To be listed in a junk mail data base as a keen gardener, book lover, or underwear enthusiast causes little offence. To be put down as a hard-up, greedy, and gullible prat is a different matter entirely. Yet I shamefacedly admit that is how the direct mail business sees me. Heaven knows how they got […]
In principle it sounds simple and highly appealing. Your company scouts out a young and green soccer star, handcuffs him to (say) an astutely inexpensive seven-year boot deal, waits for him to make his debut in the next World Cup and bingo! – massive amounts of positive publicity for minimal outlay. New research from NOP […]
Sony UK is losing its managing director David Pearson, who is leaving after less than a year in the post to take up a “senior position in a British plc”. Pearson, has worked for Sony’s UK hardware business for ten years, and has built up a high profile in UK marketing through running the company’s […]
Border Television has appointed J Walter Thompson Manchester to the 1m launch account for its North-west radio station Century 105, due to go on air in September. The company saw six agencies, including media-only operations. McCann-Erickson Manchester is also understood to have pitched for the creative account. The 1m media business has been won by […]
Mediapolis has won the three-year 5m Wales Tourist Board media buying and planning account. The agency won a four-way pitch between Booth Lockett Makin, The Media Business and incumbent Media Options. Mediapolis’ work for the WTB will include TV, posters and press and a significant proportion will be spent on direct response press ads, inserts […]
BT is to revamp its OneNumber personal numbering service, scrapping the 20 connection fee and 12-month contract and halving the rental charge in the face of tough competition. BT launched the OneNumber service in January 1997 and has picked up only 4,000 customers since. The changes are intended to increase sales of OneNumber by 400 […]
The Diary was intrigued to see the normally frantic National Magazine Company’s reception transformed into a peaceful garden, complete with wooden park bench, hanging baskets and the soothing sounds of nature. The reason the new, but sadly temporary, rainforest of calm has been built is to draw attention to this month’s interview with gardening-mad Prince […]
It is not often that the market research industry gets a bandwagon to climb aboard. Category management research, however, is one such trend which the 100-plus research agencies in the UK are busy hooking up to. Attend any research conference and the chances are that category management and efficient consumer response will be on the […]
Packard Bell, the PC manufacturer, is launching a 2m consumer advertising campaign this week through M&C Saatchi. The campaign highlights Packard Bell’s commit-ment to satisfying consumer demand for innovative technology. One press execution shows a woman trying to drill to Australia – through her living room floor – in an attempt to match Packard Bell’s […]
Sports manufacturer Diadora will not be the first or last brand owner to consider giving a celebrity the boot. Since the very public attack by Stan Collymore on Ulrika Jonsson, Diadora has refused to say whether it will cancel the boot deal with the Aston Villa striker. Less than two years ago, Paul Gascoigne faced […]
The Diary was dismayed to hear what went on in Marseilles last week.
BT consumer division head of advertising Sholto Douglas-Home has been appointed director of marketing and communications for the Millennium Dome. Douglas-Home has been given a two-year paid secondment from BT and will take up his new role on September 1, reporting to New Millennium Experience Committee managing director Liam Kane. He remains a BT staff […]
Radio is going through curious times. Not only has it wooed TV celebrities off the box and onto the airwaves, but now it has courted ex-newspaper editors and media moguls. Shameless flirting still goes a long way in the media. When CLT-Ufa decided to put its portfolio of radio stations up for sale, it was […]
Virgin Direct is reviewing its 15m advertising account after its agency TBWA GGT Simons Palmer won the 50m NatWest retail and banking account last week. Jo Barnett, head of advertising at Virgin One, the phone bank of Virgin Direct, claims TBWA did not inform Virgin Direct that it was pitching for the NatWest account. TBWA […]
John McCallion, marketing director for Great Western Railway, and one of the first marketers in the privatised railway industry, is leaving the company. McCallion, who made a substantial sum of money when Great Western was bought by trans port company FirstGroup, will now front a management buyout of an unnamed retailer. McCallion, who used to […]