REVIEW: Marketing and advertising news in the week’s press

Martin Glenn, the vice-president of marketing at Walkers Snack

Foods UK, has been promoted to president and chief-executive officer of

the PepsiCo-owned company. Glenn, who was also commercial director for

Frito-Lay Europe, takes over from Tony Illsley who left the company four

weeks ago to become chief executive of Telewest, the cable television

operator. Neil Campbell, the regional director of crisps and promotions,

will take over as the vice-president of marketing in the UK. - Marketing

Week

Michael Barrymore is starring in a pounds 7 million campaign for Kwik

Save, the cut-price supermarket chain recently acquired by the

supermarket group, Somerfield. The comedian will be seen in a series of

five ads chatting to shoppers but he will not per-sonally endorse the

supermarket. The chain will be promoted with the endline, ’We’re cheap,

so you’re cheerful.’ - The Times

The Football League, which represents the three lower divisions, has

agreed a trial deal to show live pay-per-view games later this season,

just four months after the Premier League rejected a proposal from BSkyB

to show pay-per-view football matches. The league has emphasised that

the PPV broadcasts early next year would be a ’research exercise’

intended to gauge demand. - Financial Times

Rupert Murdoch has joined forces with the Italian company, Mediaset, and

the Saudi investor, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, in a bid to buy 25 per

cent of Kirch, the cash-strapped German group, as a basis for expansion.

A three-way investment would create a media venture linking the German

group’s operation with Murdoch’s BSkyB and Mediaset’s Italian network. A

French partner may also be sought. - The Guardian

BT has appointed Duncan Ingram its marketing and shared channel

operations director following the merger of its consumer and business

marketing divisions in July. Ingram will be responsible for the BT

brand’s marketing strategy. - Marketing

The UK internet market could be set for a massive shake-up as the UK’s

largest electrical retailer, the Dixons Group, launches the first free

access service. The standard monthly internet service provider charge,

along with local rate telephone charges, are widely acknowledged to have

stunted UK internet growth. - CampaignLive

The launch of British Airways’ joint global alliance with American

Airlines and four other partners will be handled by a virtual agency

comprising staff from BA’s UK agency, M&C Saatchi, and American

Airlines’ US agency, Temerlin McClain, as predicted in Campaign (16

January). The alliance, reported to be spending millions of pounds on

its marketing of the One World brand, will allow passengers to travel

between more than 800 cities for one payment and one ticket. - General

release

Cordiant Communications reported flat first half pre-tax profits of

pounds 9 million prompting predictions that pre-tax profits for the full

year would be pounds 1 million lower than the expected pounds 27 million

because of a fall in client spending in the Middle East. Operating

margins rose from 5.4 per cent to 5.7 per cent and the chairman, Michael

Bungey, maintained that the group would hit its target of 10 per cent

operating margins next year. - General release

Sainsbury’s has re-hired John Cleese to star in an advertising campaign

to emphasise its value-for-money prices, promotions and products. The

actor will be seen encouraging Sainsbury’s staff to communicate the

store’s value message to the public in a way that is reminiscent of his

Fawlty Towers character, Basil Fawlty. General release

The Saatchi brothers are to open a synagogue, called the Saatchi

Synagogue, aimed at attracting younger Jewish worshippers with livelier

services and a lighter atmosphere than traditional synagogues. The

synagogue will be promoted with an advertising campaign, not through M&C

Saatchi but by the smaller agency, Hype!. - The Observer.

This article was first published on Campaign