About us

The Advertising Association (“AA”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is the data controller for the personal data we process. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 211587 with our registered office at 5^th Floor, 95 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4JF.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Email us at: aa@adassoc.org.uk

Or write to us at: Advertising Association, 5th Floor, 95 Aldwych, Strand, London, WC2B 4JF.

What data do we collect?                                           

The type of personal data that we collect and use depends on the relationship you have with the Advertising Association, why you are interacting with us and the type of services or products you want us to provide to you. This data may include, for example:

• personal identification information, such as name, email address, phone number, organisation, job title;
• contact details, such as work or mailing address;
• attendance of Advertising Association events;
• any other personal data we may obtain through you interacting with us

How do we collect your data?

You directly provide us with most of the data we collect. We collect data and process data when you:

• become a member of the Advertising Association
• become a member of Front Foot
• become an All In Champion
• become a supporter of Ad Net Zero
• become a supporter of Ad Green
• become a member of UK Advertising Exports Group (UKAEG)
• register for newsletters on our website
• send us enquiries
• book on and attend our events, courses and other activities
• voluntarily complete a customer survey or provide feedback via email
• use or view our website via your browser’s cookies
• otherwise provide us with personal data
• and via analytics software such as Google analytics and/or Facebook pixel

The Advertising Association may also receive your data indirectly from the following sources:

• Trade association members

How will we use your data?

The Advertising Association collects your data so that we can:

• Create a web account on our website.
• Email you with newsletters and events.
• Record your attendance at events.
• Send member value reports.
• Publish research papers.

The Advertising Association will share your data with our sister organisations.

• Ad Net Zero
• Front Foot
• Media Smart UK

If there is information which of historical value then there may be data shared with the History of Advertising Trust, which was set up to protect the heritage of UK advertising history, for archiving purposes.

The lawful bases we rely on to process your data 

We will only use your personal data in compliance with the law. Most commonly, where:

• It is necessary for our legitimate interests and those interests do not override your interests or fundamental rights. Our legitimate interests are in acting as membership organisation representing its members and ensuring that we are able to provide our members with the services they expect from us. For example, we have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data in order to help you set up and maintain your web account, to enable you to participate in our events and other activities, receive newsletter from us and respond to your enquiries.  You can find out about your right to object to our processing of your personal data when we rely on our legitimate interests in our “What are your data protection rights?” section.
• We need to perform a contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you. For example, if you purchase a product or service from us, we will need to process your personal data in order to fulfil that contract.
• We need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. For example, we may be required to share your personal data with any legal or regulatory authority to which we are subject.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data, though we may seek to do so on certain occasions. For example, we may need to ask for your explicit consent before we can process any special category (i.e. sensitive) personal data, such as information about your health or racial or ethnic origin. If we do, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can find out more about your right to withdraw your consent in our “What are your data protection rights?” section.

International transfers of data

Generally, we process your personal data within the UK. If we need to share your personal data with suppliers outside of the UK, we will ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it as if it were being processed within the UK and will only transfer to countries that have UK data adequacy decision in place. In the absence of a UK data adequacy decision, we will rely on Standard Contractual Clauses to safeguard your data.

How do we look after your data?

We have put in place appropriate security measures to help prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have also put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

What are your data protection rights?

We would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

The right to access – You have the right to request for copies of your personal data. Depending on the amount of effort required we may charge you a small fee for this service.

The right to rectification – You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request us to complete information you believe is incomplete.

The right to erasure – You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to us processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to data portability – You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organisation, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us. You can learn more about your data protection rights by visiting the Information Commissioner’s Office website, here.

Cookies

For information about how we use cookies, please see our separate cookie policy.

Privacy policies of other websites

The Advertising Association website contains links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.

How to contact the appropriate authority

Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that the Advertising Association has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, please contact us in the first instance. However, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at any time.

Changes to our privacy policy

The Advertising Association keeps its privacy policy under yearly review and places any updates on this page. Please check back yearly to ensure you remain up to date with our latest privacy policy.

This privacy policy was last updated on 13 Mar 2025.