Marketing Week
1 October 1998

Alcatel starts 20m global phone blitz

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

French telecoms company Alcatel is launching a 20m global advertising campaign in its first consumer branding push.

Asset tests

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Ten years ago this month Interbrand, as it was then known, conducted the first ever brand valuation for Ranks Hovis McDougall. The exercise succeeded in putting the worth of the company's brands as a figure at the bottom of its balance sheet.

BBC Choice forces Beeb chiefs to create all-embracing brand

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Ten years ago "television" and "marketing" were concepts that collided only accidentally. In a world of just four channels broadcasters competed vigorously with one another and energetically promoted their programmes to viewers - but the relationship between producer and consumer was exceedingly simple.

Brief

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO has created a new campaign for Robertson's Golden Shred, an RHM brand. The television ads break on October 5 with the message that a breakfast including Golden Shred will put you in a good mood. The campaign uses the strapline, 'Put some zest in the day ahead with Robertson's Golden Shred'. It features an 'energised' postman dancing over hedges, dustbins and dogs and generally spreading his good mood after eating Golden Shred. Ian Greig, James Robertson head ...

Brief

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Delaney Fletcher Bozell has created a 2m relaunch campaign for Save & Prosper.

BSkyB digital 'transition' chief quits post

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

David Thatcher, customer marketing director at BSkyB responsible for "transition" - the conversion of analogue TV subscribers to digital - is leaving to join a publisher.

CALL IN THE AUDITORS

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

When businesses make buying decisions regarding where to exhibit their wares, audited attendance figures have an important part to play in the process. Exhibition auditing tools may have only been in widespread use for a few years, but the major organisers can't remember how they got along without them.

CK Cosmetics hires first Euro chief

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Unilever-owned Calvin Klein Cosmetics has appointed its first vice-president for European marketing and sales development.

Digests

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

DIGESTS

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Sega Europe has appointed a new UK marketing director, Giles Thomas, former UK head of marketing at MTV Networks Europe. Thomas has been appointed in advance of the 60m European launch of Sega's new 128-bit console Dreamcast, scheduled for September 1999. He replaces Jo Bladen who left the company in March.

Digital TV watcher

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

The advent of digital TV, which it is claimed will offer more choice, better quality pictures, and interactive television programmes, is a terrifying prospect for your average viewer.

Foreign Affairs

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

If it comes to a choice between the Bahamas or Birmingham, most companies would prefer the more glamorous overseas option as a conference venue.

Forum triggers research action

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Almost 1,000 delegates from client companies and marketing and advertising suppliers packed the cruise ship The Oriana to capacity for this year's Marketing Forum.

Golden Wonder tests two brands

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Golden Wonder is testing a new brand of spicy crisps, called Quite Hot, and has launched an Irish-themed thick-cut crinkle called Murphy's.

Goodwill worth its weight in gold

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

There was a time, not so long ago, when goodwill was a dirty word.

Guinness rejig as Spooner moves

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Julian Spooner, Guinness Brewing's marketing director for Great Brit-ain, is leaving to take up a new management role with Guinness Africa.

Irish Tourist Board seeks marketing director

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

The Irish Tourist Board (ITB) is looking for a new director of international marketing following the appointment last week of director general John Dully.

ITC blasts Heineken's 'funeral' ad

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

The ITC has upheld 88 viewer complaints about a Heineken ad which shows a series of workmen working in the same hole in the ground. Viewers have been offended by the arrival of an undertaker towards the end of the ad and the implication that he may use the hole for a burial.

MediaVest loses 9m KFC media

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Fast-food chain KFC UK is reviewing its 8.8m media account out of MediaVest as a result of the expected merger of its parent company's media operations with Leo Burnett, which handles rival McDonald's.

Mercury Asset Management seeks chief for new-look marketing team

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Mercury Asset Management, the investment company, is searching for a marketing director to head its marketing department, which is soon to be reorganised.

Mobile phones make use of rocket science

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

By 2000, three satellite systems will enable us to make and receive phone calls, faxes and data from anywhere on the planet.

Music licensing help is at hand

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Your Special Report on product licensing, "Test of character" (MW September 10), made excellent reading but missed out one important organisation.

Never mind the euro, what about curbing the derivatives market?

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

No signs as yet of the kinds of apocalyptic events that are meant to accompany the dawn of a new millennium. We might expect predictions that plagiarise the Revelation of St John the Divine, such as whirling winds, flamed crowns numbered in seven and animals with eyes in their bottoms.

News takes centre stage in TV rethink

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Television news is undergoing a rethink. ITN’s decision to appoint a head of marketing last week mirrors the BBC’s decision last month to hire a head of news marketing. Both appointments come as a number of TV channels are about to relaunch their flagship news programmes.

Paul Smith seeks agency to handle 2m international ad campaign

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Paul Smith, the upmarket fashion designer, is believed to be talking to advertising agencies and media planners about a possible international advertising campaign.

SouthBank's md joins the IPC exodus

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Chris Boyd, managing director of the SouthBank Publishing Group, has resigned from IPC. He is the latest to join the exodus of top level executives who have left since the 860m management buyout by Cinven in January this year.

Sportif ditches Lennox Lewis sponsorship deal

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Sportswear company Le Coq Sportif has decided not to renew its 1.5m sponsorship deal with WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.

Supermarkets are cereal killer

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Blame for the crisis facing Kellogg (MW, last week) can only in part be laid at the door of the cereal manufacturer's departing management. Surely the real culprits here, certainly on this side of the Atlantic, are the supermarket chains that have bastardised the sales of this venerable institution through the insidious march of own-label brands.

Swedes massage truth of tourism

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Despite the best efforts of the British Tourist Authority and the Department of Culture Media & Sport, those little devils at Thomson Holidays seem to be thwarting all efforts to push a new glitzy image for Britain.

Thistle hires marketing chief for new position

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Thistle Hotels has appointed Tony Dangerfield to the new post of sales and marketing director for its 60 UK hotels.

Who went down on The Oriana?

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

There is only so much that can be said about marketing, advertising and related services.

Wren hires Omnicom chief

Thu, 1 Oct 1998

Omnicom is understood to have hired investment banker Randy Weisenburger as its chief financial officer to replace Fred Meyer, who is retiring.