Channel 4 is testing online betting, which could appear on its digital terrestrial service later this year. The online service will be linked to its highly regarded racing coverage. The project is in its early stages and the broadcaster has yet to approach any potential partners such as betting organisations like Ladbrokes. However, Ladbrokes is […]
BSkyB’s attempt to give Scottish TV viewers more local programming has flopped with the collapse of Sky Scottish, a joint venture with Scottish Media Group (SMG). The satellite channel will fold on May 31 after revealing poor viewing figures. The partners claim the channel proved Scottish audiences would like more Scottish programming, in particular more […]
Cadbury is launching a Christmas confectionery brand, called Chunky, which will appear each year in the four month run-up to Christmas. Cadbury hopes Chunky, a caramel and crispies truffle, will be as successful as its Creme Egg brand, which has achieved a shelf life beyond the Easter season. Packaging design and advertising plans for the […]
Camelot’s plans to run National Lottery draws every day of the week except Sunday have been dealt a blow by the regulator, the Office of the National Lottery. A spokeswoman for Oflot says it will not give permission for the scheme. The plans were first revealed by Marketing Week (November 27 1997). Reports suggest Camelot […]
Marketing Week’s TV 98 conference has proved something of a Becher’s Brook for the high-flying executives who travelled to Barcelona to talk digital. In the three weeks since the shindig, both Richard Burdett, vice-president of marketing for cable company Flextech, and Saatchi & Saatchi veteran media director Mike Gorman have shared that sinking feeling of […]
At least one NatWest roster agency is likely to be a casualty in the six monthly advertising review, following a bank-wide cost-cutting investigation by management consultants McKinsey’s. McKinsey’s has been called in to investigate all processes within NatWest, including supplier relationships. Inside sources say that NatWest’s group purchasing division has issued all agencies with questionnaires […]
Cable & Wireless Communications has scrapped its central marketing department, in a move which cuts its marketing staff in half – from 95 to 50.
For only the second time in 40 years Brooke Bond PG Tips has dropped its chimps and invested in a celebrity for its TV advertising campaign. Caroline Aherne, aka Mrs Merton, features in the new campaign as the rude checkout girl she first brought to the screen in BBC’s The Fast Show. The ad was […]
Radio Clyde 1FM breakfast pre senter George Bowie had a brush with the law last Thursday and made the fatal mistake of thinking it was a late April Fool’s joke. Stopped by the local police for having his fog lights on when they weren’t needed, Bowie was asked if he knew a Euan McMorrow, the […]
EURO RSCG Wnek Gosper has won the estimated 5m international Danka fax and photocopying business following a three-way pitch. The media account went to the agency’s affiliate Mediapolis. EURO RSCG beat Grey and Publicis Focus to secure the account, which was initially thought to be worth as much as 10m (MW February 5). The budget […]
Kimberly-Clark faces trouble, big trouble, in Europe. The spectacular takeover of Scott Paper two years ago, far from shoring up the problems of an oversupplied market, has aggravated them. K-C has plunged from profit to a 64m loss in its European operations, as retailers and own-label production tighten the noose on its margins. A nightmare […]
Saatchi & Saatchi has scooped the 8m Vision Express account, beating St Luke’s and Ammirati Puris Lintas to the business.
CIA is to rehire the former managing director of its Interactive division, Rob Norman, who left in January last year to become senior vice-president of sports marketing operation Prisma Sports & Media. Sources say he will rejoin CIA in a business development role which will include new media acquisitions. “We are still in discussions but […]
Office supplies retailer Staples has switched its 6m media account from Zenith Media to Optimedia. The agency won the account in a pitch against TMD Carat, the Media Business as well as Zenith, which had held the account for two years. Staples media and advertising manager Nick Forster says: “We like to review our suppliers […]
Now that the receiver has been called in to run Leagas Shafron Davis, the Diary believes it’s high time to reflect on that great agency’s contribution to the business. Who, for example, can forget the staunch defence of the industry made by agency chairman Ron Leagas? Last month, he appeared on BBC2’s The Money Programme, […]