Following an agency evaluation, Stadtmarketing Basel has chosen the advertising agency Schneider Berthoud (SB) to further develop the image campaign "Basel tickt anders", which has been running since August 2000. The campaign was realized by John Schmid TMP together with Stadtmarketing Basel and Basel companies and organizations.

Internet According to the first wave of MA Net in 2003, 3.475 million Swiss people currently use the Internet, which corresponds to 61.4 percent of the population aged 14 and over. According to this survey, 2.556 million Swiss people surf the Internet daily or several times a week. The proportion of regular Internet users is slightly higher in German-speaking Switzerland than in French-speaking Switzerland - 47% compared to 42%. And this figure is significantly higher compared to Ticino. There, 34% of the population have access to the web. In addition, 2.018 million Swiss or almost 6 out of 10 users access the Internet every day.

Pitch policy Intensive discussions are being held between the Competition Commission (ComCo) and the BSW about the newly introduced pitch lists, with the ComCo arguing that the requirement to report a pitch no longer allows competition to function freely. The BSW's fee recommendations are also a thorn in the side of the Competition Commission because they could be interpreted as collusion. The BSW has taken action in two cases so far. It is currently dealing with a case in which ten agencies presented at the same time - for a federal office. Another state organization in Geneva had 15 agencies pitch, paid them 7,000 francs - but in the end did not place an order: 105,000 francs of pointlessly wasted taxpayers' money.

Magazines With the help of Superman and co., Catapult wants to position the Ringier magazine Tele as the Swiss media magazine. "If it were a movie, you'd give it four stars and watch it all the time," said Steven Reddicliffe last fall in praise of the newly revamped TV magazine Tele. And the editor-in-chief of TV-Guide New York/Los Angeles was not the only laudator with this opinion. Less flattering judgments, such as Kurt-Emil Merki's review in the Aargauer Zeitung, also made the rounds. But if you believe those responsible at Tele, the facelift was and is a success across the board. Even if the total renovation was not (or no longer) able to compensate for the loss of circulation of the Ringier magazine, as the current Wemf figures show: The number of copies of Tele sold in 2002 fell by 4.3 percent to 214214. "These surveys are lagging behind," Petra Gayko, consultant at Tele's in-house agency Catapult, is convinced. She assures: "Both circulation and readership are currently on the upswing again." The team at the Euro-RSCG subsidiary has been working on a new campaign for the magazine since April. The main aim of this is to anchor Tele even more firmly as the Swiss media magazine. The current campaign focuses on two TV commercials that use black humour to dramatize the potential impact of Tele content on its readers: For example, a Superman throws himself off a balcony by his own mercy. And a big-city Tarzan mistakes his hanging lamp for a vine. The acoustic binder brand of muffled impact is reminiscent of TV presenters who introduce a daring experiment with "Dear children, you mustn't do that at home". The new claim "Attention, Tele is changing your leisure time" is also aimed in this direction. The print subjects "Baywatch", "101 Dalmatians" and "Pacman" are less successful. Based on the Tele sections TV, Movie and Multimedia, the three visuals are intended to dramatize the variety of topics covered by the magazine.
If you browse through Tele for too long, you end up becoming a cake baker or a lifeguard in your own bathtub.
Simone Keller

LZ Medien Thanks to the entry of NZZ, the Lucerne media holding company reported a consolidated profit for 2002 that was almost as high as in the previous year - and it has a bulging war chest.The 2002 results of LZ Medien must be viewed from a different angle than in previous years: until the beginning of 2002, Ringier still owned 49 percent of the Group's dairy cow Neue Luzerner Zeitung AG (NLZ), which is why Ringier was able to milk almost half of it before it had to be transferred to the LZ Medien stable for accounting purposes. In 2001, CHF 7.8 million flowed from Lucerne to Zurich. The more than 1,400 LZ Medien shareholders, who only have a stake in NLZ AG via the holding company, grumbled as they watched their skins swim away. With the takeover of Ringier's shareholding by NZZ a year ago, this game would have been continued with no cash withdrawal by NZZ.
However, the LZ Medien Board of Directors no longer wanted a minority shareholder in NLZ AG and entered into negotiations with NZZ. It offered it 33 percent of the holding company if it would contribute its NLZ share to the holding company. NZZ agreed, bought additional shares - including from Tamedia - and now holds 41.75 percent of LZ Medien.
The financial consequences are striking on both sides: if NZZ had remained a shareholder in NLZ AG like Ringier, it would now have been able to pocket an estimated CHF 5.5 million, which would probably have reduced LZ Medien's consolidated net profit to around CHF 3 million and the dividend would have been much lower - if one had been paid out at all. However, as a shareholder of LZ Medien, NZZ now only receives around CHF 650000 in dividends - a waiver that can be seen as real proof of NZZ's declared "long-term commitment" to Central Switzerland in view of the steep NZZ deficit.
LZ Medien can now report an operating result of CHF 15.3 million, which is CHF 5.4 million lower than in 2001 due to the lower advertising revenue. With a wink, Chairman of the Board Hans Kaufmann describes this as a "purely arithmetical" decline, precisely because LZ Medien has more money in its coffers at the end of the day. Kaufmann, who expects sales and profit figures for 2003 to be similar to those of last year, also proudly points to the cash flow margin of 18 percent and the equity ratio of now 63 percent.
Where is LZ Medien expanding to?
This means that BoD delegate Erwin Bachmann has a full war chest at his disposal. A fact to which Bachmann merely smiles meaningfully. He has already announced a new commitment: a 30 percent stake in Anzeiger Luzern. This is not only out of respect for the now buried Tamedia Express and 20 Minuten. This gives LZ Medien the opportunity to expand its (sales) boundaries somewhat.
For the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, which covers around 66 percent of all households in Central Switzerland, there is hardly any room for growth in terms of circulation. This is another reason why Bachmann is openly flirting with further stakes in electronic media, such as Radio Pilatus (currently 36.4%), Tele Tell (6.5%) and Radio Sunshine (16%). However, nothing concrete seems to be in sight, with the possible exception of the 18.3 percent stake in Radio Pilatus, which is still parked with Ringier and hardly makes any sense there (see WW 44/02).
The new media center, which is currently being planned and should be ready for occupation at the end of 2006, will also have a lot in store for LZ Medien. Although it has not yet been decided whether it will build it itself, the investment would be between 35 and 40 million francs.
The Neue Luzerner Zeitung, with its front pages, once again delivered fat profits to the holding company last year.
Markus Knöpfli

Almost a year after the debate between Frank Bodin and the ADC board, there is a new spat: following serious accusations against this year's ADC judging, Roland Hess and Tamàs Kiss have announced their resignation. They did not wish to comment on their motives. Kiss, co-owner of the agency Hesskiss, which was named Switzerland's Newcomer Agency in 2002, simply said: "You don't just resign from the ADC like that. Believe me, we had very, very good reasons."
Advertising Week knows: Hesskiss accuses the ADC of cheating during this year's judging. ADC boss Andreas Prokesch confirms: "The two have made serious accusations. Unfortunately, they have not specified what they are accusing us of." Alberto Venzago, Hans Tanner and André Benker are stepping down from the ADC board due to time constraints and because they want to make way for others.
(af)

PubliGroupe The Lausanne-based media and advertising group plugged significant loss holes last year and adapted to the harsh environment with a radical overhaul, eliminating sources of loss, divesting itself of investments outside its strategic priorities and cutting costs: The radical overhaul imposed last year has done PubliGroupe good. Operating costs fell by a total of 233 million francs (-34%) in 2002. The remaining business units also succeeded in reducing expenses by CHF 54 million (-11%). The media and advertising group's result is once again respectable and is positive at CHF 41 million, although the Directories division was the only one to defy the increasingly unfavorable economic environment and record a small increase. On the other hand, continuing operations recorded a 13 percent drop in sales. Sales by Swiss advertising intermediaries (PubliPresse) also fell by 13 percent. The main reason for this was the decline in job advertisements, which fell by 38 percent. Turnover from commercial advertisements was 5 percent down on the previous year.
Strong position for upswing
Despite adverse economic conditions, PubliGroupe CEO Hans-Peter Rohner was able to present a balance sheet that was considerably stronger than in the previous year. Debt had been reduced by CHF 99 million to CHF 136 million at the end of 2002 and equity increased by CHF 75 million to CHF 356 million. At the same time, net liquidity rose by CHF 63 million to CHF 18 million.
On the other hand, the reduction in the workforce was significant: As a result of the restructuring and the exit from the American Panoramic Communications, the number of employees was reduced by almost 20 percent or 721 employees to 2953 in 2002. By the end of the current year, the number of employees is to be reduced to around 2800. "PubliGroupe will have the best cards at its disposal to bring about a turnaround during the economic upturn", says Rohner.
PubliGroupe CEO Hans-Peter Rohner: Equipped for the future.
PubliGroupe in figuresIn CHF million 2001 2002 +/- in %
Turnover 2612 2150 -17.7
PubliPresse 1892 1646 -13.0
Publicitas Promotion Network 411 341 -17.0
PubliDirect 114 115 +0.9
PubliService, central services, and miscellaneous* 196 48 -75.5
Operating result -30 41 -
Net loss -185 -30 -
Dividend 0 0 -
Employees 3674 2953 -19.6
* Panoramic (2001 and 3 months in 2002), Real Media (2001), Namics Source: PubliGroupe
Daniel Schifferle

Training The Swiss Training Center for Marketing, Advertising and Communication (Sawi) achieved the best result in its history in 2002. Turnover amounted to CHF 11.3 million and cash flow to 8.4 percent. Founded in 1968, Sawi currently offers 60 courses and employs 32 staff. 450 lecturers teach around 2500 people per year in a militia system.

The TV advertising pool Tele-News-Combi (TNC) has been given its own website. In addition to a contact form, it offers short showreels of the individual member stations.TNC Managing Director Marcel Geissbühler explained that customers and above all media agencies had requested this service, as the TNC stations cannot be received throughout Switzerland and the programs are therefore not well known. The TNC includes Tele Bärn, Tele Basel, Tele M1, Tele Ostschweiz, Tele Tell, Tele Top and Tele Züri. www.telenewscombi.ch was designed by Markus Cavegn and realized by the online agency X-vantic in Oberdorf BL.

Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett will be responsible for the advertising launch for the Globus department store chain, which is opening the "Haus des Genusses" at Zurich's Bellevue on May 8, with TV and cinema spots as well as posters, advertisements and below-the-line measures.

Print As we all know, there’s no accounting for taste. Even when examples come from nations that are clearly behind the times when it comes to design and lifestyle—but like to present themselves as progressive. Take the U.S., for example. Some ad campaigns from the United States either exude an overdose of kitsch or are mired in antiquated conventionality. Seriously, do you feel drawn to Coach Jim Tressel when he says in an ad, «Be her champion—give her diamonds»? Mind you, this is in an ad that looks like an announcement for the Tressels« silver wedding anniversary or the coach’s election campaign. Meanwhile, the copywriter for the Betteridge ad seems to have gotten stuck in 1950s Hollywood. Or are there still two-legged bunnies today who can transform themselves into such a cute little bunny that men mistake carrots for diamonds and come up with a slogan like »Some carats for your bunny”? If so, I’d rather believe in the Easter Bunny—but only if he’s made of chocolate. (ck)

Private TV On August 25, a new people and lifestyle magazine show will be launched on Sat 1 Switzerland, produced by Ringier TV in collaboration with Schweizer Illustrierte and broadcast every Monday at 9 pm. The name of the program has not yet been decided, nor has the presenter. Anouk Haimoff will be in charge of the editorial team. She used to work as a producer for the celebrity magazine "Inside" on the now defunct private TV channel Tele24. Sponsoring partners are Swisscom Mobile and Nivea.