MCH London X Addvertising.org: A partnership to create advertising that positively ADDS to peoples’ lives 

We, at MCH London, like to meet good people who want to change the way things are done – for the better. 

A short while ago, I was introduced to Tree Elven, who heads up ADDS at Addvertising.org, a platform I wasn’t familiar with at the time. “It’s like Tripadvisor for advertising,” Tree told me. “Ads are presented as content in their own right rather than as sales tools, and the public can rate/comment.” This piqued my interest and we immediately got talking. 

In our view, one of the things that the industry lacks is a genuine two-way discussion between the consumer and the people who make ads – the advertising industry – us! 

It’s been said a thousand times that advertising is broken. The industry is corrupt, untrusted and out for itself. I can understand why – for many years, many ad people have been fairly awful. 

So what’s wrong? 

There are numerous interconnected issues that the advertising industry can and should be addressing to improve the negative perception that the general public holds, starting with a move away from relying on personal data to target consumers to instead focus on creating advertising content that people want to consume and share. 

Beyond the well communicated lack of diversity and representation in media, real inclusivity is where many brands are still falling down – ageism is one example. Interruptive ad units or simply a sensitive subject tackled with little understanding or skill are other areas that can be handled better. This is where Tree’s journalistic background provides a valuable ‘outsider’ perspective to help the industry better understand the imperative of inclusivity and tackling these issues to serve consumers positively. 

In our view, it requires responsible actors in the market powered by some healthy feedback from the consumer. You might say that consumers vote with their feet, or with their wallets. Well, this is true, to an extent but it’s not necessarily a barometer of what people want, or would choose if they had better quality information – quite often, it’s a barometer of what people see the most. 

We believe that in order to gain a better understanding of how to improve, we need to be in a continuous open dialogue with consumers about ad content. So that we can better decide the way forward for advertising that’s quite simply, more ethical – both in its creation and delivery. 

“Ethics is not sufficiently talked about in today’s instantly delivered, instantly judged media,” says Tree. “I was interested when Mark spoke of MCH’s use of blockchain to ensure an ethical delivery of campaigns. Ethics and long-term future sustainability core values are key to our partnership.”

I couldn’t agree more. We align with pioneering tools to put the consumer at the core of quality advertising and marketing communications, which speak to their identity and circumstances in an inclusive media environment. This partnership will make us better at doing exactly that. 

In Tree’s final words “as an industry ‘outsider’ myself, I like to team up with pioneer thinkers like MCH who see beyond the obvious and take decisive action for a better future” so, thank you, Tree – we’re very pleased that you do!