Client Newswrap: Tesco takes on Hollywood and milkshake maker unveils cattle cannon

Brands
Ambassadors’ favourite Ferrero has joined Hershey in taking itself out of the race for chocolate maker Cadbury, leaving the path clear for US firm Kraft to take over the Midlands-based company. Cadbury last week accepted Kraft’s sweetened bid of 840p a share plus a 10p a share dividend.

Milkshake maker Yazoo has launched a new TV ad in which a cow is fired out of a cannon and then milked by a farmer in mid-air. The firm has invested £4.5m in the campaign to highlight the drinks’ new recipe. Packaging News assumes no cattle were harmed in the making of the adverts.

Toy maker Hornby is celebrating a successful festive period and looking ahead to a further boost this summer with Toy Story 3 merchandise. The company, famous for its model trains and owner of Corgi, Airfix and Scalextric, expects to finish the financial year with sales and profits “significantly ahead” of the previous year.

The drinks industry has slammed a report written for the British Medical Journal claiming the sector is promoting alcohol irresponsibly, in which an academic suggested advertisers were trying to persuade young people to take up drinking.

Social media sites such as Facebook are now more regularly being chosen as a marketing medium than direct mail (DM). Brand Republic reported that in a survey of 1,000 marketing professionals by Alterian, 66% said they would be investing in social media over the next year, compared to 40% for DM.

Retailers
Tesco has launched a ‘buy one, get one free later’ scheme for customers purchasing fresh food. Under the deals, shoppers buying pineapple, melon, salad, and lettuce will be able to claim a free product the following week. The retailer has started the scheme, which will run across the country, after research showed that while shoppers liked so-called ‘bogof’ deals, many households found it hard to consume the second product within its use-by date.

Meanwhile, the supermarket giant has announced its first foray into the movie-making business. In a joint venture with media firm Amber Productions, Tesco will make a series of films based on the books of best-selling authors. The first – Paris Connections, a thriller based on a novel by Jackie Collins – is currently being shot in France and will be sold on DVD in Tesco stores in May.

The Co-operative Group has made a £50,000 donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee to help the victims of the earthquake that struck Haiti earlier this month. It will also place collection boxes in all of its stores for customers to make donations to the appeal.

Despite a promising Christmas period for many supermarkets, more shoppers have cut their grocery spend compared with last year. The Grocer reported that research carried out by agency Shoppercentric showed the number of consumers that have had to make significant adjustments to their weekly grocery shop had increased 25% on last January, to nearly a third of the UK population.

Around half of the 1,400 stores owned by admin-hit Threshers could be bought by independent retailers, according to a report in The Grocer. Property firm Christie & Co has received offers on more than 650 stores.

Spar owner Henderson Retail has said it will spend £12m on a revamp of its stores and is seeking to acquire further premises from recession-hit rivals.

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