International Advertising Association history

1953: IAA shows exponential growth in members; 1160 members globally with 600 of them outside USA

1955: First IAA conference to be held outside USA; Zurich becomes host to the historic event

1957: Second IAA conference to be held in Europe, efforts to promote advertising self-regulation initiated at the conference in IAA Hague

1960: First Latin American conference organized in Venezuela

1964: First Young professional group formed by IAA in Venezuela.

1973: First White Paper of IAA titled 'The Global Challenge of Advertising' is presented at the World Congress in Dublin in 1973.

1979: IAA starts its public service advertising program and staged the first ever World Public Service Advertising symposium in Brussels

1980: The IAA Education Program gets conceptualized and announced at the 1980 IAA World Congress in Durban.

1991: The IAA launches ‘The Case for Advertising’, a worldwide Campaign for Advertising, a first-ever, all-media, pro-bono effort to explain the value of advertising to consumers (individuals and governments) and its benefit in our daily lives.

1994: IAA commissions study to analyze economic contribution of advertising to a country’s economy and results of the study get presented to government, bureaucrats, the media and the marketing communications business in 15 countries

1999: IAA finishes the millennium with 4,600 members in 93 countries, with 61 Chapters, 98 Corporate Members and 64 Organizational Members.

2005: IAA sustainable development initiative gets kick-started, an annual competition in which teams are challenged to develop an ad campaign on social/ environmental issues

2009: IAA introduces the Digital Download Forum Series which was created to make key industry professionals share their views and expertise on the digital/online industry.

2010: InterAd Competition gets relaunched, client-sponsor Canon providing the funding

2013: IAA celebrates its 75th Anniversary with a Global Leadership Forum in London, ‘What’s Coming Next?' featuring the global road map of industry trends, issues and opinions.

2014: Beijing hosts IAA's 41st World Congress with the Gala opening event being held at the historic Great Hall of the People in the presence of China's leading dignitaries.

2015: IAA conducts the Africa Rising conference; the first of its kind to bring together the advertising and marketing communications practitioners working in or doing business with Africa.