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Our favourite ads this week: 

It's always fascinating to see the differences between regional ad campaigns for the same product, and this week offers a perfect opportunity. You'd think there probably wouldn't be much of a difference between computer gamers in the US and their counterparts in Europe. But, oh, how wrong you'd be. Or at least that's what Sony Computer Entertainment believes. These two new ads for the PS3, both breaking this week, offer wildly different sales pitches for the same product. Both ads are from the TBWA network, but TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles is responsible for the high-octane boys-club American version; while TBWA\London provides trans-gender continental campery for Europe.

The new corporate branding ad for Coca-Cola, "What Goes Around" by Mother, must have been enormous fun to set up, but quite some challenge to pull off. The end shot appears to suggest that the whole thing was done for real, but there's little doubt that considerable amounts of CGI trickery were involved. Whatever the case, the end result is smashing.

Finally, "Picnic", a weird and funny Thai ad for Sylvania lightbulbs, which plays humorously on the local belief that the countryside is haunted by many different sorts of highly specialised imps and demons. The agency is local independent Jeh United, the shop run by Jureeporn Thaidumrong, known as Jeh Judee, and often regarded as one of the most powerful women in the Asian ad industry.

In the news this past week: Advertisers & Media

The big business story in the UK this week was the news that the consortium led by Richard Branson's Virgin Group had been named as the preferred bidder for troubled UK mortgage bank Northern Rock. Under the Branson plan, Virgin's existing financial services subsidiary would be injected into Northern Rock, which would change its name to Virgin Money. The latter's current CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia would run the enlarged business. Crucially, more than half of the £20bn or more loaned by the Bank of England to prop up Northern Rock since September would be repaid immediately, and the rest after three years. That pledge successfully secured the government's support for the Virgin plan. Also, Virgin said it had no plans to lay off Northern Rock staff or close branch offices. However, the stricken bank's shareholders are likely to receive little or nothing for their investment in the business unless they pump more cash into a planned rights issue. That detail could prove a stumbling block for Branson's ambitions. Shareholders, who must vote on the proposal, would do well to keep in mind Branson's form at this level. He has no equal when it comes to grabbing headlines and structuring a self-serving deal, yet his record as a manager of publicly quoted businesses is patchy to say the least, and Virgin Money is less than inconsequential compared to what its management team would be taking on. Virgin Money made a pretax profit of £10m last year, whereas Northern Rock reported a surplus of £627m, on income of over £1.0bn. If we were Northern Rock shareholders, we'd be backing the rival bid being assembled by former UBS and Abbey boss Luqman Arnold, provided he can sort out his funding quickly.

Motorola's weakening hold on the global mobile phone market was further illustrated by share estimates for 3Q released by research company Gartner. According to these figures, Motorola's market share slipped by a further 1.5% over the quarter to 13.1% (compared to 20.7% for the same quarter in 2006). Motorola has struggled to find a successful follow-up to its Razr design, a big seller in 2005, but now considered out of fashion by buyers. Samsung, now the global #2, rose more than 2 full points to 14.5%. However both continue to trail Nokia, whose share rose to a record 38.1%. 

Meanwhile, Verizon announced plans to open up its network to phones purchased outside its own retail network, setting an important precedent for the transformation of America's mobile communications market. Traditionally, the main US operators have restricted customers to purchasing phones only from their own retail partners, thereby maintaining strict control over which handsets, software and services were used on their networks, and allowing for special exclusive relationships, such as the one between AT&T and the Apple iPhone. (In most European markets, by contrast, users can purchase phones independently, for example direct from handset manufacturers, and then link in to any network of choice). Two factors have combined to change Verizon's mind. The first is the scrapping of the exclusive deals negotiated for the iPhone in two major European markets because of national laws (see last week's Update); the other is Google's introduction of its Android cross-network operating system, designed to allow the creation of software and services which work on any network. The #3 and #4 US networks, Sprint and T-Mobile, have already signed up to Google's initiative, creating competitive pressure for Verizon and AT&T.

On Monday this week, US shoppers apparently spent $733m shopping on the internet, setting a new one-day record. As the first Monday after Thanksgiving, "Cyber Monday" has become an important benchmark in online retailing. The preceding Friday, now "Black Friday" (see below), marks the first shopping rush following the Thanksgiving holiday itself, when bricks-and-mortar shops are shut. Cyber Monday is the day shoppers switch to the internet to find deals they couldn't track down in offline retailers. According to researcher ComScore, this year's Cyber Monday tally was up 21% on last year, although the number of buyers was up by an even higher 38%. Average spend per shopper fell because of deep discounting. ComScore also noted that 60% of online shopping was made from work computers, rather than from home. (Why is Black Friday described as "Black" if it marks a bonanza for retailers? No one seems to know for sure, but it's either because, as one of the most chaotic shopping days of the year, it also creates huge logistical problems for shops; or because it's the day their seasonal finances go "into the black" instead of being "in the red"). 

Few companies typify the positively medieval nature of some Italian business practises better than Telecom Italia. The country's national telecoms giant has spent years at the centre of a series of Borgia-esque power struggles while different tycoons wrestle for control of the business. This has led to a bewildering series of changes of management. This week, the most recent incumbent of the position of executive chairman tendered his resignation along with the CEO and executive deputy chairman. Gabriele Galateri di Genola is expected to be named as the new chairman next week. He will be the fourth occupant of that role in the space of just 14 months.

Procter & Gamble has set out to boost its profile among US pet owners with the launch of Petside.com, an extensive entertainment, information and social networking site. However you'll search long and hard to find any blatant branding message from the consumer goods giant, which at present limits any acknowledgement of its involvement in the service to the comparatively untrafficked Privacy Policy pages. Partner NBC Universal Digital Media has a higher profile, and is responsible for site management and ad sales.

Meanwhile US brewing giant Anheuser-Busch has taken a further step into the non-beer market with the launch of an organic super-premium vodka, Purus. Made from Italian wheat, the vodka is being tested initially in the US North-East, priced at around $35 for a bottle.

In the news this past week: Agencies

Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts is the subject of an in-depth profile in the current issue of BusinessWeek. The core topic is a discussion of the dilemma currently occupying many advertising bosses: how to integrate more efficient results-driven disciplines, which are seen as the particular speciality of digital and direct agencies, into traditional above-the-line advertising. That Saatchi's gets to feature in such an article demonstrates some neat footwork by whoever manages the agency's PR. Leo Burnett's Tom Bernadin, for example, must be wondering why it wasn't his agency featured instead. With its rebundled Insight Factory concept (Burnett + Arc + ZenithOptimedia + Digitas), Burnett is arguably leading the charge within Publicis Groupe towards a coordinated rebundled offering. The guys at ZenithOptimedia are probably also a little peeved. Here's what Roberts had to say about them: "A media agency couldn't emotionally touch the consumer in a million years. They have no f***ing idea. They don't have feelings. They're media people." Anyone else annoyed by the feature? Well, maybe a few other heads of larger advertising networks when they read the feature's opening sentence: "Kevin Roberts may well be the most successful adman of his generation." Read the full story here.

TBWA is to enhance its position in Brazil through a merger of its existing agency there with renowned independent Lew Lara. The latter's co-founders, Luiz Lara and Jaques Lewkowicz, will remain president and creative director respectively of the resulting business, which will be known as Lew Lara\TBWA. Lew Lara is already part-owned by Brazilian group Prax, whose other major agency is W/Brasil.

Interpublic will take a step closer towards consolidation of its two media networks, Universal McCann and Initiative, by appointing UM chief Nick Brien to a new role coordinating shared operations for the two brands. Both networks have been hard-hit by a string of client defections in recent years, but Interpublic is said to have ruled out a full merger, for the time being at least. Instead Brien will focus his attention on areas where resources can be pooled, such as research, digital media and possibly new business.

General Motors issued a correction of reports in last week's trade press that it was transferring multicultural advertising for several brands out of specialist shops and into the main creative agencies. The auto giant this week said that it will continue to use multicultural specialists, although in some cases reviews are underway.

LG is expected to name Bartle Bogle Hegarty to handle its main global brand and products account, worth around $350m in annual billings. No formal announcement has yet been made. Industry observers believe this may be because BBH would be hard-pushed, with its handful of offices, to manage the whole worldwide business without the support of a larger network to implement creative locally in each market. The bets are that LG and BBH are lining up another network, probably Publicis or Saatchi, to execute creative designed centrally by BBH. In other account assignments, DHL consolidated global creative with Ogilvy & Mather. The worldwide account will be handled out of Ogilvy Advertising in London. Petroleum giant Total consolidated media with Vizeum. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

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Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands