The Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) has terminated the membership of 17 ad agencies for failure to comply with its Boomerang Membership Accreditation Programme (BMAP).

As a condition to renew their membership, 4As members are required to achieve a certain number of points annually under BMAP, which was introduced two years ago to raise the professional standard of advertising.

Karthi Palanisamy, convenor of the BMAP, told StarBiz that the 4As council made the decision on the termination at its meeting earlier this month. "The points they achieved were very low so there was no strong grounds for appeal," he said.

This is the first time membership has been terminated for non-compliance with the BMAP.

Depending on their size, agencies must obtain between 200 and 750 points, with 60% of the points from training and 40% from service and participation in association-related events such as its AGM and the annual Kancil Awards.

Four other agencies that appealed were not terminated because they did achieve the required points but mainly in training, Karthi said.

He would not reveal which agencies were terminated but said none of them was a multinational agency.

He noted that many of the 4As' 100-plus members had accumulated BMAP points way above what was required.

"About 30% of the agencies achieved at least 150% of the points needed," he said.

Agencies that did not achieve the required points for the 12 months ended March 2011 were initially given a grace period until the middle of the year.

Those that still did not meet their target points were then given till the first week of October to appeal. Most of the non-complying agencies did not submit appeals by then.

Even after the deadline was shifted again to the end of last month, when the council was scheduled to have its monthly meeting (which was subsequently rescheduled to the middle of this month due to the Deepavali holiday), the majority of the agencies still had not appealed.

"Maybe they didn't see the value in doing so," Karthi said.

Source: The Star Online