What does 1995 hold for the advertising and marketing industry? One thing is for certain – the Asia-Pacific region will play a key role.

The Independent’s continental backers have come under pressure to agree a share issue covering the continuing costs of last year’s restructuring and the price war. Parent company Newspaper Publishing is seeking to raise £55m, one shareholder claims… …The Independent promotions consultant Phil Lawlor has left the company and been replaced by head of competitions Roz […]

It’s “set the record straight time” regarding Avis. We resigned the Avis UK business last autumn and Avis Europe before Christmas, when it became clear that the jobs to be done and the budgets available became incompatible. We were asked not to publicise these resignations, which is why the news has come out in dribs […]

Customer loyalty programmes are not simply a matter of pack offers for plastic dinosaurs- you must think about what is most lkely to go wrong and make sure it doesn’t.

Pharmaceutical companies will be fighting it out in a multimillion pound battle for access to a Government-held database on patients’ reactions to drugs. The database was originally compiled by Vamp Health, which won 25 per cent of the market to supply computer systems to general practitioners. Some 700 medical practices agreed to supply the company […]

What an appalling mess. No, not the Saatchi imbroglio for once, but the Government’s so-called media policy. The Broadcast Act 1990 seemed ill-conceived at the time. Now it has more holes through it than a piece of timber riddled with death-watch beetle. Will the Government clear out this deadwood with sweeping new legislation? Not before […]

Chris Killingbeck, one of the founding partners of sales promotion consultancy FKB Carlson, left the agency at the end of last week, along with five colleagues and a key account, Yellow Pages, to set up a new sales promotion agency, Killingbeck Cloughley Johnston Baggott. Keith Johnston was director of new projects at FKB, while Chris […]

Apricot Computers is reviewing its media-buying activities and looks likely to drop CIA Medianetwork Direct. The Mitsubishi-owned computer company blames the departure of CIA staff after an agency restructure. Apricot group marketing director Chris Buckham confirmed last week that the company is looking for an alternative buyer to handle its £2.24m advertising account. “Nobody can […]

I was surprised to read your article in Marketing Week last week in which it was stated that UK Living had a share of viewing in cable and satellite homes that was double that of The Family Channel. While we are pleased to applaud the growth of any satellite channel, the comparison that was made […]

Your article “Vying for Promotion” (MW last week) paints a grim picture of in-store price promotions, likening them to the plague and the nuclear arms race! Price promotion is a form of mass sales promotion, which rewards all and sundry regardless of whether or not they are going to buy the product anyway. Smart brand […]

We should like to register a couple of thoughts regarding your Brandtrack article on the canned and packet soup market (MW December 16). Your data suggests that spontaneous awareness of advertising for Knorr in October was relatively low compared with the competition – perhaps not surprising as Knorr soup advertising was not on air until […]

What does 1995 hold for the advertising and marketing industry? One thing is for certain – the Asia-Pacific region will play a key role.

Some of us just can’t say certain words. “Sorry”; “I was wrong”; “It’s my round”; or, if you’re John Major, “I resign”. It appears to be no different in the music press, where the Melody Maker bogey-word is NME. New Musical Express runs Alternative music’s “alternative” to the luvvy Brit Awards, called the Brat Awards. […]

I was reported in last week’s publication in saying that Camelot was not achieving its target. Can I clarify this – we are not privy to Camelot’s targets for how their business will build up in the early months. It is aiming to achieve a revenue of ú32bn over the seven-year life of their contract […]

Newspaper groups are renewing their pressure on the Government in a bid to relax barriers to greater press ownership of TV interests. Members of the British Media Interests Group meet on January 17 to finalise a second report to be presented to National Heritage Secretary Stephen Dorrell later this month. The report will address the […]