How you can contribute to a better future for advertising
Opinion
Is it possible to divert adspend away from media that doesn’t invest in high-quality content? What does advertising mean in an AI era? Explore these themes and more at Advertising: Who Cares? because our future is at stake.
As you hoover the sand out of the boot and sharpen your pencils, your thoughts may well turn to what comes next.
Yes, there is Q4 to get through — and budgeting. But what about the coming years? Do you embrace the new term in a positive frame of mind?
Do you think advertising and the advertising industry are going to improve as we head into an AI-led future?
Can we prevent advertising from becoming mostly automated and designed to elicit some kind of immediate action, often fake, from fragments of people’s attention?
Can we reverse the antipathy that young people have towards advertising that means they won’t consider it as a career?
Is it possible to reverse the flow of advertising money into media that doesn’t invest in high-quality content for the public and advertisers?
New thinking
We shall be exploring these questions and more at the fundraising summit for Advertising: Who Cares? in London on 16 October and we welcome anyone who also cares about the future of advertising and the advertising industry to join us.
New thinking is required to navigate the choppy seas ahead and you will hear plenty of that from our presenters on the day.
We shall aim to answer some key questions:
• How do we create advertising that engages the public, is responsible, welcome and effective?
• How should communications strategy evolve in a world where paid-for media is now only one part of the picture?
• How should we restore credibility to the way advertising outputs are calculated?
• How do we provide employment with enjoyment for our people, present and future?
• How do we restore trust between advertisers, agencies and intermediaries?
• How do we help fund a pluralistic media industry that provides high-quality material that benefits the public and advertisers?
• How do we improve industry relationships that help achieve the above?
We have had over 70 highly experienced people working voluntarily across nine complementary workstreams over the last eight months and their ideas are the centrepiece of the day, with additional appearances and contributions from senior people across the industry (watch out for announcements).
But we’re also allowing plenty of time for other voices in the room to join in the discussion. So if you have a view on these and other subjects, come and participate.
Playing your part
Proceeds from the day will be used only to build the resources we need to host our outputs and direct people towards organisations like Isba, the IPA, the Advertising Association, the World Federation of Advertisers and Conscious Advertising Network, plus some commercial organisations that can help the industry take advantage of some of the resources available that will help deliver our recommendations.
This includes the tie-up between Adwanted and the Advertising Association, aimed at helping to educate the industry in the best practices that Advertising: Who Cares? supports.
We don’t have sponsors, so ticket sales are our only source of funds. Come along, raise your voice, hear new thinking and help make the future of advertising a bright one.
Thanks to the generous hosting of Digital Cinema Media, we’re keeping the ticket prices low to make it affordable for all. There’s a reduced companion ticket for accompanying advertisers and you can donate towards The Marketing Academy Foundation to fund tickets for aspiring marketers from diverse backgrounds.
How else can you help design the future of advertising?
We believe industry relationships are key to the health of our industry and we’re conducting a survey into where we are and where we need to be.
Contribute to this by following this link. If you can’t make 16 October, you can still help us shape the agenda.
You may have other things to do on 16 October, but it will be worth taking time out from the day to day to look ahead, consider the kind of future you want for advertising and help raise the voice of people who care about it.
Nick Manning is the co-founder of Manning Gottlieb Media (now MG OMD) and was chief strategy officer at Ebiquity for over a decade. He now owns a mentoring business, Encyclomedia, offering strategic advice to companies in the media and advertising industry, and is non-executive chair of Media Marketing Compliance. He writes for The Media Leader each month.