Scottish Marketing Association

Working together to enhance the future of Scottish marketing communications.

The UK marketing services industry is over-centralised in the South East of England, to the detriment of clients and agencies alike.

The SMA aims to reverse that trend by creating a forum for the exchange of ideas and a platform to showcase the excellent work that comes out of Scotland.

A recent economic study by EKOS showed that over 7,400 people are employed in the marketing communications sector in Scotland across 1,100 businesses and they contribute £332 of GVA to the Scottish economy. The creative services industry in the UK is growing at twice the rate of the economy as a whole.

This all points to an important economy and yet 75% of the advertising spend of Scottish clients is spent with non-Scottish agencies.

The SMA is determined to play an active role in addressing this situation by
creating opportunities for the Scottish marketing communications industry to meet each other and to share case studies and best practice by providing platforms to showcase our work and by using our collective talents to talk directly to clients to demonstrate the value of the industry on its doorstep in Scotland.

Mark Gorman, Chairman, April 2008


	Mark Gorman

A graduate of Stirling University and Watford College Mark has enjoyed over 20 years in the Marketing industry in Scotland, all on the agency side. Having trained at Hall Advertising and then The Leith Agency he successfully launched and ran his own agency, 1576 Advertising and its two subsidiaries Whitespace and Metis before leaving to run his own marketing consultancy, Think Hard.

He is no stranger to running trade bodies having chaired the Scottish IPA from 1999 – 2001, is a committee member of The Marketing Society in Scotland and currently steering SMC Action, the Scottish marketing lobbying group.


	4 KEY OBJECTIVES

	To create a powerful and effective networking community with like-minded members
	To create an exciting and dynamic learning environment that attracts great speakers and encourages intelligent and enthusiastic debate about the issues facing our industry.
	To contribute towards the continued growth of our members’ business.
	To campaign on behalf of our members and the marketing sector as a whole to create a better commercial environment in Scotland.