The professionally polygamous freelance concept designer Markus Ruf is Advertiser of the Year 2001By Luca Aloisi

"My professional role model is the truffle pig. I dig
at work like to delve deep into the subject to get to the most beautiful tubers,
or ideas," says Markus Ruf, explaining his success. His
sure nose for the good concept was gilded countless times.
He receives an award with the selection as Advertiser of the Year 2001,
that he was just missing - the Egon of WerbeWoche.Naturally
Markus Ruf is pleased about the honorable title. His modesty
allows this emotion only subliminally - the cavalier enjoys and
is silent. He defends himself against the label of an award winner in the industry.
"I see prices as a consequence of the work that I have to do," he says.
fun. Such a prize is of course a nice recognition
by industry people and very flattering. But you sit down to
To do a good job. Not to win an award."
Who
reputation, knows that the delicate 37-year-old freelance conceptual designer
from Schaffhausen also says this because he wants the spotlight of the
He shies away from publicity and is rather amused by the cult of personality.
Understatement and independence characterize his ego, contrary to
of the affected blasé and complacency that can be seen in the
The result is a product that we encounter more often than we would like in the self-absorbed world of advertising.
Its
Restraint is not rehearsed, his stylistic confidence is not
put on. Ruf knows what he wants. Distinguished like a gentleman,
courteous and kind - but he wears his heart on his tongue
and not infrequently attracts attention with pointed remarks. This
He owes his informality not least to the pleasant situation,
that he is an independent conceptual designer who works polygamously for several
agencies works, is accountable to no one.
Fair talk
and conformity are not part of his behavioral repertoire.
Self-critically, he remarks: "I can be quite sarcastic and as a
diplomat, I probably would have only made a career in Berlin." Precisely because of
his self-irony and his fairness, he is highly regarded by his colleagues in the industry.
such as Ruedi Wyler, Danielle Lanz or Markus Gut are appreciated - professionally
but above all because of his professionalism, the sense of good ideas -
and not to mention its originality.

Many white sheets are also often filled with nonsenseRuf's handwriting is often conceptual, his realizations are
unusual. Eye-twinkling elements of linguistic and visual
way, the stimulating play with the ambiguous and often with the
advertising medium itself, the occasionally irreverent wit and the sparkling
ingenuity result in a visual and intellectually highly
enjoyable mixture, which the viewer can not escape.
Requested
about his recipe for success, he replies with a grin: "If it's the
I certainly wouldn't tell anyone and I'd make my own market.
off." Only about his work technique he willingly gives
Information: Basically, he writes down everything he associates with the
topic comes to mind. It's not the way people from outside the industry imagine it.
imagine "that you're just sitting in a bar and suddenly a
the flash of inspiration hits". Inspiration has a lot to do with perspiration.
do. "I sit in the office and fill dozens of white sheets - often
even with nonsense."
As opposed to certain craft systems,
learnable, there is no sure path for Ruf to the
fantastic idea. For this you need instinct, bite and always also
a portion of luck.
In general, he notes a trend in his
industry: Concept designers are writing much less today than they used to.
Rather, they look for visual analogies with which the
advertising message can often be conveyed more quickly and surprisingly.
"Beautiful
Examples include Claude Cadsky's Nico Yearbook campaign,
the Hakle ad "Libra" by Advico Young & Rubicam or the
virus-infected computer from WHS for Open Systems. The advertiser of the
year 2001 prefers - quite a gentleman - to praise the work of others.

95 Percent Creativity as a Freelancer is Better than a CD JobEven in his outward appearances, Markus Ruf deviates from the
advertising cliché. From the existentialist black of many advertisers, he sets
with tailored suits made of fine cloth and in the classic English style.
Cut. His blazers - Ruf's only visible witnesses of his also
pecuniary success - he combines casually with jeans. Status symbols like
a house with a view of the lake or high-horsepower cars - the driving test managed
only on the third attempt - the creative person draws intangible assets such as
professional independence and self-determination.
How to manage
since 1994, when he started his own business as a freelance concept designer,
not only his customer orders, he also selects them himself or rejects
she politely declined all tempting CD offers, as she had done in the past. "As
freelance conceptual designer, the ratio between creative and
administrative work about 95 to 5 percent. We want to keep it that way",
says Ruf, who cares little for professional titles.
"A real
challenge, which I don't want to completely rule out, would be to
to go into business for yourself with your own agency. But if this
should happen, then it would have to happen soon, because even I don't
I'm getting younger," the Advertiser of the Year admits candidly.
Bet he could fill his store in the Hui with top people?

In the beginning was the word he lent to ErosActually, the son of an architect wanted to study to be
to become a journalist. Of all things, the dead language Latin made him
in the process. "The new language
Matura type did not exist in Schaffhausen at that time and the
mathematical one was out of the question for lack of talent," Ruf looks back today.
back.
Instead, in 1980, he decided to apprentice as
Typesetter, a venerable profession, but one that has suffered the same fate
was like the language he didn't want to cram.
Since he
but considered the apprenticeship only as a stepping stone into advertising anyway
and it also had the advantage "that my favorite subject, German, was the
half of my timetable and I studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich in
graphic was trained", the threatened unemployment existence could be
does nothing to diminish his self-confidence.
Until in the last
Apprenticeship year at various Zurich advertising agencies with work samples and
own ideas, the avid reader improved his knowledge of the subject.
teenagers supplement their meager apprenticeship wages with invented
amorous outpourings for Blick and Playboy.
In 1985 he started at
of the then Grendene + Lanz agency as a copywriter. "A stroke of luck,
because I was not abused as a coupon texter of the seniors, but
demanded of such fine customers as Ikea or the school magazine Spick
and encouraged." He therefore feels particularly indebted to Martin Lanz.
He was the one who gave him his start in advertising.
made possible at all. Claude Martin and Johannes Jost were him
later at Publicis professionally and humanly significant promoters.

When it threatens to get boring, Ruf waves it offSources of inspiration aren't just people, though. His
invaluable fund feeds on the intensive consumption of media,
his favorite hobby, movies, and travel. "The beauty of the job as
conceptualist is the fact that everything you do is actually
Continuing education is. The biggest junk can be useful at some point",
says Markus Ruf, who feels privileged not only for that reason.
As
another pleasant side effect of his work as a conceptual designer comes
added that this passion is also very "decently" paid.
However, he is not available for money alone. Because those orders where
to whom the writing of the bill is the only interesting thing, make
rich, but not happy. "Banking, insurance and
I don't do party advertising," he admits bluntly.

In the tourism sector, Ruf would like to advertiseNot for moral or ethical reasons, for example - at the
self-regulation of the Swiss advertising industry, he believes advertising bans
pointless anyway. No, Ruf rejects orders from such institutions
because original appearances are not possible in their convoluted instance paths.
mostly picked apart and leveled beyond recognition.
"Unfortunately
confuse such companies - with a few exceptions such as Mobiliar
- Boredom still likes seriousness," he adds. Very
However, he likes to work for media products, "because there on
client side often sit people who have a flair for good advertising."
Markus Ruf sees desirable customers in the currently vacant travel sector. "Where
Otherwise, can you think about the vacations with a clear conscience when you're working?"

He can also do it with filmed advertising messagesWhat is surprising is the fact that a film aficionado like Ruf
no longer conceives commercials. This is mainly due to its
customer portfolio together, he says. On the one hand, it is strongly
print media-heavy and, on the other hand, it consists of customers who are mostly
because of the advertising budget, exclude the spot as an advertising medium a priori.
But
Here, too, the imaginative conceptual designer has already achieved extraordinary
succeeded: He has impressively demonstrated that even with the cheapest of
produced spots to inspire viewers and win prizes
are. Because of his shocker commercial for the SSR language schools wanted to
already some moviegoers leave the hall in a hurry because the
fake warning indicated that the following Italian,
Spanish or Cuban film screened without German subtitles
would.

From Ruf's hope for more film assignmentsExemplary was also his piggyback idea for Manta Reisen, which
hijacked other cinema spots for its own benefit. The following caused a sensation
last year, as well as the observation camera series for Winner.ch, which he
together with Danielle Lanz from Guye & Partner. In
In the future, Markus Ruf hopes to be able to design film commissions more often.
That
he will also present first-class implementations in this category,
one's conviction and, above all, one's understanding of the
hardly want to cast doubt on the profession of advertising.
"I think,
that creative work brings more joy to everyone. For those who do it.
To those who see them. And to those who pay for them. Many campaigns that
are awarded by ADC for their creativity, will later be
also awarded by the Effi for their efficiency," says the advertiser of the
year 2001.
If anyone knows anything about it, it's Markus Ruf.

Change at PubliGroupe: Urs Wolfensberger, Managing Director of Real Media (Switzerland), was released with immediate effect on January 12.Robert Schmidli, General Manager of PubliDirect, will manage the online unit on an interim basis, confirmed Pascal Zähner, CEO of Real Media (Europe). The change has to do with the planned restructuring at Real Media (Europe). The opinions of Wolfensberger and Real Media on the future strategy were too different (mk).

Pro Active International's Internet Monitor reveals a change in the image of online advertisingBy Clemens HörlerSwiss Internet users are more critical of online advertising than the European average. Users find it increasingly time-consuming and annoying. This is also the result of the second Internet Monitor from fall 2000.
27 percent of Swiss Internet users regard Internet advertising as confusing, 19 percent as annoying and 13 percent as time-consuming. Compared to the results obtained by Pro Active International, Amsterdam, in spring 2000, Swiss interest in online advertising declined further last fall. And in a European comparison, Swiss Internet users are far more critical of online advertising, confirming the results of the Internet Monitor from the spring (see also the chart).
The image of positive associations has changed far more than the negative characteristics attributed to online advertising: While 34 percent of users still described Internet advertising as informative in the spring, this figure had fallen to just 25 percent by the fall. Online advertising also scored lower in the second wave of the survey than in the first in terms of usefulness and entertainment value. The decline in the entertainment aspect of online advertising is astonishing. In the spring, 27% of the users surveyed were still having fun on their PCs, but six months later this figure had fallen to just 12%. Are users already overtired?
Experienced users no longer respond to every advertisement
If we look at the figures for Europe as a whole, we see that internet users describe online advertising as less confusing than in the first survey, but also as less informative. This development is probably a result of the growing experience in dealing with online advertising.
The longer users have been on the web and the more familiar they are with it, the less they use online advertising as a guide and are therefore less likely to be misled by tricky advertising.
As a result, Internet users are also wasting less time on unwanted trips into the blue and no longer see online advertising as a waste of time as they used to. The faster Internet connections probably only play a subordinate role here.
It has long been a well-known trend that it is becoming increasingly difficult to persuade Internet users to click on an advertisement. This is also confirmed by the Internet Monitor: Only just 29 percent of Internet users surveyed in Europe stated that they had accessed the advertiser's site directly via an advertising link in the last two weeks. Six months previously, the figure was 34 percent. However, these figures are self-assessments by the respondents and not empirically proven behavior.
The most common reason given by European internet users for clicking on an advertising link was interest in the advertised product (49%). Other important reasons were interest in the advertised website (21%), animations (20%), a good price offer (19%) and interest in the advertising company (17%).
After all, 15 percent of those surveyed stated that they had clicked on an encrypted advertisement in the last two weeks to find out where it would take them. However, the figures clearly show that the majority of users no longer simply click into the blue because the banners are mysterious or flash nicely, but because they make a specific product offer.
Internet monitor

The Internet Monitor is a study on demographics, internet behavior, e-commerce and advertising. It is conducted globally by Pro Active International, Amsterdam, every six months. The basic data is collected by means of telephone interviews. The behavior and attitudes of users are surveyed using online questionnaires. The sample consists of 400,000 people worldwide.
Assessment of internet advertising

CH Spring 2000 Fall 2000 Europe Spring 2000 Fall 200
confusing 28 % 27 % 28 % 22 %
annoying 19 % 19 % 17 % 16 %
Time-consuming 22 % 13 % 18 % 16 %
useful 30 % 20 % 22 % 22 %
informative 34 % 25 % 29 % 23 %
entertaining 27 % 12 % 13 % 14 %
Source: Internet Monitor, Pro Active International BV

Astrid Tellenbach has been head of the Zurich branch of The Cover Media since the beginning of NovemberHead of the week "Advertising doesn't let go of me in my private life either".
It's up to the woman herself - Astrid Tellenbach is forced to live by this motto: She currently runs the Zurich branch of The Cover Media as a one-woman operation. In the Limmat city, the Basel-based specialists for radio and TV advertising want to build up a second foothold and have entrusted Tellenbach with this task. Since the start at the beginning of November 2000, she has been handling both internal and external sales in one person. The 44-year-old was most recently responsible for Sat1 Switzerland at Cinecom. Before that, she spent five years learning the ropes of the radio business at Radiotele.
"The challenge of building up a branch from scratch appealed to me enormously," says the newly minted agency manager, explaining her departure from Cinecom. After six years of development work in Basel, The Cover Media wanted to expand to Zurich and offered Tellenbach the branch management. With her numerous good contacts in the Swiss television and radio scene, she was the ideal choice.
Also from Zurich, The Cover Media offers conception, planning and placement of radio and TV spots as well as their production. However, Astrid Tellenbach will primarily also be doing advertising on her own behalf: "I've noticed that The Cover Media is not yet very well known in Zurich, the market could still be worked far too little here."
She is approaching the development work with a great deal of optimism. Her tenacity and balance, which Tellenbach cites as personal strengths, will certainly stand her in good stead. She sees building up and expanding the agency as a long-term goal, personally perhaps even as the ultimate goal of her career.
The trained saleswoman originally worked in field sales in the computer industry. It was only at Radiotele that she came into direct contact with the advertising industry. "However, advertising has fascinated me since I was a child," adds Tellenbach, confessing, "I'm also very receptive to advertising in everyday life. For example, when I
see an ad in the cosmetics section, I'm sure to test the product the next day."
In Herrliberg on Lake Zurich, The Cover Media set up its first base last November, operating as a shared office with the company Layout Production. In the meantime, Astrid Tellenbach has already moved on and settled at Hermetschloostrasse 77 in Zurich. There she has her own rooms, which should not stand in the way of a planned and future expansion of the agency.
What does Astrid Tellenbach expect from the future? "That I'll finally be able to afford a cleaning lady and will stop working at some point," jokes the agency manager. But until then, she wants to invest all her energy in The Cover Media.
Bruno Amstutz

Dominique von Matt, co-owner of Honegger von Matt, is the second-place advertiser of the yearBy Carole Koch "Don't look back" is one of Dominique von Matt's credos. Combined with the ambition to keep up with the pulse of time
and an enormous will to provide good advertising, it has helped him become what he is today: one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Swiss advertising industry.
This man knows exactly what he wants: After all, Dominique von Matt dreamed of becoming self-employed in the marketing field when he was still young. Back then, he quenched his thirst for knowledge by reading countless publications by the motivational researcher Ernest Dichter.
Fascinated by the subject, he never lost sight of this early goal. The youthful reverie became reality. What's more, with his fellow student and business partner David Honegger, he turned the joint Honegger von Matt agency into one of the most renowned addresses in the Swiss advertising market.
Experience gained on both fronts
Neither this fact nor his nomination as Advertiser of the Year are reasons for him to rest on his laurels: "You've lost if you think you've made it," says von Matt. He is convinced that every strategy must be questioned again and again, even if it has proven itself.
The fact that the industry is honoring his entrepreneurial spirit is something von Matt is very happy to accept. "For me, the nomination is praise for the courage to start an agency in the recession that has established itself as a brand for quality."
Before taking this pioneering step, Dominique von Matt gained experience not only in practice. In order to acquire the necessary marketing know-how, the Zurich native began studying business administration at the University of Zurich. A good decision, as it turned out for the self-confessed analyst and strategist.
After all, as a product manager at Unilever in Zurich, he was dependent on a sound knowledge base after graduation - the first attempt to go into practice quickly turned out to be a jump into the deep end. "From one day to the next, I found myself in a bone-chilling brand displacement battle," the advertiser recalls, adding, "But I still benefit from those apprenticeship years today." Here, he says, he found access to advertising and located agency disadvantages from the customer's perspective. After a year in practice, he returned to university, where he deepened his knowledge of brand policy in a doctoral thesis.
After that, von Matt made the switch to the agency side by accepting a consulting job at Wirz Werbeberatung. Here, too, his ambition and thirst for knowledge were quenched. He saw it as a challenge to optimize his presentation technique by looking after large mandates such as Kuoni or Hero and learned what top consulting requires.
Finally, he completed his curriculum vitae with a stint in London as an Account Executive at DMB&B, followed by a position as Consulting Group Leader and Member of the Executive Board at Wirz.
A shaken measure
of dissatisfaction
Soon after, the Honegger von Matt era took off: "I felt ready for self-employment and ventured into the unknown with David Honegger," says von Matt. The start in January 1993 was tough: In a gloomy basement, without fancy furniture, employees or clients, the first chapters of the agency's history were written.
Nevertheless, the rise of consultant von Matt and creative partner Honegger came faster than expected. Today, their clientele includes companies such as Panasonic, Cablecom, Ikea and ABB. The secret of their success? The agency philosophy "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" - advertising should be as attractive as a butterfly and as efficient as a bee.
However, Von Matt does not see this principle as a static manifesto, but rather as the guiding principle of an ongoing process. Every strategy, he emphasizes, must always be adapted to new circumstances. "That's why it's good to have a certain amount of dissatisfaction, it's the engine of quality," philosophizes the entrepreneur, because quality ultimately comes from agony. Obviously, he loves to analyze structures, forms and processes of advertising. As does the task of developing creativity and quality in advertising.
Von Matt also tries to inspire this enthusiasm in his employees: "Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said that you shouldn't give your team the tools to build a ship, but rather awaken in them a longing for the sea. This spirit also lives in HvM."
Even if David Honegger parts ways with HvM and the agency becomes "Jung von Matt an der Limmat," this identity is not to be lost. "Our claim is still quality, not size," Dominique von Matt emphasizes.
Despite a touch of melancholy, he is very much looking forward to the new beginning. In this respect, he is no different from any other advertiser. However, he is less able to identify with the creative species: "I don't fit the stereotype advertiser, I'm quieter and more reserved," says von Matt about von Matt.
In the cities the pulse
of life feel
As a result, he says, he has "no extraordinary hobbies to show for it" and prefers to spend his free time with his family. When time permits, his scientific roots draw him out of the closet - that's when von Matt publishes the results of private studies. He needs this quiet pole just as much as the inspiration he finds on short trips to European cities. "Only on the pulse of a city can you anticipate trends and feel the changing times, and this is ultimately what makes advertising so fascinating."

Philip Meier, strategist at Guye & Partner, on internal communicationIn a dissertation, Philip Meier has examined theoretical and empirical aspects of the organization and language of internal communication in large companies. His book, which is being devoured by communication and corporate managers, obviously hits a neuralgic point.How long have you been working scientifically on internal communication?
Philip Meier: I have been doing research in the field of internal communication for seven years.
cation. I had already examined the internal communication structures and processes of a company for my licentiate thesis. With the dissertation, I now tested the picture in Switzerland on a representative level.
What is wrong with internal communications in this country?
Meier: Most companies are mistaken if they think their internal communications are in order. There is an awareness of this important area of communication, but one does not structure the communication. One communicates internally merely because, as a communication axiom by Paul Watzlawick states, one cannot get around communication. Moreover, people believe they are capable of internal communication without consulting specialists such as business economists or linguists. This view is favored by the intimacy of the subject: communication consulting presupposes the openness of top management, which must be willing to grant the consultant access to the company's innermost circle. Furthermore, the will for internal communicative change cannot be delegated, but must always be present at the top level in fact and not merely as lip service.
What are the subjects of your investigation?
Meier: In the first part of the investigation, I was interested in what the structures and organization look like, who is responsible for internal communications, what the tasks of someone in charge are, what media they use and what specialists they rely on. I found that most large companies in Switzerland do not have the tools that comprehensive internal communication requires. For example, only about one-third conduct regular employee surveys. In other words, just one-third of the companies are aware of the attitudes and needs of their employees. All the rest are in the dark. About the same percentage has a specialized department that takes care of these processes and procedures. Collaboration with specialists, as in external communications, is practically non-existent. In a second step, I wanted to test whether this tendency is also reflected in the language of the companies.
What linguistic abuses have you discovered?
Meier: In view of the ever-increasing amount of text material, I have concentrated on the study of one type of text: the editorials of the staff newspapers. They contain the most information about the course of business and future developments. In these editorials, two quite different communication strategies basically prevail. On the one hand, there is the obfuscatory strategy, which omits and withholds information without a relevant reason.
without providing transparent information about the current and future situation of the company, motivate employees to perform at their best. The second strategy is to report openly and honestly about a specific problem situation. In these transparent editorials, mistakes are also admitted. To a large extent, the texts are characterized by an alarming degree of clumsy word choice and a lack of presentation of the overall context.
What role does internal communication play in repairing and maintaining the hierarchy?
Meier: Information also means power. You use it to maintain your edge. There are two camps. One sees strength in openness, the other wants to secure its position by channeling and blocking information. Change processes will have to be managed with a great deal of effort, especially in the second case, because communicative subcultures will form over time, communication associations that sometimes span different departments and hierarchical levels, whose voices can carry more weight than the voice of official internal communications.
What opportunities for improvement do you see?
Meier: Internal communications consulting makes sense when it takes the culture of a company as the basis for its analysis. Organizational improvement measures should be implemented first. Priority should certainly be given to conducting regular employee surveys and setting up an internal media infrastructure in which each medium is assigned a function. After that, language-cultivating measures should be introduced, such as improving the verbal expressiveness of key people or installing dialog training for employees with customer contact.
How can a linguistic expression change if the basic attitude of the speaker or writer remains the same?
Meier: It is very important to define communication guidelines. An internal communication climate based on communication guidelines defines the tolerance framework for dealing with each other. Bullying, for example, consists largely of linguistic aberrations that are steadily increasing in radicalness and are not related to any communication maxims.
How do you explain the neglect of internal communication?
Meier: It's very likely that the reason for the internal communications emergency is short-term thinking: people have the feeling that external communications will sell more products and contribute to brand building. But people forget that the superficial investment in internal communications also has a long-term effect on the entire brand of a company and thus contributes to value creation.
Interview: Ernst Weber
Philip Meier:

"Corporate Internal Communication. Theoretical and Empirical Aspects of the Organization and Language of Internal Communication in Large Companies in Switzerland" is available at: www.in ternekommunikation.ch.

Markus Ruf is the first freelance advertiser of the yearAround 15 years after he entered the
advertising and after more than 200 awards, including numerous
international, Markus Ruf is awarded the title of Advertiser of the Year 2001.
honored. Even the stars are aligned for the freelance conceptual designer of this
Year right. "For many lions, 2001 will be a super year",
predicted celebrity astrologer Elisabeth Tessier in her
Annual horoscope. To win the title, however, Ruf did not need
astrological constellation help. Its very clear lead
was already reflected in the reason given by the nomination committee: "Ruf
would have received the prize for his exceptionally creative achievements
actually deserved long ago," was the opinion of former female advertisers
A more than justified vote. Who
the indices of the last ten ADC yearbooks, you will find that the
noted that Ruf's name appears with consistent frequency among the award-winning
makers appears. Unlike most of the others, however, the
Number of mentions of his awards three to four lines each.
After working for Grendene + Lanz, Advico, Publicis and GGK, he made
the creative director became self-employed in 1994 and has since conceived campaigns
for about 20 agencies. Mostly for Ruedi Wyler Advertising, Guye &
Partner as well as Publicis. With the election as Advertiser of the Year 2001
he receives the Egon of the advertising week, and can afterwards calmly
already respectable trophy collection further complete. Page 10

At this year's marketing gala with trophy award ceremony, event marketing was the center of attentionBy Anita VaucherThe awarding of the Marketing Trophy 2001 was under the sign of pumpkins, chocolate and margarine. Event marketing should trigger emotions. Prominent guest speakers commented on the conference topic of event marketing.
For the fourth time, the gala of the Swiss Marketing Club took place. Around 600 guests gathered for the presentation of the Marketing Trophy 2001 in the newly built congress center in Fribourg.
The most prominent speaker on the conference topic of event marketing was undoubtedly the "astronomer" and successful author Erich von Däniken. To the question posed by himself: "How does man behave in the face of technology he does not know?" he was able to react in an unforeseen and highly personal way, namely when the highly complicated equipment for his slide show failed its service and his beaming with infrared did not want to lead to any result.
With beads of sweat on his forehead, he finally mastered the pitfalls and even had the laughs on his side. Actually, he wanted to talk about the gigantic "Mysteries of the World" project, a kind of Disneyland for people with a thirst for knowledge, which is to be opened in Interlaken in 2002.
But then he couldn't resist the temptation to spout off about his countless discoveries that lead him to believe that there was once a highly developed civilization on this globe before us.
Erich von Däniken is probably right when he says that our fellow nodders need a fantasist now and then. After all, he is convinced, it is fantasists like him who keep the world in suspense, not the bean counters.
Only media coverage makes an event an event
For Reto Caviezel of Carré Communication AG, organizer of the CSI Zurich and Mövenpick Art on Ice, emotions lead event marketing to success. If half of the visitors at Art on Ice have tears in their eyes, he says, success is guaranteed.
Caviezel also points out the importance of media coverage, which is what makes an event an event. For the last Art on Ice event, he was able to count on 520 newspaper articles, 150 radio and 25 TV contributions.
Daniel Rosselat, founder of the Paleo Festival in Nyon, had less success with the media, at least last year. The festival is already so successful that the media are beginning to question its success, Rosselat comments on the sometimes negative coverage of the festival's 25th anniversary.
It also happens time and again that an artist cannot be engaged because of sponsorship contracts. Tina Turner could never perform at Paleo because she had an exclusive contract with Pepsi, but the festival was sponsored by Coca-Cola.
Presentation of the Marketing Trophy 2001:

The Swiss Marketing Club (SMC) awards the Marketing Trophy to companies whose marketing activities create customer benefits, contribute to the success of the company and take the interests of the public into account. The Marketing Trophy is awarded in three categories: Category 1: companies with 1 to 49 employees; Category 2: companies with 50 to 299 employees; Category 3: companies with over 300 employees. Ten companies were nominated. The trophy for category 1 was won by Jucker Farmart AG, Seegräben, for event marketing around pumpkins. In category 2, the prize was awarded to Villars Maître Chocolatier SA, Fribourg, for the relaunch of the famous Mohrenkopf. Lipton-Sais Unilever (Schweiz) AG won the trophy in category 3 for the clear positioning of the margarine Becel pro.acitv.

Frank Bodin lands third place in the 2000 Advertiser of the Year electionBy Ernst WeberSince Frank Bodin joined the Geneva branch of the McCann-Erickson advertising agency as creative director in 1996, the agency has won award after award in national and international competitions. With this achievement, the former musician reached the third highest number of votes in the election of the Advertiser of the Year 2000.
"My ego does feel a bit bruised, but my nomination for Advertiser of the Year 2000 distinguishes the McCann-Erickson agency, Geneva, rather than me," says Frank Bodin, who doesn't see himself as much of a lone wolf or advertising as a stomping ground for misconceived heroism. The creation of good campaigns, he says, is a concerted effort. No CD can do everything, which is why you have an agency behind you. Only together can you be successful, says the 38-year-old.
Frank Bodin never wanted to end up in advertising. In 1989, however, he slipped into it, by chance and under the motto "What a Jean Etienne Aebi, an Andy Steiner or Reinhold Weber can do, a Frank Bodin has long been able to do." The then musician and law student had gained this impression at various scene parties and an ADC festival, to which he accompanied his girlfriend. From his artistic and university-elitist point of view, the advertising seemed primitive to him. But Bodin was a working student. As a stock market reporter, he earned not badly, but it was more lucrative to write copy for advertising.
When Frank Bodin put aside the scores and became a lyricist
Frank Bodin earned his first easy money with three ads he wrote on behalf of Edgar Iten for the Grand Hotel Viktoria Jungfrau in Interlaken. This first freelance work also earned him his first award from the Art Directors Club Switzerland (ADC), namely a bronze cube. The career changer then freelanced with Andy Steiner, the Advertising Man of the Year in 1988, who at the time was in charge of the IWC and LNN mandates, among others. From him, he learned to manage large volumes of work.
When Frank Bodin became the father of twins, he decided to put aside the scores in favor of a more secure existence and exchange the piano chair for a copywriter's chair that had become vacant at GGK, Küsnacht. He worked for Hermann Strittmatter for seven months, after which he accepted a vacant copywriting position at Aebi & Partner.
In this complex agency structure, he benefited from an experience he had gained at GGK "Strittis": namely, that you can live out your personality very radically, bring it to bear and also say no to a client once in a while. Making sacrifices for things you believe in "being a lamb in wolf's clothing" and analytical-tactical approach taught him Jean Etienne Aebi, his third coach. About his school Frank Bodin says with Bert Brecht: "Jean Etienne was a bad teacher, it was a good school."
Without discipline, the most brilliant idea is wasted effort
"No sooner have you managed a few nice campaigns at Aebi than you go to the advertising province to play the big CD," sneered more than a few colleagues when Frank Bodin turned his attention to Geneva. But he was convinced that "strong advertising can be created in Geneva just as well as in Zurich, São Paolo, New York or Bümpliz.
The correctness of his opinion was proven just three months later: by a first award given to the agency for a presentation it had designed for Elnapress.
Frank Bodin recognizes a brilliant idea, for example, when he is annoyed because it did not originate with him or when he can say, "I've never seen that before." The intensity of the aura of an implementation gives him further insight.
He also evaluates an idea rationally using a ten-point checklist and knowing that a good creation is usually about 10 percent intuition and about 90 percent transcription, that is, work.
"I learned discipline through music: when you sit down and start playing a piece, it requires one hundred percent concentration," says Frank Bodin, who was a member of the World Youth Orchestra and had performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, among others.
He also displays this one hundred percent concentration as a creative director when he thinks about a strategy or a concept. Although Frank Bodin has now been showered with over 200 national and international awards and it can be assumed that the shower of prizes will probably continue for a long time to come, he should not be counted among those advertisers who permenantly suffer from an overestimation of their own work and have to compensate for a lack of self-confidence with material goods. "We do an extremely modest job, we are merely service providers.
in the wheels of business," says last year's Cannes juror.
Switzerland can consider itself as
Advertising land profiling
As an eloquent ambassador for the Swiss advertising industry abroad, Frank Bodin vehemently advocates a concept for promoting the reputation of Swiss advertising culture as an international brand, which the local advertising industry should work out together.
In similarly small advertising countries such as Holland, Norway or Sweden, more agencies than in Switzerland operate consistently at an international level, says the creative director, who sometimes takes up his pen to express his opinion. Nevertheless, he says, Switzerland's location in the heart of Europe and its multilingual, multicultural setup put it in a very good position to develop pan-European and multinational campaigns.
"We don't need to hide our light under a bushel. Advertising doesn't look any worse here than elsewhere," says Frank Bodin, whose ads are admittedly a shining advertisement for Swiss advertising culture.

Lausanne-based publishing group Edipresse acquires a 1 percent stake in French group Presse Europe Regions (PER).NewsEdipresse acquires stake in PER
PER, which was founded at the end of 2000 and is 63 percent owned by Le Monde newspaper, controls 60 percent of the Midi libre media group. Its creation was intended to simplify Midi libre's shareholder structure, said Christopher Bolton, Edipresse finance director. The other PER shareholders are Italy's Stampa Europa (25 percent) and Spain's Prisa (11 percent), he said. Edipresse intends to retain its direct 4.5 percent stake in Midi libre despite its small stake in PER, Bolton added.
Stocks off to a successful startThe Swiss investor magazine Stocks, which appeared for the first time in November, got off to a successful start. According to the company, the limit of 20000 copies sold was exceeded before Christmas. At present the sold edition lies with 21000 copies. The subscription portion amounts to over 70 per cent of the sold edition. The advertising business also got off to a good start, with an average of 17 advertising pages sold.
La Liberté joins QJThe Fribourg daily La Liberté joins Quotidien Jurassien. The Saint-Paul Group, publisher of La Liberté, takes over the printing and publishing house Le Pays. Le Pays holds 50 percent of D+P AG, the publisher of Quotidien. The Competition Commission approved the acquisition on December 14, Saint-Paul announced. In the Saturday edition of Quotidien Jurassien, however, its publisher Michel Voisard writes of an "unfriendly takeover".
K-Geld satisfied with startThree months after its launch, the investor magazine K-Geld says it has over 30,000 subscribers. Several hundred copies are also sold via newsstand sales, editor-in-chief Fredy Hämmerli announced. Thus K-Money lies clearly over expectations. The paper is published twice a month by Urs P. Gasche and Hans Räz of Konsumenteninfo AG.
Cablecom may acquire shares in Swiss TXT
increase
The Federal Council has allowed Cablecom to increase its stake in Schweizerische Teletext AG (Swiss TXT) from 3 to 25 percent. As long as the shareholding remains a minority, the government sees no problems under media law, according to a statement from the Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications. Cablecom is taking over the share package from Videopress, an association of newspaper and magazine publishers. Videopress is completely divesting its 25 percent stake; 3 percent will go to SRG, which will thus hold 75 percent of Swiss TXT in the future. Last November, it was said that Videopress would sell its entire stake to SRG.
Pfiff in the Lake Zurich newspapersThe five Lake Zurich newspapers now include the youth newspaper Pfiff every second Wednesday. It is also placed in various places where young people go in and out. Each issue is dedicated to a specific topic. The supplement is clearly aimed at consumption-oriented young people who are eager for entertainment. PR, tips and recommendations take up a lot of space. Pfiff is produced by a five-person editorial team and is to be published with 32,000 copies.
Carwinner.ch expands cooperations
The car advertising platform Carwinner AG has agreed cooperations with the trade magazine Automobil Revue (AR) and the program "Motor Show" on SF 2. From AR, which already cooperates with Autoscout24, Carwinner will obtain editorial content. For "Motor Show", produced by Rincovision with TCS and broadcast every Sunday, Carwinner.ch will act as co-sponsor from January 21. The show is already supported by Blick and SonntagsBlick.

Last year, 3,893 corporations worldwide adopted new company names. According to a study by the brand consulting firm Enterprise IG (a WPP subsidiary), this figure represents a record. The United States saw the most name changes (2,976); in Europe, the United Kingdom leads with 250. Fifty-three percent of the name changes were triggered by acquisitions and mergers. Financial groups accounted for the largest share (40 percent), followed by communications companies (20 percent) and industrial firms (9 percent). Enterprise CEO Jim Johnson told Mediapost that the appeal of dot-com names has waned. Last year, he said, the trend shifted toward traditional, globally applicable names. Advertising jobs online. Before Christmas, the BSW launched a job board for the communications industry at www.bswjobs.com. With this, the association aims to create a central job market enriched with additional services such as a discussion forum, training and continuing education opportunities, and descriptions of job profiles in the advertising industry. Great importance is placed on anonymity; the site does not allow direct contact between employers and employees. Lisa Steger, project manager for bswjobs.com, hopes this will preserve discretion within the industry. The site is funded by the agencies. Employers pay a fee—based on their size—for the placement of a candidate. The service is free for job seekers.
IMPIRIC AND KÜLLING + PARTNER are setting the pulse. On the former Sulzer-Escher-Wyss site in Zurich-West, a center is being built where the pulse of the new way of life in District 5 will be felt 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This official objective gave the center its name: Puls5. The idea came from the communications agency Impiric and the identity agency Külling + Partner, which had been commissioned by the developer, SGI Promotion AG, to come up with the name. Covering an area of 45,000 square meters, the complex will feature 54 apartments, 49 lofts, and approximately 1,500 workspaces. The total investment amounts to around 150 million Swiss francs. Construction is scheduled to be completed by mid-2003.
Monn met Werefkin. At a high-profile event last December, the Ticino-based fashion house Monn in Locarno successfully combined art and commerce. The boutique chain included a free ticket in its collection brochure and invited customers to visit the art exhibition featuring the Russian painter Marianne Werefkin (1860–1938) at the Museo comunale
to visit d’arte moderna in Ascona. In an innovative way, the communications agency Immagina brought the traditional clothing store’s unique advertising concept to life: not only did they neatly and carefully curate the winter fashion collection, but they also harmonized its colors with works by the co-founder of the Expressionist art group Der Blaue Reiter.
Migros commercial remake. Since mid-January, a series of Migros commercials has been airing in movie theaters and on television—ones that make you feel like you’ve seen them years ago. The five new commercials are based on a concept used until 1997. It was dusted off after a test conducted last fall revealed that consumers still remember the discontinued commercial series to this day. «In the meantime, other themes—such as «more for your money» and «Migros Frischland»—were brought to the forefront,» says Client Service Director Silvia Rohner, explaining the hiatus. A recent ad features a Chippendale dancer who can’t unzip his jeans and nearly wets himself hours after the show because the zipper is still stuck. The text, written in the classic style, sums up the problem: «It’s better to buy jeans at Migros. Diapers, too, by the way.»
Print & Sign is becoming part of X’01. The Swiss trade show Print and Sign will be integrated into the Swiss marketing trade show X’01 as a separate specialized section/
Integrated into X’Event. Last year, Print and Sign was held under its own name alongside X’00. With the integration of Print and Sign, X’01 is set to be enriched with the themes of printing technology and type design. The trade show will take place from August 21 to 23, 2001, in the halls of Messe Zürich.
Publigroupe continues to expect lower profits. Following a profit warning for the year 2000, Publigroupe also expects lower profits for 2001. In an interview with the HandelsZeitung, Publigroupe CEO Jean-Jacques Zaugg explained that profits for 2001 are likely to decline compared to 1999 and be slightly lower than in 2000, because no extraordinary income (such as that generated in previous years by the sale of the APG stake and real estate) is expected this year. In contrast, Publigroupe anticipates a strong increase in operating profit. Investment in the online marketing firm Real Media—whose initial public offering (IPO) has been canceled and which is set to cut more than 10 percent of its workforce—is to be scaled back. Instead, Zaugg would like to take the web agency Namics public «once this company has reached a certain value.» According to Zaugg, Namics would be in the black without its expansion into Germany and France.
Benetton Launches First Campaign by Fabrica. The Italian fashion group Benetton is launching its first advertising campaign in mid-February, designed by Fabrica, the group’s in-house communication research center. A young team of photographers led by James Mollison shot the campaign images, which focus on the Benetton collection and avoid controversial themes. In May of last year, Benetton unexpectedly parted ways with its creative director and star photographer Oliviero Toscani and commissioned Fabrica to handle its advertising. Toscani’s last campaign, which featured death-row inmates, had led to a boycott in the U.S.
Editorial

The voice of the clients
The readers of *WerbeWoche* voted Markus Ruf “Advertiser of the Year” for 2000. The freelance copywriter and concept developer, who is best known for
Ruedi Wyler Advertising,
Markus Ruf, who works at Guye & Partner and Publicis, won the competition ahead of Dominique von Matt and Frank Bodin. The editorial staff of *WerbeWoche* extends its warmest congratulations to Markus Ruf on his selection.
The trained typesetter joined the company in 1985
at Grendene + Lanz as a junior copywriter
into advertising. After that, he worked
He worked at Advico, Farner Publicis, and GGK Zurich before going into business for himself in 1994. The Swiss advertising industry owes some of its best advertising concepts to Ruf. His work regularly wins ADC Cubes and other advertising awards. More about Ruf and
the other two finalists on pages 10–14.
For the first time, this year's "Advertiser of the Year" will receive a trophy as the prize. It was crafted by
by Zurich artist Max Grüter and is called Egon. Grüter drew inspiration for his work from the well-known logo of the record label «His Master’s Voice.» And for good reason:
In a figurative sense, the advertiser is
the mouthpiece of his client. The pyramid symbolizes the assignment, and the megaphone symbolizes the means of communication. Caught between the client and the audience, the advertiser must get his message across concisely. To make himself heard, he needs a strong personality. The unconventional and slightly self-deprecating name Egon is meant to evoke this.
This year marks the second time the "Campaign of the Year" award will be presented.
Out of 46 campaigns that we ran over the course of
After we featured them on the cover earlier this year, the readers of *WerbeWoche* voted for their favorites.
The campaign for Médecins sans frontières was approved by an overwhelming majority
by Advico Young & Rubicam
Zurich-Gockhausen was named Campaign of the Year for 2000 (see page 16). Tied for second place are the follow-up campaign for mobile phone provider Orange by Euro RSCG and the campaign for travel provider Escolette by Fam. Müller. We extend our heartfelt congratulations.
Samuel Helbling

The successful French TV man Claude Berda wants to stir up the TV market in western SwitzerlandWhat has been suspected for some time has become a certainty: the French TV station RTL9 wants a Swiss program window. An application for a license has been submitted to the Federal Office of Communications - and it's not without a chance.When RTL9's application for a license was recently submitted, the big guesswork started in French-speaking Switzerland: RTL9 - who is that? It is no longer the Luxembourg RTL Group. Some time ago, it sold the majority of its shares to a French AB Groupe. But AB Groupe is the only service company listed in the Geneva telephone directory that is active in the agro-business - and RTL9 is not that nutritious.
Finally, WerbeWoche tracks down AB's main shareholder Claude Berda at his Geneva residence. But he is cagey: for the time being, there is not much to say about the concession application. WerbeWoche should wait another week, and then "I'll write you a nice article. And as a farewell: "Je vous rappellerai" (I'll call you back).
Because WerbeWoche does not want to wait, it has made inquiries elsewhere. Frenchman Claude Berda first made a name for himself as a TV producer, but in recent years he has also bought up large quantities of canned TV.
His AB Groupe, which he founded with a partner called Azulai, produced successful TV shows for children and adolescents with the French TV nurse on duty, Dorothée.
An entry point in western Switzerland that should not be underestimated
For some time now, Berda has been the owner of the French TV chain RTL9, which for a long time had a wallflower existence in France, but since Berda's entry has been in the black. The station mainly offers canned food, but also produces its own shows - such as with the somewhat faded French ex-football manager (Olympique Marseille), ex-parliamentarian and ex-minister Bernard Tapie.
Now RTL9 wants to offer French-speaking Switzerland a regional language program and advertising window, having already been present on cable networks in French-speaking Switzerland. Four editorial positions should suffice to helvetize the station and produce a daily, half-hour news magazine.
A broadcasting budget of around 600,000 francs is modest. Nevertheless, RTL9 is not to be underestimated. Berda has proven in France that he is a businessman who knows something about the TV business. What's more, French TV consumers are receptive to French fare.
In the executive suite of Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR), the offensive is therefore taken quite seriously - especially since TV program director Raymond Vouillamoz knows his new competitor well, as he maintains good business relations with AB Groupe, as is readily admitted in the TSR high-rise. "Good professionals," is the verdict on Berda and Co. at the TSR high-rise on Quai Ernest-Ansermet.
TSR Director General Guillaume Chenevière, who is still holding the TSR helm in anticipation of Ringier captain Gilles Marchand, had downright honeyed words for RTL9 in an interview with WerbeWoche.
Competition is always beneficial. TSR has no intention of opposing the concession application. The latter has good chances: "We have a very liberal TV law, and that's a good thing.
In response to our comment that we have seen Monsieur Chenevière more combative, the seasoned TSR boss says that the concession application is virtually a tribute to TSR: "We have made the French TV advertising market attractive. But he does not believe that RTL9 will be able to grab a big piece of the French TV advertising pie (around 100 million Swiss francs).
For the time being, however, the license for RTL9 is still pending. According to the Federal Office of Communications, it should take about six months for the Federal Council to decide on the application. If the decision is positive, TSR will have to reckon with more turbulent times. Especially since not only RTL9, but also Star-TV, which is affiliated with Edipresse, and other competitors are feeling the appetite for the French advertising pie.
Christophe Büchi