Celebrating a landmark week for our industry
Following Advertising Week Europe, which included Wednesday’s MediaTel Media Playground event, Digital Cinema Media’s (DCM) CEO Simon Rees shares his highlights from an inspirational week.
While another depressing budget dominated a lot of the political headlines last week, the advertising industry was in celebration mode as Advertising Week Europe came to London.
It feels timely; recently the Advertising Association (AA) and Deloitte released their Advertising Pays report which revealed that on average, £1 of advertising spend generates £6 for the economy. That means the £16 billion spent on UK advertising in 2011 generated £100 billion in the UK economy.
To reiterate the contribution of our industry, the AA wrote to David Cameron to point out that his “growth” initiatives, such as extra bank lending, risk failure without “the oxygen of advertising”. They also called for a relaxation of central controls on government adspend ahead of the budget.
The missive, which was signed by AA chief executive Tim Lefroy, said: “When it comes to growth, advertising and government need to talk.”
While there was little to celebrate for our industries when the budget was released, we’re making strides in ensuring our industry features as a key talking point in the business debate.
Talking is what I did a lot of last week, as have colleagues from across the industry together with inspirational speakers such as Olympic champions Lord Coe and Sir Dave Brailsford, fashion designer Matthew Williamson and reformed conman and long-standing FBI employee Frank Abagnale.
With the help of our American friends we championed ourselves and, to quote the Evening Standard‘s Gideon Spanier: “The strong message was that London is a magnet for global talent and a pioneer in best practice.”
Summarising the week, Gideon said: “Hearst boss, Arnaud de Puyfontaine, a Frenchman, declared no other world city can compare creatively. Stewart Easterbrook, UK chief of French-owned media agency, StarcomMediaVest, said so much international ad work is done here because London has skills that others lack. Dave Gwozdz, New York-based CEO of Mojiva Inc., the mobile advertising network, said he had no doubt London had to be his European base.
“That message was echoed by Scheckner who said London was the only place to stage Ad Week Europe, which will return here next year.”
At Media Playground one of the panel sessions I joined included Graham Lovelace (Director, Lovelace Consulting), Jon Block (Controller of Commercial Digital Products, ITV), Jon Hewson (Advertising Director, EMEA, Rovi), Nigel Walley (Managing Director, Decipher) and Emma Scott (Managing Director, Freesat), discussing multi-screen usage, winning strategies and successful connected campaigns.
One of the key takeouts was that sustainable innovation for consumers has to be the most important driver for technology and media. The panel also discussed how we need to work with brands to create content to drive deeper engagement for these consumers. Creativity is powerful and if broadcasters and filmmakers produce great creativity they will come to the forefront.
At another panel at BAFTA during Advertising Week it was a privilege to be part of a debate between Sir John Hegarty Founder, Creative, BBH, Steve King Worldwide CEO, ZenithOptimedia, Bob Greenberg Founder, Chairman and CEO, R/GA, Jon Kamen Chairman & CEO, @RADICAL.MEDIA and Rupert Turnbull Publisher, WIRED during the Wired Global Conversation.
A huge range of topics were discussed but the fine balance between creativity, technology and data was again a major theme.
All agreed that creative risk is as important as data-led solutions and the key to a successful future for us all is to ensure we encourage, cajole and inspire a new generation of talent to come into our industry.
Follow Digital Cinema Media on Twitter @DCM_Cinema_News
For details about upcoming MediaTel events, visit the MediaTel events page here.