Michael Frohlich: Selling UK Creativity To The World

"Britain does not have a creativity challenge. It has a scale challenge," says Michael Frohlich, CMO for WPP and co-chair of the The Creative Trade Forum, the government backed forum charged with promoting the UK’s creative industry exports.

According to figures released in 2024 by the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport the creative industries contribute more than £145bn to the UK economy and are among Britain's fastest-growing sectors.

Frolich is co-chair alongside Francesca Hegyi, CEO of Edinburgh International Festival. The pair, alongside minister for Reindustrialisation Blair McDougall held their inaugural meeting during the Edinburgh International Festival at the end of November, where they unveiled The Forum’s new logo and visual identity were created by WPP agency Landor. It aims to reflect the Forum’s ambition to present the UK’s creative industries as a united, dynamic force on the international stage.

Together, they are shaping a three-year plan to grow UK creative-industry exports, built around three imperatives: Join Up. Speak Up. Show Up.

Join Up: Strengthen collaboration between industry and government, ensuring insight flows both ways. This includes identifying trade barriers, influencing policy, and aligning with government priority markets — currently the US, India and Europe.

Speak Up: Present a unified, commercially confident UK creative voice internationally. Creativity is positioned not as soft power but as hard economics, contributing £145bn GVA, supporting 2.4m UK jobs, and generating £70bn in exports.

Show Up: Increase UK creative presence at major global events — not only traditional creative gatherings but adjacent sectors where UK creativity is commercially relevant (e.g., aviation shows where UK design firms lead globally). The aim is to tell a bolder story about British creativity and highlight its wider economic ripple effects across supply chains.

They are also developing clearer routes for industry to raise trade challenges with government, including those that have intensified since Brexit.

Frohlich shares his thinking on how the Forum will bring stakeholders together, raise the profile of UK creative businesses and unlock new opportunities in markets around the world.

What is your aim with The Creative Trade Forum?

The aim is to promote UK creative‑industry exports. The UK has world‑class talent, IP and ideas, but the challenge is scaling them into export growth. The goal is to help more creative businesses convert their strengths into international investment and commercial expansion, which in turn contributes to UK GDP.

This work sits within the government’s industrial strategy, where the creative industries are a core pillar. That strategy published around 12–18 months ago, identifies priority sectors — and the commitment to those sector plans remains unchanged.

British creativity has a scale challenge – why do you think so?

The UK is globally recognised for its creative industries; however, our export performance doesn’t match that standing. This is the core challenge: strong global perception, but under‑scaled commercial output.

It’s not a crisis — as Minister MacDougall noted — but a scale problem. The UK has exceptional creative talent and IP, yet we’re not exporting at the level our reputation should enable. That gap represents clear upside and opportunity for growth. We're not doing as much as we as our global reputation allow us to do.

Have you already set any targets?

We are going to be setting financial targets. That's one thing that's linked to the Creative Industries Council which Tim Davie is now taking over as chair and as part of that we will be setting clear targets for export.

What are the short term opportunities that the CTF hopes to unlock?

The immediate priority is to get the narrative right. The UK’s definition of “creative industries” is vast — spanning architecture, design, advertising, marketing, TV, content creators, craft, gaming, AI, music, theatre, film and production. It’s so broad that simply listing the sectors doesn’t create a coherent story. WPP is now working with government, the CTF and the CIC to shape a clear, unified narrative that captures the scale and value of the sector without resorting to endless lists. That shared narrative will allow the entire creative industries to speak with one voice — the essential first step to building a stronger, more consistent presence at home and internationally.

Do you already have commitments of support from creative leaders and businesses?

We have members already [see the list at the end of this piece] many of whom have been involved in CIC already. We've got foundation members of members, most of which are trade bodies. But the next stage is recruitment of some more commercial members - we have YouTube and WPP but will be recruiting a handful of others to balance the trade with commercial voices.

How important will the UK’s nurturing of AI be to this?

It’s hugely important because it reflects the convergence happening across the creative industries. Future creativity sits where ideas meet technology and commerce, increasingly enabled by AI. This shift aligns directly with the government’s AI strategy and underscores how creativity and technology are becoming a single, integrated force.

You’ve already tapped Landor to design the new logo – how much support is WPP delivering for you in this role and how can it help realise the UK’s creative potential?

WPP is supporting the Creative Trade Forum in the way we believe we can be most useful: by helping British creativity travel further, scale faster and show up with greater confidence in the markets that matter. As a UK-founded creative company with global reach, WPP sits at the intersection of creativity, technology, media, data and commerce. That gives us a particular responsibility — and a particular ability — to help translate the UK’s creative reputation into export growth, investment and commercial opportunity around the world.

The UK does not lack creative talent, ideas or intellectual property; the challenge is coherence and scale. WPP can help by using the breadth of our network, our client relationships and the expertise of our agencies to build bridges between British creative businesses and key international territories. The Creative Trade Forum exists to give a fragmented but world-class sector a stronger commercial voice. WPP’s role is to help make that voice louder and more relevant.

That work has already begun. Landor, part of WPP, created the Forum’s new brand and visual identity to give CTF a distinctive platform where creativity, culture and commerce meet. Beyond the identity, WPP agencies can help the Forum define its narrative, behaviours and values; develop clear messaging for government, industry and international partners; and turn CTF from a well-intentioned body into a recognised, active and influential platform for growth.

For us, this is also about lifting up UK creativity in all its forms — from advertising, design and architecture to film, television, gaming, music and AI-powered businesses — and showing international audiences that British creativity is not just cultural capital, but economic infrastructure. WPP is uniquely equipped to help because we understand how ideas move through markets, how brands build trust, and how creative businesses turn reputation into growth. That is why we are proud to support CTF: not as a logo on the page, but as a practical partner helping British creativity compete, connect and win globally.

Members of the Creative Trade Forum:

• Francesca Hegyi OBE – Chief Executive of the Edinburgh International Festival 

• Michael Frohlich – Chief Marketing Officer & Corporate Affairs Officer, WPP 

• Alison Lomax, Managing Director YouTube, UK and Ireland

• Paul Alger – Director of International Business, UK Fashion & Textile Association 

• Tracy Brabin – Mayor of West Yorkshire 

• Tom Christopherson – Chairman, British Art Market Association 

• Deborah Dawton – Chief Executive, Design Business Association 

• Elizabeth Diaferia – Associate Director, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) 

• Claire Walker/Hannah Essex – Co-Chief Executive, Society of London Theatre (SOLT) 

• Giorgio Fazio – Research Director, Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC) 

• Cliff Fluet – Head of Media & Entertainment & Board Member, Lewis Silkin/ Music Tech UK 

• Tom Fiddian – Head of AI and Data Economy Programmes, Innovate UK 

• Tom Fussell – Chief Executive Officer, BBC Studios 

• David Leigh-Pemberton – Director of Corporate and International Affairs, British Fashion Council 

• Ross Lewis – Director of International & Projects, PACT 

• Nema Hart – Director SW + Inclusive Innovation, Arts Council England (shared ACE representation) 

• Scott McDonald – Chief Executive, British Council 

• Nick McDowell – Director of International, Arts Council England (shared ACE representation) 

• Natalie Melton – Executive Director, Crafts Council 

• Agnieszka Moody - Head of International Relations, British Film Institute (BFI) 

• Iain Munro – Chief Executive, Creative Scotland 

• Kate O'Connor – Chair of Animation UK 

• Nick Poole OBE – Chief Executive, UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) 

• Chloe Straw – Director of Operations, Goalhanger 

• Kate Taylor Tett – Director of the GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland Campaign 

• Dr Jo Twist OBE – Chief Executive Officer, British Phonographic Industry (BPI) 

• Valerie Vaughan-Dick – Chief Executive, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) 

• Stephen Woodford – Chief Executive Officer, Advertising Association 

• Adrian Wooton OBE – Chief Executive, Film London 

• Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport 

• UK Export Finance 

• Office for Investment