Month: October 2005

Trinity Mirror has told staff to brace themselves for job cuts as it looks to make cost-savings. A spokesman says no figure has been set on the number of losses.

GCap Media, the owner of Classic FM, is understood to be a potential takeover target for private equity firm Cinven. The group, which was formed by the merger of Capital Radio Group and GWR Group, is estimated to be worth &£700m.

Havas chairman Vincent Bolloré has bought an additional 22 million shares in Aegis Group, owner of Carat, bringing his total stake to 17.38 per cent. The news comes as Publicis Groupe said it would not make an offer for Aegis. A WPP Group and Hellman & Friedman partnership may still bid for the group.

JC Decaux and Viacom Outdoor are to battle for Transport for London’s Underground advertising contract, which is said to be worth &£1.2bn over ten years.

Tony Coad, who sold the Calyx Group, the parent company of lifestyle databases NDL International and CMT, to VNU in 1995 for an estimated &£50m, has launched a new company under the NDL International name. NTL is its first client. Coad says: “The commodity list-rental business is a thing of the past. What we’re into […]

Alan Mitchell (MW October 6) is right to suggest that the problem with permission marketing is its current “all-or-nothing” nature. At present, consumers can only mark their frustration at receiving poorly targeted communications by registering a blanket refusal with one or more of the channel preference services. Sadly, many who register with the Mailing Preference […]

David Benady had many good things to say about Camelot in his analysis (MW last week), but I was surprised to see us described as “unexciting”. I can only assume he has overlooked some of our exciting innovations over the past few years – the expansion of the full range of National Lottery draw-based and […]

Frankly, Larner Caleb (Letter, MW last week), has lost (or missed) the plot. The original “Hello boys” campaign clearly fed off and also fed the “girl power” revolution. At the time, feminists used the advertising as a vehicle to gain coverage for their agenda because, in their view, the ads were demeaning and degrading to […]

It’s not often you see an agency’s reputation transformed in a week. All the more so when that agency is already on a creative pedestal and the change is upwards, rather than into the mire. Simple arithmetic reveals that Bartle Bogle Hegarty must have increased its billings by &£160m in the past week (&£7m from […]

It may surprise a few of you to learn that the Diary served in ‘Nam, during which time it had quite a few run-ins with Charlie. Like many of its generation, the Diary worked behind the bar at Yates’ Wine Lodge, Cheltenham, and was constantly at loggerheads with the boss, Charlie Robinson. Meanwhile, in a […]

It never ceases to amaze the Diary just how keen those in the marketing industry are to get dressed up. Take the staff of direct mail company MetroMail in Peterlee for instance. When the call came to raise a bit of money for the RNLI, did they sign up to do the Great North Run? […]

The world would be a better place if we could choose our nicknames. Instead of “Four-eyes” and “Fatty” you could be “Ace” or “Stallion”. Or “Brand”. Destination brand manager Alan Williamson, frustrated at being “saddled with a common Anglo-Scottish name”, has decided to revive the ancient practice of adopting your profession as your name by […]

Although most parents are aware of the CTF scheme, and say they are responsible for deciding what to do with the money, they seem reluctant to do so. What can the Government do about it? It is rare for a chancellor to offer financial rewards, let alone ones with few strings attached, but the Child […]