Kimberly-Clark, the paper products and household goods giant, has sent in its three most senior US marketers to sort out the crisis affecting its European operations. It has made the head of US feminine care, Robert van der Merwe, president of K-C Europe. He will take over from European head John Van Steenberg, who is […]
Bartle Bogle Hegarty has been hired to handle above-the-line advertising for children’s charity Barnardo’s, bringing Ogilvy & Mather’s one-year tenure to a close. Barnardo’s director of marketing and communication Andrew Nebel and head of advertising and communication John Grounds jointly decided on BBH after an informal pitch. The charity began the process of brand repositioning […]
Manpower, the employment services group which last month announced a 12m sponsorship of the Millennium Dome, has hired two executives as part of a push to increase its business in Europe. Thomas Cook marketer Dido Harding joins as vice-president of strategic marketing for Europe. And John Sharkey, former partner of Manpower’s advertising agency Bainsfair Sharkey […]
What a parable for our times is the story of Icarus-like Next. It’s a parable in so far as it provides lessons about the fragility of retail reputation. But I mention Icarus because there are Greek traditions here, too – successive managements have flown too close to the sun and there is a fair old […]
US lottery giant G-Tech has abandoned its plans to create a European marketing division after announcing a worldwide restructuring package which has left 800 people redundant. Ralph-Jurgen Bandmann was appointed to the position of European marketing director last autumn but left the company last month, together with a marketing manager and administrative assistant. Bandmann was […]
A new post of marketing director has been created at the DTI-sponsored Action 2000, set up to advise businesses about the millennium bug. Niki Akhurst, former European marketing manager at controversial lottery company GTech, has been appointed to raise the profile of the body’s Millennium Bug Campaign. Strategic marketing for Action 2000 is handled by […]
Turtle Wax is making a return to television advertising after a ten-year break with a 1.5m campaign devised by BDH Communications, the Manchester-based subsidiary of the GGT group. The adver-tisements, which break on April 6, promote two products: Colour Magic – a car wax – and Chipkit – a new product which conceals scratches on […]
Virgin Vodka has split with its UK distributor, First Drinks Brands, which has replaced it with Russian vodka brand Stolichnaya. The move leaves Virgin Vodka with no UK distributor, and puts its future in question. The Virgin Trading Company has pulled its vodka label out of UK off-licences and supermarkets. It is now seeking a […]
Last week I flew back from the Oscars to find Rupert Murdoch making headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. In this country it was the row over Tony Blair supposedly interceding with the Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi, in Murdoch’s attempts to buy Silvio Berlusconi’s three-channel commercial television empire, Mediaset. In Los Angeles it […]
Sport First, the national Sunday sport paper launched two weeks ago, is to cut its print run. The cuts are based on “settle-down sales”, claimed to be about 70,000 to 75,000. The print run, initially set at 250,000, is about to be reduced to 150,000, says the paper’s sales and marketing director, Nick Thompson. But […]
Nineties’ man is a complicated creature, and has only recently been taken seriously by those involved in marketing or the media. However, attention to date has taken the form of devising new labels for men – New Man, New Lad and Millennium Man are all attempts to define Nineties’ man (and to fill column inches), […]
So, the BBC is up in arms about the possibility of losing its god-given right to broadcast cricket test matches in the UK. Big deal. But how many marketing directors have spotted the real bombshells contained in the recent recommendations to government on listed sports events? Assuming culture minister Chris Smith accepts the proposals from […]
Gayle Tuesday – that affectionate parody on a page three model – is joining the auspicious ranks of Mr Puniverse and Ray Gardner in publicising the Tango brand. Punters going along to her nationwide tour sponsored by Diet Tango, which hits glamour spots ranging from Hemel Hempstead to Croydon and Catford, can expect the obvious […]
News International Newspapers have fired off a series of letters of complaint over bulk sales by the Mirror Group. Letters have been sent to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Newspaper Publishers Association and the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers. In the letters, Ian Weston, circulation director of News […]
Ridley Scott, the director of Blade Runner and Alien, is returning to his advertising roots with a new spectacular for mobile phone operator Orange. The ads, created by WCRS, will break before summer and are ex-pected to support a period of product, rather than brand, advertising and promotion. The commercial will be Scott’s first for […]