BBDO New York continues to pull out all the creative stops in its campaign for recruitment site Monster.com. The latest in the series, Stork, is a poignant and artfully conceived epic. An excellent performance, by the way, from that stork. Or rather his animator. 

JWT London has to some extent redeemed itself for the atrocities committed previously on behalf of Cadbury's Trident gum. (Remember the Jamaican rap poet and his "Mastication for the Nation"?). This spot for Trident Soft is intriguing, trippy, utterly meaningless of course, but a delight to watch.

Regular readers of Adbrands Weekly Update will recall Goodby Silverstein's ad for Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which we featured here three weeks ago. That spot was roundly savaged by the Australian ad industry for its ludicrous stereotypes (Mad Max koalas and Crocodile Dundee) and navel-gazing (in which a fictional agency team are seen pitching to Commonwealth's equally fictional marketing department). No doubt you had your own view if you watched the film. Trade paper B&T - which hated the ad - took the trouble to ask members of the public what they thought, and were astonished by the answer. In answer to the question, which Australian bank currently has the best advertising, just under a quarter of respondents chose Commonwealth. Which shows that what William Goldman said of the movie industry is just as true of the ad industry: "Nobody knows anything." To prove it, here's the second ad in the series, also by Goodby. Nope, still hate the campaign.

And finally, I'm sorry but I can't resist bringing you one last spot for Bud Light, by DDB New York. Not quite as classic as the timeless "Swear Jar" spot we showed here last year, but great nevertheless. Puerile, yes. Offensive, check. Funny, yuh-huh. This was, incidentally, the so-called "secret" Super Bowl ad, sent by text message to viewers of the game who registered online at the Budweiser website.

Before we begin, some news regarding the site. Adbrands users will start seeing a little speech-balloon symbol popping up from time to time after some external links. It indicates a place where we are testing a new preview service offered by Snap.com which loads a pop-up image of the specific external link. If you're reading this on the Adbrands.net website just hover over this link's symbol to see what we mean. Among other neat tricks, it allows us to run ad clips in a pop-up bubble. Just click on the image to run the ad. Neat, huh? Or nasty? Tell us whether you like or don't like. 

In the news this past week: Advertisers

Fortune Brands, best known for its Jim Beam bourbon, is considered current favourite to acquire Vin & Sprit, the Swedish group which owns Absolut vodka and a small portfolio of other alcoholic beverages. There are thought to be four serious bidders vying for the deal, but Fortune has an edge over Pernod-Ricard, Bacardi and a Swedish investor group, because it already distributes Absolut in the US. The deal price is thought to be between $5bn and $6.5bn. Currently, the business is wholly owned by the Swedish government. Fortune expanded its global presence considerably in 2005 with the acquisition of part of the Allied Domecq portfolio, including Courvoisier, Sauza tequila and Canadian Club whisky. 

Still in the drinks sector, Carlberg and Heineken will be heaving a sign of relief with the news that SABMiller has changed its mind over plans to break up their planned takeover of British brewery group Scottish & Newcastle. The Financial Times broke the story earlier this week that, despite accepting Carlsberg/Heineken's £8 per share bid, S&N had also been involved in secret talks with SABMiller, who were preparing to snatch the prize with a higher offer of £8.50. After further consideration in the cold glare of the media spotlight, SABMiller has now decided to walk away from the table. 

The international telecoms sector could be hotting up again, with three regional giants announcing plans to broaden their global footprint. Firmly established as the leader in US wireless, AT&T was the first to declare last week, saying that it is looking closely at several international opportunities, especially in emerging markets. In Spring last year, the group began moves to acquire an effective controlling stake in Telecom Italia, in partnership with America Movil of Mexico. However those talks stalled in the face of opposition from the Italian government and a rival bid from Telefonica of Spain. AT&T also lost out in an auction to acquire a wireless license for the Gulf state of Qatar. The new focus of AT&T's attention is India. It already has a joint venture there with local operator Mahindra Communications to support business customers, and the partners have now applied for a license to offer wireless communications as well. Deutsche Telekom's CEO René Obermann also indicated he was looking at opportunities of expanding the footprint of wireless subsidiary T-Mobile in developing markets, either through acquisition or by launching new services from scratch. Another carrier with itchy feet is China Mobile. It wants to start selling its services to Chinese residents in other markets, with Europe likely to be the first port of call. It opens a new EMEA HQ today.

Toshiba lost the battle this week for next-generation DVD technology. Following the decision last month by Warner Bros to transfer its allegiance from Toshiba's HD DVD system to Sony's rival Blu-Ray format, several retailers followed suit, including Target, Best Buy, Netflix and Blockbuster. This week, Wal-Mart clinched the battle, saying it would stop selling HD DVD disks and players in favour of Blu-Ray. As a result, Toshiba finally conceded defeat, saying it would discontinue manufacturing HD DVD systems by March. 

The British government also helped itself to a large slice of humble pie this week when it pulled the plug on attempts to sell ailing mortgage bank Northern Rock to the private sector. The decision to nationalise Northern Rock was greeted with howls of protest from opposition politicians, shareholders and ordinary taxpayers alike, not least because the five month search for a private sector solution has led to a continuing decline in the bank's financial health, making an eventual full recovery far from likely. Most commentators agreed that the bank should have been nationalised last year as soon as it ran into trouble. Instead the government embarked on a painful, expensive and ultimately pointless trawl through private sector bids, before ending up exactly where it started at nationalisation as the only valid option. The whole process has left a big dent in prime minister Gordon Brown's reputation as a prudent economist as well as London's standing as a global financial centre. Well at least we were saved the even more dismal prospect of it being sold to buccaneering Richard Branson and converted into Virgin Money.

L'Oreal released its financial results for 2007, demonstrating another year of impressive growth. Combined sales were up by around 8% year-on-year, helped by a number of small and medium-sized acquisitions including The Body Shop retail chain, and strong growth in Eastern Europe, where sales jumped by more than a third. More impressive still was the rise in net profits, up by almost 29% to E2.65bn. However, investors were spooked by a warning that growth in North America was slowing, causing the group's shares to fall by as much as 5%. You just can't please everyone, can you.

Food and beverage giant Nestlé also delivered a strong set of results, with revenues breaking the 100bn Swiss Francs barrier for the first time. Sales rose 9% to CHF 107.6 (around E65.6bn), while net profits were up almost 16% at CHF 10.6bn (E6.5bn). Organic development delivered most of the uplift, with real internal growth accounting for more than 4% of the increase, price increases for a further 3% and acquisitions such as Gerber for the remainder. The group identified four key areas in which it expects to deliver above-average performance in future: infant and adult nutrition as a result of acquisitions such as Gerber, Jenny Craig and the clinical products previously owned by Novartis; "popularly positioned products", by which it means mass-market products aimed at low-income customers in developing regions such as Asia, Africa and Latin America; "Out of home" products such as portable snacks and drinks, as well as food service products supplied to hotels, restaurants and the like; and luxury products, such as premium ice creams (including its Haagen-Dazs and Movenpick brands), and especially Nespresso coffee systems. The latter enjoyed a second year of rapid growth, and is expected to surpass sales of CHF 2bn (or E1.2bn) during 2008.

L'Oreal and Nestlé's numbers were good, but they couldn't match Wal-Mart for scale. The discount giant delivered another year of mammoth sales. Revenues for 2007 rose by almost 9% to an awe-inspiring $375bn. The increase of $30bn over the figure for 2006 was, as CEO Lee Scott acknowledged, “more than many retailers have in total sales over the course of an entire year”. Profits also rose, up almost 6% to $12.9bn. In case you were wondering, if Wal-Mart were a country, it would rank as the global #21 according to GDP tallies for 2006. Bigger than Indonesia, Poland and Greece and just a little smaller than Sweden... 

In the news this past week: Agencies

Havas chairman Vincent Bolloré sought to play down reports that he is preparing a full takeover bid for Aegis. He told media channel Bloomberg that "our company isn't in that state of mind today", but reiterated his demand for fair representation on the Aegis board. Havas also won points with a strong set of preliminary results for 2007, the best from the group since Bolloré took over. After years of decline or flat performance, sales were up 4% to E1.5bn, and for the first time since 2000 all the group's regional divisions reported an increase. (Profits will be announced next month). Arch-rival Publicis on the other hand disappointed analysts with sales slightly below expectations. Group revenues rose by 6% to E4.7bn, but much of that growth was generated by acquisitions (notably Digitas). Organic growth was slower than anticipated at just over 3% - Publicis had forecast 4%. The group blamed cut backs by clients in the pharmaceutical sector, by which it mainly meant Sanofi-Aventis, which was forced to abandon plans to launch obesity drug Acomplia in the US after a negative recommendation from the FDA. Publicis profits were up by 2% to E452m. Both companies were comfortably surpassed by Omnicom which, without any significant boost from acquisitions, reported an impressive 11.5% increase in revenues to $12.7bn, and a 13% increase in net income to $976m. WPP and Interpublic will both unveil their figures next Friday. 

Bruce Haines, formerly CEO of Leo Burnett London, has been recruited as global chief marketing officer for Cheil Communications, Korea's largest marketing organisation, and a part-subsidiary of electronics giant Samsung. Cheil already has offices in around 18 countries outside Korea. In most of these markets, it acts primarily as a local liaison office for Samsung, as well as another Korean client, Nankook Tires. Although Samsung's main brand marketing duties are currently handled by the Leo Burnett network, the local Cheil offices manage creative, media and promotional marketing for smaller product lines, as well as promotional events and roadshows. International sports sponsorship unit Cheil Sport Business, for example, arranged for Samsung's sponsorship of Chelsea FC in the UK and of the US NFL. Haines has been tasked with supervising a further expansion of the Cheil network, including a push into areas such as digital and direct marketing.

Creston, a medium-sized UK-based marketing services group which owns ad agency DLKW and direct marketer Tullo Marshall Warren, has cancelled plans to expand into the US. In 2007, the group hired Steve Blamer, a former CEO of Grey and FCB Worldwide, to identify potential acquisitions which would establish a North American arm for the group. However the weakening economy, and possibly the lack of suitable targets in the right price band, has made that plan increasingly unfeasible. 

It was another quiet week for account assignments. Avon assigned creative for its fragrances portfolio in North America to Kirshenbaum Bond. WPP's Soho Square retains other product lines. The organising committee for the London 2012 Olympics appointed Chime Communications to handle its marketing requirements. Several agencies are involved in the brief, but VCCP will handle advertising and interactive, while Bell Pottinger will manage PR. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here.

In the news this past week: Media

No news of note in Microsoft's takeover battle for Yahoo. The web company has not yet been able to put together a more concrete defence strategy, although it is still apparently in talks with News Corp about some form of merger with that group's interactive unit, which includes MySpace. The WSJ said some form of discussion had also begun with AT&T. Most investors and observers expect Microsoft to have to sweeten its offer if it is to swing the takeover. The software giant, however, appears reluctant to do do, arguing once again this week that its existing offer - now down to around $28 per share because of a decline in the Microsoft stock price - is "full and fair". Currently the Gates mob shows signs of heading towards a proxy battle, in which it will attempt to use its small existing stake in Yahoo to oust the current board and replace it with supporters of its own. It has until March 13th to submit a formal proposal to that end. Such a route is fraught with risk, however, in that it would be slow - no decision would be reached before June 2008 at the earliest - and could turn Yahoo staff against the predator. Microsoft's current stance could simply be good guy/bad guy sabre-rattling. The bad guy threatens a proxy battle, before the good guy steps in to deliver the knock-out blow of a higher offer.

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Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands