Chairman and chief executive officer of Dunlop Corbin Communications Ltd., Gurney Beckford (centre), and president Greg McClure (right), with the Gleaner Company's 2002 Top Billing Award Trophy. With them is Chairman and Managing Director of The Gleaner, Oliver Clarke. The occasion was the newspaper's special awards function yesterday at the Lodge, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, to honour advertising agencies and their clients. - Norman Grindley /Staff Photographer DUNLOP CORBIN Communications yesterday received the Gleaner Company's 2002 top billing award for the highest volume of advertisements placed in the company's various publications last year.
Gurney Beckford, chairman and CEO of Dunlop Corbin, accepted the Top Billing Trophy at The Gleaner's special function to honour advertising agencies at the Lodge on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies.
He thanked the agency's many clients, which include Cable and Wireless Jamaica Ltd., the Jamaica National Building Society, Air Jamaica, Burger King, Pepsi, the Bank of Nova Scotia, Wray and Nephew Ltd. and Petcom, for entrusting their publicity and advertising business to his company.
Also at yesterday's ceremony, the agencies with the second and third highest volume of advertising for 2002 received awards. Andrew Rousseau accepted for CGR Communications, which took the award for placing second; while Adrian Robinson accepted on behalf of Marketing Counselors for the third place award.
OGM Communications Ltd. received an award for the agency achieving the highest growth performance last year, when compared to 2001. The award was accepted by Sam McCooke.
"Looking back over the awardees," said Gleaner advertising manager, Yvonne Senior, "three characteristics have consistently stood out. Firstly, our awardees have all been guided at the top by outstanding heads of agencies respected industrywide for their knowledge, creativity and management skills. Secondly, they are agencies that are often at the forefront of innovation and trendsetting; and thirdly, they are held in great respect within our own Advertising Department."
Ms. Senior added that "these attributes are also true for many agencies that do not fall within the top three with billings."
Prior to the awards presentation, both the Gleaner's editor-in-chief, Garfield Grandison, and chairman and managing director, Oliver Clarke, spoke on the newspaper company's successes in 2002 and goals for the new year.
Mr. Grandison noted that circulation grew in 2002 and that, with the expectations of advertisers growing, so are the goals of the organisation.
Mr. Clarke spoke about the Gleaner Company's expansion into international markets through the implementation of three new publications in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The publications - Canada Extra, London Extra and Gleaner Extra New York - by the end of the year will become largest circulated ethnic Caribbean newspapers in the world.
The luncheon was attended by several members of the advertising and marketing fraternity, along with several of their clients.
