Barbie, owned by US toy giant Mattel, is to sponsor the ITV children’s programme Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The sponsorship, negotiated between Vision 40 and Granada Media on behalf of Mattel and the ITV Sponsorship Group respectively, forms part of the &£1m UK launch campaign for “edgy” Barbie sub-brand Generation Girl. The initiative includes screen […]
Imperial Tobacco is to enter the cut-priced tobacco sector with the launch of its new Richmond brand. The brand will go on sale from September 6 at a recommended retail price of &£3.25 for 20 cigarettes, and will be supported with an advertising campaign through Mustoe Merriman Herring Levy. It will come in two variants, […]
Tough competition prevails in the motor industry and, thanks to Jeremy Clarkson, motoring lifestyle journalism is glamorous. The upshot of this is that the average car buyer is better informed than ever, and therefore more difficult to impress. In the business-to-business motor sales sector, Nissan recently relaunched its fleet marketing programme after realising that fleet […]
Cash Centres, the biggest cheque cashment service in the UK, is in discussions with a major high street bank to launch a bank account targeting the poorest in society. The company, which was launched in 1992 and cashed &£150m worth of cheques last year, is also looking to add some 80 branches to its 240-strong […]
One 2 One is dropping its celebrity-based “I’d like to have a one-on-one with…” ads in favour of a campaign emphasising the breadth of the mobile phone operator’s services. It will plough £30m into a pre-Christmas ad campaign to reposition the brand under the slogan “Welcome to your world”. The push, by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, […]
The world’s governments are becoming increasingly addicted to their own state-run lotteries. As a form of taxation, lotteries are unbeatable. People play to win, and do not begrudge the 12 per cent or so they pay in tax. The British seem to be bored of complaining about giving money to inappropriate good causes. Maybe the […]
When the Scots visit London they really know how to stir things up. To launch the The Ultimo gel-filled bra, Edinburgh’s Faulds Advertising staged a live event continuing its Ultimo ad campaign theme. The pavement outside Selfridges was filled with “plastic surgeons” protesting that The Ultimo would put them out of business. Then came the […]
From the perspective of investment by clients, below the line is gaining ground on above the line. The combined expenditures on sales promotion and direct marketing in the UK are double that of advertising. Views about the relationship between above and below the line are clearly divided on either side of the line. Advertising continues […]
Levi-Strauss has opened its first unbranded store – called Cinch! – in London, and plans to roll out the format to other European capitals. After a 13 per cent sales decline last year, Levi’s is segmenting its product ranges to appeal to different markets. Cinch! will target customers which the company calls “cultural connoisseurs” – […]
Politicians may wring their hands and industrialists may organise lobby groups for the euro, but there was no surer sign of an increasingly integrated European Union than the desertion of the UK during August. Like France and Italy, the UK is, refreshingly, now closed for the month. It used to be called the silly season […]
What are we to make of the $90m (£56m) sponsorship deal between golf tyro Tiger Woods and Nike? Has the world of sponsorship gone mad? I wonder how far this “winner takes all” market can go before it begins to implode, not to mention what such astronomic numbers mean for lesser brands, whose total sales […]
Italian label Prada’s DM275m (£93m) purchase of German design house Jil Sander this week is the latest stage in the battle for control of the world’s fashion brands. Independent labels are being devoured by the largest players such as LVMH and Pinault-Printemps-Redoute and the industry is adopting some of the aggressive marketing tactics used by […]
Tough competition prevails in the motor industry and, thanks to Jeremy Clarkson, motoring lifestyle journalism is glamorous. The upshot of this is that the average car buyer is better informed than ever, and therefore more difficult to impress. In the business-to-business motor sales sector, Nissan recently relaunched its fleet marketing programme after realising that fleet […]
One 2 One is dropping its celebrity-based “I’d like to have a one-on-one with…” ads in favour of a campaign emphasising the breadth of the mobile phone operator’s services. It will plough £30m into a pre-Christmas ad campaign to reposition the brand under the slogan “Welcome to your world”. The push, by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, […]
Cold Eye has beaten Leagas Delaney and TBWA GGT Simons Palmer to the £1.5m BBC Worldwide account for the launch of two cookery books by Gary Rhodes and Delia Smith. The pre-Christmas advertising blitz will comprise press and bus-side poster advertising for the second volume in Delia Smith’s How To Cook series, which goes back […]