Bass Leisure Retail is expected to lay off up to 250 staff and will review marketing expenditure following last week’s unexpected profits warning. The job cuts are likely to come among administration and non pub staff across the country in a drive to reduce costs and satisfy shareholders. The costs review will include marketing expenditure, […]
Decisions, decisions. Digital TV is upon us and already I have more choice than I can handle. I cannot yet receive it, of course, any more than anyone else outside a handful of broadcasting establishments, research labs and retailers’ head offices. To see a real digital picture, the average viewer must wait for the October […]
BSkyB has come out on top after an Independent Television Commission ruling this week, allowing it to supply TVs containing software designed to carry exclusively its own digital services. The ruling means buying a TV will become similar to buying a computer. BSkyB, unlike ONDigital, will be able to produce these integrated TV sets without […]
BMW has moved its Spanish advertising account from Soluciòn to SCPF, a Barcelona-based agency whose other clients include Pizza World and Damm beer. The German car maker spent Pta.1,300m (5.4m) on advertising in Spain during 1997.
US conglomerate The Dial Corporation manufactures everyday household products, such as canned meat, Vienna sausages, washing powder, soap and air freshener, and it is coming to the UK. From its base in Phoenix, Arizona, the company is hatching ambitious international expansion plans, which include the launch of its flagship Dial soap brand in the UK […]
Alasdair Ritchie, senior vice-president of worldwide operations at TBWA, has quit the company as a result of the merger of GGT and TBWA Simons Palmer last May. It is also understood that TBWA chief operating officer Grant Duncan may soon be leaving the company. However Duncan claims: “It’s absolutely and completely not true.” The departure […]
DMB&B has resigned its Lloyds TSB business after Saatchi & Saatchi was appointed lead agency on the 20m business.
Over recent months a number of contributors to your magazine have commented on the way in which cinema has finally established itself as a credible advertising medium. However, there is little mention of the high price paid by cinema-goers for this success. The tiresome ritual of being forced to sit through up to ten minutes […]
Last week my four-year-old son took me into the new ‘Wall’s sausages’ Website, told me that he wanted sausages for tea and instructed me to click on the “Thomas” icon situated on the site, so that we could see which engines were in the shed – a trick gleaned after spending an afternoon with his […]
Bad service rather than competitive pricing is the prime cause for subscriber “churn” for Internet service providers in the UK. And most consumers are happy to stick with existing providers in the face of rival cut-price deals, according to a report by research company Inteco. The focus group research among recent ISP switchers suggests that […]
Now that the silly season is over, may I clarify the position about the Victoria & Albert Museum’s name? The editorial which I wrote for the V&A Magazine reflected in a light-hearted manner on our name, offered a bottle of champagne to anyone coming up with a good alternative, but concluded very firmly that, like […]
Forte Hotels has beefed up its Posthouse Hotels marketing department, with the appointment of a new marketing director and nine new marketing positions. Caroline Beecher, formerly brand director for the Forte UK region, takes on the new marketing director role. Forte is currently recruiting a marketing manager. Posthouse is also taking on two marketing controllers […]
The survival of the fittest, from Darwin’s theory of evolution, is an apt analogy for the world of customer magazines. Not content with simply providing added value to loyal customers, many customer magazines are now pushing their way towards brand builder status, as companies recognise their effectiveness and take an increasingly sophisticated approach to customer […]
Advertising can be shocking. Sometimes this is deliberate, like when they feature overly skinny models, gay sex scenes or blasphemy. However, other ads are inadvertently shocking. Let’s hope this is the case with the Halifax’s latest campaign, which attempts to suggest that it takes less time to get a Halifax mortgage than it does to […]
I see from this week’s Marketing Week that the Mini (car) has signed up supermodel Kate Moss ( no relation). When, oh when, will the quality media, which includes your goodselves, cease referring to these underfed, overpaid and often less-than-attractive girls as supermodels. There is nothing super about them! Apart from their super salaries as […]