Paul Bainsfair and Phil Smith: Arresting the decline of public trust in UK advertising

Progress report by joint chairs of the Trust Working Group – Paul Bainsfair, Director General of the IPA & Phil Smith, Director General of ISBA – from our ‘Rebuilding public trust in UK advertising‘ report. 

Our mission to rebuild public trust in advertising is ongoing.

This is why no matter where you work – whether at an agency or a brand, a media owner or a tech company – rebuilding public trust in advertising should be your top priority. We all share the same ambition. Building trusted brands is our bread and butter. Let’s remind ourselves of where we were three years ago.

The journey began at the 2019 ISBA conference when we published our findings in ‘Arresting the Decline of Public Trust in UK Advertising’. Research undertaken by Credos helped us to establish the key drivers of public trust, both positive and negative, and we developed five critical industry-wide actions in The Trust Plan:

Action 1: We will reduce advertising bombardment

Bombardment is an umbrella term for interlocking areas of concern for the public about negative aspects of their advertising experience.

This includes two strands of work – support for the IAB’s Gold Standard and to improve the digital advertising experience. Support for the Gold Standard has grown considerably since 2019 and the IAB have launched version 2.0 with additional criteria to help facilitate compliance with the GDPR and ePrivacy law. With 59 companies already certified to version 2.0 standards, including the likes of Sky, Twitter and YouTube, this initiative also has advertiser supporters on board including Unilever, Adidas, Tesco and Nationwide Building Society.

Action 2: We will reduce excessive frequency and re-targeting

The key to this action is ‘excessive’. We conducted research among eight leading marketers, eight media owner leaders and eight media agency leaders. All agreed this was a problem. The very best advertisers and their agencies manage ad frequency and re-targeting very well, to reduce the risks of both being wasteful and irritating for the public. Some progress has been made to raise awareness of the issue, yet there is more to be done to reduce this issue across many media formats. Excessive frequency continues to be a key negative driver of public trust. The Trust Working Group did extensive work in this area and the results can be seen here. In addition, ISBA promoted its ‘Advertising Experience MOT’ to its members, to help marketers and their agency partners assess how effectively they were managing this issue.

Action 3: We will ensure the ASA is ‘best in class’

The ASA system and its role in ensuring all advertising is ‘Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful’, wherever it appears, is the foundation stone of public trust in our industry. Rallying support behind the ASA’s ‘More Impact Online’ 5-year strategy has been key, and we can report that there is good progress on this. We also committed to run a test campaign for ASA public advertising in Scotland, which the campaign research showed has had a remarkable impact on public trust. This is clearly one of the key levers to pull as we rebuild public trust in advertising.

Action 4: We will ensure that data privacy matters

This action focuses on ensuring the advertising industry is as responsible as possible in the use of the public’s data. Progress on this has been slow, overshadowed by the ICO’s enquiry into digital advertising, itself postponed due to Covid-19. However, data and e-privacy are still a key focus and workstream for our industry. We can also expect more intervention via the Government’s online advertising review, the Digital Markets Unit and the review of GDPR. The proper, compliant and ethical use of the public’s data is integral to their experience of advertising.

Action 5: We will show advertising can drive social change

Advertising’s social contribution is a vital part of how the public judges our industry. Social contribution was the second-most important driver of public trust, both in the original research in 2018 and this has strengthened post-pandemic in the latest 2021 research. In January 2020, Credos published ‘Ad Pays 8: UK Advertising’s Social Contribution’, which shows the many possibilities for our industry to make meaningful contributions across many social issues. The latest studies show this remains the case – perhaps most obviously the vital health messaging work during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We do not and should not accept that decline is inevitable; positive action can make a real difference to the public’s trust in advertising. Public trust in the advertising industry has seen improvements since its 2018 low point. However, our relative position to other industries has not changed. We must aspire to improving our position in real terms, relative to other industries and return to the ‘middle of the pack’, where the AA’s tracking data showed the industry a decade ago. The ASA test campaign shows that when we tell the public the powerful story of the quality of our regulatory system, we get marked improvements in trust, so there is a clear way forward. By addressing the areas of systemic weakness and amplifying our strengths – especially in one of our key strengths, the ASA – we can continue to rebuild the public’s trust in advertising.