IPA Report

The IPA have published a report that says that ads that win awards are 11 times more effective. The report examined 213 case studies of advertising over the last eight years, including campaigns by marketers such as Cadbury, Volkswagen, Budweiser, Honda, Audi and Orange. They claim that there is a direct link between creativity and effectiveness and that this is a good argument for quality over cost. So far so good.

But in the next breath, guess what, Hamish Pringle the DG of the IPA says that by putting all the emphasis on cost and procurement, are marketers reducing their chances of creating campaigns that really work and will drive business growth in the long term?. Yes we have last week's example of the Thomas Cook signing on fee (still no proof on that by the way), but hey don't wave a broad brush at everyone else in the industry. 

Apparently procurement people are paid a significant bonus linked for reducing costs. Where is the evidence of this ?  Sure there may be a bonus in play for the individual or department, but targeted savings may be one of say four measures that the bonus could get paid out on (if at all).

I am disappointed by this as I don't really see any evidence of 'tough' procurement driving out cost at the expense of quality.  It is our job to get and know the balance to get the best result for marketing whilst making sure that a fair commercial proposition in place.  Perhaps the IPA could redo the study and see how many of their successful case studies had procurement people in.  I know one of the answers as I worked at Orange when we won the IPA awards !.