As part of our 40th birthday celebration, we asked previous editors to sum up marketing and Marketing Week during their time at the helm. Stuart Smith was editor throughout the 1990s (and into the 2000s), a time when marketing teams went global, Sir Martin Sorrell and WPP blazed a trail and digital was of little concern.
The case of Gerald Ratner should serve as a reminder to every owner, president or CEO intent on hurling abuse at their brand
Say what you like about him, veteran ITV sales director and professional rough diamond Gary Digby will be sorely missed. One rival put it this way: “Media buyers will now see ITV as an easier place to do their negotiations and will expect to save millions.” Digby has been closely associated with ITV’s Lazarus-like commercial […]
Unilever chief executive Paul Polman stands to reap rich rewards if his strategy based on sustainability pays off, but the risks are high. Ogilvy & Mather, which has just wrested the Unilever corporate brand development account from Fallon, will shortly unveil the fruits of its labour. New agency, new agenda – and top of that […]
Up to 25% of UK retailers’ annual business is generated in the narrow period spanning the run-up to Christmas to the end of January. And this year retail expert Verdict reckons it’s going to be the best time to pluck the goose since 2007, if only because a massive hike in VAT will make all […]
It’s always refreshing to see a new broom sweeping clean, and Adam Crozier, recently installed chief executive of ITV, did not disappoint as he squared up to a House of Lords select committee this week. Among the insights he disclosed was an admission that ITV programmes were crap. Sorry, I’ll rephrase that in commercial media-speak. […]
Is the Kraft/Cadbury merger really working? Certainly, we are led to believe so by Kraft Food’s chairman and chief executive officer Irene Rosenfeld, who was over here last week rallying the troops. Back in September she told the Financial Times: “We feel terrific about the integration of Cadbury. One-third of Kraft’s top management is from […]
Cuts to funding of the arts threaten to sweep away corporate support in its wake and throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sitting on the desk of culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is a document detailing the draconian budget cuts that the Arts Council England (ACE) will have to make in the wake of Chancellor […]
If a Cannes award is the best measure of an agency’s creative prowess, then success next year is the only option open to WPP. As journalists well know, the most interesting nuggets of information are often to be found at the bottom of a press release. And WPP Group’s latest fact-packed compendium – out last […]
What exactly does David Cameron’s vision of the Big Society amount to? The cynical, but evidence-based, conclusion is: spontaneous acts of unrewarded generosity by almost every segment of society except the state itself. This is a tactic that comes with its perils. According to Alan Bell, chairman of Bell Design & Communications: “There needs to […]
The legislative threat may have receded, but the industry will have to stump up even more cash – this time in “readies” Be careful what you wish for. Never have these word rung more true than for the beer, wine and spirits industry as it digests the implications of secretary of state Andrew Lansley’s recent […]
Leadership in the retail sector is not about the cult of individuals, it’s about the right strategy and executing it meticulously
If, like me, you are wondering why the Office of Fair Trading has given Project Canvas a clean bill of health after coming down so hard on Project Kangaroo, delving into the ruling may clear up the confusion.
I’m beginning to feel sorry for Andrew Gowers. Having had an exemplary career at the Financial Times, he had the misfortune to become its editor.
Unabashed by a reprimand from the Advertising Standards Authority last autumn, Coca-Cola’s Glaceau Vitamin Water is again courting controversy, this time with an on-pack promotion encouraging employees to take a “sickie”.