Month: June 2003

He’s no airhead

Marketing Week

Will Harris has spent much of his career building quirky mobile phone brands Orange and O2. As he prepares to write a book on the impact of the technology he promotes, Amanda Wilkinson talks to the man and those who know him about impat

Senior King buys The Agency

Marketing Week

Senior King has bought Isle of Man shop The Agency. The acquisition gives Senior King a presence in the North-west and an opportunity to develop business from the Isle of Man’s financial services sector.

JWT takeover of Unity collapses

Marketing Week

WPP Group-owned J Walter Thompson’s proposed acquisition of “media neutral” planning agency Unity has collapsed. Unity has ruled out selling a stake to JWT, although it is in talks with other potential suitors. Earlier this year, there was widespread speculation over a bid for Unity from WPP-owned JWT, a move that was seen as part […]

US firm pays £100m for Espotting

Marketing Week

Further signs of a hotting up in the internet marketing arena: pay-per-click Espotting advertising specialist, has just been bought for almost &£100m by a US company. The shares-and-cash acquisition is an extraordinary achievement for London-based Espotting, which was founded by former ad agency directors just three years ago. Espotting has been in a head-on race […]

No substitute?

Marketing Week

Football is big money, especially player management, yet IMG has retrenched on this lucrative area to focus its efforts on sports TV rights. But with an apparent tussle for power looming behind the scenes, IMG could struggle to maintain the su

Guardian Newspapers appoints Chris Pelekanou

Marketing Week

Guardian Newspapers is appointing ad manager for The Guardian Chris Pelekanou as head of display across both The Guardian and The Observer. Chris Willis, ad manager for The Observer, is leaving to become head of magazine sales at the Mail on Sunday…

All’s fair in love and (Andy) Law

Marketing Week

Andy Law can be accused of many crimes. He is passionate about the things he believes in. He is inspiring to work with. He puts his beliefs to the test and helped to create a talked-about new-style agency, which delivered fantastic work for clients such as the BBC, Boots and Ikea. Oh and he used […]

Co-op faces legal action over launch

Marketing Week

The Co-operative Group’s launch of an innovative dissolvable laundry powder sachet could be hit by a lawsuit from branded competitor Aquados, which alleges that the product infringes its patents. The Co-op has again beaten laundry heavyweights Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever with a second major product innovation in three years. But the launch has […]

Forget the bland and be creative

Marketing Week

As Neil Perkin says (MW June 12), consumers want to be entertained by advertising and they’re miffed that they’re not. A big chunk of those same consumers magically transform from business-to-consumer to business-to-business targets somewhere between their homes and offices, and if the poor quality of consumer advertising annoys them, the excruciatingly dull B2B stuff […]