It has been a bad few days for Michael Grade. His beloved team Charlton Athletic have been relegated to the third tier of English football. To make matters worse, Brentford will also be playing in League One next season and Grade will have plenty of opportunities to meet Brentford chairman Greg Dyke in the boardroom […]
The famous red briefcase took centre-stage last week as Chancellor Alistair Darling announced the Government’s 2009 budget, which aims to rescue the UK from the doom and gloom of the global recession. While the budget is always of interest to both companies and consumers, this year’s set of policies is particularly high profile due to […]
The relationship between bands and brands used to be simple. The company paid some money, the popstars wore the clothes or applied the lipstick and everyone was happy. But with global music sales dropping 8% this year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, artists now need to look beyond album sales to […]
The Governments 75m campaign Change4Life will fail to stop rising levels of obesity unless it commits to a strategy to change long-term behaviour, the outgoing UK Public Health Association chairman Professor David Hunter has warned.
The Advertising Standards Authority is to make price comparison ads a priority this year due to concerns that the recession will lead to an increasing number of misleading claims. The advertising watchdog says it needs to be “vigilant” on behalf of consumers as supermarkets and utilities fight for consumers with squeezed household budgets. It is […]
Volvo has restructured its marketing budget to focus more on natural search and social media in a bid to reinforce its ‘Life is better lived together’ brand positioning. The Swedish car brand has appointed Mindshare to manage its search optimisation, social media and online PR accounts full-time, having previously worked with the media agency on […]
Supermarket Morrisons has been banned from airing its television ads featuring Denise Van Outen (pictured) using the current voice-over following complaints by rival supermarkets that the campaign contains misleading claims. The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld the complaints from the Co-op, Asda and Waitrose that Morrisons’ claim it was the only major supermarket to source […]
Gyro International has merged with US-based agency HSR and now has its eyes on further global expansion into Brazil, Russia, India and China. The new entity, GyroHSR, has 17 offices in nine countries across Europe, North America and the Middle East. The new agency has combined revenues totalling about $100m (£68.6m) and employs more than […]
Interpublic group, parent company of Lowe, McCann Erickson, Draft FCB and FutureBrand, has reported a drop in organic revenues of 5.6% for the first quarter compared to the same period in 2008 while reported revenues fell 10.8% to $1.33 billion year-on-year. The results come shortly after both WPP Group and Omnicom posted dramatic drops in […]
De Beers Diamond Jewellers has appointed Rob Cheng at its new marketing director. Cheng is a former director of international premium products for American Express. De Beers Diamond Jewellers was set up in 2001 as an independently managed and operated company by De Beers SA and LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton. De Beers launched a […]
Innocent Drinks has kicked off a review of its advertising account less than a year after deciding against appointing an agency in favour of its in-house team. The process is being led by the drink company’s new marketing director Thomas Delabriere who was appointed at the end of last year together with Agency Insight. Innocent’s […]
Absolute Radio is expecting to see audience gains in the second quarter and to have more listeners than its previous incarnation of Virgin Radio by the end of this year. Absolute Radio was included in quarterly Rajar listening figures in January for the first time since it rebranded last September and it saw a dramatic […]
WPP, owner of JWT, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Mindshare and MediaCom, says like for like revenues fell almost 6% in the first quarter and that it does not expect to see any recovery until next year.
Sky is launching an on-demand ad service that will allow viewers to watch long-form advertising. The first advertisers to sign up to the Green Button service include T-Mobile, Warner Bros for its movie Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (pictured), and Fox for its movie Ice Age 3. The service, which is accessed through […]
Gerber Juice Company has handed M2M the media account for its Sunny D juice brand without a pitch. The agency already handles the media planning and buying business for the drinks company’s Welch’s Grape Juice. The appointment comes ahead of the planned relaunch of Sunny D during the summer. Advertising will be handled by My […]