Client:Outdoor Advertising Association
Campaign:Neutralising a £60million legislative threat to the advertising industry

The challenge

The Outdoor Advertising Association (OAA) represents over 50 organisations involved in the outdoor advertising industry. Its members undertake a diverse array of activities, but typically they provide and maintain billboards, bus shelters and other street furniture, and look after the advertisements placed on those sites.

Mandate was approached by the OAA, who were concerned that clauses in two Bills before Parliament - the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill, and the private London Local Authorities Bill - would unduly affect its members

Solution

Mandate conducted detailed research as to what the effects of the legislation would be on the industry. We then managed a concerted campaign aimed at amending both Bills before they became law. This included:

• Leading an extensive lobbying campaign against both Bills, forging a groundswell of opinion from all sides of Parliament that amendments were needed
• Commissioning a supportive legal opinion, from a leading planning law QC, to bolster the OAA’s case
• Utilising some of the more specialist Parliamentary mechanisms available, such as a ‘blocking motion’, which delayed the passage of legislation by 3 months, allowing us more time to marshal and communicate the OAA’s case
• Drafting amendments to both Bills and making convincing arguments to MPs and Peers to table and support these amendments
• Negotiating in some detail with relevant officials to convince them of the need to change the legislation.

Result

• Both the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill, and the London Local Authorities Bill, were amended in line with our client’s recommendations before they became law
• The changes to the first Bill saved the industry an estimated £60 million – in essence, it saved the outdoor advertising industry from certain decline.
• Amendments to the latter Bill protected the directors of advertising companies and their clients from being struck off and fined up to £60,000 for minor technical planning issues.
• Protected from these business-critical legislative threats, the Outdoor Advertising industry has gone on to thrive, and is now the fastest growing traditional advertising medium in the UK.