Swiss campaigns picked up prizes and final places at the New York FestivalBy Thérèse BalduzziWith one gold, two silver, four bronze prizes and six finalists, Swiss agencies were well represented at the New York Festival by international standards. As the awards show is the last of the annual awards series, there were no surprises.
Honegger von Matt received gold for Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness (AME) for the Ikea campaign "Don't be a snob". AME silver went to McCann-Erickson, Geneva, for the Martini Vermouth campaign "Drinking Page". In the same category, the Zurich branch of this agency was awarded bronze for its work for Forbo-Teppichwerke.
In the TV and Cinema Advertising category, Advico Young & Rubicam, Zurich, won silver for the Kuoni "Airport/ Car/Bike" spots and bronze for the "Borders/SOS" public service announcement (PSA) for Médecins sans Frontières. The two PSAs from McCann-Erickson, Zurich, "Sound of Nature" (Tetrapak) and "Police Control", were each awarded bronze.
Five other Swiss entries were honored with a Finalist Certificate in the International Television and Cinema Advertising Award category: Honegger von Matt for Ikea ("Save Money") and for Cablecom ("Hispeed: Skilift/Bed"), Matter & Partner for Wernli ("Vollbremsung/Einkaufswagen"), Advico Young & Rubicam, Zurich, for Milch/SMP ("Apollo") and McCann-Erickson, Zurich, for Credit Suisse ("Lifecycle"). Finally, the Swiss finalist for the DMD was McCann-Erickson, Geneva, for the ICRC poster "Stop Landmines".
Because the New York Festival lags behind the award shows, numerous prizes went to the "Usual Suspects" who had already been crowned at other competitions.
For the second year running, the main winner of the AME was McCann-Erickson Worldwide with a total of ten gold awards, followed by BBDO, DDB and Young & Rubicam with two gold medals each.
"Whassup Wasabi" from the Budweiser campaign "Whassup" by DDB Chicago was voted Best Commercial. The series of commercials for Amazon.com by Headquarters New York, in which an a cappella male choir sings about the benefits of online shopping, was named Best Campaign. Best of Show awards also went to Independent from Los Angeles for their Pacific Bell campaign and for the public service campaign "Mr. Parkinson" by McCann-Erickson in Milan. Of the numerous award-winning McCann-Erickson campaigns, the "Priceless" campaign for Mastercard and "Could you please explain that Spray and Internet Thing?" by Storakers in Stockholm for the Internet portal "Spray" were also honored with AME Grand Prizes. The prizes were awarded by an international jury from a total of 13,000 entries from 54 countries.
The UN presented awards for public service
At the simultaneous United Nations Awards for Public Service Campaigns, the spots by TBWA/Campaign Company in Amsterdam for the Dutch Refugee Foundation were honored with gold. Saatchi & Saatchi, Makati City (Philippines), received the silver award for "Package", a spot for the organization Gabriela, which helps victims of the sex industry. BBDO/Guerro Ortega, also from Makati City, received bronze for a print campaign against violence against women.
Main winner of the TV and Cinema Advertising Award:

BBDO: a total of six gold awards. BBDO New York: four gold awards, one each for Federal Express, M&M's, Mountain Dew and Ft.com (Financial Times). CLM/BBDO France: two gold awards, once for Pepsi, once for Brandt.
McCann-Erickson: a total of three gold awards. McCann-Erickson, London: two golds, one for Bacardi, one for Camel. McCann-Erickson Spa, Italy: one gold for the Italian Parkinson's Association.
Ogilvy & Mather: a total of three gold awards. Ogilvy & Mather, Frankfurt: two golds, one for SWR, one for Kondomshop-fun.de, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, Hong Kong: one gold for Clarion Capital Group.
Young & Rubicam: a total of three gold awards. Young & Rubicam, Chicago: once for H&R Block/Tax Services. Young & Rubicam, Mexico: once for Mistreating of the Old People. Young & Rubicam, Peru: Life Style Condoms.

A representative survey conducted by Forum Corporate Publishing. (CP) of around 40 CP service providers in German-speaking countries has revealed that more than 83 percent of respondents rate the general development of the CP market as "good" to "very good". General growth of 10 to 20 percent was calculated. Almost a fifth of the companies even anticipate growth of 50 percent. A good two thirds of those surveyed expect both the print and new media sectors to have strong growth potential in the future. Only 14 percent of corporate publishing service providers believe that the print sector has greater growth opportunities. As many as 19 percent see the increase in growth only in the new media sector. A clear 63 percent of respondents predict a 10 to 20 percent shift in sales potential towards the Internet/intranet. 48 percent forecast the development in the Internet sector for 2001 as "very good" to "good".
Stable whispers from the Federal Court.
The Federal Supreme Court has muzzled the Swiss people's favorite farm animal. Nevertheless, the Swiss dairy cows under Lovely's herd management do not want to silence their mooing. "Lovely may continue to advertise strong bones", was the message in full-page advertisements in the Sunday press at the weekend. Anyone who dialed the attached number 0800 80 55 80 was told over the phone, alongside much mooing and advertising growling, that the Swiss dairy cows were "surprised and disappointed" by the Federal Court's muzzle. The fourth Federal Nutrition Report expressly states that calcium prevents "bone fragility in old age". And it is precisely this calcium that is also contained in milk. The agency responsible, Advico Young & Rubicam, therefore wanted to do the cows justice once again with this advertisement. The dairy cattle should not be incited to demonstrate in Lausanne until the written reasons for the judgment are available. However, after many milk drinkers and other ethno-animal lovers contacted Lovely's advertising breeders to say that they were sad about Lovely's provisional emergency slaughter, the agency wanted to correct the press reports that had been misunderstood by many. "Lovely may continue to advertise for milk. We have only been forced to make a few changes to the wording," says CD Peter Brönnimann, explaining the somewhat milky reasoning of the Federal Court's stable order. For the time being, Lovely will be spared an end as carcass meal in the feeding troughs of her fellow cows.
Condor is more successful than you might think.
If you look at the ADC medal table, the production company Condor can be pleased to have won an award at this year's judging. In fact, Condor has even more reason to celebrate: the ADC evaluation only shows those companies as winners that actually submitted the award-winning work. Condor productions were also submitted by the agencies that commissioned them. In total, Condor won two silver and three bronze awards, as Martin Fueter, member of the Executive Board, told WerbeWoche. "With 5 out of 20 awards in category 6, we have really made a splash," said Fueter.
Pucci Sulzer becomes a member of BSW.
The Association of Swiss Advertising Agencies (BSW) has accepted Pucci Sulzer as a new member. Pucci Sulzer Werbeagentur AG was founded in 1985 and is owned by Giovanni Pucci, Daniel Sulzer and René Zbinden. Pucci Sulzer employs 15 people. Important clients include Bauknecht, Ericsson, Lancia, Freixenet, Assugrin, Migros and the Raiffeisen banks.
Self-promotion with service area.
The Velvet agency does not present itself in its annual self-advertisement. Instead, the Lucerne-based advertising agency edits an "everyday mirror" that is created during a project trip by the nine-strong team. Entitled "Autogrill", the latest travel report describes impressions of 24 hours at a highway service station near Piacenza. "We realized that this type of self-promotion is a better door opener than the conventional agency portrait," says designer Peter Moser. "Autogrill" is 140 pages long, with texts by Beat Bieri to liven up the illustrated book, which is also available in bookshops.
Anti-violence campaign? No, thank you.
At the beginning of August, Kommunikationsverband.de called on advertisers to develop design proposals for campaigns against "violence from the right". Ten agencies took part. The media were less enthusiastic. Jochen Pläcking, CEO of DDB Worldwide and spokesman for the communications association, asked around 150 publishers, editors-in-chief, publishing and advertising managers to print the subjects free of charge. "Unfortunately, we received a large number of refusals in response, mostly in connection with the reference to the journalistic support given to this topic," regrets Pläcking.
Alli wänds Heidi.
On February 14, the world premiere of the new "Heidi" film by Zurich-based Vega-Film will be screened at the Berlinale. For Graubünden-Ferien, the event also marks the start of a comprehensive MyHeidi advertising project. The first activity will be a Heidi stand at the Basel Holiday Fair from February 9 - 11.
Basel is world-class.
The book "Weltformat" by Charles Stirnimann and Rolf Thalmann shows Basel's contemporary history in posters. The birth of the modern political poster in Switzerland was the first proportional election to the National Council in 1919. Since then, the poster has become an indispensable advertising medium for political campaigns. The poster book on the history of Basel and Switzerland in the 20th century with around 200 illustrations has been published by Christoph Merian Verlag.
Editorial: The ADC steps up the offensive
The Art Directors Club Switzerland turned 25 years old and is more active than ever. While in the early days it was largely kept out of the public eye, today it cannot complain about a lack of attention. The club celebrated its 25th anniversary with a lavish gala attended by numerous representatives from the worlds of business, politics and culture. The media reported extensively on the event. To mark the anniversary, WerbeWoche spoke to ADC President Jean Etienne Aebi about the true capital of advertising and the enemies of good advertising (see page 37).
The ADC's mission has remained the same over the years: to improve advertising. Today, the doyen of the Swiss advertising industry can say without false pride that the ADC embodies the recognized authority for creative quality in our country. And that needs
today more urgently than ever. Refusal to buy because of bad advertising is a reality today. In the consumer democracy, many products are no longer asked for when advertising
bores people, insults them or even takes them for fools. The price
for attention has also risen massively because information oversaturation and sensory overload have raised the perception threshold. Less and less impact costs more and more money. Mass alone cannot do much to change this. The sheer quantity and volume of advertising can even have a counterproductive effect. "The more creative, the more effective? Advertising as added or reduced value for brands" is the motto of an event that the ADC will be holding next May - to show that creative advertising also has an impact on the market. Also in May, the ADC will publish a research study to show how its concerns are perceived by customers. The study is sponsored by the market research institute IHA-GfM and WerbeWoche. We will inform you of the results as soon as they are available.
Samuel Helbling

The American portal operator Yahoo.com wants to win over the Swiss Internet advertising market with its own sales office on Wildbachstrasse in Zurich's Seefeld district. Sales Manager Thomas Hanan will be in charge, supported by Sales Coordinator Maja Kazmierczyk. Both previously worked for the online marketer Real Media, which previously also counted Yahoo among its clients. Thomas Hanan wants to make Yahoo appealing to Swiss customers with its large audience and highly developed tools. Among other things, these allow Swiss banners to be displayed on foreign homepages as soon as the user is recognized as Swiss. Hanan wants to serve both agencies and direct customers (ba).

In addition, the Baden-based communications agency Mach AG has welcomed Roman Hofer, a member of its executive board, as a new shareholder. Since the beginning of the year, Art Director Hofer has been a partner with an equity stake in Mach.
After 15 years with the company, Georges Meier is retiring as the agency director of Publicitas Schwyz. He will be succeeded by Pascal Kaiser, who has been with the company since last fall.
Starting in April, Heinz Müller will take over as head of corporate communications at the Hilti Group in Schaan, Liechtenstein. Müller previously served as head of communications at Swissmem, the employers' association for the Swiss machinery, electrical, and metal industries.
Marcel Bolli, Head of Corporate Communications at the Mövenpick restaurant group in Adliswil, will leave the company in March at his own request. His successor will be Lilly Frei, who will assume the role of Mövenpick’s press spokesperson full-time starting in March.
The designated successor
by Hanspeter Marti, legal advisor to the Swiss Industry Association
Werbung (SW) is the name of Marc Schwenninger. He holds a doctorate in law and is an attorney at the Zurich law firm Walder Wyss & Partner.

(Almost) everything is new at the French publishing house Edipresse in MayBy Christophe BüchiAfter a long period of back and forth, Edipresse is taking the big step: from May 8, Le Matin will come to readers on weekdays in tabloid format. The Sunday edition of Le Matin-Dimanche will become partially independent, but will retain its old format.
The soft tabloid Le Matin, which grew out of the former Tribune de Lausanne, is a peculiar hybrid. On weekdays, it appears as a regional language morning newspaper with a circulation of a good 66,000 copies, competing in part with the Edipresse newspapers 24 Heures and Tribune de Genève. On Sunday, on the other hand, LeMatin-Dimanche is the lone leader on the French-speaking market. Its monopoly has only been marginally challenged by the new Ringier paper dimanche.ch. Its circulation exceeds 220000 copies on the day of the Lord, giving the newspaper a fabulous reach of 603000 readers - and this in a market with just over twice the population.
Le Matin not only has two souls in its chest, but also two very different balance sheets. The Sunday edition is the real "cash cow" in the Edipresse stable and is likely to bring in tens of millions in profits. On weekdays, on the other hand, Le Matin is below the waterline. However, it is not possible to determine this precisely, as Le Matin and LeMatin-Dimanche are not separate profit centers and the costs are borne jointly. Nevertheless, the weekday edition is actually cross-subsidized by the Sunday edition. This is why French media insiders regularly circulate the rumor that the weekday edition will be discontinued. But Edipresse has still backed away from this step, convinced that it would also reduce the profitability of the Sunday edition.
Resistance in the editorial team to the new format
After a long period of hesitation, Edipresse managers have now decided to make a fresh start at Le Matin. Publishing director Théo Bouchat had been known for some time that he wanted a transition to the tabloid format. However, the final decision was constantly postponed. This was because the new Le Matin editor-in-chief, Daniel Pillard, a doer who was lured away from the top of Ringier's L'Illustré magazine last year, was struggling with an actual editorial front until Christmas, which almost cost him his neck and his job.
Obviously, the old "Le Matin bunnies" feared a radical tabloidization of the paper. Group dynamics also seem to have played a role. Pillard, like Bouchat and 24 Heures editor-in-chief Jacques Poget, comes from Ringier. However, "foreign fools" have a hard time in the hothouse climate of Edipresse: Bouchat's predecessor Jacques Pilet, who was ousted after only a short stint as Edipresse publishing director, already had to learn this.
But now the storm is over. As Le Matin editor-in-chief Pillard confirmed to WerbeWoche, it is certain that Le Matin will be published in tabloid format from May 8. Details of the new layout are still being kept secret. Although several pilot issues have already been produced, the first step is to fine-tune the layout before informing customers and the media. However, the direction is clear for Pillard: Le Matin is to become fresher, bolder and more urban.
In addition, research and writing will be more hands-on in future. The halved format also forces greater concentration and focus. When asked whether the editorial team is now behind the new concept, Pillard assures: "Definitely. The conflicts we had were not about the concept, but about my management methods. Many editors basically didn't want a real boss, but wanted to continue to do as they pleased."
Are commuter newspapers being slowed down?
The transition to the tabloid format is therefore tantamount to a liberating blow that should shake up the editorial team and the outside world in equal measure. However, Bouchat and Pillard are also likely to have closely followed the experiences of the Swiss-German commuter newspapers.
The new, handy format is intended to ensure that such competitors do not even appear on the scene. The only question is how the more conservative French-speaking media consumers will react to this little revolution from Edipresse. After all, they are already familiar with the tabloid format from the weekly newspapers Coopération (Coop) and Construire (Migros).
Edipresse, on the other hand, has no plans for a radical revolution on Sunday: Le Matin-Dimanche will continue to be published in its traditional newspaper format. However, a renovated layout of the Sunday edition has been announced for May 13. It will also have its own editorial team, which will be headed by Michel Zendali from April.
The "Pilet-Boy" (Zendali on Zendali) is a political journalist with no fear of the tabloids, who earned his spurs at Le Nouveau Quotidien and L'Hebdo. As head of his own team, Zendali has the opportunity to give Le Matin-Dimanche its own corporate culture with a weekly newspaper identity. But Zendali is subordinate to Pillard: The separation between weekday and Sunday editions thus goes less far at Le Matin than at Blick/SonntagsBlick and Tages-Anzeiger/SonntagsZeitung.
As you can see: If there is to be a revolution, then Edipresse wants a revolution without bloodshed on Sunday. The Lamunière Group's already legendary mistrust of overly radical changes is understandable: Le Matin-Dimanche is so successful that they think twice before changing anything.

Gross advertising expenditure in 2000 (CHF 3.999 billion) increased by 9.8 percent or CHF 356 million compared to 1999, which was significantly less than estimated: Media Focus had forecast growth of 15 percent. However, a weak 4th quarter, in particular a poor December, destroyed this expectation. 2000 nevertheless brought extraordinary growth rates for some media. Daily newspapers increased by 6.6 percent or CHF 109 million. Consumer magazines did even better with an increase of 8.8 percent or 57 million francs. The top result was achieved by trade journals with an additional 19 percent or 40 million francs in gross advertising expenditure.
Television saw below-average growth (plus 7.5 percent or around CHF 45 million). By contrast, 2000 was a record year for radio (up 19.4 percent or CHF 22 million). Cinema was the only media category to end the year 2000 with a loss (minus 7.9 percent or CHF 3.3 million). Teletext, however, recorded a pleasing increase (plus 10 percent or CHF 2 million). Poster advertising recorded a top result with an increase of 15.1 percent or around CHF 53 million. Internet advertising, which was surveyed for the first time in 2000, reached a gross figure of CHF 31.4 million.
For the current year, Media Focus expects significantly lower growth in gross advertising expenditure than in the previous year.
Daniel Schifferle
Gross advertising expenditure by media

1999/2000 in comparison
in 1000 Fr. 1999 in 1000 Fr. 2000 +/- %
Daily newspapers 1 654 448 1 763 802 6.6
Publications 645 345 702 122 8.8
Trade journals 212 212 252 438 19.0
TV 604 681 649 843 7.5
Radio 113 068 134 982 19.4
Cinema 41 948 38 643 - 7.9
Teletext 20 158 22 173 10.0
Poster 351 480 404 380 15.1
Internet Banner - 31 438 -
Total 3 643 340 3 999 821 9.8
Source: Media Focus Hergiswil (NW)

On January 30, Spok, the school for practice-oriented communication, concluded the second Media-Basic course with a graduation ceremony. Out of 16 candidates, 13 received their diplomas from the Spok Media Academy. The best results were achieved by Brigitte Ablasser (Real Media AG), Beatrice Mätzener (Basler Versicherungen), Daniella Schori (Canon Schweiz AG) and Lucrezia Seiler (Cinecom & Media AG) The next course starts in September 2001 and, according to Ronny Schmid, the new Spok Managing Director, is to be deepened and expanded in order to meet the requirements of contemporary media training even better. According to Schmid, he is sensing a growing interest in media training, but still only wants to offer one course per session. In addition to the Media Basic course, Spok will offer the Media Expert course from 2002, which is intended to be equivalent to the Head of Marketing Communication course in the media sector. (ba)

Neither the SRG nor the Uvek know what the future holds for digital radioAround nine months ago, the SRG halted the expansion of digital radio, just six months after its launch. "Only the further expansion, but not the operation of DAB, has been suspended," clarifies Hans Strassmann, Head of Technology and IT at SRG, which means that SRG currently broadcasts up to nine channels digitally per language region (sometimes in parallel with FM), but hardly anyone is listening. Contrary to original plans, digital broadcasting (DAB) is not yet available in Ticino (see map). The situation is different in western and German-speaking Switzerland: Drivers between Geneva and Winterthur could listen to SRG programs almost continuously via DAB - but hardly anyone owns a DAB receiver. There are currently just under 2000 DAB receivers in circulation in Switzerland. The reason: the devices are expensive (around 1,000 francs) and user-unfriendly, which has so far prevented DAB from making a breakthrough.
When SRG began investing CHF 40 million in the development of a DAB transmitter network in the fall of 1999, it was assumed that the equipment industry would make faster progress in the development of simpler and cheaper devices. But DVD and mobile telephony took priority.
The SRG therefore suspended the DAB expansion last spring. Although the Department of the Environment, Transport and Communications (Uvek) accepted this decision, it wants to know soon what will happen next. However, Strassmann also has to make do despite constant contact with the equipment industry, but says: "We have full confidence in DAB."
However, it is not only SRG, but also around a dozen private projects from Radio 24plus to Eviva and Radio 105 to Aldente that are waiting for DAB. According to the Uvek plans, the SRG should play DAB locomotive in terms of technology and communication and let the private broadcasters jump on the bandwagon from 2003.
However, SRG is not fulfilling this mandate. In addition, there are already too few DAB frequencies available for a total of around 20 projects. According to Strassmann, it will not be possible to negotiate whether there will be more until 2003 at an international "wave conference". Definitive decisions are not expected until 2005 at the earliest... Markus Knöpfli

AY&R wins the only award for Switzerland at the Eurobest awardsThe agency Advico Young & Rubicam is currently celebrating success after success. After its Kuoni campaign won gold at the 25th ADC Switzerland a week ago, it was the only Swiss work to triumph at London's trendy The Brewery on February 2. There it received one of the coveted Eurobest Trophies from the 20-strong international jury. The tour operator Kuoni replaced the legendary dairy cow Lovely, which also comes from Gockhausen. With the award in the outdoor advertising category, AY&R achieved an extraordinary hat-trick by Swiss standards.
Overall, Advertising Switzerland, which was represented on the jury by Creative Director Jeremy Rawle (Euro RSCG Switzerland), did quite well: one in ten of the 315 entries (68 more than last year) made it onto the shortlist. However, only eight of the 21 Swiss agencies that submitted advertising works made it to the final round.
In addition to AY&R, which was honored as a finalist with Kuoni, Hakle, SMP, Flims Laax Falera and SonntagsZeitung, the same list also included the following: Publicis with Sportplausch Wider, Die Mobiliar and the Yellow Pages, McCann-Erickson with work for Suva and SBB, Guye & Partner for Crodino, Lesch + Frei for Jäggi Bücher, Wirz for Hiltl and IWC, Lowe Lintas GGK for Canon and Honegger von Matt for Zelo Hairstylist.
The fact that the European advertising awards are gaining in reputation and renown is demonstrated by the high number of entrants (370) and entries, which once again rose sharply - by 289 to 4430 submissions. With 14 awards, the host country Great Britain was once again able to pat itself on the back as the most creative country. They were followed by Spain and France, with the outstanding skill and accuracy of the Anglo-Saxons once again clearly standing out.
Compared to the runners-up, they won twice as many awards - 14 out of 39 - with only half as many entries (256). With work for Bic (TV/Cinema) and Sony (Print), the French BDDP/TBWA, Boulogne-Billancourt, scooped two Grands Prix. In the outdoor advertising category, the Grand Prix went to the Spanish DDB office, Barcelona, which also advertises for Sony. Luca Aloisi

Pedro Simko wants to merge his Zurich branch with a partner agency. Negotiations are underway, the Geneva-based advertiser announced. Simko cited the growth of his agency as the reason for the planned merger. As a result, he is no longer in a position to manage both branches himself. Simko, Zurich, is likely to give up its own headquarters and be integrated into the partner. Following the departures of CD Alain Picard in September and Managing Director Gioia Bozzato in November, Simko, Zurich, is obviously short of staff (sm).

Interview with AME Gold winner Daniel Meier, Creative Director Honegger von MattAggressive price advertising is hardly worthwhile in Switzerland. This is one of the reasons why Honegger von Matt opted for the anti-snob appeal in the snob campaign for the furniture store Ikea. This is better received in Switzerland, as he explains to WerbeWoche.the "Don't be a snob" campaign has struck a nerve in Switzerland. How was the idea for the campaign developed?
Daniel Meier: Peter Keerberg joined Ikea Switzerland a year and a half ago. Together with him, we researched what the biggest obstacle to growth was for Ikea in Switzerland. It quickly became clear that quality was what most people criticized about Ikea. In further research, however, we found that it was less about purely material quality, but that quality is mostly associated with prestige and status. For example, a Rolex is considered to be of higher quality than a Swatch, even though the Swatch is more accurate. The same applies to Mercedes, even though Japanese cars perform better in the breakdown statistics. This gave rise to the Snob campaign. We wanted to show that the pretext of quality is mostly about prestige, and take this attitude ad absurdum.
What you were successful with ...
Meier: What was surprising was that the campaign made waves very quickly. We then also did a few things in the area of guerrilla marketing, such as setting up the website where you could test whether you were a snob. Almost everyone is a snob in one way or another. This allowed us to make the topic topical in socio-political terms. In a second phase, we targeted snobbish behavior in a more subtle way. The commercials were recognized extremely quickly. At the same time, a lot has also happened at Ikea. That's also the reason for this award. For the AME, you also have to enter the figures for measurable success. Visitor numbers have developed positively and tests have shown that Ikea has become significantly better known compared to the furniture market as a whole. According to the studies, the image of quality has also increased.
How was the collaboration with the customer?
Meier: The customer played a major role because he had the courage to advertise unconventionally. Keerberg also takes a very analytical approach to everything. Ikea also always had the bigger goal in mind. Although Ikea is considered to be very price-aggressive, we never mentioned prices in all our communication. That has now paid off. Perhaps Switzerland is also a special case; overly aggressive price advertising is more promising in other markets than here.
What does it mean to you to have won this award?
Meier: Firstly, it's a special collaboration with Ikea, which is actually the ideal case for us in terms of how we like to work with customers. It was intensive teamwork. Other customers give you a briefing and then you turn up a little later with a solution that they say yes or no to. However, we had many meetings and worked out the solution together. This is ultimately more successful because everyone is behind it. At the very beginning, we also experienced headwinds, objections that we couldn't do this, that there were many wealthy people in Switzerland who could be offended. But then you can't get nervous and you have to have the courage to stir up emotions. Seen in this light, this award really means a lot to us. It's a nice confirmation that we were right.
Interview: Thérèse Balduzzi

Ringier provides media data on the netThe information that Ringier previously presented in its enduring advertising primer is now also available via the Internet platform www.go4media.ch. In addition to a clearly structured documentation of all titles published by Ringier, all important key figures on the Swiss advertising market are also listed: from the current range of all important advertising media to the population structure and the development of advertising expenditure. www. go4media.ch is available in German, French and English.
Metro also in Paris from March The free newspaper Metro will also have an edition in the French metropolis of Paris from March. The Swedish media group Modern Times Group had wanted to launch the commuter newspaper in the capital earlier. However, the Paris city council had not yet decided on the installation of distribution boxes on the sidewalks. Another project for a free newspaper in Paris comes from the Italian press group Poligrafici Editoriale, which recently took over the Paris daily France Soir.
Jewish newspapers mergeThe Israelitisches Wochenblatt and the Jüdische Rundschau are merged. The publishers of the two papers, Verlag Manfred Marx AG (a subsidiary of the Basler Mediengruppe) and Jüdische Rundschau Medien AG, have founded Jüdische Medien AG for this purpose. BMG CEO Matthias Hagemann and Esther Girsberger are among the members of the board of directors. The new weekly magazine called Tachles (from the Hebrew word for goal or purpose) will be headed by the former Rundschau editor-in-chief Yves Kugelmann. Peter Bollag, former head of the Wochenblatt editorial department, has to take his hat off. Tachles is produced in Zurich and printed by Birkhäuser + CBC in Reinach BL.
Ringier sells MEX to Factum
Zurich-based Factum AG and Ringier AG signed an agreement last Friday under which the youth magazine MEX Musenalp Express will be sold to Factum with immediate effect. Factum is a direct marketing agency and has many years of publishing experience in Switzerland and abroad, according to Ringier. No details are yet known regarding future publication methods and distribution channels.
WEMF relaunches Net-AuditThe AG für Werbemittelforschung (Wemf) wants to relaunch its Internet measurement program Net-Audit. With Net-Audit, website operators install a program on their servers that measures the number of visitors. With this, Wemf wanted to provide reliable figures for the advertising industry. In the first attempt, however, the offer failed due to too few participants. In an interview with WerbeWoche, Wemf marketing manager Gabriela Eggstein attributed the low participation primarily to technical difficulties. Beta tests with improved software are now to start in April. According to Netzticker, Eggstein hopes that Wemf will be able to report traffic figures from 15 media platforms, as well as portals and other websites, in late summer. The goal, however, is to increase to 20 to 30 websites. At the end of 2000, only the NZZ and Pro 7 had their page impressions and visits certified by Wemf.
Mediantis sponsors "Big Brother "The Swiss Internet book and media retailer Mediantis.ch (formerly Buch.ch) becomes an online sponsor of "Big Brother" Switzerland. The partnership includes comprehensive online marketing activities. The voyeur show's site will feature favorite books, movies and music from all the container inmates, with a direct link to Mediantis. In addition, the bookseller presents a media selection recommended by him.