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.

MEMBER CONTENT

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS: 9 OCTOBER 2020

/ October 9th 2020 / Noa Cohen
Industry News

This has been a full week in AA (virtual) towers! Our public affairs activities have hopped around from Holyrood to Brussels.

Brexit

On Wednesday members were treated to a Brexit insight session from Konrad Shek, our Deputy Director for Policy & Regulation. He covered the progression of the negotiations as we approach the end of the transition period and provided analysis of some key implications for our industry surrounding trade in services, mobility and data transfers.

Konrad was also the sole industry voice quoted in a Department for International Trade’s announcement on Wednesday alongside DIT Secretary of State Liz Truss. DIT confirmed that UK businesses will be able to continue bidding for public sector contracts as a member of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) from 1 January 2021. You can read more about what the GPA is and why it’s important for the industry on the AA site here or see Konrad’s statement in situ on the Government’s website here.

Scotland

AA Scotland members held an exclusive roundtable call with Fiona Hyslop MSP yesterday, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture. Members discussed the need to keep advertising production running despite the tightening of restrictions in Scotland, concerns around production insurance, possible incentives to encourage businesses to advertise and the development of skills across the industry.

Europe

This week the Advertising Information Group (AIG), the European tripartite organisation for which the AA is Secretariat, was interviewed by Politico on its position concerning an own-initiative report in the European Parliament. The report contains statements about the role of advertising and calls for advertising restrictions and an EU advertising tax. We continue to engage with MEPs regarding the report and wrote to several yesterday outlining concerns and urging them to vote against aspects of the report which could have unintended consequences for advertisers, consumers, and economic recovery.