Adbrands Weekly Update returned to work this week after its extended seasonal break with bleary eyes, rumpled hair and a strange taste in its mouth. It's been a slow start to the year in terms of interesting new ads, but one of the highlights of the first 10 days has been this Euro RSCG ad for EDF Energy (top left), made entirely from recycled film clips. Nice idea, and neatly done. We especially liked the juxtaposition of the line "It's not that easy being green" with a image from an Incredible Hulk comic. 

Here's another interesting idea: two different ads for two different products both running at the same time (top right). You'll already be aware of HP's "Personal" series by Goodby Silverstein, in which various celebrities talk about the cool uses to which they put their HP computers. Here's the Serena Williams Personal ad, interwoven with a trailer for new Fox sci-fi thriller Jumper, which features Hayden Christiansen as a guy able to teleport himself from one place to another, including into Serena's HP spot. Media agency ZenithOptimedia handle both accounts.

The demise of singer Robert Goulet late last year left Emerald Nuts snacks without a spokesperson. Goulet featured in Emerald's 2007 Super Bowl ad as the mysterious figure who messes with your stuff if you fall asleep at around 3pm as a result of a dip in your blood sugar. The new campaign (Goodby Silverstein again) is even more off the wall. Now you could be at risk from the Swiss Family Robinson or even, as here, "the Addicted To Love girls (above left) who try to make you one of them". A brief note to anyone under 25 - these girls originally featured in the celebrated video for Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love single from way back in the 80s. Don't look too bad for their age, do they? You can see the Swiss Family Robinson version here, and the original Robert Goulet spot here.

I'm not sure how we missed this great ad (above right) from Saatchi & Saatchi New York last year for Procter & Gamble's Tide stain-removing pen. It featured in several round-ups of the best ads of the year. An interviewer has trouble concentrating on the replies of a new jobseeker because he is constantly distracted by the irritating stain on the applicant's shirt. 

Finally, a superb piece of film that isn't an ad at all, but deserves to win its creator a prize for perseverance as well as a job in the industry. Noah Kalina has taken a picture of himself everyday for six years- a total of 2,356 images - and then animated the results to produce this fascinating and hypnotic film. Wonderful. Love the hair, by the way, Noah.

In the news this past week: Advertisers

It looks as if 2008 could be the year in which auto manufacturers from developing markets break through on the global stage. Tata Motors of India, mainly known as a maker of low-end cars and trucks, was confirmed by Ford as the front-runner in bidding for the prestigious Jaguar and Land Rover car marques, although the US group is also continuing talks with at least two other possible bidders. The news was greeted with a certain amount of dismay by some Jaguar and Land Rover dealers, who highlighted Tata's hitherto low quality and customer satisfaction rankings. The development coincides with Tata's launch this week of its cheapest-ever vehicle. Priced at the equivalent of just $2,500, the new Tata Nano is designed to extend car ownership to even the most modest of Indian households. Separately, in a surprising but upbeat coda to the collapse of UK auto manufacturer MG Rover two years ago, the MG and Rover brands have in effect been reunited by the acquisition of Nanjing Automobile of China (which acquired the MG brand as well as the company's UK manufacturing base) by larger rival SAIC (which had itself acquired rights to some Rover designs). The merger of SAIC and Nanjing not only creates a new and even stronger national automotive champion for China, but also provides SAIC with its first major manufacturing base in the West. SAIC is China's leading carmaker, and operates JVs there with both General Motors and Volkswagen.

In the US, Toyota overtook Ford to become the country's second-biggest auto manufacturer, behind GM. Toyota revealed that it sold 2.62m cars and trucks in the US in 2007, up almost 3%, bolstered by a near-70% increase in sales of the hybrid Prius model. Ford's sales fell 12% to 2.57 vehicles, while GM reported a 6% slump to 3.82m. Despite growth in international markets, GM is expected to slip behind Toyota in global sales when those figures are published later this month.

McDonald's announced plans to make a major assault on Starbucks by installing coffee bars in virtually all of its US outlets, each with its own barista serving a selection of premium drinks including cappuccinos, lattes, mochas and a rival to Starbucks' Frappuccino, the Frappe. The Seattle java specialist, whose growth began to slow last year, stepped up to the challenge by reappointing founder Howard Schultz as CEO, in place of Jim Donald. 

Europe's two biggest airline groups continued to expand their presence. Lufthansa of Germany surprised observers by taking a strategic 19% investment holding in US regional carrier JetBlue. Meanwhile Air France-KLM, already the world's biggest airline group by revenues, was named as the preferred bidder for struggling Italian carrier Alitalia, although a final decision on any sale must still be ratified by the Italian government. Air France-KLM also snapped up Belgian airline VLM over the holiday period, trumping rival negotiations by British Airways. In addition to its regional services in Belgium, VLM is the biggest single carrier out of London's City airport. Raising the stakes against Air France-KLM, BA confirmed plans for the launch of an offshoot service, to be known as OpenSkies, which will fly from both Brussels and Paris to New York from summer 2008.

As a result of evidence of declining beer consumption in its main European markets, brewer Scottish & Newcastle has been under some pressure from shareholders to look more favourably on the break-up bid submitted last year by Carlsberg and Heineken. They raised their offer price again today, but said they would not proceed without a recommendation from S&N's board. The new bid was again spurned by the UK group. Regulators have given Carlsberg and Heineken until January 21 to agree a deal or walk away.

Vivendi is consolidating its position as the main rival to France Telecom in local telecommunications. The group already controls #2 mobile service SFR (currently a joint venture with Vodafone) and has now agreed to pay around E4.5bn to take full control of Neuf Cegetel, the challenger mobile, fixed line and broadband service in which it already had a 40% holding. 

Viacom's Paramount division was the champion movie studio of 2007 for the first time in more than a decade. Key to its success was the contribution of DreamWorks, whose Shrek The Third and Transformers were respectively the #'2 and #3 movies at the US box office, grossing over $630m between them. Warner Bros was the #2 studio because of the runaway success of swords and sandals epic 300, as well as Harry Potter and current blockbuster I Am Legend. Sony's Spider-Man 3 was the #1 movie for the year but poor performance from that studio's other releases left it struggling in 4th place overall.

In the music business, US album unit sales fell by 15% last year, despite a sharp increase in sales of digital tracks. According to Nielsen SoundScan tracking, a total of 500.5m albums were purchased across all formats, and the number of digital tracks jumped 45% to over 844m. The single best-selling album was Josh Groban's Christmas-themed Noel, with sales of 3.7m units, followed by the High School Musical soundtrack with 2.9m units. Universal Music remained the US #1 with almost 32% market share, followed by Sony BMG with just under 25%. Universal performed even more strongly in the UK, notching up almost 50% share as a result of the success of artists including Amy Winehouse and Mika. Local champion EMI on the other hand delivered an abysmal performance, with its market share slumping from around 20% in 2005 to just 9%. No new album by an EMI artist even made the top 50 sellers of the year. 

The bruising war between Sony and Toshiba over next-generation DVD formats could be coming to an end. Warner, which controls what is now the world's single biggest movie library, transferred its allegiance from Toshiba's HD-DVD technology to Sony's Blu-Ray, prompting a similar shift by Paramount. HD-DVD's last remaining champion is Universal Studios, with the support of Microsoft, but the shift by Warner and Paramount to a group which already includes all the other major studios is expected to tip the balance in favour of Blu-Ray. 

In the news this past week: Agencies

Trade papers Campaign, Marketing and Adweek named their selections of best agencies for 2007. In the UK, Fallon London was a shoo-in as Campaign's Agency of the Year as a result of a staggeringly successful 12 months. Other honourees were Mediaedge:CIA (media agency), OgilvyOne (direct agency), Dare (digital agency), BBDO (advertising network), and Carat (media network). Marketing magazine selected AMV BBDO as its Creative Agency of the Year, and Kitcatt Nohr for Direct, but also handed prizes to Mediaedge:CIA London and Dare in the media and digital categories.. In the US, Adweek selected Goodby Silverstein as US Agency and Wieden + Kennedy as Global Agency.

Industry legend Phil Dusenberry, formerly chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO North America, died at the end of the year aged 71 after a year-long battle with lung cancer. His 2005 memoir Then We Set His Hair On Fire (now available as One Great Insight Is Worth A Thousand Good Ideas) is an entertaining account of his long and illustrious career at BBDO. The book's original title refers to the infamous incident which occurred during the making of an ad for Pepsi with Michael Jackson, in which lacquer applied to the singer's hair caught light under the studio lights with near-disastrous results. 

Some changes at the top of important agencies: Jean-Marie Dru passed over the role of CEO of TBWA Worldwide to group president Tom Carroll, but steps up to become chairman. Lee Clow, TBWA's long-serving chairman & chief creative officer, adopted the new title of global director of media arts. At Bartle Bogle Hegarty, co-founder Nigel Bogle has passed the role of group CEO to Simon Sherwood, previously group COO. He is replaced in the latter role by Gwyn Jones.

The rollout of Interpublic's new Rivet marketing services network continues. The group announced the rebranding of St Louis sales promotion agency Zipatoni and Toronto's FCB Direct under the Rivet name as of January 1st 2008.

GlaxoSmithKline is consolidating its US media account with Mediacom. Most buying was already handled by the WPP subsidiary, but some planning assignments were held by other agencies including MPG and OMD. Those duties will transfer to Mediacom during 2Q 2008. Mediacom also picked up global responsibility for Dell's media. In France, L'Oreal is transferring responsibility for local media buying to ZenithOptimedia. That business was previously handled by an inhouse team, most of whom will join the Publicis-owned network. ZenithOptimedia already handles media for L'Oreal in most other European markets, as well as planning in France. Another Publicis unit, Starcom, picked up the consolidated business of UK telecoms giant BT. Hyundai and Kia handed US media to Initiative, a rare and much needed big win for Interpublic's struggling media network. Visa reappointed OMD to Asian and US media; a decision of European media is expected soon. Pernod Ricard reappointed Carat and Vizeum in Europe. 

In creative, Sony Ericsson was reported by Campaign to be planning to transfer its creative business in Europe from Saatchi & Saatchi to McCann Erickson. US anti-smoking organisation American Legacy consolidated its creative account at Arnold Worldwide. Previously the account was split between Arnold and Crispin Porter & Bogusky. However Arnold has lost shoe company Timberland. Hyundai Motors appointed Mother to a pan-European creative assignment, and US telecoms carrier Qwest appointed DraftFCB. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a dramatic shake-up of the country's state-owned television network, France Televisions. Currently, that business generates around 40% of its income from advertising, and the rest from a licence fee, but Sarkozy says he wants to scrap this model. Under the new plan, France Televisions would no longer carry any advertising, bringing it into line with other European public service broadcasters such as the UK's BBC. The plan assumes that advertisers will simply transfer spend into existing commercial stations such as TF1 and M6, who would in turn be charged an increased levy on their own ad revenues to fund France Televisions. A new tax would also be raised on the turnover of internet and mobile phone operators. However, reaction to the proposed reforms has been mixed. Although the plan is designed to boost the revenues of the private sector while also streamlining the public service remit of state television, some observers predicted that the opposite would in fact take place, leading to reduced programme budgets at France Televisions as well as a reduction in overall advertising spend. 

Discovery Communications, the US-based media group which controls the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and other cable strands, is expected to go public during 2008. Currently it is privately owned, with its shares split between John Malone's Liberty Media Group and Advance/Newhouse Communications (also parent to Conde Nast Magazines). The two partners have now agreed to transfer their holdings into a new public company. Meanwhile in Europe, News Corporation extended its influence across the continent by acquiring a 15% holding in Germany's market-leading pay TV platform, Premiere.

In a reversal of a decision announced last month to carry on as a focused business-to-business publisher, EMAP will now instead be acquired by Guardian Media Group, publisher of The Guardian newspaper, and private equity investor Apax. The company, which is likely to drop the EMAP name, is expected to operate as a separate entity along similar lines to Trader Media, the Auto Trader business already jointly owned by GMG and Apax. EMAP's substantial consumer publishing and radio divisions were acquired by H Bauer last month.

Microsoft sealed a five-year $500m deal to be the exclusive external supplier of advertising on all 300 or so web sites owned by US media giant Viacom, which will also adopt the software giant's newly acquired Atlas ad-serving technology. In addition, Viacom's MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures divisions will supply audio and video content to Microsoft's web portfolio. The deal is designed to strengthen both companies' resources in their tussle with Google. The search giant has become Microsoft's most significant competitor in online services, and Viacom has an outstanding lawsuit in place against Google for what it alleges are copyright infringements by subsidiary YouTube. Prior to this deal with Microsoft, most of Viacom's online ad inventory was routed through DoubleClick, whose acquisition by Google was approved by US regulators just before Christmas. 

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See you next year!


Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands