Column The Wirz brand still has a lot of advantages over most agencies. Namely: authority, continuity and profile. A comeback is possible if Wirz remains true to itself Dear Jost Wirz, recently you and your company have been in the headlines more often than you would like. The difficulties you are facing have been portrayed in a neutral or even gleeful way. Of course, everyone knows what went wrong and what you should have done differently. At the advertising regulars' tables, heads are weighed and all the glorious old stars and eager newcomers outdo each other with ad hoc analyses. They shed a few crocodile tears in the process, not without secretly calculating whether one or two budgets could be deducted, but the fact is that the cold winds of recession have probably caught you on the wrong foot. What was right two years ago is suddenly wrong today. You invested, extrapolated the future from the present - and now everything has changed. What you planned was by no means foolhardy; it wouldn't have suited you either. You have always been a clean, decent quality agency, one of the few that could be relied upon. And you've had this status longer and deserved it longer than any other agency.
That's precisely why you're now becoming a feast for all profile neurotics and know-it-alls. It's much more spectacular when heroes stumble than when it's just the usual froth-mongers. Every mediocre CEO will cushion their lack of performance with the Wirz effect. Anyone who used to look enviously at your consistency and status now feels like they're in the same private club. If only it were that easy.
In reality, you are still way ahead of most people. You have what you and every sensible agency repeatedly - and often in vain - urge clients to have: You have a brand or, as it is called today, a brand. Your brand has everything you could wish for: Authority, continuity, profile. And even if I don't have the slightest insight into your current situation, I dare to make a prediction: you will make a brilliant comeback if you remain true to yourselves. If not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow. Because nothing is as strong as a strong brand. I sincerely hope that you (and all other agencies that uphold their brand) don't have to wait until the day after tomorrow.
Walter Bosch was editor-in-chief of Blick, head of all the editors-in-chief of the
Ringier Verlag and co-founder of the advertising agency Bosch & Butz. Since selling the agency in 1998, he has been an entrepreneur and consultant in Zurich and the USA.

SRG Schweizer Radio DRS is renewing its corporate design: the previous logo has been gently revised and can now be used not only in classic SRG red, but also in five other colors. A three-dimensional version will also be introduced, primarily for advertising purposes. SR DRS is thus presenting itself as a "modern, dynamic public service company", says Béatrice Lombard, Head of Program Communication. The new design will be introduced in the first half of July, initially on stationery and in the lettering on vehicles and buildings. The graphic renewal was realized in-house in collaboration with the agency Schellenberg + Benz.

Private radio Radio 24's morning show "Ufschteller" will in future be presented by David Karasek alone, with the previous presenter Meret Boxler taking her leave of the microphone due to health problems. There will also be changes to the morning show on Hitradio Z. According to reliable sources, Thommy Rüegg is leaving the station. His place will be taken by Roger Spillmann until further notice.

Swiss Television SRG has placed a bond worth 200 million Swiss francs on the Swiss stock exchange, the first time the broadcasting company has raised money publicly, according to a report by the news agency SDA. The bond has a term of five years and an interest rate of 2.5 percent. Traders described the bond, which comes with a
premium on the ask price was a complete success.

While Switzerland ranked 16th at Cannes in 2002 with a total of 330 entries, it has moved up three spots in the overall submission count this year and now ranks 13th. With an increase from 23 entries in 2002 to 55 for this year’s advertising festival, Swiss entries in the Direct Marketing category have risen by as much as 139 percent.

The Zurich High Court has confirmed a ruling by the labor court against Metropol and described the mass dismissal of the commuter newspaper as abusive. The court stated that the employee consultation required by the Swiss Code of Obligations had taken place too late and was also futile. According to a statement from the media trade union Comedia, the High Court acknowledged that it was the parent company Metro International's declared strategy to present both the subsidiary and its employees with a fait accompli. As a result, the right to be heard was essentially violated. The ruling also states that the employer's obligations must be fulfilled in full even if the decision to dismiss was not made by the employer itself, but by a group head office. Metro (Schweiz) AG has waived a further appeal. The judgment is therefore final. (sm)

Market research Later than planned, Blue Eyes Marketing is able to launch the second wave of the Bluemind study in June, with three website operators taking part this time: Blick.ch, 20min.ch and T-Online.ch. In addition to the main portal, 20 Minuten is also having four other channels examined by the market research institute. This results in a total of seven surveys, four fewer than in the first wave at the beginning of the year, in which Pro7.ch, Sat1.ch and Swissflirt.ch as well as MSN.ch with seven channels took part. Bluemind provides psychographic data on online users and not reach. Anyone who visits one of the participating websites is surveyed using an online questionnaire.

Print After a year of cooperation, the Ringier business newspaper Cash and the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten have terminated their contract in response to Tamedia's planned acquisition of 20 Minuten - even though this is still being investigated by the Competition Commission. According to 20 Minuten publishing director Rolf Bollmann, the contract, which was due to expire in August, has been terminated by both parties. Cash had been providing content for the business pages of 20 Minuten since August 2002.

Cosmetics IV While other beauty companies don't even think about advertising with events, Axe has long since made a name for itself among party people.
Axe knows how to advertise without being obtrusive. To promote its new Pulse fragrance in Switzerland, the Axe event marketing company launched its own radio station under the name www. pulse-radio.ch almost two months ago, which broadcast music over the Internet for 14 days. DJs, guests and self-proclaimed trendsetters were able to give free rein to their musical style. There was no interruption advertising. Instead, there was lots of music, talk and scene news. "The feedback was very good," says Augustin Mettler, co-owner of the event marketing agency Vogel Szenenmarketing and responsible for the Axe events for the past five years, looking back on the project. Mettler is convinced: "There should be more advertising projects like this."
Even celebrities smell greatThe project was concluded in Switzerland with a major event, the Axe Pulse Night in Zurich's Rohstofflager. Over 1400 people attended the party, which had everything night owls could wish for: Music, free drinks, canapés and, of course, samples of the new product. No wonder celebrities such as former Miss Switzerland Anita Buri, the Swiss retort band Tears and TV presenter Sven Epiney didn't miss the opportunity to celebrate with the fragrance brand.
This was the fifth party for the cosmetics brand. Axe is well aware that parties offer the ideal platform to bring a brand to the trendy people. The highlight of Axe's event strategy was the worldwide Voodoo Party in 1999, at which the label of the Dutch-British beauty group Lever Fabergé and Unilever launched its fragrance for the first time at an event.
"We are deliberately present where our target group prefers to be, namely at parties," explained Axe Marketing Director Muriel Arts at the time. And the strategy is working: since the brand started using event marketing, it has recorded an increase in sales of around ten percent every year.
Fun for sales: Since the fragrance label Axe surprised the trendy crowd with trendy parties, it has grown by ten percent every year.

Annelies Friedli

Flavian Kurth ASW has been entrusted by Spirig Pharma with the budget for the promotion of Oprazole, a generic drug for peptic diseases, and the Basel-based advertising agency's campaign includes advertisements, mailings, specialist and patient brochures and congress material.

Fastfood DDB Zurich launches a brand campaign for McDonald's: funny, national and on posters.McDonald's Switzerland has long harbored the intention of once again launching a brand campaign in parallel with its ongoing and globally developed product advertising. Now the hamburger fryers' wish has come true. Detached from the advertising for the fast food products, the aim is to update the brand and "create sympathy and convey values such as liveliness", explains Patrick Lienert. For the CD at DDB Zurich, which is realizing the image campaign for McDonald's, a bit of subtle humour also had to be visible, and the creative concept is very flexible due to the broad and heterogeneous target group. The specific target groups are to be addressed with different ideas in a diverse mix of subjects. "Individual subjects are what make this new campaign so appealing," say the ADs Daniel Bieri and Bruno Zürcher. But because everyone in front of a hamburger from the McDonald's kitchen is the same, the graphic style of the different subjects is still immediately recognizable - because they are kept uniform.
The dark red chosen by DDB, which can only be found at McDonald's Switzerland, is also striking. Otherwise, a few motifs are still based on the Austrian brand campaign from the DDB network. In future, however, only Swiss motifs will be used - just as it is part of McDonald's concept to use local suppliers as much as possible in its restaurants.
The subjects of DDB Zurich work with the wittily surprising element of abstraction. However, the concept envisages that people will also be incorporated into the subjects of this branding campaign at a later stage.
Don't let it slip byThe current ideas show a new emoticon invented by DDB - this is an emotional expression expressed via text message and means something like: I'm very hungry. Another motif graphically depicts a cardiogram in the style of the McDonald's logo, which makes the heart beat faster when someone thinks of delicious food from the fast food chain. "It's not about making flat claims, it's more about making the viewer smile," says CD Lienert. For him, this new campaign shows the typical DDB advertising of today, "because it takes the viewer seriously and involves them by asking them to find the punch line to the individual subjects themselves". This has a more lasting effect than if the advertising message simply ripples past the viewer.
The advertising campaign is designed for the longer term and works exclusively with posters in public spaces because "this is certainly the right medium for the target group," says Lienert.
Wherever your offspring is drawn to, settle down...: DDB poster for McDonald's Switzerland.

Andreas Panzeri

The Design Act (DesG) has been in force since July 1, 2002, and specialists Roger Staub and Alessandro L. Celli have now published the book "Designrecht" (Design Law) with Schulthess Juristische Medien in Zurich. The commentary on the federal law is intended as a working tool for practitioners. In addition to the text of the law and ordinances, the appendix also includes secondary legislation, international treaties and decrees on European law. Available to order from www.schult hess.com, ISBN 3 7255 4529 4.