By casting his lot with Lord Hollick he apparently believed he could safeguard the Express titles even turn them around after a
By casting his lot with Lord Hollick, he apparently believed he could safeguard the Express titles, even turn them around after a decade of under-management for which he must ultimately take the blame. He ought to have thought more deeply about Lord Hollick’s likely ambitions, and read more carefully the Labour peer’s record in business.From a standing start, Lord Hollick has built MAI into one of the country’s leading media companies. His two television licence holders, Anglia and Meridian, are profitable and popular, while the company’s big stake in the new Channel 5 service will give it a national TV presence for the first time.That said, Lord Stevens himself is a formidable corporate player and cannot be counted out. He may be second fiddle to Lord Hollick, but he knows a solo tune or two.So what do recent developments mean to the future of the Express titles? For a start, it appears that the newspapers are going to get real support from the parent company. Lord Hollick is loath to throw too much money into promotion until he thinks the product is right, but there is every expectation that the revamped newspapers will get marketing support in the end.Both titles look much sharper under new editorial management. The Sunday’s new broadsheet sports section is handsome and comprehensive, while both papers have managed to produce exclusives. Both are also proving much more adept at trumpeting their successes, a favourite new form of promotion on Fleet Street.But while other journalists may notice these changes, it isn’t clear that potential new readers are aware.
If circulation declines of recent years are to be reversed, the Express titles will have to begin to poach readers from the Mail, arguably the best mid-market newspaper in Britain (ie, “best” as in most confident, robust and self-assured; let us pass over in silence the titles’ editorial content and analysis).The initial reports on circulation are not hopeful. The new sports section allowed the Sunday Express to gain about 20,000 readers in its first week But that dropped off to maybe 5,000 this past weekend. The Daily Express has seen its circulation stabilise, but that may have more to do with the demise of Today than with the new format.Newspapers are devilishly difficult to make over. Successful relaunches are few and far between, and inevitably take considerable time.
Stephen Grabiner’s decision to join Lord Hollick’s team suggests at least one senior executive thinks it can be done. But most industry observers believe the odds are far from encouraging. You can bet that Lord Hollick would be happy to sell the titles if the right offer came along. Indeed, there was speculation from the very start of the United-MAI “partnership” that Lord Hollick would push to sell the titles in order to concentrate on broadcasting. You can also be sure he will not plough on indefinitely if the results don’t warrant the investment..
In the good old days, Happiness was a Cigar called Hamlet, Heineken refreshed the parts others failed to reach and Beanz Meanz Heinz. Or do I mean meant? Today’s advertising slogans are staccato by comparison: Just do it You’ve been Tango’d It could be YOU Proof, some fear, of the demise of the copywriter’s craft. “Advertising reflects what’s going on around it,” says Tim Mellors, creative director at Mellors Reay & Partners. “For instance, the wall-to-wall visuals of MTV, psychedelic club imagery and the distressed design of many dance magazines.” While this has enhanced visual imagery, Mellors points to a definitedownside: “Slogans are often seen as corny and unsophisticated. The undue emphasis on visuals is often at the expense of ideas.”
A new generation of British advertising creatives stand accused by their peers of producing incomprehensible and unmemorable ads, of allowing style to triumph over substance.Take Peugeot’s Search for the Hero commercial. Striking film, catchy song – but which car was it again? Or Grolsch’s new ad, a roller-coaster of subliminal images cutting, in the blink of an eye, from lightning to polar bear to firestorm to shark. Or the black-eyed, silver man cavorting with hags in a desert to sell us Dunlop tyres? Just some of the growing number of advertisers who, like the grand masters Silk Cut and Benetton, have adopted the purely visual as house style.Of course there are exceptions, such as the new campaign from Guinness.
