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Our favourite ads this week: 

This new web viral by Cramer-Krasselt for the online jobsite CareerBuilder has been giving the Adbrands team and their friends hours of mindless fun. We're not sure quite what it does for CareerBuilder's overall brand image, but it certainly spreads the name around. Impossible to resist! Meanwhile, also online, SABMiller have attempted to harness the power of Mentos to boost their own Milwaukee's Best Light beer. (Adbrands subscribers will no doubt remember this summer's Mentos/Diet Pepsi phenomenon - see here if you missed out on this). Along similar lines, Miller Brewing has sponsored a couple of oddball inventors to develop a beer cannon which can be used to shoot cans of beer at a variety of household objects. The resulting films are viewable online at the MB website. A compilation of the highlights has gone down a storm on YouTube, with an estimated 3 million viewings in a week. As film directors Sam Peckinpah and Michelangelo Antonioni (think the finale of Zabriskie Point, you film buffs) understood perfectly, there is nothing quite as fascinating as watching the destruction of familiar objects in slow motion. Enjoy!

New Capsule

Brilliant Media is the biggest independent regional media agency in the UK, and the #2 regional overall behind MediaVest Manchester. The agency ranked #15 in the Campaign/Nielsen Media Research Top Media Agencies survey for 2005, with billings of just under £100m.

Recently Revised Profiles & Snapshots

In the news this week: Advertisers

"Be afraid. Be very afraid". Google continues to strike fear into the hearts of traditional media groups. The latest demonstration of the search giant's awesome power came with confirmation of its acquisition of YouTube, almost certainly the most sought-after web property on the market, for a staggering $1.65bn. It might be the hottest site online right now, generating around 100m video viewings a day, but as yet YouTube has only minimal revenues and is generating large losses. No other media group could begin to justify a deal of such magnitude. However in this case it secures for Google clear leadership in the online video sector, which Google's own inhouse offering had previously failed to achieve. YouTube also appointed its first chief marketing officer, Suzie Reider, with the brief to find ways of building revenue. 

The acquisition could also lead to changes in the deal recently agreed between Google and News Corporation over advertising on the latter's MySpace network. MySpace and YouTube are direct competitors in user-posted video content, although a significant proportion of MySpace's video streams come from cross-links to YouTube. According to reports in Wall Street Journal, MySpace wants to find ways of integrating more effectively (for which, read lucratively) with YouTube. But that eagerness to talk carries a veiled threat. News Corp has also threatened to remove any links to YouTube posted by users on their MySpace pages if no satisfactory arrangement can be reached. Google and YouTube also this week concluded licensing agreements with a number of music and broadcast companies in order to head off allegations of copyright infringement over video content copied illegally and uploaded to their sites. 

Irish budget carrier Ryanair launched a E1.5bn hostile takeover bid for the country's national airline Aer Lingus, just a day after the latter's IPO. The deal was rejected by the Irish government, which still controls a 28% holding in Lingus, but Ryanair reaffirmed its determination to seek majority control, building a stake of around 20%. The takeover could yet be scuppered by Lingus's pilots' union, which appears to have given its support to independence from Ryan. 

Carphone Warehouse concluded a deal to buy AOL's broadband business in the UK, becoming the 3rd largest broadband provider in the UK after BT and NTL. Just a day later mobile phone company Vodafone, for whom Carphone was previously the exclusive high street reseller, reacted to the retailer's gradual transformation from a supplier into a rival, by cancelling that contract, and shifting it instead to Phones4u.

Visa has announced plans to follow its arch-rival MasterCard into public ownership. Until recently both payments networks were associations jointly owned by their member banks. MasterCard took the decision to go public earlier this year, partly to raise finance for commercial expansion, but also to shield its member banks from the growing legal challenge from monopoly regulators, rival credit card services and retailers. Visa has the same goal in mind. However, because of the intricacies of the EU, the European division of Visa will remain a members' association. It is to be split off from the rest of the business, and will operate the Visa brand under license from the proposed public company.

Could Sir Philip Green's impressive run as the UK's most successful fashion entrepreneur be facing speed bumps? A few weeks after he announced an impressive partnership with supermodel Kate Moss to launch a new line of signature clothing for his remarkably successful Top Shop chain, the latter's brand director Jane Shepherdson, abruptly quit the business. Shepherdson is widely regarded as the mastermind of Top Shop's reinvention as one of the UK's most fashionable chain stores, and her sudden departure almost immediately afterwards led to speculation that the arrangement with Moss may have been concluded without her involvement. Green and Shepherdson subsequently denied any such rift, but the question remains as to why news of her departure was so badly handled. Earlier this year, Philip Green was forced to acknowledge a sharp downturn in performance at his Bhs fashion and homewares store. Despite a promise last year that sales would rise by £250m, they actually fell by 2%, while profits more than halved. Green is attempting to bolster Bhs's performance with other celebrity signings, such as chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay and interior designer Kelly Hoppen. Financial results for Arcadia, which houses Top Shop and other brands, are expected at the end of October.

In the news this week: Agencies

Publicis was rocked this week by the defection of three senior executives to form a new business backed by Vincent Bolloré, also chairman of arch-rival Havas. Christophe Lambert, chairman of network flagship Publicis Conseil, and the creative team Frederic Raillard and Farid Mokart, around whom Publicis created boutique shop Marcel, will launch the new agency, Fred Farid Lambert, later this year. The three founder members will share 70% ownership of the business. The remaining shares will be owned privately by Bolloré. Could the defections have been prompted by the appointment last week of a new senior management team for Publicis Worldwide? As the most senior figure within Publicis's flagship agency, Lambert might well have felt slighted by the appointment of two new leaders from outside the network. Ironically, only last week, Fred & Farid featured in an advertorial interview in Campaign magazine for Yahoo, commenting "Marcel now bills 40% of Publicis Conseil, the biggest agency in Paris. In the near future, we're going to keep on building this war machine. We'll do our best to make Marcel become the biggest, most powerful and most exciting place in Paris..." Separately, shares in Havas rose sharply this week on the back of rumours that WPP was preparing a bid for the group. The British company denied any such plans.

Charles Saatchi finally severed his connections with the advertising industry this week with the sale of his remaining 7% shareholding in M&C Saatchi. He has played no direct part in the business since the late 1990s, and resigned as a director in 2004. His brother Maurice, Lord Saatchi, remains chairman. Charles Saatchi's shares were reacquired by the company.

According to Campaign, Burkitt DDB, previously a standalone agency in the UK, is to be merged into the main DDB London agency later this year. The shop lost its flagship account for John Lewis earlier this year. DDB has yet to confirm the merger, although it acknowledged that the agency was considering the position of Burkitt.

In account moves, Nike was said to be in talks with Crispin Porter & Bogusky over some sort of creative project. Nike's long-established agency of record is Wieden & Kennedy, although it occasionally seeks input from outside shops. Among other moves, Tommy Hilfiger transferred European media from Initiative to Carat, while Gateway Computers in the US went in the opposite direction, moving its business from Carat to Initiative; Euro RSCG picked up US creative for pharma product Boniva; Unilever shifted pan-European creative for Hellmann's mayonnaise out of Lowe and into O&M.

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

Regards


Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands

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