Electricity company Seeboard Energy is understood to have retained Designate Advertising to handle its £2.5m creative and media accounts, after a final four-way pitch. The review was overseen by Shwezin Win, Seeboard’s marketing communications manager. The company declined to comment about the review. In 1999, Designate Advertising was responsible for negotiating Seeboard’s first foray into […]
Laser eye clinic Ultralase is moving into the high street in a joint venture with 20/20 Optical Stores. A clinic is to be opened in the 20/20 Optical Superstore in Oxford Street, London. If successful the idea will be rolled out to other stores across the country. Ultralase recently appointed HDM Agency to its &£5m […]
After reading Polly Devaney’s column “US wakes up to minority marketing demographics”, (MW last week) I was almost brought to tears. It is a well-documented fact that the US has long homogenised its ethnic mix. I was particularly amused by Devaney’s comment in the last paragraph that it seemed “amazing” that US marketers had overlooked […]
Alcohol consumption in the UK is declining, according to Mintel. A recent research on healthy lifestyle shows that 28 per cent of adults drink less than one unit of alcohol per week, compared with 19 per cent in 1996. People aged 18 to 24 years old are drinking more than any other age group, with […]
The CBI says the UK economy is slowing: the Government says it is not. Take no notice and watch the US, as what happens there really matters. By George Pitcher
Boots is extending its holidaymakers service by opening five “travel clinics” in its Health and Beauty stores. The chemist has teamed up with travel health information service MASTA (Medical Advisory Service for Travellers Abroad), to provide a complete health advisory service, including vaccinations. Customers of Boots’ High Street Kensington, Milton Keynes, Leeds, Reading and Manchester […]
In her feature on US marketing practices (MW March 22), Polly Devaney makes several erroneous statements concerning Anheuser-Busch’s advertising practices. In late 1996 Anheuser-Busch voluntarily ceased buying advertising on MTV in the US because viewer composition on MTV had changed. We strictly adhere to the beer industry’s advertising code to ensure that our advertising is […]
Royal & SunAlliance is splashing out £20m on a multi-channel television advertising campaign to promote the rebranding of its consumer division.
Richenda Wilson is wrong when she says that existing e-mail databases are “inadequate” for contextual marketing (MW May 17). My own company, for instance, has a database of more than four million opt-in addresses, which can be cross-referenced against a variety of variables. E-mail permission marketing (EPM) data are tailor-made for targeting consumers in contextual […]
Yell, the international directories business, is launching its first multi-product TV advertising campaign, worth &£2.6m, starting from June 1. The campaign will promote all three Yell brands – Yellow Pages, Talking Pages and Yell.com – for the first time as one offering. According to the company, the consolidation of the three brands will allow Yell […]
Your article entitled “Times Sports Daily launches first” (MW May 10) is nonsense. The Times’ copycat supplement, in its guise as Sports Daily, was launched on Tuesday May 8 and as such, is far from stealing a march on The Daily Telegraph. On Monday May 7, The Daily Telegraph launched its daily sports section, and […]
Outdoor advertising company TDI is rebranding in the UK and Europe as Viacom Outdoor. The move follows last year’s acquisition of TDI’s US parent company, Infinity Broadcasting, by media and entertainment giant Viacom. TDI, or Transportation Displays Incorporated, is best known in the UK for selling advertising sites on behalf of London Transport. The company […]
TiVo, the disc-based personal video recorder which allows viewers to record TV programmes without the need for a cassette, is to offer advertisers the chance to launch their own channels. The initiative is one of the three new options that Andrew Cresci, vice-president of TiVo UK, will be speaking to advertisers about during the summer. […]
Marks & Spencer Financial Services has appointed Naked as its media strategy agency to develop the financial services brand and has shortlisted agencies for media buying on the account.
It’s nice to see the British Tourist Authority taking the damage done to our tourist industry seriously: “It would be unwise at this point to decide exactly what format such activity would take,” says their spokesman. What a wonderful civil service this country has. They couldn’t possibly take remedial action over the biggest crisis our […]