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"They don't make 'em like that any more." Well, sometimes you know, they still do. The new ad for Mahou Premier Light beer by Spanish agency El Laboratorio recycles an idea first used more than 50 years ago by Fred Astaire in the movie Royal Wedding. The effect was brilliant then and it's still brilliant now. The main difference is that the new ad doubles the difficulty by having two performers instead of one. Don't know how it's done? Well not with computers. For Royal Wedding, director Stanley Donen had a revolving set built, then fixed the camera to the front of it so that it turned as the set did. All Astaire had to do was stay upright as the stage rotated around him. The Mahou ad is done in exactly the same way.

Israel makes its first ever appearance in our Ads of the Week spot with a charming spot for mobile service Pelephone by local independent Adler, Chomsky & Warshavsky. (And that definitely gets our vote for agency name of the week). This fluffy little spot reminded us of a live action version of those Coke "Happiness Factory" films. Delightful!

Leagas Delaney is responsible for the intriguing global campaign for Timberland Earthkeepers footwear. The latest spot treads (ho ho!) a fine line between humour and pathos, quite unlike most other ads of its type. As a result it's hard to know quite how to react emotionally to the spot - laugh or cry? - but it certainly sticks in the imagination. Altogether an impressive achievement. 

And finally, Publicis QMP in the Republic of Ireland has been developing a quirky campaign for No Nonsense, a low-cost car insurer. There are some amusing spots featuring a call centre operator (see here and here) but our particular preference is for this absurd viral spot. Bad language alert, by the way.

In the news this past week: Advertisers

After several weeks of gloom, global stock markets recovered strongly at the end of last week in the wake of signs that the current economic downturn may be slowing, and so far have held onto those gains . The initial surge was prompted by much needed good news from the financial sector. Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis reassured investors that his group had been profitable for the first two months of the year, and he expected to maintain that position for the year as a whole. He also stated that BofA would not need further financial assistance from the US government. A leaked internal memo from Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit presented a similar picture. Pandit told his staff "You have all done a very impressive job driving revenues and reducing our cost structure, and it is gratifying to see the results first hand." In an interview over the weekend, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke commented that he expects the US recession will probably end before the end of the  year. Also this week UK bank Barclays said it was planning to sell iShares, a subsidiary division which specialises in market-tracking investment funds. That announcement boosted Barclays' share price, but commentators expressed concern that the bank should want to sell off one of its fastest-growing divisions rather than accept financial assistance from the UK government.

Meanwhile, President Obama instructed the US Treasury to pursue "every single legal avenue" to recover $165m in end of year bonuses paid out to executives at insurance giant AIG. Even that company's chairman Edward Liddy urged employees to respond to the public outrage over the size of the payout and return at least half of their rewards. Some have already done so. The payouts fell due under the terms of executives' existing employment contracts, which were not directly linked to the catastrophic investments AIG made in financial derivatives. These effectively bankrupted the group, and it has only been saved from complete collapse by around $180bn in government financial assistance. The fuss over bonuses has been accompanied by a similar outcry regarding the destination of AIG's bailout cash, which will ultimately be paid for by American taxpayers. Far from being distributed within the US, large sums went to foreign banks to settle the insurer's debt obligations. Other amounts were paid to the very hedge funds who helped precipitate the current economic crisis by betting on a falling housing market. 

"Recession? What recession?" With so many companies reporting steep falls in sales and profits for 2008, it's always welcome to find a business that is weathering the storm. We try to highlight the heroes of the downturn when we can, but there were none to be found last week. This week, however, two companies demonstrated their resilience in the current environment. UK supermarket group Morrisons demonstrated the strength of its continuing turnaround with strong performance fro the year to Feb 1st 2009. Sales rose 12% to £14.5bn, and underlying profits climbed 13%. Like other retailers known for low prices but high quality, Morrisons has benefited significantly from the changing habits of British shoppers. 

But undoubtedly the most impressive figures of the week were delivered by China Mobile, that country's leading wireless operator, and the global #1 by subscribers. By the end of January, 2009  China Mobile provided connections to almost 464 million subscribers, an extraordinary number. As wireless usage continues to spread to the most distant corners of that vast country the group's revenues rose 16% to the equivalent of around $60bn, and net profits jumped 30% to around $16.5bn.

Elsewhere in China, competition regulators rejected Coca-Cola's $2.4bn takeover of leading local fruit juice manufacturer Huiyuan, claiming that the combination of the two companies would squeeze out smaller local producers. Huiyuan is the clear leader in the fresh fruit juice sector in China, with as much as 40% market share. Chinese consumers gave their widespread support to the regulators' decision, mainly for patriotic reasons. However other companies and their advisers were dismayed by the decision. One unnamed dealmaker told the Financial Times, "This is a daft ruling. Frankly, if Coke can't acquire a bloody juice company in China then we can kiss goodbye to other companies trying to do M&A there." 

Technology giant IBM is in negotiations to acquire smaller rival Sun Microsystems in a deal which could be valued at around $6.5bn. If it goes ahead, the combination of the two companies would greatly strengthen IBM's position in servers. Currently, it is the global #1 in servers, with just over 31% share of the market. However IBM's lead has come under intense pressure from HP, now close behind with almost 30% of the market. Sun is the ranked #4 with almost 11%, just behind third-placed Dell with almost 12%. After stellar growth during the boom years of the internet, Sun has struggled to maintain that performance over the last two years, largely because its position was undercut by cheaper machines from other suppliers. However, even if IBM and Sun can agree terms, the deal is likely to face intense scrutiny from competition regulators because of their combined dominance in Unix-based systems.

Wal-Mart announced plans to cater more directly to Hispanic customers in the US by trialling a new format. Two of its Neighborhood Market local stores are being rebranded as Supermercado de Walmart. The outlets are located in strongly Latino areas of Phoenix and Houston respectively. The revamped stores will feature Spanish signage and all staff will be bilingual. If the test proves successful, a wider rollout will follow.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Sara Lee Corporation is considering the sale of its household products division, mostly active in Continental Europe. Goldman Sachs has been appointed to contact potential buyers. Brands include body wash products Sanex, Badedas and Radox, Brylcreem hairstyling gel, Ambi-Pur air fresheners, Vapona insectides and Kiwi shoe care. Sara Lee has undergone a wholesale restructuring since 2000, selling off various divisions to focus on bakery products worldwide, coffee in Europe and cold meats in the US.

Matt Shattock, formerly a senior executive at Cadbury, was named as the new head of Beam Global Spirits & Wine, the drinks division of conglomerate Fortune Brands. He replaces Tom Flocco, who left the company last year.

In the news this past week: Agencies

Media and research group Aegis published financial results for 2008 this morning, the last of the global marketing services groups to do so. Revenues were up strongly, climbing 21% to £1.3bn, helped considerably by exchange rates. (The increase at constant rates was 10%). Pretax profits fell 5% (18% at constant rates) to £125m, mainly as a result of restructuring charges and goodwill impairment. Media operations accounted for 62% of revenues, or £824m, of which more than 71% was generated in the EMEA region. The net new business figure fell sharply to $922m, almost half the same figure for 2007, and a third of that for 2006.

According to Ad Age, the global media review announced last week by Nokia was prompted by a series of "heated discussions" between the handset maker and its current media agency MediaCom over fees. According to Ad Age, Nokia has been pushing to replace the current flat rate fee structure to one based on sales growth, but MediaCom declined to accept the new terms. Several large advertisers are changing the way they pay agencies in order to cut costs. This week, Anheuser-Busch InBev ended its relationship with long-established partner Goodby Silverstein. The brewer recently said that it would no longer keep agencies on a retainer but would agree separate fees for individual projects. 

WPP's branding and design agency Brand Union (previously Enterprise IG) is to strengthen its presence in the US by absorbing New York corporate communications agency Brouillard Communications, already part of WPP. "Brand Union is a brand that is strong in so many markets," said agency CEO Simon Bolton, "but not in the US. You can't be a significant branding company if you are not a player in North America."

According to industry blog Agency Spy, JWT's digital/direct network RMG:Connect is undergoing an abrupt makeover. Worldwide CEO Philip Greenfield and North American chief Mark Miller have both left the agency, which now falls under the control of JWT's newly appointed worldwide digital director, David Eastman.

In account assignments, Vodafone made some changes to its global roster. Independent Scholz & Friends was appointed to take over the creative account in Germany from JWT, and responsibility for global creative strategy was shifted out of Bartle Bogle Hegarty and into Team Vodafone, an alliance of different WPP agencies. BBH retains the creative account within the UK. Elsewhere, Coty reappointed OMD as its UK media agency after a shoot-out against WPP's fast-expanding Maxus network. Mindshare took over global media for InterContinental Hotels Group, including its Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands. LVMH called a review of US media, out of MediaCom. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

There was a change of leadership at Time Warner's troubled AOL subsidiary. In what is arguably the most promising news to emerge from that company in several years, Google ad sales and ecommerce chief Tim Armstrong was named as AOL's new chairman & CEO, replacing Randy Falco. AOL's president-COO Ron Grant also resigned, although his replacement has not yet been named. While at Google, Armstrong spearheaded the development of that company's hugely successful Ad Words and Ad Sense paid search programmes and has a reputation for building strong relationships with large advertising clients. He was replaced as head of Google's North American operations by Dennis Woodside, previously head of UK, Ireland and Benelux markets. Matt Brittin was named as the new head of Google UK.

NBC Universal's cable stand The Sci-Fi Channel launched a new brand identity this week. It has renamed itself Syfy, and adopted the new tagline 'Imagine Greater'. "While continuing to embrace our legacy and our core audience," said president Dave Howe, "we needed to cultivate a distinct point of view with a name that we could own that invites more people in and reflects our broader range of programming." However, media reaction to the rebranding was generally negative and occasionally derisive. Sci-fi geeks around the world were especially offended by the rebranding. "Sci-Fi Channel Changes Its Name To A Typo" shouted one enthusiasts' blog, while others went to town with jokes regarding confusion between the new name and the disease syphilis.

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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