Month: February 1999

Pepsi Chart to broadcast worldwide

Marketing Week

Pepsi is to roll out localised versions of its music programme, The Pepsi Chart, around the world. The first move will be to broadcast the show across the Middle East. The Middle East deal has been brokered by Pepsi’s UK music agency Music Innovations and the broadcasters of its radio version, Unique, and its TV […]

Sticky Wicket

Marketing Week

This summer is shaping up to be the most important in English cricket’s 300-year history. The game is facing fundamental change on two fronts. Cricket must battle against a dwindling grass roots base, an ageing fan base and its difficulty in attracting new sponsors, as well as adapting to a new TV partner with no […]

Feline viewing motivates life

Marketing Week

Judging by the quality of programmes currently broadcast, one can be forgiven for thinking TV producers have inadvertently based their programme selections on feline viewing data. Sat on my viewing couch over the past few months I too have found myself shrieking, hissing and arching my back before fleeing the room, much to the disgust […]

KP Foods seeks marketing chief

Marketing Week

United Biscuits-owned KP Foods is looking for a head of marketing and new product development for its nuts division. The position has arisen following the departure of Caroline Bonwitt, the former marketing controller for KP Nuts who left at the end of last year to pursue a career in the precision engineering industry. Bonwitt oversaw […]

Domecq puts 30m into Firkin revamp

Marketing Week

Allied Domecq Inns is spending an estimated 30m on its most important pub brand, Firkin, in an attempt to ditch the chain’s image as a laddish, student hang-out. The revamp is an aggressive response to falling sales. Last month Allied Domecq lost more than 850m from its market value after warning that sales in its […]

Planet Hollywood marketing chief joins top-level European exodus

Marketing Week

Ailing themed restaurant chain Planet Hollywood has lost its last senior marketer in Europe with the departure of vice-president of marketing Europe, Paul Biggins. Biggins left the chain late last week, on the heels of European vice-president of marketing Guy Laurence who left the company last month (MW January 21). Biggins has been with the […]

BBC Worldwide poaches BT boss

Marketing Week

BBC Worldwide has poached BT’s head of multimedia content Paul Gillooly for the new role of head of global marketing for film, drama, and entertainment. The role will put Gillooly in charge of the marketing and exploitation of a range of programme brands stretching from Wallace & Gromitt and Top of the Pops, to films […]

Phantom recession has little influence over equity markets

Marketing Week

I’m indebted to the excellent article by Peter Kellner in last week’s New Statesman that flies in the face of Labour’s anti-Blairite, left-wing and pessimistic view that the British economy is teetering on the brink of a precipice. I won’t summarise it here, since the NS will want to protect its 2 cover price, but […]

Microsoft ad sales house targets UK banner sector

Marketing Week

LinkExchange, the Microsoft-owned Internet ad sales house, is launching in the UK and aims to become one of the top providers of banner (display) advertising by the end of the year. Banner ad inventory available on LinkExchange’s UK network will initially be sold alongside traffic on Microsoft-owned Internet service provider and portal MSN UK (www.msn.co.uk). […]

Kangol to open first retail outlet

Marketing Week

Kangol, the former supplier of berets to HM Forces which has become a cult fashion label, is to launch its first dedicated store. The outlet, which opens at the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent on March 16, is being managed by licensee BigHit, a fashion franchisee company. Kangol and BigHit are to use the new […]

People must pioneer the way

Marketing Week

Jay Chiat’s crusade to revolutionise the traditional office will probably be remembered as one of the advertising industry’s more courageous if quixotic projects. Only now is a true picture of life in this utopian environment emerging. Chiat’s dream of paperless, deskless offices was intended to liberate employees from the tyranny of the workplace and in […]

House of Ogilvy a ‘modest’ gte

Marketing Week

If you ever wondered what paradise looks like, ask David Ogilvy founder of Ogilvy & Mather. His house is doing a passable impersonation. In the March edition of House and Garden magazine, Ogilvy’s “modest” dwelling, the turreted Chateau de Touffou, features in a six-page spread. But 32 years ago when he was looking to buy […]

Judge Shell by actions not words

Marketing Week

I read with interest your editorial about the ethical dilemmas facing multinationals and the reference in particular to Shell’s recent public relations disasters. You say that “Shell has apparently learned its lesson”. I beg to differ. My claim against Shell UK in respect of the Smart loyalty scheme is set down for a three week […]

HSBC puts global media up for pitch

Marketing Week

Multinational bank HSBC is reviewing its global media planning and buying operation – possibly worth up to 150m – as it embarks on an ambitious worldwide rebranding programme. HSBC is understood to be looking for economies of scale and aiming to create a cohesive international message and strengthened brand. This will result in the channelling […]

More Group wins 1m pitch for Western Union campaign

Marketing Week

Outdoor contractor the More Group has won a 1m contract for an advertising campaign using only bus shelter posters for money transfer company Western Union. More Group won the account after a competitive pitch to Western Union media agency MediaVest and poster specialist PPL. The poster company was given an advertising brief to produce a […]