Director General's Office
The Director General has overall responsibility for the strategic direction of the IPA as well as its day-to-day management. The role includes guiding the President on his/her agenda and is the senior point of contact for the plethora of UK and international advertising, media and marketing trade bodies e.g. the EACA.
Communications
Our ten-strong team is made up of a variety of skills and expertise: press and public relations, event design and management, social media, content creation and creative services. We manage all our visual, verbal and written outputs to members, brands and the media. We steer the conversation in the press, market our events to members and design collateral that will inspire and provide strategic communications advice to all our colleagues.
Digital & Data
The Digital and Data Department manages and supports the IPA’s business systems, including network infrastructure, phones, audio/visual systems, email, CRM, websites, customer support for our members and IPA staff and oversee the IPA’s ongoing Digital Transformation project.
Finance
Finance looks after all aspects of the IPA’s financial affairs. We run payroll and process expense claims. We get involved with the IPA’s investments in TouchPoints and the Joint Industry Currencies (JICs). We make sure members pay their subscriptions – and then account to them for every penny spent by the IPA, whether on expenses or through direct invoicing. Whenever we can, we assist our members with back office matters, such as commercial metrics, dealing with procurement, VAT and other taxes, and fee structuring.
Insight
The IPA Insight Centre provides research, analysis and statistics to help agencies with their new business pitches, campaign planning, internal brainstorming and idea generation. We are a team of consumer research and industry experts with many years’ experience working directly with agencies, and are perfectly positioned to help members quickly and efficiently understand key topics and issues.
Legal & Public Affairs
We are a small team of in-house lawyers who answer IPA member enquiries. We also write or comment on topical issues and let our members know what’s happening in the advertising legal landscape. At any time, we could be advising on something as simple as the use of photographs in an ad or as complex as GDPR. Alongside this, we’re closely involved in supporting the industry’s self-regulatory system to protect the public from misleading ads. We also provide a public affairs service to make sure that agencies are represented when new rules are proposed by government or regulators.
Marketing Strategy
The Marketing Department leads on the programme and strategic direction of the three pillars* of IPA activity around the themes of Effectiveness, Commercial and Talent; how we deliver value, how we make money and how we diversify our talent base to meet new needs. Working with industry leaders from both member agencies, partner sponsors, client marketers and associations, we are responsible for helping to prepare the climate for our member agencies to survive and thrive; addressing the business issues of the day, providing inspiration and thought leadership, networking and best practice.
Media Affairs
The Department of Media Affairs represents the media agency community within IPA membership, spearheading media agency/owner and media owner trade association relations. We participate in cross industry bodies, develop Good Practice and Standards for digital ad trading and provide media expertise in support of all other IPA departments. We also work closely with the IPA Legal Director on media-related public affairs.
Production
Our production department is here to provide production and business affairs advice to agencies on topics such as copyright, insurance, online fees, actor’s usage fees, shooting abroad, production/music/talent contracts and licences and much more. We work closely with the APA to help shape policy and best practice in production. The team is also supported by our highly knowledgeable Legal team.
Membership
Reporting to the IPA Membership Committee, the Membership Team is responsible for the recruitment and retention of the IPA’s corporate and personal members, and the application of the IPA’s rules, as set out in the Rule Book.
Professional Development
The Professional Development Team is responsible for the promotion and delivery of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) to the industry across a comprehensive learning portfolio and IPA corporate agency CPD Accreditation. This broadly includes 18 MIPA Accredited programmes, a series of one-day courses and 3 levels of IPA agency CPD Accreditation. Our aim as a team is to power our members to professionalise the industry and enable it to do better business for itself and is clients.
Research
The Research Department represents our members’ interests on the Boards and Technical Committees of all the JICs (Joint Industry Currencies). Our representation ensures that we achieve, best practice, impartial, reliable, robust and cost effective audience measurement across all media to enable confident and trusted trading and planning.
In addition we are responsible for the delivery and development of TouchPoints, the IPA’s ground breaking consumer centric, cross platform and multimedia database which was developed at the direct behest of our media agency members. TouchPoints provides context and perspective into how people conduct their daily lives and insights into their media use.
Resources Department
Our small resources team are responsible for the upkeep, maintenance and smooth running of 44 Belgrave Square. No mean feat when you consider it’s a Grade 1 listed building in one of the most famous squares of London. Our immaculate building is the first impression you get of the IPA and your second is Meena, our superb receptionist, who has a knack of making everyone feel welcome. We also manage the marketing and the hiring out of our public meeting rooms and cater for all our internal events. Lettie, our Director of Resources, also looks after the recruitment and well-being of all employees.
