Edi Häusler moves from the Basler Mediengruppe to Grey Direct Concept in Baden as a consultant on March 1 / Edi Häusler has been responsible for the business magazine Bilanz at Jean Frey AG as Managing Director of WM Wirtschaftsmedien AG for 13 months. He handed over this task to his successor Elke Zappe at the end of 2000, as he should have taken over the Customer Service division for the titles of the Basler Mediengruppe (BMG).
Should have. Häusler didn't even take on the job and moved from Frey to Grey, the direct marketing agency Grey Direct Concept in Baden, on March 1. Häusler will become a consultant and member of the management team there. At BMG, the planned Customer Service Center will continue to be managed by Beobachter Publishing Director Peter Kümmerli and now also by Yvonne Brack.
What led to Häusler's surprising move? As a direct marketing specialist who has been teaching at the Sawi and Media Institute for years, Häusler has recently been increasingly asked whether he would also advise other companies. "That started to appeal to me," he admits. After many years in direct marketing, he sees an opportunity to broaden his horizons: At Grey Direct, he will also be advising banks, insurance companies and mail order firms.
Customer relationship management (CRM) "will become much more important in companies," says Häusler. "The customer should go from being a distant 'client' to a trusted 'customer' and ultimately a 'fan'." Häusler is therefore interested in all forms of customer loyalty systems.
Originally, the business economist HWV started as Controller Publishing at Ringier. After detours to Meisterverlag in Munich and Yves Rocher, he returned to Ringier in 1987 as Head of Marketing Magazines. In 1998, he became Managing Director of Silva Verlag, which was sold to the media giant Bertelsmann in 1999.
But it was at Silva that the idea of intensively cultivating customer relationships really caught him. The customer loyalty system using Silva points, a kind of Cumulus programme from the 1950s, "really worked for decades, but then fell behind because it wasn't modernized," he says.
For Häusler, "happily married" and father of two small children, his family is like an island. "It gives me a lot," he says. In his free time he
Cycles, jogs, swims and skis. He has been collecting wristwatches with so-called complications (stopwatch, moon phases, etc.) since he was about 14 years old. His collection now comprises 321 pieces. "What fascinates me about the mechanical watch is its proximity to a perpetual motion machine: the fact that you can keep it moving with the momentum of your own body," he says.
Markus Knöpfli

Intel visualizes the performance of its new processor in a TV commercial performanceBy Thérèse BalduzziA successful combination of art and commerce has been realized in the new, internationally shown commercials for Intel's Pentium 3 processor. The commercials feature the New York performance trio Blue Man Group, which has enjoyed great popularity since the early nineties.
The Blue Man Group has been poking fun at the art scene of the 1980s since 1991 in their show "Blue Man: Tubes" at Astor Place in Manhattan. The blue-painted trio's multimedia spectacle uses countless buckets of paint, Captain Crunch cookies as percussion instruments and paints wild abstractions by throwing paint onto a spinning canvas and analyzing a fish with screwed language teeming with art theory terms.
The blue men started out as street performers and organized, among other things, a "Funeral for the 80's" in which they
buried the postmodern theories of deconstruction art. They are now so successful that they have had to maintain a permanent show in Boston, Chicago and Las Vegas and expand to over 30 Blue Men.
Of course, it is not easy to portray the advantages of a processor in a commercial. The agency Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG in New York found humorous buddies in the mime trio, who play with the logo of the Pentium 3 processor - three green exclamation marks. At the same time, the robotic movements and futuristic appearance of the blue bald heads reflect something of the nature of the product.
Playful use of three exclamation marks
In the first spot, "Paint", the three blue men find three creative ways to paint the green bars of the exclamation marks (black dots in square form are already present). The first ropes himself down a wall with a large green paint roller, while the second carts a trolley full of paint balloons filled with green paint and catapults them onto the wall with a slingshot until the blobs of paint form a large bar. The third, on the other hand, pours a bucket of green paint over himself and lets himself be catapulted onto the wall. He drags himself along the wall to the floor and "paints" the third stripe, but falls over at the end and remains motionless.
In the second spot, "Keys", the exclamation marks lie on the floor as large green bars. After the first two blue men discover that the bars can be played like a xylophone, the third wants to outdo them in terms of originality. He climbs a ladder to jump onto the third bar, but disappears into the opening. The performances take place without words, accompanied only by the music of the Blue Man Group. Only at the end does a voiceover say "Get the Power of three, get the Pentium 3 Processor", whereupon the Intel logo and the Pentium 3 processor appear.
This means that the spots can also be used internationally. In addition to America, they are also broadcast in England, France and Germany and reach the whole of Western Europe via satellite. "The idea was to let images speak for themselves," says Larry Silberfein, CD of the campaign. The spots, which were first broadcast last fall, have not only had a positive effect on Intel: Blue Man Group can also be pleased, the spots work for both sides," says Silberfein.

Bluewin launches channels aimed at defined demographic target groupsBy Clemens HörlerHorizontal Swiss websites that explicitly target women, immigrants or certain age segments are still rare. Of the major portals, only Bluewin offers Swiss themed channels for women and people 55 and older. Is there a need for such demographically defined channels at all?
Seniors and women have long been a fringe group in the Net community. According to Media Metrix, however, women overtook men in the U.S. in May 2000 and for the first time accounted for more than 50 percent of Internet users. Seniors are also catching up with seven-league boots in the U.S. and Europe (see box). The Swiss portal operator Bluewin has responded to this trend by offering a special women's channel since late summer.
The women's channel was recently followed by a channel for seniors. Bluewin is convinced that, in addition to dealing with age-specific topics such as retirement planning, the community factor is also a very important argument in favor of such a channel. Melanie Schneider, Media Relations Bluewin AG: "Our credo is that 'older' people are still active. They should not get the impression that they are no longer capable of discovering something new." The extra-large font of 55plus (http://55plus.bluewin.ch), as the channel is called, is also intended to accommodate people with declining eyesight.
Portal operator Bluewin goes its own way
Platforms defined according to demographic criteria have the same goal as vertical Web offerings that revolve around a specific topic: They are designed to provide a convenient way for advertisers and e-commerce drivers to target specific audiences with as little wastage as possible.
In Switzerland, there are only a few large web offerings that are aimed at groups explicitly defined by age, gender or origin. With 55plus and Woman, Bluewin is the only major portal operator in Switzerland that has integrated such offerings into the portal in addition to the actual thematic channels. msn.ch has taken over the women's channel WEBienne from Germany. Other portal operators focus exclusively on offers defined by topics: Eroticism, Games, Finance, News, etc.
The Swiss market is too small for target group portals
Because in the small Swiss market, it is proving difficult to achieve an interesting reach for e-commerce and online advertising if you restrict your target audience from the outset according to demographic criteria. The situation is different in the huge US market. A veritable boom in target group portals broke out there about two years ago. Whether it's a senior citizen of Chinese descent or a young Latina woman - they were all to be given their own little garden in the basically borderless World Wide Web.
Many of these sites, however, were only moderately successful and had to shut down their operations or slim down considerably. The leading American women's website Women.com recently had to cut 85 or a quarter of all its jobs and has just been taken over by its competitor iVillage.com. The reason: massive losses. The big Latino portals such as Latino.com and Yupi.com have also had to lay off staff en masse in recent months. Surveys of Hispanics in the U.S. have shown that many of them do not want their own websites, but prefer English-language sites.
Do women need at all
own portals?
From both a commercial and cultural standpoint, the question arises as to whether it makes sense to channel certain demographic target groups onto their own platforms, or whether one should not simply place thematic offerings on the web around which users form independently and dynamically.
Some commercial women's sites are criticized in advance by women: They only serve product placement and try to squeeze women into a Barbie world consisting of beauty cases, neat clothes and cooking recipes. Women, the critics argue, could independently search out what interested them from the Web and did not need analog products to the women's magazines at the newsstand. In contrast, Chine Lanzmann, co-founder of the French women's portal Newsfam.com, is convinced of the necessity of women's portals. "Women simply want to read different things than men."
Horizontal platforms that explicitly target specific age groups are also not without controversy. All the more so because today biological age is becoming increasingly irrelevant to lifestyle and self-image. Many older Internet users by no means want to be pigeonholed as senior citizens or even shoved into a Web retirement home, but are busy using music exchange networks like Napster and listening to Internet radio. Post-adolescents in their mid-thirties also tend to feel piqued when the creators of a portal for twens tell them that it is smart and cool because it is made by twens and not by 30- or 40-year-olds.
Division by age or thought generations?
The operators of the American portal Snowball.com have deliberately avoided this snub and refer to their offering to visitors as a platform for the Internet generation; only in their communication with advertisers do they refer to it as a youth platform for 13- to 30-year-olds. After all, in the age of declining click rates, you have to sell them clear and attractive target groups.
Röne Bertschi, Managing Director of Carat Interactive, Dietikon, believes that Internet users should not be divided and addressed according to biological age, but according to generations of thought and behavior. Why should target groups be defined in advance and content geared to their possible interests? Perhaps because this allows you to present a target group to the advertising industry more quickly, rather than having to research the user structure first.
According to Gianni Abner, Head of B G Media Internet, it is still too early to make statements about the commercial prospects for success of gender- or age-specific Internet platforms in Switzerland. However, it is certainly justified to separate certain topics by gender, for example. The only thing is that there is still little good content to be found on most women's sites. But this is crucial to whether one can establish oneself with the desired target group.
Surfing starts at 55

In Europe, according to a study by Pro Active International, only 9.2 percent of the over-55s were online in the fall of 2000. In the USA, the figure was over 21 percent at the end of last year. But according to Pro Active International, the over-55s are also catching up strongly in Europe and have made the biggest gains since spring 2000, which also applies to e-commerce spending. Wemf's MA Net (wave 2/00) also shows that this age group, together with the very young, has made up the most ground compared with wave 1/00. One of the few older online platforms in Switzerland that specifically targets seniors is Seniorweb.ch, which currently has around 300000 page impressions per month. Seniorweb is now a partner of Bluewin and content provider for 55plus.

NewsLowe wins Virgin Mobile USA
For its expansion into the USA, the British mobile phone provider Virgin Mobile is relying on Lowe Lintas, San Francisco. The agency won the launch budget of around 150 million Swiss francs in a pitch. With Lowe Lintas, Virgin has opted for the agency that looks after arch-competitor Orange in its home market. Virgin's British parent agency is Rainey Kelley/Y&R.
Saab advertises from Sweden for the USASwedish car manufacturer Saab has withdrawn its creative budget for the USA from its previous account manager, The Martin Agency. Saab's home agency Lowe Brindfors, Stockholm, is now responsible for the American creative. Martin had looked after Saab since 1997. During this time, the car company is said to have invested around 180 million dollars in US advertising. Saab's media planning and buying as well as direct marketing will remain with Martin.
Timberland with European agency
The US clothing company Timberland has awarded its advertising budget for Europe to Cave Anholt Jonason (CAJ). The young London agency is to bring the classic American brand Timberland closer to the European public. This is the first time that Timberland has commissioned an agency in Europe. However, the new client could prove to be a handicap for CAJ in the current pitch for jeans manufacturer Diesel.
Eurosport now wholly owned by tf 1France's largest private TV channel TF 1 becomes 100% owner of the sports channel Eurosport. Eurosport International belonged to
TF 1 previously held 50.5 percent, while Canal Plus owned the rest. Eurosport France, on the other hand, was 39 percent owned by Canal Plus, 36 percent by TF 1 and 25 percent by Havas Images. TF 1 is paying a total of 345 million euros (525 million francs) to Canal Plus and Havas. Eurosport broadcasts in 17 languages and 52 countries.

Two almost identical Internet panels vie for the favor of media plannersBy Markus KnöpfliAt the beginning of March, MMXI Switzerland publishes panel data on the private surfing behavior of Swiss Internet users for the first time. ACNielsen (Switzerland) followed suit in mid-April with a second panel. However, the panels hardly differ in terms of content.
On March 5, the public will find out for the first time in explosive detail which websites were most frequently visited by the approximately 2.2 million Swiss Internet users from their home PCs in January 2001, where the users then surfed to or how long and how often they were online. The eagerly awaited data will be published by the company MMXI Switzerland, which collects it using its Internet panel of the same name (formerly Internet Research CH). From now on, MMXI Switzerland will publish and sell its Internet usage data on a monthly basis.
The fact that MMXI Switzerland is the first Swiss Internet panel operator to be able to offer such data is also being savored in terms of marketing. The SRG subsidiary Publica Data will be presenting the first tidbits of data at the Internet Expo (from February 7 to 9). And on March 2, the SRG research service will present the first highlights at a press conference. The MMXI joint venture partners SRG, IP Multimedia, IHA GfM, Banner.ch, Berner Tagblatt Medien and Yellowworld (see WW 34/00) will receive the detailed data on February 27, MMXI customers on February 28.
Data on mobile Internet use still lacking
However, MMXI will not be able to maintain its data lead for long. Market researcher ACNielsen is setting up a similar Swiss Internet panel called ACNielsen/NetRatings and plans to publish its data on Internet behavior, which was first collected in March, in mid-April. If this is successful, ACNielsen will be able to publish its monthly data around a week before MMXI thanks to the shorter evaluation time.
However, it is still questionable whether and to whom this race will be of any use, as there will then be two internet currencies. Ideally, however, both panels will deliver identical Swiss results, as they are almost like two peas in a pod. Both currently only survey Internet usage from a PC at home. So-called work panels are still being set up and mobile use cannot yet be measured.
In both cases - for the mobile and stationary work panels - software is installed on the PCs of at least 3,500 Internet users throughout Switzerland, which sends the data to the respective center in real time (ACNielsen) or in phases (MMXI), but in any case independently and online. Thanks to international networking, both companies link the Swiss data with that of other countries and then report the results according to target groups from two years onwards. This international link is also most likely to lead to differences in results: ACNielsen measures Internet use in 18 countries, MMXI in 14. ACNielsen also provides additional data on behavior towards banners (so-called banner tracking), whereas MMXI does not yet offer this service.

Muse & MusseStefan Beck
Which cultural event did you attend last and why this one in particular?
Stefan Beck: AC/DC in the Hallenstadion. Because they still make real music.
What are you reading right now and why?
Beck: "20 Years After" by Dany and Van Hamme. Because it's so beautifully drawn and exciting.
Which CD do you currently prefer to listen to?
Beck: Yngwie J. Malmsteen "War to end all wars".
Which movie would you most like to see again and why?
Beck: "Angel Heart". Because seven times is not enough.
What TV show did you fall asleep during the other night?
Beck: "Due" without Rachel Spirig.
What is your latest discovery on the Internet?
Beck: www.naked-news.com
Love is...?
Beck: ...being an FCZ fan for a good 30 years.

SF DRS lost market share last year - as did most other major broadcastersBy Daniel SchifferleTV 3 is becoming noticeable for many other broadcasters: SF DRS lost market share last year, as did most German broadcasters. However, SF DRS was able to make up ground with children and young people.
Swiss television DRS is on the decline: SF 1 lost 1.5 market share points last year (primetime, target group 3+). The overall result was cushioned by
SF DRS, however, thanks to an increase of 0.4 market share points for SF 2. Thanks to the European Football Championships and the Olympic Games in Sydney. Among the other Swiss German channels, Tele 24 was unable to further increase its market share last year. The station stagnated at 2.6 percent. TV 3, which is reporting audience figures for a full year for the first time, achieved a market share of
3.5 percent.
And these viewers that TV 3 gained were lost to other broadcasters. This is because the German-speaking Swiss did not watch more TV in 2000 than in the previous year. The average viewing time remained at 137.4 minutes per day, which corresponds to only a minimal increase of 24 seconds. This means that viewers are no longer being attracted to TV by attractive sporting events and new channels, they are simply putting together their TV menu differently.
However, we can only speculate as to exactly which channel lost how much to TV 3. The fact is that the majority of foreign channels also stagnated or lost audience (see table). However, Sat 1 suffered the most, losing 0.6 market share points. Or Pro 7, which is the second biggest loser among the German channels with a loss of 0.4 market share points.
But there are also winners, such as Kabel 1. The oldies movie channel increased its market share by 0.4 points, making it the biggest viewer winner of the past year together with SF 2. One possible reason for the upward trend at Kabel 1: the news situation was less dramatic last year than in the previous year, which could have led to a lower demand for current affairs programs.
In other words, when the "Tagesschau" on SF DRS was boring, older viewers in particular zapped over to Kabel 1 to watch a suitable movie. Nevertheless, the balance for the Swiss TV market should be positive. Thanks to TV 3, Swiss TV broadcasters have gained some audience overall. This also pleases media planners, who like to see Swiss audiences watching more Swiss programs. On the other hand, this development is uncomfortable for advertising window marketers, who have noticeably lost market strength with Sat 1 and Pro 7.
SF 2 on the hunt for the very young viewers
SF 2, the young channel of SF DRS, made further progress in its hunt for young viewers. Its audience was on average nine years younger than that of SF 1 in prime time and 12 years younger in the all-day comparison. A significant step forward was made in the target group of children and young people (3 to 14 years), where SF 2 improved by a whole 4.3 to 14.4 market share points.
The jump was mainly due to the "Nickelodeon" productions, which are broadcast daily between 10 am and 5 pm. However, despite this race to catch up, Swiss television is not yet in the top spot with kids. In the same time slot (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), RTL 2 and Super RTL are still ahead with a 15.9% and 15.7% market share respectively among 3 to 14-year-olds.
It was a different story at the weekend. SF 2 can claim a top position among children and young people. This is in the Junior time slot between 6 and 9.55 am. Here, the station is in first place with 15.5 market share points, followed by TV 3 (12.7), RTL (10.4) and Pro 7 (8.5).
However, SF 2 did not only strengthen its position among the youngest viewers last year. It also made progress in the target group of young adults (15 to 24 years), where the channel increased its market share by 1.4 to 8.8 market share points. However, as in the previous year, SF 2 is only in 5th place in the target group. Pro 7 (17.2 market share points), RTL (10.6), ARD (10.0) and RTL 2 (8.9) are still more popular with young adults. SF DRS will therefore have a lot of work to do over the next few years to regain popularity among very young viewers.
Development of market shares

(MA in %, primetime, target group 3+)
Transmitter 1999 2000 +/-
SF 1 35.6 34.1 - 1.5
SF 2 6.6 7.0 + 0.4
Tele 24 2.6 2.6 -
TV 3 - 3.5 -
RTL 7.1 6.9 - 0.2
ARD 5.9 5.6 - 0.3
Per 7 5.3 4.9 - 0.4
Sat 1 5.0 4.4 - 0.6
ZDF 4.2 4.2 -
ORF 1 3.5 3.4 - 0.1
RTL 2 3.2 3.4 + 0.2
Cable 1 2.0 2.4 + 0.4
Super RTL 1.9 2.1 + 0.2
Vox 1.6 1.7 + 0.1
ORF 2 1.7 1.6 - 0.1
SW 3 1.2 1.4 + 0.2
Bavaria 3 1.1 1.1 -
Eurosport 1.0 0.9 - 0.1
3sat 0.7 0.7 -
DSF 0.6 0.5 - 0.1
Arte 0.5 0.5 -
Other 6.2 5.4 - 0.8

Distefora connects instant shoppers via its virtual SMS centerBy Carlo BernasconiM-Commerce is a reality. That's according to Michael Kägi, who is responsible for the mobile division at Distefora Holding. Shopping via cell phone is even expected to become a boom when next-generation cell phones include more and more Internet functions and data transmission becomes faster and cheaper.
By a few years from now, cell phone penetration will have increased to between 90 to nearly 100 percent of the population. With the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) system, data transmission speeds have been massively increased (Diax already has it set up). This allows growing cell phone usage for Internet services. And anyone who owns a cell phone also knows how to send an SMS (Short Message Service). More than five million such messages, limited to 160 characters, are sent every day.
Michael Kägi, founder of Minick, which he has now contributed to Distefora Holding, developed software for m-commerce systems early on. Today, he operates a virtual SMS center that acts as an interface between mobile customers and providers.
Distefora Mobile primarily offers customers who offer standardized products the electronic logistics for processing orders via SMS. The media chain Ex Libris, part of the Migros Group, has already discovered the advantages of the virtual SMS center and sold products via SMS last year. Today, a total of around 1,000 products are sold via the virtual SMS center every day, says Kägi.
Component of a successful marketing mix
Kägi still encounters skepticism when he extols the benefits of m-commerce among advertising agencies. "In many cases, I still find the same dismissive attitude as when the Internet was introduced," Kägi says.
Kägi sees the benefits of m-commerce in encouraging consumers to instant store by allowing them to use a few letters to trigger orders for products that have previously been advertised using traditional media.
For example, Ex Libris advertised the new Madonna CD with print ads and the indication that the CD could also be ordered via SMS. For Ex Libris managing director Peter Bamert, however, it is "still too early to be able to judge conclusively whether the instrument should be used constantly as a communication and sales tool or as a promotional tool," he told WerbeWoche.
This gives providers access to end-customer address databases that enable them to perform precise data mining. Will cell phone owners be allowed to receive an SMS from Ex Libris when they buy the next Madonna CD, inviting them to purchase the brand-new CD this way as well? Bamert is cautious: "The ideas are there. But we are very customer-oriented in this regard and don't want to overforce the possibilities that these addresses offer, just like those of our 120000 club members or the Cumulus addresses."
Of course, Distefora forbids its customers by contract to use the addresses for other direct marketing activities, and in Distefora's virtual SMS center these addresses are not made available to other customers either. So that it doesn't happen that an ex-Libris customer is suddenly prompted by SMS from competitor Directmedia to buy the new Madonna video.
Cumbersome voice shopping vs. fast SMS trading
For Michael Kägi, m-commerce already has a future because shopping via cell phone in the classic conversation is too cumbersome and too time-consuming. In addition, the provider has to set up an infrastructure that is much more expensive (call center) than Distefora's software solution.
That's why he considers mobile advertising and m-commerce "an ideal 1-to-1 marketing tool" because the customer's response is in real time, because a database can be built up, and because accurate statistics are available.
Thus, Ex Libris - on the day of the announcement of the code word and the SMS number via advertisements and also via an interview by Peter Bamert on Ra-.
dio 24 - thousand copies of the CD sold. But not every product is suitable for this. "The ideal products for m-commerce are roughly the same as those that have already been successful in e-commerce: CDs, DVD movies, tickets, in other words, products where you know exactly what you're buying," Kägi says. Collective orders don't work.
On the other hand, the HTL graduate engineer can well imagine a customer logging on to a tour operator's homepage, for example, and asking for a specific last-minute offer, which can then be transmitted to him by cell phone so that he can book the appropriate offer by SMS confirmation.
Still on the young
restricted offers
M-commerce is currently limited to the target group of 14- to 29-year-olds, as this group has been quickest to adopt the new means of communication SMS and is also the most adept at using it - at least that is what previous offers to shop via SMS indicate.
But Kägi can imagine SMS offering even more services. "Wireless will increasingly intervene in marketing," he is convinced. For example, Kägi can imagine Nike sponsoring a slogan when cell phone customers check the latest sports results. Tourist resorts could offer cell phone owners the latest info as soon as they get close to the resort with their phone - which already happens today when you get on the network of TIM, the Italian GSM network operator, off Como.

In addition, Robert Kämpf will take over the sports magazine's advertising sales team as area sales manager on February 12. Kämpf previously worked in Key Account at AZ Media in Baden.
Christian König, CEO of Farner PR in Zurich, has become the first Swiss member of the Executive Committee of the International Communications Consultancies Organization (ICCO). The international PR association was founded in 1991 as the International Committee of Public Relations Consultancies Associations (ICO) and has now taken on a new name. The ICCO represents over 1000 agencies from 23 countries.
Joachim Tillessen will become General Manager Media at the Biel-based printing and publishing house W. Gassmann AG at the beginning of May. He succeeds Christoph Gebel, who is moving to DRS 1 as program director. Tillessen was most recently Vice Director and Publishing Director at Vogt-Schild/Habegger in Solothurn and Vice President at Radio 32.
Ralph Hermann, previously Head of Communications at the Tages-Anzeiger, will take over the management and consultancy management of Weber Hodel Schmid, Zurich, in June 2001. As announced, Yvonne Hodel will retire from the Board of Directors when he joins the company. Hermann will manage WHS Zurich together with Reinhold Weber. He replaces Urs Läubli, who is moving to a communications consultancy firm as a partner.
The online marketer Banner.ch AG will be strengthened by Adrian Albrecht as Head of Marketing from February 2001. The prospective federally certified head of marketing communications has worked for the last two years as marketing project manager for corporate clients of UBS.

Tomorrow, Friday, February 9, the cards will allegedly be reshuffled "in the Swiss marketing communications industry". This was announced by the PR agency Dr. Peter P. Knobel AG in an invitation to a press conference to be held at 10.30 a.m. at the Hotel Schweizerhof in Zurich. It was supplemented with the information that the two companies will become "the largest communications group in Switzerland". Knobel added that this superlative refers to both the budget and personnel areas. The merger would also be "relevant to the stock market". Publigroupe, currently the largest Swiss communications group with a turnover of two billion Swiss francs, claims not to know anything (mk).

Mark Stahel, overall creative director, on the changes at Lowe Lintas GGKNot long after the merger of Lowe and Lintas, Martin Denecke handed over his CEO role to Kurt Schmid and Mark Stahel took over the overall creative direction of the agency. Peter Bächtiger was also appointed as a new member of the management team. But Mark Stahel is convinced that everything will remain the same: how have your clients reacted to Martin Denecke's resignation?
Mark Stahel: The customers have absolutely no problem with the change and partial replacement of our agency management. Martin Denecke has not actually resigned, but simply wants to concentrate more on his work on the Board of Directors and customer care. He is still heavily involved with Möbel Pfister and Rivella, for example. Martin Denecke will also remain Creative Director on these accounts. He will retain the key positions he previously held.
Why is he cutting back?
Stahel: Martin Denecke brought me to GGK Basel in 1990 after Reini Weber had left. In those eleven years, he led the agency to where we are today. It's understandable that he now wants to shift down a gear.
What hierarchical shifts in weight have occurred?
Stahel: The new Executive Board once again consists of four partners, each of whom takes on management responsibility. With Kurt Schmid, we have a new CEO who knows how to assert his interests. Daniel Keller, who holds the position of Agency Manager, is an excellent advisor, Peter Bächtiger manages the finances and I have overall creative responsibility. If I am absent, Alfi Burkhard is responsible. He has worked at GGK, Lowe|GGK and Lowe Lintas GGK for over 20 years.
How did the merger of Lowe and Lintas affect the mood in the agency?
Stahel: There was never a feeling that there was a new master in the house. Lowe will continue to be in charge of operations in the future: "We offer our usual high quality, which is based on a sound strategic idea and advice. Lowe brings creative power to this combination. It has just been voted agency of the year in England. Lintas has more consulting know-how. Only initially did it appear to be a slight disadvantage internally that the name Lintas does not have a good creative image in Switzerland.
Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed?
Stahel: No. The overall responsibility is not entirely new to me. I've already had very close contact with all the people involved in creation. The fact that we let people talk to us is something that sets us apart, but there is a point at which you shouldn't compromise in the interests of the cause. I want to push the single minded idea more and harder.
Lowe Lintas GGK is ranked eighth in the creative ranking of Swiss agencies. Why are you not ranked higher?
Stahel: I'm not satisfied with this position. Third, second or first place is the goal. However, I'm not so much aiming to improve our position in the creative ranking by winning awards with strong subjects for small, quirky snowboard stores in Tiefenbrunnen, but I want to realize this project with our big customers. I'm a creative - if we don't win any more prizes at the ADC, I might as well go and work as a waiter.
Clients such as Credit Suisse and Sunrise, for example, are looked after carefully. How do you assess the risk of becoming a consulting agency?
Stahel: An important part of our work is to create advertising that is based on a supporting idea. Especially with clients like Credit Suisse or Sunrise, you can only achieve something with strategically sound work. We've learned that although you don't usually win ADC awards with the right campaigns, you can still be extremely successful.
Will Sunrise jump ship after the merger with Diax?
Stahel: I hope not, but rather that our expertise will continue to be in demand. Of course we are delighted that the name Sunrise has won the race. We are looking forward to seeing what the Sunrise communications department decides in the coming weeks.
Interview: Ernst Weber

TV Director Peter Schellenberg would like to realize a daily soap for young peoplePeter Schellenberg, Director of SF DRS, is still firmly opposed to "Big Brother", but is happy to allow commercial broadcasters to supplement the public service. The 1.5 market share points that SF 1 has lost to the private broadcasters is a hefty loss. How much market share do you actually want to give up to the commercial channels in future?
Peter Schellenberg: It's 1.1 percent, because we make one program on two channels, and SF 2 has made up for part of the decline in SF 1. I assume that part of this loss is due to "Big Brother" and other voyeuristic formats. But they will lose power and go under. And as soon as that happens, we could see a stabilization in market share. Because the commercials have no replacement for "Big Brother".
How much longer do you give the new formats?
Schellenberg: The decline is already becoming apparent - most recently with "Girls Camp", but also with other "Big Brother" copies. They are not successful enough. This also has to do with the central characteristic of these formats, voyeurism. It only works as long as you haven't seen enough of something. But if you have seen something a hundred times, you can no longer use it for voyeurism. It's exactly the same with breaking taboos. Once a taboo has been broken, it is no longer a taboo. And this is exactly where the weaknesses of these programs lie.
But TV 3 has at least managed to be successful with teenagers and young adults. A target group that is under-represented on SF DRS and for which an offensive is actually called for. What are you planning in this direction?
Schellenberg: With "Nickelodeon", we are among the top three channels in the relevant target group, with a very small gap to the two leaders. So we are right there with them. However, we do have a problem in terms of our appeal to young viewers. After all, young people want one thing above all: American series and feature films.
And why can't SF DRS keep up?
Schellenberg: Because of the first broadcasting rights. We'll never have them because they're far too expensive for us. We're at a huge market disadvantage compared to the German TV billionaires, and I don't see how we can get them.
could make up for that. Another way to be successful with young people would of course be a daily soap. That would be a huge success. But we'll never be able to afford a daily soap, we're simply too small for that. That's the point where the German channels will always be superior to us. That's why I don't see our really big competition coming from Switzerland, but from the TV billionaires in Germany. We have to hold our own against them. We need the Swiss commercials to complement the public service.
Let's stay with the public service: What are the trump cards with the coveted young audience?
Schellenberg: We play them every day, but in a slightly different way to the commercials. It's not always about high viewer numbers. That's why we deliberately include some information in the show "Oops". Nobody would do that with the commercials, you can't get a big audience with that. But information is part of our mission, even with young people. That's why we will continue to do this. At the same time, of course, we are constantly putting out feelers for new programs. But that's nothing new. Our children and youth department is constantly thinking about optimizations and new programmes. That's part of their job.
And will formats such as "Big Brother" and co. not be available on SF DRS for ever? The young audience that likes to watch them is already a large part of the fee payers. And the interests of fee-payers should be taken into account by the program managers in accordance with their mandate. Why doesn't this apply to "Big Brother" and co.
Schellenberg: This is a question of ethics and responsibility. The statement that the participants in "Big Brother" take part voluntarily is not nearly enough. The broadcaster is responsible for what happens in its programs. This has been established by the Federal Supreme Court and applies to every medium. In such voyeuristic programs, things can happen that will cause damage to the people involved that they have no idea about today. We want to be able to assess the impact of TV. And sometimes you have to protect people from themselves.
Interview: Daniel Schifferle