Most industries are well organised to have their interests effectively represented to parliament, government and the EU. Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, utilities, retail, telecoms, the much vilified banking sector… it is difficult to think of an industry that does not have its trade association robustly ensuring that its collective voice is heard in the halls of power. Except, that is, the marketing industry.
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.
Tags: DMA, IPA, marketing, multi-channel