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AMV BBDO unveils its new blockbuster production for Guinness this week, and a new tagline concept of "Bring it to life" to replace the old "Good things come to those who wait". I'm not sure I quite 'get' the idea - this ad could be for just about any product, couldn't it? - but it's one handsome piece of film nonetheless.

According to Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne, a Dry Dream is "what you get if you mate Stupid with Genius. Their half breed son would be a Dry Dream". (I assume, dear readers, you don't need any explanation as to what exactly a wet dream is...). The new campaign for Lion Nathan's Carlton Dry lager riffs on a few of those crazy ideas you have with your mates at two o'clock in the morning. The other two are skeet shooting with a tank and a rubber chicken rocket car. See them here.

Those Glass & A Half Productions keep coming thick and fast. Perhaps to distract attention from the poor response awarded to the Ghanaian Zingolo ad of a couple of weeks ago (here if you missed it), Cadbury have unleashed a fourth spot, where "Vroom" meets "Arf". It's a joint production between Fallon London and Saatchi Australia. Cute, but no gorilla.

And finally, an inspiringly nerdy spot from Santo Buenos Aires for Vodafone. Kudos to Eva Mendes, we say, for allowing herself to be featured in a film which serves as a blueprint to celebrity stalkers worldwide.

Did you know that you can easily search back issues of Adbrands Weekly Update in descending date order? This allows you to track historical developments affecting specific companies or brands. Simply change the options at the top of the profiles search results page to select "Adbrands Weekly Updates" and Search by Date. For example, to see how the GM/Opel saga has developed over the past few months, click here for a sample search.

In the news this past week: Brands & Advertisers

Despite months of negotiation, General Motors' board this week cancelled plans to sell its Opel and Vauxhall manufacturing businesses to Canadian company Magna and Russia's Sberbank, just days before the deal was due to complete. No alternative buyer is being considered. Instead, the group will hold on to the business, and is hoping to secure around E3bn from local governments in Europe to finance restructuring. The decision is thought to have been prompted by newly appointed chairman Edward Whitacre, who questioned the continuing relevance of a plan devised six months ago at a time when GM was literally on the verge of financial meltdown. Conditions have improved since then, he is said to have argued, and GM should be developing its worldwide business not shrinking it. One key factor was the fear of creating a major new competitor in important growth markets in Eastern Europe.

In truth, the cancellation of the deal is not entirely unexpected. General Motors has been stalling on the sale to Magna ever since it emerged from Chapter 11, and has investigated a series of alternative strategies. However German Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated she would not be prepared to give financial support to any alternative deal which might risk higher levels of job cuts. This in turn prompted European competition commissioner Nellie Kroes to express some concerns last month over the fairness of the proposed arrangement. Those comments, combined with signs of improvement in the industry at large, gave GM the confidence to abandon the Magna plan.

Following GM's announcement, politicians in Germany and Russia joined Opel's labour unions in expressing their fury over the decision. Russia's prime minister Putin threatened legal proceedings over the pull-out, and Germany's IG Metall union has called for a series of protest strikes. Oddly enough, Magna itself, judging by its official response, seems almost relieved by GM's change of heart. The company said it understood the decision and pledged to continue to supply parts to Opel. GM's biggest problem now will be to persuade Chancellor Merkel to still stump up the cash needed for restructuring. However, the German state finds itself in a Catch-22 position. Refusal to support Opel financially now will only lead to higher levels of job cuts, precisely the situation the government was keen to avoid. Meanwhile workers in Britain and the other countries where Opel has factories were delighted by the news. They had feared the Magna plan would result in a shift of all production to Germany.

As if to underline the signs of recovery in the auto market, GM's cross-town rival Ford this week reported a surprise 3Q profit of close to $1bn. That included a pretax operating profit of $357m at its North American manufacturing business, the first in four years. GM and Ford both reported a modest increase in vehicle unit sales for the month of October. In GM's case, it was the first year-on-year increase since January 2008.

Other manufacturers have also seen signs of an improvement in the market. Toyota reported a profit for its most recent quarter and cut the loss it had forecast for the full year by more than half. It remains serious about cutting costs nevertheless, and earlier in the week announced its decision to pull out of Formula 1. Toyota launched its F1 team in 2002, and was widely understood to be one of the biggest spenders in the motor racing industry, despite the lack of any important wins. However, like other companies, Toyota has found it increasingly difficult to justify the costs of participation in Formula 1. The sport's poor environmental reputation also sits uncomfortably alongside the current trend among auto manufacturers to show off their green credentials. Honda and Bridgestone have already pulled out of F1, and the departure of Toyota leaves the sport with no headline Japanese sponsors.

RBS and Lloyds, the two British banks propped up by government aid last year, agreed terms with Europe's competition regulator to reduce market share by selling assets. RBS is being punished particularly severely because of the extent of its continuing difficulties. It is being forced to divest its insurance division, comprising Direct Line, Churchill and other brands, as well as all Royal Bank of Scotland branded outlets in England and Wales, all NatWest branches in Scotland, its global merchant services unit, and parts of its investment banking division. The EU has set a four-year deadline for completion of these disposals. In return RBS will be allowed to suck in a further chunk of government aid, bringing the total up to almost £54bn, around twice the sum provided by the US government to America's worst case, Citigroup.

Lloyds was punished more lightly, but will still need to make substantial reductions in its share of the personal current accounts and mortgage lending markets. It proposes the demerger of around 600 branches, including the Cheltenham & Gloucester retail division, as well as the Intelligent Finance direct mortgage business and the TSB brand name. However, it will not seek further government assistance against bad debts. Instead, it plans to issue a massive cash call to existing shareholders for a record amount of £13.5bn. The asset sell-offs are likely to lead to the creation of two or three completely new high street banking businesses. RBS and Lloyds' main rivals HSBC and Barclays are barred from acquiring any of the assets, and it is hoped instead that they will attract the interest of foreign banks with no existing interests in the UK, or non-financial purchasers such as supermarkets.

Another set of disappointing figures from America's third-largest wireless company Sprint Nextel added fuel to swirling rumours of an impending takeover bid. The cellular group continues to be squeezed by twin giants AT&T and Verizon. As a result, despite a raft of new handset launches including the Palm Pre, Sprint was unable to prevent around 800,000 post-paid customers from cancelling their accounts during the quarter. Those losses were partly offset by new post-paid customers, who helped reduce the net customer loss to just 135,000, but revenues slid and net losses rose to $478m, from $326m a year ago. Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile, the #4 operator in the US, is similarly pressed, leading to widespread speculation that the two companies will join forces to provide a stronger competitor to AT&T and Verizon.

There was mixed news from the technology sector. Nintendo reported very disappointing half-year figures, with sales falling more than a third and net income cut by half as a result of a slowdown in sales of the Wii console. The company cut its full-year profit forecast by 23%. Nintendo is expected to rush out an improved version of the Wii early next year in order to bolster performance. Yet Samsung Electronics reported a 29% increase in quarterly sales while profits tripled, reaching record levels on the back of strong demand for semiconductors, flat-panel TVs and mobile phones. In the latter market, Samsung estimated that its share of the global handset market rose to a best-ever 20.8%. It is worldwide #2 in the sector behind Nokia.

Tool manufacturer Stanley agreed to acquire competitor Black & Decker for $4.5bn in stock, uniting two of the world's best known hardware brands. Stanley's chairman & chief executive John Lundgren, will become chief executive of the merged company, to be named Stanley Black & Decker. B&D's Nolan Archibald will take the role of chairman.

Tennis star Roger Federer signed on to become the first global brand ambassador for Swiss chocolate group Lindt & Spruengli. Federer, himself Swiss by birth, will appear in a new "Maitre Chocolatiers" ad campaign for Lindt as well the launch campaign for Les Grande, a new tablet bar which boasts more nuts than any rival product. Making the sort of wonderfully crass analogy that only a public relations professional could love, a Lindt spokesperson told Adweek magazine "We say when it comes to tennis, Roger has a lot of victories and when it comes to nut tablets, we have the most nuts." Nice one.

In the news this past week: Agencies

WPP reported 3Q results that were better (or "less worse" to borrow Martin Sorrell's term) than its US rivals, but slightly weaker than main European competitor Publicis. Reported revenues rose by almost 17% to over £2bn, boosted by the acquisition of TNS and positive exchange rate fluctuations. On an organic level, though, excluding such factors, revenues were down by almost 9%. (That compared with a 14% organic decline at Interpublic, 11% at Omnicom and 7% at Publicis). "There is little doubt that consumer and corporate confidence has recovered somewhat from the panic levels of the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009," said Sorrell's accompanying statement. "Confidence, however, remains fragile amongst consumers, because of the shadow of high unemployment levels and amongst corporates, because Armageddon and Apocalypse Now were barely avoided in September 2008. Whilst the hearts of CEOs and CMOs are stronger and their minds clearer, increased confidence is still not transferring to their cheque-writing hands."

Carlson Companies, the privately owned leisure and hospitality operator, announced an agreement to sell its Carlson Marketing Group subsidiary, one of the world's leading promotional marketing networks, to Canadian company Groupe Aeroplan. The deal price is $175m. Though little-known internationally, Aeroplan is Canada's foremost loyalty marketing specialist. It will continue to operate Carlson Marketing Group as a standalone division, under its existing management team.

Tim Lindsay, group chief executive of TBWA UK, has left the company. According to Brand Republic, Lindsay "was told on Tuesday that his contract had been terminated and that he had to leave the office immediately." He was replaced by Robert Harwood-Matthews.

After several months struggling against a succession of account losses, New York agency Cliff Freeman & Partners closed its doors. The shop launched in 1987 after Cliff Freeman jumped ship from Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, where he had made his name with ads including the "Where's the beef?" campaign for Wendy's. During the 1990s, the agency earned a reputation as one of New York's most highly regarded creative shops. More recently, though, it has been hit by a string of account losses, as well as the departure of several key executives. Freeman sold a small stake in the business to Canadian group MDC Partners in 2002, but was forced to buy it back again earlier this year.

In account assignments, Kellogg's consolidated its global advertising business, shifting creative in all markets except Asia Pacific to Leo Burnett. JWT will assume full control for the Asia region. Previously the business had been split between the two agencies in each region. Holiday Inn is reviewing global creative, currently held by various agencies including McCann and Grey. Panasonic is reviewing its US creative out of Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal. Interpublic's Martin Agency was awarded the account for Microsoft's new retail division. Ikea shifted UK media to Vizeum, and called a review of US creative. Fallon London lost creative for UK supermarket Asda to sister agency Saatchi & Saatchi but picked up a global assignment from insurer RSA Group. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

The BBC attempted to ease public pressure over executive pay by announcing plans to cut almost a fifth of senior management positions over four years and to impose an "indefinite" suspension on bonus payments. Although most senior managers at the BBC are paid less than their counterparts in ITV, there are more of them - the BBC is notorious for its labyrinthine layers of bureaucracy - and the corporation does not have to wrestle with the plunge in advertising revenues currently afflicting commercial broadcasters. Instead, it is funded by a guaranteed income stream from the television license fee paid by viewers. However, average wages at the BBC are considerably higher than at other public sector organisations, most of which now face substantial government-instigated cutbacks. The chairman of the trust which administers the affairs of the BBC said "It is right that as a major public service organisation, the BBC shows leadership on this issue during difficult economic times."

Meanwhile, over at ITV, the planned sale of social networking and genealogy site FriendsReunited to DC Thomson's Brightsolid subsidiary has been put on hold following a decision by the UK's competition regulator that the deal merits investigation. Brightsolid already owns the FindMyPast and 1911Census genealogy services. "The proposed acquisition would see the three main providers of online genealogy services reduced to two," said a representative from the Office of Fair Trading, "and we are concerned this could lead to a reduction in choice or service for consumers." ITV was already expecting to make a substantial loss on the sale. Now, the deal will at best be postponed until April 2010, and possibly blocked altogether.

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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