NEWS: Review; Marketing and advertising news in the week’s press...

Coca-Cola is to use data compiled since the 1994 World Cup and from its

Euro 96 ring-pull promotion to launch its largest ever direct marketing

campaign in the UK. Several agencies are involved in talks to handle the

drive. A relationship marketing strategy would fit in with Coke’s ‘for

the fans’ theme.

Marketing

Three senior executives have resigned from ISL, the leading sports

marketing company, over a restructuring plan. Their departure comes as

Fifa and ISL prepare to invite tenders for key marketing contracts

covering the World Cup tournaments in 2002 and 2006. The three

executives - Peter Sprogis, Steve Dickson and Tom Hipkins - were key

figures in ISL’s successful bid with the German media group Kirsch for

TV rights outside the US to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.

The Financial Times

Seagram is understood to have offered the former senior Mars marketer,

Mary Anne Donovan, its senior European marketing role. Donovan, who ran

a major Mars petfood brand across Europe until a year ago, left

following a restructure. She will oversee a range of brands including

Absolut vodka, Glenlivet and Martell cognac.

Marketing

Freemans, the Sears-owned mail-order business which is up for sale, is

losing its marketing director, Rosemary Astles, who is taking a

sabbatical to travel. Astles was responsible for mail-order titles such

as One to One, a trial cable TV operation, TV Home Shopper, and the main

Freemans catalogue.

Marketing Week

British Airways’ general manager for brands, Hamish Taylor, is to quit

the airline to become managing director of the Channel Tunnel operator,

Eurostar. Taylor works alongside Derek Dear, BA’s marketing services

director, who has assumed the job of acting marketing director since the

abrupt departure of Ford Ennals in May.

Marketing Week

Derwent Valley Foods, the maker of Phileas Fogg snacks, is to lose its

managing director, Paul Revell, following clashes with its parent

company United Biscuits. Neil Mernock, currently marketing controller

for nuts at KP, will replace Revell, who will work on special projects

until he leaves the company next spring.

Marketing Week

Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin, has accused Coca-Cola and

Schweppes Beverages of using anti-competitive sales practices to attack

his Virgin Cola brand. Branson drew comparisons with the attacks on

Virgin Atlantic Airways by British Airways, but other drinks

manufacturers have dismissed his criticisms as ‘naive’.

Financial Times

Bass Brewers is seeking a senior brand manager for its Carling Black

Label brand following the resignation of Andy Fennel, who is joining

Guinness. As marketing controller, Fennell will oversee all stout

brands, including Guinness. Fennel joins as part of a restructure at the

group’s Park Royal headquarters, which has been carried out by the

Guinness marketing director, Julian Spooner.

Marketing

Chris Evans’s TFI Friday TV chat and music show is set to go on air five

nights a week, according to reports. The controversial show, which

originally went out live, pulls three-and-a-half million viewers each

week. The extended deal would net Evans more than pounds 2 million a

year.

The Sun

Virginia Bottomley, the national heritage secretary, has headed off a

privatisation threat to Channel 4, at least until after the General

Election which has to be held by May 1997. Michael Grade, the Channel 4

chief executive, has also argued vociferously that the channel’s

innovative programme remit could not be protected if the channel were

turned from a state corporation into a private company.

The Financial Times

This article was first published on Campaign