Adbrands Weekly Update 7th December 2006

Weekly Update 7th December 2006

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Our favourite ads this week:

What would we do in the "favourite ads" corner were it not for beer and Lynx/Axe ads? This week's hottest spot is for Rolling Rock beer, courtesy of Goodby Silverstein. A long-established cult favourite in the US (and internationally on import), Rolling Rock's sales have nevertheless been in steep decline since the 1970s. New owner Anheuser-Busch aims to reverse that trend, and launched this punchy new ad with a neat twin-media campaign. The main ad is available only online, and features everything you could want from a beer ad, including silly humour, girls in bikinis and well, yes, an ape in green shorts playing guitar. The TV ad features a fictitious marketing executive from Rolling Rock apologizing to anyone who may have been offended by the first spot, but in a way which is absolutely guaranteed to send viewers flocking to the nearest computer to search for it.

French media, music and telecoms group Vivendi has unveiled a new corporate campaign to promote its entertainment offering. Produced by BETC Euro RSCG (also responsible for the award-winning March of the Emperors ad for Vivendi's Canal+ subsidiary), the new spot borrows heavily but cleverly from the Tom Hanks movie Castaway. Struggling to survive on a desert island, a castaway constructs a make-shift TV to entertain himself. Neat and amusing.

Finally the QCG viral website from TBWA\London presents a series of startling videos for (fictional) extreme sports event Qashqai Car Games. The site is promoting the launch of Nissan's new Qashqcai sports crossover model, and the extraordinary faux verité videos - in which drivers spin and loop the loop their cars like skateboards - are brilliantly conceived and superbly executed. Your jaw will drop.

New Snapshots

Recently Revised Profiles & Snapshots

In the news this week: Advertisers

Microsoft this week unveils the new version of its Windows operating system, as well as an updated release of Office. The new Windows, named Vista, is the company's first full revamp since XP was introduced in 2001, and offers a substantial overhaul of the entire Windows concept. A massive undertaking, already two years behind schedule and over-budget, it is also a major gamble for Microsoft. The big question is how quickly XP users, especially large corporations specifically targeted by the new software, can be persuaded to upgrade.

Drug giant Pfizer rattled the markets twice this week, first with the news that it would cut 20% of its massive US salesforce; then with the more worrying news that it had abandoned development of a new potential blockbuster, torcetrapib, as a result of what it described euphemistically as "an imbalance of mortality and cardiovascular events". The product was designed to be prolong the life of current blockbuster Lipitor in a combined treatment to rid the body of bad cholesterol even more efficiently. Sadly however, a higher than expected number of patients trialling the drug died during their treatment as a result of an accompanying increase in blood pressure and other circulatory complications.

H&M has secured a new high-profile celebrity designer. The group announced that it will introduce a new line of clothing and accessories in March 2007 designed in partnership with pop icon Madonna. Unlike previous collaborations with Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney, the M by Madonna range will be a standard line sold in all shops rather than a limited edition.

Premier Foods is expected to become the UK's biggest food manufacturer in early 2007 following agreement of a £1.2bn takeover of rival Rank Hovis McDougall, whose brands include Hovis bread, Mr Kipling cakes, Bisto gravy and Sharwood's sauces. The resulting business would have sales of around £2.5bn annually. Hovis, with sales of around £380m a year, would be its single biggest brand. Premier's existing portfolio includes Branston, Quorn, Smash potato Loyd Grossman sauces, Oxo and Batchelors noodles.

Wrestling with the surge in US sales of imported beers and flat performance by its flagship brand Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch agreed a deal to take over local distribution of rival InBev's import portfolio, including Stella Artois, Beck's and Bass Ale.

In other deals, Bank of New York and Mellon Financial agreed to merge, forming the world's biggest securities services firm, and one of its largest asset managers, with $16,600bn under custody. Japan Tobacco opened negotiations to acquire UK tobacco group Gallaher. The latter's shares surged on speculation that a rival bid could emerge, most likely from Philip Morris. British group Rank agreed to sell its Hard Rock Cafe chain to the Seminole Indian tribe of Florida. It's not quite as surprising as it sounds - Native Americans tribes are becoming a major force in gambling in the US. Although many US states still prohibit gambling, several offer exemptions to Native Americans running casinos on reservation land. Tribes currently run more than 350 gambling houses across the country, with gross revenues of over $22.6bn. The Seminoles already operate two Hard Rock Hotel Casinos in Florida.

Wal-Mart announced that two senior marketers, including SVP marketing communications Julie Roehm, have left the company. The high-profile Roehm was a brave but surprising choice for the conservative retailer when she was poached from Chrysler earlier this year. Her abrupt departure is even more surprising, only a week after she concluded a review of Wal-Mart's advertising business with the appointment of Draft FCB Chicago. However, also this week, in what appears to be an unconnected announcement, Chrysler reported the departure of its top sales and marketing officer, Joe Eberhardt, Roehm's former boss. The replacement for Eberhardt has yet to be named. Any bets?

In the news this week: Agencies

The advertising industry was abuzz following rumours that Publicis is planning to make a bid to acquire larger but still troubled marketing rival Interpublic, owner of McCann Erickson and Draft FCB. Publicis chief Maurice Levy was said to be presenting a shortlist of targets to his board this week, although in public at least he has firmly denied that Interpublic is on it. The latter's CEO Michael Roth also reacted angrily to the rumours and denied any discussions with Publicis. Typically, these firm denials only further stoked the flames of speculation. Other potential targets include interactive developers Digitas and aQuantive, and possibly still Aegis, although a bid for the latter would be complicated by the controlling stake held by Havas boss Vincent Bollore. A merged Publicis-Interpublic would overtake Omnicom and WPP to become the world #1.

According to research company RECMA, MPG overtook Carat for the first time in 2006 to become France's leading media agency by billings. OMD and ZenithOptimedia were #3 and #4 respectively.

Further details have emerged of the alleged fraud involving Alexander Rusicka, the former CEO of Aegis Central Europe, who has been detained by police since September though not yet formally charged with any crime. Two other Aegis managers are also under investigation, along with a local tax lawyer. The fraud involves a network of dummy companies controlled by the various executives under suspicion. These appear to have been used as a cover to sell back to Aegis advertising space which had been supplied free of charge by mediaowners under barter contracts. As much as E32m is thought to have been embezzled from Aegis over a period of several years.

Bayer called a review of its media planning and buying in the US, currently split between OMD and Initiative respectively. Electronics retailer Circuit City appointed Euro RSCG. JWT lost its hold on the UK business for Vodafone, now to be handled solely by BBH. JWT retains its role as BBH's global network partner. Subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here.

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Regards

Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands