The Beobachter advice center has been providing reliable information and practical advice on everyday legal, financial and life problems for years. Both minor and major legal questions can often be answered through these brief consultations. However, experience shows that some situations require more in-depth advice. This is where Beobachter Assistance comes in: Members receive professional advice and personal support. The costs incurred are covered by Beobachter Assistance up to a maximum amount of CHF 5,000. If the case has to be taken further, there are cost credits for external specialists. Experience has shown that 80 percent of all legal cases can be settled with this offer.
Existing and new Observer members can benefit from this favorable protection of personal rights from January 1, 2009. The cost is CHF 29 per year for all persons in the same household. Unusually, all areas of law are covered, with the exception of intentional offenses. Beobachter Assistance is offered in cooperation with Coop Rechtsschutz.
The new service is advertised with advertisements in the Beobachter as well as third-party advertisements, which communicate more informatively than emotionally. One membership card, however, is made of trust-creating gold.
The third-party advertisements will be placed from November 24. Broad-based public relations is an important element in the launch of the new Beobachter Assistance. This public relations work will be managed by TBWA Zurich in Ingrid Notter's new unit. An important element is an information brochure. This will be sent to all subscribers as an invoice insert. (pan)

 
Telephony Contexta takes aim at election advertising for Swisscom Mobile. 
Almost every day, the market comes up with a new advertising gimmick for marketing new cell phones. In England, for example, the first ad-financed cell phone offer was recently launched for the provider Blyk. Anyone who subscribes to Blyk receives six picture messages with advertising every day. In return, the "subscriber" can make 43 minutes of free calls and send 217 text messages. in an environment like this, even Swiss providers cannot stick to the good old classic way of promoting their offers. Swisscom Mobile, for example, is breaking new ground in its cell phone pricing policy and allowing customers to vote by SMS on which cell phone should be available at the unbeatable price of one franc. There are six Nokia Natels to choose from. The device that receives the most votes by October 21, 2007 will be offered for one franc in all Swisscom stores from October 25.
The unusual idea also needs an unconventional campaign. The Bern-based agency Contexta is taking the mickey out of the National Council election advertising that is running at the same time with its monotony of heads and statements. 
CD Bene Abegglen promises that "the shrewd observer of the National Council election can already imagine what the actual offer advertisement with the lucky winner of the SMS voting will look like".
Andreas Panzeri

Experts offer their knowledge on expert portals - but are not liable for risks and side effectsBy Christian WeishauptExpert portals are currently on the rise on the web. They are intended to help Internet users obtain information. However, monitoring online experts is difficult and is largely left to the users of the platforms.
The exchange of information between individuals via the Internet is old hat. E-mail and newsgroups have long fulfilled this function. For about a year and a half now, however, there have also been services for exchanging knowledge on the Internet that connect users to an extent that would never have been possible with newsgroups. On so-called expert portals, people who are particularly knowledgeable in a particular field answer the questions of other users of the portal - either free of charge or for a fee.
Swiss also get involved
international with
A Swiss expert portal with a drive to expand is Wetellyou. com. Founded in September, it now offers its services on all continents. Like other question & answer service providers, Wetellyou also wants to expand its previously small user base by cooperating with portals. In Switzerland, contracts have been concluded with Sunrise.ch, Surfeu.ch and MSN.ch, among others. In the near future, T-Online and Swissonline will also be among the customers licensing Wetellyou for their own services.
On Wetellyou, the person seeking advice can contact an expert of their choice directly and submit their question. The expert will then get in touch by phone or e-mail. Anyone can become an online expert in a particular field. Wetellyou does not check the qualifications of the experts and accepts no responsibility for the advice given.
What is needed is the common sense of users, who are informed in the general terms and conditions that the service is no substitute for professional advice. At least the member evaluation program offers help in assessing the experts, in which the experts are graded according to the advice they have given so far. However, a large proportion of the experts have so far remained unemployed and ungraded. Obviously, not too many Swiss people trust the online advisors.
This is despite the fact that Wetellyou is currently free of charge for those seeking advice. Experts are currently giving their advice primarily in order to make a good name for themselves for the announced release of the portal. Then, according to CEO Stephan Widmer, the experts will be able to charge a price for their services. Wetellyou will collect 30 percent of the expert rate.
The B2B sector promises
higher sales
Apparently, many users are prepared to pay for experts. On the American expert portal Inforocket.com, information seekers can determine the value of the answer on a scale of 10 to 75 dollars. An inspection shows that quite a few offer 75 dollars or more. Inforocket.com keeps 20 percent of this for itself and generates high non-advertising income.
In the search for revenue, expert portals also offer their software to companies for integration into their intranet. According to Widmer, preparations are also underway at We tellyou.com for a pilot project in the B2B sector. The knowledge management tool for company intranets is to consist of three main modules: an expert module, similar to the question & answer portal on the Internet, a document manager for sharing content and a project module for forming virtual teams.
Hurra.de (http:// hurra.de) is still geared towards consumers. The platform works in a similar way to Wetellyou.com, but some of the information is subject to a fee. It is not the expert who specifies how much the information costs, but the person seeking advice who decides how much it is worth to them. Hurra.de suggests individual experts who are willing to provide the information at the suggested price or free of charge. The expert selected by the expert then receives the entire premium.
Hurra.de therefore does not supplement its income from banner advertising with commissions on advice given, but with entries from various providers in the platform's special search engine. In addition to the expert platform and a selection of two dozen well-known search engines, this offers users a third way to obtain information in nine specific subject areas.
The search engine works according to the pay-per-click system: providers can specify how much they want to pay for a visitor who is directed to their site via the Hurra.de search service. Those who are willing to pay more are ranked higher in the displayed search results. The minimum offer for an entry in the top positions is 0.1 euros per click. The disadvantage of this system is that the first search results are not necessarily the best or the most relevant.
According to René Schweier, Head of Communications at Hurra.de, revenue from the pay-per-click system currently accounts for 30 percent. Schweier on the future of expert portals: "At the moment, they are certainly as fashionable as online auctions were about two years ago. I think they probably offer the best opportunity to obtain targeted information."
American expert portals

Askme.com is free for consumers and focuses increasingly on the business sector. Cooperation with Goto Networks.
Inforocket.com is limited to the consumer sector. Those seeking advice indicate how much they are prepared to pay for information; free inquiries are not possible. Cooperation with Looksmart.
Exp.com has the strictest expert control system and wants to set itself apart from the competition. Co-branding partnership with Ask Jeeves.
Keen.com focuses on telephone consulting. Works together with Ebay.