Advertising Club Of Hyderabad (Special Interest Groups)

The Advertising Club of Hyderabad is much older than most people would guess. Long before ads became a mode of entertainment by themselves, and the Liril commercial became as much of an artwork as a Sholay, way back in 1964, the Advertising Club of Hyderabad (ACH) was already in place.

41 years down the line, it is a bustling anthill of activity with 300 members, including students, and professionals from major agencies such as Mudra, Mindset EYW, OTS, Rediffusion, Surya and Breeze. In addition, publications such as The Hindu, Eenadu and Andhra Jyoti use it as a forum to interact with advertisers. And the ad departments of big corporates such as ITC Agrotech and Nipuna as well as web-design firms like Iridium Interactive and DC Interactive have their presence here, making this club the place to hook into the network.

In keeping with the nimble pace of an ad-professional's life, ACH packs its typical month with activities galore. Seminars, workshops and competitions in advertising and marketing come by often because of the big names that are part of the member body. Vijay Kumar (CMD, Breeze), Utpal Sen Gupta (President, Agrotech) and Anil Kumar (Chief, The Times Of India, Hyderabad) are some of them.

ACH also annually gives away awards for excellence in advertising (ADEX). Categories such as multimedia campaign of the year, illustration of the year, continuing campaign of the year, TV spot, radio spot and corporate identity kit make you realize how many things a single word can mean. The event attracts about 600 applications from all over AP.

On the whole, ACH is a group you cannot afford to be excluded from if you have someplace to go in advertising. While it often attracts heavyweights in advertising you could really do with meeting, the after-work parties also pack a punch. Like most clubs that cater to a 10-hour workday vocation, the parties get harder as they grow fewer.