Mediabox offers advertising in McDonald's urinalsThe Zurich company Mediabox, an agency for special forms of advertising, is further expanding its range of services and is also penetrating into more intimate areas.Mediabox offers advertising in McDonald's urinalsThe Zurich company Mediabox, an agency for special forms of advertising, is further expanding its range of services and is also penetrating into more intimate areas. For the first time in Switzerland, advertising can be placed in McDonald's urinals. The medium is called Infomat. Advertising can be placed using an illuminated display measuring 8 cm by 20 cm, which is mounted above the urinal bowl and is activated by a sensor when entering the urinal.
According to Mediabox, these devices are "more hygienic and cheaper to maintain than conventional toilet facilities". In addition, thanks to a hydrostatic odor trap, they require no chemicals and waste no drinking water. Thanks to this environmentally friendly invention, the agency for special forms of advertising has also won McDonald's as the first partner for its new platform.
Initial data is already available and "anyone who knows McDonald's can guess the high frequencies", Mediabox reveals. The only fly in the ointment is that there are still no functioning Infomats for seated recipients of the advertising message.
Thanks to an exclusive contract with the Infomat manufacturer Urimat, Infomat advertising in Switzerland can only be booked with Mediabox. In addition to McDonald's, the agency is also working on a sports stadium pool and is in negotiations with a cinema chain. The new advertising offer has already been used by Swisscom Mobile Skyline and Buena
Vista Home Entertainment.
Mediabox is also providing another tool for targeting the younger audience with 200 new Baby B12 poster sites. These are placed in top locations in the upmarket trend scene in German-speaking Switzerland. The information display "with increased visual presence" offers space for advertising as well as a dispenser for trend magazines and flyers, "which further increases public awareness". Andreas Panzeri

Objective: To publicize the new MMS cell phone with integrated cam.Nokia advertising media: Banners, video streams, interstitials. Use: From August to October.
Client: Nokia GmbH, Vienna. Media agency: Mediacom, Vienna; planning/consulting: Adlink Internet Media AG, Zurich; Danilo Monteduro.

Legalize the 4 day weekend", "Kiss your neighbour" or "More green traffic lights" - with these and four other slogans, unknown people called for a grotesquely original protest. The Dadaist-inspired action attracted attention throughout Europe last week. The slogans were painted with water-soluble paint on sidewalks in various major cities. It became clear this week that Diesel's in-house agency KesselsKramer was behind the street graffiti. It followed up these rather unusual teasers with an APG poster campaign. They show young people carrying exactly the same messages on banners or on walls. While the Italian jet-set jeans brand conveyed imaginative impulses on the themes of pleasure, freedom and happiness in its last, equally quirky campaign, it is now being stylized as the pioneer of a retro wave with all the trappings of punk. According to Nomad Communication in Lausanne, which is responsible for the Diesel press in Switzerland, the amateur models booked during a street casting in Paris provide additional credibility. The uprising against everything and nothing is accompanied on the Diesel website. The "Global Protest Guide" section offers further absurd ideas for action.
With sales soaring to nine million francs in 2001 and another pleasing increase in incoming orders (plus 25%) in the current year, Geraldo Egitto, Sales and Marketing Manager for Switzerland, is convinced that he will reap the rewards of his marketing budget, which has doubled to 700,000 francs. The Sex Pistols have already impressively demonstrated that punks have great sales-boosting potential. However, it has yet to be proven whether Diesel can profitably reanimate this youth trend of the seventies for its marketing goals. Luca Aloisi

Low prices and a simple strategy: Gabriella Flury and Andreas Krause founded a new advertising agency under the name Reklame Büro at the beginning of July 2002. Their aim is to dispense with everything that makes advertising so expensive - shoots with star photographers, strategy booklets, elaborate presentations and participation in competitions. "Our customers don't need all this fuss. They don't need advice. They know which advertising materials they want to use and what they want to say and see on them. We deliver - true to the motto 'quick and clean' - clean, simple workmanship," says Flury. This also means that we largely use stock images for which no copyright has been registered. The company works with "affordable freelancers". "Star photographers or star copywriters have no place with us," says Flury. Reklame Büro's prices are correspondingly low: a TV commercial costs CHF 7999, a name development is available for as little as CHF 2999, and Reklame Büro charges CHF 2999 for the design of a B12 or B4 poster. For the time being, the agency's team consists of Flury and Krause and a few freelancers. As soon as the agency has "got off to a good start", Flury wants to withdraw from the agency, where she is currently the supervisor, and devote herself again to her own agency, Aaron Advertising. "But I will certainly keep my share of the advertising agency," says the co-owner.
The resourceful team has already landed its first customer: The carpet company Brunner from Zurich could not resist the discount prices of the unconventional advertising agency from Zurich's district 2 (ew/af).

Objective: To publicize the range of services more widely and relaunch the Internet.www.athanasius-burre.ch Advertising media: Website, image brochure, mailing. Use: Since August until further notice.
Client: Institute for Supervision and Organizational Development, Oberwil ZG; Responsibility: Athanasius Burre. Advertising agency: ANA, Lucerne; CD/concept/text/consulting: Andrea Bussmann; AD/graphics: Natascha Mächler.

Zurich-based communications agency Contract Media has founded a subsidiary for corporate publications. Rico Brazerol, former head of media and editor-in-chief of 20 Minuten and head of sports at Blick and SonntagsBlick, is the managing director and so far the only employee of Contract Media Publishing AG. "We have already been active in publishing, for example for Swisscard and SBB," explained Contract Media Managing Director Sacha Wigdorovits. "With Rico Brazerol, we now want to expand this area, from customer magazines to websites." Contract Media Publishing is primarily responsible for project management. Partnerships with the web agency Update and Publicis Factory are in place for implementation (sm).

Dominik Imseng is the new CD of McCann-Erickson, Zurich, and is now sharpening his view of global brandsHead of the week "In today's moral corset, global brands have become vulnerable"
Yes, he probably owes a lot to advertising, jokes Dominik Imseng (34), making himself comfortable in the Ron Arad chair and listing his job - he will become the new CD at McCann-Erickson, Zurich, in September - his wife, who also worked in the industry, and his son Finian, his pride and joy. The new CD became a father for the first time on July 14.
Imseng will be responsible for the strategic management of important clients. In future, he will look after "global, but not imperial brands" such as Coca-Cola or American Airlines in Switzerland. Respectable brands "that have an almost spiritual attraction for many", says Imseng. Only rarely and casually does his degree in philosophy come through. He would much rather introduce more laconicism into advertising, which should be "sensitive, but not sentimental".
Imseng does not find it unusual that a deep thinker can end up in a "superficial" industry such as advertising. There are certainly philosophical dimensions to the complexity of a brand. "It's fascinating how these immaterial buildings are constructed. You can think about a brand at just as high a level as you can about freedom, beauty or goodness."
In today's moral corset, it is not just about growing brands, but shaking them up. It is therefore obvious that Imseng "wants to do intellectual advertising". He knows how to put the Zurich agency's increased network share into perspective: "In good financial years, a cluster risk was perfectly justifiable". It is much more important that the agency has seen less, but not worse. In any case, the lean period will soon be over. McCann's Zurich office will soon be rolling out several campaigns across the country.
As polished as the explanation sounds, Imseng did not slide seamlessly into advertising. After completing his studies, he worked for four years as a freelance journalist for several publications such as Das Magazin, Weltwoche and SonntagsZeitung before joining WHS in 1998. Like his curriculum, his personality has only a limited affinity with the industry. "I always avoided the limelight in the hope that my career in advertising would take off without parties and capers."
After a formative start with his demanding mentor, Reini Weber, Imseng knows that intelligent creativity essentially thrives on restriction and the art of "approaching the same thing from a thousand different angles". The consumer benefit, which must always correspond to the truth, is central to this, which is why the ethicist likes McCann's agency motto: "Truth
well told" Luca Aloisi

FCBLK advertises the new season of Theater Neumarkt with wild postersBy Ernst Weber For three years now, the Wallisellen-based advertising agency FCB Leutenegger Krüll (FCBLK) has been in charge of the campaigns for the opening of the new season of Theater Neumarkt. This year, the management has placed its plays under the motto "Every human being is an abyss". The agency presents the dark sides of human existence on wild posters.
FCBLK realizes its campaigns for the stage in Zurich's old town at "very reduced conditions". However, this does not mean that the Walliseller are only staging with half their creative power - on the contrary. For the various plays, they do not shy away from macabre and cynical realizations.
The motif announcing the play "Cleansed" by British author Sarah Kane, for example, depicts the heart as garbage to be disposed of. The play is about the inability to truly love. Daniel Danis' play "Kieselasche" is visualized by a petrol canister in the shape of a coffin. It is about a man who is broken by the death of his wife - she was murdered. Driven to madness by despair, he sets his house on fire and dies in the flames.
And for the world premiere of "Stabat Mater", the cross of Christ is used. It is represented by a violin with a second fingerboard that runs across the regular one. In "Stabat Mater", the Amar Quartet brings the passion of Christ and the pain of Mary in Pergolesi's music with a text by Andreas Sauter and Bernhard Studlar "into a poignant musical form".
"The campaign is intended to signal that this season will get under your skin even more than the previous two," says CD Mike Krüll, explaining the rigorous subject matter.
Co-directors Crescentia Dünsser and Otto Kukla seem to have been inspired by the events of the past twelve months to choose this year's season theme. September 11 and subsequent events such as the Gotthard tunnel fire, the Swissair grounding and the rampage in Zug town hall prompted the directors to look for plays in which the abysses of human action are portrayed in extremis.

Objective: To publicize the plays and their premiere dates.Theater Neumarkt Advertising material: A2 posters. Use: September to May 2003.
Client: Theater Neumarkt, Zurich; responsibility: Crescentia Dünsser, Otto Kukla, management; Uwe Heinrichs, advertising manager. Advertising agency: FCB Leutenegger Krüll, Wallisellen; CD: Mike Krüll; AD: Heinz Schwegler; Graphics: Isabelle Hauser; Consulting: Petar Dakovic; Photo: Felix Streuli.
Discussion see page 10

In a letter to Federal Councillor Moritz LeuenbergerNews Youth Parliament wants Radio 105 and to Bakom, the Presidium of the Forum Jugendsession has clearly stated its position on a FM license for a youth radio station in the Zurich area: "According to surveys, Radio 105 is ahead among young people. If a fair decision is made, Radio 105 must be given the frequency".
SHZ renovated online presenceThe HandelsZeitung (SHZ) publishing group has launched a new information platform on the Internet. It combines the online offerings of the SHZ titles in a single website. The offer is divided into the sections "Money" and "Management" and contains archive data from HandelsZeitung, Stocks, Schweizer Versicherung, Schweizer Bank and New Management. Most of the content is subject to a charge.
NewsByte.ch with US trend report
The Internet news service NewsByte.ch is expanding its offering to include a monthly trend report from the USA. The paid report is sent to subscribers as a PDF file. It is written by the New Tech Reporters journalism office in New York.

Markus Britschgi defends himself against accusations of copyingWith his psychographic test, former Demoscope researcher Markus Britschgi wants to go on the offensive, and not just in Internet research. If nobody wants to advertise on the Internet, there is hardly any demand for additional research. Hasn't Bluemind come at the worst possible time?
Markus Britschgi: Not at all. The crisis of the Internet was a major part of our motivation for launching Bluemind now. Internet offerings cannot sell themselves convincingly enough to the advertising industry because they don't have any suitable research tools. The figures reported today are of no interest to advertisers because they say too little about the target group. Online advertising has a future, but it needs more differentiated research.
But the sites don't have the money for expensive research at the moment. Have you done the math without your customers?
Britschgi: A lot of persuasion is now needed to convince website operators that they have more opportunities in the advertising market with Bluemind. As far as costs are concerned, we are extremely inexpensive. An online test on this scale used to cost a site operator between 8,000 and 9,000 francs. Together with the Igem offer, you can get it from us for half that price. I am convinced that the others will follow suit as soon as some sites join in, otherwise they would quickly lose competitiveness.
How many sites do you need to launch the tool and cover your costs?
Britschgi: We should have twenty sites for the first wave in October. That would be my dream. But of course that's the case: The more people take part, the more interesting it gets. Only with an appropriate selection of sites does the comparison make sense. Bluemind would be able to cover its costs with around 30 participating sites. But our ideas go further. We want to export the tool to Germany as soon as possible, and we are already talking to interested parties about this. The special thing about our psychographic test is that it can be used for any kind of market research. No matter which institute is conducting the study.
Other market research institutes will be less than pleased with the new competition. What distinguishes Bluemind from Demoscope-Marketradar, which you worked for until a year and a half ago?
Britschgi: Bluemind is a completely new product, with a completely different approach to that of Demoscope. We are pursuing two main goals: The online suitability and the free usability of our tool that I just mentioned. Admittedly, there are also parallels with other market research. But this has nothing to do with copying. All studies with psychographic segmentation are similar in a certain sense, that is the nature of the approach.
What special effect do you expect Bluemind to have on Internet advertising?
Britschgi: When the first wave of Bluemind comes through next November, there won't be an advertising boom on the Internet. We realize that too. But our tool makes the target groups on the Internet transparent, and that is a necessary first step so that the Internet can be used in a targeted and efficient manner.
Interview: Daniel Schifferle

Normally, the fashion chain Bernie's invests its advertising money primarily in its special sales, but with the announcement of the new fall collection, the brand should once again be brought to the fore. To update Bernie's, CD Patrick Lienert at DDB Zurich therefore looked for a solution that was as abstract as possible. His idea could stand for a wide variety of fashion labels. However, it suits Bernie's best. The fashion of these boutiques has long been associated with an elegant cheekiness and their advertising with a cheeky quirkiness. In the past, Bernie's advertising was created at Hesskiss and previously at Honegger von Matt. "Buying nothing is cheaper" was the claim for Bernie's in those days. "Wearing nothing is better" might come to mind when looking at the new DDB Zurich motifs. The agency in Zollikerberg has been looking after the fashionable client for a year now. The subjects with the naked models - man and woman - illustrate the largest campaign to date. In addition to the young target group, an important detail is the autumn fig leaf. Andreas Panzeri
AD Rating

Bernie's campaign
Even if only a few advertisers have seen the Com & Com video, it is well received. It's all the more likely to happen to Bernie's - doesn't everyone know this chain of stores? In your pants, Adraters, and click on www. werbewoche.ch/adrating
Com-&-Com campaign
Top: 63.86
Flop: 36,14%
Praise and criticism of ad-raters summarized at www.werbewoche .ch/adrating/comments