Jury President of the Audience Ads categoryWhat is so groundbreaking about the ads for Bilanz and Hakle "Waage" that they won gold? Both are very good ideas that were implemented very well.
How would you rate the level in your category?
Lanz: The standard was high. We were even able to turn two of the silver works into gold.
How is the quality of this advertising vintage in general?
Lanz: Generally speaking, not so outstanding. However, Advico had a very strong year.
What work could be done on
advertising festival in Cannes?
Lanz: In print, good image ideas have the best chances, such as the downhill-cross ads for Flims Laax Falera or the Superman poster for Arena Krafttraining.
What did you pay particular attention to during the evaluation?
Lanz: That there was no cheating.
The ADC is 25 years old: is that why you are setting the bar even higher than usual?
Lanz: It would be a shame if there was only an ADC booklet instead of an ADC book for the 25th anniversary.

Of course, Michel Bozikovic doesn't say no when someone wants to commission him to develop a print campaign, but the 29-year-old copywriter and musician opened the Arkanoela Records advertising and recording studio to be able to use his skills more holistically for the benefit of his clients. Bozikovic describes his service as an advertising studio that combines the classic assignment with all musical aspects of advertising, and the Zurich-based company, which was founded at the beginning of the year, offers the conception, copywriting and sound recording of auditory and audiovisual advertising media, including non-advertising productions, from a single source. In this constellation, the sound element becomes an integral component of the strategy and conception process. As the third major impact factor alongside language and image, it now perfects the identity and form of the object to be advertised into a vocal triad. Bozikovic, who studied philosophy and journalism after graduating in economics, also composes spot music and jingles and writes scripts.
The multi-talented musician began playing the violin at the age of five. Later, Bozikovic also learned the piano, guitar, bass and drums. He has performed with various bands and produced several demo CDs.
Before founding Arkanoela Records, the musical advertiser was a copywriter/concept developer at FCB Leutenegger Krüll, Studer & Zappe, Ogilvy & Mather and JWT + Hostettler + Fabrikant, among others. He currently works as a freelancer for agencies such as Fünf Freunde (ew).

Blick Online is driving forward the emancipation of the print editionBlick Online should no longer be just a copy of the print edition, but should make greater use of the opportunities offered by the Internet." This is how Andi Maerz, Head of E-Content at Ringier AG, commented on the new appearance of Blick Online. At the end of January, Switzerland's largest daily newspaper was given a new design on the Internet. From spring onwards, the content in the areas of news, sport, technology trends and entertainment will also be expanded.Maerz does not yet want to commit to whether visitors to the platform will then already be able to enjoy multimedia content such as RealVideo or RealAudio. On the one hand, this is a question of broadband penetration among users and, on the other, the price of hosting. "A RealVideo look girl, boy or couple is high up on my wish list," admits Maerz.
Until then, the Blick girl can be clicked through various poses. This generates additional page and ad impressions. Not least, these are intended to keep the cash register ringing, as the erotic section behind the homepage is one of the site's more popular offerings and one of the more expensive areas for online advertising.
Cashtv.ch and ZHOL.ch are also upgrading further: "Zürich Online will become more interactive in 2001," announced Urs Padel, Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of ZHOL, in December: With the online soap for dog Wwwaldo, the editorial team was already able to prepare for a more multimedia age in December. Christian Weishaupt

Ringier Print Zofingen has taken over the Zurich-based prepress company Specter and is integrating it into the Ringier PreMedia division. The name will remain the same.NewsRingier Print takes over Specter
Dieter Graf takes over as team leader, Marcel Bosshard remains responsible for production. Specter concentrates on media data preparation for advertising campaigns.
Tele 24 launches SMS contact showThe private broadcaster Tele 24 is launching the entertainment show "SMS - Ich liebe dich" (SMS - I love you) together with Swisscom Mobile and Nokia. The show, which is aimed at young people, will feature two male and two female singles who can be asked by viewers via SMS or even invited on a date. The results of these contacts are presented in the subsequent shows. "SMS - Ich liebe dich" will be broadcast for the first time on Thursday, February 1, at 6.30 pm.
Last subsidies for Toaster The youth magazine Toaster receives one last subsidy from the city of Zurich from the budget for socio-culture. The city council agreed to a compromise proposal - against the votes of the SVP - and approved CHF 250000 for 2001. The city council originally wanted to raise a total of CHF 8,200,000 over three years, which was rejected by the conservative side. The Toaster sees this subsidy as a start-up aid for private financing, which is to be managed with a program to increase efficiency and new cooperation partners. The plan is to add the youth magazine to other newspapers in addition to the Berner Zeitung. For Yellowworld, the Toaster provides six texts a day about the youth scene.
Bertelsmann acquires trade mediaAt the beginning of the year, BertelsmannSpringer took over Inufa Transportrundschau (ITR) and the Inufa catalog. The two publications were previously published by Vogt-Schild/Habegger. ITR was founded 20 years ago as an independent trade journal for commercial vehicles, road transport and logistics and has a monthly print run of over 7,000 copies. Verkehrsrundschau Schweiz, which BertelsmannSpringer launched a year ago, is to be editorially integrated into ITR. The annual Inufa catalog contains the technical data of all commercial vehicle models. It is published in a print run of 3000 copies.
More media ombudsmen neededThe Swiss press should set up more ombudsman offices. This was the conclusion reached by representatives of the Press Council and ombudsmen from print and electronic media at a discussion in Bern. Ombudsmen would make the media more credible. Switzerland plays a pioneering role in the establishment of media ombudsman offices in Europe: apart from the USA, no other country has already created so many offices. However, such offices are still lacking in important media houses and for many regions of the country (such as the Jura region, Valais, Espace Mittelland, north-western Switzerland, Aargau, Thurgau, Schaffhausen, south-eastern Switzerland).
Blick online in a new designSince Tuesday, the Blick website has had a new look. It now follows the standard design with a navigation column on the left, a wide text column with a white background in the middle and further links on the right. There have also been some changes to the content. News is now posted and updated around the clock. The erotic section has been expanded and will also feature an online guy for the well-known girl in the spring (see also page 17).
Bilanz acquires stake in InnonetWM Wirtschafts-Medien AG, publisher of the business magazine Bilanz, acquires a stake in Lucerne-based Innonet AG. This company operates an entrepreneur portal for e-business. The investment is intended to deepen the existing cooperation between Innonet and Bilanz. At the same time, the move serves to further expand WM into a multimedia business platform.

The merger of Sunrise and Diax claims a prominent victim: the Diax brand.The merger product TDC Switzerland wants to appear on the market only as Sunrise. Speculation that Diax would be used for mobile and Sunrise for the fixed network proved to be wrong. The changeover to the single name is planned for March 1. An advertising campaign adapted to the new circumstances is to be launched at the end of April. TDC communications chief Monika Walser could not tell WerbeWoche whether it will come from Sunrise agency Lowe Lintas GGK or Diax's Zurich-based McCann-Erickson, or whether it will have to be pitched. "It is too early to discuss agencies," she explained. Walser had come to TDC from Diax. (sm)

In addition, Philip Hofmann joined the TV 3 sales team as Key Account Manager on January 1. Hofmann was previously responsible for the marketing of print titles at Cinecom. Didier Peier has also had a new assistant in the marketing department since the beginning of the year: Simone Brunner.
The communications department of Swiss-Ski, the Swiss Ski Association, will be headed by Marc Wälti from April. He takes over from former deputy SDA editor-in-chief Jean-Raphael Fontannaz. Marc Wälti is currently a consultant at the Zurich agency Trimedia Communications.
On January 1, 2001, Fredy Pillinger becomes the new company manager of P+W Plakat+Werbe AG Zurich. Pillinger was previously head of sales at the St. Gallen branch and replaces Werner W. Friedli, who is retiring from the company.
The Bern office of online marketer Banner.ch, which opened at the beginning of January, is managed by Markus Meier. Meier was most recently Head of Internal Sales at Winter & Co. in Basel. Banner.ch wants to provide better support from Bern, particularly for customers in western Switzerland.
There have been changes at Swisscom's media office since the New Year. Pia Rogers replaces Renata Cosby as International Spokesperson. Christian Neuhaus is now responsible for Switzerland. He replaces Jacques Bettex.
On February 5, Stefan Howeg will take over as Head of Global Communications and Investor Relations at Ascom in Berne. Howeg was previously Head of Communications at Sunrise.

Marketing and planning must be separated, otherwise online advertising will remain a Wild West storyBy Thomas Brenzikofer and Clemens HörlerThe online advertising market is still small. This is why many media agencies leave online media planning to internet marketers. Some of them are accused of spending their budgets primarily on those sites that they themselves have under contract. This could damage the reputation of online advertisers.
"We seem to be begrudged our success," says Christoph Morach, Managing Director of Qualiclick Switzerland. This was prompted by accusations made by Martin Radelfinger, CEO of competitor AdLink Switzerland, in an interview with Netzwoche. Radelfinger accused Qualiclick of abusing its dual function as a media planner and website marketer to dominate the market: "Marketers like Qualiclick provide website operators with high guarantees and are then virtually forced to book the media budgets they manage on these sites. This makes neutral media planning impossible."
This is grist to the mill for Daniel Neukomm, Managing Director of online media agency Euromedia: "So-called marketers have to decide whether they want to do media planning or market websites. A hybrid solution is only a hindrance to the development of the Swiss online advertising market," he told WerbeWoche.
Gianni Abner BGMedia Internet, one of the first Internet departments in traditional media agencies, explains: "The fact that such a lack of transparency has arisen is due to the fact that the media agencies only became involved with online advertising late or not at all."
Morach was surprised by the accusations made by competitor AdLink. He also believes that a separation of powers between marketing and planning makes sense. However, the market is currently not ready for this: "This is precisely why we have entered into a cooperation with the BSW to train media agencies for the planning of online campaigns." In the long term, the company clearly wants to concentrate on marketing rather than media planning. "The fact that we offer media planning is due to historical reasons. Switzerland is now a small market and, given the volume, it is not worthwhile for many media agencies to build up the corresponding resources," explains Morach.
Other marketers also seem to be thinking about the separation of powers. AdLink, which has agreed an exclusive contract with Tamedia, would like to concentrate on the marketing business in future. Robert Schmidli, interim head of Real Media Switzerland, on the other hand, sees no problem with the dual role of marketer and planner: "Apart from Borsalino, we have practically no exclusive contracts. We are therefore positioning ourselves as a general contractor for online advertising."
Active Agent is also sticking to its core competence of "independent" media planning. However, ActiveAgent Media is to be clearly separated from the advertising network ActiveAgent Network and the customer loyalty program bonus.net as an independent company in the course of the year. In terms of marketing, ActiveAgent will continue not to rely on exclusive contracts, explains Claudio Cittarini, Sales Manager of ActiveAgent (Switzerland) AG.
Guarantees and dumping prices for the "Big Brother" website?
The non-transparent situation is not only problematic for advertising clients, whose budgets end up with the loudest seller. Website operators are also under pressure. They practically have to hand over the marketing of their site to those companies that also have the largest online advertising budgets - for fear of being ignored. With a market share of around 40 percent, Qualiclick has a good hand in this game.
Morach vehemently denies that Qualicklick is actively exploiting this situation. Various website operators who have confirmed to WerbeWoche that they are trying to put pressure on Qualiclick see things differently. For example, one website operator claims that Qualicklick has demanded special discounts in return for "active marketing". It is also rumored that Qualicklick is trying to buy up the market with sometimes massive dumping prices and promised sales guarantees - in the case of "Big Brother" it is said to be 400,000 francs for the second round. Morach comments: "We have not grown thanks to price dumping, but thanks to our performance. The online advertising business cannot be based on guaranteed sales. That would be far too risky."
Exclusivity

An exclusive contract is when a marketer takes over the logistics, handling and marketing of advertising space on a site. They receive a commission for this. However, this does not mean that other intermediaries cannot also book space on a site. If this is the case, the marketer usually passes on the sales commission to the intermediary. (tbr)

It has only been on air for 14 months and already has the most modern studio in German-speaking Switzerland: we are talking about DRS Radio Virus, which inaugurated its fully digital studio costing 4.5 million Swiss francs on January 18, but neither the toast to the latest technology nor Virus program director François Mürner's carefree optimism could distract from the fact that the young station (annual operating budget: 2.75 million Swiss francs) is facing problems: The expansion of digital radio (DAB) has been suspended for months - although Virus had placed so much faith in this concept when it launched. The receivers are still too expensive and too user-unfriendly. What's more, Virus is far from being present in all cable networks. Only around half of the 2.5 million cable households in German-speaking Switzerland can receive the station. However, DRS radio director Walter Rüegg wants to "get to grips with this problem by the end of the year". And although he was told off by the Federal Office of Communications last summer, he will sooner or later resume the "Fight for Frequency" (fight for an FM frequency), he says. Nevertheless, a large proportion of the data produced digitally by Virus is currently going unheard and unheeded.
Virus talks professionally
his numbers nice
This finding is not altered by the fact that Mürner trumpets a figure which, according to Publica Data, he should keep under wraps because it was collected differently from the radio study: according to a Konso survey (1,300 telephone interviews), Virus reached 300,000 people aged 15 and over in the widest audience last September.
This figure does not say much, and above all it does not say how often and for how long the station is used. Moreover, it is pretty worthless without the figure from Radio 105, which was also collected by Konso. And nobody gives that out. Heinrich Anker, media officer at Radio DRS, at least says this much: "After one year, we are still lagging behind Radio 105 with its two-year head start."
PR statements such as "Virus will...continue to set the tone in the youth scene" (press release) are therefore implausible. Others such as "The DAB expansion is progressing rapidly" (www.virus.ch) sound downright hollow and raise the question of whether Virus places more emphasis on the all-digital shell than on content or whether it is deliberately glossing over. Anyone who has experienced François Mürner live is more likely to guess the latter (mk).

Rushing while eating as the motif of a questionable hamburger campaign from CheckersBy Thérèse BalduzziIn its new advertising campaign, the US fast food chain Checkers takes the idea of fast food at its word and pushes it to the extreme. In the ad, hamburgers and fries are consumed while skating, bowling and canoeing, regardless of the consequences - death by suffocation.
While other fast food commercials show 20-second long close-ups of juicy hamburgers, the fast food products only play supporting roles in the hectic lives of the actors in the new commercial for Checkers. People of all ages eat Checkers hamburgers and fries to hip-hop music while engaging in various activities.
While other fast food chains present themselves as cozy rest stops with suitable entertainment for the children, Checkers emphasizes the speed at which fast food is available. After all, the Checkers chain is also a drive-thru, where you are served at the counter while sitting in your car.
The rap, which is sung to hip hop, is also about quick service: "You gotta eat. What are you doing? You gotta eat. We'll get you in. We'll get you out. And in between without a doubt. We'll give you something really, really good. That's Checkers." The tagline is "You gotta eat." The campaign also includes a short version of the 60-second commercial, print ads and radio spots. The first spot launched in mid-January will be followed by others.
Not a bite-and-smile spot
for the family
Following an unsuccessful campaign launched last year, the fast food chain is now trying to position itself as the answer to the general problem of time. Checkers has its headquarters in Florida and is represented in 28 regional markets, primarily in the Southeast and Midwest of the USA. In 1999, Checkers merged with the drive-in chain Rally's Hamburgers from the Midwest of the USA, which has retained its name there. The identical commercial therefore also runs with the name Rally's. The fast food chain has a total of 900 drive-thrus.
The spot was created by the agency MARC USA. The fast-growing, independent network is represented in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Indianapolis, Orlando, Miami and Pittsburgh (headquarters). MARC Miami and Pittsburgh are handling the $10 million Checkers account.
"This is not your typical bite-and-smile fast food spot," says Richard Turer, vice president of marketing for Checkers and Rally's. How true. But the eating habits depicted are not only unhealthy, they could even prove to be life-threatening and are therefore not recommended for imitation. Some are even banned. One scene, for example, shows a young woman eating in a Subway, which is not permitted in many US cities and can be punished.

From February 5, the commuter newspapers 20 Minuten and Metropol will be available free of charge at a total of 200 Kiosk AG sales outlets on a trial basis. 20 Minuten will be available at 60 kiosks each in Berne, Basel and Zurich, and Metropol at 30 kiosks each in St. Gallen and Basel. The Valora subsidiary has dropped its previous consideration for Swiss publishers after the publishers AZ Medien and Ringier accepted print orders for the two commuter newspapers. page 22

The Basel billboard tender, which should have been carried out as early as 1998, could be further delayed by at least half a year. The reason: last week, the Basel Grand Council referred a WC construction project linked to a controversial contract with the Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft (APG) to the Finance Commission (FK). The contract stipulates that APG will pay just under half of a total of 6.1 million Swiss francs for public WC facilities in return for the right to manage 265 advertising spaces on the Allmend for 15 years. Cohn & Wolfe in geneva. Since January 29, the PR network Cohn & Wolfe (C&W) has also been represented in Switzerland. The New York-based agency chain has opened its seventh European office in Geneva. Victoria Dix, Director at C&W London, takes over the position of Managing Director of C&W Switzerland. The office is in close proximity to Young & Rubicam Business Communications, C&W announced. Like Y&R, C&W is a subsidiary of advertising holding company WPP.
post teases fed ex. Advertising agency Honegger von Matt is currently countering US competitor Fed Ex with witty slide spots for its client TNT Swiss Post. After much hesitation, the courier service agreed to the eye-catching product placement in the film "Cast Away". HvM did not want to let this go unnoticed and created typo spots at short notice for the company, which merged last fall. To tease Fed Ex, these spots are placed in theaters where the cult film is shown.
Lovely in the barn. The strong bones of the cult cow Lovely are no longer allowed to advertise milk. The Federal Court has confirmed that milk advertising violates the Foodstuffs Ordinance if it claims a preventive effect against bone brittleness. The court thus upholds the Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) and confirms an order issued by the cantonal laboratory in Bern in 1999. The Association of Swiss Milk Producers (SMP) is no longer allowed to use the corresponding advertising subjects, which were realized by Advico Young & Rubicam, but intends to take legal action against the decision.
TV 3 does not have to expand info shows. The private broadcaster TV 3 does not have to expand its info broadcasts for the time being. The Federal Court has granted suspensive effect to an appeal against a decision by the Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC). DETEC was of the opinion that TV 3 was violating its license by reducing its information offering to six-minute short programs.
"In it" is not "behind it. You can't tell how intelligent a person is by looking at them, as the copy for the new VW Passat uses a Wolfsburg advertising adage. The copywriter, on the other hand, does. If he had been smarter, he would not have cribbed from the classic of all German claims. For decades, the slogan "Dahinter steckt immer ein kluger Kopf" (There's always a clever mind behind it) has been used to advertise the FAZ. In a slightly modified form, this sentence now also adorns the ad for the new VW station wagon model. Such intellectual loans are nothing new in advertising. But if they lack the ironic touch, they seem rather embarrassing. The reference is intentional and must be understood as a homage to the FAZ campaign. After all, it refers to the international positioning of "intelligent excellence" and is not aimed at advertisers who have long known the slogan, Lowe Linta's GGK was told.
APG with record sales. In 2000, Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft (APG) was able to increase non-consolidated net sales for the Swiss outdoor advertising business by 14.5 % to CHF 249 million compared with 1999. This growth was achieved internally and at constant prices, according to APG. The full results of Affichage Holding, to which APG belongs, are to be published in the shareholders' letter at the end of February.
ALL CHEESE OR WHAT? The Tilsiter variety organization is taking off: From February 5 to 12, the Thurgau-based company will launch a hot-air balloon in the shape of Tilsiter cows into the skies of Moscow. The purpose of this exercise is not to promote Swiss cultural heritage abroad - the balloon cows, which are well-known in this country, are intended to whet the Russians' appetite for Tilsiter cheese. The first step in opening up the Russian market will be a presence at the Prodexpo food fair in Moscow. Anyone who wants to marvel at the advertising medium in this country will have the chance to do so on February 18 in St. Moritz: Tilsiter will be launching its giant cow at the horse race.
EditorialContent kings without ambition
The potential and know-how that SRG has on the Internet is gigantic. The SF DRS site alone - which is only one of seven - reaches half as many users as the market leader bluewin.ch. And practically without promotion. This success gives an idea of the power SRG could have on the Internet if it bundled its scattered offerings into a single portal. And it would also be able to do marketing for it. Publisuisse in particular, which still lacks expertise in the Internet, is eagerly waiting to develop competence in the online world.
But SRG is blocking the portal issue. The departments have not yet been able to get their act together. The old familiar cantonal spirit in the SRG cosmos has triumphed once again.
In this way, SRG is missing out on the opportunity to make full use of its assets on the Internet and to gain a competitive advantage from them. The potential is unique, considering the immeasurable gigabytes of content that are available free of charge. The reservoir of multimedia content is a fantastic prerequisite for the second stage of the Internet revolution, the much-vaunted content revolution.
Should the development of new channels only have second priority, as the SRG now thinks? This is a dangerous attitude, because distribution is one of the media's core competencies. It is a duty to expand this competence in the online world as well, whether the Internet is booming or not. After all, who knows how the audience will consume content in the upcoming UMTS world? SRG now has the chance to generate know-how in time to stay ahead in the coming wireless reality.
Daniel Schifferle

In addition, Günther Pipp and Bruno Giussani have joined the board of directors of Kabel New Media Schweiz (formerly Digivision). Pipp is CEO and chairman of the board of the St. Gallen Knowledge Group, a spin-off of the University of St. Gallen that operates in the market for management seminars and continuing education.
Hannes Huggel, a communications consultant based in Küsnacht, has founded an agency specializing in marketing communications for small and medium-sized enterprises under the name Communication Project Hannes Huggel. Ringier Print Zofingen is expanding its sales team: After a one-and-a-half-year hiatus, Marino Koch is once again taking on client responsibility for sales in Zurich and Eastern Switzerland.
Dominik Mätzener joined Impiric’s consulting team at the beginning of the year. He serves as an account manager for the client y-o-u Swiss Private Banking AG.
After eight years with the firm, Igor von Moos has left the agency Hug, von Moos & Dorfmüller. He will now work as a freelance communications designer. The company has been renamed Hug & Dorfmüller Design Group.
Effective March 1, Yvonne Buser will assume the role of Head of Marketing and Sales at Binkert Medien AG. She previously served as advertising director for the *Baslerstab* at Publicitas.
The advertising agency JF Werbung AG in Thalwil has welcomed Francis Bissat as a new partner and co-owner. Bissat, a communications consultant, most recently served as account director at Diem Seiler DDB in Adliswil. Since January 1, he has been working alongside Hans Frehner, JF’s former sole owner.

FastBreak, the Uster-based agency for events, promotions, and sponsorship, has expanded its team. Barbara Brandenberger is expanding the People Promotions division. She is responsible for training and scheduling the hostesses and promoters and serves as the on-site operations manager. Marielle Sani is taking over FastBreak’s back office.
The Chur-based communications agency Trimarca has welcomed four new employees since the beginning of the year. Katrin Waltenspühl has joined the consulting team, while Andrea Killias, Giampiero Tinti, and René Orsinger round out the new graphic design and creative team.