My 2024 IPA Effectiveness Conference highlights

As Chair of the IPA Effectiveness Leadership Group, I had the privilege last month of hosting the annual IPA Effectiveness Conference. The conference is an incredible chance for CMOs, agencies, research companies and media to come together to discuss topics of critical importance, leaving with new tools and newly released research to help them prove the effectiveness of our industry.

In 2023 Tesco Group CEO Ken Murphy, Tesco Group CEO said “I don't see marketing as a cost. I see it as an investment.” And among CEOs, there's a growing recognition of the need to balance effectiveness and creativity, a trend reflected in the acquisition of the commercial assets of the Effie effectiveness awards brand by Ascential, owner of the Cannes LIONS Festival best known for showcasing creative awards.

Throughout the IPA conference, speakers brilliantly touched on key elements of how to make investment in creative communications more effective, too many to go through the whole agenda [insert link to sessions page] but here are a few picks from me.

Cannes LIONS recently introduced a humour category into its awards, reflecting the industry's effort to harness comedy more effectively. Fittingly, therefore the conference’s opening session was delivered by Professor Sophie Scott, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, who is also a stand-up comedian. Prof. Scott gave us a deep dive into the neuroscience of laughter, revealing thought-provoking insights about how we laugh to make people feel better or laugh to make situations less uncomfortable.

Later in the morning, we heard from the System1 ad testing company on the importance of creative consistency in advertising. Its new Compound Creativity report, launched in conjunction with the IPA, demonstrates that the most consistent brands don't just create stronger ads, but their ads get stronger year-on-year. As an agency CEO, it was music to my ears that this theory applies to consistent agency tenure too.

2024 has brought us a new UK government, so it was great to hear from Lucky Generals and Uncovered Group about bringing consistency and credibility to Labour’s message during the campaign, while at the same time reacting to polls and the mood of the nation.

Climate change is never far from our agenda and sustainability is more central to brand effectiveness than ever before. We learned how the most effective businesses in the future will put sustainability at the heart of what they do.

As we know, convincing CFOs of the effectiveness of advertising is often half the battle. Economist Dr Grace Kite provided advice on how to hold better conversations between marketing and finance teams and described a new free tool, compare the cashflow, that helps translate marketing investments into the discounted cashflow framework favoured by finance departments.

This year was also special as the IPA conference fell in the same week as the biennial IPA Effectiveness Awards. The work in those awards is world-class and second to none. Huge congratulations to adam&eveDDB for its Grand Prix-winning for McCain.  

I am convinced that all conference attendees (and anyone watching sessions on catch-up) can leave with tips, tools and tricks to make effectiveness conversations easier; helping towards the ultimate objective of us all – keeping creativity at the heart of what we do.

Karen Martin is CEO of BBH.

The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and were submitted in accordance with the IPA terms and conditions regarding the uploading and contribution of content to the IPA newsletters, IPA website, or other IPA media, and should not be interpreted as representing the opinion of the IPA.