British Airways and Iberia, the Spanish flag carrier, have announced that they are in talks over a merger. The boards of both airlines are supporting the negotiations, which come after a failed attempt by a BA-led consortium to buy Iberia last year. A merger would see the companies form a holding company but it is […]
Coca-Cola is launching a summer TV campaign and new packaging for its Lilt brand. The ads will feature exclusively on ITV2.
Tesco has promoted UK marketing director Lance Batchelor to the chief executive of Tesco Telecoms, as part of a management restructure following the buy-out of its financial services arm. Batchelor, a former Vodafone marketer, will be replaced by Carolyn Bradley, currently the commercial director for added value foods. Batchelor, who trained in marketing at Procter […]
Websites offering discounts and promotions have become the fastest growing sites over the first six months of the year, according to Nielsen Online. The trend has been attributed to the continued pressure on consumer spending. The figures show that Walkers, the snack brand, is the fastest growing website recording a 2,575% rise in the number […]
Direct Holidays, the Thomas Cook-owned travel brand, is repositioning in a bid to increase focus on its customers. It will be supported by a major ad campaign for the launch of its brochures for this winter and next summer. The company says its new look revolves around its customers and the ad campaign will feature […]
BP has announced a 28% jump in net profits for the second quarter of 2008. The soaring prices of crude oil and natural gas are largely responsible for the boost.
Future, the special interest media group, has reported that online revenue has shot by 39% over the nine months to June 30. It comes as the group reports a 1% increase in profit and a 4% increase in overall advertising revenue. The increase means that online sales now account for 19% of Future’s total advertising […]
Consumers are using mobile phones for texting and browsing the internet rather than making phone calls, according to figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA). The report, released today (July 29), shows that nearly 1.5 billion texts were sent in the first five months of year, a growth of 30% on the same period in […]
Ebay, the online auction and e-commerce site, is launching an international advertising division to capitalise on the growing number of brands that want to launch cross-territory branding campaigns. Ebay Advertising International will be led by head of European strategy Christian Kunz. Kunz, who has been promoted to director of Advertising International, will continue to be […]
Standard Life has served notice on its advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The Edinburgh-based financial services company has called a review of its 15m advertising account.
Facebook has poached Mozilla vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer to join it as director of engineering, as the social networking site continues to overhaul its site. He will report directly to founder Mark Zuckerberg. Schroepfer will be responsible for front-end product development and platform engineering. It is understood he will focus on improving the […]
Four past and present British Airways executives, including former commercial director Martin George, could face jail after it was revealed that they will face criminal prosecution relating to price fixing following an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading. The men will face charges over a conspiracy between BA and virgin Atlantic to fix passenger […]
The UK energy market needs urgent reform, according to a report by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. The report will be published today (July 28). The report follows an investigation that was launched in February after price rises from all the “big six” utility suppliers. It says the UK’s energy markets “are […]
Matt Coombe, the former Vodafone head of brand, is joining Sony to head its central marketing team. He replaces Mikah Martin Cruz, who is leaving to “pursue a career outside of Sony”. Coombe takes over the role of general manager of central marketing for Sony UK today (July 28). He left Vodafone in April this […]
Facebook has come under fire for allowing a game that encourages users to “stab” each other. Members can click on an icon of a knife and a message will then be delivered to the recipient telling them they have been “shanked”. The game, part of the popular SuperPoke! application, has come in for heavy criticism […]