Marketing Week
8 October 1998

...as Condé Nast axes standalone GQ Active

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Condé Nast is withdrawing GQ Active as a standalone title on the newsstand following disappointing sales.

APL takes on Rabosky as creative chief

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Ammirati Puris Lintas London has hired top US creative Steve Rabosky as its chief creative officer in an attempt to boost the agency's credibility.

Best practice boosts response

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

William Rogers was right to point out that mailshot response rates were once about five to six per cent in his letter "Mailshots seem wide of the mark" (MW September 24).

Brief

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

TBWA GGT Simons Palmer has created the first TV advertising push for UK Horizons. The campaign, which breaks on October 12, aims to position the channel as a quality documentary provider. TV personalities, including Michael Palin and Rolf Harris, will recite a 17th century poem. Each line of the poem begins with the words 'I saw...' The 40-second advertisement ends with a child looking in wonder at a TV screen and uses the strapline: 'UK Horizons, come and see.' Media planning and buying ...

Brief

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

TBWA GGT Simons Palmer has created the first TV advertising push for UK Horizons. The campaign, which breaks on October 12, aims to position the channel as a quality documentary provider. TV personalities, including Michael Palin and Rolf Harris, will recite a 17th century poem. Each line of the poem begins with the words 'I saw...' The 40-second advertisement ends with a child looking in wonder at a TV screen and uses the strapline: 'UK Horizons, come and see.' Media planning and buying ...

Briefs

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Following the recent launch of Dixons' free Internet access service, FreeServe, BT has finally unveiled its pay-as-you-go-service - BT Click+ - charging users only for the time they spend online. The service has no monthly fees: users are simply charged a penny per minute on top of their call charge for full Web access. BT Click+ is targeted at infrequent users and is intended to capitalise on the popularity of e-mail by incorporating its own freemail service.

Briefs

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Following the recent launch of Dixons' free Internet access service, FreeServe, BT has finally unveiled its pay-as-you-go-service - BT Click+ - charging users only for the time they spend online. The service has no monthly fees: users are simply charged a penny per minute on top of their call charge for full Web access. BT Click+ is targeted at infrequent users and is intended to capitalise on the popularity of e-mail by incorporating its own freemail service.

Broadcasters say it from the heart

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Television loves its audience and never has this been more apparent than now.

BT loses business chief in rejig

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

BT has lost the head of advertising for its business division, Adrian Fedyk, following a company-wide restructure.

C&W plots global mobile branding

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Cable & Wireless is to develop a global brand identity for its 33 mobile telecoms businesses worldwide.

Can Grey live down its name?

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Grey has been very cunning in turning a near-disaster into a creative coup. Mellors Reay & Partners promised much, not least the impressive track record of its principal partners, but ended by delivering relatively little. Now, in an inspired cost-cutting move, that talent has been bought in to manage Grey's London advertising agency, under the benevolent eye of group chairman Roger Edwards.

Contract offers mutual benefits

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Agencies will inevitably differ in their estimation of the UK's new model contract for advertisers and agencies. However, its launch is the latest evidence of a more collaborative relationship between Europe's agencies and advertisers.

Digests

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Digests

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Distillers put trust in premium brands

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

There have never been so many malt whisky products on the market and this week there will be six more.

Domecq launches new malt whisky in duty frees

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Allied Domecq is to roll out a new malt whisky under the Ballantine's brand in UK, European and Japanese duty free shops.

Easy Jeans marketing boss leaves

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Easy Jeans sales and marketing director Lydie Rybacki-Malgin has left the company without a job to go to. She has worked for the jeans manufacturer for more than 20 years.

Falmers bids for Hardcore Euro brand

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Falmer Jeans is in negotiations to acquire the Hardcore brand under licence across Europe with a deal expected to go through in the near future.

Grey eminence

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

At 6am this morning Grey Advertising's chief executive Steve Blamer was due to climb a ladder and spray-paint a large red R over the R on the Grey nameplate above the agency's door in Great Portland Street. That, at least, was the plan.

Grey wins 8m Allergan account

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Grey Advertising has won the 8m advertising account for Allergan contact lens solutions across Europe.

Ikea brings BDDH on board 6m account

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Ikea has appointed Partners BDDH to work alongside lead agency St Luke's, which holds the furniture retailer's 6m UK account.

Internet's 'sunrise' industries pierce through the falling gloom

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Forgive me for staying with the same subject, but the fact that supermarkets are getting a drubbing for their price policies and other such domestic issues of the moment pale into insignificance beside what is happening to international financial markets. To discuss anything else at the moment is like asking Mrs Lincoln whether she enjoyed the show - it rather misses the point.

Lads' magazines turn away ads...

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Men's glossy titles, including GQ, Maxim and Loaded, are turning away advertisers for the autumn editions of their magazines.

Life's a beach

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

One in every twenty-five residents of Palm Beach is a millionaire, so some reckon that this part of south-east Florida is called the Gold Coast because of the astounding bank balances of the locals, rather than because of its golden beaches.

Media Business takeover talks collapse

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Takeover talks between Grey and The Media Business Group which it was hoping to acquire have been terminated after seven months of discussions.

Nestlé lures K-C chief

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Nestlé has appointed Kimberly-Clark's consumer marketing director for family care, David Glik, as consumer marketing director for its food division.

New CIA blow as Zenith lands 30m Lloyds TSB

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Zenith Media has snatched the 30m media buying and planning account for the Lloyds TSB Group from CIA Medianetwork.

Next 25 years for commercial radio

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Commercial radio celebrates its 25th birthday tomorrow (Thursday), marking the date when the London Broadcasting Company made its first radio broadcast - at six in the morning on October 8 1973. However, some believe the commercial radio business is actually much younger than this.

O&M cuts staff after losing Ford lead status

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Ogilvy & Mather made 20 redundancies last Thursday, following its loss of Ford lead agency status to Young & Rubicam last July (MW July 16).

Omnicom new guard sets sights on growth

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Is Omnicom about to make another acquisition? On the face of it, the appointment of new finance boss Randy Weisenburger (MW October 1) was simply a means of replacing the retiring Fred Meyer.

Online buyers turn to Net for product information

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

The Internet has now become a significant source of information for Net users planning a purchase, according to a survey published this week.

Organic food

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

The public interest in organic food offers a major opportunity for hard-pressed supermarkets - and in-store communications are one of their most effective weapons.

Radio Activity

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

What better way to convince a classical music radio station to debate the benefits of TCP as a sore throat treatment than to get a professional singer to gargle Nessun Dorma on-air.

Red or Dead guru fashions new Daewoo

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Wayne Hemmingway, the man behind fashion label Red or Dead, is designing a one-off version of Daewoo's Matiz to support the launch of the car at this year's Birmingham Motor Show.

Redeeming feature

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

In the US, coupon clipping is a way of life. Every weekend, millions of US housewives get together to drink coffee, eat cake, clip coupons and then trade the ones they don't want for the ones they do.

Renault UK appoints new marketing director

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Renault UK has appointed a new marketing director from the French motor company's Paris office.

Saatchi wins 20m Guinness Africa

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Saatchi & Saatchi has beaten FCB International to the estimated 20m ad account for Guinness in Africa.

The Clothes Show

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Promotional clothing is going upmarket. Although thousands of brands are now being emblazoned on garments, consumers are no longer likely to buy branded goods which are linked to inferior clothing.

TV drowns in ordure of the day

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Back in May, when the sun shone so early and unexpectedly that it caught on the hop the flabby-thighed and knock-kneed morons whose shorts mercifully remained in mothballs, this column's eye swivelled and focused on Min Clough.

Virgin Direct boss quits in bust-up

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Virgin Direct marketing director Andrew Inwood has suddenly left the company, after falling out with the financial services provider's top management.

What's BBH got against furry friends?

Thu, 8 Oct 1998

Somebody at Bartle Bogle Hegarty must have it in for cuddly animals.