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NEW DIRECTION FOR THE ADMEN & WOMENThose of you who watched the hit TV series Madmen will have a certain image of advertising people in days gone by. Those of us who work in the media know a bit more about the reality. It's an industry of big personalities, even bigger egos, creative tantrums and an enviable social edge….but it's also an important industry to the local economy and to the client companies and organisations which it serves.
Advertising's umbrella body, the Publicity Association of Northern Ireland (PANI), has been around for 51 years, and it has just been effectively re-launched as an organisation which aims to become even more integral to the industry it serves.
“We've a number of areas we want to concentrate on,” says the new PANI Chairman, Hugh Black, whose day job is as Centre Manager at Belfast's showpiece Victoria Square.
“We're focusing on new recruits, we're focusing on promoting a range of events, and we're homing in on education towards careers in advertising. But we won't be forgetting the social element. I suppose you could say that we're getting back to basics.”
Black was elected as chairman at PANI's AGM in January, an active affair which drew more than 20 nominations for various posts, and which featured an online voting process.
He is the latest in a list of PANI chairmen which dates back to 1958 and includes some of the legends of the business here, from Basil Singleton (still involved today) to Rex McKane, and from UTV's Ken Hamilton to Paddy Meehan of Irish News fame.
“We've got a strong council which includes representatives from the full range of sectors within the business – agencies, outdoor, radio, press and publishing among them.
“I come at the business from a different angle, but I think that gives me a different perspective which the members felt would work well for the Association.
“We want to make PANI an organisation that people want to be involved in. It's not just about social life, and it's not just about the famous annual awards. We will be working right across the board alongside the industry itself.”
A good example of this progress lies in education. PANI has established new and strong links with the CAM (Communications, Advertising & Marketing) department at the University of Ulster, and has already run a competition which invited students to put together an advertising 'pitch' and present it to a panel of judges.
“It was a big success, and most importantly, the students really welcomed the chance to work in teams and put together a real presentation. It's something we will develop going forward, and we have other plans to cement our links with the university, and to encourage students there to get involved with PANI when they enter the working environment,” adds Hugh Black.
The Association was once rightly famed for its regular PANI Lunch events, which often drew hundreds of people from across the business community to hear some top-line speakers….and there are early plans in place to look at re-instituting the speaker lunch events.
“At that time, the Institutes of Marketing or Public Relations didn't exist. There were no commercial broadcasters and no PR consultants,” says one of the founder members, Basil Singleton. “Media, in those days, meant press, outdoor and cinema. There were only a handful of local agencies, and the larger advertisers used London agencies.”
Back in the late 1950's, the Belfast Telegraph had a circulation of 220,000 copies and all newspapers sold advertising space in column inches…outdoor advertising meant end of terrace gable walls….and cinemas were closing with the advent of TV. But, by the mid-1960's, PANI membership had risen to 175 following the formation of the PR sector here, the arrival of commercial television (UTV was born in 1959), and the arrival of a number of new advertising agencies.
In 1969, when Basil Singleton was Chairman, a Association had a full programme of events throughout the year, kicked off in February by a business luncheon addressed by the then Prime Minister, Capt. Terence O'Neill. |
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