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Our favourite ads this week: 

A clutch of great ads this week. The new US cinema spot for Toyota's Scion sub-brand by Attik (top left) continues to make a virtue out of the car's odd boxy shape. In this case, though, it's a deeply creepy kind of virtue. (The website for Scion - Want2bSquare - is great too). We don't get to see too many Australian ads up here in the Northern hemisphere, but this set of seven by Singleton O&M for Australia Post (top right) celebrates the good and the bad about each day of the week with wit and charm. The rainy image above is from Monday, naturally... Finally two clever and inventive ads for Pepsi from France (by CLM BBDO - above left) and Spain (BBDO Espana - above right) respectively. 

In the news this week: Advertisers & Media

Deutsche Telekom continues to face serious competitive pressure in its domestic market, and reported a sharp fall in full-year profits, which declined 44% in 2006 after quadrupling the year before. The group plans to cut some 32,000 jobs to boost profitability. However the T-Mobile division continued to thrive, becoming for the first time DT's biggest and most profitable business. France Telecom reported similarly disappointing performance in its domestic and enterprise communications divisions. Here too, the best performance was delivered by mobile arm Orange, which raised subscriber numbers to just under 100m, although most of this growth was delivered by the acquisition of Spanish operator Amena, now Orange Espana.

Meanwhile, bruised by the competition from the big four US carriers, mobile phone company Alltel - the #5 by subscriber numbers - appears to have effectively put itself up for sale. It is said to be trying to persuade AT&T to make an offer, but the larger company is sitting on the fence. Alltel's spectrum covers a large area in the Midwest, West and South of the country.

Video rental chain Blockbuster reported its first annual profit since 2000. The group has now signed up more than 2m customers to its internet subscription service, and is also in talks to acquire movie streaming service Movielink. However, at the same time, the company's board is involved in a row with CEO John Antioco, who claims he deserves a $7.6m bonus for last year. The board wants to pay $2.2m.

French entrepreneur Vincent Bolloré, who launched himself into the advertising industry in 2005 with controlling stakes in both Havas and Aegis, is now intent on establishing himself as a media baron as well. Last year, he funded the launch of a free evening paper in Paris, Direct Soir, and followed this with a morning title, Matin Plus, also free, jointly produced with the prestigious Le Monde daily, which provides much of the editorial content. This week he said he was also interested in acquiring leading French business newspaper Les Echos, the French equivalent to the Financial Times. 

Private equity group Blackstone engineered the creation of the world's second largest leisure park operator (after Disney) and the clear #1 in Europe by acquiring the Tussauds Group (for around £1bn) and merging it with Merlin Entertainments, which it already owned. As a result, the enlarged group now runs not only Merlin's Legoland, Sea Life, London Dungeon and Italian Gardaland parks, but also Madame Tussauds, Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures.

Citigroup launched an offer to buy leading Japanese securities brokerage Nikko Cordial for $10.8bn. That company, one of Japan's three leading brokers, is already the US group's joint venture partner in local investment banking division Nikko Citigroup. If completed, the deal will mark Citigroup's biggest acquisition in more than three years, and would also be the largest takeover of any Japanese firm by a foreign investor. Citi's offer has been recommended by the Nikko board, but the Japanese company's largest shareholder, US fund Harris Associates, rejected the deal, saying the offer was too low. It could still go through if Citigroup can get majority support. 

In the news this week: Agencies

Fast-expanding US interactive group aQuantive extended its Avenue A | Razorfish network into France with the acquisition of highly regarded local agency Duke. British media group Media Square agreed to sell its own interactive adserving subsidiary TangoZebra to DoubleClick. 

The week's significant new account assignments or reviews: US electronics retailer Best Buy has put its creative account, previously handled inhouse, out for tender. There are four competitors: Crispin Porter Bogusky, Fallon, GSD&M and TBWA\Chiat\Day. Starcom was awarded United Airlines $100m global media account. Fallon has creative, and its London office also picked up the Eurostar account from TBWA. Revlon placed US media with Initiative. Saab handed its creative duties in France to new superstar creative boutique La Chose. Berlin Cameron United took home Heineken in the US. Subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

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! 


Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands

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