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Qualifications for Membership in the American Association of Advertising Agencies FIRST ADOPTED JULY 19, 1920 - MOST RECENTLY REVISED SEPTEMBER 15, 1998 Membership in the American Association of Advertising Agencies is by application and election after the applicant meets the following AAAA Qualifications for Membership:
OVERVIEW
These qualifications for membership are intended as a definition of the kinds of advertising agencies and other marketing communications organizations most likely to succeed for their clients. They are based on the premise that the organization should be independent, unbiased, and objective; should offer adequate staff and experience; should be ethically operated; and should be soundly financed.
1. TYPE OF BUSINESS
Applicants should be an advertising agency or other organization that creates and/or places advertising or marketing communications. A minimum of 50 percent of the applicant's gross income must result from payment for services usually performed by advertising or marketing communications organizations.
2. SIZE OF APPLICANT
The size of any applicant shall not be a factor in determining qualification for membership, except that an applicant inadequately equipped to service its business shall not be considered eligible.
3. AGE OF APPLICANT
No applicant shall be considered for election unless its principal owners have been doing business as an advertising or marketing communications organization for at least two years. This qualification may be waived by the Board of Directors only in exceptional circumstances.
4. LOCATION OF APPLICANT
Only applicants maintaining an office(s) in the United States, its territories, and possessions shall be considered for membership.
5. OWNERSHIP, CONTROL, AND BIAS
a. No applicant shall be eligible unless the persons who exercise operating control of it are employees of the applicant.
b. No applicant shall be eligible if it is controlled or operated by, or on behalf of, one or more advertisers.
c. In the interest of objectivity, where an applicant owns an interest in a medium or supplier or where a medium or supplier owns an interest in the applicant, it is required that such interest be disclosed to the Association, to the applicant's clients, and, in the case of media ownership, to other media as well. Where there is substantial ownership of such interest by one or more officers or employees of the applicant, similar disclosure is required..
d. An applicant must disclose all facts necessary to determine its eligibility with respect to ownership, control, and possible bias and must agree that, if elected to membership, it will notify the Association promptly of any change that might affect its continued eligibility under these provisions.
6. SERVICE STANDARDS
Only applicants that are committed to provide an adequate quantity and quality of advertising or other marketing communications at a high level of professional and ethical standards shall be eligible for membership. Such services relate to communications to the public, or to desired segments of the public, or to the media, regarding business entities and their legally marketed products and services. An individual applicant is, of course, free to determine with its clients what services it will perform, but it must be committed to the best practices of its area of specialization.
7. CHARACTER
Applicants will be evaluated regarding their business record, policies and principles, ethical practices, reputation for honesty, integrity, and sincerity of purpose. Only applicants who give reasonable assurance of their readiness and ability to uphold the highest ethical standards of the business will be received into membership.
8. ABILITY
a. Advertising and marketing communications ability varies with individual talent and need; it is difficult to standardize. Nevertheless, sound judgment regarding the applicant's ability can and should be formed by a proper study of:
1. Its staff and facilities
2. Its past service and work produced for clients.
b. The applicant is required to furnish a representative list of its present clients, indicating the nature of the work handled for them, how long it has held each listed account, and, where applicable, a representative list of media with whom it has done business.
9. FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
a. Financial stability, indicated by a satisfactory balance sheet, is important in determining the applicant's qualification. Such statement should either be verified by a Certified Public Accountant, or, if this is not available, sworn to by the applicant.
b. Each applicant is required not only to fill out the balance sheet accompanying the application blank but also to give other such evidence of its financial condition as may be required.
c. The applicant shall be required to furnish as financial references its banking connections and six suppliers with whom it has done business.
d. No applicant shall be admitted to membership until its balance sheet has been approved in accordance with sound banking and accounting standards, except that an applicant whose financial condition does not fully meet the Association's requirement may, in event of unusual merit or desirability in other respects, be admitted by the Board of Directors.
10. METHOD OF APPLICATION/ELECTION
Each applicant shall be required to fill out completely the printed form
known as "Application for Membership." No application
can be referred to a Region for investigation or to the Board of Directors
for election unless this form has been properly filled out
with all supplementary information and approved as complete by Headquarters..
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Qualifications for Membership
Election to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), the
industry's national trade association, is the highest professional recognition an advertising agency can achieve. In fact, AAAA membership has been awarded to less than 10 percent of the more than 13,000 agencies in theUnited States.
As a member, your agency can become a more effective, productive and profitable marketing communications business because the AAAA offers you information and services on virtually every aspect of running a communications agency. AAAA services and benefits will make your staff more knowledgeable, better informed, more efficient, and better able to serve your clients.
Source of information.
AAAA members can offer their clients expanded or improved services through
access to an unparalleled source of advertising related information. They can also modify or improve their own internal practices and procedures through published management studies, individual consultation, and through the knowledge and expertise gathered from other members, large and small, all over the country. AAAA can also provide members with research that will help them win new clients and keep up to date in order to retain existing accounts.
Access to programs and peer groups.
With membership comes the opportunity to participate in professional development programs and seminars, and to take advantage of the association's group insurance, retirement, and affinity discount plans. It also means meeting and sharing expertise with other agencies through AAAA committees, regions, and councils. Members can also participate in AAAA Forums, in which top executives from non-competing agencies of similar size from different geographical areas convene to candidly discuss common problems and issues As a member, your agency can become a more effective, productive and profitable marketing communications business because the AAAA offers you information and services on virtually every aspect of running a communications agency. AAAA services and benefits will make your staff more knowledgeable, better informed, more efficient, and better able to serve your clients.
Industry representation.
AAAA members benefit from the association's government relations programs
which provide increasing protection of the advertising agency business against unfair or harmful federal and state legislation and form the AAAA's role as an industry representative to clients, media, educators, and the general public.
AAAA members are its strength.
AAAA members know that membership is a two-way street. Member executives
serve on our national Board of Directors and on the Boards of Governors of our four Regions and 26 local Councils. More than 600 professionals from member agencies work together on our 46 committees and sub-committees on projects that benefit all agencies. AAAA members participate in the Institutes of Advanced Advertising Studies, and the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program. They instruct at our seminars, write AAAA booklets, and host industry meetings nationwide. And member responses to our confidential management studies create the reliable, credible data for which the association is so well known.
AAAA services:
- Member Information Service and International Member Information Service (MIS and IMIS). This AAAA division is staffed with professional information specialists to handle member inquiries on virtually every aspect of advertising and the agency business in the U.S. and abroad.
- Management Services. This AAAA division helps agency principals reach sound financial, management and administrative decisions via the collective experience of member agencies of all sizes.
- Media and Production Services. This AAAA division answers member questions about operating agency media and production services.
- Professional Development. This AAAA division satisfies member agencies' staff training and development needs by designing and sponsoring dozens of programs nationwide as well as overseeing the crucial details of all of the AAAA national conferences.
- Insurance and Employee Benefits. AAAA Benefits, Inc. offers member agencies group plans at competitive rates for life or long-term disability insurance, as well as workers' compensation plans, agency liability insurance, employee assistance programs and retirement plans.
- Government Relations Information and Expertise. The AAAA's Washington office works to battle advertising taxes and protect the freedom to advertise. Members receive help in understanding the direct effects that certain government legislation and regulation may have on the agency business.
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