Thursday 2 April 2009

Why NatMags prefers French dressing

C'est tellement curieux. The magazine publishing business is puzzled by the decision to appoint an unknown Frenchman, Arnaud de Puyfontaine, as the new UK chief executive of the National Magazine Company. Not the least reason for their confusion was a widespread perception that the present incumbent, Duncan Edwards – now moving upstairs to president and chief executive of Hearst Magazines International – had been grooming his managing director Jessica Burley to take over.

Edwards and Burley were – managerially speaking – soul mates, sharing among other things a passion for spreadsheet analysis. That may reek of dullness, but it seemed to work for NatMags, so why look overseas for an alternative?

Well, there's no doubt that M. de Puyfontaine brings with him a genuine exoticism. Born in 1964, he's a graduate of the école supérieure de commerce, so very much a part of the French intellectual and business elite. Over the years he has, in typical haute école manner, put high-level contacts to good use in leveraging his way up the French establishment. He started  as a journalist on Le Figaro, but soon spotted the superior attractions of magazine publishing.

The British connection-in-waiting was Emap, or rather its French subsidiary, where he launched Emap Star and in July 1998 took over as chief executive from Kevin Hand – who at that point had been called back to London to be group ceo. When in 2006 a seriously weakened Emap was compelled to relinquish its French subsidiary, it was de Puyfontaine who handled the negotiations. The upshot was Emap France became a subsidiary of Mondadori, the Italian publishing house, but only after de Puyfontaine had parlayed his way onto the Mondadori board, as chief executive of the group's digital activities. But then, mid last year, he mysteriously quit  – settling instead for "senior advisor" to the head of Mondadori France.

The role of consigliere obviously becomes him, because in next to no time he was also head of a special committee looking into the future of the French newspaper industry, appointed on the personal say-so of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. It was the pay-off for a carefully cultivated friendship which dated back to the eighties when Sarkozy was the relatively unknown mayor of Neuilly. Never underestimate "le piston".

So, the question people are asking is why has such a big fish in France settled for such a small pond here in the UK?  Yes, all right: he will be in charge of such national treasures as Good Housekeeping, Cosmo, Harper's Bazaar and, er, Men's Health. Even so, it looks suspiciously as if there's another shoe waiting to drop. Perhaps NatMags' head of Europe in due course?

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Who's fooling whom, BMW?

Spot on. BMW advertising is such a finely tuned piece of engineering after WCRS' 30-year tenure of the account that even the car company's April Fool's Day jokes resonate the brand. In The Guardian today, The Ultimate Driving Machine boasts of its new "Magnetic Tow Technology - For once we're happy to be behind the competition". The idea being that BMW-patented super magnets allow the driver to lock on to the car in front, so saving fuel bills. "Why burn your fuel, when you can burn someone else's?" says the copy. Post-modern irony, or an unconscious revelation of the self-centred one-upmanship at the core of BMW's image?

Monday 30 March 2009

No crock of gold at end of Red Brick's rainbow

When was the last time you heard anything about Frank Lowe-inspired Red Brick Road - you know, the Tesco agency? I thought so: when it lost its only other account of note, the global Heineken business, to BBH a few months back.

Red Brick Road's inability to win new business after such a spectacular start back in 2006 means it is badly in need of an exit strategy. Which may well account for the following rumour. There's going to be a merger with WPP's JWT some time in the summer. The only real casualty will be JWT's B&Q account. There, that's it.

It's quite an attractive rumour in its way. JWT, which has experienced a "recovery of sorts" following managing director Alison Burns' departure is still weak on top management, the problem being the idiosyncratic personality of JWT Europe executive chairman Toby Hoare. Who better to up the ante than one of London's best managers? Yes, step forward Red Brick Road ceo Paul Hammersley. Add to that the prize of Tesco, which JWT narrowly failed to lure a few years back when it was looking promiscuous at Lowe, and the idea seems juicier still.

There's only one problem. The rumour isn't true. What is true is that 20% stakeholder Sir Frank would like to get out and that he has held intermittent talks with WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell. These talks have considered several scenarios. One was to poach the Tesco media account from Initiative and place it in a WPP-sponsored outlet, probably MindShare. That at least was the WPP angle. Sir Frank had other ideas, such as a joint media venture with WPP in which Red Brick Road would hold a 50% stake. No dice with Sir Martin, it seems. And when finally  the Initiative account did come up for review last year, well it just stayed put. There have also been whispers of  'doing something' with Johnny Hornby's CHI, already part-owned by WPP, but this one was stillborn on the drawing board.

WPP now seems to have given up on any kind of a deal. But that doesn't meant Red Brick Road's strategic problem has gone away. Nor has it prevented the agency's executives from spinning imaginative fantasies about solving it.