The Advertising Association (AA) has appointed Philippa Brown, CEO of Omnicom Media Group UK, as its new chair and board member, replacing James Murphy.
Murphy, group CEO of adam&eveDDB, served an extended four-year tenure in order to support the trade body’s work around Brexit. He has now been appointed as the AA’s first exports champion, a role newly-created to grow exports of UK advertising services.
Meanwhile Brown, who joins for a three-year term, will work closely with the Advertising Association’s CEO Stephen Woodford and president Keith Weed on addressing the decline of public trust in advertising, regulatory issues such as consultation on HFSS advertising, and navigating Brexit.
“The association is working at the heart of many of our industry’s biggest issues – public trust, helping businesses grow across the UK and internationally and promoting the rights of companies to advertise both freely and responsibly,” she said.
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“I’m looking forward to working with a board of industry leaders who are determined to make sure advertising plays its fullest role as an economic engine but equally as a force for societal change.”
In a paper published last month by Credos, it was revealed that public favourability towards advertising hit a low of 25% in December last year.
At the 2019 ISBA conference this month the main advertising trade bodies – the Ad Association, ISBA and the IPA – launched a whitepaper to try and reverse the decline in public trust by asking the industry to limit problems such as ‘ad bombardment’ and the perceived exploitation of vulnerable groups, such as gambling addicts and the financially insecure.
Commenting on the appointment, Woodford added: “[Brown] brings unrivalled management experience from both the agency and publishing worlds and I am looking forward to working closely with her, Keith and our AA Board and Council as we implement our plan to address the decline in public trust in advertising.
“I am also pleased that James is staying on in a new role, supporting our Exports programme to help keep the UK as the foremost global centre for advertising.”
