advertising matters 12.01.18

No kerfuffle with this reshuffle!

While the Prime Minister’s Cabinet reshuffle caused some surprises/consternation/horror (delete according to your political viewpoint) across Westminster and the Twittersphere, there was a wide welcome across Ad-land for the news that Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP had been promoted to Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Congratulating Matt on his appointment, Stephen Woodford commented:

“Matt is an enthusiastic and engaged supporter of the creative industries and has a keen awareness of advertising’s vital importance to the UK economy and the global lead the UK enjoys. We look forward to working with Matt as Secretary of State for the continued success of our industry and the wider UK creative sector.”

Matt attended the AA’s Parliamentary Reception at Westminster last November as Minister for Digital, where he highlighted the success of the advertising industry. He spoke about the need for the advertising sector to continue to shout loud about the importance of the industry and the role it can play in achieving the most positive outcome from the changes brought about by Brexit.

You can read coverage of the AA’s comments on Matt’s appointment in The Drum and Marketing Week (scroll down).

Take our LEAD!

The days are fast counting down to our annual ad-world summit – LEAD – which will bring together over 300 delegates from agencies, brands and media to discuss the only game in town: Growth Beyond Brexit.

Now in its seventh year LEAD is a fast-paced morning where our speakers will engage you in debate; speculate on what the future of UK advertising holds; offer up expert viewpoints; and bring the top UK ad industry talent and politicians face-to-face. We will be focusing on supporting growth and identifying priorities for a renegotiated UK-EU relationship.

Key speakers include West Midlands Mayor Andy Street; and leading economist Vicky Pryce, alongside a host of others. It all happens on Thursday 25th January 2018, from 08.30-13.00 at Kings Place, Kings Cross, London.

Join us for what will be an excellent day! You don’t want you or your colleagues to be asking afterwards – to slightly misquote that old ad from Tourism Australia – “Where the bloody hell were you?”

You can find out more about LEAD and book tickets here.

And finally….Hope in Ad-versity

The IPA’s annual Diversity Survey was released this week and proved a bit of a curate’s egg – good in parts, not so good in others.

The findings, gathered in partnership with Campaign, showed an almost equal gender balance across agencies responding to the survey (50.5% female and 49.5% male). Media agencies are slightly more favourable towards women, while men have an edge in the make-up of creative agencies. This masks the fact that only 38.2% of department-head positions and 46.5% of other senior staff roles are currently held by women.

In terms of ethnic diversity, 12.9% of all staff come from a BAME background, a figure that has more than doubled in ten years. More positively, for those coming up the ranks, 16.4% of the most junior positions are held by colleagues from a BAME background.

IPA President Sarah Golding told Campaign: “At first glance, the immediate reaction to these figures is that they aren’t where they should be. However, while the rise in diversity doesn’t appear extreme enough or fast enough, and we have yet to achieve parity at all levels, there is an inevitable time lag from implementing change to seeing results, and we mustn’t lose heart.”

Come on guys, we can do better than this!

You’ve read the whole thing! You deserve a treat – our ad of the week: