Sponsorship VI For most Swiss telecoms companies, sponsorship remains an important pillar in the marketing mix and in the battle for mobile customers.every sponsorship manager dreams of such a lucky punch: A few months after Swisscom became the main sponsor of the Swiss Nordic skiing team last year, newcomer Simon Ammann unexpectedly jumped to two gold medal places in Salt Lake City and caused a worldwide sensation. The fact that Ammann had to do without any product placement on Gottschalk's "Wetten dass ..." and David Letterman's American talk show did nothing to dampen Swisscom's enthusiasm for the successful coup. The ski jumper was and is a stroke of luck for the telecom giant even without these appearances with the Swisscom logo. He is successful, polite, normal, likeable - and cheap to boot. The telecom group's sponsorship costs are probably far lower than the advertising value Ammann has today.
But the successes of the competition are also impressive: Orange's cinema commitment is not quite as cheap, but at least as successful as Ammann's for Swisscom: in 2000, the French-speaking Swiss company took over the rights from Philip Morris as the main sponsor of the open-air cinemas in Zurich, Berne, Basel and Lausanne. The spectacle is said to be worth several million francs to Orange. In return, Orange has since received an optimal platform for various communication measures.
Orange makes use of this with bus and streetcar posters, billboards, a
own Internet site (www.orange
cinema.ch), a strong local presence (Communications Center with numerous sales offers), merchandising, film programs via SMS and special events.
Also a good hand
Sunrise has proven itself to be a strong sponsoring partner with one of its new sponsoring commitments: Since March 2003, Sunrise has been the official communications partner for the Super League of the Swiss Football League and can thus use the best Swiss clubs collectively for its communications and marketing purposes.
Good image carriers and a far-sighted strategy are therefore the key components of the success of the sponsorship commitments of Swiss telecom companies. In contrast to many large companies, Swisscom, Orange and Sunrise thought little of budget cuts in 2003. Swisscom and Sunrise kept their budgets at the same level as last year, only Orange reduced its expenditure slightly. The sponsorship mix of the Big Three also remained almost identical. They mainly focus on sport and culture, and occasionally on social sponsorship, as Orange does for Unicef, for example.
More image for telecom money
What is new for all three, however, are the expectations of the recipients of their funds: "Sponsorship commitments are increasingly geared towards a direct return on investment," says Peter Boeni, Head of Sponsorship at Swisscom. And Sunrise Head of Communications Monika Walser adds: "The sponsor expects more from the organizers than just being present with a logo in the communication and on site."
Instead of remaining quietly in the background like Rolex, the telecom bosses now want to exert more influence. Take Swisscom, for example, with its latest sponsorship commitment. A few months ago, it acquired the naming rights to the Swiss Football Cup from Sportart AG for an estimated CHF 1 million per year. Swisscom will be able to give the Swiss Cup the name Swisscom Cup for four years. Four BSW agencies pitched for the contract to develop a corporate design, which was won by Unikat (see also page 7).
According to marketing experts, the fact that the Swiss Football League is downgrading its label in the long term by selling the naming rights to the Swiss Cup is of no concern to Swisscom. Swisscom has what it wants and will continue to have it in the future: Because: "Due to the economic situation, many sponsorship budgets are being tied back. Associations and institutions will therefore find it even more difficult to find sponsors in the future," says Boeni.
Sport and culture: Successful core sponsoring by telecom companies.
Annelies Friedli

The midsummer, which for once deserves this name, was characterized by celluloid. For the second time, the NJP recording studio in Küsnacht hosted a movie night in beautiful weather. The event is a combination of professional event and leisure time fun. After an extended aperitif in the open air and before the film screening, NJP owner Leos Gerteis showed the attendees how a modern (air-conditioned!) sound forge works and where it is used.the cinema by the lake is an equally breezy pleasure for tropical temperatures. There was even a European premiere with "Pirates of the Caribbean". The movie was ideal for the climate. Only the electrical installations did not hold out. The film was interrupted twice due to blown fuses (pirates?), which was certainly not what director Gore Verbinski had in mind. Nevertheless, the guests spent the following pirate party in good spirits on the terrace of the neighboring Lake Side Casino Zürichhorn.
There was also a movie reunion with the evil Terminators from the future. After the premiere of the new Schwarzenegger spectacle "T-3", the matching party took place in the Säulenhalle. What the people from the Aroma event agency had set up in the courtyard of the Löwenbräu site was absolutely awesome. A true-to-style end-time scene with piled-up scrap cars, spooky fog and bursts of fire, accompanied by the Terminator movie soundtrack. Lead actress Kristanna Loken was also impressed.
There are several reasons to go to the Locarno Film Festival - the program doesn't belong at the top of the list. But Ticino cuisine and Merlot do. And for the professionals, the trading shows of the major companies, including networking opportunities. Matthias Luchsinger, Jean-Claude Bruhin, Corinne Blaser, Nicole Steinegger and Claudia Wilden were among the large Cinecom delegation in attendance. The nightlife is also worth a visit. Parties and bars make it possible to go out extensively beyond dawn. For example, at the Straight Friday party hosted by Manuel Nappo, Michel Pernet and barman Christian "Bossi" Bosshard at the Grand Hotel. A lesson learned is a lesson learned.
Partying was also the order of the day at the Street Parade. The guests from the advertising guild invited by Radiotele were once again able to watch the colorful parade from the garden of the Baur au Lac luxury hotel. Bruno Oetterli and his team hit the bull's eye. Nowhere else at the Techno-Defilée is there as much freedom of movement as in the garden of the luxury hotel. Although: the crowds in the streets seemed less bad than ever, despite around 900,000 visitors.
And that everything was better in the past is a saying that is now also heard at the Street Parade. And it's true - what began eleven years ago as a colorful happening by a few wild, colorful techno freaks has degenerated into a family-friendly (grandmother included) and regimented party with absolute sponsorship overkill; a postmodern carnival in two-four time.
Organized the film event for Idée-VfW: Natalie Schneider (left), with her future boss Sandra Genge from Lowe Direct.
Pirate party at Lakeside: Werner Windler (l.) from Schröderpartners, Claudia Wilden, Cinecom, and Dieter Steger, Cinerent.
Satisfied despite the power cut: Daniel Höltschi (l.) and Peter Hürlimann (r.) from Cinerent with Matthias Frei, Buena Vista.
Seen before the "Terminator" premiere at Cinemax: Christoph Marty, Bruno Bötschi and Roli Wahrenberger (from left).
Cock of the walk: Cinecom boss Matthias Luchsinger with girlfriend Alexa (below) and Flavia Schlittler (l.) and Barbro Tollardo (r.).
Roger Crotti, Managing Director Buena Vista, with his press ladies Vanessa Flack (l.) and Eveline Fischer.
Welcoming his guests in the garden of the Baur au Lac: Radiotele boss Bruno Oetterli with Monica Jäggi (left) and Corinne Kelly from Konnex.
"...and the man is an adornment to the women": Peter Kettiger with Annemarie "Musi" Frey (left), Sorpresa AG, and Hélène Müller.
Almost forty degrees in the shade is easier to bear in the garden: Susanne and Stephan Küng (l.) with Gerry Stadler.
The Miss Street Parade of the Radiotele, Madeleine Bieri (l.) had everything under control: Dani Depping and Chantal Arnold (r.) too.
Cool process thanks to the Ticketino system: Luzi Rageth (r.) and Patrick Walgis with raverladys Bettina Roth (l.) and Rosangela Thomaz.
Celebrity chef Jacky Donatz (l.) from Sonnenberg with artist Mirjam van Zweden and Renato Schena from Starplakat.
Just wanted to be in the picture with the most beautiful woman in the garden (original sound): Christof Kaufmann and Felix Kilchsperger (right) with Danielle Lanz.
Ronald Ziegler (l.), Brand Manager Seat at Amag, with Beppo Genovese (r.), star poster, and Teuta Suleymani from MGB.
Dancing the day before: Marina Stierli and Pascal Vallon (right) from the Bern agency 141, with the author of this column.
Beat Fritsch

Gastronomy In addition to veggie food, the Hiltl restaurant also serves visitors to the Orange Cinema a new advertising menu from the Wirz kitchen: the sight of Andi Bosshart, head chef at the traditional vegetarian restaurant Hiltl, makes every plant tremble down to its roots. For the creative team at Wirz Werbung, there is no question that this man must have the reputation of a "Jack the Ripper" throughout the flora. For the new Hiltl commercial, which is used in the OrangeCinema, the crew even refutes the widespread opinion among vegetarians that plants - due to their lack of a complex nervous system - suffer less than animals and humans. When Andi B. walks through the alleyways in the 30-second film, tomatoes and the like crawl into the deepest corners of their pots to stay out of the plant butcher's field of vision. The mini thriller is only the second commercial in the advertising history of the 100-year-old restaurant. As part of the catering commitment at the open-air cinema, Wirz Werbung was also commissioned to produce a film this year. "While last year's Hiltl commercial was allowed to go to Cannes, we stayed in Zurich and shot the sequel," smiles CD Matthias Freuler - not without pride: after all, the rose-eating amateur vegetarian made it onto the festival's coveted film shortlist.
According to Rolf Hiltl, owner of the restaurant at Sihlstrasse 28, the ad was not only well received by advertising experts. "After the ad was placed, many new guests visited us who wanted to try Hiltl's cuisine," he explains. Most of his guests are part-time vegetarians, i.e. those who eat vegetarian food from time to time simply for pleasure. However, there is a noticeable trend of more and more young women not eating meat at all, Hiltl continues. The Swiss Association for Vegetarianism (SVV) has noted "a noticeable trend towards less meat" on the basis of the federal government's health survey in 1997. According to the SIA, the number of daily meat eaters fell by three percent compared to the previous study in 1992. Only two percent of all respondents stated that they never ate meat.
The latest commercial featuring the plant butcher aka Andi Bosshart will be flickering across the screen on the Zürichhorn from July 17. In the film, kitchen virtuoso Bosshart plays himself. On the contrary: "I'd rather stay a chef," was his conclusion after hours of waiting on the set.
Simone Keller

Even advertisers are sometimes still capable of learning. The most recent example: the Sunrise team at Wirz Werbung in Zurich.telecommunication The creative team led by CD duo Thomas Bolliger and Thomas Kurzmeyer wanted to publicize the reduction in foreign tariffs in twelve countries with a traditional "flag-waving event". The flag-waving clubs approached were enthusiastic about the idea, but did not want to take part. The reason for their refusal: anyone who waves a flag other than the Swiss flag is ostracized in this guild. However, the advertisers had a stroke of luck: a professional - whose name is understandably withheld here - was found after all, who initiated the hastily cast models into the art of unpatriotic flag-waving.

Werner Lang and Peter Knoll, co-founders of LangGysiKnoll, give up their shares and retire. CD Simone Quast joins the management team of Nicole Huber, André Gysi and Silvano Spezia.WW Simone Quast, on July 1 you joined the LGK management team, which now consists of two men and two women. Does your agency have a quota system?Simone Quast Where are you thinking? We are radically oriented to the market. A good half of our consumers are women. And so are about half of our customers. In fact, LangGysiKnoll's management team is an expression of a natural process. We don't think in gender categories. What counts for us is personality and performance. The constellation in the management team happens to be one of parity. Life experience, different perspectives and strategies lead us to decisions that are always good foundations for successful solutions.
Women in GL are a rarity on the Swiss advertising scene. What do you do differently?
What seems new now is nothing more than the visible expression of a long-planned development. We are four partners who are going our way together. Thanks to this constellation at the management and owner level, we can optimally divide the strategic tasks among us and invest a lot of time in day-to-day business and new business projects.
Is it these points that appeal to you about the new function?being able to influence and change things is always a good feeling. Especially when you have the support of a lot of people. Now I have new strategic tasks in addition to my duties as CD. That means I will now be able to do even more for the company.
It's well known that women are more likely than men to withdraw from the workforce during periods of recession. How do you assess the current situation of women in the advertising industry?
After all, a few years have passed since the last recession, and even Switzerland continues to develop. Today, women in management positions are hardly affected by the phenomenon you mention. In my estimation, it is more likely to be women who earn the extra money in a partnership who withdraw or are cut back in the face of the threat of red pencils. But again: At LGK, both women and men are well-trained professionals, and who wants to do without them?
Is the young tradition of the agency a reason why you don't change its brand name?Right. LangGysiKnoll was intended as a brand from the very beginning. Three-tone dimensions, as "Rheingold" was so beautifully called in the eighties.
You're also about to become co-owner of the agency. How do you plan to boost the performance of your top 15 agency?
We are going through the crisis healthy, slimmed down and fit and ready for the upturn. Through our investments in Account Planning, we want to reach our goal even more efficiently in the future. In the past, this was around 13 percent plus per year, and we want to build on this success.
Will you be able to match these growth rates this year?I wish! But let's keep our feet on the ground: In the current market situation, we are also satisfied with less.
Then you'll probably have a more active pitch policy than before?We'd prefer to have digestible growth. But it's true, we're pretty active at the moment. And I hope that I will soon be able to look for suitable reinforcements in Berne and Zurich. Whereas: the "Zurigese" seem to prefer to remain unemployed than to sit on the train for an hour.
Peter Knoll and Werner Lang sell their shareholdings and withdraw from the Management Board. This reduces the number of members to a quartet. Was this the first cost-cutting measure?
So please, who wants to cut back on quality? In fact, our management team only temporarily became a five-member body when Nicole Huber - one of the greatest women I know, by the way - came on the scene in 2001 to initiate the long-planned generational change.
When two of the three agency fathers retire and a generational change takes place, one wonders whether André Gysi is also considering his succession plan.
The name is probably deceptive, LangGysiKnoll has always had four agency fathers. Silvano Spezia and André Gysi are not a bit tired yet, and that's just fine with Nicole Huber and me. The fact that one of them is stepping down is not an issue at all.
Joint management quartet at LangGysiKnoll: Nicole Huber, Silvano Spezia, André Gysi - and new: Simone Quast (from left).

LangGysiKnoll in figures

LGK, Bern, was formed in 1994 from the merger of Lang & Knoll with Gysi & Partner. At the end of June, Werner Lang and Peter Knoll stepped down from operational management and also relinquished their shares in the agency. Since July 1, the new owners of the agency are Nicole Huber, Simone Quast, André Gysi and Silvano Spezia. Today, the full-service advertising agency employs 37 people and serves 30 clients in the banking and insurance, retail, energy, postal and transport, food and non-food, media, culture and science sectors. Sales in 2002 amounted to 40 million, gross operating income to 7.2 million Swiss francs. (la)
Interview: Luca Aloisi

At the 7th edition of the Marketing Trophy in 2004, there will be gold, silver and bronze prizes to be won for the first time; previously, only one winner was awarded in each of the three categories of small, medium-sized and large companies. A special trophy for non-profit organizations is also new. The competition, which is organized by the Swiss Marketing Club (SMC), is already open for entries. The closing date for entries is October 24. The prizes will be awarded at the Swiss Marketing Day on January 15, 2004. For further information, please contact the SMC, [email protected] or call 062 207 07 70.

The media budget for Henkel's Pritt and Pattex adhesive brands will in future be managed by Mediaedge|CIA, which will be responsible for all of the German chemical company's business areas in Switzerland from July. A year ago, Mediaedge|CIA had already won the detergents and cosmetics sectors. According to Beatrice Bender, Marketing Manager Consumer Adhesives, the positive response from these areas made the decision to change agencies easier. Pritt and Pattex were previously managed by OMD Zurich.

Presse-TV (PTV) has decided at its meeting at the request of Managing Director Hans Jürg Deutsch not to expand SF info.Verlegerfernsehen for the time being. SF info's market share does not exceed 0.5 percent. PTV has held a license since last autumn that allows it to gradually expand SF info into a third channel with its own editorial services and advertising. Today, SF info is an advertising-free repeat channel that is used by SF DRS and PTV.

Packaging 5 A broken glass milk bottle marks the beginning of an unprecedented history of packaging for the nutritious drink. Thanks to Migros in particular, milk can now be found on the shelves in a wide variety of packaging forms.
When Swiss consumers buy milk, they are spoiled for choice when it comes to packaging: Tetra Brik, Top (with screw cap), tubular bag or PE bottle - no other staple food enjoys such a variety of presentations.
What Swiss consumers take for granted today met with stiff resistance around 40 years ago, mostly from farmers. It was thanks to the major distributor Migros, among other suppliers, that light-protected packaged milk was introduced in self-service stores. Pierre Arnold, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives, was one of the visionaries who championed the spread of "paper milk" in 1958, despite opposition from the milk lobby. This had been introduced to the Swiss market by the Swedish manufacturer Tetra Pak in the mid-fifties. It was not until 1962 that the retailer was allowed to include the first tetrahedron-shaped milk cartons in its range. Tetra Brik followed in the 1970s, and around 20 years later the tubular bag. In the mid-nineties, Tetra Top was added to the range, and milk has been available in PE bottles for two years now.
The first patent for a carton milk carton was acquired in 1915 by the American toy manufacturer John Van Wormer. If the anecdote is to be believed, his invention was based on the tiresome acquaintance of a glass milk bottle with the force of gravity. One of the difficulties with the packaged milk was getting consumers excited about the innovation. On the other hand, antiseptic filling of the milk placed the highest demands on the technology. From the point of view of food hygiene, the main problem is the aseptic filling of the packaging, as Roger Stephan, Head of the Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Zurich, confirms. In addition, the packaging must be designed in such a way that the milk's ingredients are not affected during storage.
Here and there a cheer is heardWith the free sale of packaged milk, a long-standing tradition also came to an abrupt end: "The milkman is no longer coming" was the headline of an advertisement for paper milk from the late 1950s. However, the term "milk box" for the large compartment under the letterbox has survived to this day - as have a handful of milkmen: the Basel and Surrounding Area Milk Traders' Association still relies on the traditional distribution network, whose farmer representatives often announce their arrival to the housewives with a proud whoop.
In the beginning was the tetrahedron: a brief history of milk packaging.

Simone Keller

OrangeAt Orange, you sit in the front row: not in front of the TV, but at an open-air movie theater. Non-cinephiles can also rate the campaign at www.werbewoche.ch/adrating. Portraits
Often copied, but knowing how: Hesskiss has received goodwill from the AdRaters with its portrait campaign.
Top 69%
Flop 31%

What does a woman in jeans and a spaghetti T-shirt want in a men's restroom? Selling pants? No. Does she want to urinate? No. What are her hands doing in front of her abdomen? No idea.below-the-line Does she want equality? No idea. Why does Jeans & Co. place such below-the-line advertising in the ladies' toilet of the trendy Kaufleuten bar? Enough questions - let's visit the homepage www.jeans-co.ch. The texts on the wrapping paper background know the answer, finally: anyone who knows how to fit so many grammatical errors into so few sentences can only come up with advertising like this. (ck)

Magazines Cooking magazine is enjoying astonishing growth. Ueli Eckstein, Head of Print Media at AZ Medien, can rub his hands over a warming kitchen fire: Kochen magazine, which he helped launch in March 2002 as project manager and publishing director ad interim, has developed magnificently - and what's more: after just over a year, the title has already broken even. In its first nine issues up to December 2002, Kochen contained 80 pages of advertisements, in the first four issues of this year it was 44 pages. And based on the bookings, it is already clear that Kochen will do better in 2003 than Chuchi (published by Meyers), which was discontinued last year, in its best year. "The advertisements are developing well, but we had expected more," says Eckstein dryly, adding that there are many factors that have led to the rapid success of the young title. The name Annemarie Wildeisen undoubtedly plays an important role. The editor-in-chief moved with her entire team from Chuchi to AZ Medien at the beginning of 2002 - she had previously also published almost a dozen cookbooks with Meyer. Equally important is the fact that Meyers pulled the plug in May 2002 and sold Chuchi to AZ Medien. The latter quickly discontinued the unwelcome competition, but took over the Swiss-wide subscription base. Nevertheless, Hanspeter Eggenberger's editorial company Duktus had put the staid Chuchi magazine on the right track in just a few months on Meyers' behalf.
The takeover coup catapulted the print run of Kochen from 40000 to 90000 copies without any major advertising effort. According to a Wemf interim certification, the title now has a circulation of 75,265 copies, 25,000 more than would have been enough to break even according to the original business plan.
Wildeisen, Wildeisen, WildeisenBut a clever marketing strategy also contributes to its success: It goes without saying that AZ Medien pushes its youngest child on all in-house media channels, but it hardly brings the title any new subscribers outside of the Rüeblikanton. Mailings, a hotline for questions about cooking and the homepage www.wildeisen .ch are more suitable for this. In fact, the website not only generates 180000 page impressions per month, but also an above-average number of trial subscriptions. There were 800 from January to May 2003; comparable homepages generate at best 50 to 200 per year. And the conversion rate is 50 percent. "Don't ask me why that is," says Eckstein himself in amazement.
For the past four months, Kochen has also been trying to gain a foothold in Zurich, Bern and Basel. To this end, the company entered into a partnership with 20 Minuten, so that a "Wildeisernes" recipe now appears in the commuter newspaper on Fridays. Cooking was also featured in the free newspaper for three weeks via an advertising campaign, while at the same time increasing its newsstand circulation by 30 percent. "Within 14 days, we gained 4000 trial subscriptions from predominantly young people. You can really reach this target audience with 20 Minuten," praises Eckein - probably not without a sideways glance at the hefty print job that AZ Medien has been carrying out for the commuter paper for some time.
There is also Wildeisen's three-minute TV cooking program, which is broadcast weekly on Tele M1 and Tele Tell. She is one of the rating leaders there and thus also promotes cooking in Central Switzerland. "We are also in negotiations with two other TV stations," says Eckstein.
Clear layout, clear recipes - and TV promo: Annemarie Wildeisen's cooking spices up Swiss kitchens.

Markus Knöpfli