Client Newswrap: silent deliveries and spot the difference

Retailers

Waitrose is taking full advantage of Valentine’s Day with a print campaign promoting its range of themed offers.

Tesco and Asda have been criticised by the Mail on Sunday for selling books and CDs with the F-word in their titles. The items were available on the companies’ websites, where they were found to be easily accessible to children. The article said the products appeared even if inoffensive words from their titles were entered into the sites’ search engines, with the potential to shock and offend shoppers.

Discount retailer Netto UK has appointed Charles Kay as its new managing director. Kay is the former European trading director for AMS Sourcing, an international buying group which includes Netto’s parent company.

Marks & Spencer is to display a range of highlights from its past at the University of Leeds, as it celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. The company will move pieces of its extensive archive collection from London for the exhibition.

Sainsbury’s has told its drivers to keep quiet and whisper during deliveries, following complaints from Cambridge residents about noise from the service. Drivers have been told to “keep conversation to a minimum” and “speak softly” while unloading cages and other goods. Slamming truck doors has also been banned and gear changes must be carried out as quietly as possible, the firm said.

Somerfield is to expand its Simply Value budget line in the next few weeks. The range will feature in new store merchandising plans, and will be supported by bold shelf labelling and point-of-sale material.

Argos has said it generated more than 90,000 reviews after running an email campaign in January to encourage customers to provide feedback on products they had recently purchased.

Brands

Kit Kat has launched a new brand site “where nothing happens”. The site www.thefirstworldwidewebsitewerenothinghappens.com simply carries the text “The first worldwide site where nothing happens” along with the company’s “Have a break” strapline.

Irn-Bru is inviting consumers to play a game of spot the difference in its latest print campaign promoting its diet Irn-Bru drink. The campaign features two similar images but with one glaringly obvious difference.

British Airways has reported a net loss of £70m in the nine months to 31 December, compared with a pre-tax profit of £816m. The airline says it has suffered due to the economic downturn and the weaker pound. The company said it will try to sell more tickets in markets with stronger currencies to enable it to benefit from exchange rates.

Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps has been dropped as the face of Kellogg’s following allegations in the News of the World surrounding drug use, according to reports.

SCA is to rebrand its Bounty kitchen towel as Plenty, and will support the relaunch with an £8m marketing campaign.

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