IPA Effectiveness Accreditation Programme
Description
The IPA Effectiveness Accreditation programme seeks to drive an expectation of effectiveness between brand marketers and agencies. It provides an endorsement that an agency makes effectiveness central to their business culture. Submissions demonstrate to a panel of leading brand owners, academics, authors and effectiveness specialists that their culture is dedicated to effectiveness across four key criteria: Focus, People, Process, and Data, Tools & Measurement. Agencies who successfully receive the accreditation can use a bespoke kitemark, to set themselves above their competition and provide a competitive advantage to attract clients, talent and maintain high standards. The initiative runs every 2 years.
What is innovative about this initiative?
Many awards schemes exist recognising work which has been successful and delivered value for agencies and clients, Recognition of sustained, daily effort to build a strong effectiveness culture throughout the organization, not just within strategy and planning teams, is harder to come by. Furthermore, awards schemes are often perceived to be out of reach for many agencies. The Effectiveness Accreditation provides valuable recognition that agencies are working to develop a strong effectiveness culture, which will deliver value for their clients. The Accreditation is size and location agnostic, providing validation of processes and culture, whatever the size or location the agency.
Impact
The accreditation was launched in 2021, where 19 agencies were successful. In it’s second year, this number increased to 30, showing the increased appetite for the scheme. 79% of eligible agencies resubmitted in 2023, which included 100% of those who were successful in the first year. Amongst the list of successful agencies in 2023 were a diverse range of organizations, across location, size and discipline. Due to the nature of the scheme, quantitative impact is difficult to assess, but anecdotally, agencies have reported securing new clients thanks to the clout from the accreditation.