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You'll remember that, last Thursday, we featured a time-sensitive ad from Nike anticipating Spain's semi-final battle that evening in the Euro 2008 football championships. Well it obviously worked since - as I'm sure I don't need to tell you - Spain not only won that match, but also the final against Germany on Sunday, bringing them their first international trophy since 1964. Barcelona agency Villar Rosas has rushed out a new ad to mark the victory (although God knows how they found the time since the entire nation seems to have been in full celebration mode all week). Congratulations, guys. Now let's see if you can pull off the same trick for England at the World Cup in two years...

We like the Music Almighty ads by Wieden & Kennedy London for Nokia's new music phones. The ads take the poster campaign which has been running for a few months and inject plenty of life into it. There are two spots. This is out favourite, but the other is great too.

This spot for Johnnie Walker Blue Label by Bartle Bogle Hegarty New York is rather tasty too, although it's the style of animation that really makes it work, giving some real oomph to what was probably a rather dull bit of film in its original form. Good music too.

And finally, we love this Australian spot for the Honda Accord by Draftfcb Melbourne. It made us feel happy just watching it. Interesting to see how Honda's skydiving concept (featured here a couple of weeks back) has been adapted and amplified by other agencies around the world. 

And finally, finally... this trailer by Channel 4's creative services department for a new season of Stanley Kubrick movies coming soon on UK digital channel More4 is quite brilliant. See how long it takes you to spot the references and work out which film it is. A score of 11 out of 10 to all involved!

In the news this week: Advertisers

E-commerce giant eBay could be in for an expensive summer. A French court this week ruled in favour of a lawsuit brought against eBay by LVMH for allowing the sale of counterfeit goods under the Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior brand names. The internet group's French subsidiary was ordered to pay a total of almost E39m in compensation. That judgement followed a similar verdict (but a much lower fine) issued last month by another court in favour of Hermes. A US court is expected to rule at any time on another case brought by Tiffany, and if that goes against eBay it could unleash a flood of further claims. 

Just as significant in the long term is the judge's decision to uphold LVMH's request that eBay also block sales of genuine LVMH fragrances, because their presence on eBay breaches the luxury group's selective distribution agreements with bona fide retailers. Comparatively few people would argue against the need to crack down on counterfeiters, but the restriction on resale of genuine goods is more controversial, though widely supported by other manufacturers. It doesn't just apply to luxury goods. In the UK, for example, the three leading manufacturers of infant pushchairs are already trying to prevent sale of their goods over the internet. The Times newspaper reports that market leader Mamas & Papas has informed retail customers that from now on they will have to obtain written permission in order to sell its goods over the internet. It follows similar moves by competitors Maclaren and Bugaboo. Such controls are not merely designed to protect the manufacturers' often slender profit margins, but also to prevent the sale of imported pushchairs which do not meet UK standards, and counterfeit items which could damage their reputations. Inevitably perhaps, eBay called the French court's ruling on the LVMH case "totally ridiculous" and has already lodged an appeal. Until that appeal is heard, it is refusing to remove any products from sale, even though it faces a E50,000 fine for each day it does not comply.

Anheuser-Busch finally delivered its response to InBev's takeover offer: "financially inadequate". In what might be construed as a deliberate slight, Anheuser CEO August Busch IV apparently neglected to deliver that message directly to InBev's Carlos Brito, choosing instead to make his announcement via the media. In a subsequent letter to Brito, however, he suggested that the $65-per-share offer undervalued the American group's potential and sought to take advantage of the weak dollar and US stock market. This result seems to have angered InBev, whose immediate response was to threaten a legal proxy battle which would seek to dismiss Anheuser’s entire board of directors for "delays and apparent plans to attempt to block the acquisition". A day or two later, Brito issued a somewhat calmer message to Anheuser's shareholders, reiterating the advantages of the deal on the table, and warning them not to expect an improvement on the price. His proposal, he said, "is backed by fully committed financing, and provides immediate certainty of value in a weakened stock market environment. Our firm proposal was rejected [by Anheuser's board] in favour of a newly formulated management plan with significant execution risks." No doubt he is hoping that several of Anheuser's shareholders also own stock in Yahoo. There are some striking parallels between the Anheuser situation and that of Yahoo, which is still struggling to justify to investors and staff the equally aggressive stance it took in the face of a similar bid by Microsoft. (See also Media below).

In the absence of that tie-up with Yahoo, Microsoft continued to bolster its own search resources. Its latest deal is the acquisition, for a figure estimated at around $100m, of Powerset, a technology developer which claims to have developed a breakthrough in search technology using what it calls "natural language processing" to unlock the meaning encoded in ordinary search queries.

American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia of Spain are said to be finalising draft plans for a joint venture which would combine their transatlantic services in a single $12bn business. However, the project is dependent on a grant of antitrust immunity from regulators in the US and EU, to avoid the possibility of a subsequent competition investigations. BA and American have already applied for antitrust immunity on two separate occasions in the past but in each case regulators demanded a reduction in the number of slots the merged company would hold at London's Heathrow airport. Yet the industry has changed dramatically since their last application in 2001, not least as a result of the merger of Air France and KLM, and the planned combination of Delta and NorthWest. Those carriers have themselves already won antitrust immunity for their own four-way transatlantic joint venture, greatly increasing the likelihood of a similar go-ahead for BA, American and Iberia. Separately, BA bolstered its new Paris-New York service OpenSkies by acquiring French all-business carrier L'Avion.

France Telecom abandoned its attempts to acquire Scandinavian group TeliaSonera after the two sides failed to agree on the terms of an acceptable bid. The French group had earlier offered the equivalent of around $40bn for the business, whose controlling shareholder is the government of Sweden. That bid was considered to be insultingly low. Meanwhile, in the US, Blockbuster pulled out of talks to acquire struggling electronics retailer Circuit City, citing the continuing decline in economic conditions. Following that announcement, Circuit City's share price plunged to its lowest level in more than 20 years.

Evidence of the impact of the current economic downturn on consumer spending was apparent in two other announcements on either side of the Atlantic. In the US, Starbucks announced the biggest retrenchment in what has until now been a meteoric growth curve, with plans to cut around 600 of its 7,000 US outlets and shed some 12,000 employees. It also cut its store-opening programme, from 500 new outlets next fiscal year to around 200. In the UK, shares in food and clothing store Marks & Spencer plunged by almost a quarter, hitting their lowest level in eight years, after executive chairman Stuart Rose announced a 5% fall in like-for-like trading during 2Q. Comparable clothing and homeware sales fell by more than 6%, foods by 4.5%. 

According to new figures from ZenithOptimedia, the internet will become the UK's biggest advertising medium during 2009, overtaking both TV and newspapers. ZenithOptimedia forecast online spend of £4,055m in 2009, compared to £3,950m for newspapers. 

In the news this week: Agencies

There were a number of M&A announcements this week in the global ad industry. US agency McKinney became a full independent again for the first time since the 1990s as a result of a deal by management to buy back the shares previously held by Havas. The North Carolina agency is best-known for its advertising for Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Mobile. It was previously aligned with Havas's Arnold network.

WPP's global Dell agency Enfatico is to acquire a majority stake in Adpeople, a Danish agency which was previously Dell's global AOR for print advertising. In addition to its Copenhagen HQ, Adpeople also operates a large and very cost-efficient production studio in Bangladesh. The agency is a subsidiary of PeopleGroup, Denmark's largest independently owned marketing services organisation. PeopleGroup will retain a minority holding in the business following the deal. Meanwhile, market research group TNS rejected yet another offer from WPP, saying the latest bid of almost £1.1bn still "substantially undervalued" the company. TNS is intent on completing its own merger with same-size rival Gfk. TNS chairman Donald Brydon took the opportunity to taunt his ardent suitor from Farm Street: "It is clear that WPP are determined to try and frustrate the GfK-TNS merger for the benefit of WPP's underperforming Kantar division. It is time for Sir Martin Sorrell and WPP to stop interfering and make their intentions clear."

The French arm of Y&R Brands announced the acquisition of what is arguably the country's most highly regarded independent interactive agency, Kassius, for an undisclosed sum. The agency will be aligned with Y&R's Wunderman global network. In the PR arena, Publicis acquired famed Wall Street financial communications firm Kekst & Co. WPP announced the creation of a fourth global PR network through the merger of two of its existing PR units, Cohn & Wolfe and GCI. The enlarged business will operate centrally within WPP under the Cohn & Wolfe name, and will also take over management responsibility for a number of other separately branded units. Cohn & Wolfe was formerly a unit of the WPP's Y&R Brands group; GCI was a unit of Grey. 

Omnicom announced the launch of G23, a new strategic consultancy specialising in the women's market. The unit promises "a high level strategic solution for clients seeking to make relevant and sustaining connections with women whether as consumers, customers, employees or other stakeholders". The group has assembled a weighty advisory committee to guide the unit, comprising many of its most senior female executives. They include Tracy Lovatt, EVP & behavioral planning director at BBDO; Marian Salzman, chief marketing officer at Porter Novelli; Kate Stephenson, president of global account management, OMD; Andrea Sullivan, executive director of client services for Interbrand; Critical Mass CEO Dianne Wilkins; Porter Novelli president & chief client officer Julie Winskie; and Helen Hibbott, managing director, US at Rapp Collins, New York. The unit is led by Omnicom Group EVP Janet Riccio, and kicked off its service with the launch of new research document, The 8 Female Tribes that Power the Global Economy', which examines women's economic power in 16 key world markets. 

In account assignments, Cadbury shifted UK media from Starcom MediaVest to PHD, and also called a review of its North American business, currently lodged with Mediaedge:CIA New York and Universal M2 in Toronto. Adidas appoint Montreal branding agency Sid Lee to handle global creative for its high-end Adidas Originals line; GSD&M Idea City picked up two retail accounts in a week for Marshalls and Popeyes; and BBH New York captured creative for consumer finance company GMAC. In the UK, Orange was said to be placing its UK direct marketing account with Chemistry; and airline BMI called a creative review out of Euro RSCG. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here.

In the news this week: Media

Beleaguered web giant Yahoo unveiled its fourth management restructuring in a year and a half in advance of what is expected to prove a stormy general meeting, now rescheduled for August 1st. Despite attempts by the company to present the new changes as "months in planning", most observers see them as a response to the string of high-level management resignations which have followed in the wake of the collapse of attempts by Microsoft to buy the business. Investors and some staff blame Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang and chairman Roy Bostock for mishandling those negotiations. The new structure provides for three new divisions reporting to group president Sue Decker. All online services are being consolidated in a new audience products division; another will focus on management of the main US business; the third, baptised "insights strategy" will seek ways of analysing and remarketing data captured from Yahoo's users.

As always, if you haven't already done so, please confirm your subscription to the free Adbrands Weekly Update by clicking here or on the link at the foot of this email. Thank you for your assistance! 

Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands

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