Our sector seems to have an extraordinary propensity for internicine squabbles, and a highly developed talent for being unable to see the wood for the trees.  Part of the issue has to be that our trade bodies are hugely fragmented into a series of subcategories – sales promotion, advertising, direct marketing, digital marketing, live events, and so on.  These are all largely the result of a yesteryear situation where different media were competing for the same above-the-line media spend.  Yet are we not now living in a converged world? The majority of campaigns and customer management strategies are now conceived – media-wise – as multi-channel.   So the old  negotiating position, pitting media against one another in a largely false  ‘either/or’ fight, is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  Therefore, a fragmented set of trade associations makes no sense, even from a practical point of view.

It’s time the marketing industry had a single body to represent its interests.  None currently exists.  There would be no point in an existing body like the IPA or the DMA taking over the whole marketing scene – their single issue past (and frankly flabby track-record on effective lobbying), would not help present a holistic image.  So a new group is needed, possibly a federated concern of which existing associations make up the subgroups.

Getting agreement that such a body should exist is probably not going to be too difficult.  Getting co-operation between the egoistic heads of trade associations may be a little more challenging.