Hamish Pringle (centre), director general of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) London, goes over the book of rules for the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ)/Advertising Agencies Association of Jamaica (AAAJ) Advertising Effectiveness Awards with from left: Suzanne Livingstone, AAAJ secretary; Senator Burchell Whiteman, Minister of Information; Monica Campbell, past president, AAAJ; and Arnold Foote, AAAJ president. - Contributed MINISTER OF Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman, congratulated the Advertising Agencies Association of Jamaica (AAAJ) and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) on the initiation of the Advertising Effectiveness Awards Competition, which was launched at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, recently.
The Minister in a message said that the programme was a serious expression of the will to ensure that, "through the setting and maintenance of internationally accepted standards, the PSOJ and the AAAJ, two critically important partners in building our economy, is taking steps to increase national competitiveness."
He said that self-regulation, where there was a commonly held position in respect of standards, was the best form of protecting the integrity of the industry. He also pledged the Government's support in ensuring that regulation can be properly exercised in a fair and transparent manner.
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR AGENCIES
President of the AAAJ, Arnold Foote, said that the new Awards scheme would encourage agencies to tell the story of their successes on behalf of clients. "By entering case studies, which prove the effectiveness of their campaigns, our members will create a public body of knowledge that will enhance their reputations and that of the Jamaican advertising and communications industry at large," he said.
The case studies, he added, that will become entries in the awards Programme, will be printed in book form and given to CARIMAC, for use in its diploma and degree programmes in communications at the University of the West Indies (UWI). "This will give students first hand information about the Jamaican market and will help them understand the marketplace in which they will be working, once they graduate from the University."
He said that the PSOJ/AAAJ Effectiveness Awards is to identify and reward professionalism in the development and assessment of commercially effective advertising and marketing communications in Jamaica.
REAL APPRECIATION
Dr. Marjan deBruin, acting director of CARIMAC at the UWI, said special thanks to Mr. Foote for proposing that a communication school be established in Jamaica in the 1960s. She noted that the case studies would generate a great deal of teaching material which could give students a real appreciation of the challenges they would be facing when they enter the world of employment.
"We will be able to give our students, as it were, a bird's eye view of the creative process so that they may be able to appreciate how much hard work goes into great advertising and public relations, to understand why some ideas - which may seem 'fabulous' - can't be used and to understand, generally, the reasons and rationale behind creative decision-making," she added.
Hamish Pringle, Director-General of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), London, who launched the Awards Programme congratulated Jamaica for joining a group of ten countries that have established the Effectiveness Awards. These include Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, England and Northern Ireland.
Entries for the competition close on November 30, 2003.
