The Advertising Association promotes the role and rights of responsible advertising and its value to people, society, businesses and the economy. We represent UK advertisers, agencies, media owners and tech companies on behalf of the entire industry, acting as the connection between industry professionals and the politicians and policy-makers.

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The Advertising Association focuses on major industry and policy areas that have huge ramifications on UK advertising. This section contains our work around public health, gambling advertising, data and e-privacy, trust, the digital economy and more.

Credos is the advertising industry’s independent think tank. It produces research, evidence and reports into the impact and effectiveness of and public and political response to advertising on behalf of UK advertisers in order to enable the industry to make informed decisions.

Front Foot is our industry’s member network of over 90 businesses across UK advertising. It aims to promote the role of responsible advertising and its value to people, society and the economy through a coalition of senior leaders from advertisers, agencies and media owners.

We run a number of events throughout the year, from our annual LEAD summit to the Media Business Course and regular breakfast briefings for our members. We are also the official UK representative for the world’s biggest festival of creativity – Cannes Lions.

advertising matters 03.08.18

/ August 3rd 2018
Advertising Matters

Take a WARC on the wild side

On Tuesday the latest AA/WARC Expenditure Report for Q1 2018 was released and contained some very promising results for our industry. UK adspend rose by 5.9% year-on-year, reaching £5.7bn and marking the 19th consecutive quarter of market growth. The figure is 1.3 percentage points (pp) ahead of forecast.

Key findings indicate Q1 2018 was the strongest first quarter in three years. Print display ad revenue for national newsbrands rose for the first time in seven years. Radio recorded its strongest growth in four years; while internet, out of home and TV were all positive during the quarter.

Adspend growth forecasts for this year and next have been upgraded, by 0.6pp to 4.8% and 0.7pp to 4.5% respectively. If proved correct, this would conclude a decade of continuous growth, and result in investment of over £24bn in 2019.

Our Chief Executive Stephen Woodford commented:

“Our latest advertising expenditure figures reflect the resilience of the wider UK economy… If Government can secure a good outcome from the Brexit negotiations and introduce a business-friendly immigration policy, we should continue to see sustained UK market growth and continued export success for advertising.”

News of the report was covered by The Guardian, City A.M, Campaign and The Drum among others. You can read the report and find more information on our website here.

The need for Weed at LEAD

We have just announced that our new AA President Keith Weed will be a headline speaker at LEAD 2019, which will take place Jan 30 and focus on Trust, Trade & Transformation.

We’re already super excited by some of the great sessions and speakers we have planned for you and tickets are on sale now.

Well done to those of you who have already bagged your tickets for what will be the key industry event to open 2019. Watch this space for further announcements and head here to secure your place at the ad event of the year.

Watch highlights LEAD 2018 here

More reports to ad to the pile…

As Parliament goes into recess, a flurry of Select Committee reports have been published. The DCMS Committee issued an interim report this week regarding disinformation and ‘fake news’.

A few of its key recommendations called on websites to identify and prevent illegal election campaigning from overseas; for an educational levy on social media companies to fund digital literacy education in schools; and for sponsors to be clearly defined in digital campaigns.

The Commons Home Affairs Committee issued an interim report on future migration from the European Economic Area. Key recommendations were: For a public consultation to take place before the Migration Advisory Committee releases its report later this year and to scrap and replace current net immigration targets.

Additionally, Lord Gilbert of Panteg, Chair of the Lords Comms Committee, wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock on the proposed consultation on introducing a 9pm watershed for HFSS advertising. He said the committee feels the measure is disproportionate and that more evidence is needed of its effect on the quality of content. You can read the letter here and the Government’s plan of action regarding childhood obesity here.

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