Analysis

In-depth features, interviews and insights into marketing’s biggest issues.

Fallon London – a model for the future?

Marketing Week

Having created one of the best ads of 2005 in Sony “Balls”, Fallon London is on a roll. The agency won &£75m-worth of new business last month with the combined Orange/Wanadoo account, following France Telecom’s pan-European advertising review. The win takes Fallon to a new level and, while the decision was labelled a “French stitch-up” […]

Hachette-Filipacchi hit by changing trends

Marketing Week

Hachette Filipacchi UK (HF-UK) seems to be making a habit of suspending magazines suffering from falling circulations. Following the decision to drop teen title Elle Girl last year, young women’s publication B now also faces the axe.

Business as usual as Economist editor steps down?

Marketing Week

Weekly newspaper The Economist is bucking industry trends by achieving a worldwide circulation of nearly 1.1 million, at a time when readers are increasingly turning to daily sources for news and analysis. Rivals such as Time and Newsweek are struggling, but Economist outgoing editor Bill Emmott has been lauded for the success of the publication’s […]

Branding success calls for more than quick-fix pricing philosophy

Marketing Week

Supermarket price promotions are used in various ways to build brands, but, as Sainsbury’s has found to its cost, return on investment can take a long time For the past ten years, two philosophies of branding have been battling for supremacy in UK grocery retailing. One looked to a magical and elusive, but extremely powerful, […]

Newspapers starting to look like old news for advertisers

Marketing Week

There was plenty of editorial cheer at this week’s British Press Awards but as circulation figures continue to fall, brands are getting better results from their websites than traditional press ads To the Dorchester on Monday night, the new venue for the revamped, cleaned-up British Press Awards. After last year’s ceremony, which was even rowdier […]

Advertiser-funded programmes: all talk, little action

Marketing Week

Advertiser-funded programming has been making headlines in recent weeks, with a wave of big name advertisers unveiling initiatives to be screened on television. Unilever is one of those, investing heavily in the launch of a Sure-branded football documentary that airs in the UK on ITV1 this week (MW last week). Other big names to announce […]

When client conflict becomes specialism

Marketing Week

Churchill’s appointment of WCRS to handle its £20m advertising account is further evidence that the financial services sector is something of a “special case” when it comes to client conflict. Churchill is owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, whic

Can a name change solve Lowe’s problems?

Marketing Week

Having the right name above an agency door can make or break a company, highlight its ethos and showcase the talent within – at least according to advertising folk. Interpublic Group plans to rebrand the beleaguered Lowe network in an attempt to sever its association with Sir Frank Lowe (MW last week). Up for consideration […]

Agency discontent over a very French coup

Marketing Week

The appointment of Publicis Groupe and Havas to handle France Telecom’s £200m pan-European advertising business brings to an end one of the most protracted and talked about reviews of recent years. However, the fall-out looks set to continue,

Press marketers in the dock over giveaway culture

Marketing Week

Free DVDs and CDs mounted on newspapers’ front pages have become a source of worry to the bosses of the nationals. They condemn the use of DVDs as an expensive way of boosting circulation, which fails to promote loyalty among consumers; yet marketing teams seem unable or unwilling to plan more inventive campaigns. Newspapers try […]

Fear of disaster in a fragile ad industry

Marketing Week

As “an industry run on gossip”, in the words of one senior agency figure, advertising can often appear to the outside world as frivolous and fragile. Clients and other observers witnessing the ongoing spat between WPP Group chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell and his former top Italian executive Marco Benatti, as well as the shockwaves […]

Food industry on collision course with FSA

Marketing Week

A bitter row is brewing between major food manufacturers and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) over how best to provide consumers with the information they crave. Consumer group Which? has accused the industry of undermining proposals by the FSA and written to the chief executives of food giants including Danone, Kellogg, Nestlé, Kraft and PepsiCo […]

Radio industry streamlines trade bodies

Marketing Week

The news that the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) and the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) are to partially merge is seen as a positive but necessary step for a medium that has lost its sparkle with advertisers. The plans, which were first revealed in Marketing Week (February 2), aim to help the groups promote the […]

Is creative drive enough to keep W&K ahead?

Marketing Week

London’s creative community will always toast a great advertising idea that translates into a series of award-winning campaigns, and Wieden & Kennedy has enjoyed its fair share of toasts recently. The agency that made Nike a global household name has been riding high on the back of its critically acclaimed Honda ads, but for all […]