Striking Too much espresso damages the heart. Sometimes also the brain. Regular, so-called lavazzians are particularly at risk. The fact that their number is increasing every year is proven, among other things, by the success of the "Espresso & Fun" calendar, which photo artist David LaChapelle produced this year on behalf of the Italian coffee brand. The 2002 edition contains gaudy, phallic, oil-smeared and colorful impressions that say a lot about the needs of homo sapiens, vulgo macho. A sample of La-Chapele's photos appeared these days in Le Figaro magazine in the form of an ad. Want to see more? Click on www.espressoandfun .com and drink a Lavazza beforehand. For the purpose of expanding the coronary and, psst!, the cerebral vessels. Chandra Kurt
Column

Liz Sutter imagination
Movies on celluloid have been around for a little over a hundred years. Movies in the head have been around ever since people started dreaming. And ever since people have been able to buy books, people have been promoting reading because it allows them to make their own head movies. Why so many film critics are emphasizing this well-known fact so strongly during the release of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is hard to understand. Even less so why some are downright offended by the fact that the images Chris Columbus serves them do not match their own ideas.
Sometimes the images in your head can fool you: For an article about improvised sun hats, I was looking for a drawing of a man wearing a handkerchief on his head. I had seen it, but where? Sure. In the magazine, in an essay by Thomas Hürlimann about Gottfried Keller. Feverishly, I flipped through the magazine. Nothing. Only somewhere in the text a waiter making fun of the guest on the terrace: "Gezipfeltes Nastuch auf dem Grind!" I had simply imagined the appropriate image. Hopefully, I thought, I'll never have to give a witness statement.
"Take his gun away! Get the police!" I heard from the street. I rushed to the window, saw two men wedged into each other, blood on the asphalt. "Please, come quickly!", I cackled into the phone. The statement I later put on record was completely wrong. To me, the superior man was clearly the bad guy. I had not seen how the victim had managed to overpower the attacker. I had assigned the call for the police to the wrong person, that is, I had placed the speech bubble incorrectly. Obviously, you have to distrust not only all printed, broadcast and imagined images, but simply everything you see. So: Close your eyes and get through.
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Liz Sutter is a journalist.
Language Observer

It
It is cold. It's almost over. It's time to go. - When writer Yoko Tawada moves from Tokyo to Hamburg to learn German, she notices a little word that doesn't exist in Japanese: Es.
She looks it up in the textbook, and there it says that it doesn't mean anything, that it just fills a grammatical gap, since without it the subject of the sentence is missing, and since there are no sentences in German without a subject, it just jumps in.
For the rest, it is a pronoun. Example: "The house was so small that it could hardly be seen from this distance." Here it clearly reveals itself. It stands as a placeholder for the house, for a noun, which is why it is called a pronoun. But in a sentence like "It was just before eleven when the stranger arrived at the station."? What does It stand for here? For the time? Or, "It looked like it was about to rain." What does the first It stand for? What does the second one stand for? Does the second stand for the first? Or do they stand for different things?
When someone says "it is raining," there is something that causes water to drip onto the earth. When "someone is doing well," there is something that contributes. "It is possible that you will die tomorrow." Who created that possibility? God? Chance? Fate? Life in its inscrutability? The laws of physics?
We quickly arrive at the ultimate questions when we think about the little word that lives so modestly in its grammatical gap. It vegetates unrecognized under numerous names, it officiates as a conscientious placeholder, as a variable, as an unknown, as the X of innumerable equations. It is always in search of its solution, its value, its destiny. In the process, it transforms into something else in every sentence.
The creation story says, "Let there be light." And there was light. According to the Bible ("In the beginning was the Word"), it stands for the Word that transformed itself into real things on each day of creation, thus creating reality on earth: "There was evening, and there was morning..."
Whether in the beginning was the word or the power, the big bang or the chaos, deed, power or sense, reason, coincidence or divine providence: There was light. Up to this small word we can think in German, behind it the speculation begins.
Sigmund Freud must have suspected this when he divided the human psyche into superego, ego and id. The superego is determined by the moral laws of civilization. The ego is the subjective and therefore always sandwiched. The id is formed by the primordial, the instincts, the animal, the unclear, that which we cannot know - and perhaps do not want to know.
How is it possible for a language like Japanese to get by without the little word "it"? Beat Gloor, www.textcontrol.ch

Goldbach Media swallows MoneycabThe Küsnacht-based Goldbach Media Group takes over the Internet finance portal Moneycab as of December 15. The editorial team of Moneycab will be merged with that of Swisscontent Corp, the content subsidiary of Goldbach Media. This "move" should guarantee the continued existence of Moneycab, according to Goldbach Media.Moneycab was launched in the spring with a crew of 18 journalists and offered information on the economy and stock market on the Internet. The company was founded by Internet provider Bluewin, Credit Suisse (CS) and Tamedia.
The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price and terms. What is certain is that CS, Bluewin and Tamedia will continue to serve as content suppliers to the future editorial teams of Swisscontent Corp. and Moneycab. For Goldbach Media, this means above all an image gain, as it can expand its customer portfolio. It can also further expand its position in marketing and linking electronic media and in content production.
"Moneycab will only be successful in the long term with strong alliances and partnerships," Goldbach Media commented on the acquisition. But how it intends to make Moneycab commercially interesting as well remained unsaid. Ultimately, it was the lack of prospects for profit that prompted the founding partners to sell Moneycab.
In addition, Goldbach's own subsidiary Swisscontent Corp. is also having problems. Due to the loss of its major customers Swissonline (Cablecom) and Yellowworld (Swiss Post), it has to reorient itself and, in addition to business information, will in future also offer corporate publishing, which includes specialist articles (channel content) from the customers' product environment as well as PR services. A separate unit will be set up for the latter next year. The consequence of this realignment: twelve jobs will be cut in Berne. However, this has nothing to do with the takeover of Moneycab, it said. Goldbach Media also wants to integrate all Moneycab employees, including senior management, into a new organizational structure.
With the takeover of Moneycab by Goldbach Media, what has long been the case with other types of media is now also taking hold among Swiss Internet providers: content is being merged. The Goldbach jubilation that it is now "the only independent content provider in Switzerland" is therefore doubly dubious. Firstly, because diversity is being lost, and secondly, because there is no "independent" content. And the content from the future Moneycab/Swisscontent editorial team will continue to come at least in part from Bluewin, CS and Tamedia. Markus Knöpfli

Pucci Sulzer and cR DDB are following in Coca-Cola's advertising footsteps - and not aloneBy Simone Keller The American Santa Claus, Santa Claus, is on a promotional tour in Switzerland. Not only for Coca-Cola, but also for Migros, Coop, and Co. the well-fed, bearded Santa is vigorously beating the advertising drums.
Santa Claus comes on December 6 - every child in this country knows that. Nevertheless, the dear old man with the white beard is still present on posters, in shop windows and on TV until Christmas. The culprit is Santa Claus, St. Nicholas' uncle from America, who has made the leap across the pond with the Coca-Cola Christmas promotion and is visibly gaining a foothold in local creative departments.
This was also the case with cR DDB, which was entrusted with a festive campaign as part of the Coop umbrella brand presence. In order to publicize the ongoing promotions during Advent, the Basel team immediately harnessed Santa himself in front of the communications sleigh. Whether with a wine glass, a dab of cream on his nose or behind the Christmas tree, the winking Santa-Coop ensures a presence on advertising material in the run-up to Christmas.
The good old man from the Nordpool also made a brief stop at the competitor Migros to hawk their promotions as well. The Zurich agency Pucci Sulzer has developed a special Advent calendar to publicize the discounts. From December 1 to 23, a wide variety of chicks will each present a product as part of a casting. The search is on for the perfect Santa Claus, who will of course only be discovered on the eve of Christmas.
For Americans, marketing is always about serving the customer
The two major distributors are by no means the only ones trying to boost sales of their products through Advent with Santa Claus as the draught horse. Whether for Coca-Cola, Swisscom or Bol.ch, Santa Claus and his reindeer are almost omnipresent this year. "We were surprised ourselves that the figure of Santa Claus is being used so aggressively this year," admits Peter Graf, campaign manager for Coop at cR DDB.
Other approaches had also been examined, but it had to be determined that figures such as the Christ Child or angel "can't do everything". The Coop-typical wink suited a chubby Santa Claus better than an ethereal angel. Däni Sulzer, CD at Pucci Sulzer, explains the idea behind the Migros spots in a similar way. "The figure of Santa Claus leaves the most room for maneuver.
The Christ Child, after all, is rather sacred; you can't very well stage this figure in a mischievous way or have him play pranks." Both creations were inspired by American models such as the Coca-Cola campaigns or the Hollywood production "Miracle on 34th Street" with Richard Attenborough. According to Peter Graf, the Coop Santa is based on this.
While our Santa Claus visits the children on December 6, his American counterpart climbs down the chimney the night before Christmas to put the presents under the Christmas tree - a task that is done here in the country by the Christ Child. Just as Halloween makes All Saints' Day consumer-friendly with pumpkins and witches, U.S. Christmas traditions are making their way into Swiss shopping stores. "The Americans effortlessly manage to short-circuit marketing and religion," explains David Bosshart, GDI's managing director. "Marketing there is always worship of the customer. Here, despite all the secularization, people are more cautious when it comes to religion."
Nevertheless, there is a clear trend in the same direction, says Bosshart and continues: "If the Pope sells rap CDs to promote the Vatican and the good Lord and to acquire new customers, there are hardly any more taboos to break." Let's hope that fat Santa doesn't one day even tip the poor Christ Child out of his manger in Swiss living rooms.

An advertising trial with floor animation in supermarkets is underway in the USABy Thérèse Balduzzi For five years, the American company Floorgraphics has specialized in product advertising in supermarkets, offering advertisers advertising space on floors and on shopping carts. Floorgraphics' latest product is floor billboards with moving images, sound and many opportunities for interaction.
Founded six years ago, Floorgraphics of Princeton, New Jersey, manages the advertising spaces of 13,000 department stores and supermarkets in the U.S., including major chains such as Kmart, A&P and Safeway.
The company became successful in a few years, but not without initial difficulties. Earlier ads for flooring required ripping out a piece of the flooring, which was met with little enthusiasm. "It took a lot of time and missionary work to demonstrate the advertising effectiveness," says Richard Rebh, CEO of Floorgraphics. According to Rebh, the ads, which measure about half a square meter and are placed in supermarket aisles right in front of the rack with the corresponding product, can increase sales by 15 to 35 percent.
Soon giraffes will tickle baby feet in 4000 stores
Floorgraphics gives stores a quarter share of the advertising revenue, which can be a handsome share of income, especially for smaller businesses. For advertisers, the solution is equally beneficial. The cost (cost per thousand) of floorads is half that of outdoor advertising and 16 times less than that of television advertising.
Rebh expects another breakthrough from its latest offering: floorads with moving images and sound. They're called floor animations. In the fall, a test was launched in more than 75 stores, with the participation of such well-known companies as Campbell Soup and Procter & Gamble.
The Flooranimations were developed during two years and work with the help of microprocessors. Like conventional floorads, they can simply be stuck to the floor and offer a whole range of possibilities: moving images, sequences of moving images, sound, activation by a motion detector and a counter that measures interactions with consumers.
A floor animation for Pampers, for example, shows a giraffe. If you put your foot on the ad, you can see a baby being tickled and laughing. Campbell Soup is advertising its Prego Pasta brand in the test phase. "The floor animations are a big hit, especially with young children, because they're closer to the floor," Rebh says. But adults also remain interested - at least as long as Flooranimations are a novelty.
At the end of the test phase, the effect of the new Flooranimations will be compared with that of conventional Floorads. Rebh expects Flooranimations to perform far better than Floorads. If this proves to be true, a broad launch in 4000 stores is planned for next year. Floor animations with a scrolling line of text are also planned, which would allow advertisers to change the text as often as desired or to suit specific locations.

The regional station Tele Ostschweiz (TVO) is taking over the programs "Videogang" and "Lifestyle" from the discontinued Tele 24.News Tele Ostschweiz inherits from Tele 24 "Videogang," a program by teenagers for teenagers, will be broadcast every afternoon with immediate effect. The magazine "Lifestyle", which will continue to be produced and broadcast by Tele Züri, will also be shown on TVO every Friday from the beginning of 2002. It replaces the magazine "Klopfer," which will be discontinued at the end of the year.
20 Minuten waits for better times The commuter newspaper 20 Minuten, which is currently available free of charge at 60 kiosks each in Basel, Bern and Zurich, is refraining from expanding its kiosk presence for the time being. As reported by WerbeWoche at the end of September, the plan was to offer the free paper at around 1000 Kiosk AG sales outlets in German-speaking Switzerland. Publishing director Rolf Bollmann stressed that the project had only been postponed by the board of directors, not cancelled. It will probably be put on the agenda again next spring.
BaZ rotates for Coop newspaper The Basler Zeitung (BaZ) has ordered a new press line from Koenig & Bauer for the production of its daily newspaper and 29 other newspaper titles from customers and partners. It is investing more than 80 million Swiss francs in this, including an extension to the existing printing plant. The new press will be commissioned at the end of 2003 and will be able to print in four colors throughout. Coop-Zeitung had requested the latter from the BaZ printing plant.
Publimag launches new combination From the beginning of the year, Publimag will be offering the PolyTec advertising combination. It combines nine trade magazines from Swiss industry. The individual titles are: Baublatt, Chemische Rundschau, Kunststoffe/ Synthetics, Lebensmitteltechnologie, Precision, Schweizer Holzzeitung, Schweizer Maschinenmarkt, Tara, Viscom Print & Communication. The Kombi is published ten times a year with a circulation of around 99000 copies.

JWT + Hostettler + Fabrikant positions Baileys as an object of desireThrough an optical illusion, a sensual cinema film conceived by JWT + Hostettler + Fabrikant places Baileys, an Irish cream made of milk, whisky, cocoa and caramel, among other things, in the realm of eroticism. The advertising strip, which is based on the same concept as a billboard developed last year, pursues the same goal: Namely, to bring Baileys to the top of mind among 18- to 29-year-old rather urban women and men and to create a stronger emotional bond with the target group. Furthermore, the light, which is kept in a warm shimmering brown tone, is intended to deepen the mood of the product colors.
At first, the viewer thinks he sees the sun rising behind a curved hilltop. But the supposed star turns out to be a viscous mass that runs along an initially unidentifiable object. The further course of the film implies that the form shows the curves of the naked body of a brown woman, bordered by a fine strip of rays. But at the end it turns out to be a drop of Baileys flowing along a lying Baileys bottle. The slogan "Let your senses guide you" consoles over the disillusionment.
Agency owner Remy Fabrikant describes the realization as "emotional eroticism," but denies that the liquid could also be interpreted as ejaculate. "We tried to create a mix between emotion and eroticism without coming into conflict with the law," says Fabrikant, who personally supervised the shoot in London as creative director.
In order to avoid the pitfalls of government restrictions, caution was the order of the day for this project anyway. The agency did not want to risk a repeat of the unpleasant experience of creating a Smirnoff poster. That's why the agency had every stage of the film, from the storyboard to the theatrical copy, approved by the alcohol administration.
The production was set to music by Zurich musicians Philippe Schmid and Moritz Schneider in reference to the title "You sexy thing" by Hot Chocolate. Ernst Weber

While the umbrella organization Swiss Advertising exuded optimism during its anniversary year in 1999, the tide has since turned.The downturn of the year: Following a stellar 2000 (with 4.4 billion Swiss francs in advertising spending nationwide), the advertising industry in particular has felt the economic slowdown acutely. After all, this sector tends to feel such fluctuations earlier and to a disproportionately greater extent. Failed startups and suspended IPOs, rolling waves of mergers and the faltering New Economy, job cuts and consolidations. The “Black Autumn” and its events dampened consumer sentiment to such an extent that even interest rate cuts failed to stimulate consumer spending. Consequently, the stock prices of most international advertising giants—as well as those of unlisted agencies—plummeted: Compared to their prices at the start of the year, as of the reporting date of December 11, Interpublic Group (including McCann-Erickson and the Lowe Group) was down 34.9 percent; Havas Advertising (Euro RSCG) was down 42.2 percent; WPP Group (Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy & Mather, J. Walter Thompson) was down 18 percent; Omnicom (BBDO, DDB, TBWA) was the exception, trading a full 5.8 percent higher, while Publicis (Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi) was down 15.6 percent.The agency with the most turmoil this year: On December 6, Publicis CEO Fredy Collioud let the cat out of the bag: The Lausanne office will close at the beginning of 2002. The move was triggered by a budget restructuring at key client Nestlé, which at the time separated Publicis Lausanne from Nestlé’s in-house Bureau des études publicitaires (BEP). In the future, clients will be served by the sister agency in Zurich or by Saatchi & Saatchi in Nyon, which is also part of the Publicis network. The closure in Lausanne is also leading to changes in Publicis’s management in Zurich: Starting in January 2002, Cornelia Harder will take over the role of Managing Director from Fredy Collioud. Collioud, who has led Publicis Zurich for 15 years, will remain Chairman of the Executive Board. In contrast to this abrupt withdrawal, two positive developments occurred: In February, the Swiss Publicis Group acquired a majority stake in Switzerland’s largest direct marketing agency, Fisch Meier Direkt in Adliswil. And on August 9, Optimedia and BG Media announced their merger, effective at the start of 2002, to form the leading media agency. With cumulative billings of approximately 310 million francs, the company ranks ahead of industry leaders Best of Media/CIA and m&m Holding.
The Liberalizers of the Year: In the coming years, a gradual deregulation of the domestic market is expected to bring it more in line with market conditions in the European Union. Experts say that the best way to achieve open markets is through free market access for international competition. To date, a general market opening in the telecommunications sector took place on January 1, 1998, affecting basic infrastructure. Postal services have been partially liberalized since the same date. One year later, the rail sector had only made minor adjustments to the future market situation. Among other affected groups, this liberalization has led—and continues to lead—to patriotic reactions in their communications: Eat Swiss cheese, choose Swiss bread, and opt for Swiss meat. This was the main message that advertising for these product groups conveyed to consumers last year. In the energy sector, interest groups such as Axpo, Swisspower, and 1to1-Energy have formed to give competitors entering the local market a proper welcome: by creating and establishing Swiss electricity brands to make the market a rocky one for them.
The Brand Grounding of the Year: In Advico’s Brand Asset Valuator 2000 study, the Swiss carrier no longer ranked among Switzerland’s top 20 power brands, even though the airline frequently won industry awards and the brand was said to be worth several billion. Or so it was said. On October 2, when Swissair could no longer take off due to its insurmountable debt burden and was forced into a chaotic grounding—unlike anything typically seen in Switzerland— one would have hoped to use the intangible brand value to come up with the necessary kerosene and settle its obligations to partners and employees. But neither CEO Mario Corti’s rebranding effort—which was cut short on the runway—nor the image campaign launched in July at the AY&R hangar could save the airline from the turbulence. In its cool, purist «We care» campaign—which reflected the airline’s premium attributes in white-on-white—the former pride of the nation seemed to have already disintegrated into its constituent atoms. It wasn’t just thousands of jobs at Swissair that vanished into thin air. In addition to the Swiss national identity, the tourism and communications industries suffered the most. In the latter, Swissair spent a good 6.2 million francs in Switzerland alone during its final year. According to its own statements, the in-house agency AY&R—which also handles Kuoni and its subsidiary Helvetic Tours—has not yet had to issue any layoff notices. The future of Target Publishing, the publisher of the in-flight magazine, however, hangs in the balance, and the company is seeking a new home.
The Most Creative of the Year: There was little change in the top ten Swiss creative agencies. Publicis, Zurich, was knocked from first to second place by Advico Young & Rubicam (AY&R), Zurich. The new leader achieved a rare feat: After AY&R’s thought-provoking commercial for Médecins sans Frontières had already been voted “Campaign of the Year 2000” by *WerbeWoche* readers, the Gockhausen-based agency went on to win the coveted Golden Lion in Cannes. McCann-Erickson, Zurich, remained in third place. Newcomers included Jung von Matt/Limmat in seventh place and the web agency
RØSA in ninth place.
Advertising Savers of the Year: The year 2001 was quite a year: Even in the previously bright blue skies of the thriving telecommunications industry, storm clouds of instability began to gather. This eventful year in telecommunications began with the merger of Diax and Sunrise, with the Diax brand falling by the wayside. Shortly after the merger, Sunrise switched from Lowe Lintas GGK (LLGGK), Zurich, to Wirz Werbung, Zurich. Orange, which is served globally by Lowe network agencies, also reallocated its budget—much to the chagrin of Frank Bodin’s Euro RSCG Switzerland and much to the delight of Mark Stahel’s LLGGK. According to Media Focus, in the IT/Office sector—which includes telecommunications—the decline in advertising spending during the first three quarters of this year was 18.3 percent, or 228.2 million Swiss francs. In the same period last year, this same category spent 279.4 million Swiss francs on advertising. Telecom companies played a major role in this decline, cutting their advertising investments by a total of 29.2 percent. Orange leads the decline with a 43.8 percent drop. The «Greenland brand» spent just 17.4 million on its communications, whereas its budget for the same period last year had been a whopping 30.9 million. The former monopoly holder, Swisscom, got off lightly. It had to reduce its advertising spending by only 3.9 million Swiss francs—or 7.2 percent—from 55 million to 51.1 million Swiss francs. On the list of the top 50 advertisers, the Swiss telecom provider currently ranks third, followed by TDC Switzerland (Sunrise), which ranks 12th with spending of 20.5 million francs. Orange Communications ranks 19th.
The Party Flops of the Year: The graduation ceremony organized by the Marketing and Communication students was unworthy of the industry—an industry that prides itself on conveying, distilling, and visually bringing emotions to life. In the seminar room at the X’01 marketing trade show, a few sponsor banners were hastily slapped up, and the 100 or so attendees were scattered among 250 chairs, only to be bored by panelists who had already participated in the event ten or more years ago. Like a military roll call, the new graduates filed onto the stage in groups of three to receive their diplomas. Mediocre wine and soggy sandwiches put the final nail in the coffin of this dreary affair. The juniors deserved better on this important day! The only bright spots: the speech by SW President Carlo Schmid-Sutter, who has a brilliant knack for crafting concise and intelligent statements with just a few words; and the hopeful anticipation in the graduates’ eyes that the future will be better.
The party highlights of the year: Advertisers know how to party. In 2001, there were more great events than ever before. Some deserve a mention: The SonntagsZeitung’s Gambling Night and the Plakandafest are surefire hits. Both deserve bronze! The Goldbach Center inauguration and the ADC Gala deserve the designation “valuable” and thus silver! At both events, Michelin-starred chef André Jaeger showcased his—not exactly inexpensive—culinary skills. And that says it all about the quality. But gold goes to the Bernese! Though we like to dismiss them as “provincial,” this year’s coolest parties took place in the federal capital—or were conceived there. It all kicked off with the Bund party at the crazy Hunziker-Mühli-Päsche in Rubigen. Everything was free, everything was great! The Berner Zeitung capped it off with the Bodega aperitif in Zurich. Lang Gysi Knoll brought the festivities to a close. The invitation to the annual party featured a CD by Simone Quast in a dominatrix look. And the party was just as wild.
The year’s biggest advertiser: A veritable barrage of marketing innovations propelled Switzerland’s second-largest retailer to the top in 2001, clearly surpassing Migros—the long-time leader—in advertising spending. The «So macht’s Freude» (“That’s What Makes It Fun”) image campaign by cR DDB, Basel, kicked off the sales and communications strategy at the beginning of the year, communicating the Coop Forte vision both internally and externally with the new logo designed by Külling & Partner. While building the new brand identity is certainly not cheap, it is already bearing its first fruits. Impressive gains in market share across all sectors speak for themselves. According to Media Focus, Coop’s advertising spending from January through October rose by a solid 8.8 percent compared to the same period last year (2001: 161 million / 2000: 148 million francs), while Migros, in the year following its 75th anniversary, cut its gross advertising expenditure by 14.8 percent (2001: 144 million / 2000: 169 million francs). The many advertising agencies that work for Coop have reason to remain optimistic. If CEO Hansueli Loosli’s clear brand strategy and statements are followed, the Basel-based retailer’s advertising strategy is unlikely to change significantly in the future.
The Big Exodus of the Year: When former Optimedia CEO Andy Lehmann announced at the end of June that he was founding his own independent, owner-managed media agency, people suspected that this might have personnel consequences for Optimedia. However, the sheer scale of the exodus from the Publicis network agency came as a shock: Of a total of about twenty employees, no fewer than ten had decided to join Lehmann’s media agency, Seefeld. Publicis resolved the issue by announcing in early August that the depleted Optimedia would merge with the previously independent media agency BG Media, effective January 2002. But the exodus was not quite over yet, because in mid-September, BG Media’s Outdoor Advertising unit announced that it would not participate in the merger of the two media agencies and would instead also work for Mediahaus Seefeld, which launched on December 1. Meanwhile, BG Media not only restructured its outdoor advertising unit (with Florian Walz at the helm), but also filled the other vacant positions. The client list for Mediahaus Seefeld, announced at the beginning of the year, is now eagerly awaited. Here, too, poaching of clients is expected.
Media Overhaul of the Year: For years now, the weekly newspaper *Die Weltwoche* has been the subject of unsuccessful restructuring efforts, endless discussions, and constant grumbling. However, it became Switzerland’s undisputedly largest print media construction site as of early June of this year, when the two new co-editors-in-chief, Roger Köppel and Kenneth Angst, took the reins. This marked the beginning of an even more difficult period—at least temporarily—for an editorial staff already facing an uncertain future. As was to be expected, numerous employees had to vacate their desks during the restructuring process to make room for colleagues who better fit the new vision. In October, the speculation about *Die Weltwoche*’s future format was finally resolved: As of January 31, 2002, the long-established newspaper will transform into a magazine—slightly larger in size but, in terms of page count (104 pages), about one-third thinner than *Facts*. In the advertising market, it aims to generate the revenue—and in the reader market, to attract the curious magazine readers—that had been sorely lacking in the past. The Basel-based media group itself describes the upcoming relaunch as its last chance to finally put a bottom back in its Zurich “bottomless pit.”.
Troublemaker of the Year: When Michi Frank changes employers, trouble—that is, a whole arsenal of new competing products—is guaranteed. After six years at Belcom AG, Frank joined IP Multimedia (Switzerland) on January 1, 2001. Just eight months later, new marketing projects were pouring out of the Küsnacht-based company’s cornucopia. Each one more controversial than the last: The one originally aimed at the
The advertising slots planned for October 1 on M6 initially sparked outrage among Bakom, then TSR, and half of French-speaking Switzerland. Even today, negotiations are still underway with individual cable network operators regarding the launch of the advertising slots, which is why their start has been further delayed. IPM’s announcement that it would also sell advertising time for regional TV stations in the future met with fierce resistance as well. This time, the opposition came from Radiotele, the marketing arm of TeleNewsCombi. Only IPM’s two other new initiatives—its entry into nationwide local radio marketing and the advertising block on Vox set to launch in January—went off without a hitch, escaping fierce verbal attacks from the competition.
The "Rising Star" of the Year: No sooner had Christian Stärkle joined Schawinski’s Belcom as CEO this spring than the company was sold, and Stärkle was already shown the door by Jürg Wildberger and Kurt W. Zimmermann. To make matters worse, the members of his radio association also deserted him. Some people thought: Now Chrigel is out of the radio and TV industry for good. But what doesn’t kill Stärkle makes him stronger. Remember: When he was trying to launch a private TV combo, he was even mocked by the great Roger Schawinski. Today, Schawinski is out of the picture, but Stärkle heads TeleNewsCombi. Want to bet that, following the demise of TV 3 and Tele 24, he’ll also revive his Prime TV idea? One thing is certain: Schawinski, Wildberger, Zimmi, and whatever the other TV executives are called—they’re leaving, but Stärkle is staying. As Belcom CEO, of course.
Ascetic of the Year: Walpen earns about 450,000 francs a year; the SBB conductor makes a bit more; and Honegger from Swissair is also raking in an outrageous amount. The wage gap between executives and rank-and-file employees is widening more and more. But in the midst of this social disaster, one man provided a refreshing counterpoint: Kilian Gasser. He moved from Facts to the WochenZeitung (WoZ) as advertising director, fully aware that he was giving up half his previous salary in the process. Anyone who thinks Gasser could be lured away somewhere else with just a few francs more should be warned: they’ll have a hard time getting past Gasser’s idealism.

Almost two-thirds of the German-speaking Swiss audience regularly listen to cable radioA study published by private radio stations and SRG dispels the prejudice of unused cable radio. Surprisingly, the German-speaking Swiss are far ahead of the French-speaking Swiss in terms of cable radio usage.Cable slots are in short supply, a problem that is becoming even more acute in view of the various private radio stations that are now pushing into cable with second programs (see also WW 42/01). In view of this situation, it is important to know how and which cable radio stations are used at all - in order to be able to formulate a priority list of useful or dispensable programs based on this information.
With this in mind, Sunshine boss Markus Ruoss suggested a cable radio study in which, in addition to Sunshine, the cable association Swisscable, the radios 105, Argovia, 32, Aktuell, Central, Top and the already discontinued 24Plus as well as Radiotele AG and SRG participated.
For the study conducted by Publica Data AG, 3,300 people in German-speaking Switzerland and 1,700 people in French-speaking Switzerland were asked last June and July about their cable radio usage habits.
The first surprise is that a very large number of households have a radio connected to the cable. In German-speaking Switzerland, the figure is no less than 76 percent. French-speaking Switzerland, on the other hand, is far behind with only 42 percent. The much lower figure is only partly explained by the somewhat lower cable density in French-speaking Switzerland (70 percent compared with 78 percent in German-speaking Switzerland). One reason for German-speaking Switzerland's lead could be its longer tradition with cable radio. It stands to reason that Eviva and Radio 105, which have been a topic here for many years, have led to a better establishment of cable radio per se.
SRG programs are used the most
The second surprise of the latest cable radio study: Not only are radios frequently connected to the cable network, cable radios are also well used. In German-speaking Switzerland, as many as 64 percent listen to cable radio daily or almost daily, 12 percent do so several times a week and 6 percent once a week. Only 8 percent say they never tune in to cable radio. In western Switzerland, by contrast, just under half of people in cable households said they use cable radio daily or almost daily.
A major obstacle on the way to cable radio remains the fact that in most cases only 1 room per household is equipped with a cable connection (71 percent in German-speaking Switzerland, 55 percent in French-speaking Switzerland). Only a minority has 2 or more wired rooms (29 percent in German-speaking Switzerland, 45 percent in French-speaking Switzerland).
When asked which stations are used most, the SRG's first channels perform best. They occupy the first three places. Among the most frequently tuned-in private Swiss radio stations, Eviva and 105 are clearly ahead (79 percent or more tuned in). However, other cable-only stations such as Swiss Classic, Swiss Pop, Sky Radio and RTL Oldies also occupy top positions.
The study also provides information about what the Swiss audience expects from cable radio. The majority wants either a pure music program. Or a mix radio station, which means a service in which as many program components as possible - music, news, presentation - are represented in a balanced way. Daniel Schifferle

An unmistakable sign of the approaching Christmas season is the annual jazz bar, to which the "Idée - Association for Advertising Communication" invites members and guests every year at the end of November.by Beat Fritsch This year, the event took place in the trendy El Lokal pub, where the interior alone creates an ideal jazz ambience.
As it has already proven itself, the organizers of the Idée once again relied on the Jazzhochschule Zürich for the line-up of bands. Thus, at the Idée Jazz not only fresh and unused bands can be heard every year, one also offers up-and-coming musicians a good platform in front of an interested audience. However, not without resorting to a safe value. Besides Stan and Art and Sold out, Round Corner, known from the last Idée-Jazz, have also been engaged.
And it went off pretty well. The youngsters showed the jazz fans what's what and captivated the audience. Nevertheless, there was enough space for the guests to have stimulating conversations, and the physical well-being was not neglected either. The fine antipasti platters were emptied in no time, the kitchen of "El Lokal" offered two tasty main courses with mushroom risotto or Thai green curry, and the well-stocked wine selection let lovers of the red juice get their money's worth.
The conversations revolved - around advertising. Mario Buchmann from Mediaxis and Sandra Haldi from By Heart discussed intensively, in one corner one saw the new ASW managing director Peter Grob with his wife Ursula, Daniel Stierli from Typolitho parleyed with his colleagues from Drucklade, and soon one also saw former Idée president Romaine Marti, who arrived a little later, and her husband Kari, immersed in discussions with the board.
Here they were very pleased that the jazz event of the Idée also in its further new edition again attracted more audience than in the year before. The event is well known to old hands from the past, but the jazz concert was no longer held from the beginning of the nineties. Four years ago, the then board of directors decided to revive the Jazz Night. With great success, as could be seen last week, because the "El Lokal" was almost filled to capacity.
In his speech, Idée president Heinz Egli pointed out that the event was only possible thanks to many sponsors. Although the search for these had also been easier, but nevertheless: As could be seen on the moving image projection in the hall, on the poster walls and on the banners, the ideas of the Idée are broadly supported.
The investor magazine Stocks sponsored the bands; the fashion magazine Meyer's the aperitif; Plakanda, Facts, Publimedia, the Swiss Advertising Agenda and the Typolitho Group provided a considerable amount of money; the advertising and event agency Bongusto Kommunikation revised the program and invitation flyer, which was produced free of charge by Drucklade. Finally, this year for the first time there were radio spots for Idée-Jazz, sponsored by Bongusto Kommunikation and IP Multimedia and produced free of charge by NJP Tonstudio. Therefore, on behalf of the Idée board, in which the shortlist author is also involved, we would like to say thank you once again.
Beat Fritsch

takes a back seat to Marion Denzler, powerful-voiced singer of the jazz formation Round Corner, who could be heard at the Idée jazz bar. The four-piece combo, along with two other bands from the Zurich Jazz Academy, completely enthralled the audience at "El Lokal" on Gessnerallee. WerbeWoche editor Luca Aloisi attended Lang Gysi Knoll's agency party, which took place in Bern on the same evening (page 25).
Whoever else performs with a powerful voice, celebrates with soft tones or invites you to the party in dominatrix look is located at the most diverse events of the scene. Do you already have something to report? Reach to the listener (01 296 97 98) or into the keys ([email protected]). Event tips as well as further shortlist pictures are available online at www.werbewoche.ch.

Edipresse Online will be dissolved as an independent business unit and integrated into Edipresse Suisse.News Edipresse saves on Internet jobs The integration, which will save around 20 jobs, is being carried out for cost reasons. As of January 1, 2002, all activities relating to information and projects to develop new content in other media (Internet, cell phone, TV, etc.) will be combined in the newly created Nouveaux Medias & Services unit. The unit will be headed by Christophe Rasch. For next year, Edipresse is announcing the restructuring of www.edi com.ch and the Edipresse daily newspaper sites. Edipresse is also planning to reposition its daily newspaper 24 Heures next year. The project manager is David Moginier, previously editor-in-chief of www.edicom.ch
Gruntz relaunches After a three-year break, the ninth issue of Bern's youth magazine Gruntz has been published. With a new concept: Gruntz now consists of several small, independently produced magazines that deal with the subcultures of skateboarding, snowboarding, graffiti, breakdancing, hip-hop and breakbeats. Around 100 freelancers submitted contributions to Gruntz; in future, readers will be able to contribute their own articles. Behind the 132-page magazine is the Bern-based event and production company Wiseguys; Publimag acts as marketer.

As was reported in detail in last weekend’s SonntagsZeitung, it’s not just the world, but Switzerland in particular, that is in a crisis. As a result, people are traveling a little less, changing jobs a little less, and—most importantly—growing much closer together. Specifically, within their families and circles of friends. Gone are the days of egocentric single life, because group life is more fun (or more comforting). Anyone who hasn’t found a duvet partner by now won’t find one. Long before Rainer Maria Rilke, advertisers had already sensed this trend—even before all the disasters of the past few months—and created campaigns to reflect it. And since sex remains the number-one bestseller, the groups of people who have been searching for and finding one another since September 11 aren’t simply shown cooking or watching TV, but rather «encouraging one another.» What our parents celebrated back in ’68, we ’68ers can finally catch up on now. Chandra Kurt, born in 1968, is looking forward to it.
Column

Advice from Michael Barney
You learn to swim in the water, not on land. In advertising, this is called «learning by doing.» As someone who switched careers—from window dresser to advertising copywriter trainee—I learned almost everything by doing and by watching others. My first teachers were books by David Ogilvy and Howard L. Gossage, and ads by DDB for VW. Later, the work of GGK, TBWA, and Lürzer, Conrad came into the picture. I wanted to think and write just like them. And that’s still true today, even though I know that a lot has changed and evolved. What seems to have remained, however, is the misconception that the recipients of our advertising messages are stupid, simple-minded, or slow on the uptake. Where else do arguments like these come from: «No one understands the headline.» Or: «The phone number and the URL need to be bigger.» Even worse: «The trade show notice and logo need to be worded more creatively.» Oh, dear know-it-alls, just how stupid do you actually think your target audiences are? How clumsy, how loud, and how dumb do messages have to be for them to be «understood,» in your opinion? Will a huge Expo.02 logo make the reader drop everything and rush straight to the checkout? Will he, sitting on the S-Bahn, immediately borrow a pen from his neighbor to jot down your fax number? Does he say to his wife in the evening, «Hey, I totally got all the headlines on the ads I saw today—great, huh?» Does anyone postpone a long-planned vacation because of a creatively worded trade show booth description accompanied by a logo? Does anyone storm into a store just because the sender proudly displayed an Expo.02 logo? And are texts never allowed to start with “and” or “but”? No, this ongoing nonsense starts somewhere else. Gossage once put it this way: “In advertising, anyone who brings a ball gets to play.” Not advice, but the truth.
Michael Barney is a senior copywriter at Lowe Lintas GGK, Zurich.
Language Observer

The World's Smallest Mistakes, Part 1: Telegram
Don't be late!
Don't come—it's too late!
2. Please don't answer the door, dear Susi.
Please don't play the love card, Susi.
3. The law says that conscience is irrelevant.
"The law," says one's conscience, "doesn't matter.".
4. Ralf Schuppisser walked into the bar upside down, his helmet at his feet, his mud-splattered motorcycle boots in his hand, and a run-over chicken with a sly twinkle in its eyes.
Ralf Schuppisser walked into the bar, wearing a helmet on his head, mud-splattered motorcycle boots on his feet, and holding a run-over chicken in his hand, with a sly twinkle in his eyes.
5. What did the boss say at the meeting?
You did a good job.
Well, you worked.
6. What more could you want?
What, you want even more?
7. Printing error in the Tagi
Skinheads
8. Other Good Products
Other Good Products
9. As a pair or a trio?
Karl, my brother, and I went for a walk.
Karl, my brother, and I went for a walk.
10. «The city of Göttingen, famous for its sausages and its university…»
(From Heinrich Heine’s *Harzreise*. Strictly speaking, grammatically, a second «their» should precede the word “university,” since the sausages are in the plural and the university is in the singular. The passage caused a stir because the omission brought the sausages and the university too close together. The authorities in Göttingen banned the book.)
11. The longest word ever printed comes from the American journal *Chemical Abstracts*—and contains a typo:
Acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylserylglutaminylphenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylserylvalyltryptophylalanylaspartylprolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleucyllasparaginylvalylcysteinylthreonylserylserylleucylglycllasparaginylglutaminylphenylalanylglutaminylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreonylthreonylglutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylphenylalanylserylglutaminylvalyltryptophyllysylprolylphenylalanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalylarginylphenylalanylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyltyrosylarginyltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucylisoleucylthreonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenylalanylaspartylthreonylarginylasparaginylarginylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylvalylglutamylasparaginylglutaminylglutaminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamylthreonylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspartylaspartylalanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylserylalanylasparaginylisoleucylasparaginylleucylvallasparaginylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycylthreonylglycylleucyltyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonylphenylalanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltryptophylthreonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine.
12. We ask our guests not to smoke.
We ask our guests not to smoke.
Beat Gloor, www.textcontrol.ch

Publimag's publishing conference sought answers to the question: "Customer magazines - pleasure or frustration? "By Andreas Panzeri Since 1995, the number of customer magazines in German-speaking countries has grown from 1700 to over 3000. A total of 457 million copies are distributed today.
distributed per publication interval. "Are they also an interesting medium for advertising customers?" asked a panel discussion at the Publimag publishing conference.
Publimag estimates that there are over 400 customer magazines in Switzerland. "Two thirds of the largest 200 companies have such a magazine," explained Stefan Staub in his welcoming address at the Zurich Congress Center. The potential is far from exhausted, which is why new companies are constantly being founded that specialize exclusively in customer magazines.
For many publishers, such publications have long since become a second mainstay. The total circulation of customer magazines far exceeds that of the daily press. Does this mean that the secret heavyweight in the Swiss press is also an insider tip for media agencies?
Before Andy Lehmann from Mediahaus Seefeld gave a sobering analysis of this question, Ulrike Röttger from the Publizistische Institut at the University of Zurich first presented the results of a study on "The customer magazine in the Swiss media landscape".
According to their research, customer magazines are published on average 4.5 times a year. The first one was published in 1894 by the former Kreditanstalt. Today, most of them support the Internet in a cross-media system. "However, this interactive significance is still not sufficiently cultivated by most companies," says Röttger.
She also found that customer magazines are only taken seriously by the public if they have a utility value for the reader. They must be journalistically professional and should convey exclusive information or make general information "quicker and easier to receive". They can attract the most attention if they also address the negative aspects of developments in a journalistic manner instead of using an outdated PR concept to "gloss over positive end results".
Third-party advertisements are considered "ideal for refinancing" by most customer magazines. The company magazines believe they can offer a well-defined target audience.
Customer newspapers must proactively go to market
At this point at the latest, Andy Lehmann had to object that publishers of customer magazines should immediately forget the word "third-party advertisements". A well-placed advertisement should never feel "foreign" in a medium. Lehmann then demonstrated in a humorous way that even the idea of a clearly defined target audience for customer or membership media is far from being a source of joy for media planners.
The stamp collectors' magazine is clearly aimed at stamp collectors. However, these could range from retired bank managers to baked fish who collect stamps with butterfly motifs. The "target audience" of the Coop newspaper, which is distributed to 60 percent of all households, can be broken down into similar socio-demographic groups.
Lehmann therefore appealed to the publishers of customer magazines that they should first interpret the conference theme "Customer magazines - pleasure or frustration?" in the sense of "a lot of pleasure for work". In addition to a list of titles, media agencies primarily miss professionally usable data. "The big publishing houses offer much more service for their advertising customers," he says.
Finally, his most important piece of advice to the advertisement sellers of customer magazines is to become active themselves with potential advertisers and not wait for a media planner to call.