The Government’s Central Office of Information (COI) is holding a pitch for a local crime prevention campaign which is due to break later this month. Pitches for the 1m account took place last week between EURO RSCG Wnek Gosper, Grey, and another advertising agency. Grey is tipped to take the account. The project is called […]
The much talked of recession may not have kicked in yet, but talk of it is enough to make people scour their budget allocations just in case. It is no secret that, in lean times, corporate hospitality is one of the first marketing suspects to be lined up and blown away. For all that, the […]
With reference to Torin Douglas’ article (MW February25), just because BARB is an industry vehicle it doesn’t mean to say that free enterprise can’t function. If a small channel like Granada’s “Breeze” wants a proper electronic measurement vehicle it only has to add meters to the BARB system, skewed to its universe and even target […]
Nissan is to launch a new brand identity this month, supported by 12.5m of advertising. The branding, developed by TBWA GGT Simons Palmer, presents little known facts about Nissan through montages of everyday life. One press ad reads: “Nissan – To be honest we don’t think you need a witty headline when you can report […]
The radio industry believes “wealth warnings” on financial services ads, which cost it tens of millions of pounds in lost revenue, could start to come to an end in weeks. Classic FM had a meeting with consumer affairs minister Kim Howells last week where it is understood that he gave his blessing for the removal […]
Whitbread, once renowned for brewing, but now an authority on pizzas, has released the findings of the “most comprehensive study of British drinker behaviour ever undertaken”. After observing 3,000 drinkers aged 18 to 50 over 18 months, the researchers identified seven distinct types whose drinking techniques were labelled steaming, posing, homing, savouring, brooksiding, breezing and […]
It was pretty frightening to see the Diary perpetrating the old urban legend regarding character names in ” Captain Pugwash”. I would refer you to the Website dealing with such myths – www.snopes.com By the way, the cabin boy was not called Roger, but Tom. So there goes another bit of it. As I rem- […]
Cardiff survival equipment company BCB International has put together the package all millennium doomsday cult members will be fighting for. BCB’s Millennium Survival Kit is apparently “a practical insurance policy” against all manner of apocalyptic scenarios, and not just “riotous anarchy” and the “collapse of Western society” either. Andrew Howell, BCB managing director, sounding every […]
Pepsi-Cola is hoping to hit the right note with consumers as it embarks on a global roll-out of its TV chart and radio shows. Unlike the BBC, which looks on overseas sales of the Top of the Pops (TOTP) brand as an extra revenue stream, Pepsi is concerned only in using the Pepsi Chart show […]
Cabal’s Crime Weekly has been suspended indefinitely and may be axed, following the launch of IPC’s spoiler title Chat Crime and Passion last month (MW February 11). A spokeswoman for Cabal says the title’s editor, Keith Wilson, and his editorial team are still in place but adds: “There is a possibility that we might not […]
For someone who last autumn warned that free Internet access services such as Freeserve might not be viable, Virgin Net’s chief executive David Clarke now seems extraordinarily sanguine about adopting a free-access model. Virgin Net is preparing to become a free Internet service provider (ISP) and switch 150,000 customers over to its new service. It […]
Osprey has helped to develop a morale-boosting initiative for the Metropolitan Police Service, reeling in the aftermath of the Stephen Lawrence fiasco. The aim is to show policemen how to improve their reputation. The initiative, called Policing Diversity, is intended to “enable the Met to deal effectively with the increasingly diverse needs of Londoners”. It […]
As a contractor operating in another medium I must say I agree with your leader and Torin Douglas’s analysis of the increasing problems facing BARB in the multichannel universe. Digital and satellite channels are taking a greater share of viewing and already have reached the point where their audiences should be properly measured. This is […]
We are exposed to thousands of advertising and promotional messages each day, according to the experts: and as a result, they say, the single biggest challenge facing brands today is advertising clutter. Meanwhile, TV advertising – the banker medium for so many brands – is increasingly plagued by passive viewing. The TV is on, but […]
Rail company West Anglia Great Northern (WAGN), one of the best performing railway franchises according to the latest figures, is looking for an advertising agency for its 1.5m account. The company appointed Mustoe Merriman Herring Levy to the business last March (MW March 26) and refuses to say whether Mustoe Merriman is repitching for the […]