The marketing build-up to this summer's Beijing Olympics has begun in earnest. Expect to see a flood of related ads over the coming months. Here's Together, a lovely little film by the TBWA\180 partnership for the Adidas-sponsored Chinese Olympics team. The cool animation, by the way,  is by Psyop, everyone's current favourite, best known for the various Coke "Happiness Factory" machine spots. 

Another nice new ad breaking this week in the UK is this spot for P&O Cruises, Shiver, by London shop MCBD. It's like a quick rundown of everywhere I'd like to have a holiday, and it certainly made me think twice about taking a cruise... But, I'm still convinced that you won't find anyone under 50 on one of those ships. 

Now here's an intriguing new campaign. Goldfish is a UK credit card brand which has changed hands several times in the last few years, passing through the hands of Centrica and LloydsTSB before finally ending up as the UK arm of America's Discover Financial Services. Grey London has launched an impressive campaign which avoids (and I mean completely avoids) the usual hard sell in favour of offbeat conceptual work. So conceptual in fact that you'd struggle to find a single mention of financial services. The most obvious element in the Goldfish marketing plan is the poster campaign currently adorning London and other cities, featuring creative contributions from various celebrities. Far more interesting is the accompanying collection of short films. We can't decide which one we prefer, but this is "Going To The Pub", a dream of mortality from comedian Rik Mayall. You should definitely also have a look at Sir Ranulph Fiennes' rather terrifying "Little Stroll". Try both, and then see the Goldfish website for more. Further proof that Grey can produce strong creative work, especially in Europe, when it turns its mind to it.

Finally, an ad for creativity itself. DraftFCB Hamburg is responsible for this indirect sales pitch for its own services. These two films will strike home with any marketer or creative who's ever had to subject his or her ideas to that most terrifying of beasts, the consumer focus group. This is Fire. See also Wheel, which is just as good. Don't bother with the accompanying website though, which is a big anti-climax.

In the news this past week: Advertisers

Bank of America announced plans to buy struggling US mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, one of the companies at the heart of the current US credit crisis. Countrywide has come close to bankruptcy because of lax lending standards which resulted in rocketing debt delinquencies. Bank of America is already America's biggest bank by far by customers, and overtook Citigroup by market capitalisation during 2007. This deal will propel BofA from the nation's 5th largest home lender to the clear #1. It is paying a bargain price of $4bn to acquire Countrywide's portfolio of around 9m home loans, which have a combined service value of around $1.5 trillion. However the purchase brings with it a number of significant challenges, not least restoring order to Countrywide's bloodstained loan book.

Two of the US banks hardest hit by the subprime credit squeeze made further substantial writedowns against their investments for 4Q. In its full-year financial results, Citigroup's net income for 2007 plunged from $21.5bn in 2006 to $3.5bn because of an additional $18.1bn charge against subprime investments and credit and loan delinquencies. It is also carrying an increased provision of another $16bn against future loan losses. However this was nothing compared to the dramatic figures unveiled by Merrill Lynch. That bank made a further $11.5bn writedown, on top of the $7.9bn it wrote off in September. As a result, it reported a net loss for the year of $7.8bn (compared to a $7.5bn profit in 2006). The group's full year revenues plunged from $33.8bn in 2006 to just $11.3bn because of provisions and write-downs.

Music group EMI stayed in the headlines because of the restructuring unveiled by new executive chairman Guy Hands. His comments late last year that some artists on EMI's books failed to work hard enough to promote their own albums had already ruffled feathers. However the departure of UK label boss Tony Wadsworth led to sharp rebukes from at least two of EMI's biggest selling artists, Robbie Williams and Coldplay, both of whom threatened to "go on strike" by refusing to deliver their new albums unless given reassurances over marketing support. Reports today suggest that the Rolling Stones are also getting ready to quit the label. Hands announced a dramatic reduction in EMI's workforce, and said he would make significant cuts to its roster of artists, almost a third of whom have never released an album for the company (and now probably never will). While Hands' actions earned widespread criticism from music industry insiders, there was a cautious welcome from financial experts, who broadly agree with his analysis of EMI's many faults. His plan to reduce the bloated workforce by 2,000 jobs, for example, will merely bring EMI into line with Warner Music, which has similar revenues. Prior to the layoffs, the company employed 19 middle managers, marketing executives and lawyers for every A&R talent scout, an absurd imbalance. Hands also revealed that EMI currently makes a loss on around 85% of all the new artists it signs; and spends an astonishing £25m every year simply to destroy its 20% oversupply of CDs which are returned unsold by retailers.

Sony Ericsson agreed a seven-figure four-year sponsorship deal with tennis star Maria Sharapova to become the handset manufacturer's first global brand ambassador.

A new consumer survey conducted by Verdict Research named department store John Lewis as the UK's favourite retailer. The annual Consumer Satisfaction survey measures customer satisfaction for all major UK retailers. This year John Lewis regained the top spot after losing it in 2006 to sister chain Waitrose. Also making the Top Ten were, in descending order, home furnishings store Dunelm, Amazon, Ikea, H&M, Play.com and Avon. The two biggest risers took up 9th and 10th place respectively. DIY store Wickes jumped 20 places from 29th last year, while Gap nudged into the Top Ten with a rise of 10 places. Other than Waitrose, no supermarket made the Top Ten, but in the food & grocery sector rankings, Aldi and Lidl were placed 2nd and 3rd. 

In the US, Wal-Mart announced plans to test new small-format grocery stores in Arizona under the Marketside sub-brand. The new stores will average around 20,000 sq ft in size, considerably smaller than any of Wal-Mart's existing formats, which range from 190,000 sq ft for a Supercenter to 35,000 sq ft for its Neighborhood Markets. The roll-out is being seen as the pilot for a possible defence against further expansion by Tesco, whose first 10,000 sq ft Fresh & Easy stores launched in California at the end of last year.

Preliminary annual figures for PC shipments confirmed HP's position as the new global #1 for 2007, with almost 19% market share. According to researcher IDC, Dell was #2 with just under 15% worldwide share. Dell retained the #1 spot in the US, but its market share slipped from over 31% to 28% while HP's rose from 21.5% to almost 24%. Acer moved into the effective #3 position globally and in the US as a result of its acquisitions of Gateway in the US and Packard Bell in Europe.

In the news this past week: Agencies

French group Havas announced the acquisition of UK media independent BLM. The former Booth Lockett Makin joins Havas's second string media planning and buying network Arena, and promptly rebranded this week as Arena BLM. It will continue to be run by founder Steve Booth, and will be the platform for further expansion by Arena into Northern Europe, the US and Australia.

The new breakaway shop formed by three senior managers from RKC&R/Y&R London opens next week under the name Adam & Eve. James Murphy, Ben Priest and David Golding left Y&R in June 2007. They were previously that agency's group CEO, creative director and planning director respectively. They are joined at the new shop by a fourth partner, Jon Forsyth, previously head of strategy at Naked. Adam & Eve has yet to sign its first account but is involved in several pitches.

Interpublic's hard-pressed Lowe network scored a much-needed global win with the capture of worldwide creative for Unilever's portfolio of "impulse" ice creams, including Magnum, Cornetto and Solero. DDB will take responsibility for take home brands such as Carte d'Or and Breyer's. Both accounts transfer from McCann. Elsewhere, Motorola transferred European creative from BBDO to O&M. Cadbury called a review of its media in France, currently held by Carat. Sony Ericsson confirmed it was moving global creative into McCann, but will retain Saatchi's for regional campaigns. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

Oprah Winfrey announced plans to start her own TV network in 2009, in a joint venture with Discovery Communications. The two partners will also inject the Oprah.com website and Discovery Health cable channel into the new venture. However the business, to be named OWN, won't be able to host her hit daytime chat show until at least 2011. CBS has sales rights for the self-produced show until then. Still a media phenomenon in the US, Oprah also lends her name to an enormously successful book club, a lifestyle magazine co-published by Hearst which sells 2.4m copies a month, and a talk show on XM Satellite Radio. 

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Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands