Month: May 1996

BusinessAge to close after weak sales

Marketing Week

Dutch publisher VNU is closing down BusinessAge, bought a year ago from Sunday Business editor Tom Rubython. The title, along with Personal Computer Magazine, is to shut from June. VNU managing director Ruud Bakker says BusinessAge has not met circulation targets. Rubython launched the A4 glossy in 1991 as Management Week, but it folded in […]

AMV tipped to pick up Irish Food Board task

Marketing Week

Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO is understood to have picked up the Irish Food Board account for a campaign promoting Irish beef. The Irish Food Board is thought to have talked to at least three UK agencies before picking AMV to handle the account, which will emphasise the difference between Irish and British beef. The marketing campaign […]

Christian TV channel Ark2 appoints Saatchi for launch

Marketing Week

Ark2, the first Christian channel to be produced in the UK, has appointed Team Saatchi to handle the advertising for its October 14 launch. The cable channel, based in HTV in Bristol, plans to run ten hours of programming a day, and it says will “entertain, challenge and engage but not preach”. The station, which […]

Leith Agency takes on Bank of Scotland brief

Marketing Week

The Bank of Scotland has appointed the Leith Agency to handle the 3m creative account for its UK retail network. The decision follows a four-way competitive pitch. In the past, the Bank of Scotland has used a number of ad agencies on a project by project basis. As a result of the win the Leith […]

ITV poised to ditch Man O Man

Marketing Week

ITV is planning to drop Man O Man, its new Saturday night replacement for Blind Date, because of poor ratings. The show, in which an audience of women choose partners from a line-up of men, will not be recommissioned. It began on May 4 but achieved a rating of only 6.7 million adults for its […]

BT picks insider for Pinder’s role

Marketing Week

BT has promoted somebody with no consumer marketing experience to replace Charlotte Pinder, the head of marketing communications who walked out on the company two weeks ago (MW May 17). Pinder, who it is understood has still not officially resigned, stormed out following an argument with the Personal Communications division managing director, Stafford Taylor. It […]

Brands step into financial arena

Marketing Week

Once upon a time Charles and Maurice Saatchi tried to buy Hill Samuels; they had a go at Midland Bank too. Nearly everyone thought they were mad. The City reacted accordingly, and castrated their share price. But were they really so deluded? Leading brands are now falling over themselves to move into UK financial services. […]

Black draws up plans for next battle

Marketing Week

I read with interest Paul McCann’s article “Express and Telegraph to merge sales divisions” (MW May 10). Conrad Black clearly has a healthy interest in the operations of United News & Media. It seems quite understandable that any prospect of Hollick selling the newspaper group to The Telegraph’s owner Conrad Black would be dismissed as […]

BBC jettisons plan to pour advertising into one agency

Marketing Week

The BBC is understood to have rejected a plan to pool all its advertising accounts in one agency. At the moment, the BBC uses six main agencies for its 6m ad spend, though this does not include the account for BBC Worldwide. Now sources suggest that the BBC has considered a plan to consolidate all […]

SMASH AND GRAB

Marketing Week

The age of the non-bank financial service company is upon us as organisations as diverse as British Gas and Volkswagen rush to enter the market. But can they break the banks’ hold on the public’s finances or are they playing a dangerous game?

Gatwick Express takes on marketing team

Marketing Week

National Express has put in place a team to run the privatised Gatwick Express franchise, which it won last month after a pitch against Virgin. It has hired transport consultant Mack Mackintosh as managing director of the service and brought in Derek Brickell, head of marketing at East Midlands Airport, as marketing director. Brickell replaces […]

1985 – a year that’s bin junk

Marketing Week

There is nothing like blowing your own trumpet, and marketers are veritable virtuosos at this particular art form. Take for example a letter received from the Direct Mail Information Service, which reads: “Remember 1985? It was the year of Live Aid, the Manchester air disaster and the year Nelson Mandela first turned down the offer […]

Boddington’s Export to be axed after poor sales

Marketing Week

Whitbread is preparing to ditch its Boddington’s Export brand, launched last summer, after major supermarkets delisted the product. Boddington’s Export is a bottled version of the draught ale and uses a floating widget. It is stronger than Boddington’s, with an alcoholic strength of 4.8 per cent. Whitbread billed it as the first launch of an […]