MRG Evening Meeting

The next MRG evening meeting will tackle the question of whether advertising persuades people to go out and buy goods or influences the conclusion they reach later at the purchasing stage. Andy Farr of Millward Brown will describe an experiment which demonstrates that enhancing perceptions is easier than persuasion.

The meeting will be held at JWT (40 Berkeley Square) on June 16th at 6.30pm. It will be chaired by Peter Overy of BBC Publications.

CIA EXPANDS INTO HOLLAND

CIA Medianetwork, the European arm of CIA Group PLC, has bought the Dutch media independent MediaMend, including a 75% share of its Belgian sister company for £3.1m.

The terms of the acquisition include the issue of 660,000 new CIA shares, and will give the vendors an active interest in both MediaMend and the enlarged Group.

The latest acquisitions bring CIA’s global billings to in excess of £750m and follow recent acquisitions into Italy and Germany. The Group now has offices in twelve cities.