Membership

ISBA membership – all you need to know

Major advertisers who are members of ISBA can represent and lead the advertiser community effectively. In return, ISBA provides advice, guidance and leadership on the issues that matter to marketers, plus access to a community of marketers and procurement leaders with identical challenges. Our outlook is global, and we work with members and bodies worldwide to ensure the UK maintains its place as a world leader in setting industry standards.

Being a member of ISBA provides a range of benefits for your company:

An amplified voice on issues that could affect your brand
The ability to shape and lead industry change & stay ahead of emerging policies
Access to tools, guidance, and advice to help build effective relationships with agencies and other suppliers.
An online knowledge base and programme of online sessions to help your teams build their understanding of today’s issues in media and advertising

If you are already a member of ISBA, please see our Guide to Membership here, on how to access the ISBA resource.

If you are not an existing member you can find out more details on the full value of membership and how your company can become a member here.

If you have any further questions, please contact membership@isba.org.uk

Contact us

About ISBA

What is ISBA’s role & position in the industry landscape?

ISBA are at the centre of the marketing, media, and advertising industry representing brands advertising in the UK. Find out more here.

What are ISBA’s priorities for 2024?

We set our priorities for the year ahead through planning sessions with our senior members. This ensures the work we do is what our members want and need. See our latest priorities here.

How does ISBA work with other advertising organisations?

Through collaboration and communication with other organisations and associations ISBA can leverage their influence on a much larger scale. Find out more about our role in the industry here.

Which brands are currently in membership?

Our members include some of the UK’s best known and most respected brands from sectors including financial services, FMCG, retail, automotive, publishing, media, and utilities. View the full list of members here.

How we work with our members

How can I ensure my company has a voice on the key issues and can help drive industry change?

Member involvement is critical to ISBA achieving its goals and delivering results. Members can get involved in a variety of ways.

We run specialist member groups for specific marketing roles and experts including TV & Video, Insight and Effectiveness and Procurement. For senior members we also have seats on our Council or Executive Committee.

Find out more about the groups and committees here.

How does ISBA work with members to ensure they are maximising the benefits of membership?

For new and renewing members:

ISBA introduction with the Marketing team - 1 hour virtual introduction session on how to make the most of your membership
Targeted communications for registered users including what’s on and relevant areas of responsibility and interests.
1-2-1 CMO briefing with ISBA’s Director General
Key stakeholder introductions and briefings with the agency services, policy and media teams
Introduction to ISBA groups – individual or group briefing on all the ISBA groups followed by one-to-one inductions prior to their first meeting
Regular review and planning calls with the membership team

Our membership team keep in regular contact with the key contact responsible for the membership. The ISBA team are on hand to advise on participating in the ISBA groups, providing one-to-one updates on key media issues, responding to enquiries and generally providing a reminder to the team on how they can utilise the membership.

How can I demonstrate the benefits of joining to senior stakeholders?

ISBA supports all disciplines across the marketing function. Key benefits for individual roles include:

CMO/Marketing Director

Recognition that your company is a responsible advertiser - Supporting ISBA ensures advertisers have a well-funded and well-resourced industry body to affect its lobby on behalf of advertisers.
Regular dedicated communications to keep you ahead of emerging news, policy, trends and reports
Briefing sessions with ISBA’s Director General Phil Smith
Invitations to exclusive senior marketing roundtables and forums
Impartial and objective expert advice for your teams from our Media, Public Policy and Agency Services teams
Training, support and access to unlimited resources for your team

How does membership benefit the wider team?   

ISBA can help your team build their understanding of the changing advertising landscape through our programme of online forums, groups and expert content. 

They can enhance their knowledge and skills through our programme of regular 101 Knowledge Sessions run throughout the year. 

They have access to regular content on the latest issues, best practice and news via the searchable ISBA Knowledge hub. 

They have access to objective guidance and from the ISBA team and our partners, ensuring they have the insight and knowledge to help them make the right business decisions. 

They can share knowledge and influence change, alongside their peers, in advertiser-only forums.

Media

Stay informed and participate in Media groups
Support and guidance from ISBA’s Media team
Networking events and virtual knowledge sessions with your peers
Access to media resources

Marketing Procurement & Legal

Support around agency remuneration, designed to help members attain the best balance of cost & effectiveness and build sustainable relationships with your agencies
Templates to create clear, strong and transparent contacts with media, creative, social influencers marketing procurement resources
Dedicated Marketing Procurement Group
A free legal helpline resource available to members provided by Fieldfisher. Members are entitled to one 30-minute oral consultation per month, including a 20 minute of pre-read material, during office hours. Fieldfisher cover topics from the breadth of ISBA’s remit. This includes marketing communications, brand protection (including trademarks), sales and prize promotions, advertising complaints, sponsorship agreements, user generated content and Influencer contracts.

Public Affairs, PR & Comms

Dedicated Strategic Policy Action Group & Influencer Working Group
Ad-hoc working groups responding to sector specific challenges such as HFSS, Alcohol & Gambling.
Support and guidance from ISBA’s Policy team
Networking events and virtual sessions with your peers
Access to policy and regulation resources

ISBA represents advertisers on the Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice, sister organisations of the Advertising Standards Association, which are responsible for writing the Advertising Codes and central to advertising self-regulation.

Accessing the ISBA resource

Where do I go for information?

The ISBA website is the first port of call for members who need information.

The ISBA Knowledge Hub is a library of content curated by ISBA and created by ISBA, ISBA member groups, ISBA Partners and industry experts.

The Hub carries a range of useful and relevant information for UK Marketers including best practice, guidance, research studies, contract templates and webinar recordings.

There is no limit to the number of people within the member company who can access the site, but you must register to download exclusive member only content. By indicating particular areas of interest when you register we can ensure you don’t miss any announcements about new content and events.

The ISBA team regularly present at marketing team meetings where we remind everyone of the full ISBA resource. We are on hand to have one-to-one calls with anyone who wants to find out more about maximising their membership.

All new members are offered a full induction and we work together to identify a plan of engagement for the first year of membership.

ISBA run a series of webinars and events for members. Although the majority are online, we do run some in person. The majority are free to ISBA members.

ISBA members also have access to the WFA's programme of webinars, to access this benefit, please contact membership@isba.org.uk

Members who wish to discuss a specific matter can contact one of the experts in the ISBA team and have a one to one discussion.

We work with expert partners across the industry who can also provide useful guidance.

We are also able to put members in touch with other members or ask a question to the wider membership on behalf of a member.

Membership - The joining & renewal process

What is the joining process?

Our membership intake quarters are January, April, July and October and run for a calendar year.  We are able to activate membership upon receipt of a signed membership application form, a PO can be provided at a later date whilst you set ISBA up as a supplier on your systems.

How is the membership fee calculated?

Membership is corporate with unlimited individual access for your UK team and anybody based elsewhere who has a UK element to their role. We ask new members to confirm their spend and use Nielsen Media Ranking (NMR) data as an approximate guide. Subscriptions are calculated on your annual UK Media spend across Digital, TV, Outdoor, Radio, Press, Cinema, TV Sponsorship & DM.

For renewing members, there is a nominal annual % increase set by the ISBA Council every year. You will be contacted 6 weeks prior to your renewal date with full details and the opportunity for a review and planning call with one of the membership team.

ISBA membership fees also include 1 ticket to ISBA’s annual conference, 1 ticket to ISBA’s annual President’s Lunch, and access to the WFA’s programme of webinars (subject to events taking place).

Terms and conditions of membership

Thank you ISBA. Media leaders need a strong organisation to facilitate their collective voice and you provide that.

Lisa Walker

Head of Media and Sponsorship at Vodafone

ISBA provided expert guidance which was invaluable when we were reviewing our media agreement. ISBA’s insights into the media marketplace and their media framework template helped us achieve significant improvements in the way we work with our media agency.

Tom Fisher

Head of Procurement, Marketing at DixonsCarphone

ISBA provides a valuable service in representing the views of collective advertisers on many key industry issues such as brand safety, media transparency, the digital supply chain, GDPR, HFSS and many others.

Sarah Mansfield

VP of Global Media, Europe at Unilever

The biggest benefit from getting involved with ISBA is the amount of professional content, events and groups for advertisers can get involved in, which put advertisers right in the centre of industry developments and issues, and this helps to keep internal capability sharp, a broad perspective on the market, and a forum to shape and influence for the better (as ‘One Voice’). Meanwhile some healthy tension with the agency is always good, in fact agencies most likely appreciate clients who take an active involvement and interest in the sector to drive change.

Head of Media

Virgin Media

Being in a group of likeminded individuals, across a broad range of advertising sectors, where you get to spend time talking about what keeps them up at night and where they see the world of effectiveness going is an invaluable asset to have for me personally, and for us at Direct Line Group.

Carl Bratton

Head of Marketing Effectiveness at Direct Line Group

ISBA's Inclusion network helps members as they look to improve their approach, and allows us to share best practise and tough lessons learnt along the way, which is really valuable. Many brand owners are also passionate about doing more and recognise the unique role we play in setting the agenda with our partners in the wider communications industry, and the network allows us to unite in that effort.

Kerry Chilvers

Marketing Director at Direct Line Group

The ISBA Media Foundation Course does what it says on the tin! It gives you a really good foundational media knowledge. It’s a great refresher on topics you already know about, as well as providing a solid understanding of those you are less confident in. Throughout the course, you’ll be provided with some great real-life examples which help bring the theory to life. The speakers are experts in their field, so it’s fantastic to hear from those who live and breathe these areas of marketing day in and day out – especially for a generalist marketing manager!

Katherine Smedley

Brand Manager at eBay

Brand safety is non-negotiable for us as advertisers. Following the change in ownership at Twitter, we wanted to ensure that Twitter continues to uphold its commitments to GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media). When concerns were raised, I knew that through ISBA, we had a voice at the highest level including joining a call with Elon Musk and his team.

ISBA speaks on behalf of hundreds of leading UK advertisers and as one brand, we could not have the impact that ISBA has speaking for all of us. I know that when similar issues arise, ISBA will ensure our views and interests are represented.

Jill Dougan

Ex Director of Small Business at British Gas