Argos Retail Group (ARG) is tipped to hand its media and planning accounts for the Argos and Homebase brands, worth a combined total of &£42m, to MindShare following a four-way pitch (MW May 15). MindShare, which is incumbent on the &£21.4m Argos account, pitched against PHD – incumbent on Homebase’s &£21m account – Carat and […]
…Unilever is expected to sell its Brüt cologne and Mentadent toothpaste brands to a US private equity house for £183m this week as part of its plan to reduce its brands to 400.
Barclaycard has moved its £4.2m media planning and buying account out of OMD UK to Starcom Motive, without a formal pitch. The move has consolidated the entire Barclays Bank account into Starcom Motive, which was handed the bank’s £15m media account two years ago (MW July 5, 2001). At the time, the selection was the […]
Centrica-owned Automobile Association has appointed Forward to produce the AA Magazine, following a three-way pitch against Haymarket and incumbent John Brown Citrus Publishing (JBCP). However, JBCP will continue to work with the AA and produce listings magazines aimed at the leisure sector such as hotels. John Brown won the title two years ago, before it […]
I congratulate Iain Murray on expressing so well the complex strata of rage that the blight of “blame and claim” engenders (MW June 5). Murray touches on pretty well all its damaging facets – the legal profession being correctly pinned as the main culprit – which pander so precisely to the avaricious envy apparent in […]
MG Rover global sales and marketing director John Sanders has resigned from the struggling car manufacturer to set up his own consultancy. John Edwards, the deputy chairman of the board of Phoenix Venture Holdings – the consortium which bought MG Rover from BMW in May 2000 for £10, will assume the additional responsibility of global […]
AMP is to shut its remaining UK life insurer NPI, causing 900 redundancies. A spokeswoman confirmed that all marketing jobs were included in the first wave of 330 immediate redundancies, but would not confirm the future of individuals, including UK marketing director Neil Galjaard and head of global brands Helen Livesey.
Iain Murray slated the BBC’s decision to work with Ashridge on its Leadership Programme (MW May 22). As well as containing numerous inaccuracies, his one-sided article expressed the opinion that management training “is a superfluous industry whose absence would have no effect whatsoever on industrial or commercial performance”. This is patently wrong, as many of […]
The Rugby Football Union has signed a four-and-a-half-year kit sponsorship deal with Nike. The new kit will be unveiled in time for the Rugby World Cup.
Flytxt awarded Motorola brief Flytxt, the mobile marketing specialist, has been chosen by Motorola as the wireless provider for its Motomash SMS promotion.
Delta Air Lines has appointed Linda Spina as marketing specialist for the UK and Ireland, reporting to marketing director for Europe, Claudia Neuhoff.
…The Government has included suggestions by the Newspaper Society for changes in the law on lotteries and prize competitions in its proposed reforms.
The Advertising Association (AA) and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) have slammed European Commission proposals to outlaw gender discrimination in advertising. The proposal is likely to include stereotypical advertising, such as the offer of cheaper insurance rates for women. The directive is the brainchild of Anna Diamantopoulou, commissioner for employment and social affairs. […]
Militant shareholder fund Active Value continues to buy shares in Cordiant Communications, in a determined effort to block WPP Group’s &£266m bid for the stricken marketing services group. Active Value has acquired over 25 per cent of shareholders’ votes, which could be used to prevent WPP’s takeover proposal going through at a shareholder’s meeting in […]
Advertiser-funded TV carries overtones of propaganda, but done properly it can have as much integrity as any other media output, says Mischa Alexander