In the market . . .

AN ON-TREND jumper for €8, a pair of dayglo tights and the latest warbling by Rihanna (below) – Penneys has started selling CDs in some of its UK stores.

Mixing music and fashion is, according to the brand which trades as Primark in Britain, a logical retail extension.

“Fashion and music have always been synonymous, so it was natural to trial such a venture in the belief it could well appeal to customer demand,” said a Primark spokesperson.

Could Primark do for music sales what the supermarkets have done for book sales?

SINCE NEWSstarted filtering out that Shane McGonigle, managing director and co-founder of Leo Burnett Ireland, is to leave the agency, he's had two job offers.

“It’s flattering,” said McGonigle, one of the best known people in Irish advertising, who set up the agency 12 years ago, “but I’m going out on my own and it’s not going to be an advertising or a marketing agency.”

He describes his new consultancy as one that “commercialises concepts”, and having extensive career knowledge of brands such as Kellogg’s and Philadelphia, he envisages working primarily in the consumer goods sector.

McGonigle will be leaving in January and the board has already set the headhunting process in train. “I’m leaving the agency in really great shape, and that’s very important to me,” he says, adding that Burnett’s won the Kellogg’s on-pack account this week after a competitive pitch.

THE AUDIadvertising account is out for pitch, with five agencies vying for the business. The incumbent Cawley Nea, which has had the account for three years, is pitching to retain it, while McCann Dublin, Atomic, Bonfire and Owens DDB are also in the mix.

Marketing and communications manager at Audi, Neil Dalton, expects that a decision will be made by the end of the month.

MORE INTERACTIVITYbetween broadcast and social media. Mercedes has booked slots during this weekend's X-Factor on ITV where it will show its glossy new advertisement for its Mercedes-Benz A-Class featuring a young musician trying to get to a gig that authorities want to shut down.

The twist is that viewers will be asked to decide, via Twitter #youdrive, how the ad should end.

The first 60-second spot will air during the first commercial break on Saturday, the second during the next break, with the final ad, a 90-second version recapping the first two and revealing the Twitter-chosen ending, showing on Sunday.