The National Magazine Company is axing its magazine for mothers with pre-teenage children, M, only a year after it was launched. The title was introduced as a quarterly in May last year with a print run of 150,000. It later went bi-monthly. NatMags managing director Terry Mansfield says: “Unfortunately the parenting magazine market has not […]
Procter & Gamble has handed roster agency Leo Burnett the £16m task of launching top US kitchen paper brand Bounty in the UK.
Exclusive research by NOP shows a great depth of interest in news, served by a wide range of media. Almost everyone aged 15 or over (99 per cent) find at least one medium an important source of news, and two-thirds use three or more. Television, however, is by far the most widely used news medium. […]
You might expect a festival celebrating the world’s best advertising to rate the importance of its own communication quite highly. Obviously not in the case of the organisers of this year’s Cannes Advertising Festival, which has just taken place. The festival was chaotic, cost delegates an extortionate sum of money and only just redeemed itself […]
In the same way that mail order catalogues are considered part of the fabric of the North of England, so are the growing number of call centres presumed to be based in the North-east. The truth, however, is that London and the South-east are home to more than half the call centres in this country. […]
Jazz FM is to launch a dance music record label called Hed Kandi in the middle of next month. The first album on the label, aimed at 16- to 25-year-old dance music fans, is a compilation called Nu Cool 3. The radio network, which has stations in London and Manchester, will launch a late-night show […]
Global media deals have existed for some time yet have never reached their full potential, due to the lack of a co-ordinated approach by clients, media owners and agencies. But there is a growing momentum. News Corporation’s News Corp One, a unit specifically set up to construct worldwide media deals across the conglomerate’s 35 businesses, […]
The Central Office of Information has appointed Grey Advertising to handle a national campaign aimed at relieving the strain on health services during Christmas and the millennium festivities. Worth about £1m, it is expected to encourage people to use NHS direct – a telephone advisory service – rather than seek an appointment for less serious […]
I’m intrigued at the moment by an economic indicator called the misery index. It’s the UK inflation rate plus unemployment, expressed in percentage terms, and it’s been falling sharply this year. Rising inflation and unemployment are a recipe for misery, so, as trends stand, this index is something of a misnomer. An index that shows […]
Optical Express’ marketing chief is leaving the company on the eve of a new advertising campaign. Paul Mason, head of marketing and communications at the Glasgow-based high-street opticians chain, is leaving at the end of the week to resume his former career in the call centre sector as managing director of Glasgow-based Bellcom. Optical Express […]
The Royal Bank of Scotland has appointed Richard Wetenhall, former vice-president of global markets at telecoms company ICO, as director of marketing and strategy at its corporate and institutional banking (CIB) division. Wetenhall takes up the new post next week, reporting to managing director Johnny Cameron. The bank says he will provide “an experienced and […]
It probably comes as no surprise that the telecoms industry charges and tariffs are both confused and complicated. It is also true that the promotional phonecard industry is riding on a high at present. One has to wonder just how long this euphoric state is going to last. If the current vogue for inflating the […]
Electrical retailer Comet (http://www.comet.co.uk) has joined up with News International in a cross-promotional deal which will see The Sun’s free Internet access service CurrantBun (http://www.CurrantBun.com) promoted through its stores.
The UK is beginning to develop the data to analyse the audience reach of Websites, already a key element in determining the pecking order of the US’ leading online destinations. In the last fortnight, home-grown outfit Fletcher Research reported that 31 per cent of all UK Web users subscribe to Freeserve – more than double […]
An excellent piece by Alan Mitchell, “Wal-Mart arrival heralds change for UK marketers” (MW June 24). I suspect, however, that many packaged goods companies will welcome the Wal-Mart payment terms – that is, suppliers are paid when money changes hands at the checkout. From my experience in the packaged goods sector, I remember the challenge […]