British Airways is working with travel trade bodies ABTA and the Guild of Business Travel to cut distribution costs. The airline is reviewing commission structures for travel agents and expenditure on UK marketing, including computer reservations and advertising. It is also looking at technological developments, including airport ticket machines for business travellers who book direct […]
The Conservative Party claims to have settled its 600,000 bill with Saatchi & Saatchi, leaving it free to hire M&C Saatchi. The money, the remainder of the bill from the 1992 General Election campaign, was a major barrier to the Party leaving Saatchi & Saatchi and appointing the breakaway agency. The Labour Party has moved […]
Depending on who you believe, the Green movement is either regrouping for another blistering attack on Britain’s less-than-ethically minded manufacturers or it is suffering the worst decline in popularity since Mussolini was strung up by his former supporters. In poll after poll, consumers express the view that yes, they do still care about fair trading […]
Coca-Cola will review McCann-Erickson’s remaining piece of pan-European business, media buying and planning, at the start of next year, sources say. The review could end the agency’s 38-year relationship with the soft-drink giant. A number of agencies are believed to be fighting for a place on the company’s pitch list. These include the Carat network; […]
Rover Cars is launching a joint promotional initiative with a mortgage company to boost both house and car sales. In the long term, the scheme could open the way to car companies offering branded mortgage packages as their finance divisions become more influential. Details of the Rover scheme with the Chase DeVere Mortgage Management company […]
Coca-Cola is appointing one of its agency account directors to the new post of European marketing manager. Bartle Bogle Hegarty account director Neil Simpson, who joined the agency four years ago, will move to Coca-Cola’s Atlanta headquarters this week. He will join Coca-Cola’s European marketing team and co-ordinate its $250m (155m) advertising account across Europe. […]
Booker Cash & Carry is launching the St James cigarette brand in packets of 14. The brand will be available in more than 50,000 independent outlets.
The Diary has decided to share some of the more revealing quotes from Maurice Saatchi’s confessional, sorry, lecture to the D&AD. “I am one who has never known the flash of inspiration, the touch of genius, the gift from the Gods,” he said, before associating himself with Picasso and Martin Luther King, among others. “I […]
Trinity International’s purchase of Thomson Regional Newspapers has left more advertising sales jobs in doubt than editorial jobs. Not many titles are expected to close. The only ones under threat are the defensive free newspapers that the large publishing groups such as Thomson have held onto since the Eighties’ boom in free-sheets. These have been […]
Campbell Soup plans to split its agency roster in half in a review of its $200m (130m) global advertising account. The food giant, famed for its red and white soup cans, uses eight agencies at present. It plans to invite non-roster and incumbent agencies to pitch during the review – likely to take place in […]
Publishing giant Reed Elsevier is to dispose of its newspaper publishing interests in the UK and Netherlands and its magazines and consumer books in the US. Its IPC Magazines subsidiary, the UK magazine market leader, will remain its only consumer publishing company. Reed will otherwise concentrate on business information and electronic publishing. The company is […]
The Labour Party is urging the Government to agree a timetable for allowing BT to compete with cable companies. BT is the only company with the capacity to develop a national, high-capacity network for delivering interactive multimedia services, says Labour shadow Heritage Secretary Chris Smith. Labour published a document on the future of telecommunications, Communicating […]
Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which used film footage of Stalin in its 10m campaign for BSkyB, has split with the TV satellite company after only a year (MW June 17, 1994). BSkyB and BBH say the parting was amicable and that the needs of the client are now different to those defined during the pitch in […]
Procter & Gamble has sold its Blue Stratos male toiletries range to a private company called Parfums Bleu, which is backed by Guinness Mahon Development Capital.
The Guardian and Wired Ventures, the US founders of Wired magazine, are understood to be close to resolving their dis-pute over the UK version of the magazine. Negotiations between Wired Ventures’ US president, Jane Metcalfe, and Guardian representatives are likely to lead to the scrapping of a second court hearing planned for this week. However, […]