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Those of you enjoyed last week's Halo 3 trailer will also love this similarly combative new ad for Nike's range of US football gear, brought to us by Wieden & Kennedy and director David Fincher and featuring Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. It's a stunning film, brooding and visceral. And, who knew?, it even has an alien. Judging by this spot, in football, just as in war, there are no winners, just opposing combatants. Cheer up, Adrian, it's only a game.

This'll put the smile back on your face. BETC Euro RSCG has a great ad out for the new Peugeot 207. Lovely idea, perfect choice of music. A winner all-round.

Another mood piece, this time for South African investment house Allan Gray by local boutique King James. It's a brilliant idea, executed superbly with a mix of CG and prosthetic make-up effects. The subject is, of course, James Dean, killed in a car accident at the height of his fame in 1955. What would he have achieved had he survived?

And finally, prepare to get smiley and weepy over this new spot for Spanish car company Seat. We don't normally rate Seat's advertising, which too often resembles a bland Euro-pudding designed to be rolled out in every country across the region under a different voice track. This spot, though, is from Grey-affiliated Atletico Internacional and is absolutely delightful. Sniff.

In the news this past week: Advertisers

After several months of dithering over alternative arrangements for the future of its Opel and Vauxhall businesses in Europe, General Motors' board agreed to recommend the offer from Canadian car parts manufacturer Magna, financed by Russia's Sberbank and the German government. This was, after all, the original rescue deal negotiated by executives back in June for GM's ailing European subsidiary. However, over the following months, GM's non-executive board members began pushing for two alternative scenarios: sale to Belgian private equity house RHJ or even to keep hold of the business with assistance from other European governments. Their main concern was that the Magna deal effectively allows for the creation of a significant new global rival. In the end, however, the government of Germany, Opel's main base, refused to give its own support to any alternative plan. GM will transfer a 55% stake in Opel/Vauxhall to Magna and Sberbank, who have in turn structured a manufacturing alliance with Russian auto firm OAO Gaz. GM receives no financial consideration for the sale, but retains a 35% holding and the right to share Opel's technology and vehicle designs. The remaining 10% stake will be managed by an employees' trust. To satisfy some competition concerns, the newly independent company is permanently barred from establishing operations in the US and South Korea, and must wait until 2012 to set up in Canada and three years longer before it can enter China. The deal is expected to close at the end of November. In a separate development, Volkswagen and BMW, both of whom currently buy parts from Magna, said they were reviewing their arrangements in view of the Opel deal. "We as a group do not like it when our suppliers become our rivals," said VW chairman Ferdinand Piech.

Meanwhile, back home in the US, GM launched an aggressive new marketing campaign designed to highlight the quality and competitiveness of its vehicles. Under the slogan "May The Best Car Win" the ads draw explicit performance and price comparisons between GM vehicles and their German or Japanese counterparts, and in an unprecedented additional move GM is offering a 60-day money back guarantee on all new purchases. The only condition is that the vehicles must be returned with less than 4,000 miles on the clock. See the ad here.

Three of Japan's leading electronics companies agreed to merge their struggling handset subsidiaries to leapfrog Panasonic and Toshiba, currently #2 and #3 respectively, and take up second place behind local market leader Sharp. The new business combines the operations of NEC, Casio and Hitachi and will be known as NEC Casio Mobile Communications. NEC will have management control of the business, with a 66% shareholding. Combined market share for the three companies was around 16% in June 2009, compared to Sharp's dominant 23%. The move is likely to prompt some form of consolidation between Panasonic and Toshiba.

The Financial Times reported that the two biggest shareholders in Deutsche Telekom have been pressing the company to act to bolster flagging performance at its T-Mobile USA subsidiary. The German government still owns 32% of DT, while private equity group Blackstone hold around 5%. Prompted by news of the merger of T-Mobile UK with the local Orange business, the investors have apparently given the German telecoms giant nine months to turn the US business around as well. One option could be a deal with Sprint Nextel, also struggling in the jetstream of leaders AT&T and Verizon. A combined business would be around the same size as Verizon by customer numbers, but would also face significant challenges in merging different wireless technologies.

Royal Bank of Scotland was reported to be drawing up plans to relaunch Williams & Glyn's, a high street bank which was absorbed into the NatWest network in the 1980s. The move is designed to pre-empt possible EU legislation that would force RBS and Lloyds, the two banks which received financial support from the government during the credit crunch, to reduce their market share. By transferring branches into a new Williams & Glyn's network, RBS could then sell the business for a higher rate than if it were simply to sell off outlets piecemeal. For similar reasons, Lloyds recently reversed an earlier decision to close its Cheltenham & Gloucester branch network.

It's been a busy week in sports sponsorship, with several different advertisers changing or adding to their current arrangements. Carlsberg, which last week renewed its sponsorship of the England team and the FA Cup, said this week it would not continue as shirt sponsor for Liverpool when the current deal expires in July 2010. Liverpool isn't complaining. Immediately afterwards it announced an even more lucrative four-year deal with Standard Chartered Bank. Instead of the £8m a year being paid by Carlsberg, the new contract is said to be worth a lavish £80m over its four years, matching a similar arrangement between Manchester United and American financial services company Aon. Also this week, Mars followed in Carlsberg's footsteps as an official sponsor of the England football team and the FA. Separately Spain's Santander bank expanded its collection of Formula 1 racing deals, signing a new five-year contract with the Ferrari team. It already supports the British, Italian and German Grand Prix and the McLaren-Mercedes team. Online betting company Betfair signed a two-year deal to become the "official betting partner" of Spain's FC Barcelona. It has similar arrangements with other football teams including Manchester United.

In marketing appointments, Joachim Schmidt was named as the new head of sales & marketing at Mercedes-Benz, replacing Klaus Maier. Starbucks named Annie Young-Scrivner, a former marketer at PepsiCo's Quaker Foods, as its new chief marketing officer. Michelle Gass, previously SVP marketing & category with responsibility for brand partnerships and new products, was given a new role building up the company's secondary brand Seattle's Best. PepsiCo UK & Ireland chief Salman Amin moves to New York as EVP, sales & marketing for PepsiCo Americas Foods. Mars UK's pet foods marketing director Fiona Hughes is to become global marketing director for cat food brands, based in the company's European HQ in Brussels. Citigroup is looking for a chief marketing officer for its North American consumer division, reporting to divisional head Terri Dial.

In the news this past week: Agencies

Jim Marshall, long-serving executive director of Starcom MediaVest UK, is to leave the company after more than 20 years. He will shift to a part-time position with the agency for six months while he sets up his own consultancy business. Separately, Paul Briginshaw and Malcom Duffy, founder partners of London agency Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, are to leave at the end of the year to pursue opportunities outside advertising.

In account assignments, Kraft was reported by Brand Republic to be considering a consolidation of its European creative roster, which includes several agencies including JWT, Ogilvy and Euro RSCG. SCA has similar ideas regarding its Charmin and Velvet toilet tissue brands, currently housed at Publicis and Fallon. In the US, Applebee's restaurants shifted media from Starcom to Universal McCann. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

In a move which could provide a much-needed lifeline to UK commercial broadcasters struggling with plunging ad revenues, the British government is understood to be moving towards a suspension of the ban on paid-for product placements in TV programmes. Such a move could be worth up to £100m a year to ITV, Channel 4 and Five. Currently, the ban actually costs them money. ITV, for example, airs American Idol in the UK and is forced by regulations to digitally blur the Coca-Cola logos prominently visible on the judges drinks' mugs. However, the TV regulator ruled that the Contract Rights Renewal system, which effectively froze ITV's ad rates at 2003 levels and also obliges the company to reduce them on a ratchet basis as its audience share falls, must remain in place for the time being.

In a separate development, Channel 4's chief executive Andy Duncan announced his resignation and is to quit the company "within days". Finance director Anne Bulford will step into the breach on an interim basis until a fulltime successor can be found. A report in the FT suggested that his departure was the result of a loss of confidence by the board following the apparent failure of talks to merge Channel 4's digital subsidiaries with those of BBC Worldwide. Those long-running negotiations now appear to have stalled.

Despite the pain being felt across the US magazine industry, there are still some potentially lucrative niches for the right kind of publication. Or at least that's the view of sports and entertainment management firm IMG Worldwide. This week it launched a new pet title, Cesar's Way, as a joint venture with celebrity dog trainer Cesar Millan, best-known on American TV as the "Dog Whisperer". There will be two issues this year and six in 2010, and each will feature a blend of training tips and features on celebrity pet owners including Jennifer Aniston, Mariah Carey and Paris Hilton.

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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