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.

AA comment on the budget’s commitment to funding skills development

/ October 27th 2021
Advertising and the UK Economy

Following today’s (Oct 27) budget announcement, we issued a joint statement with the Data & Marketing Association and Market Research Society calling on the Government to commit a portion of the increased Skills funding to industry-led training programmes and digital skills development.

AA Chief Executive, Stephen Woodford, commented:

“While today’s budget commits additional funding to skills development, the government now has an opportunity to provide effective training programmes developed by trade bodies and professional associations – by employers for employers. That is why the Data & Marketing Association, Market Research Society and the Advertising Association propose a portion of the increased funding for the National Skills Fund should be dedicated to support industry-led jobs and training programmes to strength the UK’s economic recovery from coronavirus and address the digital skills crisis.

“There is a desperate shortage of digital marketing and advertising talent. AA research shows that £1 spent on advertising generates £6 of GDP. For this investment to be successful it is critical that digital marketers know how to plan a campaign, determine the right channel strategy and can create compelling content that engages their customers.”