Manchester Evening News from Manchester, Greater Manchester, England • 77

Wednesday July 25 1984 Manchester Evening News 25 Advertising World £lm debut Diamonds are their friends newest agency Baglow Harris Sherry has set up shop in the unlikely surroundings of Salford It may not sound the stylish sort of setting one associates with an advertising agency but the new company actually managed to snap up two Grade II listed Georgian houses on the Crescent opposite Salford University It has parking space for clients and is only a minute from the centre of says creative Hanneson the German white wine Games Ingersoll Rand Wjndowxraft Expert Electrical Shops and Dana-Sunquick It has since put on another of business with the £100000 Wilshire bedding account plus the Wilding Photographic business the North biggest independent photographic and computer dealership English Software computer games and an assignment from Stratton the Wilms-low bespoke car supplies firm obvious it going lo work Now the agency is work-in! for Hancock the pres tigious King jew eller The seems to have prompted by the views on efficiency and economy Marketing manager Stephen Oliver says been with a full service agency for years ()n our TV account and decided we could now handle it curse ves using specialist people when we need them" He has already been using consultancies and All Media Services North on mail order business hut this market has fallen away He says the current com mercials using presenter Robert Dougall the former newsreader will run for the next few months and he is meanwhile trying i creative consultancy on a trial basis was £400000 and that was an unusually high spending For the last couple of years Gillett and Bevan has gone for a softer approach in the advertising with romantic commercials designed to gte a quality image Beaverbrooks does not want to comment on its split with the agency which it dcs eji bes as hut" Gillett and Bevan says 4hit in the end it could not agree on the direction the advertising should take Beaverbrooks is understood to have wanted a more direct type of ad which would make an mmediate impact on sales wanted us to run an old ad from four years ago" says agency managing director John Barlow We was dat'd and we thought it was a retrograde step It became ANCH ESTE 'S leading jewellery advertisers have been playing musical chairs ith around £830000 worth of business changing agencies of Bolton the centre of the which spends around £330000 a year on television has left the Charterhouse agency to go la buying its advertising ideas from a creative consultancy and booking its time and space through the media independent shop All Media Services North Charterhouse however has got immediate consolation in the shape of rival jewellery retailer which plans to spend £300000 on advertising in the next year Beaverbrooks has been with Gillett and Bcvan for ten years and the agency says the budget last year No Girl Fridays in this club director Jon Harris bought it outright which is almost impossible to do in They have also spent a fortune doing it up and now have a staff of around 12 The agency was set up at the end of last year by Harris and managing director Neil Baglow who previously ran a small agency in Leigh They were looking to expand and move into Manchester the rules to stop women joining except an unwritten one Historically there were few women in agencies anyway apart from secretaries David Blythe acknowledges the growing number of women executives particularly in agencies and says that these days female applications to join would have to be considered seriously However Catch-22 is that prospective members have to attend two lunches as guests before being nominated and so far women have not been permitted even as guests invited me years recalls leading advertising lady Win Higenibot-tam head of Media Solutions explained their attitude but he believe It A speaking to a few people he phoned back a few days later and withdrew the invitation have been game to go just for a laugh but not particularly interested in trying to loin a club that carries on like that Let them get on with it But I must say strange in these so-oalled days of equal So what happens ait the same time up with Neil former creative of Stowe and Manchester moved over to account director with added responsibility for bringing in new business He was in turn joined by Sue Naylor from and who acts as media manager and account director The agency opened with billings of around flm and main clients included these elitist events at the Midland Hotel every month Not a lot say the cynics who refer to the club as a bunch of geriatrics Blythe a member for 15 years naturally maintains that the group has value He says it help relieve tension in a very stressful business and compulsory regular attendance ensures key people in Manchester media and agencies stay in constant contact There are no guest speakers but guests are expected to give informal talks for a couple of minutes on subjects other than business Information The exceptions are VIP guests sometimes from London who it is hoped might let drop some nuggets of information or gossip about their relevant field or company Blythe points out the club also raises about £1000 a year for NABS the advertising welfare fund It is very much a Manchester institution though tsiyine thinks that to csl! it the Mafia" might be going a bit far and at teamed Sherry director Bowden He has THE most exclusive advertising body in Manchester is the First Friday Club Founded in 1947 it limits membership to 50 amd tries to maintain a balance between executives from the media and from agencies There are also a small number rep-resening peripheral services such as printing or photography But there are no clients and no women According to the current chairman David Blythe joint deputy managing director of BDH the ban on advertisers is basic to the nature of the societv which was set uo for and to be a relaxed social occasion where those running the media and agencies can meet regularly to chat and discuss business and problems in a general way without the comnetitive element advertisers would create Whether women are being kept out for the same reason is open to debate Perhaps thev might cramp the style of what some colleagues dismiss as a monthly bonze-uo But there is nothing In Nevertheless members happen to be those with the power chairmen managing directors department heads all those who control the action on the Manchester ad scene Perhaps the nearest counterpart is the discreetly influential Thirty Club in London Meanwhile a body that Win Higenbottam and most of the advertising 'rater nity do think worthwhile is the Manchester Publicity Association which has just topped JQQ in membership making it the largest publicity association in Europe It is open to everyone in the -Using business age meaia advertisers and their marketing departments as well as printers and blockmakers and other trades serving the industry Women are not only welcome they hold office and Win the current secretary is a former chairman Like the First Friday Club the MPA holds monthly lunches but says it is firmly against frivolity They are social occasions but we try to get leading speakers from all parts of industry We feel we be flippant about it when people are giving up valuable working I W0ULDNT RECOMMEND MEDIA SOLUTIONS to anyone: JollI! till O' i ii inn xr fa know that you know that we could if you would onlypickupthe phone and "Not bo disc they'ie so had hut because Uieir work is so im ivdibly good And I want them all to myself Although I'm realist ie enough to realise I hats not possible Indued lie" disturbing reports that they plan and buy loi at least hall a dozen oilier agencies And hau a growing jKirtloiio of clients with whom they deal directly (But so discreet uImhiI all their clients' business never hear it from them) Stalled by very fierccplivcTV and Press planners and buyers who are aided by computer Media Solutions always come up with the right answers If you must give out hiisinessTothum contact Win (inland Please use name Media Solutions MfDIA SOI UTI0NS I iMUtU IkAU OHD HGuiE OiESILR ROAD STRETFORD MANC HESTER M32 QRS TEL: 061 848 0521 ingTihited Advertising works at 061-9415231 wry ONTACT contacts pr st Johns house queen street Manchester M2 jb telephone: oe 1-8325737 PUBLIC RELATIONS MEDIA RELATIONS.