The general feeling which emerged from last week’s Marketing Forum was that the industry is facing a ‘mid-life crisis’. Yet the present climate of change offers marketers prepared to take risks for the sake of innovation an unparalleled opport

Sainsbury’s Economy range heralds a shift away from quality, towards Tesco’s old ‘pile it high, sell it cheap philosophy’, reckons Stephan Buck

Hello! magazine this month launches a standalone fashion magazine to compete with Vogue and Elle’s coverage of the spring and autumn collections. The title, Hello! Haute Couture Fashion Special, follows the format of Spanish parent Hola!, which publishes four fashion specials a year. It will consist of in-depth coverage of the seasonal catwalk collections from […]

In reference to your article “CU gets hot response to ITV branding” (MW September 22), it’s good to see some recognition of the contribution that TV sponsorship can make when properly exploited. I must correct you, however, for stating that this is the first time a response number has been included on-air as part of […]

High jinks and low cunning aboard the Canberra. The Diary hears that while G-Force exhibitor Julie Hart was away from her stand at the Marketing Forum, rivals at HP:ICM began rewriting the rules of competitive advantage. The HP:ICM boys were seemingly engaged in a touch of industrial espionage before being caught red-handed over Hart’s notebook […]

British marketers can successfully innovate but too often their company culture means “they’ve never bloody well been asked”, according to Andrew Seth, former chief executive of Lever Brothers speaking at the Marketing Forum aboard the Canberra last week. Seth said consumer marketing and long-term brand viability are accorded a low priority. He claimed brand strategy […]

Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow & Johnson has confirmed that differences between the agency and two of its founders – creative directors Chris Palmer and Mark Denton – have been resolved.

The Diary is often asked how he manages his glamorous lifestyle: the six-hour lunches; the Bolly; the exotic cruises. The answer is simple. He supplements his Marketing Week income with a little blackmail cash. Take this as a purely hypothetical scenario. Say The Diary had been on a cruise – aboard the Canberra, for example. […]

Direct marketing agency Sutch Webster WMGO Direct has been acquired by The Haygarth Group for 65,000 and will be merged into its existing below-the-line agency, The Target Practice. Haygarth also owns sales promotion consultancy BLP (MW last week). In the past five months, Sutch Webster has lost the 5m RAC business and the 3m Mercury […]

Allied Domecq Inns is launching an interactive entertainment network involving a fantasy football game sponsored by Carlsberg lager. The game, Fantasy Park, has been developed by interactive media agency CHBi. It enables customers to play fantasy football using a touchscreen linked to an interactive network, initially involving ten pubs connected via ISDN lines. Players use […]

Orange’s advertising has provoked responses that range from “confusing and pretentious” on the one hand to “intrusive and powerful” on the other. But the key question is: does it get the message across? Most people were intrigued but bemused by the company’s launch campaign. Orange’s parent group, Hutchison Telecom, claimed this advertising, devised by WCRS, […]

Mars’ Pedigree Petfood’s marketing director Roberto Cortese is leaving this Friday to take up a senior post at Campbell’s. Cortese will join Campbell’s on November 1 as vice president for sales and marketing at its Delacre premium biscuits division. In his new role he will be based in Brussels and report to Delacre president Alan […]

The Tories stand accused of blocking a report into obesity. As with smokers, fat people could now lose their rights.

Asda is searching for a new marketing director to take over from chief executive Archie Norman, who installed himself in the top marketing position after the previous marketing director Michael Fleming quit (MW August 21). When Norman assumed control, Asda denied it would seek another marketing director. But it has confirmed to sources that it […]

Publishing giant Random House is appointing its first international marketing director to co-ordinate marketing overseas. The company has hired Dorling Kindersley’s head of marketing, Rosamund Wesson, as international marketing director. Wesson’s role will be to work with marketing departments in associated Random House companies in the US, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand and link […]