National advertiser associations gather in Tokyo

On 18 May, the representatives of 21 national advertiser associations shared insights and ideas on how to drive forward the advertiser agenda through leadership initiatives, as well as strategies on how to grow visibility and membership, at the WFA National Associations Council (NAC) in Tokyo.

WFA kicked off the meeting with the key takeaways from the policy and marketing sessions during the week. WFA also gave an overview of three recent global initiatives to address the biggest industry issues: the WFA Global Media Charter, the WFA Manifesto for Online Data Transparency and the UN Women-led Unstereotype Alliance, of which WFA is a founding member.

Kae Ishikawa, Director of UN Women’s Japan Liaison Office, shared the latest developments around gender stereotypes in advertising and the Alliance’s plans for the future. The WFA Guide to Progressive Gender Portrayals in Advertising, which was launched earlier at Global Marketer Week, was also presented. The guide can be downloaded at wfanet.org/unstereotype.



NAC attendees then worked in teams to identify ideas and actions to bring these global industry initiatives alive at local level.

For the session on organisational growth, WFA gave an overview of the 27 submissions from this year’s WFA President’s Awards. Mounir Jazouli (GAM, Morocco), Alberto Vivaldelli (UPA, Italy) with Paola Furlanetto, and Riikka-Maria Lemminki (ML, Finland) then shared their experiences and views on how advertiser associations can better equip themselves to remain relevant for their members and leave an impact on the industry and society.



The 21 participating associations were AANA, Australia; ABA, Brazil; ACA Canada; ADVAN, Nigeria; ANFO, Norway; APAN, Portugal; ASA-SWA, Switzerland; CANA, China; GAM, Morocco; ISA, India; ISBA, UK; JAA, Japan; MAA, Malaysia; ML, Finland; RVD, Turkey; SA, Sweden; SAA, Singapore; SDE, Greece; UBA, Belgium; UDA, France; UPA, Italy.

The second WFA National Associations Council of the year will be held on 28^th September in London, co-hosted by ISBA. All WFA national associations can register for the meeting here.

Photos from the meeting can be viewed here. For a copy of the presentations, please contact Laura.

• Meeting photos