Capital Radio’s failure to meet its revenue targets is inspiring fears that the rapid advertising growth experienced by the radio industry over the past three years is flagging. Capital has told radio buyers in agencies that it has had a very weak summer. Few of its sales staff have hit their bonus targets since April, […]
Ross Vegetable Products, part of the United Biscuits frozen and chilled division, is talking to agencies about a 2m campaign for its ethnic cuisine brand, Oriental Express. Barry Hannington, managing director of the business unit, refuses to say if he is looking outside the company roster, which includes Cowan Kelmsley Taylor, Leo Burnett, Mellors Reay […]
Supermarket chain Asda is fuelling the brands and copycat own-label controversy by launching a range of savoury snacks. The retailer, which has already attacked the Net Book Agreement and price maintenance on over-the-counter medicines, aims to steal share from Golden Wonder’s Wotsits; Walker’s Doritos, Quavers and Monster Munch; and Procter & Gamble’s Pringles. The own-label […]
Petrol giant Esso is planning a 6m TV and press advertising blitz over six weeks to promote its controversial Pricewatch campaign before ditching it at Christmas. It is likely that the company will replace it with a loyalty scheme in the new year. The price-cutting scheme replaced the Tiger Tokens programme nationally in January after […]
Many companies are waking up to the power of integration, but how can they ensure they’re getting seamless solutions?
John McCarthy, the former Beirut hostage, is to be the new advertising spokesman for Mercury One2One as the mobile phone company returns to TV in October. The ads, which have been created by One2One’s agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, are being shot on location in the Scottish Highlands. A One2One spokesman confirms that McCarthy is being […]
BP’s forecourt links with Mobil and now Safeway may end up diluting the core brand. On the other hand, the ‘superstation’ concept which lies behind these strategic alliances could offer a compelling means of attracting indifferent consumers.
Discount supermarket chain Kwik Save is searching for a marketing and buying director as a result of a shake-up of its senior management. The chain, which is under considerable margin pressure, has already put out a brief to recruitment agencies for the marketing and buying director’s position. The job will involve developing a new image […]
Last week was not a good one for marketing directors, with three high-profile names – including Tango’s Steve Kay – out of a job.
Publishers are stretching the booming men’s magazine sector. But a successful launch requires more than just ‘new laddism’. By Nick Higham. Nick Higham is BBC Television’s media correspondent
The digital television race is off to a cracking start. At this early stage the pack is still close together, but the Canal Plus/Nethold link up last week has set the pace that the rest have to follow.
Richard Zambuni, managing director of brand development consultancy CLK, is leaving to join beleaguered international information technology supplier Madge Networks as its vice-president corporate marketing. Zambuni, who became managing director of CLK in January this year after three years as deputy managing director, takes up his new position on October 2. He will be in […]
Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO revealed an increase of 35 per cent in pre-tax profits to 4.7m in the six months to the end of June, compared with the same period last year. AMV’s turnover in the period showed a 16 per cent increase to 159m, while earnings per share rose by 31 per cent to 7.95p. […]
Far from being the Cinderella of marketing, design, done well, is playing an increasingly important role in brand strategy.
Tim Mason, Tesco’s debonair marketing supremo, kept the Marketing Society and a few hundred top marketers enthralled with an illuminating speech at an evening event last week. But the Diary suspects Tim’s mind (or at least his subconscious) was elsewhere. After one gaffe in an anecdote about a shopping trip with his wife “er, I […]