BA seeks theatre designer to revamp first class cabins
British Airways is understood to be redesigning its first class cabins and, in keeping with its big production advertising style, is looking for a theatrical set designer to develop the new look.
The main change will include ripping out the fixed seats and allowing passengers to make their own seating arrangements with movable seats.
First class passengers will also be able to eat their meals when they want to instead of being fed at set times.
The redesign is believed to be linked with BA’s 80m investment in a fully interactive in-flight system which undergoes live tests later this year (MW March 24). The newly-designed first class cabins are expected to go into service at the same time as the interactive launch.
BA will not confirm its plans, understood to go under the name of Project Wishbone, but a spokeswoman says the airline is continually looking at new options for its passengers.
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HDLN: Big changes on way for spirits ads
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Advertisers of high-strength liqueur brands are gearing up for big changes in the way they advertise their brands following a ruling by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre.
Last week, the BACC issued a memo saying it was considering a script for television advertising for spirits (MW last week).
In a further comment, which will prove crucial for high-strength liqueur brands such as Glayva Scotch Liqueur, Drambuie and Cointreau, the BACC memo says: “The requirements that liqueurs are only to be advertised in an after-meal setting…cease to apply as of June 1.”
Manufacturers will be able to show liqueurs being drunk as cocktails rather than neat as after-dinner drinks, and in a variety of settings. This will enable the manufacturers to target their brands more strongly at younger age groups.
One leading manufacturer says: “This could change the face of high-strength spirits advertising, and opens up huge possibilities. It will bring the brand personalities to life on-screen and create a different atmosphere on television.”
Last year, the cocktails, liqueurs and bitters sector spent 13.5m on advertising (Reg-ister-MEAL).
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HDLN: Gilbey’s Pettitt for Häagen-Dazs
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Häagen-Dazs has chosen Gilbey Vintners senior brand manager Kerry Pettitt as its new UK marketing chief, replacing Nicola Chilton who left the company in March (MW March 31). Pettitt will report to brand owner Grand Metropolitan’s marketing director Clive Whittaker.
At Gilbey Vintners, which is part of GrandMet drinks subsidiary IDV, Pettitt worked across a number of brands, including Croft Sherry, J&B Whisky and Bombay Sapphire Original Gin. Before that she was brand manager with Revlon Cosmetics.
Pettitt takes charge of the day-to-day running of the premium ice cream brand at a time when the status of Häagen-Dazs’ independent UK office is uncertain.
GrandMet earmarked the office for closure late last year, but this has not happened.
Häagen-Dazs is also thought to be considering advertising on TV for the first time after a claimed increase in marketing spend to 5m, from 4m last year.
Nielsen figures show that Häagen-Dazs still holds first position in the premium ice cream market, with a 29 per cent share in the UK.
Meanwhile, Häagen-Dazs is to open three new outlets in Madrid, the Balearic Islands and Andalucia later this year. The company claims 80 per cent of Spain’s luxury ice cream sector.
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HDLN: NI veteran to fix Wapping ‘problems’
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Rupert Murdoch has turned to Leslie Hinton, one of his longest serving veterans, to help sort out News International’s Wapping problems.
Hinton, who is presently head of Murdoch’s New York operation News America, takes over in the aftermath of 20 per cent hikes in newsprint costs and a top level management fall-out.
He becomes executive chairman on August 1 and will work alongside chief executive Bill O’Neill until the end of the year. He will then take overall control of a restructured management. O’Neill will resume his role as executive vice president for human resources.
The decision to appoint Hinton follows a protracted period of uncertainty at NI. The loss of chief executive Gus Fischer and global rises in newsprint costs have put NI’s aggressive pricing strategy under pressure.
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HDLN: Lottery faces ‘worthy’ challenge
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Following growing criticism of the National Lottery, it was perhaps only a matter of time before a third party tried to cash in on concerns about how its operator Camelot is distributing its money, its operational costs and the large size of a number of recent jackpot pay-outs.
Public outrage at how 12.5m of Lottery funds was to be used to buy Winston Churchill’s archive for the nation was compounded by news last week that nearly 5m has already been spent on the start-up costs alone for the Lottery Charities Board.
From June 1, the British public will be offered an alternative. The NHS Lotto is being relaunched, with a live TV show, 1m weekly top prize and the promise that 25 per cent of the funds raised will go on NHS projects. A TBWA-created advertising campaign breaks this week.
NHS Lotto will cost 1 to play and promises to create a millionaire every week in a live, peak-time TV draw on Channel 4 every Thursday. The two-minute programme will go out in commercial time, enabling NHS Lotto to build audience and loyalty. It has been designed to attract those already gambling on the National Lottery rather than smaller local games.
The NHS Lotto was originally launched seven years ago by the National Hospital Trust – a charity which distributes funds to health authorities. It is operated by Pascal & Company and has so far raised 700,000 for the NHS.
But its growth has been retarded by a lack of public awareness, limited prize money and a lack of private investment.
“The NHS has always known the commercial potential for this vehicle, but it has been a question of convincing investors to increase their commitment,” says Lotto spokeswoman Tina Eliot.
Ironically, the National Lottery proved to be the catalyst for fresh investment to expand the game and dramatically increase the prize fund.
“This is the first time there has been any serious investment to update the game. It is coming from a number of private individuals with an interest in NHS Lotto,” adds Eliot.
Further details, including the identity of the backers and the fundraising potential of the game, are expected later this week.
The organisers aim to distribute 25 per cent of funds raised to the NHS, compared to the 28 per cent allocated to good causes by the National Lottery. The remainder of its funds will be split between the prize money (50 per cent) and administration costs (25 per cent). The Camelot split is: prizes (50 per cent), tax (12 per cent), retailers (five per cent) and operating costs and profit (five per cent).
Unlike Camelot, all funds will go to a single worthy cause, with donations paid locally in direct proportion to the origin of the funds raised, Eliot says. “It is a charity, and as a result gets the tax advantages of being one.” She adds: “The trouble with local lottery games is they are not in a position to offer big prizes.”
A recent Euromonitor report says 1,125 lottery schemes are registered with local authorities or the Gaming Board. Many smaller lotteries have dropped out of the market in recent years and others say they do not know how badly they may be affected by a rejuvenated NHS Lotto. Increased competition will inevitably create casualties, but Camelot will not be one of them.
“We are confident that we will continue to appeal to a wide cross-section of the population,” says a Camelot spokesman.
“Camelot doesn’t decide where the money for good causes goes, we just raise the money,” he adds.
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HDLN: Body Shop budget rises to 3.5m
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The Body Shop will double its UK marketing spend to more than 3.5m this year and could ap-point up to seven product marketing managers to its first marketing department, says a Body Shop spokesman.
The seven areas include the skin range, the hair range and the men’s range. It is also planning to boost product development.
The move signals the eco-friendly chain’s consolidation of its existing business after a period of rapid expansion. The spokesman says the chain has almost reached saturation in the UK, with 243 stores.
Body Shop chairman Gordon Roddick says: “A period of expansion of our product development, marketing and retail resources is now under way, which we believe is essential to our future as a global business.”
The Body Shop has just ap-pointed a new general marketing manager, Dilys Maltby (MW March 17), who will report to marketing director Jilly Forster. The two are charged with reviewing the group’s marketing needs.
The store group will spend 500,000 on launching a radio station on the Astra satellite in the autumn.
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HDLN: Robey nets new role at Safeway
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Safeway has brought back David Robey to take on the new role of director of product marketing a year after he left the company as its commercial director for sales development. He will now take responsibility for brand and merchandising programmes and control range strategies, merchandising, space management and pricing.
He joins Roger Ramsden, previously of Boston Consulting Group, who becomes director of brand marketing responsible for advertising strategy, consumer promotions, electronic relationship marketing and design.
They will both report to Roger Partington, Safeway’s board-level marketing director.
The two appointments are part of the chain’s plan to increase its marketing focus following its Safeway 2000 business review.
Robey has had an evenful career in marketing. He worked as director of corporate marketing at Tesco until April 1993 (MW April 2, 1993), when he left to become managing director of Pickwick, a subsidiary of Carlton Communications.
He left the position after just three months to take up the sales development post at Safeway (MW November 5, 1993), but stayed for less than a year.
He left Safeway last August to travel to Australia, just as the company was beginning its marketing department review, on the understanding that he could be in line for any new marketing posts created.
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HDLN: London launches brand marque
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London is belatedly following New York with the launch of a brand marque for the city as
part of a campaign similar to the famous “I love New York” programme launched during the
Seventies.
The London Tourist Board is to market London as “modern, vibrant and exciting” following the appointment of Beresfords to design a brand marque for the city.
Following the launch of the brand identity to the travel trade in September, the LTB will follow up with integrated campaigns across the world, promoting London as the capital city.
Managing director of the LTB Colin Hobbs says London has no brand identity and has suffered in the past through being marketed by the British Tourist Authority as a part of Britain and not as a city in its own right.
“Tourism in London is fragmented. The new marque will help to unify the industry and will create a common link for all marketing activity,” says Hobbs.
“This is now an urgent priority. London is losing market share and the city’s share of the money spent by visitors to the UK from overseas has fallen by nine per cent in the past 15 years,” he adds. Tourism is London’s third most important economic activity after financial services and the public sector.
But the industry grew by only two per cent last year, compared with 8.5 per cent growth across the world.
Hobbs says this initiative has been made possible because “for the first time we have a Secretary of State, Stephen Dorrell, who is interested in tourism”.
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Budweiser Budvar beer launches its first national advertising campaign on May 15, with creative work by Dolphin, the Ogilvy & Mather breakaway. The three-part poster campaign breaks on London Underground, with each execution revealing more of the picture under the tagline ‘Discover the real Budweiser’. The push forms part of a 500,000 promotional budget for the Czech beer.
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HDLN: Rover calls in flying squad
to back up dealer network
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Rover Cars has struck an estimated 600,000 sponsorship deal with an aerobatic flying team to reinforce the marketing of its 600-strong dealer network.
The three-year contract with the Firebird Aerobatics team includes a minimum of 80 events a year, access to up to 5 million spectators and two aircraft decked out in Rover and MG livery.
In recent years Rover has organised exhibitions at air shows and the link with the flying team seemed natural. Dealers will be able to run local promotions on the back of the sponsorship to inspire sales.
“People are constantly coming to us with sponsorship proposals,” says a Rover spokesman, “but they have to meet the quality threshold and fit in with the lifestyle of Rover drivers.” Rover’s other key sponsorship next year is the World Yacht Race, where it is sponsoring its own craft – Ocean Rover. Previous sponsors of Firebird include Jaguar and the Sunday Express.
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HDLN: Scott rolls out global initiative
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Paper giant Scott is extending the Andrex puppy ad campaign across Europe and Asia as the first stage of its plan to globalise creative work and brands.
The 20m international TV and poster ad campaign is Scott’s first and breaks within two months.
Though the Andrex brand name is not used in all countries, the campaign will be adapted. Scott intends to replace equivalent brand names across Europe with Andrex.
The ads, created by J Walter Thompson, keep the cosy, family images which have been used in the puppy campaigns for the past 22 years. The only change is that the puppy now “speaks”.
As yet it it is not known whether the campaign will translate well overseas. “The UK is used to the puppy. In European test groups we get people asking why a puppy is being used to advertise toilet paper,” says Glynn Henry, Andrex European category leader – toilet tissue.
The new marketing policy also involves US product innovations such as Cottonelle baking soda toilet paper (MW April 28) being launched in the UK for the first time.
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HDLN: Electrolux brings virtual reality to kitchen stores
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Electrolux is close to opening virtual reality showrooms, where consumers can build virtual kitchens using in-store computers to arrange appliances.
Electrolux has started a joint project with virtual reality specialist Division to develop computer-based systems, which will be installed in showrooms and shops this year.
The system will help cut retailer stock costs and convince customers to spend more by showing them how they can improve their kitchens.
Frédéric Marie, an Electrolux manager working on the project, says the first systems could be installed by September.
The new system uses a PC, linked to a virtual reality system with 3D computer images of Electrolux kitchen products.
Customers can select equipment from a computer catalogue, install it in the kitchen and customise the room by changing colours, content and positions. Users are able to “walk” through the finished kitchen, open cabinets, check the fridge or use the “virtual” washing machine.
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British Gas Retail marketing director Michael Switzer has retired. The company is conducting a management re-structure and does not know whether a replacement will be made.
Black Horse Financial Services has appointed Debbie Gorski as marketing director. She arrives from Price Waterhouse Management Consultants.
Travelex, the foreign exchange specialist, has poached a second senior executive from rival Thomas Cook. John Bavister, former head of global foreign exchange at Thomas Cook, has joined Travelex’s UK head office as general manager of its new business with Abbey National – which last month acquired a one-third share in the group.
PepsiCo claims that preliminary results from its first 20,000 Pepsi Challenges show that 61 per cent of testers chose Pepsi over Coca-Cola.
Philip Hemmings has been appointed education marketing manager at Apple Computer. Hemmings previously worked for Research Machines.
David Stam is to take over as managing director of IPC distribution arm MarketForce in July. He will replace Mike Tudball, who moves to a Far East branch of parent group Reed Elsevier in September.
Dr Sadie Taylor, a New Zealand GP, intends to take the Independent Television Commission to court over a 500,000 ad campaign which breaks next month. Taylor wants to endorse an advertisement for a roll-on foot deodorant called Neat Feat which she has developed. However, ITC code prevents doctors from endorsing products.
BT Cable TV Services has appointed Andy Lockwood as director. He was previously BT general manager, sales and marketing, for BT Mobile Communications.
TCC, formerly known as The Children’s Channel, has launched Get Stuff – a comic catalogue – in partnership with Hamleys (MW November 18). It will be sent to 170,000 UK homes as a test.
The Levi’s Store in London has installed a CDI system, Media Mogul, which allows customers to compare style, colour and fabric combinations on screen.
Telstar Electronic Studios has appointed Karen Ross as marketing manager. She joins from Warner Brothers Studio Stores, where she worked under the same title.
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HDLN: AMV poised to win 18m Texas
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Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO is close to winning the 18m (Register-MEAL) Texas Home- care DIY store account, currently held by Grey London.
AMV.BBDO already handles Sainsbury-owned Homebase’s 27m centralised UK full-service account. It is understood to have pitched for the 4.5m business with three other agencies – including Grey – in a process which began when Sainsbury bought Texas from Ladbroke in January (MW January 27).
AMV.BBDO and Grey are known to have had discussions about the account, and Homebase deputy managing director Ross McLaren has said savings in media and advertising expenditure quickly became evident.
The two brands are being run in tandem for the next two years until they are merged under the Homebase name, by which time 70 of the Texas stores will have closed. There are about 240 Texas stores at present.
AMV.BBDO also handles the Ikea account, though the Swedish retailer seems to see no conflict of interest. Texas offers more tools-based products than Homebase, so in its present format it competes less directly with Ikea.
Most of Texas’ campaign has been tactical, with weekly press ads featuring product and price.
The Texas business will help take up spare capacity at the agency since Kingfisher-owned Comet moved to Saatchi & Saatchi last month.
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HDLN: British Midland ditches DMB&B after five years
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British Midland, the UK’s second biggest scheduled airline, is reviewing its 2.2m advertising account, handled by D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles.
A spokeswoman for the airline says: “We are looking at our creative input and have shortlisted a number of agencies.” The agency will not reveal the shortlist but says it hopes to make a decision as soon as possible.
DMB&B chairman Graham Hinton says the agency was informed by letter of British Midland’s decision. “This came completely out of the blue and I can see no justification for it,” he says. DMB&B has held the account for five years.
Earlier this month, British Midland reported that its profits rose by 24 per cent last year to 4.4m. Chairman Sir Michael Bishop says he expects to better that this year.
The company saw passenger numbers rise by 11 per cent with the greatest surge on its London to Paris route. It is expecting a battle when the Channel Tunnel reaches full capacity this summer. A new advertising strategy is expected to build the brand.
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HDLN: Telecoms giant trawls for UK shop
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France Telecom is about to appoint a global advertising agency and is talking to UK ad agencies as it prepares for an aggressive assault on the telecoms market.
The state-owned firm is reviewing out of Euro RSCG, which handles its European and Asian corporate advertising and PR brief. The new agency will handle France Telecom’s account on a global basis. France Telecom has yet to announce the result of the pitch but the account is widely expected to move to the joint Euro RSCG and Young & Rubicam buying operation Mediapolis.
Other agencies believed to have pitched for all or part of the account included D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, incumbent Euro RSCG, Information et Entreprise and Fleishman-Hillard.
As well as the global agency, France Telecom is expected to appoint dedicated local agencies. France Telecom UK managing director Bruno Magne confirmed that the company had been in talks with agencies in the UK but said there had been no result so far. The value of the UK account is not known.
Magne adds that none of the advertising changes can be confirmed until the telecoms company has won approval from the European Commission for a proposed alliance with Deutsche Telekom.
The French and German telecoms firms are said to be planning a joint venture to supply a range of telecommunications services under the name of Atlas.
The two companies are also planning to take ten per cent stake in US telecoms firm Sprint. The proposed joint venture would pitch France Telecom as a major competitor with British Telecom.
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HDLN: Whisky firm offers malts for tender
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Whyte & Mackay has asked its roster agencies to pitch for three of its malt whiskies accounts in a move which underlines the distiller’s determination to promote its malt brands.
Collett Dickenson Pearce, Cogent, The Leith Agency, Barkers and the Boroughloch are pitching for the Isle of Jura, Dalmore and Bruichladdich brands. Until now, the brands have been marketed in-house.
Whyte & Mackay brand marketing manager Ronnie Leggett says the company intends to develop a national marketing programme to support the three brands.
“We have decided to focus more effort behind our malt portfolio. But this will not affect the work we do on our Scotch Whisky through CDP. That will continue as usual,” he adds.
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HDLN: Bates arm loses 3.5m Wrigley
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Wrigley has moved its 3.5m (Register-Meal) sugar-free Orbit and Extra Gum range out of Bates Dorland subsidiary Healthcom London.
Wrigley is understood to have approached several agencies, but its principle roster agency, Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO, will be favourite to win.
The company announced in March that its total ad spend for this year would be 10.9m, including 4.1m for the sugar-free products.
The switch has been forced by a global realignment of the Warner Lambert business – a Bates Worldwide client worth about $100m (65m), whose products include Dentyne and Stimorol.
It insisted the Wrigley brief which Healthcom and predecessor Bungey Medical have handled for eight years, be dropped.
Bates Dorland does not handle any of the Warner Lambert chewing gum business in the UK.
“Healthcom is not big enough to fit in with the global ambitions of Warner Lambert,” says one source. “It didn’t handle identical products, but things like Warner Lambert’s Dentyne could be perceived as a conflict.”
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HDLN: Gaymer drinks won by Rainey
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Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe has won the advertising account for the Matthew Clark Gaymer drinks portfolio after a brand review following Matthew Clark’s 109m acquisition of Gaymer last October.
Matthew Clark Gaymer’s ad account could be worth more than 4m – the total marketing budget is 25m. Rainey Kelly is already on the Matthew Clark Gaymer roster, handling advertising for the Stowells of Chelsea wine brand.
The move to centralise advertising into Rainey Kelly comes as a blow to Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Butterfield Day Devito Hockney, which will lose work for a number of brands.
BBH will lose Babycham, which relaunched recently with a 2m (Register-MEAL) campaign. BDDH handles most other Matthew Clark Gaymer brands – such as K cider, which had a 682,000 (Register-MEAL) spend last year and plans promotional spend this year (MW Oct-ober 21).
BDDH also has Gaymers Olde English cider, which had a 1.2m spend (Register-MEAL) last year, Concorde sparkling wine, Copperhead cider and QC Sherry.
The company’s other brands are handled in-house. Matthew Clark Gaymer says it will focus more below the line.
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HDLN: Tory Party moots Saatchi & Saatchi account review
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The arrival of a new director of communications and last week’s local election defeats have lent urgency to the Conservative Party’s review of its advertising contract with Saatchi & Saatchi.
Officially, Saatchi & Saatchi will continue to advise the party through to the next General Election, but the account has been in doubt since Maurice Saatchi left the group with three senior agency managers (who were central to the account) – Bill Muirhead, Jeremy Sinclair and David Kershaw – to create the New Saatchi Agency.
Saatchi & Saatchi produced the two party political broadcasts used during the local election campaign and has an ongoing brief to advise on “strategic communications”. But with the arrival of new director of communications Hugh Colver a review will begin in earnest.
“With the completion of the two PPBs there are no immediate plans for advertising and that will allow the party to give some attention to the use of advertising agencies,” says a Conservative Central Office source.
“We are not in the process of announcing a review but we have watched the actions of other Saatchi & Saatchi clients with interest. It will be one of Colver’s priorities,” adds the source.
The Conservative Party has estimated debts of 15m and still owes Saatchi & Saatchi about 600,000 from the 1992 General Election. Until the bill is paid the account will not shift. However, there has been speculation, denied by New Saatchi, that Maurice may loosen the account by paying the bill himself.
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J Walter Thompson has picked up 65m of media-buying business for Unilever in India, previously held by SP Lintas. SPL still handles Unilever’s detergents, personal products and ice cream business.
Pentland Group has dropped SP Lintas as its agency for the Kangaroo sports shoe brand and has handed the business to The Imagination Brokers, which will concentrate on below-the-line work.
Apricot Computers is dropping CIA Medianetwork Direct as its media buyer and is giving the 2.3m account to Banner & Co after a four-month review. Da Costa & Company retains the creative account, which at present involves press work but this will be extended to TV by the end of the year.
Faulds Advertising has appointed Nick Jackson as a group account director. He was previously senior account director at Edwards Martin Thornton. Raymond Allan joins from The Leith Agency as head of creative services.
Portman Building Society has moved its 1m account out of Booth Lockett & Makin and into the European Marketing Group. The society, which has 130 branches across the South-east, will be launching a through-the-line consumer campaign before the end of the summer.
BMP DDB Needham media planning director Ivan Pollard is understood to be leaving the company to join Wieden & Kennedy in Amsterdam.
Birmingham Broadcasting is launching a three-month ad push on Capital Radio to boost Birmingham’s leisure image to Londoners.
CME.KHBB and Butterfield Day Devito Hockney are believed to have been dropped from the Big Steak pubs shortlist leaving Arc, Barker & Ralston and MBA to fight it out.
Disneyland Paris is running a pan-European push for the opening of Space Mountain on June 1. The campaign, through Ogilvy & Mather, includes a 50-second TV ad and an interactive promotion with the Daily Mirror. Colour press ads will break closer to the opening.
IMP group account director Mark Taunton will be joining PPHN later this month as client partner (MW May 5). At IMP, Taunton has responsiblity for the Royal Mail International business, which is undergoing its statutory biennial below-the-line review.
BBDO has been named ‘New products agency of the year’ by the American Marketing Association.
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