Campaign articles from March 2000

Campaign archives from March 2000

DSS to launch 14m [pounds sterling] pensions blitz.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The Department of Social Security is to launch two campaigns with a combined budget of up to 14 million [pounds sterling] to inform widows and pensioners about their rights. Ministers have earmarked between 8 million [pounds sterling] and...

Swedes climb down over ban on TV ads that target children.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The threat of a Europe-wide ban on TV advertising to children has receded after the Swedish government climbed down from its pledge to use its upcoming EU presidency to force the ban through. Faced with the impossible task of winning...

Ads promote Livingstone as the people's choice.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper has presented Ken Livingstone as the people's choice in its debut advertising for his mayoral bid. The poster campaign takes a softly-softly approach, opting to take the high ground rather than responding to recent...

Blamer to rescue Grey's US flagship.
March 31, 2000... Steve Blamer is quitting his post as Grey London's chief executive a year ahead of schedule and is returning to the US to run the New York operation. His departure, which is expected within the next few months, will leave Grey London...

Mike Cozens leaves Y&R Europe post to set up new venture.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Mike Cozens, the creative director of Young & Rubicam Europe, is leaving this week after more than six years at the agency. Cozens was the creative director of Young & Rubicam London at the time of its merger with Rainey Kelly Campbell...

Sweden retreats on children's TV ad ban but the idea lives on.
March 31, 2000... Short of a flutter on Manchester United winning the championship and Watford dropping through the Premier League's trapdoor, no bet looks safer than the Swedish government's failure to secure a Europe-wide ban on TV advertising to children....

Burnetts' Davis moves to Chicago office role.
March 31, 2000... Jonathan Davis, the director of TV technology and business at Leo Burnett, is leaving London to become head of TV production at the agency's headquarters in Chicago. Davis, who left the agency last week, was head of TV until he was...

BDH TBWA scoops 15m [pounds sterling] Nissan dealership advertising account.
March 31, 2000... BDH TBWA has picked up Nissan's new dealer advertising account, consolidating the car maker's UK business within the TBWA group. The Manchester-based agency is believed to have pitched for the business in November against several...

IMP's Ian Millner launches Iris as youthful independent.
March 31, 2000... IMP's marketing director, Ian Millner, has staged a breakaway from the agency to form a multi-disciplined shop called Iris. The new agency already has 12 staff -- half of whom are from the MacManus group subsidiary -- and opens its doors...

Walsh Trott unseats Britannia shop BDH after creative review.
March 31, 2000... The Britannia building society is on the point of awarding its creative account to Walsh Trott Chick Smith after a two-month review that saw the agency pitch against Leo Burnett, Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy and the incumbent, BDHTBWA. ...

AMV creatives in agency start-up.
March 31, 2000... Tony Malcolm and Guy Moore, the award-winning senior creative team at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, have quit to start their own agency. Moore confirmed that the two had handed in their notice to Peter Souter, the agency's creative director,...

Western's Magnani takes Euro strategy lead role at OMD UK.
March 31, 2000... OMD UK has poached Peter Magnani from Western to take on the new role of director of communications strategy for Europe. Magnani, who was deputy media director at Western, will be responsible for leading OMD UK's business across Europe...

Carat lands Dolphin Telecom media task.
March 31, 2000... Carat has landed the centralised media planning and buying for Dolphin Telecommunications after a winner-takes-all pitch against MediaCom TMB for the 8 [pounds sterling] million business. Dolphin will target workers in industry or...

Ad agencies line up for UK launch of US web delivery service.
March 31, 2000... A US web company offering to deliver everything from doughnuts to DVDs to New Yorkers within one hour is talking to agencies about handling advertising for its UK launch. Urbanfetch, an online home delivery service which is operating in...

HOTLINE.
March 31, 2000... 0181-267 4656 TBWA GGT Simons Palmer is expected to land the Labour Party account after a pitch against Saatchi & Saatchi and J. Walter Thompson. Labour officials insisted no decision had been taken but confirmed that TBWA had emerged as...

BLM and TBWA form new agency unit.
March 31, 2000... Booth Lockett Makin and TBWA GGT Simons Palmer are to create a joint venture operation to incorporate their media and creative expertise, going against the industry trend for separating the two. @ the Hub, which launches on 1 May, will...

Fallon adapts `your country needs you' posters for Radio 1.
March 31, 2000... Radio 1 is promoting the arrival of its new breakfast show host Sara Cox with a six-sheet poster and bus-side campaign by Fallon McElligott. The campaign is a parody of the award-winning "your country needs you" advertisement which was...

Grey's Kate Harris set to head advertising charity NABS.
March 31, 2000... Kate Harris, a board account director at Grey Advertising, is to become the new head of the advertising industry charity NABS. She replaces Helen Tridgell, who announced earlier this month that she was leaving to become managing director...

Leagas kicks off debut TV spots for Goodyear.
March 31, 2000... Goodyear is adopting a new, hipper image with its first campaign through Leagas Delaney which is breaking across Europe this April. The agency is attempting to make an emotional bond with consumers in this low-interest category, using...

Mediapolis renames as Media Planning after merger.
March 31, 2000... Mediapolis is changing its name to Media Planning after its owner, Havas Advertising, merged its media interests with those of the Spanish media group Media Planning SA last year. The name change will be effective from 1 May and will take...

The Wireless Group prepares to float in expansion strategy.
March 31, 2000... Kelvin MacKenzie's fast-expanding radio company, the Wireless Group, has announced its intention to float and has appointed West LB Panmure to act as advisor and broker. The flotation, which could value the company at between 170 million...

ITC criticises Channel 5's low-budget output.
March 31, 2000... The Independent Television Commission has slammed Channel 5 for its over-reliance on low-budget programming in its annual report on TV channels' performance. The report, which looks at the programming output of Channels 4, 5, GMTV and...

Heekin to take charge of McCann Worldgroup.
March 31, 2000... Jim Heekin is to succeed John Dooner as the chairman and chief executive of the McCann-Erickson Worldgroup. The appointment will be announced at a meeting of the Worldgroup board on 3 April. The move had been expected following Dooner's...

Middle market titles secure bigger share of business readers.
March 31, 2000... Broadsheet newspapers and specialist business magazines are losing business readers to mid-market titles such as the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. The latest British Business Survey produced by Ipsos-RSL shows that specialist titles...

Illness sees Stothard take sabbatical from The Times.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The editor of The Times, Peter Stothard, has been forced to reveal the real reason behind his decision to take a sabbatical for an "indefinite period" after press speculation about his future. Stothard has announced to staff that he is...

REVIEW.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Marketing and advertising news in the week's press... Jill Manaton will succeed Derek Dear as the general manager of marketing communications at British Airways. Manaton joined the airline in 1990 as the brand manager. Her most recent...

One2One ads put emphasis on style.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... One2One's latest press campaign for pre-paid mobile phones aims to persuade the UK's youth that they should choose their brand of phone as carefully as their trainers. The three-month campaign introduces two mobiles that have been...

Guardian work seeks answers to questions.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The instinct to ask questions forms the central theme of the latest advertising campaign for The Guardian. The work, created by Partners BDDH, features a series of vignettes showing people from different backgrounds asking a question. ...

Referees front TBWA's Strongbow campaign.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The secret life of football referees is revealed in TBWA GGT Simons Palmer's new 1.3 million [pounds sterling] campaign for Strongbow cider, which breaks on 1 April and runs for the rest of this football season and all of the next. The...

Delaney Lund unveils debut TV commercial for Evergreen Grasshopper.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Delaney Lund Knox Warren has used humour to demonstrate how easy it is to use Evergreen Grasshopper in its new campaign for the lawn fertiliser. It is the first time that The Scotts Company has advertised Evergreen on TV. The commercial...

Telegraph pulls off cross-media sports tie-up with Eurobet.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The Telegraph Group is claiming its biggest cross-media deal to date with Eurobet, one of the largest online betting companies, owned by Coral International. The 750,000 [pounds sterling] deal means Eurobet will be linked to all of the...

TBWA unveils 1.5m [pounds sterling] brand campaign for Paramount channel.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The Paramount Comedy Channel is launching a 1.5 million [pounds sterling] TV branding campaign that shows people making light of traditionally serious situations. The campaign, which was created by TBWA GGT Simons Palmer, with media by...

JWT promotes Gary Marshall to head of art position.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Gary Marshall, a deputy creative director at J. Walter Thompson, has been made head of art at the agency. The appointment continues the overhaul of the creative department that began last summer. There has been no head of art at JWT for...

Mustoes in debut work for Dr Martens.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Mustoe Merriman Herring Levy is launching its debut work for Dr Martens next month with a global branding campaign for its Open Air-ware range. A press and poster campaign promoting the range of sandals will run in the style press in the...

BMP DDB's ad for Bora keeps `excuse' theme.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... BMP DDB's latest campaign for the Volkswagen Bora continues the "any excuse" theme with a TV execution, entitled "hitchhiker", which goes on air next week. The commercial for the saloon car opens on a hitchhiker who looks like a typical...

NABS appoints HPT to lift its profile and add to membership.(National Advertising Benevolent Society)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The advertising charitable body NABS has appointed HPT Brand Response as its agency of record -- the first time it has used a direct marketing agency. HPT will be charged with increasing awareness of the range of NABS services and...

Springer drives forward global expansion plans.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The German-based agency is set to strike a deal with Omnicom. Like the Scottish Guide to Sunbathing and the English Book of Great Lovers, a German network of creative agencies just doesn't sound right. Surely German advertising has the...

Asia's creatives still lack bite of western agencies.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Attracting young talent is proving difficult for Asian shops. It is not often that Procter & Gamble wins best of show at an advertising awards ceremony. Or that the top prize at any event goes to a shampoo, let alone Head & Shoulders. But...

Underdog Rover gets support.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The car maker shares the top spot with indomitable Tango. BMW's rough treatment of Rover clearly stoked patriotic feelings in the People's Jury this month. M&C Saatchi's 007-style roulette wheel and pinball ads pulled in an impressive 6.1...

PICK OF THE WEEK.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Matthew Cowen picks Bartle Bogle Hegarty's Twisted Original Levi's ads: "From the music to the characters to the twist in the tail, these are everything a BBH Levi's ad campaign should be. The creatives behind Doritos and Dr Pepper can go...

TURKEY OF THE WEEK.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The latest C & A ad from Handley Partnership is nauseating stuff, Francesca Newland says: "A good-looking family with toothpaste ad smiles board a steam train for a celebration. Cue the ultra-modern musical refrain which doubtless was judged...

Why we should sit up and take notice of Asia's fightback.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... In The Times this week, William Rees-Mogg details the astonishing rate at which the Chinese population is becoming wired; the percentage of the population online is doubling each year. By 2003 the total number is expected to pass that of the...

Is the ITC in jeopardy following News at Ten row?(Independent Television Commission)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... What is the Independent Television Commission's role ? Clearly there are still those who believe that it's there to do what politicians tell it to do -- as the reopened News at Ten debate illustrates. Is it time for the industry to take a...

RED: AN EXPERT'S VIEW.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Under Red's new editor, the title offers a better mix of articles. I was racking my brain trying to think of someone suitable to review Emap's Red magazine -- a woman who is about 30 and likely to read a magazine for pleasure. I realised...

Telegraph new-media position lures old hand back to the fold.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Online strategy is the latest challenge for Kim Fletcher, Gordon MacMillan writes It's always the same with journalists. One moment you're writing about it and the next moment you're doing it yourself. With the rise of the internet this...

RIP the full service agency, it's time for full service media.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... At first it sounded like a joke, but like any joke, once you've heard it a few times it stops being funny. When several senior clients told it at the Lisbon TV conference, it began to sound downright serious. The return of the full...

FOR THE RECORD.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Simon Devitt, the chief executive of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, has resigned to head a new business-to-business venture. John Mayhead, the chairman of the ABC, will oversee Devitt's role until a successor has been found. Attic...

Cabal needs more than bright ideas to make an impression.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... The school of hard knocks is a shock for this upstart publisher. On balance, Cabal Communications' decision to take part in BBC2's Trouble Between the Covers series was probably a mistake. You can always argue, of course, that any...

MEDIA CHOICE.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Karen Yates chooses Iceland ads in Woman Magazine. "When looking at magazines, it's often very difficult to pick your way between ads, the articles and all the in-betweeny stuff. "How refreshing, then, to find one set of ads which...

LETTERS.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... GOLFDIGITAL There is life out of London, you know I read with interest the article "Time to watch our friends in the north" (Campaign, 3 March) regarding J. Walter Thompson's winning the golfdigital.com business. Golfdigital...

BACC needs resources, not knee-jerk criticisms.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... In calling for the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre to be overhauled, Robert Campbell, the joint creative director of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, is publicly articulating the long-running private moans of agency creatives about...

Breaking some creative eggs at M&C.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Rumours abound of some disaffected souls in M&C Saatchi's creative department after the recent shakeup. Simon Dicketts, now in sole command, is clearly willing to risk breaking some eggs -- and perhaps a few egos too -- to get the right...

MILLS ON ... BANKS AND THEIR MARKETING.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Were I a conspiracy theorist, which, of course, I'm not, I might conclude that last week's Cruickshank report on banks' services and profits was yet another chapter in the Government's efforts to root out the evils of "rip-off" Britain. ...

MORAN ON ... INTERNET ADVERTISING.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Is it just me or is most dotcom advertising utter drivel? Dotcom marketers will tell you how refreshing it is to work in an environment where the traditional measures of business are less relevant -- you know, small things such as return on...

MEDIUM OF THE MONTH.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Comedy Central's line-up of old and new shows draws massive audiences. To the uninitiated, Comedy Central's weekly line-up looks like a compilation of the worst that repeat-addicted satellite channels have to offer. There's the endless...

Murdoch's Star fails to rise in the East.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Star TV, News Corporation's Asian venture, is finding it hard to make headway in China, Iris Lai writes Although Rupert Murdoch is no stranger to hostility in media markets, his struggles with his Asian satellite TV venture, Star TV,...

Standalone Bates plans to outperform its rivals.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... Jean de Yturbe intends the newly liberated Bates to continue on an upward slope, Karen Yates writes Jean de Yturbe has two main ambitions this year. He is determined to beat Michael Bungey at golf and he wants Cordiant's shares to...

WHAT'S HOT IN ARGENTINA.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... In Argentina we are coming out of a period of decline in terms of creativity in advertising -- it seems as though it has taken a long time to reverse the trend but perhaps it isn't really as long as it seems. Emotional, pretentious...

BIRTH OF A NEW GOLIATH.
March 31, 2000... B COM3, the new mega-alliance between Dentsu, MacManus and the leo Group, is to be the last word in global shops, say its founding partners. The world's media press were there, squeezed into a conference room at Leo Burnett's Chicago...

PRIVATE VIEW.(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... For some, spring is trumpeted in by the Cheltenham Festival (yes I did win, thanks) while for other more dutiful souls it's heralded by a strange urge to tart up their dwelling. No fewer than three of this week's offerings fall into the home...

Jubilee 2000 warriors take over Trev's place.
March 31, 2000... For those who suspect Trevor Beattie marches to the rhythm of his own drum, last Friday evening provided the proof. Passers by TBWA GGT Simons Palmer's offices in Whitfield Street were treated to a spectacular display of bongo bashing from a...

Never mind Vanessa's new man, discover a little-known Feltz fact.
March 31, 2000... Ever since a streamlined Vanessa Feltz was snapped out on the town with her new beau, the tabloids have been-scuffling to place his face. It now emerges that the cuddly character in question is Jon Sayers, an "old friend" and a media man. ...

I'M ONLY A PUNTER BUT ...(Brief Article)
March 31, 2000... I'm beginning to get rather tired of production companies being surprised that I want to meet the director and get him to completely re-do my creative work. He's one of ONLY five directors that I'm going to see and get to re-treat my...

Real actors nowhere to be seen as agency staff rush to stand in.
March 31, 2000... Are agency personnel not being paid enough or are clients just stingy? One suspects the latter. Whatever the cause, the number of agency staffers appearing in their own commercials is increasing at a frightening rate. Over the past...

Ogilvy picks up 50m [pounds sterling] Clear Money.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... The Ogilvy Group has picked up the 50 million [pounds sterling] five-year contract to launch a new online bill payment system, Clear Money, across Europe. Ogilvy & Mather pitched against J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett to secure the...

Euro RSCG secures launch ad task for BBC showpiece title.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper has been appointed to handle advertising for BBC Magazines' new women's glossy, its biggest launch to date. The agency pitched against Leagas Delaney to win the account for the monthly title, codenamed Project Urma....

Dobson hires TBWA for mayor election.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... TBWA GGT Simons Palmer has been appointed to handle the advertising campaign for Frank Dobson's bid to become mayor of London. The agency was recruited without a pitch after its services had been offered by Trevor Beattie, who has close...

Omnicom poised for Springer stake.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... Omnicom is in talks to buy a 20 per cent stake in Springer & Jacoby, Germany's biggest independent agency, in a move that could see the world's largest agency group set up a fourth network. Mercedes Benz, Springer's showpiece client, is...

Tag Heuer returns to TBWA Worldwide.
March 24, 2000... Tag Heuer, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, has returned its global account to TBWA Worldwide after parting from Bartle Bogle Hegarty earlier this month. The account will be handled by the Paris agency BDDP@TBWA, which held it for seven...

Stella Artois scoops golds at Campaign Press Awards night.
March 24, 2000... Lowe Lintas & Partners has picked up the two top prizes at the Campaign Press Awards for its work on Stella Artois. The agency picked up a whole host of awards for Stella, including the Campaign golds for both best campaign and for best...

News at Ten debate highlights issues of scheduling freedom.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... News at Ten refuses to die. It's made the news more often than many real news stories since its demise last spring and it's back in the headlines again this week as MPs make another concerted push for the return of the bongs. Which could...

Caterpillar calls pitch for first global agency.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 24, 2000... Caterpillar has kicked off the search for a global advertising agency for its CAT fashion brand following the resignation of its creative director, Shubhanker Ray. This will be the first time that Caterpillar has used an agency to create...

Streets Online launches review to rival Amazon on world stage.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 24, 2000... Streets Online, the UK's fifth most visited e-commerce site, has launched a hunt for a creative agency to help propel it into competition with Amazon, the worldwide e-tail giant. The pitch process is being co-ordinated by Lisa Spiro...

Cabal Communications MD makes an abrupt departure.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 24, 2000... Cabal Communications, the publishing company set up by Sally O'Sullivan in 1998, has suffered a setback with the departure of its managing director and co-founder, Andy Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe, who is understood to have left last week,...

Burkitt loses out as New PHD nets South West Trains' media.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 24, 2000... South West Trains has moved its media account out of the full-service agency Court Burkitt and into New PHD. The media planning and buying account, worth 600,000 [pounds sterling] last year, has moved to New PHD without a pitch. ...

Rover pledges to keep advertising.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 24, 2000... Rover this week vowed to keep its advertising momentum going in a bid to maintain the support of dealers fearful of slumping sales after the beleaguered car maker was dumped by its BMW parent. TV campaigns supporting the 25 and 45 models,...

Higgs and Dean to quit M&C following creative restructure.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... The creative team behind Foster's popular "He who drinks Australian thinks Australian" campaign is to split as part of the fallout from M&C Saatchi's recent creative reorganisation. Sue Higgs, the copywriter on Foster's, has announced her...

Govt committee calls for News at Ten return.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... ITV could be forced to reinstate News at Ten after the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Select Committee called on the Independent Television Commission to use its powers over the broadcaster. In a statement issued at a press...

Optimedia secures further business in L'Oreal brand rejig.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 24, 2000... Optimedia has increased its foothold on the L'Oreal account by swiping a portion of the business from fellow incumbent Universal McCann. It is the first time that business has moved between the two media agencies. Optimedia will now...

HOTLINE.(advertising agency briefs)(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... 0181-267-4656 DDB Worldwide has named James Best, the London group chairman, as its global chief strategic officer. Michael Bray, the London-based managing director of worldwide accounts, becomes president of international brands. Both...

Stella ties up movie sponsor deal.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... Stella Artois is claiming a new-media first with a deal that brings together some of the internet's most prominent film sites in an internet sponsorship package to underline the beer brand's long-running association with movies. The deal...

Compaq colonises Eurostar's terminal to launch computer.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... Compaq has taken over Waterloo International station to launch its Aero handheld computer with a campaign created by Claydon Heeley Jones Mason. Aero is the first to include a wireless application protocol browser which can be used with...

Evans Hunt Scott and Real Time join forces.(ehs:realtime)(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... Evans Hunt Scott and its Havas-owned digital media consultancy cousin Real Time are to merge in the first deal of its kind in the UK direct marketing arena. The new agency, to be called ehs:realtime, will have more than 300 staff and a...

MPs urge Govt to work harder on climate change awareness ads.(Brief Article)
March 24, 2000... The Government's 7 million [pounds sterling] drive to urge the public to combat climate change was branded a failure this week by an influential group of MPs. They urged ministers to boost the budget and to run a high-profile campaign...