We’re pleased to announce that Compare the Market and Acast are partnering with us, letting us borrow their branding and donating advertising space respectively, in the latest phase of our (Advertising Standards Authority [ASA]) ad awareness campaign.

Our ad awareness campaign launched in 2022, to increase people’s knowledge, trust and confidence in the ASA system. After the first phase, thirty six percent of UK adults had seen our ads. With the most recent phase, our research has found that those who saw our campaign were twice as likely to say they tend to trust most ads, more than twice as likely to say they feel positively towards advertising, and have a greater trust in ads across all media than those who hadn’t seen our ads. People who saw the ads were more than twice as likely to recognise the ASA logo, and almost twice as likely to know that the ASA regulates advertising on social media, than those who hadn’t seen our campaign.  

Now, following Churchill, IRN-BRU, Lloyds, Marmite and Tesco, Compare the Market’s well-known ‘Simples’ strapline and Meerkat imagery will feature in press and out of home ads for the ASA as we set out to remind the public that we’re here to make sure ads remain legal, decent, honest and truthful.  

And, thanks to a partnership with Acast, ads will be running on podcasts for the first time. As podcasts become increasingly popular, it’s important we reach this audience, reminding them that we regulate across all mediums.   

We’d like to extend a big thank you to The Leith Agency and EssenceMediacom who have kindly donated their time and expertise; to the brands, for lending us their famous straplines; and to all the media owners who have so generously supported the campaign with donated space and airtime.  

Guy Parker, CEO of the ASA, said: 

“We’re pleased that our ad campaign is having a real impact on people’s trust in the ASA and advertising. It’s important people know that we’re here, keeping advertising legal, decent, honest and truthful, and we’re grateful to all our partners for lending us their iconic slogans that the public know so well. 

“Our new partnership with Acast means we’ll be able to directly reach podcast listeners, reminding them that we regulate ads across all media. And the iconic branding of Compare the Market will help reinforce the message that the people can trust that we are effectively regulating UK advertising.” 

Stephen Woodford, CEO of the Advertising Association, said:

“Our work at the Advertising Association has always been rooted in building trust in advertising – which our recent tracking research shows is on the rise. Helping to build the greatest possible awareness of the UK’s gold-standard self-regulatory system is one of the key things we can do as an industry to drive even more trust in advertising. A huge thank you goes to all the media owners and brands who have supported this campaign so generously once again.”

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