Agencies

There were encouraging sounds from Advertising Week Europe last month about brand purpose. Not least from Paul Polman, the former Unilever CEO, who called on advertisers to “bring the humanity back” and argued “we’re in such a rat race… we’ve ...

Out of Home media planning and buying company Talon Outdoor has launched a new global OOH network Plexus in response to its own growth and the changing global landscape of OOH. The network links 20 offices across more than 75 ...

Publicis has confirmed that it is mulling a bid for Alliance Data Systems’ Epsilon marketing unit, valued at around $5bn. Goldman Sachs with private equity outfit Advent is also in the frame. US-based Epsilon uses data to help its clients ...

Mother’s Day’s come and gone (yesterday) but knife crime in London remains a pressing issue with heaven knows how many young people losing their lives. Is anyone doing anything about it? The Government keeps saying that the dramatic reduction in ...

West Midlands Trains, which you probably haven’t heard of unless you live there, is setting out on the bold task of becoming “the UK’s most loved train company.” This is setting the bar either very high or low: does anyone ...

Lots of good TV ads in March (to confound the data mongers.) First up, Mother ventures into ‘Chicken Town’ for KFC. Ogilvy finds some form for Sipsmith. Heimat is pleasingly bonkers for Hornbach (as ever.) Missed this one: a cast ...

Troubled retailer Marks & Spencer (most of them are pretty troubled these days as online shopping lays waste the UK high street) has sprung a surprise by appointing specialist agency ODD to handle its clothing and home account. The business ...

WPP’s auction of some or all of research arm Kantar kicks off in April with Goldman Sachs in the auctioneer’s chair, according to Reuters. Bankers are lining up to to £2.5bn of debt finance for some lucky buyer. Kantar has ...

Mars Petcare is continuing its “Resistance is futile” campaign through AMV BBDO, this time with a faux French crooner hymning, well, his cat it seems. No pussy jokes mercifully (bet there was in one of the original scripts.) Petfood ads ...