Ozone’s marketing lead, Bryan Scott, reflects on the annual ISBA President’s Lunch held in early July that saw Boots’ CMO Pete Markey announced as the new President of the 124 year old body.
On Wednesday, 19 July – and alongside a small delegation of Ozoners – I was fortunate enough to attend the annual ISBA President’s Lunch as it returned its spiritual home at The Dorchester. As a yearly gathering of the good and great in marketing and advertising, it was a pleasure to meet and reconnect with so many brand leaders and their agency partners.
ISBA’s work has an incredible impact in shaping the industry we work in, and in addition to seeing Boots’ Pete Markey taking over the President role from Natwest’s Margaret Jobling, it was great to see five industry leaders being recognised in the inaugural President’s Awards. Congratulations to Emily Latham (formerly of Channel 4) L’Oreal’s Joanne Loughery, Aviva’s Kerry Chilvers, Ollie Shayer from Boots Media Group and Sam Taylor from Direct Line Group – each of whom was recognised for their support of ISBA’s priorities of ensuring a more accountable, responsible and transparent advertising environment.
So what should we takeaway from this year’s President’s Lunch? Well I asked my fellow Ozoners what stood out for them. Over to Jhan, Natalie and Emma…
Jhan Hancock-Rushton, Client Director
More, more and more – I certainly left the lunch excited for more…
The more things change, the more they stay the same: With what seems like a Take That lyric, we were reminded the transparency demands of ISBA advertisers 124 years ago, are very aligned with brands of today – something that truly aligns with Ozone’s principles too.
More to learn, more to capitalise on: The lines between brand, retailer, supplier, data platform, and media owner are blurring. Incoming ISBA president Pete Markey's speech highlighted how Boots' partnership with ITV's Love Island ticks all these boxes.
More technology can be a force for good: It was inspiring to hear Multibank's Claire Blunt describe how their innovative solution fights poverty, waste, and pollution. Multibanks redistribute usable goods, like hygiene items, bedding, and clothing, to families in need via teachers, social workers, and charities.
Natalie Dawson, Strategic Agency Sales Director
Like most of my colleagues, this was my first ISBA President’s Lunch, and it was a great reminder of the importance of being in the same room, in-person with your peers. It’s not every day you get to share a table with brilliant clients and their agencies – our numbers certainly came up to be sat beside the Allwyn and Hearts & Science team – as well as representatives from the IPA and the legendary Jan Gooding.
Much of the discussion I had centred around life in a third-party cookieless word – or in a more positive framing, how brands and publishers can thrive in a first-party web. Could this finally represent the industry shift that many have called for? The opportunity for a better measured, better ‘controlled’ digital ecosystem feels within our grasp. At Ozone we’d like to see more power and control restored to the originators of content – like our publishers – and brands, each of whom are the key conduits in relationships with consumers.
I also really enjoyed hearing Pete Markey’s first speech as ISBA President, and as the CMO for a hugely loved and successful brand such as Boots, I found the opportunity they are creating in Retail Media, and the richness of data they can bring to that, hugely compelling.
Roll on next year’s lunch!
Emma Cranston, Client Services Director
It’s hard to believe this year’s lunch was two years to the day since we came out of the first national lockdown. Back then, it felt our biggest challenge as a publisher-owned, digital advertising platform was the huge, blanket blocking of any piece of content that featured the words Covid or Coronavirus. But fast forward to today, and we’re in a world with so many other challenges – be it MFA sites, addressability challenges, consumer data compliance, sustainability or media transparency. I for one felt very reassured that monitoring, measuring and advising on these issues remains central to the ISBA purpose.
In addition, and having led many of our our own forays into alternative ways of measuring advertising impact, I was especially interested to hear more about the roll out of the Origin cross-media measurement currency that should be going into beta over the summer. Getting to this point has been no easy-feat, and we at Ozone are really optimistic about the opportunity Origin will create for differentiating our channel – the Premium Web – from the rest of the web.