The Government’s cross-media ownership review should be completed soon, National Heritage Secretary Stephen Dorrell told MPs this week. `It is important to bring the process to a close because there are important issues to do with the structure of the market which need to be resolved,’ says Dorrell. The revised European Broadcasting Directive due to […]
Salisbury’s, the 350-store fashion retail group which includes Sock Shop, Torq and Red or Dead, is looking for a group marketing director to manage its growing portfolio of retail and consumer brands. Entrepreneur Stephen Hinchliffe bought luggage and handbag chain Salisbury’s from Signet last summer for an estimated knock-down price of £3.2m. He has since […]
Glaxo’s ú9bn bid for Wellcome is believed to have been cleared by the European Commission. The decision, taken by the EC’s merger task force, is the first legal hoop the controversial bid has to jump through.
I hope when the IPA looks at the radio industry it will not spend too long on “theoretical worries” arising from concentration and focus more on how the leading companies have actually exercised their power. In this case, Capital Radio seems to be most under scrutiny. But the majority of observers in the radio industry […]
British marketing isn’t what it used to be, says a recent article in the Economist. A series of misfortunes engulfing such Eighties bellwethers as Saatchi & Saatchi, Unilever and J Sainsbury has exposed them as City idols with feet of clay. It might seem nit-picking to question the misfortune afflicting J Sainsbury, which has seen […]
SelecTV, the independent production company responsible for TV hits including Birds of a Feather and Boon, is to launch its own cable channel on May 21. The company confirmed plans this week at the same time as the Independent Television Commission published its latest figures, showing the continued growth of UK cable. In the last […]
Abbey National is preparing to launch a ú15m TV campaign shot in the Virgin Isles as an upbeat replacement for the bank’s grumpy Victor Meldrew character.
Zenith Media will not lose the Mars media buying business, despite Saatchi & Saatchi’s loss of the global and media strategy business, Mars confirmed this week. According to John Murray, staff officer (franchise) at Mars in the US: “There is no media buying review underway and we are not making any special evaluation of media […]
SmithKline Beecham has signed a deal with US diagnostics manufacturer Epitope to market HIV test kit Orasure worldwide. The deal, first revealed in Marketing Week (January 27), is SB’s first joint venture with an outside diagnostics pharmaceutical company and it signals the company’s intention to enter the home-test kit market. The product involves the testing […]
The Government’s cross-media ownership review should be completed soon, National Heritage Secretary Stephen Dorrell told MPs this week. `It is important to bring the process to a close because there are important issues to do with the structure of the market which need to be resolved,’ says Dorrell. The revised European Broadcasting Directive due to […]
Arsenal footballer Ian Wright is demanding damages from Harari Page and Harvey Nichols for an ad featuring his naked body. The March edition of Esquire magazine carries a one-off ad showing pictures of Wright and supermodel Naomi Campbell. It consists of two three-page spreads of the two lying in identical poses. The catchline, which is […]
Clark & Taylor has pulled out of the pitch for the ú2m Future Zone account after the computer games retailer warned of spiralling losses and called for a ú4m rescue package.
Cadbury is embarking on its biggest ever chocolate bar promotion, and using racing star Nigel Mansell for the push. Race the Ace, a £2m go-karting promotion, is being handled by sales promotion agency Osprey CSP, which won the business after a competitive pitch. The promotion will include a £500,000 TV campaign. Cadbury is offering a […]
Courage, Britain’s second biggest brewer, is set to split from long-standing roster agency BMP DDB Needham, which could mean the end of the TV advertisements starring comedian Jack Dee and the dancing penguins. The move follows a client conflict with US brewer Anheuser-Busch, which hired BMP’s parent to handle its account last November (MW November […]
Poster specialist More O’Ferrall is gearing up for a fight with the Joint Industry Council on Poster Audience Research (JICPAR) over the introduction of Oscar II – the industry’s new research and planning system. MOF is understood to want the geodemographic part of the system scrapped because it does not believe that models of local […]