Hope you enjoy my latest ramblings…as ever, please contact me with any questions or subject matter at danb@december19.co.uk

Edgar the dragon Christmas fails to warm up Waitrose gloom

If you haven’t seen or heard about the new John Lewis / Waitrose Xmas advert featuring Edgar the Dragon then lucky you. Personally, I think it’s awful. Launching ridiculously early in the first half of November, it features another wispy voiced vocalist this time butchering a cover version of REO Speedwagon’s 1980 power ballad Can’t Fight The Feeling while a dragon goes around burning various things down.

The ad campaign, according to the Guardian, cost about £7m and will apparently save money due to John Lewis combining with sister brand Waitrose for the first time. Cashing in, the companies are touting various merchandise including £15 for an Edgar replica, or you can pick up a children’s book or even Edgar pyjamas.

I am sure this campaign spend will bring great cheer to those 677 Waitrose staff whose jobs are at risk following the news earlier this year that Waitrose are closing seven supermarkets due to poor returns.

Bah humbug.

Britbox comes home – will it work?

Why?

It’s the most obvious question that comes to mind when you read about the launch of Britbox – the new UK archive streaming site officially launched by the BBC and the ITV featuring the best British dramas in history.

How will people even find the time to watch another streaming service alongside Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Disney? Not sleep? Let alone the fact it’s another monthly fee – £6 – to budget for in these times of austerity (I still don’t know where our main political parties are finding the money to fuel their manifesto promises…but that’s a story for another blog).

I really hope Britbox succeeds but it’s slightly hard to see at the moment how it will make a dent (to date no sign-up figures have been announced) and the only truly exclusive content from both media owners includes Wolf Hall (BBC) and Broadchurch (ITV) – for the Beeb’s major headline content then you still have to get from Netflix.

Hopefully things will get more interesting when Channel 4 sign-up next year.

A good week for the Financial Times

The appointment of it’s first female editor, Roula Khalif, was great news for the Financial Times and it seems female equality is on its way to the major newsroom organisations with Alison Phillips at The Daily Mirror and Kath Viner at The Guardian (let’s not forget Carolyn McCall leading ITV and Alex Mahon at Channel 4).

In a poor month of October circulation results for the paid dailies, the FT suffered the least, almost flat at 169,000 copies which builds on the earlier news this year that they had signed up 1 million paying subscribers.

Khalif takes over the paper in good health – proof positive that time sensitive information is still cherished by an avid audience.