“Consumer confidence is the lowest we’ve seen in over three decades,” says boss of the Mouse House, Robert Iger. But revenue is growing and profits (though down on last year) are an impressive £485m at Disney. The firm has seen hotel bookings fall and is finding it harder to get top dollar from advertising on its TV channel: Disney owns the ESPN and ABC television networks as well as theme parks and resorts. It also owns High School Musical, which, as anyone aged 12 will tell you, is the most important thing on the planet right now.

Tags: Disney careers, graduate job opportunities is marketing and media, growth at Disney, student TV career opportunities

It’s fair to say that a push down the stairs may be the best present some retailers get this Christmas. Nevertheless, next week sees the opening of Europe’s largest shopping centre: Westfield in Shepherds Bush, West London. It will be fascinating to see whether the opulence and ideas of the £1.6bn site will be enough to make the stores within it keep afloat while the high street struggles to tread water. There’s one slightly obscure winner already: advertising placement company Ocean Outdoor has been given the £70 million contract to supply advertisements for the next 10 years. Among the ideas being touted by Ocean Outdoor are three electronic digital screens that will sit in the middle of the Holland Park roundabout. I could have some better ideas than that for £70m, could you? Then now’s the time to get in touch with them!

Tags: Advertising jobs, graduate and student placements in media, growth in advertisng, Marketing, Retail

The economy may be flat, but good old Britvic, the soft drinks firm, saw sales bubble up (I thank you) nearly 30% boosted by strong sales of Drench, Gatorade and Fruit Shoot juices. The firm says its marketing has paid off – particularly in-store displays and promotions – so put that in your portfolio. The firm markets Drench and Gatorade under license from the brands’ owner, PepsiCo, who incidentally have seen ditch water flavoured results. The vast majority of growth for Britvic came in shop sales, rather than their drinks in pubs, which saw sales fall sharply. Worrying times for the Great British Pub – not that I condone going to the pub to drink orange juice unless you’ve lost your driving license – but any money in the till is a relief to today’s landlords and ladies.

Tags: company growth, Food and Drink, graduate career prospects, PepsiCo careers, Retail

You wait all year for Pizza Hut to put a video up and when we finally track them down at the Retail Career Forums, they go and change their name to Pasta Hut. So the video is back in the dungeon! The new name means it’s time to take the brand away from its fast-food like image and make it the healthy and popular choice with UK families. The US brand has been over here for 35 years, and the firm are about the only people spending £100m on the high street right now as part of the re-branding campaign of their 700 stores. However, it could be just the right time for consumers to look for cheap but healthy family eats out. Salt levels in the food have been dropped to mean Food Standard Agency guidelines and all traces of hydrogenated vegetable oils have been removed from the menu, and there is also an ongoing saturated fat removal programme. Just like with Russell Grant.  One think that’s marginally cheaper to re-brand is the company’s online presence: in June this year it took its one millionth online order and online sales now contribute towards 18% of its entire delivery sales.

Tags: Food and Drink, Graduate opportunities at Pasta Hut, Marketing, New Branding, Retail

If you’re wondering how the likes of Google and Yahoo make any money, that the UK is expected to spend £2.75bn on search engine marketing this year. So while the likes of ITV are crying themselves to sleep because of a loss in ad revenue, the internet has seen spending rocket up 25%. It’s all about promoting your brand to the top of a search – so for example, when you type in “boss” and “suspenders,” I come top of the list. Nearly £330m will be spent on Search Engine Optimisation. If you know what that is, you’re doing better than most bosses out there, and they will pay you a handsome wage for you to optimise their site and get it higher up Google’s lists. Growth in the number of people (wallets) using the web is finally beginning to level out, but if you’re looking for a career in marketing, make sure you’ve put your web ideas on the top of the pile.

Tags: Google jobs, Marketing Job opportunuities, Online advertising, Yahoo Jobs