First up Huntsworth boss Lord Chadlington (Peter Gummer as was) says he wanted to buy leading Chinese PR firm Blue Focus. But now BF, led by Oscar Zhao (left), has, in effect, turned the tables by buying 19.8 per cent of Chadlington’s firm for £36.5m, valuing it at a lofty £180m. This deal has a [...]
I learned today that Michael Manton, one of the founders of famous 1960s agency KMP, has died aged 86. Michael was an interesting character: intellectual and unyielding but able to embrace new things, as he did when he chaired the Association of Media Independents which challenged the UK’s IPA trade body when the serfs in [...]
Peter Scott’s UK marcoms contender Engine Group has been quiet of late as it struggles to find the right agency acquisition in the US but it’s also setting its eyes on Asia, where marcoms companies are making an increasing amount of their money. Scott has chosen Asian industry veteran David Liu to spearhead Engine’s growth [...]
Interpublic (IPG) is believed to be launching Rapport, its successful UK out of home specialist, in America as soon as its current contract with WPP’s Kinetic expires. The move follows hard on the heels on revelations (here) that Eric Newnham’s new out of home agency Talon is being backed by Omnicom Media Group. OMG’s interest [...]
Will Dentsu’s £3.2bn takeover of Aegis ever actually happen? Dentsu has been telling us for months that it’s only a matter of time – time needed to win regulatory approval in China, where Dentsu is desperate to expand and sees Aegis as a way of doing so. Now the Chinese seem to have thrown another [...]
The London media world is agog with speculation about what will former Kinetic boss Eric Newnham (left) and his out of home buying company Talon do next? Latest is that Talon is about to follow its win of the £150m Omnicom Media Group outdoor business from Posterscope with business from Havas Media (formerly Media Planning [...]
This video has surfaced on YouTube purporting to describe the reaction of Dentsu-owned Postercope to Talon’s win of OMG’s humungous UK outdoor buying business – £150m or so. Dentsu bought media-buying independent Aegis for £3.2m last year and Posterscope, its outdoor buying business which has carved up the global market with WPP’s Kinetic over the [...]
China and Japan aren’t always the best of pals (that’s enough serious political analysis for now) and Japanese marcoms giant Dentsu has therefore found it difficult to expand in its neighbour’s huge market. The traditional Dentsu model, providing absolutely everything including its own media channels, hasn’t worked very well anywhere else; other countries like to [...]
Todd Hansen (left), former president of Aegis-owned Posterscope in the US, will be breathing a big sigh of relief as his penalty for a $20m accounting fraud has resulted in a New York court sentence of just four months in jail, three years of supervised released and fines and restitution amounting to just over $400,000. [...]
OK, here we go: after a not very scientific analysis of the ruminations of Paul Simons, Giles Keeble, Jerry Judge, George Parker, Stuart Smith and myself we come to: Agency of the Year Wieden+Kennedy London. For lots of good stuff, TV, online, posters and print. The big test, for W+K London, as we’ve said before, [...]
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