First up in this week’s overview is the news that Hasbro – makers of Monopoly amongst – have signed a six-year deal with Universal to produce at least four films based on Hasbro brands. The first will be released in either 2010 or 2011 with one film per year after that. Candy Land, Battleship and Ouija are included in the partnership, but not Transformers and GI Joe as they are already licensed to Paramount…so, that should give marketers everywhere time enough to get their pitches right!
In other news, Fairtrade produce sales have more than doubled in the last three years according to analysts IGD. They predict that Fairtrade growth will run at about 11% over the next few years and state that, “ethical shopping is one of the big growth areas in the UK, with sales of ethically-branded products outstripping conventional products”. So, now you know…
In tandem with supermarkets selling increasing amounts of Fairtrade goods have been growing calls by big names such as Asda and Tesco (with the BMA also throwing their hat into the ring) for clampdowns on alcohol sales. We, like many others, are watching with interest to see what happens…and where the proposed shake-ups will leave the advertising and marketing industry.
Oh, and whilst we’re talking retail – figures announced in the past few days by the Office for National Statistics show that UK retail sales rose by 0/8% between December and January…some reasonably bright news in the current, largely dark, economic outlook.
Now…anyone fancy representing British Gas in their next advertising campaign? No? Hardly surprising…they’ve just announced massive profits up from £95 million in 2006 to a staggering £571 million in 2007. Strangely only the British Gas shareholders seem happy about that. Looks like they could use a good PR firm, after all, they’ve only just increased their charges by 15%.
And finally, the government is rumoured to be considering imposing legal sanctions on ISPs that don’t take steps to avoid internet piracy…we’ll be keeping a close eye on that fight given that it will have massive ramifications for the internet in general.