Sporting goods marketing What would a young summer be without the Sportplausch-Wider bike campaign? That's why Publicis is making us happy again this year with a job for the specialist store. In order to attract as many bikers as possible to Wallisellen, the CD duo Markus Gut and Markus Ruf are following in the footsteps of Albert Manser. In the style of naive peasant painting, they have painted an alpine parade à la Sportplausch Wider: instead of decorated cows, a convoy of nursing staff climbs the mountain. Conclusion: "Mountain bikes from Sportplausch Wider are not harmless sports equipment."

According to a new study by market researcher Prognos, online advertising has a future despite all the prophecies of doom: its market share in Switzerland is set to rise from 0.3 percent today to 1.5 percent by 2007. Prognos sees a dark future for paid content offers. An end to the "culture of free Internet use" is a long way off, with the sale of content accounting for barely more than 10 percent of total sales by 2007.

Radio TCS is launching a new traffic information center with private radio stations. 30 June sees TCS parting company with Viasuisse in Biel and launching its own traffic information center. This was announced by Patrick Jorand, Head of Information Services. Viasuisse, founded two years ago by SRG, TCS and SBB, distributes traffic information via SRG radios. Jorand said that TCS's withdrawal was based on a study according to which listeners primarily want traffic information from their region and hardly any from the whole of Switzerland, and TCS wants to meet this need with its own project. As a media partner, it has won 20 of the largest private radio stations, as Jorand says. He does not want to name names. However, he is certain that the new TCS-financed service will be available nationwide from July 1. And does not rule out the possibility of other radios being included at a later date. He is also open to SBB's involvement.
(mk)

Specialty Publishers: *Die Werbewoche* has been sold. The Bertelsmann Group has paid the firmly budgeted 1.05 billion euros for its specialized information division, BertelsmannSpringer—which comprises approximately 70 publishers, including *Die Werbewoche*’s publisher, Media Daten AG. The publishing group that has now been divested is part of the globally active
It was acquired by the private equity firms Cinven and Candover.

Business journalism An exaggerated cult of the CEO and shortcomings in information policy are clouding relations between business and the media, and business reporting has broken out of its former traditional columns and is threatening to get out of hand: On the Blick front page, the misdeeds of a CEO provide just as palatable material as the demands of an airline boss for more cash. On the other hand, captains of industry can also be depicted in the comfort of their own homes and cater to the emotional worlds of magazines and their readers. Keywords such as balance sheet fraud, mass redundancies and the New Economy crash are fueling an increasingly fierce competition between more and more newspapers and magazines. At the same time, the aggressiveness of reporting is increasing and also threatening to come apart at the seams - so the question that the panel of the International Advertising Association (IAA) posed to its most recent panel discussion must be allowed: "Tension between business and the media: who is instrumentalizing whom?"
NZZ head of economics Gerhard Schwarz diagnosed "a certain downward spiral", with attention often being drawn in the wrong direction. This is also due to the fact that around a third of those,
who are business journalists
are actually corporate journalists. "And they write about the person, their psychology and motives - but not about what these CEOs are actually paid to do: namely run a business." Kuoni CEO Hans Lerch also denounced an increasing "exaggeration and destructive policy" in business journalism, in which the headline has become more important than factual reporting.
Does the way out lie in more training and further education for business journalists? The question of whether business journalists are able to analyze the balance sheet of a major bank seriously at all only showed how strained the relationship is. "In view of the balance sheet falsifications we have experienced, this question is no longer so relevant," was Hanspeter Bürgin's succinct and anything but resigned answer.
According to NZZ-Schwarz, the tabloidization of business reporting has also further increased the demands on editorial teams. "The art of the tabloid is simplification, but the right one. And that doesn't always work. If you do tabloid journalism right, it's more difficult than NZZ journalism."
However, the "spiral" diagnosed by the panel participants cannot be blamed on journalists alone. It also has to do with the reading needs of Sunday readers, for example. "Because they are primarily looking for the frivolity of Sunday when reading." Aloys Hirzel, doyen of Swiss PR and former advisor to Werner K. Rey, added that this tabloidized form of business reporting cannot always be a matter of minnes, and that we have to live with it.
The NZZ doesn't like the fact that this change in perspective has led to an excessive personalization of companies through CEOs who are constantly present in the media: "We don't see the company, but the person at the top," criticized Schwarz. However, because a large company consists of thousands of employees, the wrong message is being conveyed. The greed of many CEOs for more and more media presence is also to blame. "The
CEOs are involved far too much, especially in the private part, which has little to do with their job. All these home stories are not only damaging for the individuals concerned in the long term, they are just as damaging for the companies and ultimately for the image of the economy and our system," Schwarz criticized.
"Soft values" also countThe personification is actually spot on, contradicted the TA journalist Bürgin. "After all, it's also about recognizing the deeper driving forces of managers, i.e.
to understand their psychology. In the case of managers who have stumbled, a lot could certainly be explained by their personality." Hirzel also does not see personification as a reason for the tense relationship. The CEO must also communicate so-called soft values, which include an ethical attitude, for example. "And this is a task that they can ideally perform via the media," says Hirzel.
The two examples of botched corporate communications at McDonald's and Swiss showed that playing with the media can also end in a fiasco. More serious than the personal failure of Waldemar Nuvall, CEO of McDonald's Switzerland, were the blunders in the communications management of the crisis. An external PR consultant had tried - bypassing the internal communications department - to persuade the media to keep the issue on a low heat or even ignore it. The consequences of this policy are well known: The affair ended in a shambles. Not only Nuvall, but also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of McDonald's Switzerland and Head of Communications Andrea Hemmi resigned. "A disaster for a global brand," was Hirzel's assessment of how the scandal unfolded.
The latest crash of Swiss aviation was also seen as a debacle, this time in terms of corporate communications. The blunder related to CEO André Dosé, who first presented his economic demands to the Federal Council in Blick. "You can't inform the Federal Council about the items on the agenda for the near future via the newspaper - and also include what you think about each item on the agenda and what you expect from the Federal Council," Hirzel stated. A flagship company has thus demonstrated that it has "not even mastered the basics of corporate communication".
Personalized business stories: a reflection of a reality that serves the economy and the media.

The crash of the new economy has also left behind a critical relationship between business and business journalism. Reason enough for the International Advertising Association Swiss Chapter to host a panel discussion last week. The "case of damage" was examined by the panelists Ralph
Büchi, HandelsZeitung publishing group (moderator); Hans Lerch, CEO Kuoni AG; Aloys Hirzel, Hirzel Neef Schmid; Gerhard Schwarz, head of the NZZ business editorial team since 1994, and Hanspeter Bürgin, editor and head of news at Tages-Anzeiger. (dse)
Daniel Schifferle

Tourism The Graubünden Alpine Arena is focusing on hiking and biking this summer. And for good reason: hiking is in vogue, so even hip young snowboarders are hitting the trails in summer and enjoying active recreation on foot. Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett has created two striking, amazing visuals that get to the heart of the offer. A hiking boot with its tongue hanging down from exhaustion is the main source of sympathy. The baseline makes it clear why: "250 km of hiking trails." A small subline comforts all thirsty people: "And 70 restaurants to refuel."

French advertising network Publicis Worldwide is inheriting the budgets that drinks group Allied Domecq (AD) withdrew from UK-based Cordiant Holding last week.French advertising network Publicis Worldwide is inheriting the budgets that drinks group Allied Domecq (AD) withdrew from UK-based Cordiant Holding last week. This involves the total worldwide budget for marketing services for AD spirits and the advertising budget for the brands Ballantine's, Tia
Maria and Malibu. According to the trade magazine Advertising Age, Publicis has already handled the Beefeater gin, Kahlua liqueur and Stolichnaya vodka for AD.

CardinalNow they're flying again, the Cardinal owls - everywhere where AdRaters are also carousing: this time with alcohol. Cheers to the campaign? Sure, to www.werbewoche.ch/adrating
Perskindol
Perskindol also helps with acute creative complaints - there is no other explanation for the popularity of the campaign.
Top 70,55%
Flop 29.45%

Antwerpes & Partner in Basel is realizing the launch campaign for the hypertension drug Co-ACEpril for Spirig Pharma. The Swiss branch of the Cologne-based communications agency convinced Spirig with the slogan "Double the power against high blood pressure and costs", which is intended to express the product benefits of the combination preparation for lowering blood pressure. Antwerpes & Partner in Basel concentrates on the healthcare market and, in addition to Spirig, also looks after Bayer, Roche Pharma and Janssen-Cilag.

Jean Frey AG Uli Rubner becomes publishing director of Bilanz, not least thanks to her journalistic expertise When Bilanz editor-in-chief Medard Meier explains his strategy, he describes Bilanz as an "aircraft carrier" with planes taking off and landing. By airplanes, he meant additional activities such as TV, the Internet and special editions. However, this has only worked to a limited extent. TV has never made a profit, the Internet only costs money, and the special editions were usually, but not always, profitable. Meier therefore never really succeeded in establishing his brand beyond the main magazine. On the contrary: he had to cut back. This is why the legal form of WM Wirtschaftsmedien AG - a relic from the time when the German publishing group Holtzbrinck was a shareholder - no longer makes sense. It will be dissolved and the publishing house integrated into Jean Frey AG (JF). JF CEO Filippo Leutenegger explains this as follows: "The previous strategy no longer guaranteed success. We have therefore merged the two publishing houses in order to create synergies." The fact that Weltwoche publishing director Uli Rubner is now also to take over the management of Bilanz is probably more than just a cost-cutting measure. Obviously, she is to take over more of the helm from Captain Meier. Leutenegger does not say this directly, but he is blunt about it. In any case, he chose Rubner not only because she "did a great job at Weltwoche", but also because "as a former business journalist, she knows something about journalism".
Markus Knöpfli

Commuter newspapers Following the purchase of 20 Minuten by Tamedia, the Zürich Express will once again become the Tagblatt of the city of Zurich on June 2 and will be positioned as a newspaper with the city's official gazette. The new daily newspaper will be distributed to 1,400,000 households in the city of Zurich on weekdays - with a new design and five editorial pages per issue.

The general staff of the communications industry gathered on the shores of Lac Léman last week for the Day of Advertising, where the main focus of the event, in addition to five member and general meetings of advertising associations, was the alliance against advertising bans. In view of the impending restrictions on the industry, it is beginning to feel like the third estate referred to in the title, meaning the politically disenfranchised class in pre-revolutionary France. The creeping disenfranchisement of commercial communication hangs like a sword of Damocles over Swiss advertising heads.
speech, SW President Carlo Schmid Sutter branded such a policy of bans and called for a fight. Indeed, the vocabulary regarding advertising bans is becoming increasingly martial. After years of minor skirmishes, it seems that a decisive battle is being waged once again. After all, exactly ten years ago the Swiss people defeated the twin initiative (ban on alcohol and tobacco advertising) by over 70 percent - now attempts are being made to introduce advertising restrictions via the cantonal back door, for example in Geneva.
Freedom of expression and censorship - this kind of argument makes the democratic Swiss prick up their ears. In any case, these disputes are likely to occupy us intensively as soon as the discussion becomes public. Resist censorship is therefore also the main approach of the newly developed campaign against advertising bans, which replaces the old SW communication concept of advertising for advertising. In a stringent and clear presentation, Publicis Managing Director Cornelia Harder showed the strategy and ideas behind the campaign, including the first subjects (see also WW 18/03). And after Harder's explanations, the writer finally realized who the protagonist Darcy Maguire in the Mel Gibson commercial "What Women Want" constantly reminded him of.
Kremlin-like conditions prevailed at the various members' and general meetings. Not because the respective presidents were harassing their party members, but because all motions, votes and reports were adopted and approved without dissent.
President Hans-Peter Rohner reported a record year for the Sawi, which for the first time in thirty years did not require any subsidies and closed with a profit of over CHF 400,000 (no wonder, given the high share prices). At the general meeting of Idée-VfW, a pleasing turnaround was announced. After years of declining membership, the number of members finally increased again in 2002. In addition, a boules and a golf event will be offered this year. The main items on the agenda for the AGM were new appointments to the Board of Directors, for which the votes were unreservedly in favor of the proposals made by the President and the Executive Board.
Lova Golovtchiner provided an entertaining interlude with his satirical talent. He is a French version of Viktor Giacobbo and, thanks to the TSR Saturday evening program "Le fond de la corbeille", has long since ceased to be an insider tip for Francophone and Francophile Swiss-German contemporaries. Last but not least, the obligatory boat trip on Lake Geneva was also a great pleasure, as a huge, colorful rainbow could be seen stretching from the Lausanne shore to Evian - a harbinger of the approaching G8 summit rainbow, so to speak.
Cabaret artist Lova Golovtchiner predicts advertising bans on mayonnaise and celery sticks.
Beat Fritschals President of Idée - Association for Advertising Communication - reading out the annual report. The general assembly of Idée-VfW also took place on Advertising Day in Lausanne, alongside those of Sawi, SDV, FRP and SW. Typical Fritsch: he celebrates work as it happens...
We find out where the communications, media and publishing scene meets for its events at a wide variety of events.
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