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.

MEMBER CONTENT

Ad Pays 8: UK advertising’s social contribution

Ad Pays Reports Ad Pays Series

The latest in the Advertising Pays series of reports, which examine our industry’s economic and social contribution, has been launched at LEAD 2020. Advertising Pays 8: UK Advertising’s Social Contribution focuses on the many ways that industry supports social good across the UK. The report has been written by advertising’s think tank, Credos, and includes brand new consumer research into the public’s thoughts on our industry and the contribution it makes to UK society. Download the report via the box on the right.

Advertising Pays 8 includes real-world case studies that demonstrate our industry’s social contribution in action. This can range from inventory donated to good causes, to health and well being campaigns, and the many hours dedicated by industry professionals to CSR activities. We gathered an extensive number of case studies during our research for Ad Pays 8 and have created a special online hub to showcase the campaigns we studied. We will grow this on an ongoing basis, so head over to our hub and learn more from examples of our industry’s social contribution.

The report’s focus reflects the Advertising Association’s new mission statement, which was also launched at LEAD 2020. In the new statement, the Advertising Association pledges: To promote the role and rights of responsible advertising and its value to people, society, businesses and the economy.

The report also shows the opportunity that exists to rebuild declining public trust in our industry through advertising that makes a clear social contribution. This can range from media inventory donated to good causes to the pro-bono work of world-class creative agencies, and from the advertising campaigns that promote behaviour change nationwide to the thousands of hours volunteered by UK advertising professionals in corporate social responsibility activities.

The new consumer research in the report delves into the changing expectations of what people want to see from advertising and asks if industry is being responsible enough. See two sneak peeks from the research below. The results of the research and the wider report highlight the great opportunities that exist for our industry to fulfil a critical role in shaping society for the better.

Sneak Peak
Sneak Peak

of the public already feel that advertising has a positive impact on society

46%

of adults believe advertising can help make the world a better place

42%