The Premier League has blocked Manchester United from screening a pay-per-view game tonight (Wednesday) because it risked breaking exclusive TV rights with Sky and the BBC. It is the first time that a Premier League club has tested the power of Sky’s exclusivity deal by threatening to do its own pay-per-view operation. The biggest club […]
Butlin’s is reviewing its 3.5m creative account at Leo Burnett. The review was sparked by management changes at parent Rank Holidays and the appointment of an as yet unnamed marketing director Burnett, which will not repitch for the business, won the above-the-line account a year ago, although the agency has only worked on a post-Christmas […]
Disney’s next animated musical, Hercules, is set for a UK flop when it launches in the autumn following poor audiences and weak merchandise sales in the US. Hercules, based on the story of the mythical strongman, is due for release in the UK in October but has so far made less than $100m (62.5m) at […]
Banks’ targeting of young people betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of their attitudes to money. Adopting a more positive approach would be a change for the better. Nigel Morris is a director at Full Circle and marketing director of BBJ Me
Camelot marketing director Jon Kinsey has resigned to become marketing and strategy director at British Gas Trading. Human resources director Nigel Brocklehurst and quality director Pat Morrish are also quitting. News of the departures comes one week after communications director David Rigg and security director Neil Dickens announced they were leaving. Kinsey says he has […]
Demon Internet, like the Internet itself, has a long way to go before hitting the heights of communication, if a recent fax is anything to go by. The Internet access provider sent Marketing Week a press release to confirm the sudden departure of its marketing director Samantha Smith, which quoted the company’s managing director Cliff […]
Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters has won the 6m advertising account for mass-market fragrance company Renaissance Cosmetics. The agency will launch a new young women’s mass-market fragrance this autumn and will be involved in the relaunch of men’s fragrance Insignia, and possibly US men’s fragrance Navy, this Autumn. The news follows the appointment of marketing director […]
Mirror Television has bought Telewest’s cable TV sales arm Cable Adnet, for an estimated 10m. Mirror Television will take over the sale of advertising to the 600,000 UK homes connected to Telewest, which represents 30 per cent of the country’s cable industry. The buy gives Mirror Television a total of 850,000 cable-connected homes, and a […]
Former Nike sales manager Stuart Ryan has become the first UK marketing director for sportswear manufacturer Fila. Ryan, who joined last week, follows the appointment of former Nike sales director Mike Baxter. He joined Fila last month as managing director. Ryan’s task will be to challenge the top three players in the market, Nike, Reebok […]
UK companies are committing less money to marketing, advertising and customer loyalty programmes than their European counterparts, claims a survey published this week. Research International’s “Windows on the World” survey questioned almost 1,400 senior managers, including chief executives, financial directors and marketing directors, from 43 countries. It claims that whereas 55 per cent of European […]
The creation of a forum for studying the satisfaction of consumer needs, by four large packaged goods companies, shows that marketing can still be improved. Alan Mitchell says that in a world where winners gain handsomely and losers are destro
Sara Lee’s hosiery brand Pretty Polly is extending its range into ladies underwear with the launch of a knickers range called Nix. UK marketing director Helen Atkins says Pretty Polly wants to create the first mass-market knickers brand in the UK to challenge the Marks & Spencer range. The Nix range consists of three lines, […]
Understanding the motives behind consumer decisions is essential for advertisers who want to target customers effectively. Mike Jeanes explains. Mike Jeanes is market research manager of the Newspaper Society.
Top Rank, the UK’s biggest bingo operator, has appointed regional executive Tony Gibbons as dir ector of marketing following the departure of Nick Lighton last month. Lighton announced he was leaving the company in July to join Thomson Holidays, where he will be general manager for the cruise division (MW July 31). Gibbons joins the […]
The tobacco industry has attacked government claims that breaches of the voluntary agreement on advertising doubled last year. The row has broken out following the publication of the tenth report of the Committee for Monitoring Agreements on Tobacco Advertising & Sponsorship (Comatas), which is made up of Department of Health (DoH) and tobacco industry representatives. […]