Adbrands Weekly Update 23rd November 2006

Weekly Update 23rd November 2006

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Our favourite ads this week:

Still searching for the perfect Christmas present for your kids? Look no further - biotechnology company NEXTGenCode has launched an astonishing new product in time for the holiday season. Their new PermaPuppy is a real live dog breed which never ages, so it remains just as cute at 46 years old as it did at birth. The company is also developing a range of other innovative high-tech products including the Bug DNA 400 toyset, which allows kids to design and grow their very own live insect species. For more information see NEXTGenCode's website. Incidentally, users are advised to disregard spurious claims that the ads are merely the invention of publishers HarperCollins, and they have no connection with the forthcoming publication of a new thriller by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton on the subject of gene manipulation.

Staying with the futureshock theme, Bartle Bogle Hegarty has launched an extraordinary new ad for Johnnie Walker (even though it borrows more than a little from the Will Smith movie I, Robot). Not sure what it has to do with drinking whisky, but it looks great and packs a powerful emotional punch.

And finally a name-check for our favourite new product this week. There isn't an ad for it yet - but I can't wait to see one. Betty Beauty was launched by founder Nancy Jarecki as a rather specialised hair colouring product, specifically "Color for the hair down there". Available in auburn, black, blonde brown and hot pink. Learn more from Betty Beauty's website. Is your betty ready? Mine sure is.

New Profiles & Snapshots

Recently Revised Profiles & Snapshots

In the news this week: Advertisers

The huge surge in private equity takeovers continued this week. In the media sector alone, magazine giant Reader's Digest was acquired for $2.4bn including debt by Ripplewood Holdings; Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio group in the US, was acquired by Thomas H Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners for $26.7bn, including debt; and Kohlberg Kravis Robert spent $735m on a 50% stake in Australian broadcast and publishing group Seven Network. Also in Australia, airline Qantas is in advanced negotiations to sell out to a consortium led by Maquarie Bank and Texas Pacific.

Meanwhile NTL and Richard Branson's promised bid for ITV has effectively been blocked by a daring pre-emptive strike from Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, which snapped up an 18% stake in the struggling commercial broadcaster through the open market last Friday. True to form, Branson threw a tantrum, claiming that Murdoch had somehow cheated by acquiring the shares. (The Independent newspaper described Branson of "behaving like a child who has had his sweeties taken away"). His demand that regulators investigate the purchase is likely to be dismissed as having no substance. It's easy to see that it would probably not be in the best interests of the British media for Rupert Murdoch to control ITV as well as News International and Sky. But like him or loathe him, Murdoch has a solid track record as a skilled mediaowner, more than able to turn around a struggling business. His bold move also fully demonstrates his ability as a strategist. Branson, on the other hand, has no experience whatsoever in Big Media, and nor does debt-laden NTL, itself only three years out of Chapter 11. What next for ITV? Probably, continuing independence, although Bertelsmann's RTL has also been talking to private equity backers about mounting a formal offer.

Rupert Murdoch was also in the news for plans by his US broadcast network Fox to air a documentary in which OJ Simpson would discuss how "hypothetically" he would have killed his estranged wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. The show was to have been based on a book by Simpson entitled If I Did It, Here's How It Happened which was set for publication next week by News Corp-owned HarperCollins. However widespread outrage from media commentators, Fox TV station management, booksellers and the victims' families persuaded News Corp to cancel both the book and the show. Murdoch himself issued an apology for what he called such an "ill-considered" project.

The pressure on Yahoo to mount a more effective challenge to Google increased this week with the leak of an internal memo from Yahoo SVP Brad Garlinghouse. His so-called peanut butter manifesto, intended as a call to arms to senior Yahoo executives, criticised the way in which the company is now spreading investment and resources so thinly across too many sectors, like peanut butter on a slice of bread. "We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company," said Garlinghouse, an ardent Yahoo loyalist who once shaved a "Y" into the back of his head. "We lack decisiveness." The leak has been given a cautious welcome by investors, concerned by the steady slide this year in Yahoo's stock price, which had slumped to less than $23, its lowest level in two years. By contrast, Google's this week broke the $500 barrier for the first time, having more than doubled since 2004. In what has been seen as a perfect example of Yahoo's collaborative culture, Garlinghouse was not fired for the leaked memo, but instead appointed as the head of an internal group charged with developing a new corporate strategy. Separately, Yahoo agreed a deal with seven US newspaper groups, representing round 170 second-tier titles, to include their classified jobs within its Yahoo HotJobs website.

Sony and Nintendo went head-to-head with the launch of their new gaming consoles. Nintendo's Wii, featuring a motion-sensitive keypad which can be waved in the air like a club or a wand, is the company's first new console since 2001. Playstation 3 features Sony's new high-def Blu-Ray DVD technology. Both items got off to a strong start, selling out in a few hours. However Sony's launch was hamstrung by the fact that technical problems have severely limited the number of consoles available for sale. In addition, despite its $599 list price, the high cost of the PS3's components mean that the company will make a loss of $240 on every unit it sells.

If you can't beat 'em, sue 'em. Mattel has filed suit against its much smaller but fast-growing rival MGA Entertainment, whose Bratz brand may soon steal Barbie's title as the best-selling girl's doll. Bratz is designed by a former Mattel staffer, Carter Bryant. Mattel now claims to have evidence that the original designs for Bratz were made while Bryant was still under contract to Mattel. If so, the designs and therefore the Bratz brand itself, legally belong to Mattel, not to Bryant or to MGA.

Are promotional stunts getting too absurd? In order to distract attention from Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York today, discount retailer Target has commissioned performance artist David Blaine to suspend himself for 4 days in a rotating gyroscope above Times Square, positioned conveniently in front of a giant Target billboard. Meanwhile, Canadian golfing equipment manufacturer Element 21 yesterday paid Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin to use a specially made gold-plated club to strike a golf ball off the international space station...

In the news this week: Agencies

Sportfive, Europe's biggest sports rights agency, previously a part-subsidiary of RTL, was acquired by Lagardere of France for E865m. Also, BBH opened its first office in China, based in Shanghai.

In the continuing game of musical chairs taking place in Paris's adland, Bruno Walther was named president of Draft FCB, replacing Guillaume Pannaud, who jumped ship to TBWA. Dismissing speculation that it would be forced to close down its Marcel subsidiary following the defection of creative duo Fred et Farid earlier this year, Publicis is expected to name Anne de Maupeou (from CLM/BBDO) and Frederic Temin as the new leaders of the creative boutique. In New York, Deutsch announced the departure of chief creative officer Kathy Delaney and director of account planning Jeffrey Wolf.

Although there is no firm date set, Johnson & Johnson is said to be preparing for a review of its worldwide media account early next year. The business, worth around $2.5bn in billings, is currently split between IPG's Universal McCann and Initiative, Omnicom's OMD and Aegis's Carat. The creative account for J&J's huge over-the-counter division is also in play, following the acquisition of Pfizer's DTC portfolio. In other news, McCann Erickson took control of creative duties for most of Heinz UK's portfolio; John West, sold by Heinz earlier this year, transferred to CheethamBellJWT. Sanofi-Aventis gave Euro RSCG control of several of its leading pharmaceutical products worldwide, although the portfolio is still shared with Publicis. Meanwhile GlaxoSmithKline transferred professional creative responsibilities for its US drug portfolio to a collection of Interpublic agencies, including Torre Lazur and FCB Healthcare. Mullen won US creative for travel portal Orbitz; Diet Coke moved to Widen & Kennedy. Subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here.

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Regards

Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands