The Government is about to bombard the British public with two seemingly contradictory messages about pensions. On the one hand, the Financial Services Agency, the new financial services watchdog, is about to run a 10m ad campaign encouraging people who were mis-sold pensions in the Eighties and early Nineties to claim their money back from […]
New Millennium Experience Company managing director Liam Kane has defended his decision to set up the Millennium Marketing Forum – a committee of senior advertising figures who will vet marketing plans for the Dome. Kane says the role of the eight-strong Forum – formed last week and including top advertising figures Chris Powell, chief executive […]
Tesco and Asda et al believe their consumers have the right to buy premium branded clothing at seriously discounted prices, and brand owners naturally disagree. Much of the recent comment in the business press champions the consumer’s cause and therefore that of the multiples. Perhaps I’m missing something here but isn’t it the very fact […]
Ammirati Puris Lintas is to lose Anna Gorman, managing partner and group account director for its BBC and Burger King accounts. Gorman, who is working out a three-month resignation period, leaves the agency next week. She says: “I have been with APL for five and a half years, and now is an appropriate time to […]
If you work in the marketing department of a national newspaper, having Mystic Meg on your side would be a definite advantage in the current battle to increase circulation. The difference between getting it right and getting it wrong is finely balanced, and for many the difference boils down to cover-price promotion plus added value. […]
Referring to your recent Cover Story “World cup losers” (MW July 9), with respect to you and your usually informative publication which I regularly enjoy, you have missed the point by a long, long way. Consumer awareness in one market, especially that of the one-eyed and ultra-cluttered UK, does not determine whether or not a […]
McCann-Erickson has created a TV campaign to support the fundraising efforts of Médecins Sans Frontières in the famine blighted Sudan. Ads use harrowing footage from BBC news reports showing malnourished and dying children in the war-torn region. The voiceover is by actor Paul McGann.The charity needs funds to supply food and medical supplies to eight […]
Nescafé’s campaign for its single source coffees came out top in this month’s Poster Watch. At 54 per cent, it was the only one to be recognised by more than half the population.
Scottish Life Assurance is suing the Welsh Rugby Union, after accusing the sports body of tearing up its sponsorship deal in favour of a more lucrative offer from Lloyds TSB. The Scottish financial services company claims the WRU cost it 250,000 in lost promotional opportunities and loss of reputation. In a nine-page writ lodged at […]
Pub chain JD Wetherspoon is spending 4m to buy and develop two budget hotels as it comes under pressure from the City to diversify its interests. Wetherspoon’s, which runs a chain of about 240 pubs, will call its budget hotels “Wetherlodges”. Both will open in the next six months. The first will open in Shrewsbury […]
The Financial Services Authority has appointed Lowe Howard Spink to handle a highly sensitive 10m campaign targeting people who were mis-sold their personal pensions. LH-S competed against CDP, BMP DDB and Bates Dorland in the first round of pitches. It is understood that this list was whittled down to two agencies – LH-S and Bates […]
We have all got friends who have thought of something neat to do on New Year’s Eve 1999 and smugly booked it years ago. For one reason or another you haven’t quite got around to it. This could be down to inertia, or perhaps you don’t want to be on the other side of the […]
I am compelled to respond to Chris Lovell and Tony Wightmans’ letters (MW June 25) which were commenting on Heinz’s announcement of its reduction in direct marketing activities and Marketing Week’s customer loyalty feature, respectively.© Both Lovell and Wightman are exponents of the data gathering and data mining potential of relationship and direct marketing. Fine. […]
Granada-owned hotel company Forte has rejigged its management to reflect a new brand-led strategy mapped out by chief executive Antoine Cau. The hotel group, which has four brands in its portfolio, had previously been structured along geographical lines. Patrick Dempsey, former London managing director for Forte, becomes managing director for mid-market chain Posthouse. Guy Crawford, […]
At last, a victory for brand-owners over retailers after all those morale-sapping reverses in the copycat wars. Relief came in an unusual form. An obscure ruling in the European Court of Justice on some superannuated Austrian designer sunglasses has effectively crippled the increasingly popular stratagem of parallel importing, which had enabled retailers to undercut freely […]