AAAI

The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) is the official,

national organization of advertising agencies, formed in 1945, to
promote their interests. The Association promotes professionalism,
through its founding principles, which uphold sound business
practices between advertisers and advertising agencies and the various
media.
The AAAI today is truly representative, with a very large number of
small, medium and large-sized agencies as to its members, who
together account for almost 80% of the advertising business placed in
the country. It is thus recognized as the apex body of and the
spokesperson for the advertising industry at all forums – advertisers
and media owners and their associations and Government
The premier national organisation for advertising agencies in India
was set up in Calcutta in 1945. Four agencies from Calcutta - D J
Keymer, General Advertising Agency, J Walter Thomson Co. and
Press Syndicate along with three agencies from Bombay - Adarts,
Lintas and National Advertising Service were the founder members of
the AAAI.
Over the years, AAAI has stood the test of time and strengthened
relations with the government and various industry bodies viz Indian
Newspaper Society (INS), Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF),
Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), Indian Outdoor Advertising
Association (IOAA), Internet and Mobile Association of India
(IAMAI), Association of Radio Operators in India (AROI) et al.
Initially only Full-Service Agencies were members of AAAI and in
2008 AAAI opened its doors to Media and Creative Agencies as well.
Recently it has opened its membership to Digital agencies and very
soon it will open its membership to PR, Events and Outdoor agencies
too.
Elaborating on this AAAI President, Ashish Bhasin said “AAAI was
formed to promote advertising as a professional activity. From its
humble beginnings with a mere seven agencies, AAAI has grown
manifold to its present strength of more than 100 Advertising
Agencies, who contribute more than 80% of the total ad budget of the
country. Initially, the total size of the advertising industry was Rs 5
crore, the advertising industry stands at over Rs. 70,000 crores in
2019 and is expected to grow up to Rs 1 trillion in the next few years.
OBJECTIVES OF AAAI