February 07, 1994
Saatchi & Saatchi Co. Chief Executive Charlie Scott, aggressively seeking to bolster the network, is orchestrating agency consolidations while pondering a possible deal with France's cash-strapped BDDP Group. As Saatchi-owned Backer Spielvogel Bates Worldwide moved last week to absorb McCaffrey & McCall, a New York-based agency with about $100 mi...
February 07, 1994
Sears, Roebuck & Co. has scored a coup by turning its sponsorship of rock star Phil Collins' concert tour into a high-profileadvertising play during the Winter Olympics, which start this week.
February 07, 1994
Shoot it, pass it, do whatever you like with the basketball, Shaquille O'Neal-just think twice before you dunk it. That's the advice being offered to the second-year National Basketball Association star by sports writers and even NBA marketingofficials, who have taken exception to the depiction of dunking in Mr. O'Neal's marketing efforts. Critic...
February 07, 1994
CHICAGO-Celestial Seasonings and former agency Tatham Euro RSCG have settled out of court a lawsuit in which Tatham accused the herbal tea marketer of violating a contract with the shop. Tatham filed the suit in U.S. District Court in November after being fired by Celestial Seasonings. The Boulder, Colo.-based marketer dismissed Tatham just wee...
February 07, 1994
WASHINGTON-The broadcast and cable TV industries last week satisfied the violence concerns of their chief legislative nemesis but must still contend with a laundry list of proposals aimed at cleansing violent programming. By agreeing to independent monitoring of their programs for violence, the four broadcast networks and most cable programmers co...
February 07, 1994
U.S. companies are ready to rush into the lucrative Vietnamese market now that President Clinton has lifted the 19-year trade embargo against the Southeast Asian country. Dozens of major corporations including Coca-Cola Co., Pespi-Cola Co., Procter & Gamble Co., Boeing Co., Microsoft Corp. and Caterpillar have already laid the groundwork to enter ...
February 07, 1994
Burnett forms group to study interactive Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, is establishing an Interactive Marketing Group to help clients identify strategies and opportunities in interactive media and marketing. The group is an outgrowth of an interactive task force Burnett formed last year and reiterates the agency's aggressive commitment to interactive...
February 07, 1994
NEW YORK-The Chusok and the Fiesta Island festivals may seem obscure to some, but savvy ethnic marketers know these are annual highlights in the Korean and Filipino communities. Marketers that want to get ahead and stay ahead of rapidly shifting demographics need to go wider and deeper with their efforts, said speakers at a conference on promotion...
February 07, 1994
Pity today's new-product manager. Getting a new product-and particularly a new brand-into a supermarket these days is akin to running an obstacle course, only more draining. New-product ideas confront sparse r&d budgets, nervous bureaucrats and tightly allocated marketing dollars. Even if an idea proves it has a market, it may never make it out ...
February 07, 1994
A drought in third-quarter 1993 ad spending by the nation's leading megabrands may have turned the year into a yawn for the nation's media.
February 07, 1994
Monsters of the Gridiron," Coca- Cola Co.'s NFL-themed interactive 800-number promotion, may have netted 36 million calls, but in the process sacrificed database-gathering opportunities. Coca-Cola linked with Sprint Telemedia and the National Football League last fall for a Halloween-theme tie-in promotion. Twenty-nine NFL players recorded voice m...
February 07, 1994
For the first time since Arbitron Co. abandoned the TV ratings business last year, Nielsen Media Research may have some new competition: its three biggest clients. The Big 3 networks and the National Association of Broadcasters last week said they are developing a new, state-of-the-art ratings panel that will serve as a laboratory to evaluate chan...
February 07, 1994
Add three more names to the list of companies trying to carve out a niche in the crowded credit card market. Bank One and Mellon Bank are coming out with new cards, while Dean Witter, Discover & Co. is teaming up with NationsBank to market the authoritatively named Prime Option MasterCard. Coming into an already busy field, with players that incl...
February 07, 1994
"Last night, Lisa Watson got higher than she's ever been," the spot's voice-over says, showing blurred pictures of a girl. It continues, as Lisa comes into focus, completing a gymnastics dismount: "And the only thing she took was first place." The spot, from Waring & LaRosa, New York, is part of a new public service campaign breaking today from th...
February 07, 1994
CBS for two weeks has been skating around the question of which of two Olympic promotional spots to air. Both feature top women figure skaters, including Nancy Kerrigan. One spot includes Tonya Harding; the other does not. Last week, the network decided to put both on ice. The decision, CBS claims, was made not out of any concern that the networ...
February 07, 1994
He was speaker of the U.S. House for 10 years, the longest continuous reign of any speaker in history. But many Americans better remember Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. as the man who popped out of the suitcase or the white-haired guy in the American Express ads. The Massachusetts Democrat spent more than 50 years in government service before retirin...
February 07, 1994
Rank Total measured ad spending Rank Total measured ad spending 1993 Brand, product, service & parent company 1993 1992 % chg 1993 Brand, product, service & parent company 1993 1992 % chg 1 Sears stores, Sears, Roebuck & Co. $373,644.2 $363,356.6 2.8 2 AT&T telephone svcs, AT&T...
