Press "Only an advertisement can do that": this is the motto under which the Swiss Press Association is launching a new offensive - and employing ten agencies. "The aim of the image campaign is to position print advertising in the market as powerful, diverse and appealing," explains Daniel Ehrat. The publishing and marketing manager of the St.Galler Tagblatt is the president of a working group in the Swiss Press Association (VSP), which commissioned this large-scale campaign. Toni Vetterli, Head of Marketing, and project manager Pepi Burch are in charge of the idea at the office. The slogan and design framework for the campaign were developed by the advertising agency Matter & Partner. In the previous campaign last year, CEOs of advertising-intensive companies gave testimonials explaining why print media is indispensable for their advertising. Around 80 newspapers and magazines in German, French and Italian-speaking Switzerland published the five full-page advertisements for around seven months.
Not just one, but ten advertising agencies are now to create a sequel. For the new campaign, these advertising agencies have been asked to creatively address and communicate the benefits of print advertising. The ten agencies - who also serve print media as clients - had to design an advertisement for the ad within a design framework. The claim "Only an advertisement can do that." was specified.
The fact that a dialog about the diverse qualities of print advertising had to develop in the participating agencies during the creation of the advertising subjects was "a desired side effect," says Burch.
The first three subjects were created by Weber Hodel Schmid, Zurich, Contexta, Bern, and Festland, St.Gallen. Further advertisements will follow from cR DDB, Basel, and the Zurich agencies Euro RSCG Partner, GGK, Guy Benker, Matter & Partner, Wirz Werbung and Ruedi Wyler.
"New creative competition "The agencies are compensated for their efforts with a lump sum of CHF 5,000 each. In addition, the printing of the advertisements in around 80 percent of all print titles in Switzerland naturally provides a platform for the agencies' own advertising - if they want to use it. The campaign could also be seen as a creative competition. The footer of each advertisement contains the note: "This is how agency xy promotes the advertisement.".
By the start of the campaign at the beginning of June, publishers from over 70 titles had pledged their support with free advertising space. More will be added in the course of the campaign, as experience from previous campaigns has shown. Publimedia will "thankfully" take care of the ad scheduling. Data transmission will be handled exclusively via PrintOnline.
The advertising subjects are now available at www.schweizerpresse.ch. At the end of the year, readers will be able to vote for their favorite subject via coupon and the Internet and take part in a lucrative competition. The advertising agency of the winning advertisement will receive a Swiss Press Award 2004 at the Epiphany Conference.
Among the various measures accompanying the print offensive, the Media Institute of the Swiss Press Association is also offering a workshop on "Influencing strategic media category decisions". The aim of the course is to establish sales consultants in the sales force as competent discussion partners for contacts in the market. In addition, the "Best Practice" planning tool has been updated and reissued for the fourth time. Finally, the OneStopShop www.media search.ch was launched as planned at the beginning of May with an updated range of content comprising over 400 links.
Festland (above), Weber Hodel Schmid (l.) and Contexta open the Swiss Press Association's image campaign series for advertising.

Andreas Panzeri

Retail trade TBWA uses a boy and his questions to advertise the Coop organic label Naturaplan. "Is milk from unhappy cows sour?" Swiss consumers have been confronted with such childishly naive questions since May. On posters, advertisements and in commercials, a boy ponders the wonders of nature for Coop. The occasion is the anniversary year of the organic label Naturaplan, which the Basel-based retail group launched in 1993. Thanks to last year's sales of around one billion Swiss francs, Naturaplan now accounts for half of the entire Swiss organic market. According to Coop, it has also made a "significant contribution to the spread of organic farming in Switzerland". Making this achievement the subject of the campaign was too easy for the creative team at the Coop pool agency TBWA in Küsnacht. "We persuaded the client to dispense with a performance show and instead communicate the Naturaplan philosophy with emotional images," says CD and concept designer Hans-Joachim Timm, explaining his strategy.
Blond-haired Dani, who was born in the Naturaplan launch year, was chosen for the emotional address. The boy should embody the future and philosophy of Naturaplan in equal measure, explains Timm. Just as Dani still has his life ahead of him, Coop is only at the beginning of the Naturaplan program. Among all the questions that the TBWA copywriters put into the toddler's mouth is the answer to what the organic commitment is all about: "It's all really non-chemical."
Naturaplan from Coop: Nature boy Daniel is as old as the green competence brand.

Simone Keller

Private TV The special-interest channel Star TV and the telephone service provider Voice Publishing are currently testing a new participation program.private TV The special-interest channel Star TV and the telephone service provider Voice Publishing are currently testing a new participation program.
New join-in show. The singles show "Star Date", in which four women and men briefly introduce themselves, is running - still
without a fixed broadcasting slot - every evening. The audience can send a message to singles via SMS for a fee. According to a press release, Star TV and Voice Publishing want to use the show to find out how far beyond
Interaction via chargeable
Data service a transmission format also
can be refinanced independently of advertising.

Publisher marketing The Bund newspaper does not shy away from tricky ways of advertising subscriptions and customers and relies on "cross-media staging." Anyone shopping in larger Migros stores in and around Bern on the past three Saturdays was asked at the checkouts by young people wearing Bund caps and T-shirts: "Can I help you with the packing?" For those who didn't mind, helpful hands stowed the goods in the shopping trolley they had brought with them or in a bag from the Bern daily newspaper. Finally, Migros customers were offered a free copy of the latest edition of the paper. The campaign was announced on Radio BE1, which belongs to the Bund Group, in the Anzeiger Region Bern, in the newspaper itself and on posters in the Migros stores. the campaign, which took place on three Saturdays and in nine large Migros stores, was a success for all sides. Raoul Wanger, responsible for marketing at the Bund Group, had the most reason to be satisfied. "We had 50,000 personal contacts, gained a lot of sympathy, and many Bund carrier bags have been in circulation ever since. Achieving the same result with traditional advertising would have cost us significantly more," he says.
However, he does not believe that the campaign will cause the Bund's circulation to skyrocket. "Our aim was primarily to support the newspaper's image and correct it where necessary," says Wanger. According to Medienradar, the Bund is read by progressive and young people. "Dynamic, helpful, likeable" - these are other attributes that should stick in the minds of the public. "If we have succeeded in doing this, and there are many indications that we have, perhaps people will be more willing to order a Bund trial subscription the next time they receive a mailing or phone call," hopes Wanger.
In view of the deficit of eight million francs and the uncertain future of the newspaper, however, this marketing campaign seems like a desperate grab for a lifebelt. According to Wanger, the campaign has nothing to do with the current situation at the Confederation or the reduced marketing budget. Rather, he has been looking for new, more effective forms of subscription and customer acquisition since he took up his position at the Confederation three years ago. This includes integrating as many of the Bund Group's media as possible. The Packer campaign was not the Bund's first cross-media campaign, and he is also looking for corresponding ideas for advertising customers.
The visit of the fake divaIn February, Wanger developed a daring campaign for Mediamarkt Lyssach with the aim of
video projector to customers as a home cinema device. To this end, a fake Hollywood diva drove up to Bern several times in a stretch limousine over the course of a week and handed out real tenners. She also stayed at the Hotel Schweizerhof every day. The whole thing was daring because Radio BE1 tracked down the staged diva, involved listeners in the search and regularly reported on the mysterious lady, even in news reports. The presenters also praised the advantages on the microphone
of video beamers. A competition was organized and information about it was posted on ebund.com. Mediamarkt placed advertisements in various newspapers. These featured the logos of BE1 and eBund - with the information that further information on video projectors could be found on the website (which the competition was not particularly pleased about).
Although this cross-media approach did not immediately increase sales of video projectors, it did lead to a higher demand for these devices, explains Peter Gast, Managing Director of Mediamarkt Lyssach. Today, he is convinced by such cross-media presentations and is already planning the next project. However, Wanger and Gast openly admit that the mix of staging, advertising and editorial work moves in a legal gray area and that both sides could also put their image at risk. "But the risk is justifiable," says Gast.
Cross-media bagging: Small bundle surprise for Migros customers in Bern.

Successful marketing for the Confederation: Raoul Wanger.
Losses in the countryside, gains in the city

For a number of years, the Bund was able to maintain its circulation at a good 68,000 copies. At the last certification, however, it fell by 2.9 percent to 6,6606 copies. This has to do with the discontinuation of the Biel-Seeland and Thun-Oberland fascicles, says Raoul Wanger. In the city and region of Bern, on the other hand, the core area of the Bund, circulation is growing slowly but steadily, especially since the relaunch last fall. According to Mach Basic 2002, the Bund has 14,000 readers. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

The first postgraduate course in "Internal Communication" starts in November 2003 in Zurich and is aimed at communication specialists, HR specialists, company organizers, OE specialists and managers who would like to gain further training in internal communication. It takes place on a part-time basis and can accommodate a maximum of 25 participants. It is organized by the Swiss Public Relations Institute (SPRI). The course lasts 17 days, divided into seven short blocks, from November to April 2004. The information brochure and registration documents can be ordered directly from SPRI (Tel. 01 299 40 40) or downloaded from www.spri.ch.

Press distribution The Valora Group's Board of Directors has given the company a new strategy. Having lost confidence in Reto Hartmann "due to serious overstepping of competencies", the Valora Board of Directors has replaced the previous CEO with Marketing Director Peter Wüest (50). According to the communiqué, the decision was taken unanimously. At a telephone press conference on June 11, Valora Chairman Peter Küpfer declined to comment on the accusations directed at Hartmann. Following the announcement of the dismissal, Valora shares rose by 18.7 percent by the close of trading.
Wüest, who has only been a member of Valora's Group Executive Management since March 1, 2003, was previously a member of the Executive Board of the Nuance Group. Josef Jungo, formerly Managing Director of the K-Group and currently Head of the Valora Retail division, has been appointed Deputy CEO.
In addition, the BoD also made a change in the company's strategic direction - "to ensure sustainable profitability and to regain the earnings power of 2001", as the communiqué put it. According to the statement, Valora is to concentrate on internal growth and forego external growth. In any case, Wüest announced that no new acquisitions would be made in the next 18 to 24 months. In addition, parts of the business that are not required will be sold. No details were given as to which parts of the business would be sold, but it is clear that Valora will retain its Retail and Trade divisions.
(mk)

For the fourth time, the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) is presenting an annual report to mark the 10th anniversary of the Federal Office, which was established on April 1, 1992. In addition to looking at the activities of 2002, the report also looks at the general development of the communications landscape over the past decade. The Lucerne-based design agency Hug & Dorfmüller was responsible for the design of the report. Together with the PR agency C-Matrix, they placed the employees of Bakom at the center of the 47-page brochure alongside the number 10. The 2002 annual report is available for download in PDF format at www.bakom.ch.

Brand research In Switzerland, the trend is towards domestic brands, according to the Brand Asset Valuator study conducted for the fourth time by the advertising agency Advico Young & Rubicam. Since the last study in 2000, the values "traditional", "charming charisma" and "sensual" have become more important to consumers, explained Strategy Manager David Allemann. In contrast, "future-oriented" and "innovative" have lost importance. There are 14 domestic brands among the 20 strongest brands in Switzerland. Appenzeller cheese, Ragusa, Ricola and Sugus are newly represented. Foreign brands represented include Chiquita (new), Coca-Cola, Lego, Nivea, Nutella (new) and Uncle Ben's. Barilla, Emmentaler, Kellogg's, SBB, Sinalco and Tilsiter have disappeared from the ranking.

Print Blondes are not only sought after because of their supposedly high IQ, they also have a number of other talents with which hydrogen diva Marilyn Monroe turned men's heads. The guerrilla poster campaign designed by the McCann-Erickson Switzerland agency for the Blond hairdressing salon in Zurich is also about heads and blondes. What reads like a statement that is not entirely appropriate for young people reveals itself at second glance as a typographic play on prejudices and stereotypes. Which is not to say, of course, that blondes are not good at what is implied. CD: Dominik Imseng, AD: Andrea Dübendorfer and text: Susi Kammergruber for the (blonde?) managers Josefine Fistar and Sandra Kummer. (la)

Continuing education The Media Training Center (MAZ) in Lucerne and the Swiss Public Relations Institute (SPRI) are coordinating their continuing education courses for institutional communication, with the MAZ taking the lead in the area of media relations and the SPRI in the other areas. The two institutes want to develop new courses and jointly advertise courses.

The South African Embassy in Switzerland has commissioned the Bern-based marketing and communications agency Aidentity to launch a campaign to mark the tenth anniversary of the country's liberation from apartheid. The campaign will begin in 2004 and culminate on South Africa's national holiday, April 27.

Magazines Music First, the official free magazine for the youth radio station 105, was published for the first time on June 12, and the station's slogan became the magazine's title. With the magazine, Radio 105 wants to offer a listener loyalty tool with a service character. It accompanies campaigns and promotions, presents new music, introduces 105 shows or reports on concerts presented by 105. The first number shows the range of the 105 program: Hip-hop boys Afrob and Samy Deluxe, the hip-hop show "Dope", trance queen DJ Tatana, nu metal newcomers Evanescene and the Street Parade are represented, as are Eros Ramazzotti, Mariah Carey and Madonna. Superstar Eminem adorns the front cover.