This week the Edinburgh Fringe began, a week ahead of the official Edinburgh Festival. And as usual the Fringe statistics – 1,309 shows staged by 9,810 people in 164 venues, all fighting for audiences and attention – are staggering. The arts and entertainment worlds just aren’t used to this kind of competitive, market-driven environment, which […]
Independent gas suppliers are experiencing a dramatic fall in the number of customers signing up for their energy offers, according to two of the country’s biggest gas companies. British Gas Trading marketing director Jon Kinsey says the number of consumers signing up for rival gas companies has declined by more than one third since last […]
Cadbury Schweppes is turning the spotlight on the Schweppes range as part of its strategy of building star brands across the globe. But unlike its international campaigns for Dr Pepper and Crush, which focus on a single product, the challenge with Schweppes will be to promote a range of products with different positionings in different […]
Rob Murray, the former commercial director of Spillers Petfoods UK, whose job was axed after the 715m company takeover by Nestlé, has been drafted in to boost Nestlé’s stagnant food division. In his new role as managing director of the Nestlé food division, he will oversee an array of brands including Crosse & Blackwell tinned […]
Holiday operator Thomson has awarded its 9m media account to MindShare, after a three-way pitch between incumbent BMP Optimum and MediaVest. The appointment comes after the company awarded its creative account to HHCL & Partners in May. Thomson, which floated in April, is now expected to embark on a campaign to strengthen its brand. Thomson […]
Thomson Holidays is to reposition its Skytours sub-brand away from bargain holidays to target families, as it starts an overhaul of the company’s brand portfolio. Marketing and commercial director Shaun Powell says: “We are positioning Skytours as a family brand offering value holidays.” He adds: “Thomson has a number of brands and sub-brands and we […]
Michelob beer is rolling out a national advertising campaign using three mosaics, each made up of almost 3,000 photographs. The 1m campaign, created by Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters, will use the strapline, “It’s what’s inside that counts”. The intention is to promote Michelob as a beer of sociability and quality, using people drinking in bars […]
The Financial Times has appointed Gordon Willoughby to the new role of UK sales and marketing director. He comes from United Distillers, where he worked as a UK board director with responsibility for the general management of the convenience and cash and carry sector. He will have overall responsibility for the FT’s marketing and circulation […]
BT’s marketing departments were left reeling this week after an announcement of a full-scale company restructure, with ten new divisions to replace the business and consumer divisions. Marketing will be centralised under Afshin Mohebbi, the former managing director of BT business division. The heads of each new division will take a place on the BT […]
Peterborough is to become one of Europe’s most exciting centres of publishing, if new EMAP Active group marketing director Andrew Gillespie has his way. Publishing giant EMAP has regrouped its consumer magazines businesses, combining four of its six divisions under one new umbrella brand – EMAP Active. The move has sparked talk of launches, acquisitions, […]
Computer manufacturer, Compaq, is seeking an agency to run a through-the-line campaign, which is likely to dwarf the corporate work through BMP DDB. The company’s US office switched its $300m (190m) worldwide account from Ammirati Puris Lintas to the DDB Needham network in June. In the UK, BMP is to run a 6m corporate campaign […]
An advertising campaign for stationery, which jokingly refers to the love of Jesus, has offended dozens of Christians – and has become the most complained about campaign this year. A total of 124 people thought the national press ads for International Paper, which trades as Rey & Co, were blasphemous and offensive, according to this […]
The virtual corridors of Web power have been trembling recently from waves of indignation emanating from UK Web publishers. The centre of this controversy has been the recent publication by the BBC’s ABC//electronic audited Web traffic figures. Unlike other publishers, the BBC issued two figures as part of its audit certificate. The first was the […]
BSkyB is to spend 6m on TV advertising in October as part of its aggressive 60m push into digital television. The company has already confirmed that it will offer free installation of dishes, at a cost of 80 per subscriber, for its new 200-channel service. One source says: “The key job for Sky is to […]
Cable & Wireless may have spent 50m on developing its brand, but its staff have come up with a new name for its logo free of charge. The telecoms company’s blue globe logo is known internally as the “Death Star”.