In an address to industry leaders and IPA members, new IPA president Karen Martin highlighted key challenges facing the ad industry, including short-term thinking, over-reliance on AI and a disconnect from human creativity.
Karen Martin, the IPA’s new president and CEO of BBH, believes the UK advertising industry has “got lost in short-termism” as she revealed her plans to put greater focus on creativity during her tenure.
In an address to industry leaders and IPA members today (31 March), followed by a live Q&A, Martin shared her two-year plan to “revitalise” UK advertising and celebrate creativity.
Martin highlighted key challenges facing the ad industry, including short-term thinking, over-reliance on AI and a disconnect from human creativity.
“I think we’ve lost our way,” she said. “We’ve just got lost in short-termism, AI mega-mergers, budget pressures, regulatory constraints, and tech bros cosplaying as Bond villains. We’ve lost our conviction and instead relied too much on research companies to tell us what’s working and what isn’t.”
With the creative sector supporting 4 million jobs across the UK and contributing £40bn to the economy, Martin emphasised that “creativity, when applied to big business problems, drives big business impacts.”
“Remind yourself you’re a consumer as well, and if something genuinely makes you laugh or fail, then it’s probably going to work for other people too, rather than just relying on tools and research to decide that for you. I think there has to be a lot of trust in yourself,” she added.
She also cited recent industry insights from the BetterBriefs’ report, produced in partnership with the IPA and WFA, which highlighted that inefficiencies in processes, poor feedback, and weak briefs are undermining the potential for creative excellence.
“Simply put, we’ve lost focus,” she said, noting that most CEOs and CMOs are facing the same industry challenges.
“The answers that will make the difference to those businesses don’t just lie in AI or the latest research tools; they lie in creativity,” she added.
Four-step approach
As part of the mission to reignite creativity, Martin unveiled a four-pronged approach to celebrate, train, attract and reward creative minds across the industry.
She urged the industry to balance the potential of AI with the value of human-driven creative thinking, noting “too much” of the AI talk has focussed on efficiency and cost but neglected to address its impact and common purpose across the industry.
“AI has an incredible potential to augment, to scale and to personalise, but we should always ask the question, should we be using this to create where a human hand could have done the same?” she said.
Elsewhere, she announced the IPA will be launching a new training programme, shared plans to expand BBH’s initiative, which is an accessible route into the industry for students from different backgrounds, and introduced a new Creative Award as part of the IPA Effectiveness Awards.
She also focused on the importance of female representation in the creative department, adding that although there are now more women in the C-suite, this is not reflected in creative departments.
“It’s not a quick fix. We know that we need to make sure we’re hiring correctly, we’re retaining, we’re promoting, we’re celebrating, and we’re making an attractive industry. So I think there’s an awful lot for everybody to do,” she said.
