ValueClick, the online advertising services and affiliate marketing group that owns comparison shopping site PriceRunner, is paying $214m (&£118m) for online ad services and technology company Fastclick. Fastclick specialises in online direct marketing services plus audience response and behaviour measurement software.
Canned food giant Princes Foods is launching the second phase of a major overhaul of its packaging design to include colour-coded icons that give nutritional information, such as cholesterol or salt levels. It aims to simplify the packaging to make it easy for consumers to find the products they want and to make informed choices. […]
COI Communications is to embark on one of the biggest restructures of its agency relationships this week, as it announces the list of creative shops that will handle its &£157.6m advertising business. The shake-up of the roster, following a statutory review, is being led by chief executive Alan Bishop, who is thought to be increasing […]
News International has put the pitch for its £30m media planning and buying business at Carat on hold following the departure of Richard Webb, the general manager of News Group Newspapers (NGN).
Lloyds TSB has appointed former Virgin Money chief executive Paul Pester to managing director of consumer banking. Pester will report to Lloyds TSB group chief executive director UK retail banking Terri Dial.
Great to see a typically London-centric view of life outside the metropolis (Diary, MW last week): “Leeds is a rather Footballers’ Wives-esque city somewhere north of Watford”. With this kind of sweeping and ill-informed “insight”, it is hardly surprising that many (London-based) agencies and media folk often miss out on having any depth of understanding […]
Cereal Partners, the manufacturer of Nestlé cereals, is launching an educational CD-ROM giveaway, aimed at six- to 16-year-olds, across its brands.
Atari has appointed Andy Johnson as UK sales director.
Suddenly, 1Mbps broadband is looking rather old-hat
Virgin Radio, the Scottish Media Group-owned radio station, has announced it is launching a digital-only youth station, called Virgin Radio Xtreme. It will launch on September 5 and play “indie rock”. It is understood to be one of a number of digital stations being planned by Virgin.
Standard Life faces a difficult task persuading its voting members to opt for demutualisation.
Despite optimistic talk of digital convergence, communications platforms continue to proliferate. This lack of simplicity is reflected in the fragmentary adoption patterns of the latest advances
Kelvin McKenzie, former editor of The Sun, has acquired a 15 per cent stake in publisher Highbury house, making him the largest shareholder.
Hand Picked Hotels, which runs 14 country house hotels, has appointed Nick Read as its marketing director. Read joins the company from Whitbread, where he worked as UK head of marketing for Costa Coffee. He was a brand director for hotel chain Premier Lodge.
Fashion watch brand Fossil and computer games publisher Atari are to launch a limited-edition range of retro watches featuring Atari game graphics. The range launches in the UK next month. The watches are primarily aimed at male “old-school” gamers, but Atari hopes that the association with Fossil will attract a broader and younger group of […]