Dear ${token1} ${token2}

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! Please note: there will be no Weekly Update next week (June 1st). Normal mailing resume on June 8th.

Our favourite ad this week: 

Procter & Gamble this week launched a bizarre (and rather scary) unbranded viral campaign for its Gillette/Braun shavers business which purports to demonstrate to men the dangers of not shaving. The website and accompanying video, supposedly on behalf of a anti-stubble pressure group, aims to give a graphic illustration of what daily life would be if women stopped shaving as well... 

New Snapshots

Cott Corporation is one of the world's biggest soft drinks manufacturers, but has a low profile among consumers because it specialises in producing private label products for retailers. In fact the company is largely credited with revitalising the supermarket own-label beverage market during the early 1990s, scoring a number of important goals including the introduction of Sam's American Choice cola by Wal-Mart and Sainsbury's Classic Cola in the UK. Click here for an Adbrands Snapshot of Cott (subscribers only). 

Competitors: see Soft Drinks Sector index for other companies

Recently Revised Profiles and Snapshots

In the news this week: Advertisers

Senior Bertelsmann management and shareholders have been involved in intense negotiations for most of the past month or two with their bankers and investment house Groupe Bruxelles Lambert over the latter's 25% shareholding in the German group. GBL's option to sell or float its holding in Bertelsmann, inherited from the latter's purchase of RTL, matured this week. GBL had hoped to raise as much as E5bn from an IPO of the shares. However, Bertelsmann's controlling shareholder Liz Mohn was keen to keep them private, and has been aided by current uncertainty in global stock markets. This week, the two sides split the difference and agreed a private buyback for E4.5bn. Bertelsmann will fund the transaction with banks loans, which it aims to repay through cash flow, and with the disposal of BMG Music Publishing, now officially up for sale.

Computer manufacturer Dell this week ended years of speculation by confirming that it would break its hitherto exclusive arrangement with chip maker Intel, and will begin using processors from Intel's arch-rival AMD in some high-end servers. Intel has dominated the computer component industry for more than a decade, with long-standing alliances with all the major PC manufacturers. Recently even Apple, for years a sworn enemy of the PC sector, agreed to move to Intel chips. However the resulting surge in demand has left Intel vulnerable in niche areas of the market, while AMD has also out-paced its rival in certain technological developments. Intel's share price slumped on the news; AMD's and Dell's both rose.

Meanwhile, the chairman of German business software developer SAP confirmed that he was open to takeover offers. He told FT Deutschland: "There are only three potential buyers: IBM, Microsoft and Google. I don’t see anyone else. If shareholders think that a combination, and not independence, is better, then it will happen."

Wal-Mart made its first exit from a foreign market this week, agreeing to sell its 16 stores in South Korea to Shingesae, owner of market leader E-Mart, for around $870m. Carrefour also quit the country last month, leaving Tesco as the only international retailer with a presence in Korea. CBS sold its Paramount Theme Parks division to competitor Cedar Fair, owner of Knott's Berry Farm for $1.24bn. Philips paid E875m to buy Avent, a maker of electronic baby-care products including bottle sterilisers and monitors. Anheuser-Busch acquired niche US beer brand Rolling Rock from InBev USA for $82m. 

In the news this week: Agencies

It looks like the long-running aggressive courtship of Aegis by Vincent Bolloré could soon reach a climax. The British company has refused to support Bolloré's request that two of his representatives be granted seats on its board, stating a conflict of interest because of Bolloré's control of "direct rival" Havas. Nevertheless the proposal will be put to the vote at Aegis's AGM. This was to have been held this week, but has been postponed until June 14th so that Aegis can strengthen its defence. The company is urging all its shareholders to register their votes and fight off the Frenchman. Two of Aegis' three biggest institutional shareholders have pledged to support the board. Bolloré responded by increasing the size of his own vote, buying more shares to build his stake to just over 28.8%. 

In new account assignments, Luxottica awarded the global account for Ray-Ban sunglasses to TBWA, led from its San Francisco office. Goodyear Dunlop consolidated its European media at MPG. Expedia is seeking a new agency for its $170m creative and media account, previously managed by Deutsch Los Angeles. 

Agencies Poll: we asked you to select your most admired media network. At the end of the second week, MindShare has the lead with 23%, just ahead of Carat with 21%. Starcom MediaVest is third with 13%. Vote now from our home page or by following this link.

Regards


Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands

Why am I getting this email? You have in the past either purchased a subscription to Adbrands.net or Mind-advertising.com or specifically opted to join our mailing list. 

Recommended Reading

Asia's Star Brands by 
Paul Temporal (Wiley)
UK users

The 22 Immutable Laws of 
Marketing in Asia by 
Al Ries, Jack Trout 
& Paul Temporal (Wiley)
UK users

Two books which are likely to prove invaluable to anyone doing business in the fast-exploding Asia Pacific market. Paul Temporal has established a lasting reputation as one of the leading experts on brands and branding in the region, and these books provide important insights into the subtle differences between the East and more developed markets of the West. Significantly, Asian-owned products and services, especially those outside Japan, have been slower to adopt what we in the West regard as established brand strategies. This is beginning to change significantly, as a result of the breakthrough success of not just the Korean electronics manufacturers, but now the latest wave of computer and mobile telecoms marketers from Chinese-speaking markets (including Lenovo, BenQ and China Mobile). 

Asia's Star Brands seeks to identify some of these new emerging forces in the global marketplace, and analyse how they have established their brands, not only in the regional market but also more widely in the West. There are 30 main brands covered. Some are already well-known to Western audiences - including Red Bull, Nissan, Samsung and LG. Others are becoming familiar, such as Lenovo, BenQ, and the Emirates airline. There are also excellent chapters on the city of Shanghai, increasingly established as China's gateway to the West, and Dubai, rapidly becoming a major business and tourism hub. Other brands are likely to become important international brands of the future: Chinese household appliance giant Haier, electronics firm Huawei Technologies and car manufacturer SAIC. 

In a similar style, in The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing in Asia Temporal takes the foundational guidelines already established by Al Ries and Jack Trout in their original book, and demonstrates how each of these principles has been adopted by different Asia Pacific marketers, often with a subtle local spin. Many of the same companies appear, but also many Western marketers who have adapted their own well-established values in order to target a less brand-savvy regional audience. Although designed primarily as a handbook for Asian marketers, it also makes fascinating reading for Western eyes seeking to understand how the local market is developing.

 DECLARED ADVERTISING EXPENDITURE
Under US regulations, many companies make a public declaration of their actual advertising expenditure, although this may be buried deep in SEC filings or other financial documents. Adbrands tracks these declared figures. 
Rankings link 
(subscribers only)

MULTIPLE SUBSCRIPTIONS
Would your colleagues benefit from their own subscription to Adbrands? All Adbrands subscriptions are for individual use only. If your colleagues also require access, we offer substantial discounts for additional users. One year subscriptions for your colleagues cost just UKP25 (or US$55) per logon provided they run alongside your own full-price annual subscription. We can also offer corporate intranet solutions giving password-free access to all employees companywide from a private doorway page. 
More information