What our industry can achieve when it comes together

With an orange army of people on hand to help you navigate this colossal industry event, the sheer scale and organisation was a demonstration of what our industry can achieve when it comes together.

Clear theme of an industry going through a turmoil of change

Throughout the sessions I attended there was a clear theme of an industry that has, and is, going through a turmoil of change. From seismic shifts in the media landscape itself and the technology and measurement surrounding this, to building work cultures that not only nurture talent, but lead the way in their approach to diversity, wellbeing and sustainability.

Reported across the board was that trust and positive sentiment to advertising are at an all-time low. Resultingly is it essential that as an industry we focus on marketing effectiveness and not blanket eyeballs, to ensure we are delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Ultimately minimising waste and increasing return. The first session I attended was an example of this, with Wunderkind’s Amy Pearce explaining how their non-disruptive ad model targets consumers as they end an online session, in what they term ‘kind’ ads, which helps advertisers see a 30% increase in response rate.

Achieving more collectively as an industry than any one single player alone

One event partner worthy of a mention in increasing the effectiveness stakes is Samba TV. Samba have access to proprietary first-party data from tens of millions of opted-in televisions globally. The data and technology itself are pretty impressive, but what stood out was their collaboration with other partners, from TVSquared to Yahoo, to harness its true power to benefit across the industry. In a media landscape where we continue to strive for cross-platform measurement, openness and collaboration from partners in this manner will be essential.

My personal highlight of the week was hosted on the Great Mind Stage by Konnie Huq who interviewed Tan France, entrepreneur and star of Queer Eye. As well as a very entertaining session with a lot of laughter, the important message of increasing diversity on our screens through increasing diversity in our industry was clear. France highlighted it is not only the responsible thing to do but with the scale of ‘diverse’ audiences, and therefore consumer £s, it can be costly to get it wrong.

My Adweek concluded with the BAFTA Great Minds Lunch featuring Richard Curtis who discussed his ‘Project Everyone’ initiative that focuses on the Global Goals to drive sustainability and eradicate poverty. Again, the theme of collaboration to drive effectiveness and results was ever present, with the hardest-hitting message of the week… ‘we have to act today for there to be a tomorrow’.

Whatever the subject matter or session you attended there was no lack of drive and ambition for success, driving results across the industry, with a clear message that we will be able to achieve more collectively as an industry than any one single player alone.

The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and were submitted in accordance with the IPA terms and conditions regarding the uploading and contribution of content to the IPA newsletters, IPA website, or other IPA media, and should not be interpreted as representing the opinion of the IPA.