Month: December 1997

GMB union withdraws as Fulham sponsors

Marketing Week

The GMB union has agreed to pull out of its sponsorship of Fulham Football Club a year early because the club intends to cut bigger deals under Kevin Keegan’s new management. The GMB deal has been reduced from two to three years and the GMB will withdraw from the second division club by the end […]

Leo Burnett reels in 3m John West

Marketing Week

Leo Burnett is expected to win media buying for the 3m John West Foods account after beating Bates Dorland to the creative account. IDK handled the media buying previously, but the account has been reviewed since Heinz bought John West Foods from Unilever five months ago. A final decision will be made before Christmas. A […]

Seagram streamlines worldwide operations

Marketing Week

Spirits giant Seagram is preparing for the onslaught of its new rival Diageo, the merged Guinness and GrandMet group, with a major restructure of its global marketing organisation. Seagram is reorganising its two existing marketing divisions into three brand groups in an attempt to speed up decision-making and foster “entrepreneurial spirit”. The existing London-based Seagram […]

Initiative to unveil new management structure

Marketing Week

Initiative Media is expected to an-nounce its new top-level management line-up this week, with managing director Tony Manwaring strongly tipped to take the most senior UK role. A new international role, liaising with Initiative Media worldwide chief executive and chairman Marie-Jose Forissier in Paris, is also expected to be revealed. The restructure – which sources […]

FCB chief Rendel leaves after big account losses

Marketing Week

Foote Cone & Belding chief executive Chris Rendel has quit suddenly, without another job to go to. – The official line from the company is that he left by “mutual consent”, but it is understood that Rendel’s position had been uncertain for som

Cable research is already there

Marketing Week

The rapid growth in the number of TV channels has, as Torin Douglas points out “Multichannel TV must trigger shake-up of the ratings system” (MW November 20), already led to audience fragmentation and difficulty in determining audience sizes. Since The Box logs all phone requests for tracks and, with 3.5 million people calling between June […]

CIA vice-chairman to head JWT agency services wing

Marketing Week

CIA Medianetwork UK vice-chairman Marco Rimini is quitting for a senior role at J Walter Thompson, as head of agency services. The role, which has been created for Rimini, will involve heading JWT’s consultancy service and business development division. An agency source says the job is “a management role but with a planning bent, not […]

Earlybird guests get a ticking-off

Marketing Week

The opening of the Millennium Experience Visitor Centre a couple of weeks ago in Greenwich, with its giant clock counting down the seconds to January 1 2000, goes to show that time is of the essence. But time-keeping may not be as high on the New Millennium Experience Company’s agenda as one would hope. The […]

Allied Domecq to axe C-T beer

Marketing Week

Lager brands Carlsberg and Castlemaine XXXX face the axe from thousands of pubs owned by Allied Domecq Retailing after the pub owner negotiated a new beer supply deal. The two brands, owned by Danish controlled brewer Carlsberg-Tetley, will be replaced by Whitbread’s Stella Artois and Scottish Courage’s Foster’s lager in many Midlands pubs. The move […]

Bumper to bumper

Marketing Week

ITV’s plans to build its sponsorship business received a boost last week when Toyota and Panasonic signed major deals for Christmas and New Year. But does the network risk alienating its other advertisers by cluttering up airtime with idents a

ITV must beware sponsor overkill

Marketing Week

For Marketing Week readers 1997 has been the year sponsorship took its rightful place in the marketing mix. Nike signed up the Brazilian national football team for 250m over ten years, Cadbury renewed its mould-breaking Coronation Street deal and BAT decided it liked Formula One sponsorship so much it bought the Tyrrell racing team. The […]

Wall Street Journal seeks agency for Euro brand push

Marketing Week

The Wall Street Journal Europe is looking for an advertising agency to devise a pan-European brand-building campaign. It is understood the move is a defensive one – in September the Financial Times launched a US edition which threatens to erode the Journal’s status as the leading global business paper. The paper has not run a […]

BBC legal threat over Teletubbies

Marketing Week

The BBC is considering taking legal action against an Internet company which has registered a Teletubbies Website before the broadcaster. Valentine Scott, the domain name warehouse company, registered “teletubbies.com” and “teletubbies.co.uk” in May, through registration company Frontier Internet Services. Sean Blaquiere, director of Valentine Scott, declines to comment on the situation, and it remains unclear […]

Seagram streamlines worldwide operations

Marketing Week

Spirits giant Seagram is preparing for the onslaught of its new rival Diageo, the merged Guinness and GrandMet group, with a major restructure of its global marketing organisation. Seagram is reorganising its two existing marketing divisions into three brand groups in an attempt to speed up decision-making and foster “entrepreneurial spirit”. The existing London-based Seagram […]

Initiative to unveil new management structure

Marketing Week

Initiative Media is expected to an-nounce its new top-level management line-up this week, with managing director Tony Manwaring strongly tipped to take the most senior UK role. A new international role, liaising with Initiative Media worldwide chief executive and chairman Marie-Jose Forissier in Paris, is also expected to be revealed. The restructure – which sources […]