“Advertising needs an MOT”, says ISBA

ISBA’s annual conference in February examined the industry’s challenges for the next 12 to 18 months, concluding with the launch of the ISBA Advertising Experience MOT (playing on the UK word for the annual mandatory ‘Ministry of Transport’ car test), a set of actionable principles all marketers can follow to improve customer experience and increase effectiveness.

“The industry is at a critical point, and the choices we make now will decide our future for years to come,” said Elizabeth Fagan CBE, ISBA president and former non-executive chair of Boots. Speakers including Raja Rajamannar (Mastercard), Katharine Newby Grant (P&G), Luis Di Como (Unilever), Alessandra Bellinni (Tesco), Stephan Loerke (WFA) and others convened to cover topics such as customer centricity, responsible media, brand purpose, data, diversity, and client- agency relationships.

ISBA Director General Phil Smith and Mark Evans, Managing Director of Direct Line, closed the conference by discussing the existential crisis that a decline in public trust poses to marketing and offering the ISBA Advertising Experience MOT as a service to help companies combat it.

The MOT is a high-level test which assesses a company’s performance in the areas of consumer safety, avoiding advertising bombardment and wasted investment, thus highlighting areas where deeper review is needed. This was accompanied by a new paper ‘Improving The Public’s Advertising Experience’ launched by the UK ad industry’s Trust Working Group led by the Advertising Association.

For more information, contact ISBA.