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.

A A A

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.

Trust Summit 2021

/ October 7th 2021
Industry News

On Wednesday we had the pleasure of welcoming over 120 attendees in person and 60 online at the Trust Summit, our hybrid event, hosted alongside the IPA and ISBA. The event featured research from UK advertising thinktank, Credos, focusing on ‘Rebuilding Public Trust in UK Advertising’, showcasing how public trust in advertising has seen signs of improvement recently and offering tangible ways for the industry to continue to increase this.

The AA’s Chair, Philippa Brown of PHD, opened and hosted, followed by Paul Bainsfair, IPA, and Phil Smith, ISBA, who gave a joint keynote reviewing the progress made on the Trust Action Plan which was launched in 2018. The ASA’s Guy Parker then talked us through the results of the ASA test campaign in Scotland, reviewing how a UK-wide awareness campaign for the regulator could effectively  improve public attitudes towards advertising.

Fernando Kahane of Walkers Snacks discussed the thinking behind the ‘CrispIN or CrispOUT’ campaign, which was awarded as April’s The Works ad, and the important role of the crisp sandwich! Lynne Deason of Kantar, Helen Jeremiah of Boots and Russell Parsons of Marketing Week discussed how creativity is inspired by public insight and celebrated advertising the public loves.

Margaret Jobling of NatWest shared how their advertising campaigns have worked this past decade to help rebuild customer trust in the banking sector. The summit was wrapped up with a keynote by our President, Keith Weed, who focused on the industry’s progress in rebuilding public trust in advertising and what we need to do next.

A huge thanks goes to everyone who attended and of course our brilliant speakers – it was great to see you all in person and online. We hope to see everyone again very soon!

If you are a member, you can download the full Trust Report here.

You can check out some pictures from the event below…