IAA launches ‘Bring Compassion Back’ campaign

KUALA LUMPUR: Every Oct 3 marks a significant day for the International Advertising Association (IAA) and the global fraternity of marketing and communications.

This is because the IAA has declared it as World Marketing and Communications Day.

It recognises and celebrates the world of marketing and communications, its players, practices, history and achievements.

It is also a day when the IAA would lead the rest of the marketing communications world to recognise and celebrate the purpose-led good of communications and marketing.

This year, the inaugural celebration, the focus is on Covid-19 and showing compassion to all who have been affected by this pandemic.

To commemorate the day, the IAA is launching the “Bring Compassion Back” campaign, which encourages people across the world to show acts of compassion and also celebrate individuals who have contributed to the fight against the pandemic.

Speaking at a virtual global inauguration ceremony, world president and chairman of IAA, Joel E. Nettey, made an eloquent statement.

“Setting aside a day on the calendar every year to rally all brands, marketeers and agencies around the world, to focus on ‘marketing for good’ is an initiative the IAA is very proud of and is very much in keeping with our positioning as ‘the global compass of marketing communications’.

“It is our hope that over time, organisations such as the UN will adopt it as well, and encourage the whole world to recognise and celebrate brands and people who make the world a little brighter,” Nettey said.

The idea of “Compassion” was first sparked by IAA Malaysia back in June this year, and it is a tribute to the campaign’s significance in these times that media houses, including out-of-home players and the Star Media Group, put much weight in amplifying the campaign to the hilt.

John D. Chacko,(pic) president of IAA Malaysia and global vice-president of education said: “Earlier this year, IAA Malaysia developed its ‘Compassion’ campaign with the sign-off ‘a call to all to make compassion a way of work’.

“It had a footprint across online, print and out-of-home, generously supported by several like-minded media owners, as they immediately recognised the importance of the campaign that singularly empathises with challenges many face in current times.”

Chacko alluded to the success of the campaign in pointing out how IAA Malaysia’s call to make compassion a way of work extended into the movement for this year’s World Marketing and Communications Day.

Source: The Star, 4 Oct 2021