Wedding bells for Primesight boys
It is a truth universally acknowledged that 98% of couples meet through work*, so it is no surprise to hear Primesight’s Matt Stubbings and Louise Pither tied the knot this month in front of 40 friends and family at Lake Orta in Italy.
The intimate ceremony - to be followed by a larger party for 100 of the couple’s media friends in Hertfordshire tonight (Friday) - was attended by Primesight’s Olivia Wilding and Admedia’s Eve Beaton, while Eve’s boyfriend Nigel Clarkson, sales and marketing director of Primesight, presided as best man.
As the couple’s line manager, it was only fitting Clarkson’s best man’s speech used examples from the couple’s appraisals to show how well they are suited - they are, apparently, good with numbers (Matt) and highly organised (Louise).
However, that version of the speech was the "nice" one, revealed Clarkson, who has rewritten his eulogy to be more "boysy" for the second party tonight. Watch this space for some racy anecdotes - Stubbings, you have been warned!
*Source: Media Bitch estimates
Wikipedia founder fears the wrath of Murdoch
Forget Felix Dennis, there is a new media singer-songwriter in town: Richard Yu, the new European sales director for Wikia and formerly of IGA Worldwide.
When Bitch met Yu this week, his voice was still hoarse from performing at a friend’s wedding in County Kerry, where he stole the show with his composition called Blue to Match Your Pretty Eyes, written in honour of the bride.
Meanwhile, his boss Jimmy Wales, the (co)-founder of Wikipedia, revealed his favourite news website is the BBC - complemented by shared news on Facebook for science fictiion updates - before announcing Rupert Murdoch’s paywall experiment is a "foolish" mistake that he will soon reverse.
Realising that may have been a step too far, Wales said: "If I carry on saying bad things about the Times, they’ll write nasty things about me." Although he ruined it by adding, without missing a beat: "But then no-one will read them anyway."
Game, set and match for Ogilvy at Queens Club
To the Queens Club in West London for the Mail’s tennis tournament, where Mail Newspapers’ ad director John Teal and colleagues Andy Nicholl and Louisa Melling played mixed doubles with 30 agency and client guests.
Former world number 80 seed Andrew Castle lent glamour to the event, while the tournament’s dark horse was Kirstie Ogilvy from AW Media (pictured below partnering Nick Crips from TCS Media), who told fellow contestants she was "just ok" before proceeding to win the contest outright.
If "just ok" means fit enough to beat Zenith’s Ben McCallum, who used to play in his County Championships, media-land will have to start training in earnest.
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ABC briefing gets BBC Magazines boss in a sweat
In the current Age of Austerity, the flood of Magazine ABC parties has dried to a trickle, leaving BBC Magazines flying the lone entertainment flag with its breakfast briefing at Mews of Mayfair.
Publishers and editors including the Radio Times’ Kathy Day and Top Gear’s Simon Carrington travelled to Mayfair by tube, and the champagne breakfast was scrapped in favour of coffee and bacon sandwiches, as deputy md Nicholas Brett revealed the (strictly embargoed) figures for the BBC’s top titles.
Brett held no notes; instead he relied on a long list of codewords written in black pen on his hand and up his arm. An admirable public speaking strategy - the only problem was that some of the top-secret stats had sweated off in the heat and Brett had to ask his colleagues for prompts. Better turn the air-con up next time!
MediaCom's Luwolt crowned industry's Don Draper...
, and now Bitch presents the industry’s real-life Don Draper: MediaCom’s associate director Roy Luwolt, winner of Esquire’s fiercely contested Best-Dressed Adman competition.
Luwolt’s favourite labels include Gareth Pugh and Jil Sander, and his innate peacockery eclipsed the nine other finalists, including colleagues Constantine Chiotis and Daniel Brown, MG OMD’s Richard Haywood and even creative John Hegarty from BBH, who are all no doubt weeping into their Savile Row suits.
Esquire editor Jeremy Langmead praised Luwolt’s "on-trend" ensemble (pictured below) and the fact "he doesn’t look as if he’s had to try hard to achieve his fashionability [sic]". "There is no ceremony or ritual," Luwolt confirmed. "Fashion for me is a very emotive experience - I dress depending on how I feel."
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...but does PHD's Demi Abiola cut the mustard?
But the style makeover doesn’t stop there, thanks to Suman Randhawa and Anu Short from Heat, who ran a competition for agency types to win their most coveted celebrity item from the magazine’s revamped StarStyle section.
The screams could be heard down the street when Vizeum’s Kim Tully bagged a pair of Louboutins, while PHD’s Jo Cronk won a Jaeger jacket and her colleague Demi Abiola snared the French Connection suit of his dreams.
Abiola won thanks to his entertaining pitch to the judges, which said: "Like the suit, I am easy on the eye and great to look at!" Take a look at his mocked-up StarStyle cover (below) to decide whether you agree… or not.
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