advertising matters 11.01.19

Sign up for Sprintathon!

Our very own Front Foot Chair, Mark Evans, is the brains behind Sprintathon, a genius way to run a sub-two hour marathon and raise money for Stand Up To Cancer in the process.

This summer, ad land will get its own version courtesy of Campaign, and the AA’s team is already in training for what is set to be a brilliant event. We hope many of our friends across the industry will be getting involved and sending teams along too.

It will take place at the Olympic Park Community Track on 25th July. More details can be found here. 

HFSS media coverage

There was significant coverage this week in London media on the Mayor’s plans to ban HFSS advertising on the TfL estate, due to come into force in February. The Evening Standard published a story on this Tuesday, leading with the headline: “Ads for butter, olive oil and pesto could face Tube ban in war on junk food”, followed by the sub header: “Despite £13m-a-year cost in lost revenue for deficit-hit TfL”.

The AA is quoted at the end of the article, which puts forward a counter-argument to the Mayor’s narrative. London Assembly Member Andrew Boff and the IEA’s Christopher Snowdon were also both quoted. You can also read Stephen’s full statement on our website here.

This article generated further interest from media, with our Communications Director Matt Bourn appearing on the BBC Radio London Drivetime show on Tuesday evening to discuss the story. He highlighted the low number of children exposed to such advertisements on the Underground, the inefficacy of the restrictions, and the ability of advertising to assist in the fight against childhood obesity. You can listen to the piece here at about 1 hour 40m in.

Trading on our success

Back in November the International Trade Committee launched an inquiry into UK trade in services. The inquiry seeks to examine the main barriers faced by UK services exporters, how the UK should seek to liberalise international trade in services, including negotiating international agreements, and potential domestic policy implications.

Following this, we have drafted a response and it is in the process of soliciting feedback before being submitted for the Committee’s deadline of 21 January. The Inquiry’s terms of reference can be found here.

If we can, you can!

The Department for International Trade (DIT) are currently looking for candidates from the creative industries sector for potential inclusion in their ‘If we can, you can’ campaign, which aims to promote UK exports and show how exporting is possible in our sector.

If you would like to be put forward and have information detailing your export capabilities and a campaign that you made for a global client, please let the comms team know and we can put you forward for potential inclusion in the campaign.

Promote UK – your industry needs you

The  Advertising Association and its members are working in partnership with DIT through the Promote UK group to support and grow exports for advertising and marketing communication services, encourage inward investment and secure access to the best possible talent for your company.

To inform this work, we’re asking all providers of advertising and marketing communications services to complete this survey before 28/01/2019. The results of the survey will provide vital insight into our sector’s performance, both at home and abroad, and we strongly encourage you to take part.

If you would like to find out more about the Promote UK initiative and how it can benefit your company, please visit the website here.

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