Media Bitch

All smiles for Starcom’s poker faces

The IDS/Challenge TV Poker League came to an end last week, with Starcom Mediavest taking the crown at  5 Cavendish Square.

Just to prove that MindShare isn’t quite winning everything these days, the WPP agency came last in the league of seven teams.

And if only Initiative had put in a better performance – they came fourth – it might have taken their minds off a certain FMCG client.

The Starcom Mediavest team members each won a pair of tickets to Las Vegas for their efforts, after beating Carat by just a point. The winning poker faces pictured are: at the back Andrew Atkinson of IDS, left is Rob Moore, in the middle Gavin Jones and on the right John Davidson.

Media Week ’s team, meanwhile, finished a pathetic sixth.

Screening with laughter

What event can have been more glamorous last week than the digital forum organised by Point Of Purchase Advertising International? And Chris O’Donnell, director of One Zero One, PPL’s digital arm, was doing his best to manage expectations during the last presentation of the day.

He told the audience: “Nineteen minutes, 19 slides, some rubbish jokes. When I went through it this morning, I thought ‘none of these will work’.” Fortunately, Bitch can report O’Donnell did get some laughs. And let’s face it – comedy derived from digital screens is hard won.

Make love not war... or we’re done for, Kelvin

To the High Court and The Wireless Group’s battle with Rajar.

Bitch isn’t sure just what TWG boss Kelvin MacKenzie was trying to say when he gestured for a Media Week photographer outside, after the two sides squared off against each other recently.

While MacKenzie may have been calling for peace in our time, Bitch suspects he was taking a bit more of a Churchillian stand on the matter.

Her advice to the former Sun editor – not known for his ambiguity – is to turn around his hand next time to make sure there’s no doubt about exactly how he feels.

Size isn’t everything

Bitch subscribes to the theory that you can tell a lot about a man by his car, so the forthcoming issue of European Businessmakes interesting reading this week.

Media magnates Martin Sorrell of WPP and Alain de Pouzilhac of Havas are featured along with their cars – Sorrell with his prestigious Jaguar XJ and de Pouzilhac with his more modest Peugeot 607.

Apparently, de Pouzilhac’s rivals know when he’s arrived as he’s the one in the cheap car.

As for Sorrell, Bitch wonders if it’s more than just coincidence that he revealed his vehicle of choice just as Jaguar called a review of its £40m creative account, which happens to be held by a WPP agency.

Dennis the rabble rouser

In one of the more colourful addresses to the 2004 magazine subscriptions conference at the Grosvenor House hotel last week, Felix Dennis felt that his audience was not as captivated as it could have been.

After an impassioned speech warning against the threat of the “American disease”, nobody offered any question or comments.

“They’re so bloody docile,” grumbled the millionaire publisher. “I expected them to start screaming that I was lying, but not a bloody sound.”

Maybe the unenthused audience was saving itself for the the Effective Use of Databases session.

THE TWO-MINUTE TEST

Set by Nicky Bradley, marketing executive, BJK&E

1 Which Only Fools & Horses character is to star in their own spin-off series?

a) Trigger b) Boycie c) Denzil

2 What does URL stand for?

a) Unique Resource Locator b) Unique Reference Line c) Unique Reference Locator

3 What, according to TGI (July ’03-June ’04), is the most up-market magazine (AB profile)?

a) The Economist b) New Scientist c) Waitrose Food Illustrated

4 How many roadside poster sites are there in the UK? (Postar Dec ’03)

a) 110,079 b) 115,079 c) 120,079

5 What share of display advertising did outdoor have in 2003?

a) 9% b) 11% d) 13%

ANSWERS

1)b, 2) a, 3)a, 4)b, 5)a

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This article was first published on Media Week