The FastBreak story began in 1995 with a basketball event in Zurich. Inspired by sporting events like those celebrated in the USA, Bruno Barth and Fridolin Stauffacher founded their own company in Uster in 1996. By handling their orders in a network of specialized companies, they offer customers optimal support. The capacity of their partners also makes it possible to develop concepts in the shortest possible time.
Thanks to the new office in Martigny, which is headed by Karin Hauser, clients can be served throughout Switzerland. The young team, consisting of five employees in Uster and two in Martigny as well as freelancers, will achieve a turnover of two million francs this year with customers such as Adidas, Credit Suisse, McDonald's Switzerland, the Grashopper Club or Switcher. (bat)

Digital television is coming. But far faster in the U.S. than in Europe and Asia, where DirecTV counted one million subscribers just 13 months after its launch in 1994. Neither video nor CD players have ever gained a foothold in a country so quickly. In Europe, global players Rupert Murdoch and Leo Kirch are trying to corner the market. But the more beautiful television thanks to better digital picture with 500 channels costs money. A lot of money, because it can no longer be financed by advertising. And the Europeans, spoiled by free TV, are not going along with this. Not yet. pages 30 to 36

Digital television is experiencing various teething problems around the world: In the U.S., it is making rapid progress, but in Europe and Asia, viewers are far from joining inBy Wolfgang KoschnickThere is virtually no doubt: The future belongs to digital television. But the future is a long time coming. In Europe, progress is so slow that it could give you the creeps. In the USA, in Asia and even in some parts of Africa, things are moving a little more quickly, but almost everywhere there are great difficulties in recruiting larger audiences for the new TV offering.
The Americans can already look back on six years of experience with digital television. In 1994, the Direct Broadcast Satellite System (DBS) got off to a very tentative start. Today, some 14 million Americans are supplied by satellite with the programming offered by the Digital Satellite System (DSS).
250000 more DTV consumers per month in the USA
The current growth rates are tremendous. Every month, another quarter of a million Americans opt for digitally transmitted satellite TV. In the U.S., satellite reception is now de facto synonymous with digital television: Digital television enters homes virtually exclusively via satellite.
In the course of the last few years, there has been a significant shakeout among the five providers, some of which were large and some small, all of which were in fierce competition with each other. They have largely bought each other out. And now there are practically only two competitors left on the market.
The leader was and is DirecTV, based in El Segundo, California. It delivers a basic offering and a range of pay-per-view channels: more than 500 channels in all, from which subscribers are spoiled for choice. The most attractive elements include feature films, sports, music and news. Exclusive program packages with popular sporting events and over fifty channels of pay-per-view movies in particular have catapulted the company to the top in its first few years.
DirecTV is a subsidiary of Hughes Electronics Corporation, which is also involved in the U.S. space program and builds satellites itself. The company has long since transformed itself into a globally operating TV broadcaster. Its main focus is on Latin America and Asia. Through a majority stake in Galaxy Latin America, DirecTV controls the Latin American market with programming in eleven countries (Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and others).
In the U.S., DirecTV is the market leader with over nine million subscribers and a market share of 65 percent. The pioneering years of digital satellite television in the U.S. were marked by fierce competition between DirecTV and PrimeStar. For a while, the two companies were almost tied in terms of subscribers. But then DirecTV surged ahead of its rival. Finally, in April 1999, it swallowed PrimeStar with its then 2.3 million subscribers. In those days, the entire offering was seamlessly transferred to DirecTV.
Number two for many years, it emerged as a joint venture of several cable companies: Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), Time Warner, Continental Cablevision, Comcast and Cox joined with General Electronics Americom to form PrimeStar Partners, based in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. At its peak, PrimeStar broadcast over 500 channels.
While DirecTV subscribers must purchase the dish antenna and receiver, PrimeStar operated on a rental basis. Equipment rental and subscription costs were added up to a monthly amount, which started at one dollar per day for the smallest program combination. Therein lay the crucial difference: DirecTV competed from the outset as a high-power DBS system, PrimeStar as a medium-power DBS. For DirecTV, you can get by with fairly small satellite dishes. Those for PrimeStar are a bit bigger. In the pioneering phase, when the reception equipment for DirecTV still cost a good $600, PrimeStar profited from this calculation. As the price of the equipment fell, its attractiveness diminished considerably.
The competition has shrunk, but is not sleeping
Based in Littleton, Colorado, Dish Network is part of EchoStar Communications Corporation and now also offers more than 500 channels. After years of crawling, Dish Network has brought it to more than three million subscribers in recent years. It is currently the fastest growing provider of digital satellite television. Today, it has 4.76 million program subscribers. DirecTV's and EchoStar's program offerings differ only marginally from one another, and prices are now also at roughly the same level.
Meaningless today is AlphaStar in Stamford, Connecticut, a subsidiary of Canadian Tee-Comm Electronics in Milton, Ontario, and on the market since July 1996. It offers a choice of 110 channels and still has about 10000 subscribers. AlphaStar uses a satellite owned by the telephone company AT&T and now plays a role virtually only in Canada.
More successful than VCRs and CD players
The programs chosen by most digital TV users are sports broadcasts. Advantage: Even games that are only shown regionally by the normal broadcasting networks can be seen throughout the country. However, this is quite expensive. On average, each DSS customer pays $75 a month to choose from around 500 different offerings.
In the USA, digital television has caught on in no time at all. Just 13 months after its launch in October 1994, DirecTV registered its millionth paying subscriber. Neither VCRs nor CD players have ever gained a foothold in a country so quickly. Today, digital television is available in about one in eight American households.
The acceptance of digital television in the U.S. has been facilitated by the fact that Americans are used to being asked to pay for an expanded television service. Cable television is a costly affair in America, and no American says a word about it anymore. Either you have it and pay for it, or you don't.
Most Americans find it absurd that - as in many European countries - more than thirty television programs are delivered free to their homes: "There is no such thing as a free lunch. If something is offered for free, Americans sense the outbreak of socialism. And they are suspicious of it.
American cable television has lost much of its former appeal in recent years. It often offers only a small number of channels and is extremely susceptible to interference in rural areas. With customer service that is abysmal by American standards, the cable companies themselves have paved the way for satellite providers.
Cable TV still has 65 million customers
For a long time, it looked as if the globally operating media tycoon Rupert Murdoch also wanted to stir up the digital TV market in the USA. A few years ago, he announced that he wanted to offer a digital satellite system with 500 TV channels via EchoStar. He did so at a time when DirecTV had just 200 channels on offer.
To this end, EchoStar and Murdoch's partner group MCI Communications had together bought and reserved more than half of the satellite slots in the USA. But then Murdoch decided to abandon his ambitious satellite plans and sold ASkyB's two satellites to competitor PrimeStar for $1.1 billion.
The operators of terrestrial and cable television had succeeded in rolling thick political stones in the path of EchoStar and Murdoch. The partnership broke down over this. For a while, EchoStar was plunged into serious financial turmoil, but it has since managed to pull itself out of it.
Unlike in Europe and Asia, however, satellite TV does not play a major role in the USA. Around 14 million households are supplied via direct broadcasting satellites. That is just under 15 percent of all U.S. TV households. Cable TV, on the other hand, is still much more important, with more than 65 million customers.
In Canada, our neighbor to the north, digital direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television still plays a much smaller role than in the USA. The market leader is Bell ExpressVu with around 215,000 subscribers. Star Choice follows in second place with 190,000 subscribers.
Murdoch wants to reach two-thirds of the world's population
For global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, the success of a worldwide television network was at stake for a while, with which he wanted to supply two-thirds of the world's population with television programs, and possibly still wants to do so.
His ambitions extend far beyond the American and British markets. His News Corporation is now also a big player in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
Murdoch's Star TV has been operating in Asia for almost ten years, giving it a know-how edge over most of its competitors. In India alone, Star TV reaches over twenty million households; in Pakistan, the figure is three million. Star TV offers ten channels in India and as many as twelve in Pakistan. Yet only two to three of the channels are English-language. Star TV has long known that the global TV business is also done locally.
The total number of subscribers to Star TV, which broadcasts in 53 countries worldwide, is over 300 million households. In China alone, the Chinese-language entertainment channel Phoenix, which is 45 percent owned by Murdoch, has a technical reach of 36 million households.
Today, Star TV dominates the digital TV business throughout Asia and beyond in parts of the Middle East and North Africa. In the People's Republic of China alone, it operates nine channels. In Hong Kong, it even has more than ten channels.
Nevertheless, it can also be found in Taiwan with nine channels, all of which are geared to local viewing needs. Not a single one is some British or American program bouquet that is simply regurgitated in front of Chinese audiences.
There is hardly a country in Asia where Star TV is not represented with its own digital TV offering today: in the Philippines, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Macao, Korea, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Brunei, Star TV is just as present as in Israel, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, the Maldives or New Caledonia.
In Japan, the gold rush mood has evaporated
Only in Japan has digital television been as successful as it has been in the United States. In 1996, Rupert Murdoch's Star TV was the first provider to go on the air there with relatively modest programming. At its peak, there were six competing providers alone: PerfecTV, an all-Japanese company; DirecTV, the American communications company that operates in Japan with Japanese partners; JSkyB, from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation; Star TV, also from Murdoch's News Corporation; and SkyD, again an all-Japanese company.
In Japan, too, the gold-rush atmosphere of the early pioneering years has long since faded. A major shakeout has drastically reduced the number of providers. Some of the foreign providers have gotten their noses bloody in the xenophobic atmosphere of the Japanese media landscape: first and foremost Rupert Murdoch. When he bought into the TV Asahi channel in 1996, it triggered a real uproar in Japan. Nine months later, he sold his shares again and concentrated all his efforts on pushing the digital satellite TV package JSkyB into the reluctant market.
That, too, failed. And in early 1998, Murdoch sold his satellite channel again to market leader PerfecTV, which renamed itself SkyPerfecTV. The market leader, SkyPerfecTV, is expected to have over two million subscribers this year. The Japanese branch of the Hughes Group, DirecTV Japan, has barely managed to reach under 400,000 subscribers in the three years since its launch in the fall of 1997.
The basis for digital TV is particularly favorable because the Japanese are among the world's busiest TV viewers. On average, they spend more than four hours a day in front of the screen. If it weren't for the Americans, they'd be the world champions in continuous gawking.
In terms of distribution, digital TV providers are concentrating on the almost ten million Japanese satellite households. Fewer than three million households in Japan are wired. 43 million households still receive their TV programming via antenna. Even in Japan, a high-tech country, people often only boil with water.
This also refers to the economic situation of digital satellite television: The two unequally strong competitors, SkyPerfecTV and DirecTV Japan, are still far from being in the black. It would actually have to go with the devil if both were to survive at all in the long term.
All indications are that DirecTV Japan will not be able to hold its own against domestic competition in the longer term and will be swallowed up or creep out of the market sooner rather than later.
Smooth establishment of DTV in African countries
The spread of digital television depends least of all on a country's level of technical development. The media policy constellation is at least as important. For example, digital television services have established themselves relatively smoothly in some African countries such as Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Malawi - all of which are not exactly among the top global nations in the entertainment industry. Conversely, in some highly developed industrialized countries, digital television has remained virtually stuck in the tough quagmire of media politics to this day.
37 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Greece and Cyprus can receive around forty television channels via satellite. As early as October 1995, MultiChoice launched DStv in South Africa, a digital program offering that now has around 200,000 subscribers. It almost goes without saying that MultiChoice customers tend to be white and wealthy. The program bouquet is geared accordingly.
Most of the programs are offered in English, three in other European languages as well as in Chinese and Hindi. African languages and dialects do not appear at all on African digital satellite television. Brave new world.

Smart father Johann Tomforde on the birth and development of his visionThe automotive designer Johann Tomforde, who grew up at Mercedes, realized his idea of an urban microcar in the Smart. It took twenty years for the vision of the design professor, who teaches at the Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences, to be ready for series production and finally hit the streets thanks to the joint venture between Swatch and Mercedes.You are known as the forefather of the Smart. What did the Ursmart look like?
Johann Tomforde: You could actually fill books with the history of the Smart. It started when people, driven by the more ecologically oriented population, became interested in vehicles that were more compact and required less energy and driving space. In developing the Smart, I remembered the studies I did for a city car at Mercedes in the mid-seventies. In order to work with the Mercedes design team and my California Advanced Design team to develop a vehicle that was not only ecologically exemplary but, above all, emotionally completely different, I dug up this theme again in 1990.
What vision is represented in the smart?
Tomforde: We wanted to build a vehicle for people who want to stay mobile in balance areas and who drive alone or in pairs. That is still the majority. All you have to do is look in the cars in the morning and evening. There are one to two people in it. We didn't want to develop a second car suitable for mothers, but to achieve that men who normally drive to the office in the big car and leave it there all day, drive to work more economically with our vehicle. Our vision was not a renunciation car, but one that would be fun to drive, even though it was very small and compact. When Mr. Hayek announced that he wanted to build a Swatch car, it spurred me on even more. For this reason, I pushed the developments with my team to the point where we built the first prototypes.
What did Nicolas Hayek contribute to Smart?
Tomforde: The creation of the joint venture between Swatch and Mercedes in 1994 was preceded by a year and a half of negotiations with Mr. Hayek. You can imagine that he also wanted to make it big with this project. But to build cars, you need something more than just an idea. You also have to know what you have to realize. This constellation meant that we had already developed a complete concept, starting with a completely new sales strategy, a new brand image and a completely new production system.
Did you never fear a flop?
Tomforde: We did studies, of course. We also conducted surveys and interviewed focus groups with our prototypes long before this joint venture was unveiled. In the process, we found that a lot of people understood that you're going to need vehicles like this. But the rational reason was less interesting to them than the emotional factor, to drive an original car that is fun to drive, that is simply also different from the other cars. That was the motivation for people at the time to get excited about a vehicle of this type. And that enthusiasm gave us the courage to go through with the project. However, in the second half of the nineties we experienced that the issue of ecology was becoming less and less important. Unfortunately, this attitude slowed us down somewhat in our further development. Instead of electric drives, for example, the gasoline and diesel engines were initially developed further.
Isn't the Smart car more of a luxury toy than a car?
Tomforde: When you come to the balancing areas today, whether it's Zurich, Milan or
Rome, the Smart car is the cult car in all the major cities of Europe. I'm happy about the people who sit in these vehicles, not only because they've understood what we're about, but because these people are trendsetters for many things. These people are setting the signals for everyone who won't understand what the time has come for another four or five years. If a brand succeeds in convincing this discerning group of buyers, it has won.
Why are you fascinated by the car?
Tomforde: Maybe because my father was already a car fanatic, because he drove rallies. Cars fascinated me from an early age. At the age of 15, I completely rebuilt a VW Beetle. After that, the subject of automobility never left my mind. It's just that I'm much further ahead in my thoughts than the vehicles you see on the roads today.
What are you dealing with today?
Tomforde: Today I work in the leisure vehicle industry in the large Hymer Group, which is the European market leader for several types of motorhomes. In my innovation and design center in Pforzheim, I deal with leisure-oriented vehicles and develop new vehicle concepts and novel products for the automotive industry. Since 1977, I have also held a teaching position for automotive design at the University of Design, Economics and Technology, also in Pforzheim. I enjoy it immensely because I can pursue projects that have no use in the automotive industry at this moment. The university in Pforzheim is the best-known training center for automotive design in Germany, if not in all of Europe. This is where designers for the automotive industry are bred, so to speak.
Where is the automobile headed?
Tomforde: Let me give you a keyword: In view of the unimagined possibilities offered today by the new media, but also by the materials, the technologies and development tools, we will be breaking completely new ground in the future, above all in terms of the use and networking of the automobile and the various means of transport. You don't have to own every vehicle. This using items that you like to have around you as a personal ambience over a period of time is what keeps me very busy. Interview: Ernst Weber

Tomorrow's target group was the topic of conversation at the IAA Young Chapter panelBy Stefano Monachesi New forms of media are announcing themselves with pressure: UMTS, broadband networks and pay-per-view are increasingly in the headlines. Meanwhile, research institutes are outbidding each other with figures on how many users will be on the Internet in the future. If you don't want to miss out on the trend, you have to ask yourself in good time how your advertising is going to reach the consumers of tomorrow.
Since 1998, the term "viewser" has been haunting the English media trade press: Like television and the Internet, the viewer and the user are now to merge. The Young Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) Switzerland found yet another term for the target group of tomorrow: "How to reach cyberconsumers with advertising" - this was the motto of a panel discussion, to which the IAA invited to the Zurich Taverne zur Linde in early November.
"We don't want to organize an argument here, but a technical discussion," said panel leader Wolfgang Frei (Head of New Media NZZ), opening the discussion. Contributing their expertise were Ronny Schmid, Managing Director Universal McCann, Martin Radelfinger, Managing Director AdLink Switzerland, and Kai-Uwe Seelig from Cablecom. Seelig represented Peter Trinkl, Head of Business Area Planning at Cablecom, who was absent due to urgent matters relating to UMTS.
"What is a cyberconsumer anyway?", Wolfgang Frei asked the question rhetorically - yet in the course of the conversation, at least circumstantial evidence accumulated about the character of this apparently still mythical being. The cyberconsumer is open to advertising: Martin Radelfinger pointed out that, although ad blockers have been available for four years, they have not become established on the Internet.
Web users have accepted the gentlemen's agreement that they receive valuable content for free thanks to advertising. The high quality of advertising-financed offerings has weakened the former free culture and resistance to commercialization on the Internet.
The cyberconsumer also has needs: "Sports, top movies and erotica - although he would never admit that," enumerated Kai-Uwe Seelig. Seelig sees a market for such offerings in pay TV. In principle, consumers will receive a bundle of offers tailored to their needs in the future: They will only pay for those channels they actually use, and at the same time purchase other cable services such as voice over IP, Internet and more along with the TV offer. In this way, Cablecom also wants to cross-finance non-profitable offers in the future.
Rich media banners vs. TV advertising: thirty to zero
If advertising is to reach cyberconsumers, it must meet their needs. For Ronny Schmid, it is clear that a media mix is still necessary. The question is: "Where do I pick up my target group?", i.e., at what time of day does which medium reach them best? And, if advertising is to sell, "Where does my customer tend to need my product?"
Radelfinger hooked in: Besides the measurability of contacts, sales are the strength of the new forms of advertising. The bulk of the shift of advertising money to interactive media will therefore flow through direct marketing. In addition to the famous click on the TV presenter's tie, which redirects directly to the fashion house, Radelfinger emphasized above all the next generation of rich media banners: Thanks to broadband access, real multimedia will become the rule, and via database connections, banners will become actual mini-websites. According to Radelfinger, such banners could generate a clickthrough of up to 30 percent - compare that with the zero percent of conventional TV advertising.
It remains questionable who will reach cyberconsumers with advertising. Radelfinger expects consolidation in the market for online advertising intermediaries. It is not enough to simply play banners on websites. What is important above all, he says, is the development of know-how and new forms of advertising. In view of increasingly sophisticated channels such as interactive television, Radelfinger expects a separation of technical and advertising intermediaries: The required technical know-how will become too big for marketing companies.
Content Summit

An umbrella event for various online publishing events:
7th Interactive Publishing:
Conference for interactive content strategies, Nov. 15-16, "Swissôtel," Zurich. Cost: 1880 euros (excl. VAT).
The Content Show: exhibition for companies in the content industry, Nov. 15-17, "Swissôtel". Cost: free for conference and seminar participants, otherwise 80 euros (advance booking) or 100 euros.
TV meets the Web/Fall:Seminar with case studies around broadband and interactive TV, Nov. 17, "Swissôtel," Zurich. Cost: 590 euros.
IP TOP Awards 2000:Toponline Publications Awards, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m., High Voltage Laboratory, Seefeldstr. 305, Zurich.
First Tuesday:Contact forum for start-ups and investors, Nov. 15, 1-7 p.m., "Swissôtel".
The Masters Series:Three workshops on topics such as newsletters, calculating the value of content, 15. and
Nov. 17, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., "Swissôtel."
Content Networking Night:Inform. Networking event for Content Summit attendees/exhibitors: Nov. 15, 7:30- 11 p.m., Rest. Stars, Zurich.
Information: www.contentsummit.com

Prominent names announce the new appearance of Swisscom provider BluewinBy Bruno Amstutz The guesswork about the celebrities Wirz Werbeberatung sent to the billboards has come to an end. From July 17, Marilyn Monroe, Heino and Cary Grant announce the meaning of their mission possible: Switzerland's largest Internet provider, the Blue Window, shortens its name to Bluewin and gives its corporate design and corporate identity a makeover.
The year 2000 brings great upheavals for the Blue Window: In April, a strategic partnership was formed with TA-Media AG, and since May 1, the company has been operating as a stock corporation. The IPO is planned for the fall.
"The Blue Window is physically and psychologically on the move," explains Simone Bratschi from the consulting agency cR Kommunikation AG, which is supporting the launch of the brand. Physically, the move to a new headquarters in Zurich's Escher-Wyss-Areal is imminent. From this coveted location, the provider wants to present itself in a more youthful and trendy way.
A sweeping logo replaces the classic lettering. It was designed by the Berlin agency Meta Design, which will soon open an offshoot in Zurich. "The new brand image shows the change from a technical brand to a service brand," says designer Katja Grubitzsch, describing the goal of the creative effort.
Bluewin aims to meet this demand through new services and increased cooperation with external content suppliers. At the beginning of July, for example, cooperation with the publisher Weltbild was expanded.
The color blue remains the basic color of the appearance, in keeping with the name. This also maintains a link to the advertising world of the parent company Swisscom. The latter also remains the main shareholder. However, subsidiary Bluewin intends to emancipate itself in the longer term and position itself as an independent brand in the international market.
For the time being, however, the refreshed outfit should help to consolidate Bluewin's position in the Swiss market: With around half a million users, the company describes itself as the largest provider in Switzerland.

A storm (in a glass of water?)By Christophe Büchi Bilan editor-in-chief Alain Jeannet is accused by his own editors of having received a watch as a gift from watchmaker Michel Jordi - against all journalistic ethics. However, this turned out to be a false report.
The "Bilan affair," which had been smoldering in the dark for several weeks but only came to public light in the past few days, is a model of how rumors are born. But it is also an example of how unfortunate (non-)communication policies create an information vacuum in which false reports spread more and more.
The starting point: At the behest of his editor-in-chief Alain Jeannet, a Bilan editor goes to watchmaker Michel Jordi to write a story about branding. Among other things, the story is to show how Jordi is realigning his brand, i.e. how he wants to move away from the Ethno Fever concept to a skin-de-gamme-oriented strategy.
The entrepreneur does not like the journalist's critical questions. In any case, he tells him a perfidious story. He recently had dinner with Bilan editor-in-chief Jeannet, says Jordi, and the new Jordi watch caught Jeannet's eye so much that he immediately put it on and hasn't returned it since.
A red warning light begins to flash in the Bilan editor's head: "My editor-in-chief is making a deal!" And on the other hand, the rumor circulated in the editorial office that the editor-in-chief had received a watch as a gift from Jordi and had ordered a Jordi story from his editor in return, so to speak.
In general, Jeannet was "copain-copain" with half of the French business community and lost for critical business journalism. When the critical Jordi story did not appear in the May issue, it was said that Jeannet had censored it. And shortly thereafter, two staff members submitted their resignations to Edipresse publishing director Théo Bouchat, citing an irreconcilable conflict of conscience.
At the beginning only a dry "No Comment" came
The internal dispute at Edipresse was made public at the beginning of June by the SonntagsZeitung in a version obviously inspired by Jeannet's opponents. At Edipresse, however, it was hoped for a long time that the affair could be virtually sat out.
But in the last few days, the "coordination" of the Edipresse editorial offices also intervened in the dispute by declaring its solidarity with the two resignations. This prompted Bilan editor-in-chief Jeannet to come clean via the intranet. In reality, he had not received the Jordi watch as a gift, but had paid the factory price for it. As proof, Jeannet immediately ran a copy of the receipt over the internal ticker.
Jeannet also rejects the accusation that he is uncritical of the economy. It is true that he knows a large part of the French business community - after all, he organized the Forum de Glion for Nouveau Quotidien for many years. But this does not mean that he does not let his editors do their work in absolute independence. In fact, the (critical) Jordi story appeared in the July number of Bilan.
In other words, much ado about almost nothing. But the affair has a history that explains why a mouse could become an elephant. Advertising Week readers will recall that the relaunch of Bilan under Alain Jeannet was preceded by some turmoil. Jeannet's predecessor, Max Mabillard, resigned in a huff and puff, whereupon he was entrusted with the project management for a new monthly magazine at the business newspaper L'Agéfi (he has since thrown in the towel there, too).
Obviously, certain members of the Mabillard crew never accepted the new boss Jeannet. The Jordi watch was merely the needle that burst the bubble of discontent.

Swissinvest.com presents stock market transactions as part of a new lifestyleThe New Economy is betting on youth. German Internet companies used last weekend's Berlin Love Parade as an important marketing venue. And Swiss companies also want to combine business with fun.The financial portal Swissinvest.com, for example, proclaims the slogan Invest & Party in an ad campaign. The cause for celebration is a DPO. The abbreviation stands for Direct Public Offering and means selling shares directly to investors via the Internet. Swissinvest.com tried to sell 50,000 new shares to customers between July 5 and 12.
First invest, then celebrate - hangover mood included
This concept is designed to appeal to a new generation of investors: young, active stock buyers who do not want to rely on the analysts of the big banks, but instead come together to form a community that takes their financial fortunes into their own hands.
On the Swissinvest.com site, investors discuss and share their experiences in forums, experts provide their comments, and the most important stock market prices can be read in real time.
"We are addressing the self-determining investor of the future," explains Stephan A. Meyer, CEO of Swissinvest .com, adding, "Investing can entertain, can be a lifestyle affair." With a party, investors should celebrate themselves and the DPO.
However, the business newspaper Cash points out that the celebration could also be followed by a hangover: A DPO is extremely risky for the investor and cannot be compared with the initial public offering (IPO) of a listed share, which would ensure critical control over the company.
The issue of Swissinvest shares was accompanied by newspaper ads and radio spots by the By Heart agency. The ads announce the DPO, but the subject could also advertise a Caliente night. The spots emphasize the event character of a DPO.
In the style of a live report, continuous reports on the progress of the share sale were sent over the airwaves during the opening day via Radio 24, Radio Z and Radio Zürisee. "We wanted to convey the greatest possible topicality," comments By Heart copywriter and conceptual designer Markus Bircher, "and outside of the Internet, that was best possible on the radio."
New information from Swissinvest.com had to go over the air within 40 minutes. There was just 10 minutes left for the production of the spots. Bruno Amstutz

The Swiss Direct Marketing Association (SDV) held a conference on telemarketing and call centersBy Andreas Panzeri Thanks to technical developments, call centers are increasingly taking on a leading role as marketing instruments in modern customer relationship marketing. Agents in the call center support customers shopping on the Internet when they want more personal advice again.
Where is telemarketing headed? A forum of the Swiss Direct Marketing Association (SDV) addressed this question. The most important finding: "Telemarketing is well on its way to becoming a permanent fixture in any marketing mix, just like classic advertising and personal selling."
Together with Erwin Schmid, Head of the Telecommunications Division at the SDV, six speakers presented their correspondingly specialized companies as well as their latest ideas, techniques and customer programs at the Zurich World Trade Center.
The tenor of this prophetic analysis is that telemarketers are increasingly becoming net agents. Telemarketing is increasingly being coupled with other media. For some time now, modern telemarketing has no longer been exclusively about telephone traffic between two people. Rather, a call can also be a fax or e-mail.
Personal advice now comes from Aunt Emm@
Fundamentally, however, despite all the enthusiasm for the new technology, people were also aware that, even in the Internet age, they still have a latent longing for nostalgic shopping at the corner shop. "60 to 80 percent of all consumers abandon the purchase process on the Internet because they are at a loss or miss personal advice in special cases," say the sober statistics.
One of the hopes of the six speakers was that the combination of "electronic shopping cart on the Internet plus personal advice from the call center at the same time" could now create a virtual Aunt Emm@ of the future.
"How do I get on the net?" was the question at the beginning of the development in e-commerce, according to André Blaser of Telag AG. In the meantime, these technology-oriented problems have been superseded by the customer-oriented ones, Blaser said, and called for electronic retailers to "open up to the customer via all channels.
The Telag representative showed how this customer care center work can be outsourced with advantage, "so that a company can fully concentrate on its core competencies" and not have to deal with constantly evolving technology.
"Live communication on the Internet increases sales and customer satisfaction takes on a new dimension," was the thesis of Qris Riner, RBC Mediaphone AG. The customer should never have the feeling that he will only talk to machines.
Riner demonstrated concrete solutions through the use of technological innovations. A chat agent gives instructions to the Internet customer synchronously with the purchase. These are delivered to the surfer within seconds using predefined text modules, "which is easy to do because the chat agent is usually asked the same questions anyway".
Customers leave due to lack of customer service
"The fairy tale of the king customer" was the title of the presentation by Markus Buser, extratel AG. Buser drew up a time table and said: In 1980, the customer was still king. In 1990, the customer became "our most important partner. In the year 2000, we are now confronted with the question: "Who are our customers?"
Because on the Internet, there is so much technology between the supplier and a potential buyer "that we no longer even know the buyer. There is no longer a clear customer profile.
And customer satisfaction no longer means customer loyalty when you can pick the cheapest offer anywhere in the world on the Internet at the touch of a button. Today, statistics still show that "only" nine percent of customers are poached by the competition. 14 percent switch providers because they are dissatisfied with the product. 66 percent leave because of a lack of customer service.
Buser therefore wanted to show a way in which a provider today must develop from pure marketing to customer-related marketing (CRM). He presented the call center as the central hub in CRM, with agents at different levels such as generalists, specialists, and experts. Buser's credo for customer service was, "A customer who has been helped out of a dilemma keeps coming back."
"E-mail: Marketing curse or blessing?" was the question in a stocktaking of the current situation by Erwin Schnee, ADIM Agentur für Direktmarketing AG. He pointed out a number of "rules of decency" so that a customer is not annoyed with e-mails. As an important example, Schnee insisted on a recognizable sender address in each case, because otherwise a
E-mail is no longer read.

Zurich-based media marketing company CineCom & Media is now selling advertising time for Lucerne's Imax adventure cinema.Fax Cinecom markets Imax
The Imax, which is affiliated with the Swiss Museum of Transport, offers a special film system that gives viewers the feeling of being right in the middle of the action. This effect is created, among other things, by the largest screen in Switzerland, 25 by 19 meters. The placement of a 30-second spot costs 9600 Swiss francs per month. The Imax foyer is also available to advertisers for events and promotions.
Basler Zeitung launches IT page The Basler Zeitung is also jumping on the e-business bandwagon: Starting immediately, the business section on Tuesdays and Thursdays will be supplemented by the Wirtsch@ft page, which explains the New Economy to readers and introduces companies and people (e-people).
AZ to print 20 Minuten Basel and BernAZ Grafische Betriebe AG has been awarded the contract to print the editions of 20 Minuten for Basel and Bern, which are scheduled to begin in the fall. The circulation of the two city editions is to be 155000 copies, 20 Minuten announced in a communiqué. In Zurich, the circulation is to be increased from 140,000 to over 150,000 in the coming months.
APG without price increaseIn time for the 2001 budget year, Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft (APG) announces that it will forego a price increase for the B12, B200, B200L, and GF poster formats. Also unchanged are the campaign scale discounts and the BK/SBK advisory commissions. For world format B4, prices will rise by 1.6 percent. Discounts for volume and last-minute bookings will be set uniformly at 25 percent (previously: 40 percent and 34 percent, respectively). This is APG's way of absorbing the inflation that has built up over the past two years.

When the young talent competition of the established model agency Elite goes over the top, it's all about the (advertising) men.By Beat Fritsch As always, the Swiss winner of the worldwide election was announced at the annual Option Cocktail.
And because one or the other bet was made in advance, the tension was great when Option co-owner Urs Althaus took to the stage and presented the winner. Her name is Isabelle Sieber and she comes from the canton of Bern. She will be allowed to represent Switzerland at the Elite Model Look World Final from September 4 to 15 in Geneva. The first to congratulate her - the rainbow press present thanked her with a flurry of flashbulbs - was Luc Krippendorf, the life partner of the successful finalist, who owns a tennis school.
Of course, others want to take a leaf out of the book and profit from all the beauty through sponsorship. SonntagsBlick, for example, organizes a photo shoot and is then allowed to present the finalists to the public. According to Option co-owner Ursula Knecht, the wheat is separated from the chaff when the girls have to compete with the professionals for the first time.
And because these pictures also find their way to the elite, Paris and New York, sometimes you don't even need a place on the podium to start an international modeling career. Only, with the top place it's just a little easier, because the winner gets a two-year contract with a guaranteed fee of 150,000 dollars.
The music station Swizz was another new media partner for the competition. The station also provided the presenter, Marco Fritsche, who led the evening. Swizz initiator Suzanne Speich, with Urs Casparis in tow, was delighted with the flawless presentation of her presenter. Praise for this also came from ex-television man Marcel Schmid. Incidentally, he owns the agency Art und Weise, in which the Wirz Group also has a stake. The company was jointly responsible for the organization of the evening. Patrik Widmann from Art und Weise seemed a bit nervous at the beginning and sank into the comfortable couch of the Kaufleuten lounge with a corresponding sense of relief at the end of the event.
There, Nicole Hottinger kept a sharp eye on the consumption of the models present. She is responsible for finances at Option. Accompanied by colleague and Human Resource Manager Patricia Wildhaber from Swisscard, however, she also had enough time to enjoy herself a bit.
From the advertising scene we saw Markus Cavegn with girlfriend Nicole Bohn, Frank Bodin with partner Simone Korte and Mathias Schröder with Werner Windler. Windler will soon join the team of Schröder and Partners in Zollikon. Old star Peter Marti announced a new company domicile and can now be found with his company for marketing consulting in the Mühle Tiefenbrunnen.
From the film and photo corner came photographers Stephan Knecht, Adrian Fritschi and Stephan Schacher, with his favorite stylist Patrick Häusermann, and New York producer, director and screenwriter Geretta Geretta, who has just finished shooting her latest comedy "Sweety Cakes" here. The film is scheduled for release in Swiss cinemas at the end of the year.
Beat Fritsch

bathed his pair of eyes in the dazzling looks of our future star models before the summer break at Zurich's Kaufleuten.
Those who otherwise admire the beauties of the communications industry will be spotted at a wide variety of events on the scene. But who makes the definitive leap onto the coveted shortlist places will be decided by the editorial team. Do you actually already have something to report? Then you seize times fast to the listener (01 296 97 98) or mailen you to [email protected]. Online there are event tips at www.werbewoche.ch

According to the Swiss Advertising Statistics Foundation, net advertising expenditure grew by over ten percent in 1999By Daniel Schifferle The advertising industry can look back on an extremely successful 1999: net advertising investment increased by 10.2 percent or CHF 412 million. That is twice as much as in the previous year. Two types of media broke magical barriers: Out-of-home advertising broke through the CHF 500 million barrier for the first time, while private radio exceeded the CHF 100 million mark.
The Advertising Statistics Foundation was able to present an extremely pleasing result for 1999 this week. At last Tuesday's press conference, Wemf CEO René Schmutz and project manager Rolf Blum expressed their satisfaction with the accelerated growth in net advertising investment in Switzerland.
After the media had to report stagnating or even declining sales for the years 1995-1997, 1998 was the first year of growth again. However, while the growth rate at that time was only 5.2 percent, it even increased to 10.2 percent in 1999, almost doubling.
In nominal terms, this represents an increase of CHF 412 million. The total net advertising expenditure for 1999 thus reached a new record level of 4.466 billion francs.
All media types benefited from the upward trend
Practically all media categories benefited equally from the sustained growth. The only exception in the happy circle of winners: Teletext had no reason to celebrate this time with a slight drop of 1.5%.
The press, on the other hand, with its sub-categories of newspapers, consumer magazines and trade press, had the largest share. With an increase of 10.5% to CHF 2.835 billion, they reaped above-average benefits from the additional millions invested in advertising.
The most significant sales growth was achieved by newspapers sold, at 10.9%. A breakdown of this category by titles with different circulation sizes indicates a clear concentration of sales in the high-circulation daily newspapers: The 16 individual titles and total editions with circulations of over 50000 copies together generated CHF 1.854 billion. That is just under two thirds of total sales in the press category.
Commercial advertising again with a surplus
Particularly pleasing for the newspapers was the fact that last year, in addition to an excellent increase in the number of jobs by no less than
31.6 percent, sales from commercial advertisements also increased by 5.4 percent. As recently as 1998, the overall growth in the print media was solely due to the booming job advertisements.
Consumer magazines also performed comparatively well in 1999. They were even able to improve their net advertising sales by 7.1 percent, even without participating in the lucrative job market. Among the print media, this top result was only surpassed by the trade press. However, the reported gain of 14.8 percent cannot be taken as the full value because some additional smaller specialist titles were included in the 1999 survey.
TV advertising with strongest growth
1999 was also a particularly dynamic year for television advertising. New providers such as TV 3 and Tele 24, whose revenues could be reported for a whole year for the first time, revitalized the TV market and gave it the highest growth of all media types with a gain of 17.4 percent.
However, the private broadcasters should not be overly jubilant, as more than half of the additional CHF 65 million invested in TV, namely CHF 36 million, went to SRG. And there is something else that stands out in television: The sponsorship sector, which is reported separately for this medium, showed growth of no less than 37.7% according to the reported turnover.
However, even advertising statistics project manager Rolf Blum is not entirely comfortable with this phenomenal figure. He suspects that incorrectly reported sales paint an overly optimistic picture of the development of TV sponsorship.
Private radio, on the other hand, is enjoying a solid foundation. With revenue growth of exactly eight percent to CHF 105 million, this medium exceeded the CHF 100 million mark for the first time.
Out-of-home advertising breaks through the 500 million franc mark
Out-of-home advertising also managed to break through a magic barrier in 1999: thanks to a growth rate of 7.2 percent and total sales of CHF 502 million, it was able to just exceed half a billion francs in advertising revenue for the first time.
Sales in the non-poster sector developed particularly well, almost doubling year-on-year to CHF 27 million. This shows that Out-of-home advertising was very creative last year.
In contrast, cinema advertising, which grew by only five percent, had to be content with below-average growth. Nevertheless, this medium was able to continue its continuous growth of previous years to a similar extent in 1999.
There was also a clear upturn in advertising in directories in 1999. Following a 2.3 percent drop in sales in 1998, which was largely due to unreported sales of reference books in the process of being sold, 1999 saw a clear upward trend for the first time in several years with a nine percent increase in sales.
By contrast, the trade fairs and exhibitions segment made only minimal progress, achieving growth of just 0.9% to CHF 220 million. However, this figure needs to be put into perspective. As various trade fairs take place every two or three years, a comparison with the previous year makes little sense.
And in the promotional products segment, the reported sales growth of
6.7 percent to 121 million francs is merely a trend. Project manager Rolf Blum complains that sales reports from this area are particularly sparse and do not reflect the reality of the market. According to industry estimates, business with promotional items should be around four times higher than the figure currently reported.
Expansion planned for next year

Direct advertising has been missing from the advertising statistics since 1996, as the relevant data was no longer fully available from all providers. As of this year, transparency has been restored in the jungle of figures. Direct advertising will therefore be included again in the 2000 advertising statistics.
Internet advertising will also be reported from next year or the year after next at the latest. However, the Swiss Advertising Statistics Foundation will not collect the data itself: it will be provided by the management consultancy firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Net advertising sales in Switzerland

(excluding production costs) in CHF million
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Difference 98/99 in %
Press- Newspapers incl. free newspapers 1829 1962 1850 1850 1926 2118 10.0
- Consumer magazines 237 251 264 229 243 260 7.1
- Trade press 340 356 357 365 397 456 14.8
Total press 2407 2569 2471 2444 2566 2835 10.5
Cinema 30 34 37 39 40 42 5.0
Local radio 87 90 93 91 97 105 8.0
Commercial television 296 318 315 342 374 439 17.4
Sponsorship of programs 27 31 41 43 45 61 37.7
Teletext 12 13 13 13 14 13 -1.5
Outdoor advertising 391 446 448 447 468 502 7.2
Address books 121 121 121 121 118 128 9.0
Trade fairs and exhibitions 179 215 196 207 218 220 0.9
Promotional items 97 105 99 104 113 121 6.7
Total values collected 3647 3942 3834 3851 4052 4466 10.2