Lord Black, President of the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM), spoke at the IPM Awards 2016. He highlighted that self regulation key to success of promotional marketing industry.
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Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you, Graham, for your kind introduction.
I’m really delighted be here this evening, because I believe events like this allow our amazing marketing industry to highlight just how creative this country is and how effective UK promotions are at delivering against client objectives.
The IPM Awards also allow us to demonstrate how our promotional marketing industry is now a world-leader and how practitioners from across Britain are helping build effective promotions around the globe.
The work you will see rewarded tonight has changed hearts and minds, built brands and delivered real impact for marketers – or, in some cases, for government departments, NGOs and charities.
All of tonight’s winners represent the very best the promotional marketing sector has to offer. They provide hard evidence for why brands, from the smallest through to the global giants, choose promotional marketing as the bedrock to drive their campaigns forward.
The advertising and marketing industry contributes a huge amount to this country. It’s worth over £4.1 billion to the UK economy, according to the latest figures from Credos, and as IPM research suggests the vast majority of marketing communications include some kind of promotional offer, you can all take more than a little of the credit for those brilliant findings from Credos.
Our marketing and advertising industry is renowned internationally for its creativity and energy, its innovation and its progressive approach.
That success – and that dynamism - is rooted in the strong and effective system of self regulation that helps support us in creating campaigns which are legal, decent, honest and truthful.
The IPM sits at the heart of that self-regulatory system, defending the right to promote products in a legal and responsible way. Every one of our winning campaigns tonight, by the way, has been vetted to ensure it conforms to the CAP Code.
And on the subject of the CAP Code, I am sure you all know that CAP recently launched a public consultation on proposed changes to the Code aimed at helping the UK fight obesity by ensuring the work we do every day is socially responsible.
That consultation closes next month. I urge you to look at what CAP is suggesting and make sure your voice is heard, either directly or by feeding your views through the IPM.
And that is one of the crucial roles of the IPM – to act as the voice for the promotional marketing industry in dialogue with business, the regulatory authorities, the government, NGOs and, of course, the public.
Another role is to promote professionalism and best practice in the promotional marketing industry through events like these great Awards, as well as through a world-class education programme and the provision specialist legal advice service.
Enough of me. I’m hugely looking forward to tonight’s celebrations, so I won’t delay them any more. Good luck everyone – but remember that you are all winners just by being here. And now, back to Graham.
ENDS
More about the awards and the IPM is avaliable here.