By Stuart Smith on December 3, 2012
My eye recently alighted upon the following headline in Marketing magazine: “Marketing ‘to blame’ for lack of trust in banks”. The article went on to say: “Senior banking executives have argued that marketing is to blame for the breakdown of consumer trust in financial services brands.” Extraordinary. Bank officials in self-inculpation shock. I read on, [...]
Posted in Analysis, Clients, Finance, News, PR | Tagged banks, barclays, brands, David Weldon, marketing, marketingsociety conference, Richard Ricci, Vodafone
By Stuart Smith on November 1, 2012
Tonight’s the night. The night, that is, when we finally discover who has won the much-uncoveted title of Bigot of the Year at the Stonewall annual awards. Stonewall being a charity dedicated to promoting the civil rights of gays, lesbians and bisexuals, it requires little to imagine what kind of bigot might qualify for this [...]
Posted in Clients, Politics, PR | Tagged barclays, Bigot of the Year, Coutts, Mark McLane, Stonewall, Stonewall annual awards
By Stuart Smith on August 28, 2012
Which brands make us most angry? Yes, you guessed correctly. The big ones that rip us off, starve us of mortgage funds, pilfer our savings and behave with amoral disregard for everyone’s interest but their own. Anything, in short, that ends with the word “Bank”. But come, let’s be a bit more specific. How about [...]
Posted in Clients, Finance, News, PR, Research | Tagged banks, barclays, johnny fearless, lloyds, McDonalds, Nestle, Royal Bank of Scotland, survey, YouGov
By Paul Simons on July 30, 2012
On Saturday I witnessed one of those magnificent moments that seem so typically British. I found a spot on the route for the Olympic men’s road race close to the finish at the bottom of Hyde Park. As the tail end Charlies were coming around the corner in dribs and drabs there was a sudden [...]
Posted in Clients, Creative, Media, Politics, PR | Tagged barclays, boris bikes, Boris Johnson, mayor of london, olympics, transport for london
By Stephen Foster on July 17, 2012
You have to feel for those poor bankers, being asked to justify their zillion pound bonuses when confronted with the minor inconveniences they’ve caused that have impoverished most of the Western World (apart from them, of course). And Barclays is in the frame for its role in the Libor interest rate fixing scandal. Barclays has [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Finance, News, PR | Tagged barclays, bbh, bus shelter ad, libor rate, rate-fixing scandal
By Stephen Foster on July 4, 2012
The short answer is no. Newly defenestrated Barclays CEO Bob Diamond (left) toed the politic line today in front of a House of Commons committee, saying that his bank’s fibs about the Libor rate (the rate at which banks lend to each other) was all about ‘rogue’ traders (them again) and nothing to do with [...]
Posted in Finance, News, Politics | Tagged 2008 banking crisis, Alastair Darling, bank of england, barclays, Bob Diamond, libor rate, Marcus Agius
By Stuart Smith on July 4, 2012
This week, the US Justice Department fined a well-known multinational $3bn (£2bn) for serial corporate malpractice. And –in the manner of a suspended criminal sentence – imposed on company managers up to its chief executive stringent measures for slashing their pay and bonuses should further illegal activity come to light. Another bank getting the Barclays [...]
Posted in Clients, Finance, News, Politics, Research | Tagged $3bn fine, barclays, Bob Diamond, corruption, drugs market, glaxosmithklein, gsk, Jean-Pierre Garnier, medical market, sir andrew Whitty, us legislators
By Stuart Smith on July 4, 2012
The Premier League just doesn’t get it, does it? The world is crashing around Barclays’ ears, its chief executive Bob Diamond has just been forced to step down by the Governor of the Bank of England, its chairman Marcus Agius will be exiting in the coming months, and Bob’s top team of investment bankers will [...]
Posted in Clients, Finance, Media, News, PR | Tagged barclays, Bob Diamond, Premier League, scandal, sponsorship deal, Wayne Rooney
By Paul Simons on July 3, 2012
One of my hobby horses is the importance of brand management at the top of any organisation; it is, in my opinion, one of the key jobs any CEO should be most concerned about. The breaking news today is that Bob Diamond (left) has fallen on his sword and with immediate effect stood down as [...]
Posted in Clients, Finance, News, PR | Tagged barclays, Bod Diamond, brand manager, brand value, ceo, Chris Deering, Paul Simons, Playstation, reputation, uk banks
By Stuart Smith on June 28, 2012
A lot of people are accusing Barclays Bank and its chief executive Bob Diamond of racketeering. Acting like white collar gangsters, in other words. They say the bank and its principal directors colluded in serial distortion of the interbank rate, Libor. What this means in plain English is that they beggared us – the saps [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, Finance, News | Tagged barclays, Bob Diamond, leagas delaney ad, libor rate, Martin Taylor, scandal, £290m fine
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