History of Advertising Trust increases archive space by 25%
The History of Advertising Trust (HAT) has celebrated the completion of Archive 7 – an addition of 2,000sq ft to its existing 8,000sq ft of archive space.
The completed exterior of Archive 7
Archive 7 has been created to house Ebiquity, the definitive collection of all UK advertising from 1960-2000. HAT is already the largest accredited advertising archive in the world but, with artefacts, artwork, documents and audio-visual material totalling 4 million items, this donated collection will make the Trust the UK’s most comprehensive resource for educational research, broadcast production, publishing and licensing.
Tom Knox, HAT’s Chair of Trustees and Executive Partner at MullenLowe said: “Ebiquity will fill the gaps in our archive over a period that has seen three industrial revolutions (electronic, digitisation, humanisation) and a boom in creativity across all media. For agencies, this is gold dust. Our Brand Archaeology service gives them historical insight when pitching to heritage brands and Ebiquity will now make those deep dives even more valuable. If you don’t understand the past, how can you possibly help clients in the future? Since launching in January, the service has contributed to some big wins for agencies for a fraction of their pitch budgets.”
L-R Tom Knox and Lord Sharkey
But there will still be space available in the new facility for brands to protect their collections. John Gordon-Saker, Executive Director of HAT, said: “Archive 7 will also offer more clients the opportunity to protect their heritage. Space is a critical resource as brands re-assess their office and storage needs and Butlin’s, Ginsters, Heinz, Hovis, Pladis and Vimto appreciate the need to preserve their heritage, by entrusting their prized collections and digital assets to our care and curation.”
Guests at the opening event for Archive 7
A former advertising industry leader (ex-Saatchi & Saatchi and Bainsfair, Sharkey & Trott), Lord Sharkey, is a sitting peer in the House of Lords and was adviser to Nick Clegg. He formally opened Archive 7 in Raveningham, saying that “Advertising is a reflection of social history and HAT ensures that issues like colonisation, inclusivity, sustainability and diversity on and off screen are preserved, placing any controversy in context.”
Lord Sharkey unveils the plaque and opens Archive 7 (credit @ Ian Greenfield)
The celebration also marked the renewal of HAT’s accreditation status by The National Archives, with the citation reading that “HAT was a very effective and well managed archive with an agile approach to service development and delivery.” HAT’s Deputy Director, Alistair Moir, who had worked on the renewal application and accepted the award from TNA Director, Gemma Maclagan Ram, said: “Retaining accreditation for a further five years was a lot of work by the whole team but a huge accolade, bearing in mind that out of around 2,000 archives, only 10% are accredited.”
Gemma Maclagan Ram (Director, The National Archives) hands re-accreditation certificate to Alistair Moir (HAT Deputy Director)
For details on brand archaeology, archive management, research and HAT’s twin charitable aims of engagement with education and dementia resource Ad-Memoire visit www.hatads.org.uk
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