Swissair and Sabena North America have selected the young agency Bezos Nathanson Marketing Group (BN) for their advertising in the USA.NewsUS-Swissair advertises with young agency
They had previously evaluated 16 agencies. BN was founded in New York in the summer of 2000. Partner David Nathanson was previously Chief Creative Officer at DDB Worldwide. The 3 million dollar budget includes tactical promotional campaigns, sales support and the launch of Internet offerings.
Danone relies on Y&R and Euro RSCGThe French food group Danone is consolidating the budgets of its cookie division internationally at
Euro RSCG and Young & Rubicam. The advertising volume is estimated at 100 million dollars. Around 80 percent of these budgets - which were previously managed by Grey and McCann-Erickson - are said to have gone to Euro RSCG. Young & Rubicam's share mainly comprises products marketed to children. The markets in Asia and the USA are not affected by the consolidation.
Neue Sentimental mediates globallyThe Frankfurt-based advertising film producer Neue Sentimental Film (NSF) acquires a 25 percent stake in London-based The Comfort Zones Ltd. The Comfort Zones specializes in the worldwide mediation of internationally renowned directors to advertising agencies. The investment means that directors from NSF's network can now also be marketed globally via The Comfort Zones.
Metro launches second US editionOn May 2, Metro International launched its second free newspaper in the USA. Metro starts in Boston with a circulation of 175,000 copies, which are distributed by hand and with newspaper boxes at public transport stops as usual. The paper is also available in office buildings and 15 colleges. Metro has been published in Philadelphia since January 2000.

The advertising agency Werner Schaeppi Public Relations, which has been based in Zug for 13 years, has merged with three other companies from the fields of architecture, advertising and design to form Creafactory AG, a new company that offers customized marketing communication for companies, institutions and projects. Architect Mark Gilg will take over the management in the first year: "Creafactory's particular strength lies in the unique combination of different specialist areas from architecture to advertising psychology. The customer gets everything from a single source." According to Sonja Gilg, Creative Director, the individual companies have already been working together successfully for years. Creafactory is starting with a 16-strong team, which will be led by Mark Gilg, advertising psychologist Werner Schaeppi, CD Sonja Gilg, architect Jörg Beer and interior architect/designer Andi Luescher. The five owners will take it in turns to manage the company. Creafactory's client portfolio includes Siemens, ABM and BHB Bucher Hotz Burkart Architekten AG. (dz)

Zapping study by Publisuisse gives SRG TV programs backingBy Markus KnöpfliThe Swiss prefer to watch advertising on SRG programs - and even longer: the blocks are watched almost in their entirety. RTL is not much worse off. This is the result of a Publisuisse study. The following also applies: Hinge advertising on SF 1 is used more than interstitial advertising on the competition.
Although the volume of advertising spots on SRG and foreign TV channels has more than doubled in the last five years, the percentage of viewers who zap away when TV commercials are broadcast has not increased. As was the case five years ago, the advertising blocks on SRG programs are viewed almost in their entirety; advertising usage amounts to around 80 percent.
Older viewers zap less often during advertising
On German commercial channels, however, viewers changed channels somewhat more quickly, namely after around 70 percent of the block duration. Although this also roughly corresponds to the figures from 1995, zapping rates have increased, especially for those channels where the length of the advertising blocks has increased significantly. One exception is RTL, which now has a somewhat more loyal audience when it comes to advertising.
On average, older viewers zap less quickly than younger viewers when it comes to advertising. In addition, women generally watch more advertising than men. And finally, according to the study, the use of advertising decreases with higher education. In the high-consumption target group of 15 to 49-year-olds, SF 1 has the highest advertising usage, while RTL has the second-highest. SF 2 and the Tamedia channel TV 3 then follow in third place. In contrast, the strong increase in the number of channels on offer has no influence on advertising zapping behavior.
What is nevertheless striking is that SF 1 viewers remain loyal to their channel the longest, even during a "normal" commercial break (for 80% of the broadcasting time). However, RTL, SF 2 and TV 3 follow in second place with around 68 percent each. The rest are at 60 percent or below, with Tele 24 falling far behind with less than 50 percent advertising usage (see chart).
Caution is advised when dealing with the figures in the study
What is even more thought-provoking, however: Even with interstitial advertising, no commercial station achieves the usage figures of the hinge advertising on SF 1. RTL comes closest to the Swiss figures, performing slightly better than SF 2.
The figures in the study should be treated with a certain amount of caution, as usage was measured using Telecontrol (see box). As is well known, however, this data says nothing about how often a TV set continues to run during a commercial break with the channel on, but the viewer or viewers briefly switch off.
The zapping study

After 1995, Publisuisse, which markets TV programs for the SRG, once again had the zapping behaviour of the television audience investigated last year. The study was carried out by the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research at the University of Hamburg. Telecontrol data was evaluated and 3854 people throughout Switzerland were interviewed between March 13 and April 9, 2000 between 5 and 11 pm.
Comment

Shavinkis
TV Waterloo?
In the combative tones that Schawinski, Stäheli and Wanner uttered in Bern on May 4, one sentence was lost in the shuffle, the content of which is tantamount to a Waterloo for the three TV producers: "In Switzerland, serious television cannot be financed by advertising alone." The three gentlemen admitted that they had miscalculated. Yet they were still talking recently about how soon they wanted to bring their stations to break-even with advertising alone.
When the TV makers blame the Federal Council, Bakom, RTVG and SRG, this can only be understood as a rearguard action. Their analysis is not wrong, but it is incomplete. Swiss private TVs are indeed restricted. But this is nothing new. And no one has promised that this will change quickly.
The three omitted two points from their analysis: 1. viewers wanted professional TV, which is why additional investment was necessary.
2 Considering that the advertising blocks on Tele 24 have the highest zapping rate (see page 25), the financial problems of private broadcasters are understandable. Alcohol and political advertising would do little to change this.
It is therefore not appropriate to violate the democratic rules of the game, especially not for commercial reasons. Not even in the name of advertising. Markus Knöpfli

Parlez-vous P?By Anita VaucherPublimedia celebrated its fifth anniversary in Geneva on the Sécheron industrial site, in the hall where locomotives of the best Swiss quality were once built and where it used to smell of sweat, oil and steel.
A good 450 people accepted the invitation from patron Cédric Hinderberger. This was, he said, an unexpectedly large number of guests by the standards of French-speaking Switzerland. There are simply no real advertising and cervelat celebrities in French-speaking Switzerland like in Zurich. There are simply not enough people in French-speaking Switzerland who really deserve this accolade. You might still find a few local heroes in Geneva, but if you're considered a scene-goer there, you might not even know them in Lausanne or Neuchâtel. You will also look in vain in French-speaking Switzerland for an advertising scene with the classic "in" meetings for exchanging gossip and industry news.
That's why advertising people flock to the company whenever there's something to celebrate. The Publimedia birthday was attended by clients, advertisers, media professionals and also employees from French-speaking Swiss television and radio. Around the fabulous Lebanese buffet, people were once again able to gossip to their heart's content. The members of the rock band The Gangsters of the Paradise, all wearing black glasses, even got some guests to shake a leg with their hot rhythms. In contrast, the trapeze artist, completely draped in white cloth, was somewhat lost in the air and barely noticed for a long time despite his outstanding acrobatic act.
Both Otto Meier from Publimedia Zurich and host Cédric Hinderberger dispensed with long speeches so that the guests could devote themselves to food and drink without further ado. And because it was back to work the next day, the first partygoers were already saying goodbye at around 10 pm.

Advertisers think first about optimizing sales and then about advertising creativityBy Werner Reimann and Christina Isele*
Is creative advertising more successful on the market than non-creative advertising? And what can awards contribute to quality improvement and market success? Answers to these questions were found in a telephone survey of decision-makers in BSW agencies and advertising-intensive companies with a view to the award distribution of the Art Directors Club Switzerland (ADC). It was conducted by the survey institute IHA.GfM.
Creativity is increasingly being recommended as a remedy in the industry. This is because the flooding of the public with advertising stimuli in recent years has led to messages being paid less and less attention. Now creativity is supposed to do the trick and ensure that consumers pay the necessary attention to advertising. At least
This message has now been received. Not only the agency managers surveyed are almost without exception convinced that creative quality is important in advertising, but also almost all exponents of the advertising industry.
Logically, good advertising for advertisers is therefore characterized above all by the fact that it is original or funny - and therefore creative - that
it "conveys the message in a creative way". The clients naturally see things a little differently. For them, the focus is still on the tangible. Although they also like to talk about originality most often, they emphasize much more often than their contacts in the advertising agencies that advertising should simply pass on information, be geared towards the target group, be profitable and create a memorable value.
After all, both target groups - advertising clients and
The majority of creative advertisers - and almost all of those who use them - believe that creative advertising is usually or even almost always more successful in the market than others. They believe this, because it cannot be proven. How can different campaigns, which are aimed at different target audiences for different products on different channels, be objectively compared and uniformly measured in terms of their impact?
An ADC award really does promise success on the market
The ADC has taken up the cause of recognizing good - i.e. creative - advertising every year and thus doing something for the quality of advertising in the country. Does this make sense? Paid and paid advertisers are of the same opinion by a ratio of two to one: yes, it makes sense to evaluate and award advertising. This was already the case in the last survey in 1996.
And there are even more parallels in the results of the two groups surveyed: three quarters of agency heads and decision-makers at advertising-intensive companies who are familiar with the ADC consider it competent to assess advertising. Finally, exactly half of the advertisers surveyed and only a slightly smaller proportion of company representatives are convinced that ADC-awarded advertising is also more successful in the market than non-award-winning advertising.
After almost all of the respondents had previously stated that creative advertising was more successful in the market than non-creative advertising, it can therefore be concluded: Not all creative advertising is - and cannot be - honored by the ADC. However, this does not mean that the illustrious club of art directors also awards prizes to non-creative advertising.
Incidentally, five years ago, only 13% of respondents in both survey groups were convinced that an ADC award also meant success in the market. The award ceremony has therefore clearly gained in acceptance and significance since then.
The "raison d'être" of the ADC is no longer controversial
This is also reflected in the fact that no less than 84% of the BSW experts surveyed and 74% of the representatives of the top 500 companies are convinced that an institution like the ADC is needed. Five years ago, its raison d'être was much more controversial, especially among clients.
Enough of the agreement between advertising agencies and their clients. Awarding good advertising should not be an end in itself, but should lead to better advertising. But this is precisely where clients no longer want to follow the experts in the agencies: Just under two thirds of advertisers, but only one third of clients in advertising-intensive companies, believe that awarding prizes for advertising promotes its quality. Five years ago, less than half of the respondents in both groups were of this opinion. Since then, this gap has widened.
Now the awarding of prizes for advertising is a not insignificant concern of the Art Directors Club. This is why the navel-gazing of the advertisers is different from that of the clients. But it is noticeable that in both groups a significantly higher proportion is more sympathetic to the ADC awards than to awards in general.
Last but not least, the crucial question with regard to the annual ADC event: Is it worthwhile for your company to win an ADC award? A good half of the representatives of the BSW agencies surveyed said yes. But only one in four from advertising-intensive companies. This shows once again in all clarity: the clients do not really believe in the effect of the "award".
The survey showed that the ADC and its activities generally enjoy a good reputation in the industry and that its acceptance has also improved over the last five years. However, it can do no harm if its concerns are heard even more than before among advertising clients. This can be achieved by talking directly to customers.
The survey also revealed that decision-makers in advertising agencies and advertising-intensive companies have something else in common: For both, WerbeWoche is the most widely read trade magazine in the marketing communications industry.
* The two authors are members of
of the communications research team at IHA.GfM in Dübendorf.
Advertisers on this side and the other

On behalf of the Art Directors Club (Switzerland) and WerbeWoche, IHA.GfM conducted a telephone survey between January 9 and 19, 2001 of a total of 200 people responsible for marketing or communication at advertising-intensive companies (the so-called Top 500 according to Media Focus) and 50 owners or senior members of BSW agencies. Some of the questions had already been put to both target groups in a similar survey in 1996.

However, advertising revenues for SF DRS grew above all in pre- and post-primetimeBy Markus KnöpfliAlthough gross advertising expenditure in the TV sector grew less strongly last year (7.5 percent) than the overall advertising pie (plus 8.8 percent), SRG marketer Publisuisse was able to present a record result for 2000 of CHF 321.4 million net.
She has been in office for exactly one year - and Publisuisse Director Ingrid Deltenre can already report record results: Last year, Publisuisse generated net income of CHF 321.4 million from the marketing of SRG programs, 4.5 percent more than in 1999. A total of CHF 304.4 million was transferred to SRG, which corresponds to an increase of 11.4 percent.
European Football Championship has boosted revenues considerably
Of the net advertising income of CHF 321.5 million, CHF 212.8 million came from German-speaking Switzerland, CHF 95.1 million from French-speaking Switzerland and CHF 13.6 million from Ticino.
Above-average revenue growth was recorded in particular by the second channel chains in all language regions, which increased by between 30 and 49% thanks to the broadcast of the European Football Championships in Holland and Belgium and the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. In total, they earned CHF 21.2 million.
At 2.1%, revenue growth for all SRG television channels in the already busy primetime period (7 to 10.30 p.m.) was rather below average. However, advertising revenues increased much more strongly in pre- and post-primetime. Last year, SF DRS generated CHF 24.5 million (up 14.1 percent) in pre-primetime and CHF 8 million (up 24.9 percent) in post-primetime. In primetime itself, however, it lost a slight 0.1 percent to reach CHF 180.3 million.
The record result is primarily due to the high income from the marketing of TV advertising, but also to a "structural adjustment" since Deltenre took office, describing the past year as a "year of strategy and new appointments". Almost the entire management team joined Publisuisse last year - with the exception of Head of Communications Peter Kaufmann. Over the course of the year, Publisuisse sold its 20 percent stake in cinema marketer Régie Media Belge, for example, and "unprofitable projects" that were not part of Publisuisse's core business were discontinued. "The bottom line is that we now work much more cost-effectively," said Deltenre.
However, the outlook for 2001 is somewhat more cautious. Publisuisse also felt a slump in advertising expenditure and advertising pressure in the first trimester. However, Head of Sales Martin Schneider expects an increase in advertising expenditure in the TV medium and at Publisuisse in the second half of the year.
The latter is not least due to the "program offensive" by SF DRS. Thanks to the new lunchtime magazine program between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., SF 1 recorded an increase of around 1 percent (measured at home with Telecontrol), but thanks to Radiocontrol, up to 20 percent more people are now also watching these programs outside the home, said Head of Marketing Barbara Kohler. And there has already been an increase in post-primetime. Her conclusion: "The lunchtime magazine still needs to be built up, but there is potential there."

AdLink enters permission-based marketing and hopes for new growthThe online advertising market is currently suffering from hypothermia. No wonder marketers are desperately looking for alternative forms of online advertising. In addition to new banner formats, the focus is increasingly on permission-based marketing. After Doubleclick and 24/7, AdLink is now also entering the European market with an offer.Michael Kleindl also knows that AdLink is not a first mover with its offer for permission-based marketing, which was recently presented in Berlin: "We are coming later, but thoroughly," justifies the CEO and founder of AdLink in Montabaur, Germany. Moreover, the market is only now ripe for it. Kleindl expects permission-based marketing on the Internet to account for 10 percent of the online advertising pie by the end of the year and 20 percent of the direct marketing budget in three years' time.
Permission-based marketing thus represents a way out of the abrupt stop in growth in banner advertising for AdLink as well as for its competitors, such as 24/7 and Doubleclick.
Alternative sources of income urgently needed
However, permission-based marketing represents a new source of income not only for online marketers, but also for website operators, who are currently also under increased pressure to succeed. Kleindl wants to give site operators 50 percent of the revenue generated by the user profiles collected via their platform.
By the end of the year, AdLink's website portfolio, which comprises around 550 platforms, is expected to comprise 500,000 profiles. These are to be managed centrally at the headquarters in Montabaur.
The profiles are acquired via the so-called double opt-in procedure: The user not only agrees to receive information on selected topics, but must also confirm this consent a second time by e-mail. Users can also change their profile at any time depending on their interests and determine the maximum number of advertising emails they wish to receive per week.
First attempts and
Cooperation in Switzerland
Volker Budde, at AdLink for
responsible for product development, sees the greatest advantage of the permission-based marketing tool he developed in the breadth of categories: "With over 300 categories, we can offer advertising customers very precise profiles. But this also makes the service much more interesting for consumers."
Switzerland is also technically ready for the roll-out. According to Martin Radelfinger, Managing Director of AdLink Switzerland, it will take two to three months to reach a critical number of profiles. According to Radelfinger, the first cooperation agreements are already in place with GMX and Tamedia. However, Radelfinger assumes that additional incentives will be needed to motivate users to submit their profiles. Such incentives could either consist of sending the user special content together with the advertising mail or giving them price advantages with discount points.
The latter is also the approach of Active Agent, which launched Bonus.net in Switzerland in October 2000 and gained its first partner in Direct Media. Here too, participants receive bonus points for receiving and responding to e-mails, among other things, which they can use to redeem certain rewards. Another provider of this type is the German Webmiles, which cooperates with Bluewin, for example.
In Switzerland, 24/7 also has
e-mail campaigns based on permission-based marketing. According to Christophe Vogel, Key Account Manager at 24/7 in Ecublens, with great success. Thomas Brenzikofer

The German newspapers Die Welt and Welt am Sonntag are now represented in Switzerland by Publicitas International.News Publicitas sells Welt and Wams
Axel Springer Verlag is thus transferring market responsibility for advertising sales and marketing to the Publicitas Promotion Network subsidiary.
Edipresse without Temps stratégiqueThe hundredth issue of the French-speaking Swiss magazine Temps stratégique next June will be its last. The publisher Edipresse is discontinuing the magazine, which is published six times a year, for financial reasons.
Since the beginning of May, the canton of Glarus and the area along Lake Zurich can be advertised with a new combination of titles. The Zürichsee Glarus combination comprises the three variants Zürichsee Zeitung plus Fridolin, March Höfe Zeitung plus Fridolin and Linth Zeitung, March Höfe Zeitung plus Fridolin.
Ringier's Bon Voyage goes on the roadRingier has published the first issue of its new travel magazine Bon Voyage. With the 64-page magazine as a supplement in Schweizer Illustrierte (SI) and Tele, the publisher is responding to the results of copy tests, according to which SI and Tele readers showed great interest in travel information.

The effect of creativity in advertising cannot be researched in a scientifically correct wayBy Wolfgang KoschnickAward-winning advertising is often creative advertising. And it generally increases the sales opportunities of the advertised products. This is the conclusion reached by various studies on the effect of creativity on purchasing decisions. However, studies conducted for this purpose are not always beyond doubt because they often have a self-referential character.
When attempting to answer the central question of the advertising impact of creativity in a scientifically incontestable way, advertising research reaches its limits. Of course, one would have to design an experimental set-up in which creativity could be tested intersubjectively. In other words, it would be necessary to formulate criteria that would allow completely different people to arrive at the same result for a variety of advertising media: Yes, this advertising is creative - and this other advertising is not.
Whether this can work at all is highly doubtful. But of course a method could be found. For example, by asking proven experts which commercials, advertisements or posters they find particularly creative. And if more than 80 percent of all experts find something creative, it can be assumed that the experts are already able to judge it correctly.
But creativity sui generis defies quantification and categorization. And that is why science has hardly developed any methods that deserve to be praised.
Does advertising at intervals bring more sales growth?
The positions are clear: creative people say that creative advertising sells. With boring run-of-the-mill advertising, you can only promote yourself with a gigantic effort. That costs money. Inspired advertising, on the other hand, achieves great impact at low cost due to its high level of creativity.
Corporate advertisers, on the other hand, see things very differently: creative advertising is little more than pure ego gratification. Advertisers would judge a campaign as creative that is in reality totally over-candid. For them, it is more important to win laurels in Cannes and other competitions than to sell prosaic products in a hostile business environment.
The German Association of Advertising Agencies (GWA) of all people experienced the manifold dilemmas of creativity research first-hand when it unleashed an intensive discussion of the newer approaches in Anglo-Saxon advertising research a few years ago. At that time, the association invited Professor John Philip Jones from Syracuse University in New York to Germany and had him retest a formula that had already been empirically tested in the USA.
Reduced to a very simplified formula, the newer American approaches assume that a broad distribution of contacts in advertising and media planning is more promising than massive advertising pressure. John Philip Jones' insight is that a continuously distributed campaign brings significantly more sales growth than advertising at intervals.
The argument of John Philip Jones and even more so of his colleague Erwin Ephron ultimately boils down to the fact that well thought-out contact dosage is the secret of success. In a sense, media planning is the driving force behind all success in advertising. If contacts are scattered in a measured way, advertising works like clockwork.
Now, the German Association of Advertising Agencies is the association of all major advertising agencies and not just the association of media planners. And the creatives felt disregarded by Jones and the GWA investigation. Protest arose in the ranks of the agency association. With the counter-argument that it was impossible to declare the contribution of creatives to advertising success a quantité négligeable, they put pressure on their association superiors.
Sales promotion versus advertising
The association's leadership felt compelled to commission a new study from the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK) in Nuremberg. It was to investigate the role of creativity in advertising. The Nuremberg-based company conducted thorough research.
The most astonishing result of the study was "the proof of the strong effect of advertising quality on market share", said Siegfried Högl, Managing Director of GfK Market Research. Advertisers, on the other hand, could often only expect "minor market share effects" if they doubled the advertising pressure. A price reduction of 7.5 percent, for example, would promise an increase in market share of 14.2 percent. However, in addition to falling profits, price campaigns could also damage brand value in the long term.
- Advertising pressure and advertising quality achieve the greatest increase in market share. They increase the market share in twelve months to an index value of around 122, while a doubling of promotion intensity only leads to an index value of 117.5.
- Even a doubling of promotion intensity and advertising pressure achieves a slightly lower value (121) than an increase in advertising pressure and advertising quality.
- Among the three factors of advertising pressure, campaign awareness and communication of brand preferences, brand preference achieved by far the best result (index 116).
While a doubling of advertising pressure alone can only be expected to have a minor effect on market share, an additional increase in market share can be expected by combining this with a 20 percent increase in attention intensity and a doubling of the communication of brand preference, which goes beyond the effect of a doubling of promotion intensity.
The often assumed inferiority of the sales impact of advertising compared to promotions is therefore possibly just a problem of a lack of measurement options. This means new ammunition in the debate of the German Association of Advertising Agencies about the rivalry between advertising and sales promotion.
Creative advertising contributes to sales success
However, a study by Leo Burnett Worldwide in 1995 proved that creative advertising also sells better than average. The people in charge at Leo Burnett did not spend much time on problems of definition and operationalization. They considered advertising to be creative if it was recognized for its creativity. Period.
In his study "Does Award Winning Advertising Sell?", Leo Burnett drew on a selection of campaigns whose international creative reputation is beyond question: The task was to find out which economic successes can be proven for the 200 most internationally award-winning commercials. The study period was 1992 and 1993. The 200 commercials came from 104 agencies from 21 countries and received a total of 1194 awards. The study was based on 38 international competitions, including the German ADC competition, the Berliner Klappe, Cannes Lions, Clio, Cresta, Epica, Eurobest, London Awards, New York Festival and the One Show.
The USA was most strongly represented with 50 campaigns, followed by 41 British award-winning commercials. Australia, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain had more award-winning campaigns than agencies from Germany, of which only four spots were shortlisted.
The individual agencies and advertisers were asked for quantifiable success data on the individual commercials and campaigns, such as an increase in sales figures and market share, changes in brand awareness and changes in behavior towards the advertised product.
The results: 86% of the award-winning commercials (172 spots and advertising films) were successful in the market. For more than half (117), the effectiveness of the campaigns could be precisely proven with market data. Only 28 of the 200 commercials reviewed were demonstrably unsuccessful.
The conclusion of Donald Gunn, Director of Creative Resources Worldwide at Leo Burnett, Chicago, was also an appeal to creative colleagues in other agencies: "The next time someone tries to convince you that commercials that win a creative award are not successful in terms of sales, you can tell them politely but firmly: My dear fellow, you are totally wrong."
Of course, there are a whole series of methodological concerns about this approach and also about these findings. The crucial problem is to filter out creativity as the sole contribution to the market success of a brand. The people at Leo Burnett solved this rather crudely. After all, the study was supposed to show what actually came out.
"Neutral" TV commercials become
creative juxtaposition
A recent experiment from Los Angeles shows what a cramp you get when you try to isolate creativity. Last year, Tom Moulson from the advertising research agency Tom Moulson Associates presented the CVA (Creative Value Added) method. In the pre-test, "all other factors are eliminated". This is done using a creativity-neutral commercial for the test brand and two independent test samples.
Creativity-neutral spots are not specifically related to the spots to be tested. They are developed independently of them, in accordance with rigid, predetermined rules of presentation and content definition. Produced according to a fixed formula, the spot is therefore by definition free of creativity. In all cases, the rules specify the same medium, the same length, the same auditorium, the same exposure method as for the test spot. The product and brand must be clearly identified and any benefits of the advertiser can be included, as these are not part of the ad creativity.
In the case of a 30-second commercial for a luxury automobile, creativity-neutral means that a static, "official" view of the car is presented with the brand and model name in capital letters. An emotionless voiceover lists basic factual information: Make, passenger capacity, front or rear wheel drive and safety features. No movement, no music, no simulated interest from people. It is a kind of mini-catalog in TV format, and the test subjects found it correspondingly boring.
The luxury car commercials were shown to a total of 200 luxury car owners and prospective buyers in Los Angeles. One group saw the creativity-neutral commercial and the other the real one. The latter was "creative" because it was not as boring as the neutral one. Both commercials were shown in identical settings before or after a competitor model, the "reference car". Each test subject saw five real or five neutral commercials, but never both versions for the same car; and nobody knew about the existence of the two versions.
The test subjects were then asked a series of questions: Which car would you be more likely to buy? Prefer for a public appearance? Prefer for fun and entertainment? Prefer as a luxury? Prefer this brand in general? Which is the more interesting commercial?
The quality of the commercials was then classified according to the percentages that favored the test car over the reference car in the neutral commercials on the one hand and in the real ones on the other. The neutral scores were then subtracted from the real ones to obtain the Creative Value (CV) score. The most important measure was the purchase intention.
The ten commercials differed greatly in terms of buying interest, with an average score of plus 15 for creative value (CV). A score of 15 means that the commercial increased viewers' buying interest by 15 percent. The values fluctuated between plus 30 and minus 14.
The CV scores for the ten commercials showed that three of the spots actually did not "work", with two of them performing even worse than the creativity-neutral versions, and one only slightly better.
The results are meaningless - if you compare them to the effort that was put in. The most astonishing result was that the absolute bore spot, devoid of any creativity, was even more "successful" than some of the spots classified as "creative".
Such a realization would have been dramatic if the test facility had been taken even remotely seriously.
But there is always the everyday experience: creative people resort to every conceivable means and create an insane commercial that all their colleagues think is adorable. But consumers think it's stupid, don't get the point and don't buy the product. In other words, there is often a world of difference between what advertisers come up with and what consumers like.
And that is why a group of US advertising researchers investigated how the reactions of creatives to commercials differ from those of the average viewer. They wanted to answer the question of whether advertisers are so caught up in their professional perspective that they create advertising that misses the expectations of viewers.
Not all consumers
react immediately to advertising
To find out, US researchers A.J. Kover, W.L. James and B.S. Sonner compared the reactions of advertisers and consumers to the same TV commercials. The experiment was based on commercials that had won awards either for their creativity or for their effectiveness, but also some ordinary commercials without awards. Twelve TV commercials were selected for the study, including four winners of the One Show award for creativity and four winners of Effies for effectiveness. The third set consisted of four ordinary commercials.
The test subjects were 69 consumers and 103 creatives (from agencies with over 100 employees). After viewing the commercials, the following information was collected: 1. interest in buying the product or service; 2. degree of sympathy or antipathy for the commercial; 3. perceived congruence (the extent to which the commercial meets the expectations of advertising for this type of product); 4. the extent to which the commercial was considered creative - interesting versus bland, new versus old.
The analysis was kept simple: three spot groups were formed for creatives and three for consumers.
Group 1 contained the commercials with particularly positive reactions, group 2 the commercials with medium reactions and group 3 those with weak reactions. In the case of the creatives, the first group, i.e. the films rated positively from their point of view, consisted almost exclusively of award-winning commercials. The other two groups consisted mainly of ordinary commercials. It turned out that creatives are fairly homogeneous in their views on creativity and effectiveness. They spontaneously liked the award-winning spots, which they could not even have known had won an award.
Consumers' attributions, on the other hand, had little to do with whether they were prize winners or just ordinary advertising. They reacted positively to commercials that boosted their self-esteem and gave them the feeling that they were savvy consumers.
The results show that the artistry of the creatives mainly impresses other advertising professionals, but not those to whom they are actually trying to sell something: the consumers. The authors of the study drew the following conclusion: "Advertising that fails to connect with consumers, despite being highly rated by peers, is ultimately 'l'art pour l'art'. Self-referential communities are increasingly common; interest groups are everywhere, supporting each other, quoting and awarding prizes, but they have no practical weight."
So far, research on the subject of creativity has produced hardly any results that are relevant to everyday working life. Of course there is over-candy advertising that is nothing but "l'art pour l'art". Of course there is a pronounced tendency towards navel-gazing among advertisers, just as in all other communication professions. But of course, truly creative advertising is also capable of selling more goods than simple-minded, run-of-the-mill advertising. But do we need scientific research to find out?
Further leading literature

Anyone interested in a bibliography on the subject of creativity and advertising impact can obtain it free of charge from the WerbeWoche editorial team info@werbewoche
.ch). The directory is sent by e-mail.
How advertising really works

With this article by Allensbach journalist Wolfgang J. Koschnick, WerbeWoche continues its series of articles on advertising research. Part five of this series of articles aims to provide answers to current questions about the impact of creative advertising.
This should also be seen as an invitation to the readers of WerbeWoche. If you have any questions on aspects of advertising impact, please send them to us (info@werbe woche.ch). We will answer them to the best of our knowledge.
In selecting the topics for this series, Koschnick can draw on several hundred scientific studies on advertising impact that have been published in Germany and abroad over the past 50 years.

With the LemonAd tracking service, advertising activities on more than 120 Swiss websites can be monitoredBy Clemens HörlerThe software of LemonAd scans more than 2800 European websites for advertising banners. For a few weeks now, online advertising activities in this country have also been recorded on a larger number of websites: In March, 576 advertisers placed 912 online campaigns on the 126 platforms studied.
Just over a year ago, the French company NetCrawling SA launched the banner tracking service LemonAd. This makes it possible to measure which companies advertise on which online platforms with which banners and which campaigns were launched in the last two days. LemonAd is now running in 13 European countries. The special Keywords Tracking tool can also be used to determine in real time which banners are displayed when certain search terms are entered on the individual search engines.
LemonAd recently started searching the most important Swiss online platforms. The results for the month of March show that on the 126 sites examined, a total of 576 advertisers placed 912 campaigns, using 1629 different banners. According to Paul Kocian of Vienna-based Leading Bits Informatik-Dienstleistungen, which markets the service in Switzerland, "the number of tracked sites is constantly increasing."
What are the most popular advertising platforms?
According to LemonAd, the French portal operator and Internet service provider Free placed the most online campaigns in March, followed by Bluewin and Swissonline. This is not surprising, since the big portals usually advertise several offers and thematic channels with different Internet addresses, which LemonAd counts as a separate campaign.
According to LemonAd statistics, Goldlinks.ch had the most advertisers. 85 advertisers advertised with 143 campaigns on the western Swiss directory. It is followed by Bluewin with 71 campaigns and 48 advertisers, followed by Songfile (68 campaigns) and Search (50 campaigns).
However, these figures do not provide any information about whether it is paid advertising or banner exchange. In addition, the number of ad impressions, i.e. the actual advertising volume, is not shown by LemonAd. Advertising in the form of paid links is not taken into account.
LemonAd also counts the top 20 banners
In addition to the top advertisers and platforms, LemonAd also determines the banners with the greatest distribution. This does not measure the actual reach or the number of ad impressions, but the number of websites on which the ad was displayed. In the week from April 23 to 29, the Swisscom advertisement for free surfing hours for ISDN customers could be seen on 15 of the tracked sites. Banners from Portable Shop, Redsafe, Jobwinner, Avis and Facts/Blacksocks also achieved wide distribution.
Anyone who wants to see the results of LemonAd has to fork out several thousand francs per year. Even the control of one's own online campaigns by LemonAd is not exactly cheap at 8800 euros. Europe-wide LemonAd has according to own data about 200 customers. These include marketers, the trade press, but also website operators and advertising customers who want to be kept informed about what their competitors are up to in terms of banner advertising in individual markets or across Europe.

In its Switzerland special, the cult design magazine Wallpaper also presents a list of the «5 Ad Agencies to Watch.» Taking the top spot is the young Zurich-based agency Hesskiss, officially founded in December by the creative duo Roland Hess and Tamás Kiss. Number two is Code – Werkstatt für Grafik, and third place goes to Boxx (both from Zurich). Danielle Lanz (currently without an agency) and the newly renamed Jung von Matt/Limmat also made the list. However, it remains unclear who compiled the watchlist or what criteria were used.A Heart for Volunteers. With a nationwide campaign, Migros Culture Percentage is drawing attention to the UN Year of Volunteering and highlighting the fact that in Switzerland, too, a good quarter of the population is involved in some form of volunteer work. Anyone who would like to thank someone for their volunteer work can register them with the Migros Culture Percentage for a drawing to win Migros Club School gift certificates. The communication concept was developed by the Zurich-based advertising agency WHA. WHA tackled the task with a striking and easily understandable key image in all national languages: The «heart dash» symbol visualizes the reward for which volunteers do their work. Two million “heart dash” shopping bags, flyers, and a website promote the campaign.
ADVERTISING BY THE BOOK. The campaign that has received the most awards worldwide for its effectiveness was created in Switzerland. In 1998, McCann-Erickson was tasked with repositioning Winterthur International following its acquisition by Credit Suisse. Until then, Winterthur International had not been active in its communications and was unknown to most Fortune 1000 companies. However, the brand was set to become one of Europe’s top five corporate insurers. McCann-Erickson drew inspiration from the fact that even top executives seek recognition and enjoy being compared to others. This led to a series of portraits featuring statements on risk behavior by international figures such as Giovanni Agnelli, Niki Lauda, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which have now been immortalized in a «Book of Experts.».
CULINARY PYROMANIA. A playful ad campaign for The Big Chili Hot Food General Store promises fire on the tongue and in the mouth. According to Claude Catsky, Creative Director at McCann-Erickson in Zurich, the store on Zurich’s Morgartenstrasse offers hundreds of different varieties of fresh chili peppers and chili sauces from around the world. Catsky developed the concept together with Art Director Alvaro Maggini. The ad depicts an elegantly set table. What makes it unique is that each place setting includes a tool for extinguishing the fire that inevitably breaks out in the mouth when eating the chili-spiced dishes: namely, a garden hose.
Except when it comes to masturbation. The only sexual practice that can still be safely performed without a condom today seems to be autoeroticism. In any case, this ad aims to reinforce a new message for Ceylor condoms: that you should always be wearing a condom when you’re not getting into bed alone. The campaign was conceived by the Adliswil-based advertising agency Agenturtschi. «Advertising is about drawing attention with topics that aren’t necessarily obvious, and masturbation is a taboo subject that you don’t just casually discuss over dinner,» explains agency owner Ralf
Turtschi's provocative interpretation.
Swiss Press Association Opens Embassy in Berlin. On May 12, the renovated Swiss Embassy in Berlin—which now features a new wing—will open its doors to the people of Berlin with an «Open House.» On the night before the «open house,» the Swiss Press Association will distribute 3,000 copies of twelve Swiss daily newspapers in all national languages in front of and inside the embassy. With this initiative, the Swiss Press Association aims to showcase to Berliners the multilingualism and diversity of Switzerland and its media landscape.
Editorial: A Brilliant Result for the ADC
On behalf of the Art Directors Club Switzerland (ADC) and *WerbeWoche*, the market research institute IHA.GfM examined the ADC’s current relevance. Twenty-five years ago, the club set out to improve advertising in this country. To mark this occasion, it holds an annual competition, awards gold, silver, and bronze cubes—and subsequently publishes an artistically designed book showcasing the award-winning advertisements. ADC Cubes are now considered the industry’s most prestigious accolade when it comes to evaluating agencies’ creative achievements.
But is creative advertising actually more successful in the market than non-creative advertising?
How do awards contribute to quality improvement and market success? Answers to these questions can be found in the ADC image study presented on page 18. The survey included 200 decision-makers from the 500 companies with the highest advertising spending and 50 heads of communications agencies.
A comparison with a similar study from 1996 shows that the ADC has gained in acceptance and recognition; it is well established in the industry, and it is believed to be capable of improving the quality of advertising in the long term.
50 percent of the agency executives surveyed and 42 percent of the clients are convinced that advertising recognized by the ADC is also more successful in the market than advertising that has not won an award. Five years ago, only 13 percent of respondents in each of the two survey groups were convinced that an ADC award also meant success in the market.
The impressive results of this study are due in no small part to the tireless dedication of outgoing ADC President Jean Etienne Aebi and his creative team. *WerbeWoche* congratulates the ADC on this outstanding achievement in its anniversary year. Samuel Helbling

The Japanese automaker is bringing its popular advertising figure back to the sales frontBy Thérèse Balduzzi
For the new American Isuzu campaign, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners took the Joe Isuzu character out of mothballs. The character of the uninhibitedly exaggerated car salesman enjoyed great popularity in the 1980s; the comeback of the character is meeting with equally great approval.
Actually, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners from San Francisco had developed a different idea for the new Isuzu campaign. When the client's desire to revive the Joe Isuzu character suddenly arose, action had to be taken quickly; the agency made a virtue out of necessity.
Joe Isuzu, a 1986 invention of the Della Femina McNamee agency, lies shamelessly and has a strong tendency to overestimate himself.
In the first spot, "Lease Hacks," which aired this spring, unkempt Joe is at home watching TV in bed. When he sees an Isuzu commercial, he complains loudly that Isuzu just doesn't make good commercials anymore since he's not in them.
In "The Call," Joe receives a call from Isuzu after eleven years. He is asked to come back and sell cars. Joe is asked if he still looks the same, to which the notorious liar replies in the affirmative. In reality, he has put on quite a bit of fat, which he begins to work off in the rest of the commercial. To this end, his wife rides in the car, holding large boards with Isuzu advertising slogans out the window, while Joe runs after her.
In "Joe's Pitch", Joe - now back in top form - finds himself in Isuzu's Research and Development department. Joe presents his spot idea for the new Axiom: it is imperative to film in New York, Sweden and Hawaii in order to demonstrate the various advantages of the car. Joe imagines himself being massaged by blondes in Sweden and enjoying the vacation atmosphere in Hawaii. These are the images shown in the commercial. However, the Isuzu executives just laugh at Joe.
In the USA, the same applies to advertising: The main thing is famous.
"Celebrity Joe," finally, is a parody of tours of celebrity residences that are frequently seen on television. Joe Isuzu gives a tour of his home and shows visitors what has changed since his comeback: the new art on the walls, the new cappuccino machine, and the five new Axioms in his driveway, one for each workday. On one of them, Joe's face is airbrushed onto the hood.
The revival of the old advertising celebrity is a thoroughly American phenomenon, in which it doesn't matter what you became famous for. The main thing is that you are.