Agencies Hope dies last: Of 61 BSW agencies surveyed, 19 (31%) were optimistic and expect "more income" for 2003. 30% of the advertising agencies fear less income and 24 (39%) believe that things will continue the same (bad) way.

Magazines The Tamedia Group's news magazine Facts is about to refresh its visual appearance in order to meet the increased demand for more objectivity and more hard facts, Facts editor-in-chief Hannes Britschgi told Werbewoche. The magazine is currently being thoroughly analyzed. It will be fall before the new face of Facts can be admired.

Newspapers Guye Benker presents a new series of subjects for the Tages-Anzeiger image campaign.
With the new motifs by Guye Benker, the flagship of the Tamedia media group once again impressively demonstrates to existing and potential readers why it is "more necessary than ever" (according to the claim) to read the Tages-Anzeiger. With the continuation of the new image launched at the end of the year, the newspaper is countering the common assertion that politics is of no interest. Guye Benker visualizes this erroneous view with ingenious symbolic images. On closer inspection and reflection, these show that everything can be linked to politics: The forest. The water. The traffic. The sky. Or the school.
Guye Benker wants to make the viewer aware of where politics is hidden behind inconspicuous everyday motifs with generous and calm images. When looking at them, the reader should associate them with all kinds of political topics. "Whether you like it or not, everything has to do with politics," reads the headline to a beautiful atmospheric picture of the forest or the sea. When looking at the blue sky over Zurich on a newspaper double-page spread, the chain of associations could include the following keywords: the air traffic agreement with Germany, the Swissair grounding, the space shuttle crash or even the overflight rights for US fighter jets. The subjects appear as advertisements, TV and cinema spots.
Andreas Panzeri

Agencies Advertisers had a very poor 2002. At best, the dialog marketing agencies believe that things will improve quickly.
With gross operating income (GOP) of CHF 386.42 million, the members of the BSW (Swiss Association of Advertising and Communication Agencies) had to accept an 11.4 percent drop in income compared to the previous year. "Some agencies are likely to have ended the year in the red," says BSW President Hanspeter Detsch. As in previous recessionary phases, agencies experienced that the budgets for marketing communication were cut first or even completely eliminated because these are among the few variable costs of a company. In 2002, agencies suffered from the weak economy, increasing price pressure from clients and the growing trend towards globalization. In line with the development of brands, products and media, a large proportion of advertising campaigns are now designed across borders. For Swiss agencies, the task is therefore often reduced to local adaptations. Around half of all BSW members today are branches or associated members of an internationally active network. In the case of the ten largest agencies, it is even all of them.
A lot of advertising for little money
With the sell-off of traditional Swiss brands, agency assignments are increasingly moving abroad. Internationally active Swiss companies are also increasingly appearing with global campaigns that are developed in London, Paris or Frankfurt. A small glimmer of hope here: "Swiss agencies are used to doing a lot with little money. This is our opportunity," Hanspeter Detsch is convinced.
Thanks to the addition of nine new members, the decline in the association itself was only 6% at the end of the year. BSW members account for 70 percent of the advertising volume generated by agencies in Switzerland. At the end of 2002, 80 leading advertising and communications agencies were members of the BSW - 61 of which were advertising agencies, 10 media agencies and nine dialog marketing and specialty agencies. The admission of the IGMA members (Interessengemeinschaft Mediaagenturen) to the association in November can be seen as a milestone in the history of the BSW.
At Board level, efforts were made to better position the members. For the first time, an association-owned agency portrait book was published under the title "Leading Swiss Agencies". In 2002, the BSW introduced a so-called "pitch list" in response to the increasing number of competition presentations, some of which were taking on grotesque proportions. Members voluntarily notify the office if they are invited to a competition presentation. With the overview gained, the agencies can assess the opportunities and risks of their participation more carefully.
In addition to the unfavorable economic development, the agency business is also threatened by political activities. The trend towards more advertising bans is increasing. Under this impression, the BSW has joined the alliance against advertising bans, which was founded by the Swiss Trade Association. At European level, the BSW is a member of the EACA (European Association of Communications Agencies) and is closely linked to events in the EU with a seat on the EACA board.
The advertising and communications agencies in the BSW are not yet forecasting a recovery for 2003. According to the BSW Monitor, traditional agencies are expecting a further decline of 2.2 percent. Dialog marketing, on the other hand, is hoping for an increase of 6.4 percent. After agencies were initially very responsible and reluctant to make personnel and structural adjustments, these will be unavoidable in the current year.
"The Swiss are cutting back less quickly than German agencies," Detsch knows. However, public speculation from agency managers who speak of around 20 percent job cuts "are probably not far from reality". Around 2,500 people are employed at 80 BSW and 90 ASW agencies as well as around 550 other companies in the advertising sector in Switzerland. Of these, "many are currently looking for a job". The BSW job platform www.bswjobs.com alone currently has 138 dossiers. In 2002, only 17 people were successfully placed.
The signs in the advertising skies point to a storm. The "unpredictable" cannot be "predicted" - as the La Suisse campaign claims.
Dialog marketing and specialty agenciesRank Agency BBE in € million
2002 2001
1 Fish Meier Direct 11,115 14,651
2 Futurecom Interactive 10,012 10,855
3 Burson-Marsteller 9,448 -
4 OgilvyOne (1*) 5,157 4,152
5 Alex Schmid 3,480 5,528
6 Wunderman (2*) 3,247 -
7 Grey Direct Concept 2,452 2,900
8 MRM Part. Worldwide (3*) 1,991 2,322
9 Catapult 1,607 2,229
1 * Name change as of September 2002
2 * New member
3 * Name change as of December 2002
Media agenciesRank Agency BBE in € million
2002 2001
 1 Optimedia Switzerland 5,905 5,162
 2 CIA Switzerland (1* ) (2*) 5,722 -
 3 Universal McCann 5,434 5,011
 4 OMD Switzerland (3*) 4,300 2,500
 5 MediaCom Zurich 2,761 2,800
 6 MediaCutter (1*) 1,766 -
 7 Initiative Media (1*) 1,703 -
 8 The Media Edge (2*) 1,663 1,534
 9 Media Planning (2*) 0.922 -
10 The whole Media (1*) 0.350 -
1 * New member IGMA in BSW
2 * Legal merger of CIA Switzerland and The Media Edge to form Mediaedge:cia is completed in 2003
3 * Previous year's figure only OMD Zurich
Advertising agenciesRank Agency BBE in € million
2002 2001
 1 Publicis 1* 28,467 31,743
 2 AY&R 23,909 30,800
 3 Lowe 17,789 21,097
 4 Wirz Advertising 17,641 25,070
 5 TBWA Switzerland 2* 16,100 15,500
 6 McCann-Erickson 16,005 19,562
 7 Contexta 14,980 13,620
 8 Euro RSCG 13,154 14,551
 9 Grey Worldwide 11,200 13,100
10 Jung von Matt/Limmat 11,168 10,205
11 FCB Leutenegger Krüll 9,100 12,650
12 Grendene Ogilvy & Mather 9,034 8,315
13 JWT+H+F 8,836 8,890
14 DDB Zurich/Bern 7,700 -
15 AY&R Business Comm. 7.640 8.475
16 Lang Gysi Knoll 7,060 8,115
17 Favo 5,945 6,425
18 Saatchi & Saatchi 5,931 6,126
19 Zogg Kettiger Gasser 5,320 3,600
20 Cosmic 5,300 5,400
21 Lesch + Frei 4,960 4,710
22 MetzgerLehner Worldwide 4,950 5,400
23 cR DDB Basel cR 4,850 4,440
24 Sulzer Sutter 4,701 3,857
25 GGK Zurich 4,400 4,800
26 Dachcom Gmeiner (3*) 4,242 -
27 Freicom B + K (3*) 4,232 -
28 Polyconsult (4*) 3,600 4,000
29 Matter & Partner 3,525 3,900
30 Erat Thoma & Herzog 3,450 3,750
31 Schneider Berthoud 3,069 3,620
32 Ottiger & Partner 2,905 2,900
33 Guye Benker 2,878 3,018
34 Pucci Sulzer 2,856 3,299
35 Schmid Riedmann & Part. 2,855 3,165
36 Scotti 2,700 2,740
37 Heads Corporate Comm. 2,296 2,530
38 S&W 2,228 2,022
39 Wyss & Partner 2,080 2,320
40 Hilfiker 2,030 2,380
41 Diem & Partner (5*) 2,000 -
42 Trio Comm. Marketing 1,742 1,865
43 Knaus & Knaus 1,389 -
44 Synthèse 1,260 1,480
45 Cobalt 0.992 0.740
46 Thomas Vetter 0.400 0.398
1* Previous year's figure incl. Publicis Lausanne
(activity discontinued from the beginning of 2002)
2 * Berne branch closed in October 2002
3 * New member
4* formerly Polyconsult Bern AG
(Basel AG closed in January 2002)
5* Name change as of February 2002,
formerly Diem Seiler DDB
(pan)

The furniture store Mobitare has commissioned Jung von Matt/Limmat with the conception and implementation of its overall communication. The first works can be seen at the end of April, and Mobitare was last looked after by Boxx.

Daily Newspapers The battle between the Thurgauer Zeitung and the Thurgauer split of the St.Galler Tagblatt continues. One side reports slight losses, the other no profits.The Thurgauer Zeitung - die Neue (TZ), which was launched on January 1, 2001 and emerged from several smaller titles, has its second subscription renewal phase behind it. Publishing director Urs Bucher therefore knows that he will not be able to maintain last year's certified circulation of 42000 copies. "We are now at about 41000 copies," he says, so TZ is back to about where it was at the start two years ago (41188 copies). He justifies the decline with "merger aftermaths." In addition, the economic slump is making itself felt, for example in the case of subscription cancellations, which are declared as personal savings measures due to unemployment. "However, we are not feeling the competition from the Tagblatt," says Bucher, adding that the current declines have nothing to do with the St.Galler activities.At the Tagblatt, the Thurgau split of the St.Galler Tagblatt (SGT), a year-on-year comparison is more difficult. Before that, the SGT had two splits in Thurgau, the Bodensee-Tagblatt (BT) in Upper Thurgau (14,000 copies) for decades and the Mittelthurgauer Tagblatt (MTT) since January 1, 2001 (parallel to the start of the Neue TZ), which reached 1800 annual subscriptions a year ago. With the start-up of the new SGT printing center in the fall, BT and MTT were merged to form the new Tagblatt with expanded editorial performance on seven newspaper bundles. According to SGT Publishing Director Daniel Ehrat, the start was made with 14800 copies. After the fall vacations, 7000 households in the Steckborn district were also served free of charge for a week to gain subscribers.
Expectations too high
Today, five months later, Ehrat draws a meager balance. The Tagblatt has a total of about 15,000 subscriptions, "which is clearly below expectations," he says. "Overall, we haven't lost anything, but we haven't gained much either." In terms of circulation, the Tagblatt has increased more in central Thurgau - "where we are new" - but in the existing areas it has lost something. Ehrat's expectations were also not met by a trial in three Central Thurgau communities, where the Tagblatt, as the carrier of official notices, is delivered free of charge once a week to all 2970 households. This has so far brought in about 200 subscriptions.
The picture is somewhat different when it comes to advertising revenues: According to VSW statistics, the TZ lost 22.9 percent of its volume or 1213 pages last year, especially in job ads. In this respect, too, competition from the Tagblatt was not noticeable, says Bucher. Ehrat, on the other hand, speaks of a "more or less stable advertising volume" at the Tagblatt and even of a "slight growth in advertising from the area of the former MTT." Bucher cannot confirm this.
Death notices from Central Thurgau are also "extremely rare" in the Tagblatt, he says. They are considered an indicator of regional anchoring. This is probably why the Tagblatt has introduced special prices for obituaries. This action is "limited in time, we don't provide the space for free," says Ehrat with regard to the action of the Berner Zeitung in the Solothurn area (see WW 9/03). Bucher confirms this. He therefore speaks of "very fair competition" in Thurgau, without dumping prices.
Markus Knöpfli

Sunday newspapers NZZ am Sonntag expects to sell 125,000 copies and in January around half of all NZZ subscriptions were up for renewal. For the first time, NZZ subscribers were able to choose between a conventional NZZ subscription and a combined subscription with the NZZ am Sonntag (NZZaS). It is now clear: 56 percent of this first tranche of NZZ subscribers opted for a combined subscription. This was announced this week by NZZ publishing director Tobias Trevisan and NZZ advertising manager Marcel Kohler. As further subscription renewal tranches will now follow month by month, Trevisan and Kohler expect a total of 60,000 combined subscriptions by the end of the year, which is in line with the business plan. 30,000 pure NZZaS fixed subscriptions have been sold outside the NZZ core readership so far, according to the customer letter. However, it should be possible to increase this figure to 40000 this year. Together with the 25,000 copies sold individually, the two expect to have sold 125,000 NZZaS copies by the end of 2003.
If one also takes into account the average of 15,000 to 20,000 NZZaS trial subscriptions distributed and assumes three readers per issue, then the NZZaS reaches the figure of 427,000 readers reported by the Wemf interim evaluation, Trevisan and Kohler calculate for their customers. To end on a jubilant note: "The pleasing conversion figures confirm that the project is developing according to plan despite economically uncertain times." >> Page 7
No Error: NZZ am Sonntag launches a new reader campaign in the subscription conversion process.
(mk)

The alliance against advertising bans, which was formed in December by around 20 industry associations, is taking action, and this week Swiss Advertising (SW) is sending out a set of eight arguments against advertising bans on its behalf. It is addressed to all of Switzerland's 3,000 or so cantonal parliamentarians. The set of arguments is based on a paper presented by the SW last fall. It was sent for internal consultation and translated into French and Italian before being sent to the politicians. The argumentation can be found at www.werbewoche.ch in the "Worth knowing" section.

Swiss watch manufacturer Milus has entrusted Studer & Wohlgemuth with its communications mandate.Swiss watch manufacturer Milus has entrusted Studer & Wohlgemuth with its communications mandate. Milus International SA in Biel wants to enter the luxury watch segment. Studer & Wohlgemuth is putting together the overall communications package for the launch at the Basel Jewelry and Watch Fair.

The NZZ Grandplus advertising combination with the trio Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Der Bund and Le Temps is the only national leader combination, even if this is not legally permitted. According to media research, the Grandplus reaches 85,000 financially strong executives. This is defined as anyone who receives at least CHF 8,000 a month in salary. "So it's not just pipe-smoking golfers, but also younger lawyers, architects and young entrepreneurs who are keen consumers," says Dominik Imseng. In consultation with Christoph Bauer, Head of Marketing at NZZ, the CD of McCann-Erickson Switzerland has therefore deliberately sought a somewhat more progressive tone for the "old aunt's" new self-promotion. The aim is to counter the prejudice that readers of the Bund or NZZ are conservative. "Getting away from the cliché and appearing modern was therefore an important point in the briefing," explains Heike Rindfleisch, Group Account Director at McCann-Erickson.
Slightly dirty, the newspaper
The creative team has found the new styling in the everyday aesthetics of a modern newspaper. Four advertisement subjects show an open newspaper page. "The newspaper has been through several hands and is slightly dirty," says Imseng, explaining the "very bold concept for the NZZ". Each of the subjects should be able to stand on its own as an advertisement.
For the "Media Planning" subject, McCann-Erickson recruited the five largest advertising agencies in Switzerland to play along as colleagues. The picture shows five original front pages, each with a concept for a fictitious campaign for a watch type "luxury brand". The advertisers do not know which concept will win, says the campaign image. "But they agree on the media planning," says the headline. "How to convince 85,000 financially strong executives is open to debate. But how to reach them specifically is clear: with 'NZZ Grandplus', the national leader combination."
Another subject illustrates the calculation according to which a lawyer who is considered expensive only costs 30 centimes with the leader combination - contact costs, of course.
The motif with countless nameplates in the entrance to a commercial building aims to show the target audience "85,000 managers in one fell swoop" with a montage of images.
The fourth advertisement shows a seemingly disoriented sketch on a flipchart. Here, advertisers have discussed the structure of a new campaign and do not yet know where the journey will take them. The headline is reassuring: "At least the media planning is clear."
These advertisements appear in the trade and in-house press. And as the new media figures are expected to be even more positive for the leader combination, the ads "will soon be revised in terms of text", hope those responsible at NZZ Grandplus.
Andreas Panzeri

Events With his black leather pants and white hair, Ruedi Kubli can't be overlooked at any party, although one of Kubli's trademarks as a society photographer is that he always moves very discreetly among the glittering VIPs. In the past, Kubli photographed the "Notes on Names" for ZüriWoche. In the meantime, he works freelance for a wide variety of media. From his large collection of photos, Kubli has compiled a book every year since 1999. "V.I.P. High Lights 2002" is the name of the latest anthology with photographed memories of social events in 2002. Events and parties from all over Switzerland are captured in the pictures.

Masani Ambient Media has once again chosen the most popular free advertising postcard of the year: four subjects have reached the final and now have the chance to be voted Card of the Year 2002 by Internet users. The nominees are Passugger (By Heart), Kuoni (Advico Young & Rubicam), Toni-Molkerei (Ruf Lanz) and Dove (Grendene Ogilvy & Mather). Voting is now open for two weeks at www.masani.com/vote.