Reaction UK, owner of the product sampling vehicle Student Welcome Pack, is taking legal action against the National Union of Student Services for malicious falsehood following claims surrounding the launch of its rival sampling pack (MW March 17). Allied Domecq Retailing has appointed John Cavey, former vice-president of operations for Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin Donuts, as […]
Music & Video Club, the membership discount club run by retail giant Kingfisher, is looking for an agency to carry out creative work for its store opening programme over the next year.
Travellers on the information superhighway will soon be surfing under the influence of alcohol with the launch of Internet- linked bars and pubs. The UK’s first cyber pub, the “Six Bells”, opens next week in Cambridge and is a joint venture between Greene King and Internet provider CityScape. Plans for further Internet pubs are being […]
Thomas Cook is in disarray after two further top-level departures: commercial director Peter Shanks is joining rival Going Places and chief executive Christopher Rodrigues has been publicly ousted. Shanks will become purchasing director at Going Places, the retail division of Airtours. Rod Allerton, who was managing airline relations at Thomas Cook, is now acting commercial […]
Sports sponsorship is no longer decided on the whim of a company chairman. As Martin Croft discovers, where once it was driven by corporate objectives, it now has to justify its budget and extend into other areas of the marketing mix
WMGO Group chief executive Chris Woollams is understood to be holding talks with a French group interested in buying some or all of the business. Woollams would not confirm he is in discussions and would only say that the group “talks to lots of people all the time”. The group only went public last June […]
Sky Television will spend at least another ú18.5m on marketing when its new financial year starts in July, says director of marketing Philip Ley.
As, presumably, one of the “hundreds of one man bands” to which Jo-Anne Walker referred in her article on field marketing (MW March 3), I must add to the comments made by Mike Garnham. Jo-Anne’s choice of words was unfortunate in some instances. Successful field marketing companies have not “milked” the recession. Those that have […]
IPC Specialist Group and Emap Metro are both understood to be entering the sport and football magazine sector. IPC is within weeks of announcing a football monthly from the specialist stable that produces teen football titles Shoot and 90 Minutes. The title will be a glossy monthly targeting men aged 18 to 35 in the […]
The Conservative party’s fund raising drive has suffered an embarrassing set back after it mistakenly told supporters in a mailing that it planned to raise taxes and sell out to Europe. Tory chairman Jeremy Hanley mailed a two-page fund-raising letter to 25,000 people, but on thousands of the mail shots the crucial words, “We also […]
Sales promotion agency Don Marketing is threatening to sue Shell UK for libel while at the same time circulating the results of a poll it claims to have carried out among Shell retailers. The two companies are due to meet in court over Don’s accusation that Shell used its ideas in a series of promotions […]
ITV has moved to create a level playing field for newspaper publishers wanting to sponsor network game shows for reader promotions after criticism that some publishers were getting an unfair advantage. The ITV sponsorship committee this week opened bidding for the three network quiz shows that do not have contractual options with newspaper sponsors – […]
The Marketing Week/York Racecourse competition The winner of Round 1 is Trevor Anderson of Bayer plc. Trevor and a companion will enjoy a champagne day out at York Races in May.
Scottish & Newcastle’s proposed acquisition of the bulk of Courage and its portfolio of beer brands could lead to the consolidation of marketing under marketing director Richard Gibb at the company’s Edinburgh office.
Virgin Radio sales director John Pearson has been appointed managing director as part of a long-term strategy to enable chief executive David Campbell to focus on exporting Virgin Radio overseas. Virgin hopes to follow Classic FM, which last year launched national radio services in the Netherlands and Finland and a local service in southern Sweden. […]