Institute of Practitioners in Advertising

The IPA is one of the world's pre-eminent trade bodies for marketing communications agencies. The IPA has over 270 of the UK’s brightest and best agencies in membership, from a broad range of disciplines, who between them handle an estimated 85 per cent of all UK advertising spend.

The IPA has a dual role within the agency business. Firstly, it acts as spokesman for its members, representing them on issues of common concern and speaking on their behalf in negotiations with media bodies, government departments and unions. Secondly, it contributes to the effective operation of member companies through its advisory, training and information services.

The IPA established the IPA Effectiveness Awards competition in 1980. With its tough criteria, it soon became Adland’s most rigorous award scheme. Thirty years on, its databank of case histories (now over 1400 strong) is considered invaluable to anyone interested in, or working in, marketing and marketing communications because they comprehensively show the payback from marcomms spend and provide a comprehensive explanation for winning business strategies. They have also helped the industry to improve its methods of evaluation.

As a sponsor of the IPA Effectiveness Awards, Warc is the official publisher of the IPA case studies both online on warc.com and in the Advertising Works series of books.

The IPA also operates IDOL, its online databank, which functions as an online learning, search and selection site for the IPA Effectiveness Awards case studies.

The two competitions

The awards are held on an annual basis and there are some subtle differences between the ‘even’ and ‘odd’ year competitions:

• The even-year competition is open worldwide to agencies, media owners and clients. Papers entered from a single entrant must be no more than 4,000 words (excluding appendices/titles/footnotes/and any wording in figures or graphs provided). Papers that are jointly entered (creative agency and media agency for example) may have an additional 500 words to make specific reference to the broader marketing strategy deployed.
• The odd-year competition is limited to campaigns with a total annual marketing communications budget of up to £2.5 million. This competition is open to agencies, media owners and clients from the UK-only. The word count is slightly less at 3,000 words.

The closing date for each competition is always in April; with the shortlist being announced early September and the winners being announced at a black-tie awards gala awards ceremony in November. Both competitions have two judging panels: one made up of industry experts, including econometricians, researchers and academics; and the second, final awarding panel, of senior clients.

Full information on the competition can be found at www.ipaeffectivenessawards.co.uk.

Special subscription for IPA Members

IPA Members are entitled to a 10% discount on a subscription to Warc.