Advertising Matters 31.01.20

UNVEILING OUR NEW MISSION

Yesterday morning we held our flagship industry summit – LEAD 2020 – at the QEII Centre in Westminster. LEAD is always a highlight of our calendar, but yesterday was particularly significant as our Chief Executive Stephen Woodford launched our brand new mission – to promote the role and rights of responsible advertising and its value to people, society, businesses and the economy. Reflecting this, responsible advertising was the focus of LEAD 2020 and will be at the top of our agenda going forward, alongside our commitment to rebuilding public trust in advertising and ensuring advertising is a key driver of competition, innovation and growth.

Huge thanks go to our partners – Teads, Spotify, News UK and Advertising Week Europe – for all of their support, our fantastic speakers and everyone who came along to join us. It was a great success and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. You can read more on our new mission here and for more snippets from LEAD 2020, check out our Twitter page here.

You can also read a piece by our President Keith Weed on Advertising’s new age of responsibility in Campaign here, more on a conversation session he had with VP & MD UK & Ireland, of Google, Ronan Harris here and a round-up of the ICO’s Simon McDougall’s keynote here.

ADVERTISING’S SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION

Our new mission wasn’t the only thing to be launched at LEAD 2020 yesterday morning, as our very own Karen Fraser MBE, Director of Credos, launched the latest report in our Advertising Pays series – Advertising Pays 8: UK Advertising’s Social Contribution – which includes major research commissioned by our industry’s think tank on the public and advertising industry’s views on the social impact of our industry.

This theme reflects our new mission statement and the research demonstrates the opportunity that exists for us to rebuild declining public trust in our industry through advertising that makes a clear social contribution. Outlining what consumers want to see from advertising, the report reveals that 42% of adults believe that advertising can help make the world a better place and 46% of the public already feel that advertising has a positive impact on society.

You can download your copy of the report here, read more in The Drum here and in  Little Black Book here.

WHERE ADVERTISING MEETS POLITICS

LEAD is billed as the place ‘where advertising meets politics’ and this year was no different. Minister for Business and Enterprise, Nadhim Zahawi MP, gave the opening keynote at the event where he highlighted the importance of services in the forthcoming trade negotiations with the EU and pointed to the value of our new UK Advertising Exports Group. He also urged businesses to do more to encourage diversity and inclusion in the workplace, noting that the issue was a “matter of fairness” that all should address. Former Speaker of the House of Commons Rt Hon. John Bercow also gave a keynote address at LEAD where he discussed Brexit and its potential implications for the country.

You can read more on the Rt Hon John Bercow’s keynote in Campaign here and Nadhim Zahawi MP’s via BITE here.

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