The Labour Party launched its big pre-election push this week when BMP
DDB unveiled a pounds 1 million anti-Tory campaign under the slogan:
‘Enough is enough.’ The poster offensive, backed by press work, uses
various images, including a fist, to show how Britain has been damaged
in ‘Tory hands’.
More Group plc, owner of the billboard companies, Adshel and More
O’Ferrall, is restructuring its management in preparation for global
expansion. The UK managing director, Vincent Slevin, becomes ceo, with
Peter Smyth stepping into his shoes. Ian McComas takes the post of
executive director at Adshel and Michael Higgins moves into the top spot
at More O’Ferrall.
The Economist Group has appointed Helen Alexander as its chief executive
following the departure of Marjorie Scardino to Pearson. Alexander is
currently managing director of the Economist Intelligence Unit, the
business information service and sister company to the Economist. She
was previously the Economist’s international and circulation director.
Leo Burnett and DMB&B are squaring up for a fight next week over
Vitalite and Golden Churn, which were bought by Unigate’s St Ivel from
Kraft this year. Burnetts is the incumbent on Vitalite and Golden Churn.
DMB&B has St Ivel’s existing pounds 7.5million yellow fats business,
including Gold and Utterly Butterly.
An agreement by Pearson and Cox Communications to sell their stakes in
UK Gold and UK Living to Flextech Television is understood to be near
completion. But Richard Burdett, head of Flextech Airtime sales, played
down speculation that the channels’ sales house and its boss, Paul
Taylor, would be folded into his company.
Mellors Reay and Partners has poached Denise McConnell from BMP, where
she ran the Marmite and Cadbury Schweppes accounts, to take charge of
its Nicotinell anti- smoking aid business in the UK and Europe. Mellors
Reay has also recruited Ailie McDonald, a senior planner from Weiss
Whitten Stagliano in New York, who previously worked for BMP4 and J.
Walter Thompson.
Longines watches is talking to London agencies about a worldwide
advertising campaign to streamline its image globally. The brand, owned
by the watch giant, SMH, spent pounds 250,000 in the UK last year, but
none of the creative work originated in this country.
United News and Media looks set to scoop Westcountry TV, having outbid
the frontrunners, HTV and Carlton Communication, for the TV station.
United owns neighbouring Meridian, as well as Anglia, and has a stake in
Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television. Last week, it bought a 19.9 per cent
stake in HTV for pounds 73.7 million.
A debate between Alan Palmer, the Cadbury marketing director, and Paul
Feldwick, BMP’s executive planning director, on whether agencies or
clients are responsible for brand equity will be one of the highlights
of the joint conference of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising
and the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers. It takes place next
Thursday at London’s Marriott Hotel.
The WPP Group has strengthened its presence in interactive marketing by
forging a partnership with the San Francisco-based investment company,
Media Technology Ventures. MTV specialises in information and
entertainment technology and has invested in new-media concerns such as
Protozoa, a 3-D character animation company, and InfoGear, a developer
of Internet appliances. According to WPP, this latest deal brings its
investment in new media to dollars 10 million. Martin Sorrell, WPP’s
chief executive, said: ‘We will be able to offer our clients leading
edge understanding of new developments that affect our ability to build
profitable brands’.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned fund management company, Guinness Flight, has
consolidated its pounds 2 million creative account into Citigate Albert
Frank. The account was with Hill Murray for five years, but was handed
to Citigate after presentation of work for the launch of Guinness Flight
Asian Smaller Companies Trust.
