±±¾©Èü³µpk10

The Pearl & Dean sales team don't look bad on their half century

Pearl & Dean is synonymous with the big screen. You only have to hear the famous "Pa Pa Pa Pa..." to conjure up the whole cinema experience - popcorn, noisy teenagers, snogging in the back row.

A cool and vibrant brand in 2003, Pearl & Dean has been appearing at cinemas near you since 1953. Hence, the Pearl & Dean sales team is a trusted source for all matters relating to the cinema and film industry.

Going from strength to strength under parent company, SMG Out of Home, the Pearl & Dean sales team has grown from just four people in 1994 to 15 in 2003, plus local teams. Reflecting an increasing market share, Pearl & Dean now has national and regional sales teams, plus commercial development, sponsorship and promotions, and planning teams. These are all supported by a new research and marketing group.

Based in one of SMG's London offices in Holborn, the national and regional sales teams have an agency focus, with support from commercial development on the client side. Creative input is provided by the sponsorship and promotions team, which provides integrated solutions to briefs, as well as pitching pro-actively to PR companies and sales promotions agencies

One of the strengths of the Pearl & Dean team is its in-depth knowledge of the cinema marketplace. Recent performance research, carried out by a third-party across the media industry, concluded Pearl & Dean is "the second most popular media owner in generating customer satisfaction"-  not bad for a  player in a two per cent medium.

Pearl & Dean is passionate about film and this enthusiasm for the big screen runs across the whole company - everyone attends the quarterly Cinema Club on a Friday afternoon at least four times a year, giving them a chance to get a healthy dose of the much-loved "Pa Pa Pa Pa" Pearl & Dean theme tune.

This bunch of scallywags could light up the silver screen with their smiles

This year sees Pearl & Dean celebrating five decades as the most famous name in cinema advertising and the launch of the Pearl & Dean 50th Anniversary Initiative.

As well as affording the opportunity to support two charities close to Pearl & Dean - MediCinema and CHAS - with on-screen ad campaigns, the anniversary initiative has seen Pearl & Dean work with Pringle in producing a sell-out charity t-shirt.

Importantly, it also gave the team a chance to have a birthday party. The evening kicked off with a gala screening of the Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger romantic comedy Down With Love and the party continued in Red Cube and the St Martin's Lane hotel, where the Pearl & Dean team and guests hob-nobbed with the likes of Ewan McGregor, Sharleen Spiteri, Kiera Knightley, Simon and Yasmin Le Bon, Miranda Richardson, Rosamund Pike and Alan Rickman. 

The Pearl & Dean team were unfazed by the paps' flashbulbs, however, as they enjoy an annual trip to Cannes and have been known to stroll up a red carpet or two at film premieres ... and stagger back down at the end of the night.

Less salubrious get-togethers include agency Big Cinema Quiz nights - the latest of which was for Universal McCann earlier this month - where competition is fierce. People will sink to any depths with a DVD player up for grabs.

Slightly less dangerous are Pearl & Dean's film preview evenings.

These are always popular, but May's screening of Matrix Reloaded saw media bods scrabbling for seats - not easy when armed with the Pearl & Dean snack pack of popcorn and coke.