Sporting goods company Wilson, which sponsors sports stars such as Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf and Michael Jordan, has lost its UK marketing chief. Michael Green has been at Wilson Sporting Goods for the past 18 months as UK managing dir-ector overseeing marketing. He joined from Häagen-Dazs Ireland, where he was sales and marketing director . […]

George Pitcher is joint managing director of media consultancy Luther Pendragon

Launching products is never easy but by targeting consumers who like new brands, product performance can be gauged. Mike Bartlam is marketing manager of consumer services at Nielsen

In your news article Anchor pans Hoover for “ruining” offer (MW February 23), the Hoover flights promotion fiasco is once again being blamed for a failed holiday promotion. We at Thomas Cook seriously challenge this. It is now nearly 18 months since we launched our dedicated unit Thomas Cook Promotions, to fulfil holiday and travel […]

The Daily Express is planning to relaunch its Saturday magazine as a photo journalism section later this month. The magazine will retain the name This Week, and be an expansion of the photo news page in the current daily newspaper. It will run to around 60 pages each week and continue to carry TV listings. […]

The European Commission is planning an autumn advertising campaign to promote the benefits of being a citizen of the European Union. “We’ve got to bring Europe closer to its citizens,” Italian budget minister Mario Arcelli told an informal meeting of the Internal Market Council in Brussels on Saturday. The campaign already has a working title […]

Pattison Horswell Durden is negotiating with Cogent over a joint venture media buying operation. The joint venture, details of which are being kept under wraps while negotiations continue, is expected to have PHD as the senior partner. Industry observers expect media planning and buying of Cogent’s 25m in billings (Register-MEAL) to move into PHD, with […]

I am a 50-plus administration/support secretary in the public relations office of a large national organisation, educated in the Fifties (so I have a distinct advantage on today’s youth!) and regularly read your publication, which is circulated in the department. I find much of the information very interesting, it keeps my brain in gear with […]

Sky Television launches an ad campaign this week to persuade its subscribers to pay for the UK’s first pay-per-view sports event. The 500,000 press, poster and radio campaign for the Frank Bruno versus Mike Tyson World Heavyweight Title Fight on March 16 will seek to defuse opposition to making subscribers pay 9.95 to receive live […]

The TV sports debate has moved to Brussels, where MEPs are to debate whether major sports events like the Olympics should remain on mainstream, non-subscription TV. The European Parliament’s committee on culture and the media is to put an oral question to the European Commission at the parliament’s March plenary session, it has emerged. EC […]

Oh dear. David Hoppit (Vintage Times) seems to be out of touch with his own market. Contrary to his comments in No Olds Barred (MW February 16), Choice is actually one of the youngest titles in the over-50s market with an average reader age of 56, according to NRS. Perhaps Mr Hoppit was referring to […]

New marketing strategies are combining advertising with sampling, in a clever and successful way.

Durex is pulling its Arouser range of ribbed condoms after admit ting it had overstated their sexual powers. The company, which is also ditching its Jeans brand, was forced to change the wording on the Arouser packet last month following a complaint to trading standards authorities by law student Roy Clarke. Clarke and his wife […]

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich is launching Greenwich Meridian 2000 as the official marque to position Greenwich’s Old Royal Observatory as the focal point for world celebrations marking the Millennium. The Observatory, which sits on the Greenwich Meridian at zero degrees, is the official starting point for each new year – and so it […]

Jeans, tight underpants, and traffic jams are sapping our lads’ creative juices, unless recent findings are merely a lot of hot air