By Stephen Foster on September 25, 2012
I believe it was Virgin Records who used to make a fortune out of those useless compilation records ‘the best pile of old tat in the UK – ever’ or some such. And Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg (also deputy prime minister of the coalition government) has a lot in common on first sight with [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, News, Politics, PR | Tagged david laws, Jeremy Thorpe, liberal democrats, Nick Clegg, pensioners, richard branson, Vince Cable, virgin
By Staff on June 18, 2012
Ajaz Ahmed, founder of digital agency giant AKQA is one of the co-authors of a new book Velocity, a best-selling guide to surviving and prospering in the digital age. Here he explains why their thinking is relevant to all kinds of companies, what independence means to him and why he wants AKQA to grow to [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, Finance, Media, News | Tagged Ajaz Ahmed, akqa, apple, independence, nike, red bull, Sir Richard Branson, Stefan Olander, velocity, virgin
By Paul Simons on April 17, 2012
Here in the UK one of the biggest advertising accounts is up for grabs, Tesco worth £100m+ annually. For readers outside the UK some very brief context. The global financial problems have hit the high street with a number of retailers experiencing big challenges. We have seen a number of familiar names go out of [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News, Research | Tagged advertising review, Argos, Bill nighy, brand personality, celebs, fading stars, m&S, maida vale, orbiting stars, Paul Simons, Paul Weller, rising stars, Sainsburys, Tesco, tesco plus, uk retailer, virgin, Waitrose, £100m+ budget
By Staff on November 24, 2011
It’s glamour all the way in the airline trade at the moment (apart from Michael O’Leary’s boring old Ryanair anyway) what with British Airways’ heroic propellor-driven pilots and the Virgin gals celebrating 25 years of Branson Air. And then we’ve the Pan Am series on the telly, celebrating the days when flying was, well, glamorous. [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged audi, british airways, Christina Aguilera, Denise Faye, gilbert & sullivan, India, indigo airlines, low-cost carrier, Michael O'Leary, modern major-general, pan am tv series, richard branson, ryanair, Steven Antim, the pirates of penzance, virgin, wieden+kennedy delhi
By Stephen Foster on November 17, 2011
Sir Richard Branson has wanted to get into UK banking for years and now, finally, he’s succeeded by agreeing to buy bailed-out northern-based bank Northern Rock from the UK government for £747m. It’s not clear yet if Rorthern Rock will become Virgin Bank or quite how much of the bank Virgin will own, given that [...]
Posted in Clients, Finance, News, Politics | Tagged brand branson, George Osborne, northern rock, Simon Hoggart, Sir Richard Branson, stagecoach, uk government, virgin, virgin money, virgin trains, west coast main line
By Paul Simons on September 14, 2011
I’m wrestling with a new assignment at the moment and I’m struggling with this basic issue: what’s the problem we are actually trying to solve? Over the years I’ve been in the same spot quite a few times and the time taken to figure out the real issue really is worth the effort and time [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged advertising, ariston, british airways, cheap flights, commercial reality, Dave Trott, emissions, ford, ggt, Greenpeace, marketing, Paul Simons, red mountain, right questions, search engine optimisation, seo, simons palmer, virgin
By Paul Simons on June 16, 2011
Some time ago one of the senior suits at Chiat Day was giving a speech where he said his mantra to account management was “Find out what the client wants, then find out what they need, then get them to want what they need”. Brilliant. But easier said than done. There has been some debate [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged advertising, buying great work, Carl Johnson, chiat day, Clients, lucky the dog, moreth>n, nike, ogilvy, Paul Simons, Playstation, rsa, simons palmer, Sir John Hegarty, tissue meetings, virgin
By Stephen Foster on June 8, 2011
Well the other broadcasters are certainly not very keen to pay for it, ITV rather rudely declining coalition government culture, media and sport secretary Jeremy Hunt’s plea to invest a reported ‘tens of millions’ in a new network of local TV stations. Channel 4 CEO David Abraham isn’t much keener either although his position is [...]
Posted in Finance, Media, News, Politics | Tagged advertising, BBC, c4, Channel 4, channel 6, culture media and sport, culture secretary, David Abraham, David Cameron, east end of london, freeview, itv, Jeremy Hunt, local TV network, online tv, prime minister, silicon valley, sky, virgin
By Stephen Foster on March 29, 2011
Set up her own marketing business according to a report in Marketing but precisely what kind of business she’s not saying (yet). Salway started at Virgin 15 years ago as a press officer for Virgin Cola which must have been quite an introduction to the Virgin brand as boss Richard Branson’s opportunistic bid to take [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, News | Tagged added value, Catherine Salway, clear, richard branson, virgin, virgin active, virgin cola, virgin megastores
By Paul Simons on February 26, 2011
In business it’s often difficult to see the wood for the trees. In the agency business the trees are often ‘business’ issues themselves, the wood is creative output. Let me put this into today’s context. Recently I’ve talked with a number of agency people, all operating in the first division of the advertising sector. The [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative | Tagged bbh, levis, nike, Paul Simons, rainey kelly campbell roalfe, resigning clients, richard branson, Robert Campbell, simons palmer clemmow & johnson, virgin, wrangler
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