The U.S. fashion label Lane Bryant shows that plump women are also attractiveBy Thérèse BalduzziPictures of super-thin young women in advertising and on fashion pages are a thorn in the side of feminists. Every now and then, advertising dares to put fatter or older women in the spotlight. The American clothing brand Lane Bryant even promotes overweight women as sex objects.
Already in recent years, Lane Bryant, the plus-size women's fashion brand, has been attracting attention. Print ads and posters featured hip-hop star Queen Latifah, TV actress Camryn Manheim and supersize model Anna Nicole Smith. With their full-figured bodies, they demonstrated that even plump women can be fashionable and sexy.
In the 1990s, the flood of images of super-thin models ruined the lives of all women who did not conform to this norm and drove thousands of teenagers in the USA into anorexia. At the same time, departments for large sizes in department stores were redesigned and prominently displayed. Even a fashion magazine for women size 42 and up, simply called Mode, was successfully launched.
The reason for this change is less to do with feminism and political correctness than with the fact that more than 60 percent of Americans and American women are now overweight.
Until now, however, the plus-size models in the Lane-Bryant ads appeared alone in the picture, demonstrating above all how they accepted themselves. The new campaign now conveys that they can also be considered for clearly ambiguous intentions from the male side. And not just any man.
Mister Big feels great between plus size models
The beau around whom the two portly mermaids pose in sexy lingerie is Mr. Big, the gallant, rich ladies' man from the hit series "Sex in the City" on the cable channel HBO. Mr. Big is played by actor Chris Noth in both the TV series and the ads. The headline reads, "The big idea. Seriously sexy intimates." The ads were launched on February and appear in Fashion, People and Talk magazines.
A new variant is planned for March, in which a blonde pulls Mr. Big into a kiss by his tie. The same images will also adorn the company's 700 storefronts in America. The campaign was designed by an in-house team.
It's true that emphasizing the sex appeal of overweight women in advertising is a novelty. Whether two-thirds of American women will now break out into a dance of joy is nevertheless questionable.

Pfizer consolidates U.S. media with CaratThe U.S. pharmaceutical group Pfizer is consolidating around $700 million with Carat for media planning and buying in the U.S. market. The New York office of the media network won the pitch against Mindshare USA. Mindshare had previously handled the budget of Warner Lambert, which was acquired by Pfizer last year.
Grey Worldwide for DoubleclickU.S. online marketer Doubleclick has awarded its global advertising budget to Grey Worldwide in New York. Grey prevailed in the pitch against J. Walter Thompson. Doubleclick's budget is estimated at $20 million to $25 million. It also includes online advertising, for which Grey's subsidiary Beyond Interactive will be responsible. Media, on the other hand, will be handled in-house by Doubleclick.
Unilever distributes food budgetsFood multinational Unilever has redistributed the international advertising budgets of two food brands. Lowe Lintas will be responsible for Hellmann's and Calvé mayonnaise and sauces worldwide. Bestfoods/Knorr will be handled by two agencies: J. Walter Thompson and DDB will share the global advertising efforts for the respective brands. The loser in the reorganization is BBDO, which had handled Hellmann's in the USA and Knorr in several other markets.
Cecchi Gori buys MTV ItaliaThe Italian media group Cecchi Gori (Telemontecarlo) takes over the Italian subsidiary of the music channel MTV. As of May 1, MTV Music Television is to go on the air in Italy as its own television channel. The background to the purchase is the dissolution of the contract between MTV and the Italian channel Rete A, which previously broadcast MTV on an hourly basis. As of May 1, the German music channel Viva will take over MTV's previous slot on Rete A with an Italian version.

Anton Glanzmann on PR and the uncelebrated anniversary 50 years of PRWhis office is considered very discreet. Because actually PRW, Public Relations + Werbe AG, would be the oldest PR agency in Switzerland. Nevertheless, there were no so-called distinguished reasons why Anton Glanzmann did not celebrate the 50th anniversary of his agency in 1998. Now the doyen of the Swiss PR industry has revealed a few historical facts to us after the fact.A few weeks ago, you invited the media to a talk on "35 years of PRW". Why this noble understatement, since your agency is actually well over 50 years old?
Anton Glanzmann: That's right. As early as 1948, i.e. before Rudolf Farner in 1951, the former FDP party secretary and "Trumpf Buur" editor Robert Eibel founded his "Büro für wirtschaftliche und publizistische Beratung. But out of sheer work overload, I missed the 50th anniversary. Then it was suddenly too late - and so we recently celebrated the 35th year, because in 1965 National Councilor Eibel, together with Markus Gröber, renamed his company PRW, Public Relations + Werbe AG. I myself joined in 1970. Since 1980, I have been the head and chairman of the board of directors of what is officially Switzerland's oldest PR agency.
In 2000, you achieved a fee income of 1.4 million Swiss francs with five people including the secretariat. Small but mighty: Has growth never been your strategy?
Glanzmann: No, my goal has always been to remain a consultant myself. As soon as PRW becomes a larger agency, I'll have a completely different task. I have to devote myself to agency development, personnel management and client acquisition. That absorbs too much time from my actual know-how, which I prefer to use for my clients. Secondly, I believe that medium-sized agencies are better able to maintain their quality. The danger is that in larger agencies, the actual work is mainly done by the mid-level staff. We, on the other hand, have practically only chiefs with us.
You have just won a major mandate from the Winterthur Insurance Loss Prevention Foundation in a competition. You are also handling the PR work for the introduction of casino gambling in Switzerland. What is it that brings such clients to PRW?
Glanzmann: Certainly our know-how in communication. With campaigns such as "Glatt für alli," "Mehr Freiheit, weniger Staat" ("More freedom, less state") or "Denken beim Lenken" ("Thinking while steering"), we have gained a lot of experience with political-social communication and have a large network of contacts in the economic sector and in the media. I am an honorary member of the Club of Cooking Journalists.
That's putting it modestly. In the meantime, in addition to a Swissmed Ltd. for the worldwide marketing of medical products from Switzerland, they have also been operating the first company for the placement of board members since 1987. The co-founders were Pierre Arnold, then president of Migros, and Hans R. Schwarzenbach, president of Vorort. What are the services of this agency today?
Glanzmann: Our VR Academy takes care of the training of board members at university level as well as the placement and consulting of board members.
PRW, as the name suggests, has offered advertising and PR within the same agency since the beginning. Intention or lack of differentiation?
Glanzmann: What is increasingly being rediscovered recently - namely communications agencies with integrated communications - was actually realized by PRW as early as 1965. That came about through our regular work for a wide variety of voting campaigns. With such political mandates, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish: Is this PR, or is it advertising? The only important thing is that the communication goal can be achieved. Since my management in 1980, the agency, which was initially politically active, has increasingly opened up to economic and social mandates as well. However, our experience with political mechanisms has continued to help us a lot, for example with campaigns like "Glatt für alli". At the time, the Glattzentrum as the largest shopping center aroused the most diverse fears. In terms of image, this had to be positioned and communicated accordingly. With the Nova Park Hotel, too, the simultaneous tasks for advertising and PR were similarly interwoven and complex.
For years, PRW has consistently resisted integration into a larger network. What is behind this strategy?
Glanzmann: I am 100 percent convinced that a PR agency is strongest where it has its roots. It's quite clear that in chains, people and heads are changed, whether as a result of fluctuations or because it's determined in the career planning. And so it can happen that in such chains people end up at the top who do not have the necessary roots at all. "All business is local" - and especially the PR business is local, because that's where relationships come into play first. That's why I'm an advocate of "Europe On Line". This is a network of agencies, each with the same background, all of which are owner-managed. For me, this form is the guarantee that the relationships play out optimally due to the local roots and that the continuity of personnel management is also guaranteed.
However, as part of your work as a representative of the Government of Mauritius for tourism development from Switzerland and Austria, you will soon open an office in Vienna?
Glanzmann: No, we're just expanding a base there with our network agencies. We do the same with correspondents in the eastern states. If I had a PRW in Vienna with a Zurich-based head, I would have exactly the same problem: Where are his roots? So I would have to have a Viennese, but he might not stay with me, another one would come, and the clients would always have to go along with these changes. With an owner-managed agency, a client always has the same contact person.
You were already president of the PR Professionals of Switzerland in 1976
and since then also once president
of the Federation of PR Agencies (BPRA) as well as the European Federation "Europe On Line". This has allowed you to follow the history of PR at close quarters. What is the most striking change?
Glanzmann: Through the training of PR professionals and the good work of PR agencies, a better understanding of the meaning and benefits of PR has emerged in Switzerland. In this spirit, I was also involved early on in the development of the professional organizations, and in 1971 I helped to write the code of conduct while still on vacation. In the meantime, I can state with satisfaction that companies are aware of the tasks and purpose of public relations. Communication is seen as an obligation. No longer just as a freestyle. People have also become aware: Those who do not take it seriously will have to pay an expensive bill. People now know the value of an open communication strategy within the corporate strategy. This welcome development works not only in favor of the PR people, but also in favor of society. What is new is the speed. Today, you are permanently involved in communication and available. This will bring upheavals in the entire consumer behavior. It will no longer be the bigger and more powerful or financially stronger who win the race, but the faster.
Interview: Andreas Panzeri

René Hürlimann, CEO of Euro RSCG Switzerland, has been looking for a successor since 1997. Now he has found him in the person of Frank Bodin. Hürlimann, who is stepping down from the operating business but will remain a member of the board of directors, poached the top creative from McCann-Erickson, Geneva, which, despite all the prophecies of doom, has experienced a creative heyday with Bodin over the past four years. Page 3

Roger Blum, Professor of Media Studies, on the reasons why Weltwoche is serbtingThree major Swiss publishers are reportedly interested in buying Weltwoche from the Basel Media Group. Does that make sense? Roger Blum, head of the Institute for Media Studies at the University of Bern, sees red for the paper, at least if its current concept remains in place.Mr. Blum, how do you assess Weltwoche's current image?
Roger Blum: You always have to distinguish between image and concrete perception. The image is unreservedly good, the newspaper has a good name. However, part of the audience probably doesn't recognize what Weltwoche currently wants in terms of journalism, because there have been many changes and different concepts over the last ten to 20 years.
Has the image changed significantly?
Blum: When it was founded, Weltwoche was, along with Nation, one of the newspapers that was strongly committed to opposing National Socialism and practiced journalism that was independent of party politics and, in some cases, non-conformist, setting itself apart as a "blue press" from the prevailing party papers and the few, rather non-political general advertisers such as Tages-Anzeiger or Tribune de Genève. As a result, Weltwoche quickly gained a reputation as a paper that needed to be paid attention to. Today, however, Weltwoche is no longer the only paper with this position. Both print and electronic media have come closer to it in journalistic style and resources. Moreover, a critical position no longer requires as much courage as it did at the time of the external threat. This does not change the image for this type, but it does change the position in the market, because many others apply the same concept.
So is Weltwoche in danger of going under?
Blum: In general, yes, because it was actually copied in all parts by others. However, there were also phases in which Weltwoche simply regurgitated what others had already produced. Under editor-in-chief Fredy Gsteiger, however, Weltwoche is trying to make the most of its role as a weekly newspaper - by asking different questions, interpreting different issues and providing different information. It continues to produce articles that surprise because it tackles topics differently than other media. But the once glaring difference between daily and weekly newspapers - topicality here, background there - no longer exists, since many daily newspapers have long since provided the background on a daily basis.
Does Weltwoche still have a chance at all?
Blum: This is constantly decreasing. In terms of audience, there are basically two groups that could read Weltwoche: first, the information-hungry, such as other media professionals, and the political, cultural and economic elite. But that's not enough to sustain Weltwoche. Secondly, those people who get the daily information in their region from media that provide hardly any supraregional, economic and cultural information and whose own services relate exclusively to the local. They benefit from a weekly newspaper with a background. However, the more press concentration progresses and also provides the public in peripheral regions with daily newspapers with more background information, the more these Weltwoche readers dwindle.
Why has BMG not been able to bring Weltwoche up to scratch for so many years?
Blum: Because no one else would have succeeded either. Because the train for such titles is now leaving the station: In terms of journalistic concept, the competition is simply too great.
The rumor that Weltwoche was to be sold is not new. But is the situation different today for the Basel Media Group (BMG)?
Blum: There are two developments that probably aim in the same direction: On the one hand, the paper became more high-profile again with Gsteiger. Not from zero to 100, but perhaps from 50 to 75. BMG presumably assumed that the cost curve would also develop similarly, which was not the case. The question now is whether BMG is prepared to feed such a title for another ten years or to throw the wheel around and make something completely different out of the title, or to sell the title if someone still wants it.
NZZ, Tamedia and Ringier are reportedly interested in buying Weltwoche. What attracts the three in view of the high deficit? Are they blinded by Weltwoche's prestige?
Blum: If someone wants to turn Weltwoche into something new, then an established title complete with subscription base and customer file is certainly a jump start.
Interview: Markus Knöpfli

Markus Reck, ex-marketing director of sda, has set up his own agency, Reck MCC, in FreiburgMarkus Reck, ex-marketing director of sda, has set up his own agency, Reck MCC, in Freiburg
"I love construction sites where
I can start from scratch"
Markus Reck has been his own lord and master since September last year. His agency Reck MCC Marketing and Communication Consulting is located in Freiburg. Actually, he didn't even know he was going to start his own business when he took a leave of absence from his last job at Messe Basel as Head of Marketing and Communication last summer.
Reck first planned a continuing education vacation in Bella Italia and sports in the mountains. While swimming off the lengths of the indoor pool at the mountain hotel, the former competitive swimmer was overcome by a desire for independence. He was also tempted by the idea of being able to organize his free time as he pleased. He has long since realized that this lure was a mirage, and that freedom is more scarce than ever.
Markus Reck doesn't want to use a big ladle and works with freelancers in German and French-speaking Switzerland. With his office in bilingual Fribourg, he has chosen the right location to be easily accessible for clients on both sides of the Saane. A native of Zurich, he now almost feels like a true bilingual and has taken the city to his heart.
The 39-year-old describes the founding of his agency as the logical consequence of years of activity and experience in marketing and public relations. His more than five years at the Swiss News Agency (sda) in Bern, where he introduced new news products for databases, radio stations, the Internet and SMS services, were also groundbreaking for him. The new media are also his specialty. He wants to show his clients how classic marketing and PR strategies can be usefully integrated into the new media.
Markus Reck likes to communicate, but he is also an attentive listener. His concern is to involve the customer closely in the work process, i.e. to be in constant contact with him. This creates transparency for the customer, but also gives him constant feedback. Incidentally, he loves a challenge.
While he was preparing for his self-employment last summer, he helped organize the Marketing Gala at the same time. His job was to redesign the website and rethink media relations to go with it. "It was like being on a construction site," recalls Reck, "and I love construction sites where I can start from scratch," he enthuses.
And if he ever gets tired of virtual construction sites, he could imagine planting vines in a pleasantly warm place.
Anita Vaucher

Ringier Magazines receives reinforcement
Ringier's Magazines Division is being strengthened by the creation of the new Directorate Magazines German-speaking Switzerland. The position will be held by Silvia Lepiarczyk, who has headed Ringier Publishing in the Czech Republic since 1998 and has also been responsible for the printing plant in Ostrava and Ringier Publishing in Slovakia since July 2000. Her success in these activities is one reason for her election. Ringier spokesman Fridolin Luchsinger cites another: "Ms. Lepiarczyk gained experience during nine years at Bertelsmann, a very innovative and successful publishing house in the magazine sector."
The fact that the creation of the new Magazines German-speaking Switzerland division was necessary at all has to do with Martin Kall's workload. "As head of Ringier Europe and the Magazines division, Kall was pretty well served in terms of work and was looking for relief," explains the Ringier spokesperson. "But the creation of the new directorate also makes sense in Ringier's corporate structure: in addition to the Magazines Directorate for Western Switzerland, there is now also a Magazines Directorate for German-speaking Switzerland at the same level," adds Luchsinger.
The 37-year-old Lepiarczyk will take up her new position during the second quarter. As an interim solution, she will continue to be responsible for Ringier Slovakia for the time being. (dse)

BY BEAT FRITSCHAn almost symbolic change at Bilanz came to an end last week with Edi Häusler's farewell drink; the reshuffling and replacement of the management team now seems to have been completed for the time being. With Elke Zappe, a new managing director has joined the company, who gave up her long-held career as a freelance advertiser for this position. Her predecessor Häusler, on the other hand, wants to give it another go. He is setting up his own business and will become his own boss as Jürg Koller's new partner in the Baden-based direct marketing agency Grey Direct.
Häusler is thus definitely returning to his traditional business. He has already proven his direct marketing expertise as Managing Director of Silva Verlag and as Marketing Director at Ringier, which he also passes on to the next generation of communicators as a lecturer at Sawi and the Media Institute.
So last Thursday, we met many good-humored people in the midst of an eagerly chatting group at the Back & Brau restaurant. And because one is reluctant to let a valuable employee go, the united management team gathered for the farewell aperitif. In addition to the Managing Director of BMG's Zurich branch, Peter Urs Naef, Editor-in-Chief Medard Meier, Head of Advertising Peter Menzato, Head of Bilanz-online Pascal Schumacher and Head of New Business Stefan Lüscher, as well as Häusler's successor Elke Zappe and Weltwoche boss Uli Rubner, also gathered at the Steinfels site for freshly brewed beer and mash cookies.
Of course Häusler is really looking forward to the new job, if only "because it means I have a much shorter commute and can forget all about the traffic jams from Baregg to Zurich West in future", as he remarked with a slightly gleeful look at his BMG colleagues. In his euphoria, the newly minted entrepreneur probably forgot for a short time that his customer visits would continue to take him into the middle of Zurich's traffic chaos.
BEAT FRITSCHvisited the exhibition last week due to a lack of advertising space.
a small but nice farewell aperitif in the Bilanz building.
Who meets where in the communications industry can be found at various events in the scene. Do you already have something to report? Pick up the phone (01 296 97 98) or
into the keys (info@werbe
woche.ch). Event tips and further shortlist images are available online at www.werbewoche.ch

Mediagate positions itself as a central intermediary for special forms of advertisingMediagate AG wants to fill a gap in the market: Until now, there has been no interface that brought together providers of special advertising formats with media agencies. Sandro Proietto and Florian Biafori want to remedy this shortcoming and have met with a positive response to their business model. "Special forms of advertising are becoming increasingly important. Today, they can make a decisive difference between two high-quality campaigns," says Sandro Proietto, explaining the importance of below-the-line measures. Although there is a correspondingly high level of interest in special forms of advertising among advertising clients, there is a lack of transparency in the market.
The agency offers media agencies a point of contact that can provide information on current offers, availability and prices, make clarifications and carry out all the necessary preparatory work.
Proietto and his partner Florian Biafori have sensed the need for such an interface in their previous activities, both on the part of providers and media agencies. Biafori worked in the media industry for eight years, most recently as Account Manager at CIA Switzerland. Proietto completed an apprenticeship at Publicitas, later built up the Kuhn und Friends advertising agency branch in St.Gallen and launched the Kult magazine. Most recently, he worked as Division Manager Cross Media at Cinecom.
Depending on the initial situation, Mediagate works with the providers either with an exclusive lease of the respective advertising media or with a parallel placement. The agency does not want to exclude competitors for similar products. Mediagate's service is free of charge for advertising clients and media agencies; it is remunerated on a commission basis by the providers.
"All of our preferred partners work with us," confirms Florian Biafori. Mediagate's portfolio includes advertising space on toilets, advertising on beer mats and drinks mats (AdMats), small posters (Baby12, EuroBaby), cards for free, wild posters and much more. "We can bundle these offers in a sensible way and use them in synergy with each other, for example in the catering sector," says Biafori. The aim is to achieve the necessary advertising pressure to reach young target groups in particular.
Bruno Amstutz

Advertising in the print media declined in JanuaryThe flattening of advertising growth in the Swiss print media, which had already caused concern about future developments at the end of the year, continued in January. Overall, newspapers lost 2.6 percent of their commercial advertising compared to the same month last year. The overall result was only positive at 3.8 percent thanks to a still steep increase in job advertisements of 21.4 percent.As in the previous months, weekly newspapers were the welcome exception, as they were the only print category to record a hefty growth rate of 17 percent. And, with the exception of Ticino, with the same number of issues as in the previous year. If you add to this the impressive 106.2 percent growth in jobs, which is exclusively attributable to German-speaking Switzerland, you get top growth of 20.8 percent for the weekly titles.
Nevertheless, this was a ray of hope that also brightened up January somewhat for the other newspapers: Multicolored advertisements and supplements grew at double-digit rates for them, which had a positive impact on the financial result.
Agricultural press
continues to struggle
Magazines went in the other direction in this respect. Not only did they lose advertising volume by a hefty 7.2 percent. At the same time, multicolored ads also fell by 5.6 percent. The agricultural press again suffered a loss of 18.1 percent, a category that also reported only negative developments last year. However, fewer issues were published in January 2001 than in the previous year.
The Publicitas index of advertising expenditure in the daily press, which also includes job advertisements, paints a somewhat more optimistic picture of developments in January. Despite a lull in commercial advertising, it rose by a striking 0.7 points. However, this also reflects the rate increases of some important newspapers as of January 1, 2001, a circumstance that is not taken into account in the area statistics of the Swiss Press Association.
Daniel Schifferle

BSW Ranking 2000 and trends for 2001The gross operating income (GOP) of all agencies belonging to the Federation of Swiss Advertising Agencies (BSW) rose by a full eleven percent last year compared to the previous year. As in 1999, Young & Rubicam Group Switzerland achieved the highest turnover according to the BSW ranking for 2000. After a gentle increase of only 5.57 percent in the period from 1998 to 1999, we can therefore speak of similarly golden times as in the BSW ranking for 1998, when the boom resulted in an increase of 10.7 percent.
The BSW agencies are optimistic about the future and are again forecasting an average increase in BBE of eleven percent for the current year.
After the Publicis Group came first in the 1998 ranking and the Young & Rubicam Group (Y&R) in 1999, Y&R Switzerland can once again be crowned the top agency group for the year 2000. Publicis and McCann-Erickson swapped second and third place in 2000. Publicis ranked third in 1999.
The BSW welcomed a total of six new members last year, including three media and three dialog marketing agencies. "The industry association of leading commercial communication agencies is thus also underlining the trend towards integrated communication," explained BSW Managing Director Walter Merz at a media orientation.
Many agencies also offered new services in the areas of internet, dialogue marketing and event marketing last year, either through their own units or through alliances with specialized agencies. To meet the demands of the market, 160 new jobs were created last year. This also corresponds to an increase of almost ten percent in the total number of BSW members (pan).

The disadvantages of the various poster research models are far from being overcomeBy Wolfgang KoschnickEffect research on posters remains a matter of luck. Nevertheless, there are new approaches in poster research from Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. But even they suffer from the fact that the reliability of the measurement data is not beyond all doubt.
While the British Postar model causes confusion among laypersons (WW 44/00), the Austrian poster rating system (PWÖ) shines through its simplicity: a procedure that meets the interests of the client and also benefits the poster space as an advertising medium.
In a first step, all of the approximately 85,000 areas available in Austria were assessed according to their quality using the same model. Depending on the federal state, between 10 and 20 percent of the areas were so poor that they were taken off the market. They did not meet the minimum requirements. Now, there are only around 71,000 surfaces in Austria that meet the objectified quality criteria of the PWÖ and bear its seal.
The following criteria for defining a location played a role in the evaluation of the Austrian sites according to a standardized procedure: visibility and distance, distance to the road, position of the board in relation to the viewer, frequency, speed, frequency factor. The model has already been described in WerbeWoche (WW 27/00).
The PPI also allows
Splits by region
The poster value of a site is a daily contact figure weighted according to the factors of visibility and site size. The basic PWÖ formula is based on the multiplication of the frequency with the technical observation time (= visibility time divided by 1.5 seconds) of a poster site, reduced by the frequency factor and related to the average of all categorized sites.
The poster value provides data on the performance of a poster space. In addition to the PWÖ, leading advertising agencies have developed the Poster Performance Indicator (PPI) as a planning tool in collaboration with the media agency Turcsanyi Media Consulting. It allows a campaign to be planned according to poster points, which, like the Gross Rating Points (GRP) familiar from media planning, represent an indicator of reach and remembered contacts.
The PPI is a comprehensible model that makes it possible to make the daily contact opportunities collected as part of the PWÖ more comprehensible and at the same time to combine them with the reach figures available for other media.
In the PPI, the frequencies of all poster sites collected as part of the PWÖ are linked with the current poster values from the Austrian media analysis. The calculation of gross contacts in the PPI is based on the frequency measurements (= guaranteed contacts). Splits and filtering by region are also possible. The calculation of reach is based on the values of the 1999 Media Analysis, which provides information for a sample of 18,000 respondents on how many days out of seven they normally pass a billboard.
This information is used to calculate reach for target groups and federal states. This results in a performance value curve for the poster and the specific poster campaign.
This can also be defined in poster points (PP) per shilling or per average contact. The PP determine a value that results from the combination of reach and remembered contacts. The number of PWÖ gross contact opportunities defines the PP and describes the effectiveness of a guaranteed contact. The net reach can be read from accumulation curves calculated from the media analysis.
The PWÖ has thus created the possibility of a national poster evaluation without having to resort to data from its own survey. But when it comes to developing reach values and personal data in the second step, the PWÖ has found nothing more than a makeshift solution by drawing on existing continuous surveys and weighting the PWÖ frequency figures down to 13 percent "memorable contacts" on this basis.
However, since there are no "true ranges", the result is not wrong. But this is not the ideal solution. This has yet to be found. You can cross a body of water by building a raft or nailing boards together to form a bridge. Only the Golden Gate Bridge is truly unique.
There are only a few satisfactory solutions to this problem worldwide. But there are some. The German Poster Media Analysis (PMA) has developed a method that is based on survey data on "recall of routes traveled" and leads to reasonable values. However, it also has weaknesses, which meant that recall values had to be "validated". In fact, empirically measured values were corrected by calibration. And weightings to correct empirically collected data are fundamentally different from the justified weighting of visibility factors, for example. Nevertheless, the model has become so widely accepted in Germany that it will probably soon be included in the Media Analysis (MA).
Recall values from surveys have proven to be precarious information in poster research internationally. This even applies to values that were collected specifically for poster research. And of course it applies all the more to values that were collected for a completely different research purpose and used in the specific study.
The Dutch Buitenreclame 2000 lies between the extremes - Postar and PWÖ - and contains elements of single point assessment and mobility analysis. It uses data from the official traffic counts of the Dutch spatial planning authority based on a sample of 120000 respondents per year. From these censuses, the start and end points of the journeys made are known in the Netherlands - but not the journey itself.
Since the census data is
As the "route choice behavior" of the population cannot be used directly for poster research, the market research institute Intomart developed a model. It is based on a sample of 7000 people from the market research institute. A complicated procedure is used to calculate routes for the people in this sample, and they are likely to choose the "easiest" route. Simpler: Probabilities for poster site contacts are calculated from the traffic flows of the official traffic counts. These routes are then transferred to a digital map.
The five Dutch poster companies still in existence at the time of the survey (today there are only four) entered their total of 21,000 billboards into this digital map. In this way, the probable routes taken by passers-by could be linked to the billboards actually present. As everyone who passes by a billboard does not automatically and necessarily come into contact with the posters on it, a number of features were also included in the model to evaluate individual sites, such as the distance from the street or the viewing angle. The Dutch model is therefore also based on a combination of single-point assessment and analysis of mobility behavior.
Are most Dutch posters invisible?
The range of an attack site is defined as "presence in the street". This - not very convincing - definition was already used in the first Summo-Buitenreclame study in 1990. Because this very broad definition means that every person who simply passes a poster site is included in the reach value, the definition was changed in the most recent study and visibility factors were taken into account. This was done through observation.
However, the Dutch visibility model proves to be a farce, even though the market researchers went to great lengths. In a country like the Netherlands, where everyone travels a lot by bike, monitoring the visibility of bumpers poses a particular problem. If someone is cycling a route, they cannot simultaneously make notes about the "zichtbaarheid van buitenreclame" without endangering traffic. So the routes were covered by tandem. The observer sat at the front and someone at the back diligently noted down what the rider at the front saw.
In order to determine the visibility of the individual poster sites, the field workers of the Intomart Institute were instructed to follow or drive along the paths known from the route selection model and search for poster sites. This is an extremely suggestive procedure that in no way corresponds to the natural passage past billboards. On the contrary.
People who normally walk or drive through the streets are not looking for advertising space. They have other things on their minds, and billboards are the least of them. But the astonishing thing was: although the field workers were explicitly required to look for billboards, they stated that they had not seen more than
32 percent of all posts could be seen. Are Holland's posters so cleverly hidden that they cannot be found even with a targeted search?
No, but many of them are used on both sides and are positioned at an angle of 90 degrees to the two streams of traffic on a street, so that in principle they can be seen from both sides. However, most pedestrians only ever use the side facing their own traffic flow.
The whole visibility model of the Dutch is therefore useless. However, the use of annual traffic count data for the production of digital maps is groundbreaking. However, in what other country in the world are there new traffic counts every year that can be used for the poster usage behavior of the entire population?
The Buitenreclame 2000 provides data on the evaluation of individual sites in reverse order, so to speak. Since we have all the information on the location, location and visibility characteristics of each individual location, we can use the regression analysis to calculate how and to what extent each individual factor contributes to the overall success of the locations - "could", it should be said. You could, if the Dutch visibility model were worth anything.
Memories of the
Eye contact with the poster
For a long time, it seemed as if Germany had found the philosopher's stone with poster media analysis (PMA). Today, however, skepticism prevails. The PMA is a single-source file for large billboards, city light posters (CLP), full columns and general sites, which also collects data on consumer habits and interests - in other words, a media analysis enriched with consumer data. It was commissioned by the Fachverband Aussenwerbung (FAW) in 1994 in order to provide media planning with personalized poster usage data and thus make the poster medium plannable. Today, the PMA is the most important planning tool for the strategic framework planning of posters in Germany. It is about to be included in the media analysis.
Methodologically, the PMA is based on the "poster query based on remembered paths" designed by mathematician Gunda Opfer in a personal interview with memory aids. In addition to information on consumer habits and interests in 40 product areas, a brief survey of television usage was also included, resulting in a multidimensional planning file that combines information on the performance of traditional poster advertising media with other target group characteristics.
The PMA asks about the memory of eye contact with certain places of attack on the basis of the outward and return journeys made as well as sections of these journeys. The question is based on the reason why the respondents were out of the house. The frequency of occasions, the outward and return journeys made and the means of transport used are used to gather initial information on mobility and the frequency of contact and to support the memory of certain sections of the journey. This is followed by a query of the advertising media remembered on the individual sections and the assignment to certain types of advertising media with the help of colored illustrations.
Performance values also apply
for partial occupancy
The PMA provides all performance values required for media planning for seven days and for all existing poster advertising media. These performance values can be extrapolated to the occupancy unit of a decade, i.e. an average of 10.5 days. As the number of poster sites seen by a person was included, the performance values can also be calculated for partial occupancy of an advertising medium type. The following performance values can be used in planning for full occupancy or partial occupancy:
? Widest circle of viewers (WSK): the total number of people who have seen a billboard at all.
? Reach (in percent and in millions): all persons in any population who have had at least one contact with an advertising medium of the respective type within the last decade.
? Opportunity to see (OTS): the average number of contacts a reached person has had with a touchpoint within the last decade.
? Gross Rating Points (GRP): the total number of contacts achieved as a percentage. GRPs are a planning value for advertising pressure and are calculated by multiplying reach (as a percentage) and OTS (average contacts).
? Total contacts in millions: the total number of contacts achieved with a billboard in absolute figures.
? Thousand contact price (CPM) in DM.
The additional survey of whether or not a poster contact took place at the respondent's place of residence allows a differentiation between contacts at the location and commuter contacts. All performance values can be calculated with the PC-DAP-Plakat planning program for all demographically and consumption-specifically definable target groups surveyed in the media analysis. Opfer sees the PMA as merely an "instrument for rough planning".
Even the PMA model cannot capture everything
The great enthusiasm of media planners has given way to an equally great and growing skepticism. One of the main objections is that the poster contacts reported in the MA are only suitable for intermedia comparisons to a limited extent. In poster advertising, the query of unsupported remembered eye contacts with certain poster sites corresponds to the identification of advertising media contact opportunities without the inclusion of an editorial component - the contact is therefore defined extremely harshly.
A validation study commissioned by the Outdoor Advertising Association in 1997 showed that the "poster survey based on remembered routes" does not record a large proportion of the frequency of passage or the actual eye contact with poster sites. This "underclaim", which is unavoidable due to the methodology used, also varies depending on the poster advertising medium. The forgetting rate of actually observed sites increases with the number of poster sites along the route as well as with the length of the described routes and the density of the poster sites.
The PMA therefore works with correctly recalled performance values that represent only 59 percent of the actual passage frequency and 78 percent of the actually noticed and known advertising points. The MA therefore shows contact values that do not do full justice to the actual advertising performance of the poster. And depending on the number and density of sites, poster types are sometimes more and sometimes less affected.
Consequence of the validation study: The unsupported remembered contacts reported in the PMA are subsequently "topped up" by the additional poster contacts that were also observed but forgotten. To this end, a calibration factor of 1.27 was derived for towns with a population of 100,000 or more in order to calculate the actual contact performance of the poster sites. On average, the PMA shows around 13 percent fewer poster contacts than actually took place. Gunda Opfer takes a relaxed view of this: The "hard" empirical values go "more in the direction of advertising media contact", the validated values "more in the direction of advertising media contact".
Black magic in the
Social research
You can also look at it this way: The measuring accuracy of the PMA is abysmal. There is no clearer way of saying with this wild calculation that the empirical contact values of the PMA are not much good. An additional 27 percent of the original value must be added to each individual survey value for places with a population of 100,000 or more. Then you get the right result.
However, this form of "calibration" is different from "weighting with visibility coefficients". With weighting, there are empirically verified findings about the visibility and its impairment of a location. The weighting therefore takes into account the actual reduced visibility of a location. PMA calibration, however, is the subsequent correction of a survey error. In other words, the survey method leads to indisputably and indisputably incorrect results. Therefore, the result is corrected. This is the transfer of black magic to empirical social research. It is an attempt to use unsuitable means to rescue a method that produces false results.
In home countries
Poster research modest
All models of poster research currently in use in Europe are either below the methodological level of these four models or use variations of them. Some of the methods that are below this level could be unhesitatingly dismissed as a laughing stock if they were not still of some use in the specific media scene of their country.
Following Postar, PMA, PWÖ and Summo Buitenreclame 2000, efforts are underway in Europe to promote poster research. In Scandinavia, JCDecaux and the More Group (Clear Channel) are developing a new approach that could quickly lead to uniform poster research across Europe. It seems to amount to an adaptation of the British Postar model.
This involves developing a basic module that is identical for all countries and is modified according to national circumstances. In Switzerland, the two poster companies APG and Plakanda/AWI have joined forces to find a new approach to research that is broadly in line with the European trend and will probably lead to an integrated model via job evaluation and mobility analysis.
It is strange that poster research is conducted at a modest level in the home countries of outdoor advertising of all places. In Switzerland at least, efforts are underway to replace the outdated A-value with a more contemporary approach.
Recent approaches to poster research
After the first part of the series (WW 44/00) on the basic problems of the outdoor advertising industry, the second part describes the advantages and disadvantages of more recent approaches, in particular the Austrian, German and Dutch research models.
The trend is towards technical measurementThe trend in the more modern methods of mobility analysis is clearly moving away from the "royal road" of traditional empirical social research - the survey - and towards observation through technical measurement. There are two main reasons for this, each of which sounds quite convincing. Firstly, observation by technical measurement is a method at the same level of accuracy as that practiced in audience research or, more recently, listener research.
The real problems arise beyond the measuring accuracy of the devices, but this has not affected acceptance so far. Secondly, there has been little experience - positive or negative - with technical measurement using methods such as the Geographical Positioning System (GPS) in the field of poster research. However, it has proven its worth in navigation. To date, the technology has only been used by the British Postar. So far, very little is known about the pitfalls of the system in media research. In the meantime, we can hope that it might work.