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.

THIS WEEK: UK ADVERTISING IN THE MEDIA

/ March 12th 2021
Industry News

In this weekly series we pull together, in one place, a selection of must-reads from across our industry media. Hope you find it a useful edit of another week in advertising!

DCM restructures team after fresh Bond film delay

Biggest UK cinema sales house remains ‘extremely confident’ about medium’s future after pandemic.

John Lewis plots local strategy amid ‘economic earthquake’ of Covid

The partnership is hoping to recover from a severe loss with a strategy focused on local stores, a new pricing structure and closer integration between the John Lewis and Waitrose brands.

The Moon Falls to Earth in this Dreamy OnePlus Ad from Mother Shanghai

The Greatest Showman director, Michael Gracey, shoots a whimsical reverse lunar landing to introduce OnePlus and Hasselblad partnership.

TSB recruits Post Office’s Emma Springham as chief marketer

Springham has previously worked for Barclays and Allianz.

WPP reports modest cut in overall gender pay gap at UK agencies

80% of WPP companies in the UK have cut their gender pay gaps according to 2019 and 2020 figures released by the group.

WPP makes £2.8bn annual loss after Covid hits value of agencies

Impairment relates to “historic acquisitions”.

Tony Davidson to depart W&K London after two decades of leadership

Agency is searching for new creative leaders to replace Davidson and Iain Tait.

The Moments

A film called The Moments created by Cannes Lions including UK winning work.

Pet Shop Boys in £5m drive for safer smart motorways

Highways England turned to the Pet Shop Boys and a couple of singing flies yesterday as part of a £5 million campaign designed to improve safety on smart motorways.

How ‘vice’ industries have worked their way back into public favour

How have alcohol and fast food brands made themselves respectable? By behaving better and marketing more ethically for a start.

Uncommon and PHD scoop top prizes at Campaign Agency of the Year Awards

The agency founded in 2017 won the top gong for the first time.

Smashing the cookie jar could give even more power to Google

Within a year one of the cornerstones of the internet will be consigned to history. Apple and Google have called time on the technology that tracks our movements as we flit from one website to the next.

Kevin Ellis: Britain is great for business . . . we must keep it that way

Perceptions of Britain matter. Exactly a year since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, our standing on the world stage couldn’t be more critical. Foreign investment is important to the economy, creating more than 56,000 new jobs between 2019 and 2020, according to the Department of Trade and Industry.

Struggling mums see the funny side in Maltesers ads

It is the Mars brand’s latest campaign acknowledging the diversity of women’s experiences.

Female marketers suffer pay gap blow as Covid hits careers

The twin challenges of Covid-19 and an entrenched gender pay gap are harming the ability of female marketers to earn at an equal level to their male peers, at the same time as exclusive Marketing Week data reveals the salary gap widening the more senior they become.

Media buyers split over how strongly UK ad market will bounce back

Estimates by major advertisers’ media buyers for Q2 growth vary significantly.

ITV eyes 75% April advertising boost after Covid-19 slump

Total ad revenue fell 11% last year despite boom in VOD ad spending.

ITV ‘to top six figures’ for ads in Harry and Meghan interview

The ‘tell-all’ interview with Oprah Winfrey is being sold as a ‘special buy’.

‘Sneaky sexism’ is on the rise in advertising

Much has been said about the need to eradicate out-of-date portrayals of women from advertising yet the problem is far from fixed, with new research laying bare the extent of the problem.

In a Gender-Spectrumed Future, Will Marketing to Women Be a Thing of the Past?

A report from BBH considers today’s F-word: a guide to modern femininity and its marketing.