Swiss appoints German agency to global brief

Swiss, the successor airline to Swiss-air, has appointed Jung von Matt/Limmat to its global advertising account.

Swiss, which has yet to set a marketing budget for next year, appointed Hamburg-based Jung von Matt after an eight-way pitch, which included Swissair incumbent Advico Young & Rubicam. Media planning and buying remains with Mediamix.

The pitch was overseen by head of marketing and communications Markus Rege.

Swissair went bankrupt in October last year, blaming the deteriorating global economic situation and the events of September 11. Swiss was formed from Swissair subsidiary Crossair, and launched in March this year with a £20m campaign created by Wink Media, the branding and design agency run by Tyler Brûlé, founder and former editorial director of Wallpaper magazine. Wink retains the corporate identity business for Swiss.

Swiss has reported a first-half loss of £192m on sales of £750m, although it says the figures are better than it expected. The company hopes to break even next year and is negotiating to join the oneworld airline alliance.

Swiss recently cut fares from Heathrow and Manchester to Geneva and Zurich, in order to compete with British Airways’ new cheaper fares policy and with low-cost carrier easyJet, which has a hub at Zurich.