UK Advertising Launches First ‘How To Advertise’ Site For SMEs

The Advertising Association has launched UK advertising’s first ever one-stop shop website for advice and information aimed specifically at SMEs that wish to grow through advertising across a range of different media. The website – www.aaccelerategrow.com – is the next step in AAccelerate, the Advertising Association’s initiative to boost the growth and productivity of the UK’s 5.5 million SMEs to enable them to advertise their services to a wider audience and reach untapped growth and new markets.

The site has been developed by the Advertising Association in partnership with UK advertising media marketing bodies. The site will help SMEs enter the world of multi-channel advertising, offering a guide on the different ways of advertising, providing information on how advertising can impact business growth, jargon-busting, templates and advice to enable businesses to get started on a successful campaign. It is the first collaboration of its kind between the media industry to fully open up the benefits of advertising to SMEs, embracing specialist knowledge from APA, CAA, IAB, IPA, Magnetic, MarketReach, Newsworks, Outsmart, Radiocentre and Thinkbox.

Siobhan Kenny, CEO of Radiocentre and AAccelerate Chair, said:

“UK advertising is working hard together to support the Government’s Industrial Strategy to drive growth right across the UK and help close the economic gaps that exist between regions. SMEs are the backbone of the UK economy but less than half invest in multi-channel advertising. We know that when businesses invest in advertising, the economy grows and AAccelerate is our way of helping more SMEs invest and benefit from advertising.”

Research from advertising’s think tank Credos, in partnership with Deloitte, shows that every £1 spent on advertising contributes £6 to UK GDP and, for individual firms, £1 spent on advertising benefits an SME eight times as much as a larger one. The ultimate goal of AAccelerate is to increase advertising expenditure by an additional £1 billion by building the number of SMEs that advertise currently stands at 43%.

The site also includes details about two pilot schemes taking place in Scotland and the West Midlands – AAccelerate Scotland and AAccelerate West Midlands. The pilots will provide a select number of SMEs with the opportunity to receive a bespoke advertising campaign, helping them grow their business and showcase the impact of multi-channel advertising on growth and productivity.

Following the pilots in Scotland and West Midlands, the programme will scale up in those regions and extend it to other regions, ultimately aiming for a national programme. The evidence of the economic benefits of the programme will be used to make the case for Government support to help Britain’ SMEs grow faster.

AAccelerate Scotland launched at a showcase event in Edinburgh on 6 June and has already received a high level of interest from business across Scotland and from Scottish Government and media.