US estimates suggest Warner Brothers will have used almost $60m of media exposure from Warner and its promotional partners to support the release of Batman Forever. The company has used the movie’s release to relaunch – in effect – the Batman brand. The second movie, Batman Returns directed by Tim Burton, was deemed too dark […]
Nick Birt recently beat more than 3,600 colleagues to land the Automobile Association’s (AA) prestigious title Patrol of the Year. To achieve this, he had to prove his skills in customer care, technical know-how, first aid, driving techniques and media relations. Birt won himself and his family a holiday in Malaysia and Singapore, with 1,000 […]
Procter & Gamble is relaunching its Insignia range with an estimated 3m campaign, through EURO RSCG. The ten-year-old brand has lain dormant for almost three years, without any marketing support, while P&G concentrated most of its attention on
The Diary can’t help feeling a touch sorry for Matthew Foster, senior account manager at JWT Manchester. He turned up at a model casting session for the latest executions for The Manchester Evening News and was probably more than a little chuffed when the photographer rejected all the models and opted to use Foster instead. […]
United News & Media, owner of Express Newspapers, is to make 220 staff redundant by the end of the year. City analysts are speculating the redundancies are in longer term preparation for a sale of the ailing national newspaper group.
Lever Brothers is running ads on TV and in the women’s press next week to launch the Country Garden version of the fabric conditioner brand Comfort. Country Garden will replace its green bottle equivalent, Island Fresh – dropped because of poor sales. The ad campaign for Country Garden will focus on the emotional values attached […]
Young & Rubicam’s healthcare subsidiary Sudler & Hennessey has won the 3.5m (Register-MEAL) advertising account for Wrigley’s sugar-free Orbit and Extra gum range.
Asda’s marketing director Michael Fleming is leaving the company this week, just six months after taking up the post. It is understood he is leaving because his role has increasingly been taken over by Asda’s hands-on chief executive Archie Norman, and deputy chief executive Allan Leighton. Fleming was recruited from retail rival Somerfield after Leighton […]
French ferry company SNAT’s rebirth as SeaFrance will be the catalyst for the biggest structural change in the cross-channel market since Eurotunnel ran its first passenger train. SNAT is the cross-channel arm of French state railway SNCF. Its decision to go it alone marks the end of a 26-year Dover-Calais pooling arrangement or “marriage of […]
Mystery surrounds the departure of PepsiCo’s chief executive officer for Snack Ventures Europe (SVE), Michael Dolan, who has returned to the US to take up an unspecified post in the company. He will be replaced by the chief of the UK business Peter Thompson, who will become ceo and president of the operation. Thompson will […]
Edgar Bronfman Jr, president of Canadian drinks company Seagram has a new hobby: Hollywood. On August 1, Seagram will close its $5.7bn deal to buy MCA, Universal Studios’ parent, from Matsushita of Japan. A family business which brings in $6bn a year selling alcohol, Seagram unarguably has deep pockets to fund Jr’s latest toy. It […]
House of Fraser, the department store group, plans to launch its first corporate umbrella branding TV campaign at the end of the year. Marketing director Meg Gilmore says the proposed campaign, created by D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, will focus on customer service in the same way as recent campaigns by supermarket chains. The group’s […]
Forte is creating a new division to co-ordinate marketing across all its brands. The division, called Corporate Products, will be run by Nick Silk, former head of market ing for the company’s restaur-ant brands, Distinctive and Harvester. Silk’s brief is to “maximise relationship marketing” across the whole organisation, which includes the Travelodge and Forte Crest […]
Mystery surrounds the departure of PepsiCo’s chief executive officer for Snack Ventures Europe (SVE), Michael Dolan, who has returned to the US to take up an unspecified post in the company. He will be replaced by the chief of the UK business Peter Thompson, who will become ceo and president of the operation. Thompson will […]
What drives the flower of our nation to commit burglary? Unemployment? Poverty? Boredom? According to one sage northerner, TV advertising is the source of all evil