Evening Standard starts review of £2.5m ad brief
The Evening Standard is reviewing its £2.5m advertising business held by Bates UK. It is not known if Bates is to repitch.
Managing director Sally de la Bedoyere will oversee the search for a new advertising agency. Marketing director Jane Hayman was made redundant in February and has not been replaced.
Former Daily Mail deputy features editor Veronica Wadley replaced Max Hastings as editor of the Evening Standard in February. Since her appointment there have been a number of staff changes and a refocusing on the arts.
Commenting on the review, de la Bedoyere says: “With a new editor on board, and many changes and developments taking place, it is time for the Evening Standard to review its approach to advertising and the kind of agency that might best supply it.”
Bates UK was appointed to the account in November 1999 and was responsible for the launch of a number of supplements and tactical promotions. In September, it created a television-led advertising initiative with the strapline “It’s all in the Standard” and the “newspaper world” branding concept, which depicted an animated black and white 21st century London.
The Evening Standard’s circulation is slipping. Its circulation for April 2002 stands at 418,958, down 2.02 per cent on March (Audit Bureau of Circulations). Average net circulation for October to April is down 3.47 per cent on the same period last year.
