City agency to drive MG promotion
Do the maths. An early acting role saw future Fawlty Towers star Prunella Scales portraying young teacher Morag McLeod educating youngsters in the Scottish Highlands in the film Laxdale Hall.
Coleen Nolan had plenty to sing about as a youngster. She first appeared with her sisters when she was nine on TV show It’s Cliff Richard, but continued her school studies until she was able to join The Nolans full-time in 1980.
DB phone home? Seven-year-old Drew Barrymore had to call her teacher in California for her next homework assignment when she arrived in the UK for the British premiere of ET.
ADVERTISING agency M3 has won its latest brief to promote legendary Birmingham automotive brand MG Motor UK.
The firm, which has offices in Birmingham, Albrighton and London, is working with the Longbridgebased manufacturer in a bid to position it as a challenger to the major car companies in the UK.
M3 will also help to support MG’s bid to be seen as an international car manufacturer, with a specific focus on the growing electric vehicle market as part of the two-year contract.
New UK brand guidelines and national tactical campaigns to promote MG’s range will begin in April along with supporting growth and its main dealer network.
Managing director Nick Lovett said: “This is a very exciting time for MG Motor UK as part of its continued evolution and, in particular, its desire to achieve an electric vehicle tipping point where these sales will overtake petrol models in 2022.
“The win is a great start to 2021 for our agency and a real landmark contract that proves dynamic, independent agencies can deliver highprofile pitch wins.”
M3 previously worked with the car company after it was commissioned to create the launch campaign for MG’s new SUV model in late 2019.
David Pugh, marketing director at MG Motor UK, added: “This is a really exciting appointment and one we believe will help us grow our UK market share and elevate our presence in the electric vehicle space as well as reinforcing our position as a leading international car manufacturer.”
A NEW hotel has opened in central Birmingham as part of a conference centre development.
Aloft Birmingham Eastside, which is part of Marriott International Group, has launched in Woodcock Street with 195 bedrooms, a cocktail bar and casual dining restaurant.
Marriott says Aloft Hotels is its brand for music enthusiasts and techsavvy travellers, with around 185 sites globally.
The new hotel, which is only Aloft’s fourth in the UK, forms part of a wider conference and education centre project called The Eastside Rooms due to
open in April. The scheme has been developed by Unite and will provide a new West Midlands regional base for the trade union, along with 23 meeting and event rooms, including a pillar-free ballroom, for use by both Unite and external clients.
The Eastside Rooms, which was awarded consent nearly six years ago, sits in the heart of an emerging business and education district alongside Aston and Birmingham City universities and the Innovation Birmingham tech campus. Other construction work in the vicinity includes Birmingham City University’s mixed-use Eastside
Locks project and the new HS2 station in Curzon Street.
Matt Huddart, general manager of Aloft Birmingham Eastside, said: “We are thrilled to be opening the doors to Birmingham’s newest and most dynamic hotel. Home to some of the best music venues in the country to entertain domestic and international visitors, Birmingham has an incredible culture and is the perfect location for the Aloft brand.”
In line with the latest government guidelines, Aloft Birmingham Eastside is currently able to welcome business travellers and essential workers.
“DON’T worry, Rodney. This time next year, we’ll be millionaires!”
That was one of the famous lines from Del Boy in TV comedy classic Only Fools and Horses.
It will take more than a year if you decide to make the most of Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) but with the annual deadline being April 5, time perhaps for a start.
Eventually you might aspire to be one of the increasing numbers who have joined the ISA seven-figure club.
Their average age is 71. Two thirds are men. Blue chip companies, including Lloyds, Shell and BP, dominate, all held in diverse and balanced portfolios.
So, what is the secret?
There are more than 500 such investors with broker Hargreaves Lansdown alone.
The firm recently grilled three of their ISA millionaires.
All had been investing for at least 25 years.
It went on: “We found lots of differences – some preferred buying shares, while others liked the more hands-off approach of placing their money with a trusted fund manager.
“A couple of our ISA millionaires had changed their strategies over time, while one stuck with the advice of his grandfather.”
Picking investments for the long term (over five years) is one of the traits in common.
Contributing the maximum amount to an ISA each year – currently £20,000 – is another.
Not overtrading is a third, which produced plenty of comment.
One of the millionaires, Mr L from Suffolk, stated: “I strongly believe actively trading is bad for your portfolio.
“Depending on the size of the share you buy, you can lose 0.5 per cent every time you trade meaning if you trade that stock twice a year, that’s one per cent gone immediately.”
Hargreaves Lansdown commented: “Regularly checking in on your
ISA and resisting the urge to make a few trades might be tough, but it’s often worth it over the long term. This is because of a phenomenon called ‘volatility clustering’. The ‘good’ days in the market are normally pretty close to the ‘bad’ days – they both occur in periods of market volatility. Aim to skip the bad patches and you could easily miss out on the potential gains.”
It added: “Overtrading – buying and selling investments too often – can be costly. It can be tempting to bank profits or to try to take advantage of short-term dips, but in reality being able to time the market is near impossible. Overtrading and trying to predict daily ups and downs can leave you vulnerable to missing out on some of the best days in the market.”
The current generation of ISA millionaires have built up their fortunes despite being limited to a maximum £7,000 annual contribution for the nine years following the launch of ISAs in 1999.
According to website This Is Money, quoting the Association of Investment Companies, 28 of its members would have made investors millionaires if they had put the full annual ISA allowance into the same firm each year.
For example, investing the full ISA allowance annually from 1999 to 2020 – a total of £246,560 – and reinvesting the dividends into Scottish Mortgage would have generated a tax-free pot of
£2,541,100 by January 31, 2021, more than ten times the original investment.
The broker, AJ Bell, expects it to become even easier to be an ISA millionaire as previously you needed to achieve an average 14 per cent annual growth on maximum ISA contributions. Now you can hit the jackpot with just seven per cent growth over the same period of 21 years.
Not a case of getting rich quick. In complete contrast, a case of getting rich slow.
Next week: When a tax-free ISA isn’t tax free.