American Express will begin a ú6m launch of its new credit card in the UK this week, almost a year after the plan was first mooted (MW, May 13 1994).

Sainsbury’s is launching a sub-brand US beer, Indiana Gold, to take on the big premium lager brands in the same way it attacked Coca-Cola with Classic Cola last year. Its main competitors this time are likely to be Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser brand, Scottish & Newcastle’s Beck’s and Courage’s Miller Pilsner. The new beer has blue, gold […]

The Marketing Week/York Racecourse competition The winner of Round 2 is Sholto Douglas-Home of British Telecom in London.

The European Union’s reluctance to use advertising to explain its economic and social benefits only increases the anxieties of anti-integrationists

It’s enough to make Tony Benn splutter into one of his 40-odd daily cuppas. It seems the unthinkable has happened and the British tea drinking habit is under threat from the growing number of iced teas. Snapple proudly reports that sales of its bottled iced teas are buoyant, suggesting that national traditionals such as pot […]

British Sky Broadcasting is preparing one of the UK’s most ambitious marketing strategies to date – to persuade 3 million satellite viewers to buy new digital decoders. The broadcaster opens a digital subscriber management centre in Dunfermline, Scotland in September. By then, a marketing team will be in place and the hunt underway for an […]

A marketing shake-up in Apple Computer’s US headquarters has led to the resignation of its worldwide head of marketing. Ian Diery, who spearheaded Apple’s launch of its Power Macintosh flagship range, is leaving “to pursue other interests”. Diery leaves in the wake of a company-wide Apple restructure which includes the creation of a worldwide marketing […]

The European Union’s reluctance to use advertising to explain its economic and social benefits only increases the anxieties of anti-integrationists

It’s enough to make Tony Benn splutter into one of his 40-odd daily cuppas. It seems the unthinkable has happened and the British tea drinking habit is under threat from the growing number of iced teas. Snapple proudly reports that sales of its bottled iced teas are buoyant, suggesting that national traditionals such as pot […]

The battles between BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and satellite TV are always reported; those between cable and dish less frequently. But, with BSkyB and the cable companies valued at billions of pounds, there’s a lot at stake. And the mighty BT is involved as well. BT is involved because three out of four cable franchises […]

Never ones to miss out on a New Year bash, the Scots are planning the Hogmanay to end all Hogmanays for 2000, with a scheme that will take them literally over the moon

Alfred Donovan, a founder of sales promotion company Don Marketing and the Shell Cor-porate Conscience Pressure Group, has issued a writ against Shell UK claiming damages for libel. This latest twist in the long-running legal wrangle between Don Marketing and Shell comes as the two companies prepare to meet in court over Don’s accusation that […]

London Transport has appointed its first marketing director as part of the former state-ownedfirm’s continuing restructure. Norman Cohen’s responsibilities will range from advertising and publicity to fares and ticketing. But the creation of the role, at the instigation of chairman Peter Ford, is a significant admission that as the group has been broken up marketing […]

A cross-party group of MPs were preparing to table an early day motion opposing Rupert Murdoch’s ú75m Rugby Super League deal, as Marketing Week went to press. The MPs, led by Ian McCartney, Labour MP for Makerfield and chairman of the 80-strong parliamentary Rugby League group, are expected to question the legality of the deal […]

It’s no surprise to find MPs venting their spleen against Rupert Murdoch’s Rugby Super League. Hobbling the media titan is, after all, an evergreen political issue. Besides, some of the concerns being raised by their irate constituents are genuine enough. Local clubs will fall by the wayside if the Murdoch deal goes through. But then […]