Chan named S'pore 4As head

Mr Bernard Chan has been elected president of the Singapore 4As,

and said one of his top priorities would be to double the association's

membership to about 180 agencies by mid-2001.

Earlier this year, the 4As unveiled plans to allow full membership to

all marketing communications companies, including direct marketing,

interactive and PR companies.

The 4As, however, has to date attracted just three interactive

agencies.

There were still no takers from PR firms.

But Mr Chan, who is also the managing director of DNC Advertising and

DNC Worldwide Partners, said that this was because the marketing

campaign had yet to formally get off the ground.

The interactive chapter of the 4As is currently headed by Mr Russel

Cheng of Organic and Mr Chan told MEDIA: "This will help us open other

doors to drive our message home that the boundaries between disciplines

are disappearing."

The association is still looking for an appropriate person to head up

the PR chapter, he added.

"The marketing campaign will officially kick-off some time in the

summer, so hopefully we can create a positive awareness of our drive and

build up our membership numbers," he said.

However, Mr Chan said there were no plans to drop the word 'advertising'

from the 4As name because he didn't think it would be a bar to

non-advertising agencies from joining.