Virgin claims its PEP launch brought in ú42m between the March 3 launch and the end of the tax year. Abbey National netted ú60.

The `feel-good factor’ has not proved a problem for advertisers, who raised their spend by a staggering 26.3 per cent last year. Sophie McKenzie analyses Marketing Week’s exclusive Top 100 advertisers survey

While the “feel-good factor” may be mysteriously eluding the electorate, it has found firm purchase in the marketing community. Advertising expenditure, already on the mend in 1993, surged an astonishing 26 per cent last year, according to Marketing Week’s exclusive survey of the top 100 advertisers. Advertisers will, rightly, grumble about the pressures of media […]

SB to put ú2m behind Sominex relaunch SmithKline Beecham has re-packaged and re-designed its over-the-counter sleeping drug Sominex in the run-up to a ú2m re-launch this summer to challenge market leader Nytol (MW December 2).

Orchid Drinks is dropping Aqua Libra Dry and replacing it with a new fruit blend of the soft drink to try to increase the brand’s popularity. The move represents the first shake-up of the £7.5m Aqua Libra brand since Orchid Drinks acquired IDV’s Callithekéoperation last October. Aqua Libra Dry was launched by Callithekéin 1992, but […]

The `feel-good factor’ has not proved a problem for advertisers, who raised their spend by a staggering 26.3 per cent last year. Sophie McKenzie analyses Marketing Week’s exclusive Top 100 advertisers survey

News International’s newspapers will benefit from paper price rises in the long term by increasing their market share, according to a report on the national press by Equinox Communications. “NI’s current problems are caused by paper availability or rather a lack of it,” says Simon Matthews, chief executive of Equinox, the Cordiant-owned media and marketing […]

While the “feel-good factor” may be mysteriously eluding the electorate, it has found firm purchase in the marketing community. Advertising expenditure, already on the mend in 1993, surged an astonishing 26 per cent last year, according to Marketing Week’s exclusive survey of the top 100 advertisers. Advertisers will, rightly, grumble about the pressures of media […]

Levi Strauss (UK) has created the role of marketing director for the first time and promoted UK marketing manager Roy Edmondson to fill the position. The appointment comes after the denim giant decided to merge its marketing and merchandising functions, which had previously been managed separately. The company says: “Merchandising has been about developing new […]

The outlook for conferences is not entirely sunny. New information suggests there are some problem areas for both buyers and venues. A survey of conference buyers conducted by meetings agency Banks Sadler found that less than one in five of the 150 respondents considered overall standards of cleanliness at conferences to be “very high”. Indeed, […]

Madame Tussaud’s has slammed TDI Advertising, formerly London Transport Advertising, for covering up posters for the leisure attraction’s latest advertising campaign on the London Underground. TDI covered up the posters with another execution in the series after receiving complaints about the creative work, designed by agency J Walter Thompson. The posters show death masks taken […]

Cott Corporation, the beverage manufacturer whose ventures include Virgin Cola, has reported its first loss in nine years. The Canadian firm blamed packaging cost increases and lower selling margins, reporting a C$670,000 (ú303,717) loss after tax for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1995. In the comparable period for 1994 it made a profit of C$9.1m […]

Although many of the products featured in the Ideal Home Spring 95 catalogue serve no worldly purpose, most can at least claim to be innovative.

The International Coffee Organisation which promotes the global consumption of coffee is to explore ways of boosting sales. The ICO is drawing up a shortlist of about eight companies to help it to produce a long-term plan to build future consumption. A spokesman for ICO says it is talking to a number of advertising agencies, […]

Three more people have been charged in the Abbey National fraud case. Ian Zak, the former joint managing director of the Business Development Partnership, Robert Taylor, and Guy Hewitt managing director of NRG Communication have been added to