The Zurich-based corporate communications agency FKP Identity has won Schunk Spann- und Greiftechnik GmbH from Lauffen am Neckar in Swabia as a new client.Schunk has branches in Germany and the USA and employs around 1000 people.

The Swiss footwear and fashion group has entrusted Tyler Brûlé's agency Winkreative with the advertising budget for 2003, with Bally CEO Marco Franchini explaining that the connection to Bally's origins and values played a role in the choice. The realization of the campaign for the autumn/winter season 03/04 has already begun.

Public Awareness Scholz & Friends, Hamburg, supports the Hamburg women's advice centers BIFF with a poster campaign On March 8, International Women's Day, the advice centers want to draw attention to the still taboo subject of "domestic violence against women". Various poster motifs and postcards, with which Scholz & Friends is supporting the BIFF campaign, show that these nightmares are rarely visible at first glance from behind a family facade. Each one depicts a woman posing as the winner of a pageant. The message can only be recognized at second glance, as the sashes worn by the Misses bear the categories "Miss Needs", "Miss Respects" and "Miss Acts". Eye-catcher: S&F poster campaign for women's advice center.

Advertising francs In 2002, the media recorded a total of 109 million fewer advertising francs than in the previous year. The front-runner in terms of savings is the financial and insurance sector with CHF 70.7 million. The media themselves are in second place in the list of savings champions. The service and clothing industries are the clear number 3 and 4 advertising savers (source: Media Focus).

Cross-marketing Despite the poor economic situation, the new BMW Roadster is well received by customers. Its launch campaign is partly responsible for this. A lesson in cross-marketing. Cheap, run-of-the-mill marketing solutions have had their day: if you want to entice potential new car buyers, you need a lot of money, a clever advertising strategy, tasteful events and a connection to the target group. In order to secure valuable addresses, the management of BMW Switzerland relied on cross-marketing for the launch of the Z4. It offered B & O, Lavazza, Ermenegildo Zegna, Möbel Pfister, Mövenpick Weine, Südtirol Tourismus, the Gamma catering service and Lindt a collaboration and gained access to their customer lists.
BMW invited 5500 customers to admire the Z4 at seven events on February 26. "Thanks to this collaboration, we were able to expand our customer base in a targeted manner," says Piergiorgio Cecco, Head of Marketing BMW Group Switzerland. Between 500 and 1500 people came to marvel at the horsepower wonder in industrial halls in Dübendorf, Arberg, Arbon, Geneva, Schönenwerd, Mendrisio and Baar.
Eight products at the Z4 event
The eight BMW partners also benefited from this event and presented their new products. "Everything had to match our style," says Cecco. After all, (most) BMW customers are not called Hinz and Kunz. The Z4 is intended to appeal to three types - the pleasure-seeker aged 40 to 55, the younger, success-oriented type and the conservative, affluent over 55-year-old. The launch of the Z4 will be supported by an Internet teaser campaign, a poster campaign in Geneva during the showroom period and a TV commercial.
The slogan "The sum of all senses" is at the heart of the advertising and marketing campaign. Original quote from Cecco: "This slogan can best be implemented in a TV commercial." BMW Switzerland largely dispenses with print and relies entirely on the commercial.
It was developed by Jung von Matt/Hamburg. The commercial, in which the Z4 is struck by lightning - without being scratched - will run on all Swiss stations and Swiss advertising windows until the beginning of April. The cost of the booked spot time: around one million francs.
If the BMW Switzerland managers' calculations work out, the Z4 should exceed the sales figures of the Z3, which was one of the first roadster models to be launched on the market in 1997. No easy task: after all, BMW Switzerland sold 1200 roadsters in 1997.
For the Z4, the figure is expected to rise to over 1400 this year. According to BMW's calculations, 60 percent of customers will be former Z3 customers, the rest new customers. "These targets are realistic," says Cecco. 800 cars of the expensive speedster (from 52,000 francs) are already expected to have been sold. "The market for such a car is still there," adds the marketing expert. The competition knows this too. With the Porsche Boxter, the Mercedes SLK and the Audi tt, three competitors are fighting it out in the same market segment. Everyone is aware that the advertising and marketing strategy plays a decisive role here.
Sensually escaping the lightning: TV thunderstorm in the commercial for BMW Z4.
Annelies Friedli

Sports sponsorship With the start of the 2002/03 finals, Sunrise became the official communications partner of the Swiss National Football League, working with Nokia to support the direct broadcasts of the championship matches on the private channel Sat 1. The National League also gained Coca-Cola as a new sponsor through its marketing company International Sports Agency.

Gastronomy With "Tibits" number three, which is opening in Bern these days, Wirz is planting "vegetarian" advertising with new motifs on behalf of the Frei brothers and Rolf Hiltl.Just in time for the start of the asparagus season, Christian, Daniel and Reto Frei, together with Rolf Hiltl, are opening a new "Tibits" branch in Bern's renovated main station on March 6. After Zurich and Winterthur, Bern is already the third branch of the young "fast food chain". Although the concept is not (yet) as well known in the Swiss capital as it is in Zurich, the Bernese public is not simply being served a rehashed launch campaign from 2000. "The new annual campaign starts every time a restaurant opens," says Wirz CD Matthias Freuler. This explains why the three current poster subjects are not specifically aimed at the Bern branch - even if they are initially only being displayed in its local area. Before the snails on the vegetables
Following the original positioning as a "McDonald's for vegetarians" and the focus on take-away for the store in Winterthur, this year the freshness of the "Tibits" products will be a central theme. "We no longer have to explain to anyone that there is no meat at Tibits," Freuler is convinced. Instead, the aim is to communicate that the vegetarian dishes are prepared with the "freshest vegetables ever". The basic idea behind the campaign: the restaurant is just waiting in the field for the young vegetables to break through the soil. "As soon as the asparagus sprouts, it is already at
'Tibits' on the plate." Freuler adds with a smile: "Even before the snails feast on it."
In addition to the three posters, which will later also be used in the Zurich and Winterthur areas, the Wirz team created giveaways and a radio spot for the Bern opening. The latter has all the animals that are on the menu here in Switzerland singing a chorus of cheers: Even representatives of the animal kingdom, who will never make it to "Tibits", are happy about the new branch. Customers are given bags of salad seeds at the restaurant so that they can enjoy their "überüberüberübernext" salad plate at home. Wirz has also thought of the parliamentarians and sewn miniature cushions: While a vitamin juice voucher for speakers is printed on the front, the back invites listeners in the spring session to rest their heads on it and "not disturb the others while debating".
Quality before quantity
Although the Bern branch on Bahnhofplatz is in an excellent location and can easily compete with Zurich with 80 indoor and 100 boulevard seats, Daniel Frei, co-owner of Tibits AG, does not expect the same results. You have to look at each restaurant in its respective environment, he says. That is why the other locations cannot be compared with Zurich. Frei counters the claim that the restaurant in Winterthur is struggling with poor capacity utilization: "By Winterthur standards, we are very satisfied." Daniel Frei is certain that "Tibits" in Seefeld will remain the leader among the three locations. No wonder: after a sensational start, the restaurant was able to increase its turnover in the city on the Limmat by around 10 percent last year.
Simone Keller

Print "Placements of obituaries and acknowledgements are free of charge in the Solothurner Tagblatt until December 31, 2003!" is written on the quarter-page self-advertisements of the latest split of the Berner Zeitung. The Solothurner Tagblatt has been accepting local obituaries free of charge since December 2001 - because nobody wanted to place them in the first two months after the launch in October 2001. In the local newspaper market, obituaries are a reliable indicator of a title's standing. The free offer has had an effect: the Solothurner Tagblatt currently averages two obituaries per issue, compared with just one a year ago.

Agencies Jost Wirz points out 22 errors to the author of a Cash article about his holding company Chairman of the Board of Directors Jost Wirz defends himself against an article in the business newspaper Cash, according to which his agency group Wirz Partner Holding is threatened with closure. It is an "unsavory piece of work that borders on gross defamation", he told Werbewoche. The article contained no fewer than 22 false statements. It is true that the agency group was in the red in some places last year and had too little liquid capital to cover its losses. However, following a share capital increase of three million francs at the end of 2002, the entire group is now debt-free. The main cause of the losses was the collapse in Wirz Werbung's gross operating income from 25.1 to 17.6 million francs. "We made the necessary adjustments too late because we wanted to keep the jobs and relied on natural rotation," says Jost Wirz. The number of employees was ultimately reduced from 225 to around 175. Wirz believes his group is well equipped for the future. Even a loss of Toyota's advertising budget, which Cash paints on the wall, would be bearable: Wirz estimates the budget's share of total billings at a maximum of 10 percent.
Stefano Monachesi

"Until now, it was almost as difficult to find a copywriter for a specific task as it was to write the text yourself," is how the Swiss copywriters' association Script explains its new initiative: it is launching a database for freelance copywriters under the name ScriptJob.ch. Anyone in need of writers can use a search engine to find suitable people by canton, specialist area or media genre and send them an online form.

Online marketing research firm Blue Eyes Marketing presented its first psychographic data from users of a handful of websites. Four website operators participated in the first four-week Bluemind survey wave last November: Msn.ch, Pro7.ch, Sat1.ch and Swissflirt.ch. Msn.ch was particularly innovative: it had surfers surveyed who visited both the entry portal and those who directly targeted one of seven channels. In total, eleven surveys were conducted with 600 respondents each (a number that could not be met everywhere).Bluemind does not provide reach, visits or page views, but rather psychographic characteristics of the users. For example, the MSN Travel Channel is particularly well received by introverted, middle-class women, while the Car Channel has a high affinity with extroverted, modern men. Also modern, but introverted, are the visitors to the Msn.ch entertainment channel. What they all have in common is the fact that the visitors have high to very high incomes - which is also
applies to Swissflirt.ch. By contrast, the Sat1.ch and Pro7.ch sites tend to go down well with a young audience with lower incomes.
The data is collected online: Anyone visiting one of the participating websites is asked once via a pop-up whether he or she wants to take part in the survey, which lasts around seven minutes. The questionnaire contains some standard questions defined by the Interessengemeinschaft elektronische Medien (Igem) as well as a test with 16 images that have to be assessed by the surfers. According to Markus Britschgi of Blue Eyes Marketing, around 80 percent of the respective users completed the questionnaire.
More sites need to come
The results of the first survey are available free of charge at www.uptodata.ch, along with the associated software, which does not run on Macs. The insight into future results will also be open to everyone, but then for a fee. For the new strategy tool to make sense, however, more website operators must decide to participate. The next wave of surveys will start in April. According to Britschgi, the goal is to be able to psychographically survey all sites relevant to advertising in the future.
Surveyed for the first time: Typologies of Web Surfers.
Psyche or massWhile the MA Comis also knows further typologies in addition to the general Wemf typology "Wertewelten Schweiz," these are specifically geared to the type of Internet use. The MA Comis also conducts 2000 representative interviews, asking which sites are visited how often and from where. This enables a comparison of reach. Bluemind is different: the selection is made online, and respondents answer according to their desire or time. In addition, each site has its own sample, because someone who is interviewed on Msn.ch, for example, is no longer bothered even if they visit Pro7.ch thanks to a cookie.
Carine Lins, Wemf marketing manager, therefore sees the qualitative Bluemind study as a complement rather than a competitor to the quantitative MA Comis. (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

Automotive advertising New records at the Motor Show reveal an optimistic industry From March 6 to 16, everything in Geneva revolves around sheet metal and bolides. The Motor Show will be taking place for the 73rd time. While other trade fairs have lost exhibitors and visitors in recent years, this year's show is once again breaking records: 265 exhibitors from 30 countries are presenting 900 new products - despite the poor consumer mood. According to Georges F. Kindhauser, Vice-Marketing Director, Geneva Palexpo has been inundated with registrations. Despite expanding the hall by 21,000 square meters, it was not possible to accommodate all interested parties. Kindhauser sees the reason for this in the fact that "the Salon serves as a media-oriented showcase for the performance of the automotive industry". The image of the industry is sold here. And the car manufacturers are willing to pay a lot for their reputation: in contrast to other sectors, they are not at all stingy when it comes to advertising expenditure (see pages 8 to 10) and only reduced their spending by an insignificant 1.1 percent last year. One in ten advertising francs now flows from the car industry's coffers. So it's no wonder that the car companies, which have long since merged into global players, will be coming up with plenty of ideas at the show to present their vehicles in the best possible light.
They have good reason to do so, as the show is one of the top five automobile shows in the world alongside Detroit, Tokyo, Frankfurt and Paris. According to Kindhauser, the fact that Switzerland does not have an automotive industry and therefore does not favor any brands is a strategic advantage of the show. In addition, it is the only European trade fair to present the industry's new models every spring. This gives it an additional competitive advantage over Paris and Frankfurt, which take place every two years in the fall, in terms of brand and image cultivation.
DaimlerChrysler advertises its models - atypically for the industry - without sheet metal and bolides.
(sk)