[Interview] Johan Vandepoel: ACC focuses on talent and sustainability

Johan Vandepoel has been the CEO of  ACC Belgium (Association of Communication Companies) since January 2013. ACC is a trade association where all creative agencies come together: advertising agencies, branding & design, content, digital, event, team building PR & influencer agencies.

We spoke to him about the ACC and the developments in the market.

What trends do you see?

We've been opening up to non-advertising agencies over the past 10 years and that's going pretty well. After all, we see that our members are increasingly diversifying themselves; that more and more agencies are being taken over in permanent partnerships or that there is voluntary cooperation between agencies that are complementary to each other. And that is at the request of clients who want a single proposition for their customers.

What developments are there in the regulatory field of influencer marketing?

Four years ago, a unilateral charter was issued by the government. It was so extreme that everyone involved said something had to be done about it. Via the Communication Center (where UBA, ACC, and the media associations join forces, ed.) we ensured that a charter was drawn up that was also endorsed by JEP and of which an update was recently - in collaboration with Kabinet De Bleeker - of has been released. For example, from now on every influencer message must contain the tag #advertisement

Recently, the government has also indicated that influencers must make themselves known as a company on social media and therefore show their entrepreneurial address. There has been quite a bit of reaction to this from the influencers, who risk that their fans or haters show up at their private address or that they receive all kinds of unsolicited samples that they should then post about. That is why we are in consultation with the FOD Consumer Protection to find an acceptable solution for this.

What trends can be observed in the advertising itself?

In the past year we have noticed a strongly increased focus on the influx and throughput of Talent; on Sustainability and on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. We are strongly committed to this with the entire communication industry and will launch three new initiatives in the autumn:To improve the influx and throughput of talent, we will launch a new platform CommCareers.be in September in collaboration with UMA; where office managers, lecturers from colleges and universities and students can make online appointments for office visits and speed dating sessions and can search for internships, guest speakers, training packages and jobs.In order to put the theme of Sustainability on the map and to align all initiatives, tools and certifications of the marketing and communication sector, we brought together a coalition of all Belgian media and trade associations in the communication sector, which will launch the CommToZero.be platform aiming to achieve Zero Greenwashing and Zero Carbon in the marcom sector.

In the autumn we will also launch, in collaboration with BAM, UBA and UMA, a new Guide on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, with clear descriptions of what it is all about, why it is important for the marcom sector and how we can do something about it in the form of 16 premises and as many examples and sources of inspiration.

You are making changes at the awards?

Yes, we have successfully involved the event industry and see an interaction between the different disciplinary awards. Under the heading Best of Awards, last year we brought together the Best of Activation Awards (BOA), the Belgian Event Awards (BEA) and the Best of Content Awards (BOCA) on one platform and with one award event and that is a proved successful.

That is why we are now also launching the Best of Reputation Awards (BORA) on the same platform.On November 23, the 22 awards will be presented in Antwerp Avenue. We have the ambition in the long term to bring other organizers of disciplinary awards to the table and to arrive at a Midweek of the Belgian CommCrafts with content during the day and the award ceremonies of all disciplines in the evening

.How do you see the ACC developing?

I have been active at ACC for almost 10 years now and have been in the business for 40 years.

In my previous work (Chairman at BBDO Belgium) I also saw different disciplines come together and I just continued this rapprochement at ACC.We do a lot as ACC: education and training via our Brainery, lobbying via the Communication Center and Event Confederation, stimulating the influx and promotion of talent, issuing guidelines, organizing awards and events, stimulating collaboration between the agencies mutual (MatchMaker ACC), promoting diversity, equity and inclusivity; promoting and facilitating Zero Greenwashing and Zero Carbon.

We are also pleased with the new Pricing manual, which we have developed together with PitchPoint and UBA, and with our classics such as the Profitability, Hourly Rates and Salary Surveys.To make all that work possible, we can count on a great Board of Directors with 12 enthusiastic agency managers from different disciplines; an army of volunteers in our 14 Hubs and Expert Centers and of course our permanent team of five employees.

www.acc.be