The Long and the Short of It

Out now! The new thought leadership paper from the IPA Databank.

Get your copy from the IPA site

Credit where credit is due

Hurrah! 'Snowman helps John Lewis profits snowball' says James Thompson in the Evening Standard (7 March).

You can access advertising, media and marketing effectiveness case studies featuring John Lewis and other retailers using the IPA's free search tool: EASE

Congratulations to AMV.BBDO!

IPA Effectiveness Agency of the year 2012!

Effectiveness Awards background here.

Good ads work!

A positive start to the New Year with the Evening Standard's report on John Lewis December sales (4 Jan Page 2).

"Retail experts said the fantastic success of the ad, called The Long Wait, contributed to John Lewis's remarkable sales figures which dramatically bucked the depressed trend elsewhere on the High Street."

"The TV mini-saga had 'struck a chord' with consumers."

Should we be surprised? Congratulations to IPA member agency Adam & Eve! (didn't the lead team there also reinvent M&S?)

Check out the IPA's Advertising Effectiveness Search Engine (EASE) to search our huge collection of effectiveness case studies online. It's very quick and, like John Lewis, you won't have to wait long to read about the value of advertising.

Creativity and effectiveness

If you haven't seen it already, check out Campaign Close-Up, page 14, this week.

It features more ground breaking work from the IPA looking at the correlation between creativity and effectiveness based on data from The Gunn Report and the IPA Databank.

It shows that the efficiency of highly creative campaigns is growing. The more creative you are the more you get for your money.

Read the full report here.

Social media rules

According to WARC the top search phrase on its site in 2010 was 'social media.' Facebook was also the leading brand being searched for (sought after?) on the WARC site, confirming users' thirst for more content and comment in the social media area. Feels almost omnipresent now doesn't it? 'Press Button B' could almost only have happened in an episode of Dr Who it seems.

On the IPA site, of the top six successful search terms used on the site, 'behavioural economics', 'case studies' and 'databank' were all in the top six. This reflects also the desire of users to understand better the decision-making processes that result in hugely effective advertising and marketing case studies, published for us by WARC. Unsurprisingly the IPA databank of case studies increasingly demonstrates the role played by social media in advertising effectiveness.

Refreshingly, cider was the product category most frequently searched on WARC in 2010. Love pear cider and love seeing brand entries for Copperhead, Strongbow and Magners all being submitted as case studies to the annual IPA Effectiveness Awards competitions: over 1400 case studies are available for download from the IPA databank. Cheers

In search of talent

When it comes to graduate recruitment, my particular bugbears are the City and Management Consultancy. They have the money and the clout to hold big 'loud' events at all the best universities, so they have the biggest visibility by far.

So it's not surpising that we in the creative industries feel we may be losing out on some of the best talent, simply because we aren't on the radar, and aren't being heard. It's particularly frustrating, of course, for the ad industry, within the creative economy, who know a thing or two about communications and, in particular, how share of voice drives share of market!

So it was particularly welcome for the IPA to be approached by fledgeling OxAdSoc to get involved in a student-led initiative to put advertising and its related disciplines; social media, digital, marketing back on the map.

At our maiden event at the Careers Centre in Oxford last night, I argued the case for the creative industries as a more fulfilling alternative to the City or Management Consultancy. "Relative to the City and Management Consultancy they are a force for economic growth and a force for social good. At their core, what unites them is what Will Hutton of the Work Foundation calls 'expressive value'. Ultimately they're about asset creation and organic growth; through tangible products and services or physical pieces of entertainment; or aesthetic pleasure or intangible expressions of brand value and experiences. The creative economy feeds our minds and our senses as well as our pockets."

We painted an upbeat picture of the UK creative economy: "Although it's taken the UK a long time to recognise its economic significance, as a country we're particularly strong in it." We explained that the creative economy is currently 6.2% of UK GDP, is growing faster than the economy as a whole, and contributing to the overall growth of the economy. One third of new jobs in London are in the creative economy.

Of course, there are many different creative sectors. We showed a UKTI 8 minute compilation of '50 years of Creative Britain' to represent them. But, I argued, "Advertising is one of the largest, one of the most dynamic, and it is pivotal to the ecosystem. There are only three sources of funding for the creative economy; the government (your taxes), you (your subscription, cover price, entrance fee) and advertising. So advertising is a force for social good. And it's also a force for economic good."

The opportunities in advertising for quality graduates of all disciplines is huge. There's a creative and technological explosion; democratisation of content brings the need for new business models; there are significant industry challenges for the next generation to solve. "We tend to be discipline neutral in our graduate intake, but at the same time there are definite growth opportunities for specialists with backgrounds in PPE, the social sciences, statistics and network science. Overall, we are looking for diagonal thinkers, who combine creativity with commerciality, and entrepreneurial spirit."

IPA Effectiveness awards go global

It's been a few years now since the IPA's premier award scheme has allowed entries from outside of the UK.

But it's the first year that a live camera crew from China's news agency has been on site at the awards night to film proceedings and relay it back to China. They were not disappointed. There were three winners for Asia: Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific for Comfort, JWT London for HSBC Global (best international campaign) and Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong for MTR.

It's all part of the IPA's grand plan to develop a UK/China nexus for advertising; in order to facilitate better transactions between the two countries for IPA member agencies and Chinese brand owners seeking to go global.

Next October the IPA is taking a delegation of member agencies and friends to China's International Advertising Festival where '30 years of IPA Effectiveness' will be a showcase exhibition. 88,000 people attended this year's event. By next year, it could be 100,000