John Hooper, the high-profile director-general of the Incorporated
Society of British Advertisers, will stand down when he turns 60 next
year, after five years in the job, to make way for a younger candidate.
A replacement is expected to be announced by next spring. - Marketing
Week
The Interpublic Group has bought Brands Hatch, home of the British Grand
Prix from 2002, for pounds 120 million. The event will be handled by
Octagon, IPG’s sports marketing arm. - General release
Starcom Worldwide has picked up the dollars 100 million Delta Air Lines
media buying account, having recently been awarded the airline’s
planning business. The incumbent was Zenith Media Services, New York.
- Advertising Age
FT.com has appointed BBDO Worldwide to its dollars 55 million US account
after a final shoot-out against FCB Worldwide. The brief includes
below-the-line activity as well as media planning. The account is
handled in the UK by Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners, the FCB
affiliate. - Advertising Age
WCRS has picked up the Department of Transport, Environment and the
Regions’ account to promote the London mayoral elections. The
appointment comes after a head-to-head pitch against Delaney Lund Knox
Warren & Partners. - General release
Archie Norman has stepped down as chairman of Asda. It is thought his
resignation is related to his recently announced business interest in
Knutsford, another retail company. Norman, a Conservative MP and shadow
minister for Europe, is credited with turning Asda around from being a
flagging retailer to the UK’s third-biggest supermarket chain. - General
release
Seagram UK has appointed Julie Page as director of marketing. She
replaces Ian Harris, who recently became the company’s commercial
director. Page has been group marketing manager at Seagram for three
years. - General release
Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper’s new campaign for the Commission for Racial
Equality, due to break in the new year, will star Kate Moss, Mo Mowlam,
Helen Mirren, Joseph Fiennes, Lennox Lewis and Prince Naseem, among
other celebrities. The campaign uses the line ’Would I?’ and one ad
features Moss lying on a bed asking if she would be better-looking if
she was black. - The Guardian
ITN’s 11pm news is attracting 1.8 million fewer viewers than BBC1’s Nine
O’Clock News. The figure has led Gerald Kaufman, Labour chairman of the
Commons Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport, to summon
executives from ITN and ITV to explain the shortfall. - Evening
Standard
IPC Electric, the new online venture from IPC, has appointed Kevin
Kerrigan as operations director. He joins from Reed Elsevier Business
Information in Belgium, where he was sales and marketing director.
- General release
P&G is launching a Charmin-branded king-sized toilet roll next year.
Each roll has 500 sheets, twice as many as a standard roll. Charmin is
the number one brand in the US, and represents P&G’s first assault on
the UK toilet tissue market. - Marketing Week.
