Goldbach Media has to do without Hans Ueli Keller. Keller, who has been a board delegate since the company was founded in May 2001, will leave the media marketer in mid-June. ...
Since the beginning of April, Ute Müller has joined the art execution team of the dialog marketing agency Fisch Meier Direkt in Adliswil as AD.
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The agency Facing in Zurich, which specializes in brand development and design, is expanding. Felix Ebneter has joined the team as Senior Designer and Simon Neuner as Consultant.
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Geologist and Atlantis researcher Eberhard Zangger has opened his new communications agency Zangger.org in Zurich. He specializes in public relations work for companies and individuals in the fields of science and technology.
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Enrico Bachmann will become Creative Director at the Grey Worldwide advertising agency in Zurich from the beginning of July. In this role, he will join the management team.
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The PR manager of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI), Christian Zwinggi, is setting up his own business. Together with
Eva Gerber, he founded the consulting firm Gerber & Zwinggi GmbH for innovation and communication in Zurich.
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Stephan Howeg will take over as Head of Corporate Communications at cable network operator Cablecom at the beginning of May. He replaces Theresia Büsser, who is leaving the company.
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The Federal Office for the Environment, Forests and Landscape (Buwal) has parted company with its Head of Communications, Walter Wenger.
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Südostschweiz New Media AG (SNM), the Internet division of the Graubünden publishing house of the same name, has taken over Inspire Media GmbH. Andreas Kemp, founder of Inspire Media, which operates in Chur and Zurich, will become Head of Web Solutions at SNM. Marco Baikhardt, Kemp's predecessor, is leaving SNM at his own request.
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Janine Portmann has joined the Bern-based communications agency Maurer & Partner as a PR assistant.

Outdoor advertising The wait for the poster concessions in Lucerne and Basel continues, and the city of Lucerne intends to launch the tender for billposting on public land this year, as ordered by the Competition Commission (Weko). However, Daniel Bernet, a lawyer at the building department, confirms that no content has yet been determined. It is therefore doubtful that the new concession can be awarded as planned from 2004. Lucerne had awarded the concession to the concession holder Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft (APG) without a tender, whereupon Clear Channel Plakanda (CCP) filed a complaint with the Weko.waiting also in Basel: after a five-year delay and a successful tender, APG was also awarded the contract here by the building department, but CCP filed a complaint against the decision with the administrative court. The proceedings are still ongoing due to extensions of the deadline and a decision is expected to be made in the fall, according to Gabrielle Kremo from the administrative court.
(mk)

Comment Private advertising detractors who complain professionally about the advertising slump are not without a certain irony. This also applies to publishers, who officially smile at direct marketing but are increasingly using it to achieve their own goals. This saying should not always be taken at its word. Nevertheless, it is astonishing to find the infamous little star behind a number of prominent names from the publishing industry in Twixtel, which quickly mutates into a stop sticker on letterboxes. But how are the starving Swiss newspaper barons and their managers supposed to fare any better if they even have it written in the electronic telephone directory that they don't want any advertising? The Swisscom list of official advertising detractors, researched at the touch of a button, is long and ranges from Charles von Graffenried (Espace Media) and Matthias Hagemann (Basler Mediengruppe) to Martin Kall (Tamedia), Tobias Trevisan (NZZ) and Ueli Eckstein (AZ Medien Gruppe) to Publicitas boss Hans-Peter Rohner. And the Jean Frey management team - headed by Filippo Leutenegger and Uli Rubner - apparently had their addresses blocked in corpore. Only in Ringier's executive suite are there no asterisk (banner) bearers - although since the Borer affair, the landlord himself no longer has a public telephone number that he could have marked accordingly.
Well, thinks the unsuspecting observer, perhaps the entries date back to the boom years, when overly euphoric advertising departments occasionally took the liberty of simply rejecting less attractive customer orders. But no such luck - after all, the digital information is constantly updated. Ultimately, the only remaining explanation is the very comforting fact that the print patrons' advertising phobia is directed against the arch-enemy of direct marketing and not against the traditional advertising on which they themselves live (or have lived) for two thirds of their existence.
But wait, isn't the next common industry schizophrenia already lurking here? Aren't publishers themselves increasingly relying on mailings, call centers and other direct advertising methods aimed at quick sales success - and thus paying homage to the very short-term thinking that they repeatedly and eloquently complain about with their advertising customers? Of course, the rulers of the fourth estate are also subject to the laws of the market; and it is well known that these do not require business leaders to speak and act consistently or consistently, but only profitably.
Speaking of consistency: the argumentation of this commentary is of course not entirely watertight. Otherwise, for example, there would also have to be an asterisk above the name of the former publishing director of the Tages-Anzeiger. But Dietrich Berg has never opposed advertising in his private life either - and yet he still failed "on the job". The fact that Berg's successor Maili Wolf is already exercising her "right to refuse acceptance" two months before taking office does not bode well for Switzerland's largest subscription newspaper.
But perhaps she is taking a leaf out of Peter Hartmeier's book. As the former head of the association and company spokesman, the current editor-in-chief of the Tagi newspaper knows that he cannot ignore the wishes and techniques of the advertising industry in such difficult times, even within his own four walls.
> Oliver Classen, Editor

Theft Whoever has the damage doesn't have to worry about the ridicule. Around 2000 thieves who were convicted of newspaper theft by an internal Edipresse police force can tell you a thing or two about that. Last week, Le Matin had some of its open newspaper boxes monitored and fined the thieves heavily. The thieves caught in flagrante delicto trotted off relieved of 100 francs instead of a freshly printed newspaper. The Lausanne publishers' politeness is silent on whether they did so while singing wild songs.

Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett (SFLB) is the new advertising agency of the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks (VSKB), replacing Wirz Werbung as budget holder. SFLB impressed in a competitive presentation with a creative concept that focuses on people and dramatizes the most important core values of the cantonal banks in a credible way, advertising manager Elisabeth Bürgin was quoted as saying in a press release. The new umbrella image campaign is to be launched in 2004 with several TV commercials.

Retail Two new campaigns by Exxtra Kommunikation aim to strengthen the expertise of Migros' own brands Caffè Caruso and Slimline What do an Italian beauty and an obese cardboard figure have in common? They both drink. One drinks espresso, the other reduced-fat milk - in a figurative sense. The aim of the two TV commercials and ads from the Exxtra kitchen is to promote the two Migros product lines.
to a stronger market presence. With good reason: during the
retailer occupies 36 percent of the Swiss coffee market, it has to be in
When it comes to espresso, the field is largely left to brand manufacturers.
With a TV commercial and print ads for the Caruso coffee brand, Migros wants to expand its share of the growing espresso sub-market. "In our search for differentiation from high-profile brands, we quickly got stuck on the name," comments Exxtra Head of Consulting Stefan Erhart on the creative strategy. It was a logical conclusion that the spot's protagonist sips her espresso to Enrico Caruso's interpretation of Puccini's aria "Donna non vidi mai" from "Manon Lescaut". According to Erhart, the cover "La voce d'Italia" stands "for Caruso's voice and the approval of the Italian way of life in equal measure."
Escaped from the beauty shadow
The 20-second commercial for the Slimline range, which was launched at the same time as the Caruso commercial and was mainly advertised in the context of the Miss Switzerland pageants over the past two years, is completely devoid of Italianità and almost toneless. This year, the low-fat dairy product line wants to step out of this beauty shadow and appeal to a broader target group. This is because Slimline is also aimed at line-conscious men, as Michael Gassler, consulting group manager at Exxtra, emphasizes. In line with the product, the creative team led by CD Dieter Hofmann has also streamlined the communication. For the first 13 seconds of the commercial, the viewer only sees a poster with the headline "Slimline works for everyone. Sooner or later." Also in the picture is an obese cardboard chef standing in front of a restaurant. The viewer only realizes that the noiselessness is not due to a defect in the TV set when the poster falls to the ground with a bang and the cardboard figure - turned by the wind - presents its "Slimline".
The introduction of the Slimline umbrella brand has also had an impact on consumers: "Sales of Slimline yogurts have almost doubled compared to the yogurts previously offered as light varieties," says Gassler. The line has a share of over 50 percent of the overall market for low-fat dairy products.
Simone Keller

Mediasearch.ch, the portal for media planning of the Swiss Press Association, will be officially launched on May 8th After the editorial content was compiled in collaboration with the Media Trend Journal in the first quarter, around 400 links have already been accessible without a password in a trial phase since the end of March. As a "one-stop store", Mediasearch .ch will offer direct access to the data of individual media and to the databases of information providers, marketers and research institutes and will be regularly updated and expanded.

Advertising statistics Gross advertising expenditure in Switzerland fell by 6.3% in March compared to the same month last year. Out-of-home advertising suffered, falling by 21.9 percent, while daily newspapers lost 8.3 percent. Trade journals performed worse than in February with a loss of 11.1%, while consumer magazines recovered somewhat with a loss of 0.9%. TV advertising was balanced (- 0.1 %), while advertising expenditure in teletext fell by 8.3%. There were only positive changes for radio (+ 4.8 %) and cinema (+ 39.2 %).

Print Gucci knows women as well as shampoo producer Charles Worthington, because there are a few rules of behaviour that the female sex has internalized and that are always popular in campaigns: Firstly, they throw themselves at men's feet as if hypnotized (usually the covers also fall off as if by magic), and secondly, they pull each other's hair out. Intelligence plays no role here. Otherwise every woman would probably boycott Worthington products, at least after reading the small print on the advertisement. It says: "Charles Worthington brings a complete range of haircare products from the salon to your bathroom. Unfortunately, with the great-looking hair comes green-eyed monsters." If that's not a case for Ed Fagan: a shampoo that turns women into monsters. Better to fall in front of a man's Gucci suit with unwashed hair - or not at all. (ck)

Advertising statistics Newspapers in Switzerland recorded a total of 16.3 percent fewer advertisements in March than in the same month of the previous year, a decline of 14.9 percent over the first quarter, according to Wemf's advertising statistics. The small newspapers with circulations of less than 20,000 copies, whose advertising volume was still up in 2002, also lost a significant 17.5 percent in March. The free newspapers lost 6.4 percent. Magazines recorded a 16.4 percent drop in advertising. Business papers (minus 27.4 %) and special interest titles (minus 21.3 %) also suffered heavy losses.

PR The Basel-based specialist agency for life sciences, Com Factory, is to be integrated into the PR network Trimedia Communications Switzerland.Com Factory and Trimedia had already agreed to work together last July under the Trimedia Life Science label. Now the business activities will be completely merged. Martin Eckert, Jacques Reiner and Henner Lappe from Com Factory will join the Trimedia management team.

The media consulting agency Publicom, together with its corporate publishing subsidiary Medianovis, is launching a tool for evaluating corporate media called "Corporate Media (CM) BasicCheck", which takes into account the strategic basis, journalistic performance and profitability of customer and employee magazines using a benchmark-capable procedure. According to Publicom, the CM BasicCheck is particularly suitable for publishers who want feedback on their media but do not want to conduct market research. In terms of methodology, it is a standardized expert check that takes around 100 different criteria into account.