Advertising Exports are Booming – So Why Won’t the Government Support Creativity in Schools?

This morning the UK’s ad industry was granted the briefest glimmer of something all too rare – a bit of good news. Against the background of an up-tempo jazz trio, grooving away at 8am in the cosy gloom of Ronnie Scott’s, the Advertising Association and Credos launched their first report into the UK ad industry’s international exports. 

Despite the Brexit gloom and the general incompetence of the country’s political class playing out on a global stage… things are looking up for Brand Britain when it comes to creativity and advertising expertise. According to the freshly-minted UK Advertising Exports Report 2019, international trade in UK advertising services reached £6.9 billion in 2017. Boom. For context, that’s an 18% increase on 2016’s figure of £5.8bn… an increase that races ahead of the overall exports for UK services, which only grew by 7% in comparison. 

Cynics might point to the drop in the pound’s value following the Brexit referendum as a reason for the jump as bargain-hungry brands look to get top quality creative and production on the cheap… but Credos’ Karen Fraser was quick to squash the sceptics. If it were simply a cost question, then other service sectors would have seen a similarly large jump.

On stage, James Murphy, Group CEO, adam&eveDDB who also bears the snazzy title ‘Exports Champion’ quizzed M&C Saatchi’s Moray MacClennan, the IPA’s Janet Hull and Framestore’s Sir William Sargent about their experiences with international markets, with a special focus on China and the US. One thing that really shone through was the admiration for the UK’s creative reputation – something backed up by recent cross-industry Promote UK events at SXSW, at the Shanghai International Advertising Festival and during last week’s Advertising Producers’ Association trip to Tokyo. 

I couldn’t be more excited by the news – and having trailed the APA group on their Tokyo trip, I was struck by just how world-leading the UK’s creative industries really are. Sometimes we need to step outside your bubble to see ourselves as others see us - particularly if you're  Brit who is duty-bound to be a bit pessimistic and grumpy about most things.  The gasps in the room when MPC’s Jonathan Davies showed the VFX breakdown of the John Lewis Elton John Christmas spot last week to agency ADK were something else. And I hear that the crew from VCCP London who attended the Shanghai event have done rather well on the new business front in China.

So far. So good.

But the news has also left me feeling a little frustrated. Not with the ad industry, I hasten to add. No. You lot are great. Keep up the good work.

My question is, if the UK advertising industry really is world class and is leading the way for British exports, then why doesn’t the government and society at large value arts education? 

A couple of weeks ago I looked into the cuts in arts and music lessons in British schools. (The headline is that last year 90% of secondary schools in the UK told the BBC that they were cutting back creative subjects due to funding pressures.) Uncommon Creative Studio had partnered with charity Create, an organisation that facilitates art projects for vulnerable groups who often have little access to art and creativity. As successive education ministers dismiss the importance of creativity and schools find themselves having to cut back, I can’t help but wonder if we’re storing up problems for the future. How will the Advertising Association’s Export Report will look in, say, 2030 or 2035 after such underinvestment in grass roots creative education?

If only the affluent and well-resourced can learn to think creatively or hone creative crafts, then the talent pool will shrink. The advertising sector’s strength and skill is powering it to such an extent that it seems to be defying the negative gravity of the Brexit blackhole. Do we, as a country, really want to lose that?

While I’m all in favour of celebrating success and good news, we need to make sure that success is sustainable. The long term success of creative Brand Britain lies not just in building strong relationships with international markets, listening intently and, yes, navigating whatever kind of Brexit we end up with, it also lies in our future generations.