Allowing competition to shrink to just two commercial operators could be satisfied by raising this limit to 50 per cent. But the radio industry has insisted that at least 60 per cent market share must be permitted for serious consolidation to take place.The Westminster insider added: “There is a feeling that while a 50 per cent limit would be two plus one, it would still mean that the big boys cannot get together The Government is in a hurry to get this Bill through. So if Ms Jowell accepts the principle of two operators in a market, the radio industry will carry on the fight [through the Bill's parliamentary passage] to make sure it gets 60 per cent [market share limit].”Simon Mays-Smith, an analyst at JP Morgan, said even if the law allowed consolidation down to two players in any one area, proposed mergers would still need to get through the competition authorities.Lord Eatwell, the chairman of the Commercial Radio Companies Association, said that greater consolidation in radio ownership would actually lead to more diversity in the output of local radio stations, not less.”Small stations seek to maximise their audiences by going for the middle ground…. A larger company can offer services to different parts of the community,” he said.Mr Mays-Smith said: “There should be some greater consolidation, but while that may mean more diversity for consumers, it doesn’t for advertisers.”. CIRCULATE THE warm, sweet smell of an almond liqueur through the London Underground and see pre-Christmas sales soar It must have seemed a great idea at the time. It must have seemed a great idea at the time.
The approach worked for supermarkets when they introduced in-store bakeries and found that the home-baked aroma enticed customers to spend more money.

Gordon’s Gin grabbed headlines when it injected the odour of juniper berries into cinemas to coincide with its ads for G’n'T.And if the Prime Minister and the Home Office had not warned that we were all potential terrorist targets, it might have worked for Amaretto di Saronno liqueur. Unfortunately, cyanide gases, too, have a distinctive whiff of almonds.A text-book case of where a stunt can go wrong It was nobody’s fault No one had even complained. But if conventional press and television advertising does not always work, an alternative approach can be even more unpredictable.Take Esporta sports clubs, for instance. The group probably thought it was on to a winner when it attached fake cardboard wheel clamps to cars. A caption stated that the owners should not attempt to move the vehicle until they had tried out one of the Esporta clubs in Scotland Not everyone saw the funny side. And after a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), Esporta promised to avoid the approach in future.For years now, the advertising industry has been taxing its brains to come up with ever more imaginative ways of capturing the public’s attention.Ron Leagas, formerly of Leagas-Delaney and now chairman of the agency edge.

Developments such as Tivo, which let viewers skip the adverts on television, put the control in the consumer’s hands.And consumers are growing increasingly suspicious, too. Research published today by Beyond Philosophy, a company specialising in customer attitudes, claims 82 per cent of people never believe their experience of an organisation will match the image promoted by television advertising. Beyond Philosophy concludes that television advertising may actually be harming, not enhancing companies’ relationship with their customers.The record industry was among the first to recognise that some advertising was putting people off – or failing to reach them at all. It pioneered the kind of “underground” promotion of sticker campaigns and fly-posting that attracted youths who could not be captured by conventional means.For streetwise fashion labels, this strategy now stretches to persuading rap stars and club DJs to wear your clothes and footwear. Conventional celebrity endorsement just would not work.Innovation is now wide-spread across the industry “Ambient advertising” has developed. It uses taxis, beer mats, trolleys or even the risers on staircases to ensure the message is all around and inescapable. The more aggressive alternative is known as “guerrilla advertising” – with messages projected on to buildings or illegal fly-posting or even the humorous, one-off public relations stunt – in an attempt to catch the public unawares.Mr Leagas projected the words “Who is The Mole?” on to the MI5 headquarters in London to promote a Channel 5 series of that name.