UK Charity Lotteries is considering launching its own TV show to take on the National Lottery and push sales of its Lukcy Lotto scratchcards. UKCL sales and marketing director Andrew Slamin says the company is considering the move to help boost its share of the scratchcard market from four to ten per cent. Slamin adds: […]

Rocked by its pensions fiasco, the Prudential is looking to other sources of revenue – taking on the high-street banks. George Pitcher is joint managing director of media consultancy Luther Pendragon

Amid the financial services takeover fever, there is mounting speculation that one of the big four high street banks is planning to make a bid for the Royal Bank of Scotland. Sean Brierley finds out what the attraction is

Sainsbury’s is moving into tele-vision sponsorship for the first time by backing a twice-weekly cookery slot on GMTV, starring celebrity cook Jane Asher. The first of the programmes, entitled “The 12 days of Christmas”, went on air this week as part of a six-week series which will end just before Christmas. “It’s a standard sponsorship […]

Sainsbury’s The Magazine has claimed its first victim with the closure of Living magazine by IPC, which was first published in 1967. The monthly women’s “practical” or checkout title will be merged with IPC’s older women’s monthly magazine Woman & Home from the February 1996 issue. Living has suffered successive falls in circulation since the […]

John Smith’s Bitter has knocked Tetley Bitter from the number-one spot for the first time to become the UK’s most popular bitter, according to bi-monthly figures from research company Stats MR. Total sales of John Smith’s in the take-home trade and through pubs and bars overtook those of Tetley early in the summer. Added to […]

I write with reference to the article “Redeeming Features” (MW October 20), in which it was stated incorrectly that Dixons is part of the Kingfisher group. I wish to remind you that Dixons Group plc is a retailing group which specialises in the sale of high-technology consumer electronics, personal computers, domestic appliances, photographic equipment, communication […]

Club 18-30 is launching a new holiday brand, targeting 25 to 40-year-olds. Priority Holidays is being launched in the run-up to Christ- mas with an aggressive marketing campaign, centred on the message: “Put yourself first for a change.

Tesco’s Clubcard has helped it to knock Sainsbury’s off the top spot. So what can Sainsbury’s do to regain its supremacy? Superpanel is a division of Taylor Nelson AGB. For further information, please contact Judith Passingham, director Superp

Amstrad has been forced to drop the Ultima brand name for its DIY facelift kit after legal action from cosmetics company Revlon, which uses the same name for its skincare range. Amstrad used the Ultima brand name for the national launch of its facial toning machine last month (MW September 29). The name appeared in […]

Omnicom is looking to create a pan-European media operation out of the merged media departments of its DDB Needham Worldwide and BBDO Worldwide networks. Senior Omnicom figures, including BBDO Worldwide chairman Allen Rosenshine, want to secure agreement from its six principal European markets on a merged media operation. The key markets are the UK, Holland, […]

Alison Fendley’s new book on the Saatchi empire, Commercial Break, provides a greater insight into the brothers themselves than into the industry they had such an effect on, says Paul Twivy.Paul Twivy is chief executive of Bates Dorland

US restaurant giant Chili’s, which has opened its first outlet in the UK, is seeking an agency to help it build a business with 100m-a-year turnover. The chain of licensed family restaurants serves Tex Mex and grilled food and has 420 restaurants in the States, with other outlets in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Mexico and […]

Children today are more powerful as purchasers than ever before. The latest research from Gallup for Wall’s indicates that weekly pocket money in the past three years alone has risen from an average of 182p to 205p. In addition, children have far greater access to TV than parents or schedulers may realise. According to the […]

It’s the retailer that has the upper hand in brand control – so how can manufacturers control a brand’s movements? There are ways of ensuring your brand’s freedom of manoeuvre, especially if the manufacturer resists the gravitational pull of f