Advertising Matters 26.04.19

Putting Trust up Front (Foot)

Yesterday morning, members of our Front Foot network came together for our latest Front Foot Breakfast to tackle the crucial issue of excessive frequency and bombardment in advertising.

We know from recent research from the industry’s think tank Credos that public trust in advertising is in a long-term decline, and issues of excessive frequency and bombardment are key factors in this downward trend.

Our Chief Executive Stephen Woodford opened the breakfast event by putting the scale of the problem into context, noting that only cross-industry collaboration will restore pubic trust in advertising. Mark Evans, Front Foot Chair, then outlined the scope of the work undertaken since the last Front Foot Breakfast:

“The first half of this year has really been about providing visibility around the trust agenda, and it’s travelled really far and wide. For those at LEAD, you saw that was the lead message, particularly through Keith Weed. In [his] word’s, it’s ‘trust or bust’”.

Attendees were encouraged to discuss in groups potential solutions to the issue which would then be fed into the next stages of work. There was an acknowledgement among both the speakers and attendees that the issue of trust isn’t one that can be solved overnight – it will take a lot of collaborative effort to restore public favourability towards advertising.

You can read the full write up here and download the Trust report here.

FOMO for the Promo

On Wednesday, the latest meeting of our Promote UK group was held at AA Towers. The industry group’s aim in partnership with DIT is to further position the UK as the global hub for advertising and it marked its year anniversary in March.

Last month also saw the group organise the first UK Advertising Exports Month, with trade missions to the US, China, Japan, and industry’s first Exports Report was launched at Ad Week Europe. This week’s meeting reflected on the success of Exports Month, with coverage secured in 173 media articles, 130k article views, and 795 shares across social media referencing the campaign. The group’s actions now move onto Cannes Lions and ensuring the UK makes a memorable mark at the world’s leading festival of creativity.

Ten Lords ad-leaping

On Thursday, Lord Gilbert of Panteg, Chair of the Lords Communications Committee led a debate on the Committee’s report on “UK advertising in a digital age”. Recommendations in the report included the need for Government support in ensuring the industry continues to have access to the best talent domestically and abroad – an issue that the AA has raised several times, notably in our Ad Pays 6 report “World class talent, world class advertising”, as well as to Government during the Brexit negotiations. The challenges and opportunities of the digitalisation of the industry were also discussed, including the difficulties posed to the current system of regulation in a fast moving digital marketplace.

The AA was also name-checked by Lord Gilbert in his opening speech, where he referenced figures published in in March in our first UK Advertising Exports Report: “According to the AA, the industry’s trade body, the UK now exports £6.9bn per year in ad services around the world, representing faster growth than the average for service exports”.

You can see a video of the debate here.

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