Ad Pays 7: Steve Hatch – What does the future hold?

In the recent Ad Pays 7 report from the industry’s think tank Credos on UK advertising’s digital revolution, a series of leading figures from across UK advertising were asked the question: As the digitalisation of advertising continues to develop what is the most important challenge and the most important opportunity for your business?

In the fourth of of a series of extracts from the leaders’ answers to the question we are featuring the response of Steve Hatch, VP, Northern Europe, Facebook.

Steve Hatch – VP, Northern Europe, Facebook

“Technology and digital advertising are a force for good — for people, businesses, and economies. I truly believe that, and I’m proud to be a part of this industry.

I also believe that the most important opportunity that the digitalisation of advertising has created is a levelling of the playing field for businesses of all sizes. This helps businesses grow, creates jobs, and strengthen communities.

Thanks to digital advertising, small businesses — which create most of the jobs and economic growth around the world — get access to tools that help them thrive. According to research from Ipsos Mori, for small business that use digital technology to export, half of them have been able to employ new people as a result of that.

But it’s also helping established business as well. For major brands, it’s allowed them to be closer to their customers and serve them better than ever before. It’s enabled businesses of all sizes to respect people’s time, to not bombard them with irrelevant advertising, but instead create relevant and meaningful experiences.

What this means is that digital advertising is an incredible force for good that drives growth. Its accessibility to companies of all sizes is enabling ideas to be exported around the world. It’s helping to grow their organisations and employees, as well as to grow their brands.

This is the power of digital advertising, it has a real-world economic impact. We take that responsibility and the part we play in it very seriously.

The challenge that we face as an industry is to make sure that we are doing this responsibly, and that the pace of change doesn’t move faster than consumer understanding. We have to work together to ensure, enforce and act responsibly with this new power that belongs to the advertiser, whatever their size and wherever they advertise.

It may feel like a challenging time, but we mustn’t lose our optimism. We mustn’t lose our passion to build digital advertising for good, which is what brought us here in the first place for the benefit of people, businesses and society.”