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.

AD MATTERS 10.09.21

/ September 10th 2021 /
Advertising Matters

UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF CREATIVITY

And we’re back in the room! Yesterday we welcomed around 100 in-person attendees and 100 online to our first hybrid event, Cannes Lions Unlocked, at the Curzon Soho. It was hosted by Aisling Conlon, with a fantastic line-up of speakers.

First up, Cannes Lions’ Phil Thomas talked about the last two years of the festival, the achievements of Team UK and the growing importance of partnerships in the best award-winning work. Then Alex Jenkins from Contagious cantered through 2020 and 2021’s smartest award-winning campaigns in a fascinating bumper session full of insights.

We were also treated to a fantastic presentation from AMV BBDO’s Nick Hulley and Najja Lossgott, who win an astonishing 4 Grand Prix at Cannes Lions this year for their ground-breaking campaign, ‘Womb Stories’. A campaign which is the latest in a series of campaigns that strives to break taboos about women’s bodies and health.

A special thanks to all who came and our brilliant speakers – it was great to see you all in person and virtually! We hope to see you again very soon… speaking of which…

THE NEXT DATE FOR YOUR DIARY

October 6. That’s when our Trust Working Group, chaired by the IPA and ISBA Director Generals – Paul Bainsfair and Phil Smith – will hold a half-day summit dedicated to the topic of public trust in advertising.

We will review the latest research on the UK public’s trust of advertising, the progress on the Trust Action Plan and the next steps for system change in the industry. It will take place in-person at the Curzon Soho and streamed online.

Our Chief Executive, Stephen Woodford, says: “This is a critical moment for us to take stock on where the public is at with the work of our industry, the levers we can pull to rebuild trust and favourability and the opportunities this will bring to all advertising professionals wishing to create great work that fulfils the economic and social responsibilities of advertising.”

Read more about the Trust Summit on our website, in Little Black Book and New Digital Age. Book your ticket here.

TODAY IS BLACK TO FRONT DAY

Huge credit to our member, Channel 4, who are running the Black To Front takeover today as part of their ongoing commitment to improve Black representation on-screen and more widely in the TV industry. It’s a must-watch and we’re loving it already here at the AA!

You can read more about Black to Front here and find the days’ TV schedule here.

KEEP ON RUNNING

Less than a week to go until The Marketing Society’s Sprintathon in aid of Stand Up To Cancer and we are super excited to be taking part!

The event in Battersea Park Next Wednesday involves brands, agencies and media owners who are all putting teams forward for the two-hour event. It will take 105 teams of four runners, each completing a relay of 400m back-to-back, to collectively cover 42.2km, the distance of a marathon!

Our team of runners consists of Holly Bullen, Executive Assistant; Nick Oliverio, Credos’ Research & Insights Manager; Bobbie Dennie, Policy & Public Affairs Executive; and Irene Gari, Ad Net Zero Intern. Go team AA!

To make a donation please visit our fundraising page here. Thank you!

AD OF THE WEEK

You’ve made it this far – why not treat yourself and watch our ad of the week?

Want the full edition to land in your inbox every Friday? Drop us an email on aa@adassoc.org.uk and quote ‘Ad Matters’.