Well, we did it – eventually! Over 15 years since Baillie Marshall ceased to exist, directors, staff, clients, associates and partners met, some for the first time in 20 years, at a reunion in the Apex Hotel in Dundee on Saturday 15 January 2011.
Baillie Marshall Limited was formed in 1980, when we merged the two local companies Dundee-based Baillie Marshall (Peter Baillie, Jim Marshall and Chic Harper) and Tayport-based ArtWorkShop (Jim Greig and George Gall).
In the 1980s, Baillie Marshall became a phenomenon. We quickly grew from being a provincial design company into a national advertising agency that was handling press, TV and radio for TSB Scotland, Scottish Gas, British Midland Airways, United Biscuits, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and others.
Baillie Marshall diversified and became Balgray Communications Group, adding financial marketing, interior design and PR companies, with offices in Dundee, Edinburgh and London, and a printing company in Perth. By the late 1980s, we were Scotland’s largest, independent, communications network, employing over 200 people, with a turnover in excess of £12m per annum.
From 1995, while the business itself continued under the name of Greenfinch Design, the name of Baillie Marshall ceased to exist, so this first reunion of directors, staff, clients, associates and partners – 56 in total – was the very first time that many people had seen each other for 15 to 20 years. People came from all over the UK – from as far as Brighton and Granton-on-Spey – to attend. Drinks and conversation flowed until 5am on Sunday morning. A good time was had by all.
To aid recognition, everyone received a name badge on arrival, as well as a number of small badges featuring photographs of design and advertising work from the Baillie Marshall portfolio. You’ll see me standing in the centre of the above photograph, wearing a number of those badges.
Elaine, my good wife, standing on a table, took the photograph so obviously couldn’t be in it so, thanks to Photoshop, I have since ensured that she and her the red shoes did make an appearance!
Having organised the event, I could probably have been forgiven for taking longer than I’d expected to deliver the welcoming speech. However, the audience appeared to enjoy the subsequent dvd that I’d put together of our design work, TV commercials and promotional videos, that played all night, to help jog memories and prompt conversation.
Other directors also in the photo are Peter Baillie (front right, with stick), Jim Marshall (back centre with white beard), George Gall (the head between mine and Jim Marshall’s), Douglas McArthur (to the right of Jim) and Brian Helmore (the head directly above Peter). Unfortunately, fellow director, Jim Greig, couldn’t make it from the French Alps, where he now resides, but he did manage to send us a video message.
We also received numerous emailed greetings from former BM employees who now live or are currently working abroad, wishing they could have attended this inaugural event.
Other Baillie Marshall employees in our photograph (above) who went on from Baillie Marshall to form and lead their own companies are Jackie Malcolm, Arc Visual Communications (front row, 3rd from left), David Campbell, Campbell & Co (next to Jackie), Derek Souter, DJS Marketing (back centre, left of Jim Marshall), Colin Docherty, Reflex Blue (back, left of Derek), Dougie Gibson, It’s All Good (left of Colin) and Derek Stewart, Big Picture (centre, left of George Gall).
Clients who attended were David Kells (Capital Foods), Roy McGregor and Terry Cooper (TSB Scotland), Sandy Morris (Landmark Furnishing), Jo Stewart (D S Crawford Group), Robin Pollok (Simmers Biscuits) and Bert Lumsden (Dunfermline Autocentre).
The whole evening – and early hours of the morning – were so enjoyable, I do hope we won’t have to wait another 15 to 20 years until our next gathering! Below are a few more snaps taken on the night.