ADVERTISING agency Dunlop Corbin yesterday walked away with the Jamaica Observer’s Top Billing award for the second straight year.

Marketing Counsellors placed second, while OGM Integrated Communications Ltd took home the prize for the third highest billing.

The newspaper’s Top Billing clients were Cable & Wireless Jamaica, G-tech Communications and Digicel Jamaica.

In addition to taking home the top prize, Dunlop Corbin yesterday shared a certificate of appreciation with McCann Erickson Ltd, which received the award for The Most Efficient agency.

The Best Serviced Account went to the Marketing Counsellors, and the Top Direct Billing customer award went to Mayberry Investments. Second place in that category went to Courts Jamaica and third place to Jamaica Money Market Brokers.

In accepting the top prize for 2003, Dunlop Corbin’s executive chairman, Gourney Beckford, commended the newspaper for providing a viable print alternative in which to advertise.

“You have become a force to be reckoned with,” he said, during an address at the awards ceremony held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

“You challenge us to make sound media decisions and be watchful of how to allocate our clients’ budgets.”

Beckford said that the Observer’s innovation – namely its new multi-million-dollar complex and the new layout of the paper – could motivate advertising agents to increase billing.

“In fact, your proposition to the agents and the clients is to drive profits to challenge us to reinvest in the brand in order to further ensure innovation. No wonder that enterprises, agencies, clients and readers of all ages and classes enjoy the Observer.”

The Observer’s managing director, Mark Pritchett, who gave the keynote address, noted that advertising agencies and media owners must develop closer relationships to ensure trust and continued advertising relations.