Campaign articles from February 2009

Campaign archives from February 2009

Britvic reviews pounds 9m UK media business.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Britvic, the soft drinks company, is reviewing its pounds 9 million media planning and buying account. The review, which is being held through Creative Brief, follows a restructure in the Britvic marketing department last month that saw...

Starcom nets global BlackBerry account.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Starcom MediaVest Group has won the consolidated global media planning and buying account for BlackBerry, following a pitch against Manning Gottlieb OMD. MG OMD holds the business in Europe, including the UK, where billings last year...

Lastminute.com scores media first with consecutive TV ads.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Lastminute.com will this weekend run three ads consecutively on ITV, Channel 4 and Five in what it is calling a 'Mexican wave' of advertising. The first of the 60-second installments will break on ITV at 9.50pm on Saturday (28 February)...

Agencies line up for Diageo search brief.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Diageo is holding a review of its global search marketing agency arrangements as it looks to ramp up its search activity. The alcoholic drinks giant, which owns brands including Smirnoff, Guinness and Baileys, is looking to expand its...

MPs seek curbs on Google.
February 27, 2009... Politicians urge the Government to refer Google to Competition Commission. MPs are urging the Government to end Google's domination of the online search advertising market. Twenty-six MPs have signed a Commons motion expressing...

AMV handed pounds 10m child support brief.(Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission )(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission has appointed Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO to handle its estimated pounds 10 million advertising account. The agency beat TBWA\London, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Chick Smith Trott to the...

MPG in partnership marketing venture.
February 27, 2009... MPG, the media agency that is part of Havas Media, has created a brand partnership venture with the specialist agency Simbiotik. Simbiotik, an independent agency that specialises in linking brands together for affinity or partnership...

Scottish & Newcastle hunts DM shop.(direct marketing )(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Scottish & Newcastle is looking for an agency to handle its pounds 1.5 million direct marketing and sales promotion account. The brewer, which was acquired jointly by Heineken and Carlsberg in April last year, requires an agency to...

Agencies line up for RAF digital advertising account.(Royal Air Force)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The Royal Air Force is on the hunt for an agency to handle its digital advertising account. COI, which is managing the pitch, is in the process of contacting roster agencies to compete for the business. Although the exact nature of...

COI seeks agency for firefighter task.(Department of Communities and Local Government)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The Department of Communities and Local Government is looking for an integrated agency to handle firefighter recruitment. Led through COI, the successful agency will be briefed to develop the long-term attitudes of the public towards the...

AAR: pitch budgets slide.(Survey)
February 27, 2009... Advertising agencies slashed investment in new business last year, survey claims. Advertising agencies slashed their investment in new business and marketing last year, according to a survey by the AAR. Only 16.6 per cent of the top...

ITV suggests merger with main rivals.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... ITV is putting pressure on the Government to consider radical solutions to the TV funding crisis with one proposal being the creation of a new 'super broadcaster' through a merger of ITV with Channel 4 and Five. The broadcaster is...

Tribal names Ross as head of creative.(Matt Ross promoted by Tribal DDB London)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Matt Ross, the creative director at Tribal DDB London, has been promoted to the position of head of creative. Ross takes over from Ben Clapp, the executive creative director of Tribal DDB, who left the agency in January to take on the...

BSkyB backs British cycling with the launch of Team Sky.(Tour de France (Bicycle race))(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... BSkyB is creating a British cycling team called Team Sky, and hopes to win the Tour de France within five years. Sky, already a sponsor of British cycling, is building a team of 25 riders, led by the Great Britain Olympic coach Dave...

Brooklyn Brothers and Glue land Woolworths relaunch.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The Brooklyn Brothers and Glue London have the won the advertising and digital accounts for the relaunched Woolworths brand. The agencies pitched together for the business against an unknown list of agencies and will now share the...

National press ad revenues tumble.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The national press market continues to be hit by the downturn, with overall ad revenues down by 20 per cent in January. Ad revenues in quality titles have been especially hard hit, according to unofficial Nielsen figures supplied by media...

Agencies line up for Amnesty digital task.(Amnesty International)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Amnesty International, the human rights charity, is on the hunt for an agency to handle the digital advertising for its recently launched 'dignity' campaign. The charity has approached a number of undisclosed digital agencies about the...

The Week: Advertising news - Amnesty launches rape ad.(Amnesty International )(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Amnesty International has launched a print and poster campaign highlighting the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. The poster features an image of a bullet alongside the caption 'rape is cheaper than bullets' in a bid to spark...

The Week: Advertising news - Carling work goes regional.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Coors Brewers is to take a regional approach in its new campaign for Carling, emphasising the beer's provenance as part of its 'British barley' strategy. The activity will begin in Yorkshire and focus on the local origins of its...

The Week: Advertising news - Creative industries to grow.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Figures released by The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts last week estimate that UK creative industries will grow at double the rate of the rest of the UK economy, on average by 4 per cent, over the next five years. ...

The Week: Advertising news - ASA investigates 'Iggy' ads.(Advertising Standards Authority)(Iggy Pop)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The Advertising Standards Authority is investigating Swiftcover's ad starring Iggy Pop, following complaints that the company will not insure musicians. The ad features the former punk rocker claiming that he has no trouble finding his...

The Week: Advertising news - W&K unveils Cravendale.
February 27, 2009... Wieden & Kennedy has created a new ad for Cravendale, continuing its theme of animated toys in bizarre situations. The spot features an aggressive bull, which visits a milk bar. After drinking the place dry, the cow is plunged into the...

The Week: Media news - Anheuser changes media.(Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.)
February 27, 2009... Anheuser-Busch, the drinks giant that owns the Budweiser brand and acquired InBev last year, is planning to change the payment terms it applies to media suppliers. It wants to adopt the payment period used by InBev, which involves paying...

The Week: Media news - MPs come under digital fire.(Member of Parliament)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The Government has come under fire for wasting public money by recruiting a digital marketing specialist to help MPs connect to voters through social networking sites. The director of digital engagement, who will have a salary of between...

The Week: Media news - Thomas Cook signs to ITV.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Thomas Cook has signed as the sponsor of ITV's new gameshow The Colour Of Money. Fronted by Chris Tarrant, the show airs on Saturday evenings and features cash machines delivering winnings to contestants. Thomas Cook will use the...

The Week: Media news - Online negative chatter up.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The amount of negative online chatter about brands is increasing due to the economic downturn, according to a new study by the Kaizo Advocacy Index. Of the brands tested, Virgin Atlantic received the most positive feedback, while Orange,...

The Week: Media news - BBC refuses Local proposal.(British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The BBC Trust has formally refused permission for the BBC Local video proposal after holding a public value test. The move comes after a public consultation on the Trust's provisional decision to reject the proposal because it would not...

The Week: Media news - Kantar Group restructures.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The WPP-owned Kantar Group, the insight provider, is restructuring following WPP's pounds 1.9 billion acquisition of the research company TNS last October. The restructure will see the TNS Custom and Research International operations merge...

The Week: Media news - Regulators to vet Canvas.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Proposals from the BBC to join forces with ITV and BT to create a 'next generation Freeview' are being scrutinised by regulators. The venture, Project Canvas, will involve a set-top box with an open connection to the internet, bringing...

The Week: Media news - Qualities' readership grows.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The Guardian, The Times and the Financial Times all delivered increases in readership last year, according to the National Readership Survey. However, readership for The Independent and The Daily Telegraph fell, as did numbers reading...

The Week: Kaka stars in Fallon's latest TV spot for Sony Bravia.(Ricky Kaka)
February 27, 2009... Fallon has unveiled its latest Sony Bravia ad, featuring a ten-tonne zoetrope and the AC Milan footballer Kaka. The zoetrope, which contains a number of static images of Kaka performing a football trick, was constructed and filmed in a...

The Week: Best of the blogs - The pragmatic approach.
February 27, 2009... A good young team had just started at the agency: Mary Wear and Damon Collins. We were working on Marlboro and needed a new campaign. Damon and Mary came to see me. They didn't want to work on cigarettes. I said: 'You've put me in an...

The Week: City news - CBS reveals slide in profits.(CBS Outdoor International revenue report)(Financial report)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... CBS Outdoor International's fourth-quarter pre-tax profit in 2008 slumped 93 per cent year on year to dollars 3 million, according to the company's latest financial results. CBS said the decrease partly reflected revenue declines and...

The Week: City news - Metro receives buyout bid.(Investment AB Kinnevik)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Metro International, the global free newspaper brand, has announced that it has received a potential buyout bid for the company. It said that it had been informed of the offer by the shareholder Investment AB Kinnevik but added that there...

The Week: People news - Boulton leaves HSBC post.(James Boulton)(Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd.)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... James Boulton, the UK marketing director of HSBC, has resigned with immediate effect. It is understood that Boulton, who joined HSBC in 2005, is close to signing to a new job. The bank has made no comment on finding a replacement. In his...

The Week: People news - Kinetic promotes Lonsdale.(Nicole Lonsdale)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Kinetic has promoted Nicole Lonsdale to the newly created position of client services director. Lonsdale, previously the business development director, will have overall planning responsibility across the company, reporting to James Copley,...

The Week: People news - Iris hires Gage and Owen.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Iris has appointed Paul Gage and Duncan Owen as its new heads of planning. Gage joins from Proximity, where he held the role of planning director, while Owen moves from TBWA, where he was a senior planner. The pair will work alongside...

The Week: People news - Standard appoints Sands.(Evening Standard appoints Sarah Sands as a deputy editor)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Sarah Sands, the editor-in-chief of the Reader's Digest, is joining the Evening Standard as a deputy editor. She joins a new team at the newspaper, which is now owned by the Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, being put together by the...

The Week: People news - Keane-Dawson joins Steak.(as managing director)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Steak, the search marketing agency, has hired Mary Keane-Dawson to the newly created role of UK managing director. She will oversee the day-to-day running of UK operations and joins after 18 months in China as the chief marketing officer...

The Week: People news - Nichols awarded Nokia job.(John Nichols)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Nokia has appointed John Nichols, the former head of commercial marketing at Woolworths, as its head of trade and customer marketing. Nichols replaces Stephanie Neil, who left Nokia last year, and will report to Will Harris, the marketing...

The Week: People news - Robertson joins poll outfit.(YouGovStone appoints Kate Robertson)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... YouGovStone, the joint venture between YouGov and the business consultant Carole Stone, has appointed Kate Robertson, the UK group chairman of Euro RSCG, as a non-executive director. Robertson aims to help the company expand its international...

The Week: Advertising reviews - London Midland hires duo.(Rees Bradley Hepburn )(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... London Midland, the train operator, has appointed Rees Bradley Hepburn to handle its advertising and MediaVest to handle its media. The agencies have been briefed to raise awareness of the brand and its services between Birmingham and...

The Week: Media reviews - MediaVest nets British Gas.(British Gas Business contracts with Publicis Groupe)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... British Gas Business has appointed Publicis Groupe's MediaVest to handle its pounds 4 million media planning and buying activity for its SME and corporate divisions, without a pitch. Carat handles media for British Gas' consumer activity and...

The Week: Media reviews - Turespana retains MPG.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Turespana, the Spanish tourism board, has reappointed MPG to handle its EUR42 million global media planning and buying account. MPG, which pitched for the business against Mediaedge:cia and Carat, will add online planning and buying to...

The Week: Media reviews - Zenith lands pet food task.(Mars Petcare UK contracts with ZenithOptimedia)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Mars Petcare UK has appointed ZenithOptimedia to handle its pounds 15 million media planning account. The appointment will see MediaCom lose its grip on the consolidated Mars planning business it landed in May 2002 but the WPP agency will...

The Week: Digital reviews - Seat seeks digital agency.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Seat is looking for a digital agency to work on its website and develop its online brand activity in the UK after severing its relationship with its incumbent agency, Indeprod. A spokesman said Seat wanted a new agency to manage Club Seat,...

The Week: Digital reviews - AnalogFolk wins WTA brief.
February 27, 2009... AnalogFolk has picked up the global digital marketing account for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. The agency has been briefed to develop a global campaign for the brand that appeals to younger, more casual tennis fans, as well as raising...

The Week: Omnicom forms unit to handle dollars 1bn global HP business.
February 27, 2009... Omnicom Media Group is working on the creation of a specialist unit, dubbed HP @ OMG, to house the newly won Hewlett-Packard global business. The media group landed the HP business, which has an estimated dollars 1 billion in billings,...

The Week: i-Q - Web chat about ... The new Sony Bravia ad.
February 27, 2009... Lots of 'theatre' in the direction and great music makes it worth a watch. - Richard Hayter After reading how this was being made a few months back, I was excited to see the results. I'm not sure I should've been. - Ashley Brown ...

Pitch Update.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... A lot of people may be talking about B&Q at the moment, but nobody is accusing the company of being either hasty or picky. Not only has the retailer only just sent out requests for information for a pitch that it announced more than a...

New-Business Rankings: 27 February 2009.(Statistical table)
February 27, 2009... NEW-BUSINESS RANKINGS: 27 FEBRUARY 2009 Rank Rank Agency/ Total Total Net Wins this last Last three wins billings billings billings week week gained lost ...

Hotline: Matthew Freud buys stake in M&C Saatchi.
February 27, 2009... Matthew Freud, the owner of Freud Communications, has bought a 3.3 per cent stake (2.04 million shares) in M&C Saatchi. Freud said that the investment is personal and is not related to his company, which is 50.1 per cent owned by Publicis...

Hotline: Mindshare wins TK Maxx account.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... WPP-owned Mindshare has won the online planning and buying account for TK Maxx without a pitch. The incumbent was Arena BLM. Mindshare already handles the discount fashion retailer's offline media planning and buying business. ...

Hotline: Oman Tourist Board looks for UK agency.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... The Oman Tourist Board is looking for a UK agency to handle its global advertising account. The process is at the RFI stage, with pitches expected in March. -------------------- Did you find this article useful? Why not subscribe to...

Hotline: Saatchi & Saatchi launches follow-up Visa ad.
February 27, 2009... Saatchi & Saatchi is launching the follow-up to its 'running man' spot for Visa. The ad features a man performing acrobatic stunts while on crutches. To watch the ad, visit brandrepublic.com/campaign. -------------------- Did you...

Hotline: News Corporation not directly replacing Peter Chernin.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Rupert Murdoch has indicated that News Corporation, of which he is the chairman, has no plans to directly replace Peter Chernin, the chief operating officer, who resigned this week. Murdoch will take direct control of the Fox films and TV...

Hotline: ITV signs deal with SCS.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... ITV has signed a deal with SCS that will see the sofa retailer sponsor the new series Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder. The seven-part peaktime series starts this week and will feature comedy sketches written by Murray. ...

Hotline: UKTV rebrands Dave +1.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... UKTV has rebranded its timeshifted channel Dave +1 as Dave ja vu The new name has been introduced to replace Dave +1 on the Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media platforms. -------------------- Did you find this article useful? Why not...

Hotline: Virgin Media announces fourth-quarter revenues.(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... Virgin Media, which is considering a sale of its Virgin Media Television content arm, has announced fourth-quarter revenues of pounds 617.5 million, down slightly on the pounds 621.9 million revenue during the same period in 2007. ...

Hotline: John Simmons has died.(Hobson Bates)(Obituary)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... John Simmons, the founder of what is thought to have been Britain's first creative consultancy, has died, aged 78. A one-time senior creative at Hobson Bates, he also wrote and directed commercials for advertisers including Marks & Spencer...

Hotline: Thanksgiving service for Gordon Procter.(In memoriam)(Brief article)
February 27, 2009... A thanksgiving service for Gordon Procter, the former agency chief whose ad career spanned four decades, will be held next Thursday (5 March) at St Clement Danes, Strand, London at 2pm. Procter, who died aged 84 in October last year, was a...

Opinion: Are media agencies set to become irrelevant?
February 27, 2009... You need look no further than the revelation this week that ITV is proposing a three-way merger with Channel 4 and 5 to understand how desperate some mainstays of the British media industry are becoming. Against the backdrop of such...

Opinion: On the Campaign Couch ... with JB.
February 27, 2009... Q: Did the marketing people in the banks that bought complex derivatives such as those Triple A-rated financial cocktails containing 'sub-prime' or 'A-Class' mortgages know who their end-user customers were? A: No. Q: I've noticed a...

School Reports: Introduction.
February 27, 2009... Our School Reports issue is always something of an historical document, reflecting on agencies' progress over the past year before analysing their fitness for the year ahead. But never have the two ends of this equation been more...

School Reports: Life will never be the same again.(Company rankings)
February 27, 2009... Agencies with weak balance sheets, ideas or executions will need to worry most this year, while the big network agencies will have the maturity to comfort worried marketing directors. Back in the heady days of September 2007, Carat was...

School Reports: The Top 100.(Statistical table)(Company rankings)
February 27, 2009... TOP 100 AGENCIES RANKED BY THE NIELSEN COMPANY Rank Rank Agency Billings Billings Year-on- 2008 2007 2008 2007 year ...

School Reports: Top 50 Media Agencies.(Statistical table)(Company rankings)
February 27, 2009... TOP 50 MEDIA AGENCIES RANKED BY THE NIELSEN COMPANY Rank Rank Agency Billings Billings Year-on- 2008 2007 2008 2007 year ...

School Reports: Holding companies.(Statistical table)(Company rankings)
February 27, 2009... HOLDING COMPANIES' SHARE OF MEDIA Rank Rank Agency Billings Billings Year-on- 2008 2007 2008 2007 year (pounds m)...

School Reports: Regional agencies.(Statistical table)(Company rankings)
February 27, 2009... TOP 30 REGIONAL AGENCIES RANKED BY THE NIELSEN COMPANY Rank Rank Agency Billings Billings Year-on 2008 2007 year ending year ending on-year ...

School Reports: The Agencies A-D.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... ABBOTT MEAD VICKERS BBDO Type of agency: Advertising, digital, experiential Company ownership: Omnicom (BBDO Worldwide) KEY PERSONNEL Cilla Snowball chairman and CEO, AMV Group Farah Ramzan Golant chief executive Paul...

School Reports: The Agencies E-K.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... EHS BRANN Type of agency: Direct, digital, data Company ownership: Havas KEY PERSONNEL Terry Hunt chairman Matt Atkinson chief executive Mike Spicer group managing director Paul Green chief financial officer Angus...

School Reports: Agencies L-O.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... LBi Type of agency: Global marketing, creative and technology Company ownership: LBi International KEY PERSONNEL Ewen Sturgeon chief executive, LBi UK Chris Clarke global chief creative officer Anil Pillai managing...

School Reports: Agencies P-S.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... PARTNERS ANDREWS ALDRIDGE Type of agency: Direct marketing and digital Company ownership: Engine Group KEY PERSONNEL Phil Andrews chief executive Steve Aldridge creative partner and chairman Kate Waters planning partner...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: A time to favour the courageous.
February 27, 2009... Independent creative agencies are sharpening their focus and winning more business despite the economic gloom. We started our business, thenetworkone, six years ago - helping independent ad agencies handle multinational client business...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: Amsterdam Worldwide.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... Stop worrying about the future of advertising and focus on relevance, Richard Gorodecky says. So what is the future of advertising? Well, I can say for sure that, in the future, it is highly likely we will continue to spend a great deal...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: Change integrated.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... Telling a captivating story is the crucial ingredient for achieving a truly standout ad campaign. Passion is a dangerous thing. It eats up our time, and absorbs our attention. Yet it gives flavour and meaning to whatever we do. Passion...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: DMG (Dynamic Marketing Group).(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... Dan Mintz explains how DMG can offer international brands an empathetic presence in China. Forget what you think you know about China. In the time it takes to read this article, nearly 180 babies will be born and 100 new cars will hit...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: Lorenzo Marini Group.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... Like a tailor, Lorenzo Marini provides clients with bespoke products, rather than one-size-fits-all. The world is changing constantly. But, then again, it always has been The difference today is that we are becoming more and more aware of...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: Modernista!(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... Agencies must learn to stop thinking if they want to survive, according to Matthew Charlton. There's too much talk in marketing, and definitely too many words Brands are over-explained. The more you explain and define, the more you...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: StrawberryFrog.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... Obama's campaign illustrates how a grassroots cultural phenomenon is born, Ilana Bryant says. For almost ten years, StrawberryFrog has been doing what global clients need, but doing it differently than the traditional network agencies....

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners.(Company overview)(Company rankings)
February 27, 2009... An ambitious agency can grow without sacrificing its founding principles and independent spirit. 'Aids, famine and loony tinpot dictators...' The response of an American gentleman in New York recently, when I was introduced as the...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: Big Spaceship.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... The best way to embrace digital is through a multidisciplinary approach, Michael Lebowitz says. The captive audience has abandoned us. It isn't coming back. We can no longer speak at people and expect them to blink an eye. It's not just...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: Fischer America.(Company overview)
February 27, 2009... It's not the number of channels but the strength of the strategy that's key to communication. Total Communication. More than two small, extra words in our company's name, Total Communication is, for us, a religion. A way of life. It's...

The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2009: Forsman & Bodenfors.
February 27, 2009... Even when brands talk a good digital game, their websites often resemble relics from the past. Not long ago, I was giving a speech at the Eurobest Advertising Festival in Stockholm. The name of my particular seminar was 'Weird Wonderful...