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Our favourite ad this week: 

Despite the tidal wave of excellent material unleashed by the Cannes advertising festival, our favourite ad this week is still the promo for the Canal+ screening of nature documentary March of the Penguins, known in France as Marche de l'Empereur. A big hit in France, the ad has already won a host of local awards for agency BETC Euro RSCG. In it, a man tells a work colleague about the brilliant film he watched the night before on TV, and she tries to imagine what he's talking about, but misunderstands Emperor penguins to be Emperor Napoleons, with bizarre results...

New Profiles & Snapshots

Recently Revised Profiles and Snapshots

In the news this week: Advertisers

Microsoft announced that Bill Gates would begin stepping down from day-to-day involvement at the group he founded, in order to spend more time on his charitable foundation. He will remain chairman, but will gradually reduce his role overseeing product development at Microsoft by 2008, at which point he will devote himself fulltime to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Amazon has moved into the grocery sector for the first time, offering an extensive selection of more than 10,000 non-perishable items including breakfast cereals, tea and coffee, detergents and diapers and cereals. The store stocks almost all the major national brands, but most items are sold only in bulk in order to qualify for the Amazon free delivery offer. So for example, cereals are available in packs of four, coffee in packs of six or twelve and so on.

In between World Cup matches for his country in Germany, football superstar David Beckham added to his exhaustive list of brand endorsements this wee, agreeing a three-year deal to become the global ambassador for Motorola. He starts the job immediately, and will be seen using Motorola mobile during England's remaining stay in Germany. (Hopefully not on-pitch against Ecuador on Sunday, though). An important part of the new arrangement will be to promote Motorola's recently launched limited edition SLVR handset, produced in partnership with Product (Red), the charitable foundation chaired by rock singer Bono. After its strong UK launch this Spring, Product Red is also set to launch in the US in September, backed by American Express, Giorgio Armani and The Gap, as well as Motorola and others. A proportion of sales from each item are paid into the Global Fund to fight HIV, AIDS and Malaria in Africa.

The controversy in the US over direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription-only drugs and implanted medical devices could now be coming to a head. Several medical bodies have already been canvassing for a suspension of this form of marketing, which is blamed for not just raising drug prices but also increasing the frequency of medical complications in patients. Currently, patients often pressurise their doctors into prescribing drugs for which they've seen advertising even before the medical establishment has been properly briefed on possible side-effects. Now, the American Medical Association has itself lent its support to the anti-advertising campaign, calling on the FDA to block consumer advertising temporarily. The body also voiced its strong disapproval of the use of actors to impersonate doctors in ads, and also of real physicians who endorse products for money.

In the biggest marketing-related deal of the week, Nokia agreed to merge its network infrastructure division, currently #2 in the market behind Ericsson, with the equivalent division within #3 Siemens. The ensuing business, Nokia Siemens Networks, will leapfrog its Swedish rival to become global #1. Most observers expect further consolidation in the sector, with Ericsson likely to respond with a similar tie-up, possibly with Motorola. 

In other deals, Nestle jumped into the weight management sector this week with the acquisition of the Jenny Craig diet planner network and its range of nutritionally balanced snacks. That deal will sharpen competition with Unilever, which owns the market-leading weight-loss range Slim-Fast. Meanwhile Unilever is moving closer to the disposal of the Birds Eye and Iglo frozen foods brands in Europe. Investment group CapVest is considered by many to be the most likely buyer. It already owns Young's frozen seafood, and the Findus brand everywhere except Italy, where it will remain within Unilever's portfolio. As expected EMAP sold its French magazine subsidiary to Mondadori, for £375m.

In the news this week: Agencies

Most of the advertising community has its attention focused on the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, which opened this week. Delegate numbers were said to have swelled by more than 10% to 8,500 people, and more than 180 marketers are represented. A full list of winners, updated daily, is available online at http://www.canneslions.com/. 

In a deal that is reminiscent with the sort of strategic tie-ups popular at the height of the year 2000 internet boom, Interpublic was said to be negotiating to acquire a minority stake in social networking site Facebook.com. According to reports, IPG would guarantee to spend up to $10m on the site on behalf of its clients, in return for a 0.5% stake in the business. Interpublic has also set up a user-generated content group, to operate as part of its Emerging Media Lab, which will specialise in developing links between group clients and social networking sites offering blogs, podcasts and video sharing.

Accounts Changing Hands: Nintendo called a review of worldwide creative and media, handled mainly by Leo Burnett and Starcom, but Starcom was awarded global media for Avaya. Hoover shifted US creative to independent agency Ten United. L'Oreal appointed R/GA as its global interactive agency of record, working across all brands. Vodafone handed media in Italy to OMD. Mother picked up two small but high profile accounts in Armani Jeans and the Product (Red) charity.

Regards


Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands

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