LONDON – Microsoft is planning a boardroom coup to force Yahoo! to the negotiating table in an effort to get the beleaguered firm to accept its $42bn (£21bn) bid.
LONDON – Malcolm Poynton, the executive creative director at Ogilvy Advertising, is to leave the agency as part of a restructure.
LONDON – London ranks behind only Sydney among the world’s best cities, according a survey of 10,000 people in 20 countries. Australia’s biggest city is still benefiting as a brand from its successful promotion prior to and during the 2000 Summer Olympics, according to the Anholt City Brands Index.
LONDON – The Labour Party is facing new claims about undeclared donations after it was revealed that Saatchi & Saatchi was only paid a ‘token amount’ for the work it did for last year’s aborted election campaign.
SINGAPORE – Ogilvy & Mather and Saatchi & Saatchi were the most awarded agency networks at the inaugural Asia-Pacific Effie Awards in Singapore, while Australia proved the most ‘effective’ country.
LONDON – Pearson, the parent company of the Financial Times, has revealed a 4% rise in annual pre-tax profits to £468m and is reporting continued growth in ad revenues early this year.
LONDON – Virgin Media is carrying out a review of its TV channels, including Living TV, Bravo and its half share in UKTV, in a move that could trigger interest from rival companies such as BSkyB, ITV and Five owner RTL.
LONDON – YouTube is planning to launch a live streaming service later this year, which would allow the video sharing site’s users to create live feeds of news events and entertainment.
Stephen Foster is looking for bears in the US market and wonders where Virgin Media will go next, as Premier Foods looks like it may become an appetising bid target.
LONDON – MTV and MySpace are joining forces to create a weekly chart show, which will feature videos voted for by MTV viewers and MySpace users.
(TrendHunter.com) After a record week of 432 new contributions, we’ve decided to post a 60 trend double issue today! And we might do the same thing tomorrow! See if you can find today’s viral gems…
MTV Two and social network site MySpace are linking up to promote a new weekly music chart show driven by the votes of their audiences.
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — Since Mary Dillon took over as global chief marketing officer at McDonald's in October 2005, she's been working to strengthen and interpret the company's "I'm lovin' it" ad message — which she describes as having "the highest level of consumer awareness in words and five notes that you can almost get in a global campaign" — to consumers around the world.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — With a new head of multicultural marketing and its third Hispanic agency in less than three years, Hyundai Motor America — with only a 2.7% share of Hispanic car sales — is tackling Latino consumers who don't really understand the Hyundai brand.
For all the arguments calling for longer tenure, a majority of marketing leaders aren't intent on being career CMOs. Most aspire to trade their functional experience and take a chance on general management.
Even marketers believe most new products have little innovation or reason for being. And they don't expect to be doing genuine innovation in the near term.
CMOs face a major obstacle: the chief information officer and IT organization, who often respond to requests for projects with the same answer: no.
PHOENIX (AdAge.com) — Given the bid Microsoft made for Yahoo last month, it's not surprising that the software giant's executives believe that when it comes to ad platforms, their only rival is Google. And that's the message they're taking to publishers.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Last week, Microsoft did what desperate marketers do when they need refreshing: It hired Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the agency that has breathed life into brands such as Burger King and Volkswagen with weird/creepy messages and innovative media, from original video games to hotel-room porn channels.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
