Allen, Brady & Marsh Advertising (Enterprise)

From the collection of

East Anglian Film Archive at the University of East Anglia

The East Anglian Film Archive, the UK's first regional film archive, offers a unique record of the East of England's social and cultural history. As part of the University of East Anglia, we continue to lead moving image heritage research and inspire audience participation through community projects and events. Our collections represent a broad range of amateur and professional creativity, from 1896 to the present day.

Allen, Brady & Marsh Advertising (Enterprise)

East Anglian Film Archive at the University of East Anglia
1979-07-05
Sound
23m

Cameras! Lights! Clapperboard! Documentary about the UK's top ad agency in 1979, Allen Brady & Marsh, and its quirky Chairman Peter Marsh.

An Anglia TV documentary about the successful Allen, Brady & Marsh advertising company, in particular, featuring the flamboyant and self-promoting Chairman of ABM, Peter Marsh, who loved quirky and highly theatrical pitch presentations that not everyone in the advertising world approved of, but nonetheless secured big name clients such as Woolworths and British Rail.

In 1965, Peter Marsh joined Rod Allen and Mike Brady to start Allen, Brady & Marsh advertising. At the time of this Anglia TV documentary in 1979, ABM had grown to become a top ten UK agency, the fastest-growing ad agency in Europe.

Near Your Local Cinema

Local goods for local people! Screen advertising wasn’t all national brands and chain stores.

Purpose-built cinemas began appearing around Britain shortly before WWI, booming in popularity during the War and developing into the ‘picture palaces’ of the 1920s - when adverts jostled for space alongside newsreels before the main feature. Local businesses were quick to see the potential of a big screen and a captive audience to promote their wares.

While they didn’t have access to the budgets of the national brands, regionally-specific businesses had the benefit of that personal touch. Products and services evolved over time, but that scratchy ad for your local Indian restaurant, so integral to the cinema-going experience into the 1990s, had its roots in the booming entrepreneurship of the industry many decades before.