Accra, April 1, GNA - Graphic Communication Group on Saturday adjudged AP Lintax as the overall best advertisement agency for the 2005 business year at a ceremony in Accra They were presented with a plaque and a citation that read the enormous creativity and ingenuity showed in their advertisement placement throughout the year.

Lintax additionally took home silver for the colour placement category, gold for volume of advertisement followed by ADS Media receiving gold in the prompt payment and colour placement. Arts Bureau took silver award for innovation and prompt payment categories while Origin 8 grabbed gold for innovation. ADS Limited received silver for volume of advert placement.

Mr Birefi Apenteng, Managing Director of Graphic Communication Group, observed that with the proliferation of the media there are many options for advertisers in terms of advert placement. He noted that Graphic, being conscious of such developments had taken measures not only to satisfy the clients but to also to maintain their role as leader in the media industry. " We have increased our pages from 48 to 56 every Monday in order to cope with the increasing demand for more colour adverts, though this is not enough to cater for all colour needs, the measure has helped to reduce the backlog", he added. Mr Apenteng noted that as permanent solution a process of acquiring new modern machine, which could print at least 50 per cent of newspapers in colour, had begun.

He said a sizable amount had also been devoted to purchase more quality newsprint and replace some vital parts of the printing press to improve upon the quality of publication.

The Managing Director reiterated Graphic commitment to delivery quality and being professional at all times, saying we have opened new front office to advertisers to reduce the process of time and give the advertisers conducive environment to transact business. Mr Reginald Laryeh Geddy, President, Association of Advertisers in Ghana (AAG) said in spite of the remedial innovations Graphic had put in place, there was still many agencies in the cold with huge operational deficit in colour adverts.

He therefore, called for closer collaboration between individual agencies and urged the management of Graphic to consider assigning customer care executives to individual agencies to reduce the incidence of loss of man-hours in the resolution of issues.