Advertising has a perception problem, and the industry hasn't done enough to talk up its contribution to society says Clemenger BBDO chairman Rob Morgan.
Morgan was speaking as part of a panel for the launch of Advertising Pays, a report by Deloitte, commissioned by The Communications Council, to create hard data on the value of advertising.
Morgan praised the report as a “fantastic start” in changing attitudes surrounding the industry but noted that getting the industry to promote itself has fallen by the wayside.
“One of the problems in our industry has been that we're a bit like the plumber with leaky taps; we haven't done enough to talk up the benefits of this industry,” Morgan says. “Let alone talk in an aggregated way; let alone getting a cumulative view on what is fundamentally an absolutely engine room for the growth of this country.”
Chief among the report's findings was that the advertising industry delivers $40 billion dollars worth of value to the Australian economy. The industry also supports jobs, with more than 200,000 people in Australia working in advertising and its associated careers.
Deloitte partner John O'Mahony who co-authored the report, said that one of the challenges of the industry is that advertising is fantastic at marketing the businesses of others, but less good at marketing itself.
It means that from a government perspective, despite knowing the efficacy of advertising when it comes to social good marketing such a anti-smoking campaigns, speeding campaigns and tourism, advertising is often overlooked as a sector.
“The problem is advertising is well known in those sectors but it isn't systemically considered as a policy arc of government when they're trying to address an issue,” O'Mahony says. “To put [advertising] on the map is something that this report helps to achieve, particularly in areas where we're trying to achieve individual change, emotionally connect with people and get them to think about changing their behaviour.”
With the Turnbull government pushing its “innovation agenda” as a future driver of the economy, Morgan says there is a huge upside for advertising.
“It disappoints me that advertising and marketing services are not given the prominence and respect in this country that they deserve,” Morgan says.
“The government is talking innovation; the only way a new company gets off the ground is because of the stuff this industry does... and yet we somewhat hide in the bushes.”
“We should see this as a golden age.”
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