Simko wins La Vaudoise
La Vaudoise Insurance is switching advertising agencies:
"Scholz & Kids" are in the red. From A for Alyona to V for Valentina, the range of sugar-sweet image bearers that adorn the annual report of the Berlin agency group Scholz & Friends, which has been listed on the stock exchange since November 2001, extends. The photos from the family albums of their human capital stand for their (private) productivity on the one hand, but also for the future orientation of the network, which is now represented in 14 European countries. In 2001, however, its baby fat in terms of turnover shrank by almost ten percent to 74.4 million euros. So it's no wonder that Scholz & Friends boss Sebastian Turner is looking to the future with hope.
Jewelry safe. Jewelry fans will have new reading material from mid-October: Tres Or magazine will report quarterly on unique jewelry. It will be piggybacked onto the Tamedia magazines Facts and Annabelle and distributed via luxury hotels, designer boutiques and by direct mail order to goldsmith customers. The initial print run of the 128-page, four-color magazine is around 200,000 copies. The October launch issue will be published in German, with an edition for French-speaking Switzerland planned for 2003. Behind Tres Or is publisher Jean-Christophe Gyr, who already publishes Gold'Or, a trade magazine for precious metals, watches, jewelry and stones. The magazine is realized and marketed by the Zurich agency Bleuler MediaNeutralCommunication.
Soccer games. For some, it may be because they've been watching too much football. For others, the problem is more serious. It could be due to an overused ball of the foot. At least that's what the advertisement with the erect toes in the sexy open sandals suggests. At second glance, it is of course about erectile dysfunction. Jung von Matt/Limmat has creatively tackled the problem, which according to research affects around 500,000 men in Switzerland. The fact that self-experiments with aphrodisiacs are not recommended because they "only cost time and money" can be read at www.wir-helfen-koennen.ch, where you can also find advice on taking pills further with a new product in the year four after Viagra.
Corporate identity. Corporate identity can also be understood as physical identity. At any rate, this is illustrated by a new flyer from the communications agency of Marc Bohnenblust and Joseph Haas. BH, as the agency at Lavaterstrasse 101 in Zurich calls itself, wants to "create brands that convince customers, employees and shareholders alike", as it says when the flyer is turned over. To clarify: the front of the flyer is, of course, about business - without BH.
Advertising expenditure falls by 5.25% in May. Gross advertising expenditure in Switzerland fell by 5.25% in May compared to the previous year. According to Media Focus figures, only radio (3.4%) and cinema (23.2%) recorded a positive result. The daily newspapers had to bleed more heavily again after the narrow decline (0.5%) in April: Their advertising sales fell by 7.2%. Trade journals also did not have a good May with a loss of 6.0%, while consumer magazines got off lightly with a loss of 1.1%. Teletext and posters lost 3.9% and. 7.5% respectively.
Free beer for everyone. Mercedes-Benz congratulated the runner-up with a full-page advertisement in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), as did Lufthansa and Karstadt. The department store invited customers to "free beer for all" in Karstadt stores with restaurants and offered a "30% world champion discount". Germany thus reacted to the samba in Yokohama with dignity. Naturally, the FAZ editorial team could not stand back. Under the title "Kampf, Kampf, Weinkrampf, Kahn", the feature writers created a poem from 29 Bild newspaper headlines. "The headline for the final match was not yet certain when our feature went to press, but it was quite likely," the paper apologized for the final rhyme: "Kahn of all people! But you'll still be our hero!". A click on Bild-Online would have been enough for the lazy colleagues to add the addendum: "You can't have everything..."
The book on noise. The music of the zeitgeist, which drives the cultural director of Blick and her "Vis-à-Vis" desperately away from the noisy city to the hotel, triggered cultural-historical research at Werd-Verlag: "Street Parade - das Buch" is the title of the volume in which Christoph Soltmannowski traces the cultural background of the Zurich Street Parade back to 1902. Back then, figures from the world of travesty were first spotted in the procession of guild members at Sechseläuten. In 1916, it was the Dadaists around Hugo Ball who also caused a lack of understanding among cultural experts with a bourgeois imagination. "All sounds and noises are music", Karlheinz Stockhausen is also said to have claimed. In more than 140 pages, Soltmannowski describes how this cultural heritage gave rise to the Street Parade, which some people now regard as nothing more than noise, and what this event does away from the hotel beds in Zurich. A little tip: switch off the TV and start a nice chat with the book.
Editorial
Springboard without a pool? Economic analysts are still looking for signs of a turnaround with a magnifying glass. However, the silver lining on the advertising horizon for the current semester also appears to be a mirage. The BSW (Swiss Association of Advertising and Communication Agencies) is now defying the gloomy data from Media Focus, Publicitas and Wemf with a talent workshop (see article on page 12). Prima vista, the timing may not seem ideal. But why shouldn't it be cheap for the BSW to do what many foreign trade associations are happy to do?
In fact, so-called "Advertising Weeks" for young creative talent have proven their worth in France, Scandinavia and England. Thanks to such campaigns, people from outside the industry are constantly shaking up the advertising scene and giving the communications sector a good reputation. If agencies now preach anti-cyclical behavior to their clients in recessionary economic phases and conclusively prove that they can sustainably gain market share with this strategy, the BSW can set a good example. Only by investing in the future can the labor market be prevented from drying up as it did two years ago.
In times of shrinking budgets, so much utilitarian optimism seems suspicious, say skeptics of the workshop: Although there are hardly any top vacancies to fill at the moment, the workshop suggests that there are real opportunities to get started. And: while talented career changers are being sought, the agencies themselves are investing little time and money in their own junior staff. As a result, some suspect that this quick bleaching is nothing more than a low-cost bridal show.
Speaking of anti-cyclical brand management: the BSW and its German counterpart - the German Association of Advertising Agencies (GWA) - canceled the fifth Marbach Academy a good year ago due to under-attendance. At that time, before the actual slump after September 11, the organizers attributed the lack of interest to the economic situation.
It will be interesting to see whether the Sawi introductory courses in advertising and marketing will attract talent, or whether the BSW experiment, like the advertising motif, will turn out to be an unintentionally ironic springboard without a pool. Luca Aloisi
