Parisienne gag for British American Tobacco Switzerland. Since mid-July, promotional teams have been out and about in Swiss nightclubs to collect as many ads as possible using registration cards. The campaign is also being communicated with advertisements in magazines and daily newspapers as well as POS posters. The limited Parisienne Extra Edition will be available exclusively from Kiosk AG from August 21 to September 3.

Congratulations", says a smiling (urine) dripper - the top unit of measurement on a stick-on scale in urinal bowls - but the congratulations do not go to those men who hit the bowl at all. No, the laughing droplet congratulates all 40- to 70-year-olds whose urine stream still hits the green area. The measurement scale developed by Bioforce is intended to sensitize men in their "prime" to prostate problems at an early stage and to raise awareness of the natural healing product Prostasan. This is recommended when the urinary pressure only reaches the center of the scale or below. The idea and realization for the campaign, which also includes posters and brochures, came from Face AG für Kommunikationsdesign. On its website, Bioforce publishes a list of all the toilets where the urination range can be tested - probably more to the chagrin of the cleaning crews...

The circulation area of the Südostschweiz daily newspaper network covers around a third of German-speaking Switzerland, and the newspaper's founding in the mid-1990s was the prelude to the development of a new economic area, writes publisher Hanspeter Lebrument in the foreword to a new documentation of the circulation area. Dissatisfied with the Wemf's definition of the Southeastern Switzerland region, the newspaper presents its own version, which also includes the Rhine Valley, Toggenburg and St. Gallen. Detailed statistics analyze the demographics and economy of the region, which is home to over 800,000 people. The brochure "Wirtschaftsraum Südostschweiz" can be ordered from Publicitas Chur on 081 255 83 00 or [email protected].

Telecommunications Lowe is designing an international B2B campaign for Orange from Zurich.Orange, the cell phone company controlled by France Télécom, has commissioned the Zurich agency Lowe to develop a cross-border campaign for its B2B customers - because the cell phone multinational currently sees more growth potential in this area than in private customers. Orange international already serves three million customers, who in turn are served by around 3,000 customer service staff.The door-opener for Lowe's new job was their last campaign for Orange, which was developed only for Switzerland at the time (WW 41/02). The Lowe creatives had been looking for places where the mobile phone provider offered exclusive coverage. The branding campaign used impressive landscape photos to visualize the network quality on the Albula and San Bernardino passes.
These coherent subjects have also fallen into the hands of corporate executives abroad. Orange international therefore wanted "something with similar functionality" for the new B2B campaign, as consultant Tony Hrnek explains. This gave rise to the idea with the working title "Lord of the Networks.
Claim goes Short Story
The basic theme of the campaign tailored to these customers says: Every businessman has several networks, and Orange connects them all. CD Keith Loell and AD Simon Staub put this idea into the picture with artfully photographed "networks" of a surprising kind. An aerial view of the harbor in Seattle shows mysteriously crisscrossing foam tracks in the water. A picture with white condensation trails in the blue sky over Kloten operates similarly.
These images are accompanied by the short story: "However complex your business might be. Orange keeps all your worlds connected. Successfully taking care of 3 million business people worldwide. Orange is the partner you can rely on." The new campaign will run in seven countries: the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland. In addition, numerous international airports will be covered with posters.
The next Lowe work for Orange will also be used internationally. The subjects for an MMS campaign bring the claim "If you can imagine it, you can send it" to the fore. Fantasy images culled from clouds are shown, for example, a cloud in the shape of a cupid's arrow aiming for a heart-shaped cumulus cloud in the sky. "MMS in itself is nothing new anymore, so you have to visualize it differently," Tony Hrnek comments.
And another pitch
Following the launch of the international B2B campaign, Lowe in Zurich has also been asked by the mobile phone company to pitch for an international image campaign. Competitors are two other local Orange agencies, Mother in London and BETC Euro RSCG in Paris, as the British magazine Campaign reports. Orange headquarters in London appreciates the work of the Swiss agency, Lowe CEO Kurt Schmid said. The current competitive presentation is not about consolidating budgets. Orange wants to continue working with local agencies, but now wants to present a consistent campaign in all international markets.
Where people work, networks are created: in the streets of Nantes, on rails outside Milan. And orange connects them all.
Andreas Panzeri

TV Advertising windows are defying the crisis and continuing to grow. Advertising windows remain a controversial issue in the Swiss TV landscape, yet they have successfully asserted themselves in the market. Media experts recognize that they have given the entire Swiss TV advertising market a dynamic that would have been unthinkable without them. The record of success is impressive: since the introduction of the first window on RTL in 1993, the number of advertised products soared to 1,400 by 2002, almost doubling. In the same period, the number of companies advertising on TV increased from just under 400 to over 720, as Prognos AG calculated in a study published in spring on behalf of the advertising window marketers ("Facts and figures on the Swiss advertising market - a contribution to the discussion on the new RTVG").The accelerated expansion of the TV advertising market is also impressively demonstrated by the growth rates. In the still "windowless" years 1989 to 1992, total TV advertising sales grew by an average of 2.8 percent per year. However, if we look at the period between 1993 and 2002 (excluding the disastrously bad 2001), Prognos reports a record-breaking annual growth rate of just under 5%.
On the rise even during the crisisEven in the crisis years of 2001 and 2002, advertising windows continued to grow.
Attractiveness increased. "We were able to further increase sales, while SF DRS lost ground two years in a row," explains Michi Frank, CEO of advertising window marketer IPM. According to Mediafocus, this has continued in the current year. "In the first half of 2003, we grew by 4.7 percent, while the SRG stations lost 4.1 percent in the same period," Frank calculates.
Although all possible advertising windows are currently open (see box), sales are likely to continue to climb in the coming years. "For example, thanks to the increasing importance of special forms of advertising with a cross-media approach, which make the TV platform even more attractive," explains Frank.
An important impetus for growth is expected to come from the entry into force of the new Radio and Television Act (RTVA) in two or three years - when interstitial advertising, which is still prohibited today, will be permitted. Advertising windows will then be in a position to further reduce the existing "spill effects" (advertising pressure resulting from the use of advertising in foreign programs). By allowing additional advertising islands to be overlaid with Swiss advertising. At CHF 140 million gross (Prognos), the theoretical potential is considerable - this is how much the economy would have to spend on additional TV advertising in Switzerland if all spillover effects were eliminated. Even if it is unlikely that all advertising blocks on German private broadcasters will ever be faded - because TV advertising in Switzerland is around twice as expensive as in Germany, for example - the growth impetus is still likely to be considerable.
IPM and Publisuisse united? With the aim of further driving television sales, previous taboos could also fall. Frank is thinking aloud about a collaboration between IPM and Publisuisse. "We must work together to attract new advertising customers to television," he explains. He has already been in contact with Martin Schneider, the designated CEO of Publisuisse, about this. "Acquiring customers together should also be attractive for Publisuisse. Because the SRG channels are the indispensable basic medium for every television campaign, two thirds of all TV advertising investments go to Publisuisse anyway."
Does this mean that the long years of bitter competition between IPM and Publisuisse will soon be a thing of the past? Schneider is open: "There are certainly ideas that can be discussed with each other." At the same time, however, he points to the different product philosophies that set limits to cooperation. "IPM is pursuing an aggressive pricing strategy, which is their right. But this means that we are not compatible. Publisuisse is pursuing a premium strategy that focuses on qualitative aspects," says Schneider. However, his priority at the moment is to return to joint generic marketing (WW 28/03). He very much regretted the fact that IPM left Screen-up two years ago.
Innovative advertising program from IPM: Viviane Walder (picture) presents the multimedia advertising program "Ahead" on MTV together with Nadja Schildknecht.
(Almost) everything already openFor four years, the Swiss advertising window on RTL, launched in 1993, remained alone. But from 1997 onwards, things progressed rapidly: three new windows were added that year: ProSieben, Sat 1 and RTL 2, followed two years later by Kabel 1 and MTV. In 2002, the last advertising windows to date were launched on Vox and M6.
Of the current eight offerings, only the one on Sat 1 is marketed by Cinecom & Media, all other windows are in the portfolio of IP Multimedia (Switzerland).
The advertising window on M6, which came about after fierce resistance only with the exclusion of Lausanne and Geneva, means that the ceiling has already been reached. Among the German private stations broadcasting today, only Super RTL is still without an advertising window. "As this is a children's program, it is not of interest to us," explains Frank. There is another attractive candidate in French-speaking Switzerland: TF 1. Frank waves it off: "After the fierce opposition to M6, another advertising window would have no chance." However, IPM will hold on to M6 - even if there is little hope that the cable networks of Lausanne and Geneva will still switch on the Swiss offer. "Even without these agglomerations, our customers are participating," says Frank. "In the current year, sales have grown by over 30 percent." (dse)
Daniel Schifferle

The New York Festivals have reorganized their competitions for film and video, for TV programs and promotion and for TV, cinema and radio advertising, and radio spots will be judged together with television and cinema for the first time. In addition, the awards will now be named after the year in which they are presented. The 2004 awards will be presented in January 2004. Entries can be submitted if they were published after September 1, 2002. The deadline for entries is September 15 for film and TV programs and September 30 for TV, cinema and radio advertising. Registration is possible online at www.newyorkfestivals.com.

Tobacco marketing With the reintroduction of the Club cigarette, JTI is also focusing on "Ostalgie" products. The self-deprecating relaunch campaign for this comes from Zurich.
Until the fall of 1989, the "anti-fascist protective wall" also divided Germany into two economic cultures: one of market-economy prosperity and freedom and the other of socialist imitations and aspirations. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dam for western products also broke. All East German products were suddenly considered outdated, even museum-worthy. Even competitive items were removed from the product ranges. The demise of the GDR world of goods seemed to be sealed, had it not been for the bitter aftertaste of humiliation among the many new German citizens. This caused the wave of enthusiasm after reunification to ebb just as quickly as it had swept over the 17 million ex-GDR citizens. The mood pendulum swung back - especially in the advertising and product world.
Club for the squads
Marketing strategists soon learned how to deal with the new sense of togetherness and "Ostalgie" and how to use it to their advantage. First and foremost the cigarette manufacturers, who did not see the market shares of their Western brands grow. Even Eastern brands that had been bought up and trimmed to Western standards at great expense lost customers. Instead of retaining them emotionally with familiarity and continuity, they were unsettled by the westernization of familiar cigarettes. In any case, cigarettes in the "classless" society were distinguished by price and availability: Karo and Juwel for workers and farmers, Cabinet or premium and top brands such as Club and Duett for the cadres.
After several years of above-the-line abstinence, Japan Tobacco International in Cologne has now decided to relaunch the DDR Club cigarette. Marcel Löffler, Head of Marketing at Japan Tobacco International, engaged the Zurich agency Bonaparte for the campaign. The agency succeeded in elegantly marrying nostalgia and zeitgeist and thus prevailed against local competitors in the pitch. "We deliberately avoided superficial Eastern nostalgia and opted for deeper self-irony," says consultant Lajos Vizner. CD Harry Sulzer's research was not limited to psychographics and Sinus-Milieus. He also met his girlfriend in an Internet chat room. And with his new understanding of the country and its people, he visited Dresden over Easter. "If you don't know the East, the language and the mentality, you don't understand anything," says Sulzer. He also seems to have acquired the street smarts typical of the GDR, namely making the best of what was available - little money and little time.
Self-deprecating ex-GDR citizens such as a self-confessed Thälmann pioneer, a member of the youth organization of the time, confidently smoke clubs again. The same goes for Erich's godchild, who, like many children from large families, had the last GDR regime leader Honecker as his godfather. The campaign conveys the idea of community, is likeable and spiced up with the necessary authenticity.
"Brothers, to the sun, to freedom": The GDR is rebuilt in Zurich, and as a reward there is the former cadre cigarette club.
Luca Aloisi