7 May 2010 www.campaignlive.co.uk A Haymarket publication £3.70
London Eye…celebrates its tenth anniversary this year
London Eye sees shops for creative brief
By Kate Nettleton
Merlin Entertainments has
kicked off the hunt for an
agency to handle advertising
for the London Eye.
The company, which has
owned the London Eye since
its launch in 2000, is seeking
an agency to promote the attraction
as it celebrates its
tenth anniversary.
The campaign will span a
number of channels with a
strong focus on digital and
experiential activity.
Merlin has previously used
Frank The Agency to produce
campaigns for the London
Eye as well as Madame Tussauds
and the London Aquarium.
However, the agency
folded earlier this year.
Y&R kicks off hunt
for European chief
By Matt Williams
Young & Rubicam has
launched a search for a new
chairman and chief executive
for Europe, the Middle East
and Africa.
The move has been prompted
by the current chief executive
Massimo Costa’s decision
to relinquish his European
duties to return to his native
Italy and focus on Y&R’s operation
there.
Costa, who has held the
EMEA position in tandem
with heading Y&R Italy since
2005, is keen to take a break
from travelling.
Hamish McLennan, the global
chief executive of Y&R,
will oversee the EMEA role
on an interim basis while hunting
for Costa’s successor.
Costa’s future has been the
subject of much speculation
for a number of years, with
sources suggesting that he
came close to resigning from
the network in July 2008.
The 50-year-old has spent
16 years at Y&R during two
stints. Costa, who first joined
the network as a group account
director at Y&R Italy
in 1990, then joined Lowe
Lintas in 1998 but returned
to Y&R four years later.
Delaney Lund Knox Warren
continues to handle the
advertising for the company’s
theme parks, which include
Alton Towers.
The move to appoint an
agency comes soon after a restructure
of Merlin’s marketing
department. Its Midway
brands, which include its London
attractions, have been
consolidated into one marketing
department, while the
theme parks division remains
a separate entity.
Last year, the London Eye
rebranded as The Merlin
Entertainments London Eye.
The attraction had been
unbranded since 2008 when
British Airways terminated
its sponsorship.
Kraft calls media review
Starcom and PHD go head-to-head in £50 million Kraft/Cadbury consolidation
By Anne Cassidy
Kraft Foods is holding a review
to consolidate its £50
million media planning and
buying account across all
Cadbury and Kraft brands in
the UK.
The Kraft incumbent,
Starcom MediaVest Group,
and Cadbury’s media agency,
PHD, are competing head-
to-head in a winner-takes-all
contest for the business.
The closed pitch process
follows Kraft’s takeover of
Cadbury in an £11.4 billion
deal in February.
Sources close to Kraft indicated
that the media review
will be followed by reviews
of Kraft and Cadbury’s UK
advertising, direct marketing
and digital agency relationships,
as the confectionery and
food giant looks to achieve
savings.
Phil Rumbol, the marketing
director at Cadbury, who is
leaving the company this summer
after a reorganisation by
Cadbury…sources indicate that Kraft could review its advertising, DM and digital arrangements
Labour and Lib Dems make pitch to adland
By our Parliamentary
correspondent
Labour and the Liberal Democrats
both made a lastminute
pitch for the votes of
people working in the creative
industries as the General
Election drew to a close.
Gordon Brown issued a
special Creative Britain manifesto,
which pledged that a reelected
Labour government
would continue to strengthen
industries, including advertising,
that were seen as world
leaders. He said: “Around the
world, Britain is seen as a thriving
hub of creative talent.”
The document said Labour
HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS ISSUE
How to rediscover
the value of media
We ask senior media
figures how a sector
that now eschews
relationships for
reviews and quality
for cost can escape
the commodity
trap. Page 26
Kraft, is understood to be involved
in the pitch, which was
instigated by Kraft’s corporate
HQ in Geneva.
Kraft and Cadbury each had
a media spend of close to £25
million last year, according to
The Nielsen Company.
The media pitch pits
Brown…pledges to strengthen Britain’s creative industries
would clamp down on illegal
online copyright infringement.
“We will also ask the
advertising industry to look at
its rules to ensure sites which
promote illegal content are
not beneficiaries of advertising
revenue,” it said.
“Where is the iconic thought
or visual that transcends
marketing to become
the badge for the whole
campaign as seen in
past elections?”
A cross-section of voters
review the main parties’
election ads. Page 14
REX FEATURES
Starcom and PHD against
one another less than two
years after PHD won the
Cadbury account from
Starcom, which has handled
the UK Kraft account since
2004 after a pitch against
Mindshare.
Kraft, which owns chocolate
Labour highlighted the
Government’s pledge to ask
Ofcom to investigate the UK
broadcast advertising market
to ensure existing rules are
not harming broadcasters.
The Lib Dems published
their plans to boost the creative
industries, including small
grants or loans for start-ups
from a new “enterprise fund”.
Their report said: “We will
also reform outdated media
regulation on issues such as
media ownership and advertising
to enable commercial
operators to maximise the
potential of new platforms.”
$MPTF VQ QBHF
Will election alter
media landscape?
Never mind education
and the economy,
how will the election
result affect media?
Or does it even
matter who gets in,
so long as someone
does? Page 20
brands including Milka, Toblerone
and Terry’s, as well
as Philadelphia cheese and
Kenco coffee, kicked off a
market-by-market review of
its media arrangements last
year, but the UK had not
been involved ahead of the
Cadbury acquisition.
Agencies line up for
Ikea DM business
By Matt Williams
Ikea has called a pitch as it
looks for an agency to handle
its direct marketing account.
The Swedish furniture
manufacturer has issued an
RFI to a number of agencies,
with a view to appointing its
first dedicated DM agency
in the next few months. The
process is being handled by
the AAR.
The appointed agency will
handle all upcoming DM
campaigns, as well as help to
develop the company’s loyalty
scheme, Ikea Family, which
has been running since 2002.
News of the pitch comes
four months after Ikea shifted
its £8 million advertising business
from Beattie McGuinness
Bungay to Mother. The
move marked the end of a
two-and-a-half-year relationship
between BMB and Ikea.
The agency rolled out its
final campaign for the brand
last month, which included
a TV ad that saw the Ikea
Kitchen Squad destroy and
rebuild a kitchen in front of an
unsuspecting owner.
In November 2009, the retailer
appointed Vizeum to
handle its global media planning
and buying.
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