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 Brexit, HFSS and gambling advertising, data and e-privacy, trust, the digital charter and our Industrial Strategy campaigns.

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 50 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.

Ad Matters 08.10.21

/ October 8th 2021 / Ellie Mason
Industry News

TRUST IS A MUST!

Wednesday marked an important day as we had the pleasure of holding our Trust Summit at the Curzon Soho in London. We were delighted to see 120 of you attending in person – and many more online in our hybrid event hosted alongside the IPA and ISBA. Tackling the decline in public trust in advertising has been a real focus for the AA’s Trust Working Group and the event heard the latest research from Credos showing signs of improvement for our industry.

The morning was excellently steered by AA chair Philippa Brown, featuring progress on the all-important Trust Action Plan from IPA and ISBA’s Paul Bainsfair and Phil Smith. We also heard from the Advertising Standards Authority’s Guy Parker who outlined why a UK-wide awareness campaign for the regulator might be the trust key the public needs showing signs of improvement for our industry. A lively line-up including a panel focusing on the power of creative advertising meant the event was full of memorable takeaways, in particular Fernando Kahane from Walkers who discussed the thinking behind the ‘CrispIN or CrispOUT’ campaign – with a divisive debate around crisp sandwiches!

The event ended on a poignant note, as Keith Weed delivered his final speech as AA President, where he revisited his ‘Trust or Bust’ ultimatum, and explained why Trust is still a Must for the industry.

Thanks so much to all our speakers and attendees who brought the event to life! You can read more about the day and look at the event gallery here. The summit was also covered widely in the media, including in The Drum, Campaign, Mediatel, Creative Brief and many more.

MEDIA SMART TIKS THE BOX FOR TEENS

On Tuesday, Media Smart – our industry’s non-profit educational programme – and TikTok launched a collection of new resources at TikTok’s Transparency Forum, which was attended by over 1,000 people. The resources aim to help 13-17-year-olds understand how advertising works on the platform, as well as the best ways to keep safe.

Home to seemingly endless sources of creativity, connection and information, TikTok is an inspiring and entertaining place, but it is important to remember that it also has a commercial purpose. The resources will be used to educate young people about this commercial side and teach them how to identify TikTok adverts, how brands and creators have to behave on TikTok and what safety tools are available to help manage their TikTok experience.

Rachel Barber-Mack, Director of Media Smart UK, commented: “We have worked with some incredible TikTok Creators to ensure the subject is brought to life in the most authentic way possible through TikTok style films. These will be played in classrooms across the country, as well as on the platform – reaching and educating millions of young people in the process.”

You can read more here. Find the resources, including the film ‘TikTok: Adverts, Creators and You’, which features successful TikTok creators, on Media Smart’s website here.

RESET SWEEPS SILVER

Boom! We landed runner-up prize for Best Virtual Event at this week’s Association Excellence Awards for RESET2021 – our industry event in partnership with the IPA and ISBA. Huge thanks to all involved in making that happen but in particular our Head of Events, Suzanne Costello and the team. The Association of the Year award when to the National Association of Funeral Directors. We know first hand how an association becomes the epicentre during a crisis and we can only begin to imagine what our peers in that industry have dealt with these past 18 months. So, congrats to them and here’s to associations across the U.K. representing the interests of their industries in the most powerful way.

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