Werbewoche: How did you come to the Funke Media Group (formerly WAZ Group)?
Martin Kall: Through contacts. Contact with the owners has come about on various occasions. But that was several years ago.

Why did you give up your position as Chairman of the Funke Media Group?
For Funke, the conclusion of negotiations on the project with Axel Springer is a major step. Both economically and culturally and in terms of the company's prospects. It offers a unique opportunity to become a leading national media company in terms of both content and business. It will accelerate modernization enormously. But it also places demands on the company and requires a corresponding amount of energy. With the time budget I had available, this was inconceivable. That's why I resolved to stick with it until the end. After that, I think it would be irresponsible to manage a company of this size as Chairman of the Supervisory Board with too little time. I am therefore delighted about and for my successor Michael Wüller.

Were you actually the spiritus rector of the takeover?
No. That had already started earlier. It is a great achievement by the shareholders and the management. Together, they have mastered this challenging project very well.

Christian Niehaus, ex-Co-Managing Director of the Funke Group, could have played an important role for the editorial offices of the Hamburger Abendblatt and the Berliner Morgenpost as a former Springer man. Why did he leave Funke?
We are now looking to the future at Funke, repositioning ourselves, and I don't want to "comment" on that any more.

...the WAZ story actually sounds like a thriller...
(smiles) It's not a thriller, but a wonderful entrepreneurial story. After Mrs. Grotkamp decided to buy the Brost family's shares, development accelerated. This created a new, really clear structure and this is being used wisely to move forward for the good of the company. I think that's great.

Am I right in assuming that the cost optimization strategy at the Funke Group's regional newspapers is similar to that at Tamedia - simply one size larger?
Funke has a circulation of around 600,000 in North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as important activities in Braunschweig, Thuringia, Hamburg and Berlin. Tamedia also has a circulation of over 600,000 in various regions of Switzerland. The challenges facing newspaper publishers in Central Europe are very similar. Of course, it's about striking the right balance between consolidation and innovation. On the one hand, we are adapting our structures to the new requirements of the times, but on the other hand we also have to take risks, try out new things and develop digital in parallel in order to become a leader in this area too. The market in Germany is much larger, so the industry is nowhere near as consolidated. In Switzerland, the market share of the two or three largest newspaper publishers is much higher than that of the two or three largest newspaper publishers in Germany.

And now you have brought Rolf Bollmann to the Funke Group...
Good idea, isn't it? (smiles). We were looking for someone who knows the newspaper business from the ground up and has a proven track record of mastering various difficult situations. Bollmann was not only responsible for such an important title as the Tages-Anzeiger at Tamedia, but also made a decisive contribution to consolidating the Zurich newspaper market. He very successfully merged the two major newspapers in Aargau for the Wanner publishing family. And now in Basel he has completely restructured the newspaper company and ultimately saved it. That's one thing. The other is: I hardly know anyone in our industry who has achieved so much in the past 10 or 15 years, including so much innovation. He actually brought 20 Minuten to life, he and his colleagues were the only ones in Europe to forge an association of regional newspapers into a leading national news portal (Newsnet). We were looking for an innovative mind who has a good eye for young talent, but who has also established companies in a healthy and sustainable way. I only made the initial contact. He had to go through all the processes that are rightly required for such an important task. He convinced his colleagues in Germany, otherwise he wouldn't be here now.

Let's change the scene. What are your tasks on the FAZ Supervisory Board?
We are a five-member Supervisory Board. There are two members who are more closely associated with the daily newspaper business, the publisher from Fulda and perhaps myself, although I also have experience in the digital or magazine sector. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Karl Dietrich Seikel, comes from the magazine business, but has almost twenty years of experience in the newspaper business as a member of the Board of Directors at Tamedia. In addition, there are two very entrepreneurial personalities who are also very closely associated with the "DNA" of the FAZ and the Fazit Foundation. This board complements each other wonderfully.

The FAZ reported a negative result in 2012. The outlook for 2013 is not rosy either. Where is the journey heading? Are you now taking the development of the online sector more seriously? Compared to its position in the print sector, it has been rather sluggish online to date...
The FAZ aims to be a leading medium in the German-speaking world...

...but it is not yet online...
I wouldn't say that. For example, we have managed to recruit Mathias Müller von Blumencron, a truly proven professional. When it comes to online, you can't just focus on reach. The FAZ newspaper has never had the highest circulation in Germany. That is not our goal at all. Other newspapers may well be. We want to be a leading medium for a very specific target group. We are also doing this - increasingly better - online. But it goes without saying that we can and want to become even better. With FAZ am Sonntag, we have a strong medium that complements the FAZ. Over the past 18 months, the team has not only succeeded in taking Frankfurter Rundschau out of liquidation, but also in positioning it in such a way that it is now healthy for the first time in many years.

This means that the FAZ and its sister company, the Frankfurt office, are very well positioned in one of Europe's strongest regions, the Rhine-Main area. And I don't just mean strong in terms of economic strength, but also in terms of cultural and political strength. However, we now need to develop this further. The new team just started on January 1. You see, even companies that are further ahead in digital, such as the New York Times, Le Monde or Der Spiegel, still have major challenges ahead of them. Just think of the staff changes in all three companies. All media are under extreme pressure today - the pressure is growing enormously. Good harmony between the owners or their representatives, the management and the editorial staff is a decisive strength of companies. Cultivating this and ensuring that it does not lead to mutual paralysis or to individuals being run over is an entrepreneurial challenge. I believe that the companies that manage this better will also adapt more quickly to the new era and ultimately be among the winners. And I see FAZ on this path.

Let's move on to Switzerland. I assume that you also played a key role in the strategy for the PubliGroupe takeover (low offer of CHF 150, purchase of the Tweedy-Brown shares for CHF 190, after Swisscom had already offered CHF 230 million for its 50-% stake in Local.ch alone, purchase of further shares so that Tamedia now holds a 17.6-% stake in Publigroupe). Is that the case?
I would like to make one thing clear: At Tamedia, I have deliberately chosen to join the Board of Directors in a disciplined manner. Leadership lies with the operational managers and the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Acquisitions are VR matters...
Also! And I'm hopefully a good, valuable member of a team. That's important to me, so I can't say much about what and how the strategy is. You would have to ask those who are responsible for it. I really enjoy the whole thing. As Pietro Supino and Christoph Tonini have said, it's a great, unique opportunity to build a strong counterweight to Google. You mentioned the FAZ - if you follow the debate (Schirrmacher's response to Döpfner's open letter to Google regarding its market position) in the FAZ, you will notice - and I believe that this discussion has not yet reached Switzerland enough - that we are grappling with this issue. I see a possible collaboration between Local.ch and Search.ch as an opportunity to ensure that there is at least one Swiss service in this area that can survive in the long term in terms of the quality of service in competition. That's why I think the idea of merging the two companies is absolutely right. We will see what happens next. The chances are there, but you only ever win after ninety minutes - sometimes there's extra time and then a penalty shoot-out. That's what makes football so exciting (laughs).

In December 2012, you said in an interview with Medienwoche that the newspaper crisis would be a thing of the past in a few weeks. That's not the case, the pessimism continues. What can be done about it?
Yes, the crisis! The word used to be associated with living through a certain defined period in which a medium was in crisis. That's why we can no longer talk about a crisis. We are in a process of change that is fascinating. In a certain sense, it is a privilege for someone to be involved in such a process. These are more exciting times for newspaper publishers and media companies than perhaps at any time since Gutenberg triggered a revolution with his printing press. We should rather see this process as an opportunity and get involved, without knowing exactly where it will end up in a new equilibrium.

Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard criticized the lack of ideas in the Swiss media industry at the Swiss Media Forum last week. She mentioned that not a single media project had applied for funding from the CTI (Commission for Technology and Innovation) in recent years? (In retrospect, this statement turned out to be false, as both Tamedia and NZZ have submitted projects to the Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI).
Something is very stable in our society and industry. We are extremely critical of politics and accuse it of being hostile to innovation and helpless. It is only understandable that politicians return the favor. So they accuse the media of similar things. It's almost like a discussion between an old, long-married couple. Both sides would miss something if it weren't for that. I wouldn't get too angry about that. I'm very skeptical about the idea of state funding for media. I believe that innovation is essentially created by the state creating framework conditions in which people can develop and become innovative. Of course, with eight million inhabitants, more than 20 percent foreigners and four languages, Switzerland is not in a position to develop media like in a market with 300 million people. Everything is becoming more and more individualized, more niche-oriented. In some respects, Switzerland is a niche market in terms of size, and you need a certain economy of scale for new technologies. That's why some things are unthinkable in Switzerland. But here, too, it would be good to look beyond the borders. The FAZ rightly discusses the fact that decisive innovations and the monopolization of this sector ultimately originate from a few corporations in the USA and that relatively little has been created in Europe.

When I look at the Swiss media market in comparison, there is a lot to be proud of. For example, we have a fantastically well-developed Sunday market that no other country in Europe has in this form. If you look at the classifieds markets, a company like Jobs.ch or Homegate. ch can compare with any in Europe. Local.ch and Search.ch have also been innovations. Yes, Switzerland has not succeeded in developing Google, but the fact that Google has its most important location outside the USA in Zurich also speaks for the country and its people. Ringier and Tamedia are now among the traditional media groups in Europe with the highest share of digital in total sales. Then there is the regional diversity. The fact that we still have so many regional newspapers, even in very small areas. In Germany, people are debating whether Saarland, with a population of over one million, is still viable at all. People would prefer to merge it with Rhineland-Palatinate. Here, just two cantons have over a million inhabitants and the smallest are around 30,000. Nobody would think of merging them. And they all have their own regional newspapers. That is also innovation. Politicians should certainly recognize that.

Weltwoche media columnist Zimmermann accuses Finanz und Wirtschaft of corporate journalism in its reporting on the Publi- Groupe. Is this gimmickry, profiling or a search for the truth?
When you have to write a column every week for years, sometimes there are fantastic pieces that I read with pleasure and profit, and sometimes all you can really say is that he would have been better off taking a vacation. In this case, a week in the sun would certainly have been better. These conspiracy theories - which, by the way, he rightly pokes fun at in other columns - are simply nonsense. Anyone who knows FuW, Mark Dittli, his team and Tamedia knows that this is simply nonsense. That's all you can say about it. But when you have such great merits as a columnist like Kurt Zimmermann, you can be completely wrong from time to time.

Veit Dengler, the NZZ CEO, said in an interview with Werbewoche that media companies need to develop more in the direction of technology companies. What do you think?
Almost all major newspaper publishers were once printers and therefore have an affinity with technology. This will clearly be a key component in the future too. But technology is only one part. In the media companies I work for, other skills, such as journalism, are still dominant. If I have a strong heart, I'm still not a good runner, I need the muscles to go with it. It's a combination of many things - technology is one of them - but I wouldn't overestimate it.
 
Your statement surprises me. Until now, I've always had the feeling - and it's been said - that you have little interest in the journalistic product.
Tamedia has created many jobs in journalism in the time that I have worked for it - even if some people don't want to believe it. For example, 20 Minuten has expanded enormously by investing so much in online journalism that two very strong news sites have emerged from this company. By preserving the Confederation. Journalism needs a lot of freedom. And not interfering in this can't be wrong in that sense. It can also be a sign of respect for journalism to say that, as a company, we deliberately create framework conditions in which you can develop and expect a high degree of freedom. Now you can say that this is a huge neglect for which I would be responsible, but you can also say, no, he has understood how much creativity and journalism depend on each other and has helped to create the necessary framework conditions.

You've never said that so clearly before!
Well, I have to tell you something new to get you to interview me! I read a newspaper, a magazine, a website, I watch TV: all because of the content. Technology is important, of course. For example, when the thing crashes three times and it's terribly difficult to log in

Dengler means something else. He is thinking of new offers, bundles, etc.
In our industry, many people philosophize about what might be necessary. In the end, the decisive factor is what is available at the editorial deadline, just like in journalism. I think of my dance lessons. When I was 15, some of them used to go to dance lessons and talk to the boys on the bus about who was going to pick up which girl. After the dance lesson, they drove back and talked about who would approach which girl next time. But then there were also a few boys who didn't talk about it at the end or at the beginning, they just did it. We simply need to do more in our industry and talk less about what we should do.

Exactly, and now you can let off steam at the Schweizer Bauer publishing house, which you sold to the current owners at a good price...
You're absolutely right. It's a very good rounding off for me. It's new for me to be "just" an administrator.

You probably have the occasional itch in your board of directors today...
No, no, not that often (laughs). But of course, it's a different role that I had to learn. In that sense, of course, it's a privilege to have such a balance. And then as a co-owner. You can just let off steam and make your own mistakes and stupid things.

Your portfolio is fascinating...
It's really exciting. At Funke, I can see how a large IT department with thousands of users is outsourced and managed with partner companies. At Schweizer Bauer, I ask myself what the new editorial software for our small team will cost, where we will host it and whether we can even afford it. But the unifying factor is that I have the privilege of working with people who are a pleasure to work with. When I got to know the family that owns Funke, that was a decisive reason for my involvement with Funke. But it's also the people who sit on the supervisory board at FAZ and on the board of directors at Tamedia, and at Schweizer Bauer it's the majority owner OGG. The decisive factor for me today is that I work with people who are a pleasure to work with and a win-win situation for both sides. If you can achieve that, then you are also successful as an entrepreneur.

Interview: Pierre C. Meier

Google House - a small tent city in which Google's various services are presented to visitors - promises its inhabitants that Google's apps and products will make their everyday lives easier. The guided tour through Google House gave an insight into the playful, but also tech-savvy world of Google. And Google today is indeed "also an iPhone" - or a virtual assistant. This consists of Google Now, Google Voice Search, Google Maps and Google Translate. For example, users can find out about the weather or quickly check what movies are showing before taking the streetcar home. Google voice search reacts to voice recognition, which does not yet work as desired with imprecise pronunciation or in a noisy environment. With Google Street View, users can not only rotate their tablet 360 degrees, but also look up and count the clouds in the sky. When on vacation, you can quickly take a photo of the menu and the corresponding translation is already there. And yet all these functions ultimately come down to one thing: the search for information - only further developed.

The Knowledge Graph

Google's search function has also been further developed and is called the Knowledge Graph. It currently consists of over 60 trillion individual pages and collects information about various things in the real world. Data on well-known personalities, such as their date of birth and height, is linked to other data in the Knowledge Graph, such as information on origin or an era. For example, the Google Graph can answer the question "How many children does Roger Federer have?" using intelligent data linking. So far so clear. What's new is that follow-up questions can now be asked in the further development. In other words, the question can refer to the previous one. So is the Knowledge Graph simply another playful additional function of Google Search, like Google Voice Search? Matthias Meyer, spokesperson for Google Switzerland, explains the benefits of the Knowledge Graph for search and what is planned for its further development:  

Matthias Meyer on the Knowledge Graph

WW: What is the Knowledge Graph?
Matthias Meyer: We are still at the very beginning of the search. Just a few years ago, the only search results you were shown were blue links. The search has improved over time. Depending on the search query, we also show you small images or videos. Since last year, we have also been showing so-called units in the search results in German - the Knowledge Graph.

What kind of information is this?
This is information that already exists on the web and has been indexed by Google Search. They are organized thematically and thus help the user to find the right source for their question more quickly. What's new is that Google now understands that Stephan Eicher is a singer, for example. Or that Paris is a city. The search now shows "things, not just strings". So it's no longer just blue links that you used to get when searching. Google now understands units.

In other words, information is simply presented in a new way?
Exactly, the information is displayed on the right-hand side of the Google search. The Knowledge Graph is practical for the user because all the information on a topic is arranged in an overview. They can explore search results and find the right page to answer their question more quickly.

What is the aim of this further development?
We want to help people find the right information faster, but also discover things that may be of interest to them and that they may not even have considered. For example, I'm looking for a musician, but I don't know his name. But now I know that he lived around the same time as Mozart. The Knowledge Graph shows me related search queries. For example, I find Ludwig van Beethoven and Sebastian Bach. That was a simple example, but in the end it goes in exactly this direction. With the Knowledge Graph, you get answers to questions that may not even have occurred to you.

So will the Knowledge Graph give me practical instructions directly in line with my question in the near future?
The Knowledge Graph can answer my question with contextual information. As always with Google, I am then taken to the page where the information can be found.

How will Google Search develop?
The Knowledge Graph was an important step and has improved our voice search. I can now have a conversation with Google. You can click on the microphone icon in the Google search app and say: "Who is Roger Federer?" Google answers me. Then I ask, "How old is HE?" Google understands that this is a follow-up question. Ultimately, that's our vision: you should be able to talk to Google naturally. We are currently focusing a lot on mobile devices, because people are on the move a lot and don't want to type when they're out and about, but want to search with their voice.   

Ursina mason
 

It will definitely be a drama and certainly an exciting one: The takeover battle for PubliGroupe will keep the media industry spellbound as summer theater. On the one hand, there is the decline of the former "P" empire - a story that is sure to be reminisced about many times. And secondly, the battle between two current rivals who covet the rest of the empire. First, a brief chronology of the final chapter in this story of a foretold demise: April 2, 2014: advertising broker PubliGroupe divests itself of the traditional advertising business and sells its subsidiary Publicitas to the German company Aurelius. April 17, 2014: Tamedia publishes a pre-announcement of a public takeover bid for PubliGroupe, offering CHF 150 per share. April 25, 2014: Swisscom submits a non-binding offer of CHF 230 million to PubliGroupe for the shares held by PubliGroupe in LTV Gelbe Seiten AG and Swisscom Directories AG. The local.ch business, which was previously managed as a joint venture, would thus be fully owned by Swisscom. May 14, 2014: Tamedia acquires the PubliGroupe shares previously held by the investment company Tweedy Browne LLC at CHF 190 per share, giving it a 17.6 per cent shareholding. Tamedia thus becomes PubliGroupe's largest shareholder. May 16, 2014: Swisscom publishes a pre-announcement for a public tender offer for PubliGroupe shares at a price of CHF 200 per share.

Takeover Commission coordinates bidding rounds

The next stages are foreseeable due to the legal requirements (primarily in the provisions of the Federal Act on Stock Exchanges and Securities Trading, "Stock Exchange Act" or SESTA). The Takeover Board (TOB) has a central role to play. Under the SESTA, this federal authority is responsible for ensuring that public takeover offers comply with the statutory provisions. It defines general principles and coordinates the process in individual cases, for example when the timing of several offers has to be coordinated.

Last winter, the battle between AEVIS Holding SA and Swiss Private Hotel AG for Victoria-Jungfrau Collection AG showed how such a takeover battle can unfold. AEVIS Holding's pre-announcement at the end of October and the publication of an offer prospectus at the beginning of November (CHF 250 per share) were followed shortly before Christmas by Swiss Private Hotel AG's pre-announcement (CHF 277). A few days later, AEVIS published the first amendment to the prospectus and extended the offer deadlines due to the counter-offer in accordance with the requirements of the TOB. In a second prospectus amendment on January 23, AEVIS increased the offer price to CHF 305. This affects the deadlines for the offer by Swiss Private Hotel AG, which follows suit a week later and increases the offer price to CHF 310 (which in turn affects the deadlines for the AEVIS offer). In mid-February, AEVIS Holding also offers CHF 310 with a fourth prospectus amendment. In March, both opponents first publish provisional, then definitive interim results and finally the definitive final result of AEVIS Holding makes it clear that it is the winner - above all because it was able to acquire significant third-party shareholdings.

The publication of an advance notice also affects the board of directors of the target company. It may no longer act at will and, for example, sell parts of the company. (Although otherwise within the remit of the Board of Directors, Swisscom's first purchase offer for the two parts of the company would have required the approval of an Extraordinary General Meeting). Above all, the Board of Directors of the target company must submit a report to the holders of equity securities in which it comments on the offer. An essential part of this statement is a fairness opinion. In the case of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), this refers to the opinion of an independent expert based on a review of publicly available documents to assess a planned (re)acquisition from the shareholders' perspective. Like the offer prospectuses, these documents are also submitted to and reviewed by the Takeover Board.

Bidders can comment on this and request additions. This was also the case with the Jungfrau Collection takeover, where the Fairness Opinion judged the first offer of CHF 250 to be too low. The target company is obliged to treat all bidders equally. For example, if it has granted a friendly bidder a due diligence review and thus an in-depth insight into non-public business areas, it must also grant this to subsequent bidders. The Board of Directors of PubliGroupe has announced that it will comment on the two purchase offers as soon as they are definitively available and will base its decision on a fairness opinion that has already been commissioned. Based on a study by Zürcher Kantonalbank, Finanz und Wirtschaft (owned by Tamedia) recently calculated a fair value of a good CHF 340 million, which was in the same order of magnitude as Tamedia's first offer of CHF 150 million, resulting in an enterprise value of PubliGroupe of CHF 351 million. However, FuW admitted that its estimate was based on a "conservative and rough calculation due to a lack of data" - it will be interesting to see how high the PubliGroupe Board of Directors estimates the value of its remaining company and how the shareholders and bidders will react to this.

Complex cross-shareholdings

The motives for the takeover of PubliGroupe are no less exciting than the presumably imminent bidding race. Tamedia representatives have repeatedly stated that PubliGroupe is primarily interested in local.ch. A closer look at the facts reveals that this statement can at best be understood symbolically. In detail, it concerns a joint venture that was set up with these two companies in 1999:

Swisscom Directories AG: Swisscom: 51 percent, PubliGroupe: 49 percent. The universal service license that Swisscom Fixnet received from the Federal Council also includes the task of operating a directory service together with all telephony service providers. Swisscom Directories provides this service on behalf of Swisscom and the other providers of telephone connections (e.g. Sunrise, Swisscom Mobile, Orange, etc.), who must collect and provide the necessary data. In addition, Swisscom Directories AG maintains an emergency database on behalf of OFCOM (Federal Office of Communications), which is used to locate emergency calls and transmit the corresponding geo-coordinates to the relevant emergency organizations. This directory data is in demand and is sold for good money: In addition to the print and online directories, voice information services (18xy) are also based on this data, which is also used for dialog marketing, business information, etc.

LTV Yellow Pages AG: Swisscom: 49 percent, PubliGroupe: 51 percent. This company (LTV stands for Lokal-Telefon-Verzeichnis AG) was founded in the 1970s and was taken over by PubliGroupe in 1996. Its core business was and is the publishing of around one hundred telephone and business directories and the acquisition of advertising in these directories. With a return on sales of around 20 percent, this area was one of PubliGroupe's most profitable for a long time. Even in the online age, printed telephone directories are far from obsolete. According to a study conducted last year, three quarters of the Swiss population use paper telephone directories. Even if this business is suffering under the pressure of online directories, it is still profitable: PubliGroupe's annual report for 2013 shows that LTV Gelbe Seiten AG transferred dividends of CHF 6.4 million (2012: CHF 6.9 million) to Swisscom as part of the joint venture.

Local.ch AG: A wholly-owned subsidiary of Swisscom Directories AG (which in turn is 51% owned by Swisscom and 49% by PubliGroupe, see above; PubliGroupe representatives therefore also sit on the Board of Directors). This company was founded in November 2005 by PubliGroupe as part of the joint venture with Swisscom and worked closely with LTV Gelbe Seiten AG from the outset in the marketing of printed and electronic directories. After five months of development, the regional search engine went live on April 18, 2006 at 6:53 p.m. and, according to the company blog, recorded 2731 visitors after two days - today there are over four million unique clients per month, making local.ch one of the most visited sites on the Swiss Internet. Recently, the joint venture companies have combined their market presence under the local. ch brand. The telephone directories now come under the LocalGuide brand, which belongs to LTV Gelbe Seiten AG. This consolidated external presence may explain why the takeover deal is often presented as being solely about local.ch. However, this view does not do justice to the ultimately decisive legal aspects. 

Search.ch AG: Tamedia 75 percent, Swiss Post: 25 percent. Ten years before local.ch appeared on the web, a Swiss search engine was already active under search.ch. Founded by IT pioneers of the time, the telephone directory could be searched there from the end of 1999. In mid-2004, Swiss Post took over this information platform from Switzerland for Switzerland - another attempt by the yellow giant to gain a foothold on the Internet. With limited success, because four years later the majority shareholding of 75 percent went to Tamedia (at the same time as the announcement that Tamedia and the NZZ Group were transferring their activities in the early delivery of newspapers and magazines to Swiss Post). It is noteworthy that the development team of search.ch moved on to Swiss Post after the sale and laid the foundations for Google Maps, which today has become the driving - albeit not commercially dominant - force in the local search market.

Only meager yield without a strong sales force

This results in the following starting position: Tamedia: If the PubliGroup takeover is successful, Tamedia will only be able to acquire a majority stake in LTV Gelbe Seiten AG. However, this is not just about printed telephone directories, but above all about the sales force that collects advertising. It comprises around 400 employees and is therefore around ten times larger than the sales force at search.ch. Swisscom: It must fear losing precisely the advantage of the LTV sales force at local.ch. Without the cooperation with LTV Gelbe Seiten AG, local.ch would not get off the ground with its own sales staff any more than search.ch does today. The takeover battle for PubliGroupe is therefore primarily about the LTV ground team. After all, if you want to sell additional listings to local businesses for a fee, it's best to sit in the innkeeper's bar or visit the garage owner in his workshop. There is hardly much to be gained from a web form or telephone sales alone.

The two purchase offers from Tamedia and Swiss com are thus characterized by the realization that the online business with directory data alone will not be able to get off on the right foot. Although the Tamedia company spokesperson, possibly with the Competition Commission in mind, reassures that search.ch and local.ch are to continue as independent brands and that they "would be interested in a constructive cooperation with Swisscom", they also say that they are "convinced that the takeover of local.ch could create an even stronger Swiss directory provider". Meanwhile, Swisscom writes that with the intended takeover it wants to "take full control of local.ch and further develop the directory business, which is strategic for Swisscom, in the existing market environment. "

If the two opponents proceed correctly, there will have been no mutual agreements in the run-up to the takeover battle. The Bernese must therefore reckon with a scenario that takes into account Tamedia's previous business practices, which have sometimes been k(n)all-hard. Tamedia could terminate the joint venture and operate the directory market itself in future with search.ch and the strengths of LTV (the basic concession to Swisscom requires it to manage the directory for all telephone lines, but not to publish telephone directories). It is therefore clear that the assets of LTV Gelbe Seiten AG are strategically important for both parties. Swisscom cannot easily replace them quickly. On the other hand, it is questionable whether Tamedia will be able to simply switch the LTV sellers to its existing competitor product.

Who will win the race?

Anyone who wants to take over PubliGroupe needs 66 ⅔ percent of the shares, either in their own hands or as a binding commitment.

Tamedia: The Zurich-based company already holds at least 17.6 percent of the shares, making it the largest shareholder in the Lausanne-based advertising intermediary. They still need just under 15 percent of the shares in order, if not to take over PubliGroupe, then at least to make this step impossible for the Bernese competition. If not only monetary but also moral considerations play a role for the shareholders, Tamedia is at a disadvantage: it has helped bring about the decline of "P" in recent years and decades with its business policy (keyword: self-marketing) and is now acting as an aggressor to give it the final blow.

Swisscom: The Bern-based company can point to its long-standing partnership in the established joint venture, which should be preserved. The Confederation's majority shareholding could be interpreted adversely in a takeover battle. It therefore seems prudent that Swisscom initially only submitted a purchase offer for the affected parts of the company (and thus apparently did not meet with the approval of PubliGroupe's Board of Directors).

Ringier: Group CEO Marc Walder said at a panel discussion on May 9 that if a company like PubliGroupe was up for sale, "Ringier would also be interested". Ringier has been the sole shareholder of the Scout24 companies (AutoScout24, MotoScout24, ImmoScout24) in Switzerland since the beginning of this year and, with these marketplaces for classified ads, complements the directory services of local.ch. However, no offer from Ringier has yet emerged.

PubliGroupe: Following the announcement of the Swisscom takeover bid, the Board of Directors of PubliGroupe AG announced that it would take a position on the two offers and "be guided in this assessment strictly by the interests of all shareholders and the interests of all stakeholders". The better price will probably be the deciding factor, even though the press release concludes: "PubliGroupe is positioning itself as a leading European provider in the field of performance marketing and digital advertising trading. Following the sale of Publicitas, the group will generate over 80 percent of its sales with digital products and services. " The Board of Directors will want to demonstrate the extent to which the existing holdings (such as Zanox) and the recently acquired new holdings (including Improve Digital, Spree7 and recently Sellbranch) not only form a pure holding company whose assets can be traded individually, but how these holdings together can achieve promising synergies with added value. If this is successful, shareholders could be persuaded to hold on to their shares, or a new owner could be prevented from breaking up the rest of the company and selling it to the highest bidder.

Fear opponent Google

Finally, the question arises as to the future prospects in this business, as the keyword "local search" could be about much more than just telephone directories. And there is a clear fear opponent and that is Google. Although Google does not have private addresses like local. ch and search.ch, but only companies are of interest for ad sales anyway. And they have long had their own websites and can therefore be found directly via search engines without having to switch to a special directory. While many commercial websites today are still old-fashioned and home-made, this will change in the near future. The market for professional web design is well-stocked and these SME sites are becoming increasingly interactive, search engine-optimized and geo-coded. Both local.ch and search.ch could have been innovative in this area for years, but have stuck to their core business. According to an entry on the employer review portal kanunu. com about local.ch from 2012, the employees seem to have recognized this, but not the bosses: "The management should focus much more on online instead of continuing to keep the printed directories. Customers are being ripped off because they are told that the advertising products are great for them."

Whoever emerges victorious from the takeover battle: Further consolidation in the online directory market in Switzerland is foreseeable, at least in the longer term. It therefore seems questionable to burn millions of francs in a takeover battle - in a dwindling market, not to mention a market in which around one million francs are offered per LTV sales representative. A forward-looking merger would be preferable to a costly takeover - especially if the planned takeover does not materialize. Such a new company could combine the strengths of the three players and would have a better chance of scoring points in the market against Google. This can only succeed if an innovative start-up with entrepreneurial freedom is created. The Competition Commission is unlikely to oppose such a merger (or a takeover). When it had to assess the joint venture four years ago, it found no reason to examine the case and said that it would be easy for new online directory services to enter the market as they could all use the same basic data. Since end customers could simply switch to other providers, such as search engines, the advertising market in this area was exposed to neighboring markets and the constantly decreasing importance of telephone directories and printed business directories also suggested that there was great competitive pressure, so that it was hardly possible in this advertising market to set prices independently in a monopoly-like manner. If such a merger were to take place today, the only ones to lose out would be PubliGroupe shareholders, who would still have to wait (and hope) for their shrunken company to earn a better price on the stock market through its own efforts - and they are unlikely to do so.

Christoph J. Walther
 

An interesting mix, it seems to me: a seasoned creative, already nominated a few times and working for the same, very successful agency for a long time; a creative, also an ADC board member, who has an appetite for change and really sees communication holistically; a creative who is successful with his agency in the digital field (3rd place in the Best of Swiss Web Ranking (overall ranking of all agencies in Switzerland) and 1st place in the field of "Creation "); a long-standing advertiser who, after many years as CEO, now heads the entire advertising agency group; an advertiser who, for once, does not come from Zurich and is interested in SME clients and their needs. Last but not least, a woman, strategist, advertiser, who is enthusiastic about the Swiss advertising industry and disappointed that the industry has lost its courage in recent years. She wants to change that - after all, she was already Advertiser of the Year.

My warmest congratulations to all the nominees. They have already taken the first step towards becoming Advertiser of the Year. Now it's time to wait and see. Werbewoche subscribers can now choose their favorite from the nominees. They will receive the voting documents at the beginning of next week. As always, you can also vote for a person who has not been nominated. The last possible date for sending in the voting cards is May 30.

The editorial team has selected 20 campaigns that we believe show a good reflection of the advertising industry and is putting them up for election as "Campaign of the Year". All readers can vote online here until May 30. At Werbewoche.ch, there is a corresponding Link.

On June 5, the winner of the vote will then receive the coveted Egon from Werbewoche and be able to celebrate the evening as the newly crowned Advertiser of the Year 2014. The title "Campaign of the Year" will also be awarded then. The winning agency and its client will receive an award.

On the evening of the Swiss Brand Congress, the award ceremony will take place at the gala event "Night of the Brand" at "The Dolder Grand" in Zurich. Details can be found on Night-of-the-Mark.ch. We look forward to seeing you.

Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
 

Ovrea Corporate Personality was used for this. The branding for the site is to become an autonomous brand, independent of SBB, which reflects the diversity of use and enables clear positioning, the agency said in a press release on Thursday. Felder Vogel has created the following elements as a first step: Naming, logo, corporate design, brochure "perron - village luzern rösslimatt" and the Website for the first project phase.

Responsible at Felder Vogel: Daniel Felder (art direction), Mark Vogel (strategy, concept and text), Dorothee Ketterer and Andrea Pfister (project management and media), Michael Mathis (graphic design), Menk Bürgi (photography), Janic Halioua (film), Ina Gammerdinger (social media and PR). Responsible at SBB Real Estate: Massimo Guglielmetti (SBB Development, GPL Site Development), Ruedi Eicher (SBB Marketing), Urs Schmid (SBB Communications), Eduardo Silva (SBB Investment Property Management), Marco Imboden (SBB Portfolio Management), Ronny Reuther (SBB Development, GPL Construction Site A).

Last year, 30 companies, agencies and productions including Bayer, Bosch, Deutsche Bahn, Daimler, Fresenius, Lufthansa and RWE took part in the competition with 85 films. The awards ceremony for the 3rd PR Film Festival will take place in Berlin on September 24, 2014.

Work can be completed until May 30. here be submitted.
 

In contrast to conventional pack sack packaging, the packaging is made entirely of cardboard. Adhesives or plastic elements have been deliberately avoided, the company said in a statement on Thursday. In addition, care was taken to use as little cardboard as possible in production.

A lamella-like folding technique allows the alternation of low-lying and high-lying lamella elements to fix the rolled-up packaging bag. This is possible because the product with its expansion tension fills the created space between the alternately arranged lamella elements with pressure and thus stabilizes the packaging, according to the statement. The product is, so to speak, a functional component of the packaging. At the POS, the product can be experienced by the customer by simply removing it and is easy for the retailer to stow away again.

Keim Identity is responsible for the development of the packaging shape and the packaging design. Both packaging lines received an IF-Packaging Award and are nominated for the German Design Award.
 

Rod Kommunikation regularly conducts research as the basis for its advertising. In the context of the mass immigration initiative, the agency noticed that the public was "very surprised" to learn that foreigners make up around a fifth of the resident population in Switzerland. "This raised the question for us: How much did advertising contribute to this shift in perception?" explains Regula Fecker. The question became the motivation for a study: "How much diversity does Swiss advertising dare to embrace?" The surprising results should not be judged ethically or morally. Nor does Rod want to make any recommendations. "We just want to establish that there is a gap here."

Advertising shapes the "we-feeling" of a country. Brands strive to be familiar and close to their consumers. They want to have their finger on the pulse of the times and respond to social and societal changes. That's why we also see "working moms", vital "best agers", hedonistic "DINKS" and environmentally conscious "LOHAS" in today's TV commercials. Swiss brands produce advertising that appeals to the people of Switzerland by depicting them and their lifestyle. "That's why Swiss advertising plays an important role in creating a Swiss identity," says Fecker.

Missing foreigners

But how present is Switzerland's high proportion of foreigners (23.3%) in Swiss advertising? To find the answer, Regula Fecker and Anne Langer analyzed 2638 TV commercials and 1141 different posters "by hand". These were all TV commercials that were placed in German-speaking Switzerland in 2013 via Publisuisse, as well as the APG posters. The results are astounding: around 94% of the TV commercials broadcast in Switzerland contain only white actors. Only 6 percent feature one or more actors of color. The picture is the same for posters at around 97 percent. Advertising in Switzerland therefore shows hardly any people from other cultures or with a migration background. There are only a few exceptions, such as Rivella, AMAG and Swisslos, as well as the global brands Apple, H&M and L'Oréal.

Rod's conclusion: Advertising in Switzerland portrays the country and its inhabitants as a uniform nation that does not exist. It fails to portray the country and its inhabitants as international, global and multicultural. Those who do it differently would have "a huge opportunity to differentiate themselves in the advertising market."

Andreas Panzeri

The complete study can be downloaded from www.rod.ag for CHF 90.

Filippo Leutenegger is stepping down from his position as long-standing President of Aktion Medienfreiheit in view of his new role in the Zurich city government, according to a statement from the association. The General Assembly then unanimously and with applause elected Natalie Rickli, National Councillor from Winterthur, as the new President of Aktion Medienfreiheit. Rickli is a member of the SVP and was already Vice President of Aktion Medienfreiheit from 2008-2014. She has worked in the media industry since completing her apprenticeship. She is also Vice-President of the National Council's Committee for Transport and Telecommunications and a member of the National Council's Legal Affairs Committee.

The new Vice President of the Association will be National Councillor Christian Wasserfallen from Bern. Following the General Assembly, Professor of Journalism Otfried Jarren spoke about his duties as President of the Federal Media Commission.

The National Councillors Thomas Maier (GLP), Thomas Müller (SVP), Marco Romano (CVP), Gregor Rutz (SVP) as well as Martin Baltisser, Pierre Bessard and Filippo Leutenegger (FDP) are also active on the Board.

Teaser image: Keystone

There is no question that the complexity of communication tasks has clearly increased in the digital age - and generally more than the resources available (which usually tend in the other direction). However, this also means that the quality of communication measures and the need to prove their effectiveness have become even more important nowadays.

The members of the "bsw leading swiss agencies" are delighted with both, as they have a proven track record of particularly efficient and effective communication in this country. This is demonstrated every two years at the EFFIE Awards, which are regularly dominated by bsw agencies, including this year with 15 out of 16 winners. But it is also documented in all the campaigns that attracted particular attention from the general public and the respective target groups last year - and most of which can be found in the recently published bsw portrait book. For clients, this means: Leafing through it is doubly worthwhile. Not least, it gives them a great deal of investment security, because "bsw leading swiss agencies" is not only the association of Switzerland's leading communications agencies, but also a reliable seal of quality.

This is ultimately only awarded to members who meet a large number of strict quality criteria in a complex admission procedure and have a certain market position as well as proven experience and expertise. Incidentally, 74 agencies currently hold the bsw quality label, which is 12 more than three years ago. Their importance is also reflected in the fact that they realize around two thirds of the total advertising volume in Switzerland on behalf of their clients. However, our members are no longer just recruited from the advertising and media sector. As the new bsw President, I am particularly pleased that we are increasingly attracting leading digital, dialog and corporate agencies to our association and are thus able to represent the entire communications industry even better.

So if you are looking for a partner in the near future, we highly recommend reading our bsw yearbook, and not just when looking for a competent advertising or media agency. In addition to a practical guide to choosing an agency, you will find a who's who of the country's most talented strategic and creative minds as well as numerous successful examples from all communication disciplines. The spectrum ranges from a simple idea to a multi-year campaign to a complex cross-media case study and a completely new corporate image It goes without saying that good quality comes at a fair price. Anyone who views communication primarily as a cost factor and not as a long-term investment in the success of the brand and the company ultimately fails to recognize its importance and potential. As bsw leading swiss agencies, we therefore advocate fair and transparent remuneration that respects the value of ideas and their use. And we oppose the fact that creative services are increasingly being purchased on the basis of price alone, without consideration of quality, such as screws or pork bellies. Incidentally, we would like to remind all the ambitious procurement people of a crucial insight that unfortunately comes too late in many cases: only ineffective communication is really expensive, no matter how cheaply it has been purchased.

With this in mind: Invest well!

PS: The bsw yearbook with the agency portraits can be ordered via www.bsw.ch. Or from the bsw office, Weinbergstrasse 148, 8005 Zurich.
 

The film shows a little man who rightly doesn't want to watch his favorite film on a small screen, but demands more. For more space: "Good, from now on there are Post-it Super Sticky Notes in large." The commercial was accompanied by the rocking sound of the band "The Wee Sma's" with the song "Hi Ho".

Fittingly, the commercial was shown in a large-scale cinema campaign in Switzerland and Austria. In addition, a promotion team distributed samples with an enclosed prize code before and after the screenings. The codes can be redeemed on the microsite http://www.mypostit.ch. There are 450 cinema admissions to be won as well as a cinema voucher worth 500 francs as the main prize.

The site is conceived and programmed in responsive design. To date, over 11,600 codes have been redeemed and over 6,700 moviegoers have already registered for the competition.

Responsible at 3M: Priska Engelbogen (Head of Communications), Paola Fabbian and Stefan Marte (Head of Marketing). Responsible at Noise: Patrik Leuenberger (overall responsibility), Vanessa Pfründer (consulting), Andreas Mädler (creative director), Nijan Ouliaei (online marketing), Claudio Knechtle (text), Marius Eitzinger (graphics), Johannes Röttger (programming). Responsible at Trikk17 animation room: Björn Magsig (producer), Sandra Schiessl (director), Michael Verhülsdonk (illustration/animation).

From May 15 to 18, passers-by, art fans and car enthusiasts at the central station experienced "how an illusion becomes reality" - international urban artists each had one day to stage a Volvo XC90 together with the background integrally according to their ideas. At the end of each day, a three-dimensional work of art was created, which was painted over the next day and restaged by the next artist. Passers-by were not only allowed to watch, the entire performance could also be walked through at the same time. The highlight of this year's Volvo Art Session was a three-dimensional installation by Swedish artist Erik Johansson - also interesting was the presentation of Volvo's foldable carbon fiber solar panel. Melanie Winiger and Blanda Eggenschwiler opened the Art Session. They unveiled Erik Johansson's artwork: a three-dimensional illusion on which Marc Sway's showcase made the illusion a reality.

The Volvo Art Session took place for the fourth time in 2014 - Simon Krappl, Head of Corporate Communications at Volvo Automobile Switzerland, explains why:

WW: Has the VAS been so successful so far?
 
 Simon Krappl: Yes, we actually started really small on a very small stage. Then the event got bigger and bigger. The Volvo Art Session has established itself, both with the media and with the spectators. The event also attracts a lot of interest from artists. We had inquiries from various artists.

Which artists have applied?
We already work successfully with some artists, such as Daim. He has already been on the VAS stage twice and designed this year's VAS logo. He is now an Ambassador for Volvo. Blanda Eggenschwiler was on stage in 2013 and designed a Volvo Art Car. We were also in contact with knitwear artist Olek from New York. In the end, however, we had to select the artists in such a way that they fit the brand on the one hand and can offer a certain added value on the other.

Should the VAS change the brand image?
Volvo was perceived as rather rational. That is no longer the case. The focus has really changed. Of course, the core values are still very important at Volvo, especially safety, sustainability and quality. But for a few years now, the focus has been on the design aspect. They're going one step further by showing what's innovative about the brand and thus demonstrating the emotional value.

What connects the VAS slogan "Experience how an illusion becomes reality" with the brand?
The connection is that we wanted to do something different. That is, reinventing even something established is always difficult. We succeeded with the 3D illusion by Swedish photographer-artist Erik Johansson. You have to give people a platform to define themselves or to stage themselves. Today, communication no longer moves in just one direction. In all social media, people want interaction, and they want to participate in the brand. Nobody buys a premium brand just because they want to drive from A to B, but because they want to make a statement with their choice.

Ursina mason