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If you liked last week's Samsung "Cute Animals" viral you're going to love Ads of the Week this week. If, on the other hand, you have a morbid fear of small furry rodents, you'd better move on quickly to the news... David and Goliath have a new spot running in the US for Kia Motors. The ad is great, but we're not too sure about the design of the boxy little car. Only a hamster would love it.

Cable network Comcast is trying out a new company cheer in a series of new spots by Goodby Silverstein. We love the Habbo Hotel-style graphics. Nice piece of work all round. There are several to choose from. Here's the full 60-second version.

Also in the cable sphere is this collection of clever idents for Fox's Italian channel Cult. The spots were created by Dutch agency Pool Worldwide.

And finally, rodents star again in a new ad for Latin American mobile network Claro. Great idea, but personally I'd be worried about one of these handsets peeing in my face... Argentinean agency El Cielo is responsible.

In the news this past week: Advertisers

There was still no end in sight for the current economic crisis. Banks and automobile manufacturers failed dismally to demonstrate that they have managed to get their problems under control. This caused stock markets to plunge to their lowest levels yet in the current crisis, with the main Dow Jones index falling below 7,000 for the first time since 1997. As had been expected, the US government converted part of its preferred stock in Citigroup into common shares, giving it an effective 36% holding in beleaguered group. Far from rallying confidence this move actually caused Citi's shares to plunge by another 40% on fears that it wouldn't put an end to the struggling bank's woes. There was worse to come when insurance giant AIG unveiled an almost inconceivable $62bn loss for just the last three months of 2008 ($99bn for the year), and was bailed out for the fourth time by the government, which effectively added $30bn more in aid to the $150bn the insurer has already sucked up. In order to kickstart its recovery, the group is being broken up. Its still profitable general insurance operations will be split out into a new company, which will inherit the existing AIU (American International Underwriters) brand. Two other units will also be hived off under state management: American International Assurance (AIA), which houses the Asian and other international life insurance operations; and US life insurance division American Life Insurance Company (ALICO). 

In the UK, dreadful 2008 results from HBOS, worries about the new Lloyds Banking Group and a mammoth cash call from HSBC were almost eclipsed by the media battle between the government and ousted Royal Bank of Scotland chief Sir Fred Goodwin over his lavish pension plan. After leading the bank into virtual bankruptcy last year, Goodwin was allowed to resign from RBS with a pension worth more than £700,000 a year. If he'd been sacked, as he probably deserved, it would have been worth only around £415,000. To save face with the media and taxpayers, the government wants Goodwin to hand back part of his pension pot. "Make me," is Goodwin's response, not too surprisingly. The government must now decide whether it really wants to go to court over the issue, at the risk of an even bigger embarrassment if it loses the case.

Not even the Sage of Omaha can be relied upon to pick a winner these days. Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company of legendary stockpicker Warren Buffet, reported its worst ever results, with net income plunging from $13.2bn for 2007 to under $5.0bn. "I did some dumb things," confessed Buffett with typical candour in his letter to shareholders. One was to bet that energy prices would continue to climb during the year. Instead they tumbled, forcing the group to write off $2.5bn of a newly acquired $7bn stake in oil company Conoco Phillips. The credit crisis also cost Buffett almost 90% of the value of a $244m investment in two Irish banks. 

"Recession? What recession?". Each week we like to let you know about at least one company not reeling from the current downturn. There were several businesses reporting this week for whom the sun was still shining during 2008. Depending on your views on smoking, you may be disappointed to know that one of this week's stars was British American Tobacco, which has seen no impact at all from the current downturn. They may have just lost their jobs, but smokers just keep on smoking. Revenues and operating profits were both up by more than 20%. Telefonica too reported impressive numbers, demonstrating that it is arguably the strongest of Europe's telecoms groups at present. German sportswear company Adidas also had a great year, with net profits up 17% on the year before, although sales of its recently acquired Reebok brand continued to fall. But perhaps the most surprising results were from Volkswagen which shrugged off the problems afflicting just about every other auto manufacturer to report a 5% increase in revenues to E114bn and net profits which jumped 14% to E4.7bn. Other car companies must be open-mouthed in wonder.

In Canada, the local operations of failed US electronics retailer Circuit City were bought out of receivership by telecoms giant BCE. The stores, which trade as The Source, will continue to operate under their existing name, selling Bell Canada mobile subscriptions as well as other products. In the UK, Zavvi, the entertainment chain which went bust earlier this year, has been acquired by online seller The Hut, and will be relaunched as a web-only brand. Also, a group of UK fashion stores have been acquired by management following the collapse of their controlling shareholder, Icelandic group Baugur. Warehouse, Oasis, Coast and Karen Millen have all been acquired by newly formed company Aurora Fashions. The brands were previously part of the Mosaic group. Another chain, Shoe Studio, was acquired today by rival Dune, leaving Principles as the last Mosaic business still looking for a buyer.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer unveiled a restructuring of the group's electronics division, accompanied by a shakeup of the management team. Under the new plan, the old consumer electronics group is being split into two. VAIO computers, software and mobile products including the Walkman range are being merged with Sony Computer Entertainment, the Playstation business, to form a new corporate division of Networked Products & Services. Other electronics devices, such as televisions, imaging, audio and video, form the core of a new Consumer Products group. Sony is expected to announce a huge loss for the current financial year, which ends this month.

Bob Gamgort, head of the North American operations of food and petcare giant Mars, has resigned. No replacement has yet been named, and group CEO Paul Michaels will take over responsibility for Gamgort's role until his successor is confirmed. 

In the news this past week: Agencies

Interpublic released results for 2008 which demonstrate the group's continuing recovery from the problems which plagued it for much of the first half of the decade. Full year revenues rose 6% to just under $7.0bn. Stripping out currency fluctuations, acquisitions and disposals, the organic increase was almost 4%. Net income jumped 76% to $265m. Chairman-CEO Michael Roth was rightfully proud of performance for last year but warned of the possible impact from recessionary forces during 2009. In more good news for the group, the US arm of its Initiative subsidiary was named Media Agency of the Year for 2008 by Advertising Age. It had already received the same accolade from Adweek. Mindshare was AdAge's Media Network of the Year. Honourable mentions went to OMD, Naked and MediaVest. 

Havas also reported a strong improvement in performance. Revenues rose 2% to almost E1.6bn, despite the negative effects of currency fluctuation. Excluding such factors, organic growth was equivalent to 4.7%. The group's net income jumped by 25% to E104m, the first time in its history that Havas has posted a profit of more than E100m. Separately, Havas unveiled a new structure which finally consolidates all the group's subsidiary units into two divisions. Euro RSCG chief David Jones took on an additional role as CEO of Havas Worldwide, a new unit which will comprises not just Euro RSCG but also the Arnold agency in the US and a disparate group of other standalone shops, mainly in France. As a result, all the group's subsidiaries now form part of either the Havas Worldwide or Havas Media divisions.

Engine, the parent group for UK agency WCRS, added to its increasingly extensive collection of marketing services specialists with the acquisition of communications planning shop Edwards Groom Saunders.

Nokia has put its global media account, worth around $300m in billings, up for review. MediaCom is defending. That was the one big announcement in an otherwise quiet week for assignments. In other changes, the London office of The Brooklyn Brothers and digital shop Glue were appointed to relaunch retailer Woolworths as an online brand. In the US, Crispin Porter & Bogusky was tasked with creative for Harley-Davidson's Buell brand; restaurant chain White Castle transferred to Zimmerman Advertising. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

UK commercial broadcaster ITV reported a £2.6bn after-tax loss for 2008, although that figure included a large impairment charge. Excluding the charge, operating profits fell 59% to £114m. Revenues fell 3% to just over £2.0bn. The broadcaster said it would cut its £1bn programme budget by £65m this year, and would also shed around 600 jobs. Smaller commercial rival Five said today that it will cut up as much as 25% of its workforce to create a new streamlined structure.

The fate of the other UK broadcaster Channel 4 continued to hang in the balance, as an extraordinary series of  rumours and counter-rumours swirled through the media. Last week, the headlines were that ITV had drawn up secret plans for a three-way merger with both Channel 4 and Five. This week, ITV's chairman Michael Grade confirmed that this had been one of many different scenarios included in a report commissioned by the government regulator, but played down its significance. Meanwhile Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson said that he was opposed to any form of combination with either ITV or Five, which he said would cause competition issues as well as culture clashes. Instead his preferred route would be a partnership with the commercial arm of the BBC, a plan already under discussion, or sale to a private buyer. Another development was the publication of a story last weekend that telecoms group BT was negotiating a merger of Channel 4 with its own BT Vision pay-per-view service. Not to my knowledge, said Johnson. There were talks with BT, but they ended more than a year ago. 

Yahoo's new CEO Carol Bartz announced details of a restructuring of her management team. Writing the first entry on her new corporate blog she said "There’s plenty that has bogged this company down. For starters, you would be amazed at how complicated some things are here. So today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo a lot faster on its feet." Among the most significant changes are the expansion of the role of chief technology officer Aristotle Balogh to also encompass product development. Elisa Steele is joining the company as chief marketing officer. In the most senior change, CFO Blake Jorgenson is leaving Yahoo. His replacement will be announced in due course.

As always, if you haven't already done so, please confirm your subscription to the free Adbrands Weekly Update 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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