Hotline

Coke Ad Exec Out in Restructuring

NEW YORK—Nick Bishop, who joined Coca-Cola as vp of consumer connections in August of 2000, left recently after a restructuring in mid-October that eliminated 80 positions at Coke’s Atlanta headquarters, a client representative confirmed. An ad-agency veteran, Bishop joined Coke from McCann-Erickson in San Francisco. His responsibilities for Coke included developing ad briefs for Coke’s global brands and creating marketing tools for its offices around the world. Some of his duties will be taken on by Kandy Anand, who was promoted from marketing director for the South Latin American division to vp of strategic marketing at Coke. Anand will relocate from Buenos Aires to Atlanta, one source said. He will help Coke divisions integrate communications and provide strategic direction for brands around the world. Like Bishop, he reports to chief marketing officer Stephen Jones. Additionally, Jan Hall, who headed consumer marketing for major Coke brands in North America, including Diet Coke and Coke Classic, now primarily handles Sprite, Dasani and Powerade as svp and general manager. The company is searching for someone to handle consumer marketing for Coke Classic and Diet Coke, the representative confirmed.

Dentsu Sets Share Price for IPO

CHICAGO—Dentsu has set a pre-market price of $3,410 a share for its initial public offering of 135,000 shares, giving the IPO a value of $460 million. The IPO will boost the company’s market capitalization to $4.7 billion. The IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange is set for Nov. 30. Dentsu, which is partially owned by Kyodo News and Jiji Press Ltd., holds a 22 percent stake in Bcom3 Group, parent company of D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles and Leo Burnett. At the fixed price, the newly offered shares will carry a price-to-earnings ratio of 23 times the company’s projected earnings per share, on a parent basis of $148.42 for the fiscal year ending in March.

Yahoo! Breaks Holiday Campaign

SAN FRANCISCO—Yahoo! has launched a new TV commercials and three new radio spots in its “Do you Yahoo?” campaign for the holidays. The new push, which broke yesterday, was created by Black Rocket/Euro RSCG in San Francisco and will run on network television through Dec. 16. The 30-second TV spot promotes the Yahoo! Shopping channel. It features an out-of-shape superhero who buys purses on the Yahoo! Shopping channel after he fails to catch a purse snatcher. The three radio spots focus on specific features of the shopping channel.

Account Activity

A second round of creative pitches is slated for next week in the Zenith Electronics review, sources said. New York shops vying for the estimated $30 million account include Avrett Free Ginsberg; Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos; J. Walter Thompson; and Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, according to sources. Incumbent Cramer-Krasselt in Chicago did not advance to the first round of pitches, which took place earlier this month. Although CMR lists Zenith’s spending at less than $1 million last year, officials at the electronics company have said they will spend $100 million over the next three years.