Publicis CEO headlines British Advertisers’ annual meeting

The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) held the 116^th edition of the ISBA Annual Lunch in London on 4 July. The event gathered more than 400 senior marketers, agency heads and media owners in the UK.

Phil Smith, ISBA’s Director General, presented ISBA’s key developments and activities since his appointment in January. These include the creation of the ISBA manifesto, active engagements with Google, Facebook and the UK’s Cabinet Office on brand safety and media transparency, and the adoption of their media services framework which won a WFA President’s award in April.

“More than anything else we have begun to create a collaborative, member-centred culture. ISBA is changing. We are changing in response to what our members want and in response to the ever-changing media and regulatory environment,” he said. A full overview of Phil’s speech can be found here.

Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Groupe’s newly-appointed chairman and CEO, headlined this year's event. He touched on Publicis’ announcement at last month’s Cannes Lions festival that the industry giant will not be entering any awards in 2018 in order to repurpose their investment in awards onto their new AI platform. Named ‘Marcel’, the platform is set to significantly transform Publicis’ business strategy.

"This is what we’re doing. It’s for our people, for our clients and trying to do something for the industry… If we want to be relevant we need to be at the core of transformation and to do that we need to change. We can’t operate the way we did 20 years ago,” he said.

Previous speakers at the lunch include Unilever CMO Keith Weed and Katharine Viner, editor in chief of British newspaper The Guardian.

For more information, visit the event page or contact ISBA.