President’s Reception 2018 – as it happened

Last night the Advertising Association held its annual President’s Reception in London. This year’s event was especially busy, with the launch of the Advertising Association’s timeTo Code on sexual harassment and the awarding of the Mac Medal to Tess Alps in addition to the usual celebration of our activities over the past year.

The venue for our Advertising Association’s annual President’s Reception is looking great! Looking forward to welcoming our guests pic.twitter.com/drJ5KR20qn

— Ad Association (@ad_association) June 28, 2018

Our outgoing president Andy Duncan opened proceedings with a speech that highlighted the ongoing work the AA has undertaken on behalf of its members over the past year:

“This is my 5th president’s reception, time has shot by. I’m now very interested observer to some extent… but actually it was a good moment to finish off, so tonight is my final President’s Reception.

“It’s been a busy old year, and this year in particular has been a busy year for the AA. Looking back over the last year we’ve had another Ad Pays and that’s such an impressive body of work. We had a LEAD conference which was possibly one of the best yet. We had the hot topics of the year and HFSS continues to be a very hot topic… we can be pleased and proud that we’ve proactively moved the bar up ourselves. We’ve had some really good work done in setting up Promote UK with DiT.

For me as president I look back over the past four and half years… I’ve had two great chief executives. We’ve achieved some great things over the past few years. I think it’s gone from a group that’s quite parochial… and I’ve tried to encourage everyone to think about their role round that table. We have the privilege of self-managing and self-regulating our industry… fundamentally it’s about being custodians of a great industry.”

The #timeTo team proudly unveiling the Code which is being published tomorrow #advertising pic.twitter.com/9MDMBObMF0

— Matt Bourn (@MattBourn) June 28, 2018

Following that, the Advertising Association’s Chief Executive Stephen Woodford paid tribute to Andy’s time in the role, particularly noting the collaborative approach to presidency that he has promoted during his time in the role:

“It gives me huge pleasure to thank Andy Duncan for his outstanding service as President of the Advertising Association over the last four years. He has been both a dedicated champion for the industry and also a firm friend to both me and my predecessor as Chief Executive, Tim. In a few months’ time, when Andy’s term formally ends, we will hand over to a new President who we will announce soon and who will have big shoes to fill.”

timeTo launch

The assembled guests heard from speakers including our Chief Executive Stephen Woodford and president of WACL Kerry Glazer on the launch of our new campaign to tackle sexual harassment. For more information on the campaign, click here.

Mac Medal award

The awarding of the Mac Medal to Tess Alps provided the assembled guests the opportunity to pay tribute to one of the hardest-working figures in the advertising industry. The medal has been awarded only 10 times since 1980 with Richard Eyre, Chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau and former Chief Executive of ITV, being the last recipient in 2013. Other past recipients of the medal include such renowned industry figures as Jeremy Bullmore, Ron Miller, and David Bernstein.

Our outgoing president Andy Duncan awards the Mac Medal to Tess Alps: “Most people in this room will know Tess through the huge number of organisations you’re involved with.” pic.twitter.com/gHrNCfXIOr

— Ad Association (@ad_association) June 28, 2018

In accepting the award, Alps said:

“I started in advertising in 1977… for the first nine years of my life in advertising I wasn’t sure I really liked it or approved of it. Once I started to take a real interest in advertising I began to learn exactly how advertising contributes to our economy and to culture, and much of that is thanks to the Advertising Association who do such a vital job on behalf of us all.  But I’m still a hippy idealist, trying to do my bit to make advertising – the business and our output – as responsible and excellent as it can be.  I know that can make me an insufferable prig and pedantic bore at times, so sorry about that..

“I have achieved absolutely nothing on my own… I have depended on champions and colleagues and collaborators. For the last twelve years I’ve had the most remarkable support from all the broadcasters. I am truly honoured to be joining the ranks of some of the people I admire most in this industry.”