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As if holding a debate in the House of Commons wasn’t exciting enough itself, how about being there on the same evening that the next round of Indicative Votes on Brexit are taking place and semi-naked climate change protesters glue themselves to the public gallery screen? Well, that was our Monday evening!
The AA is a long-term member of The Debating Group, which has held debates in the House of Commons on politics and marketing since 1975. In collaboration with the International Advertising Association, we held a debate in Committee Room 10 that saw the advertising industry come together to debate the motion that “Despite Brexit the UK will be the pre-eminent advertising hub on the world stage post-Brexit”.
For the motion, Steve Davies, CEO of the Advertising Producers Association, opened the debate by highlighting the huge contribution of our industry talent in the UK, and recent trade missions from our Promote UK group as part of advertising’s first Export Month to Tokyo, China and the US, that demonstrate the desire that’s out there for UK ingenuity.
Following on from Steve, Sarah Jenkins, CMO of Grey London, focused on the creativity we see in the UK, saying: ‘I don’t think British advertising is too big to fail, I think it’s too creative to fall’. Sarah also stated that the increasing diversity of UK advertising will be key to its success; with a quarter of new entrants to the industry being from a BAME background, she argued that the mix of background and opinions will enable our industry to thrive.
Opposing the motion, Matthew Bloxham, Head of EMEA Media, Technology & Telecom Research, Bloomberg Intelligence, declared Britain’s future in advertising to be one of ‘second fiddle on the world stage’, with Brexit already dissuading talented European immigrants from coming here to work in our industry.
Following contributions from the floor, the final vote was up to the audience. Who do you think won the debate? Find the outcome in the write up on our website here. The event was also covered in Little Black Book here.
How can the industry tackle excessive frequency in advertising?
We know that finding a solution is vital, because according to Credos research, excessive frequency is a key factor in damaging public trust and favourability in advertising.
Answering that question will be the focus of our next Front Foot breakfast event later this month. The breakfast will bring our members from advertisers, agencies, media owners and tech companies together, to discuss potential industry-wide solutions that address the issue.
While this will not be an easy thing to fix, and we need to find an answer that works for everyone, we all have a shared common goal – to make sure that our collective behaviour does not continue to abuse the public’s trust and cause our advertising to become nothing but noise that consumers actively switch off.
If you are a member of our Front Foot network, you can join us at the offices of Jellyfish in The Shard to work together with all parts of the industry and raise, discuss and consider solutions to this issue.
To find further information and how you can register your place, click here.
We are delighted to announce that the Marketing Agencies Action Group (MAAG) has joined the AA as a member.
MAAG is a forward thinking marketing community helping to grow the capability, profitability and relevance of their member agencies through developing skills and representing their interests. You can read more about MAAG on their website here.
Our Chief Executive Stephen Woodford commented: “It is a pleasure to welcome the newly formed Marketing Agencies Action Group into AA membership. The marketing agencies in their membership are a crucial part of the advertising eco-system and it is great to see MAAG looking after their interests so ably. I am looking forward to working with MAAG through their membership of the AA as they continue to grow and represent the dynamic community of entrepreneurial marketing services agencies we have right across the UK.”
You’ve made it this far – why not treat yourself to watching 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’.
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