Ellie Ward, Account Manager at Savvy, shares her learning journey through the IPM Diploma and how it’s helping her career.

BEFORE

When I started, I was given the opportunity to develop my promotional marketing skills by starting the IPM Diploma, have a read of my blog to see what I got up to on my first day.

The idea of the course is to give me a deeper understanding of what makes shoppers tick, and how I can promote my client in the best way possible. I’ll be studying modules like Buyer Behaviour and Consumer Insight as well as Client Account management, so it’s a pretty well rounded curriculum.
Turns out I’ve not seen the end of essays after graduating from uni after all. There’s a 4,500 word assignment for each unit but it’s split into different tasks like presentations, reports and set briefs and so will challenge me on a whole load of things.

What was the induction day all about?

After coffee and introductions with the other candidates, the day started off with an outline of the course and breakdown of the units. Throughout the day we had a range of workshops and tasks that got us thinking about the development of the marketing mix and new ways to communicate with shoppers.

Why am I excited to do this?

I’m excited to be launching a career in Shopper Marketing and so this seems like a good first stepping stone in building a foundation for my future. Having studied marketing at university, the diploma will allow me take the theory I’ve learnt and apply it to working practice. I’m pretty new to Shopper Marketing and so the course will help me truly understand what it’s all about. Also, the diploma is a professional qualification and is recognised across the industry and so it makes perfect sense to be part of it!

What do I want to learn on the diploma?

Everything! I’m looking forward to building up knowledge through the different modules. In particular, I think the Buyer Behaviour module will be really interesting as this covers consumer attitudes, preferences and intentions around making a purchase – pretty useful as a Shopper marketer! I’m excited to learn more about communicating throughout the shopper journey and also how to add value to further drive sales.

What am I excited to get from it?

I think the IPM Diploma is going to be a totally unique experience and I’m really looking forward to becoming professionally qualified in promotional marketing and applying my learnings throughout my career. I’m hoping that I’ll finish the course with lots of knowledge and a new approach to marketing techniques that I wouldn’t have considered before. But most of all… I’m excited to try and beat my team’s previous grades!

AFTER

Hoorah! After a year of hard work and a celebratory ceremony at the House of Commons last week, I can officially say I’m an IPM Diploma graduate!

I started the course in March 2018, studying lots of different areas across 3 units. These included modules ranging from insight & strategic effectiveness to promotional mechanics & techniques to legal & compliance. We also looked at client account management & undertook a brief masterclass.

The course was delivered in 3 study blocks of 2 training days for each unit, with industry experts teaching us the content for each module. Across the 3 units I delivered 3 written assignments, including a response to a set ‘client’ brief, overall writing 14,300 words… that’s longer than my dissertation! My colleagues were a great help during my assignment periods, offering support and guidance throughout.

As a recognised qualification within the industry and having only started my career in Shopper Marketing at the end of 2017 as a fresh university graduate, the diploma was a great introduction into the world of promotional marketing and has taught me some valuable lessons, including the all-important difference between a promotion and a competition!

The ceremony took place at the House of Commons, where we had prosecco and canapés throughout the evening (my favourite combo), the IPM President and Chairman were both there to give us speeches and award us with our certificate.

The IPM Diploma was a fantastic opportunity given to me, although challenging at times, it has been a great experience and I’m pleased to have achieved a Credit.

If you would like to find out more about the IPM qualifications, please email learning@theipm.org.uk or call 020 3848 0444.

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According to the third annual JFDI New Business Barometer, the definitive guide to new business trends in the UK advertising and marketing agency world conducted by Opinium Research, it appears that medium sized agencies are now in the sweet spot for new business success in 2019.

In the previous year (2017), medium sized agencies (50-150 employees) found themselves squeezed between the well-resourced large agencies (150+) and the energised smaller agencies that were taking the lion’s share of new business opportunities. However, in 2018 the medium agencies reacted quickly to the squeeze, took actions to improve their new business operations and are now benefiting from this change in strategy.

The JFDI Barometer found they are also benefiting from changes in the market that is affecting both the way clients are purchasing services and what they are looking for from their agencies.

The key trends in the JFDI 2018 Barometer found medium sized agencies:

• New business targets dropped by £385k over the year to £1.75m, reflecting a more realistic approach to new business targets
• In 2019 the main focus will be creating more new business opportunities/ filling the pipeline and building upon the 5.8 new business opportunities a month pursued in 2018 (up from 2.5 per month in 2017)
• Became less effective (38% down from 47%) in converting these opportunities to pitches leading to an average of 2.5 pitches per month with a high 49% win rate, of which 73% were valued over £500k
• Pursued higher value opportunities with 73% of new business opportunities now over £1m compared to 42% in the previous year
• Increased spending by 10% to £91k on agency marketing which is 2.5 x less than the big agencies spend which secure higher value pitch wins
• Use client referrals and lead generation agencies as their main prospecting tools
• Overwhelmingly (91%) have an agreed written marketing plan agreed with senior management, an increase of 10% in the past year

In further analysis, the research found that medium sized agencies are struggling to compete with the smaller and larger agencies to demonstrate their relevant expertise / capabilities which is given as the main reason they lose pitches.

The Barometer covers small, medium and large agencies, and provides an in-depth benchmark of their new business performance for new business managers and business leaders. In summary it found:

• Small agencies are fighting for advantage, with little resource, in an increasingly competitive market and from rejuvenated medium sized agencies
• Medium sized agencies grew-up in 2018 and their investment and focus on new business prospecting is delivering results
• Larger agencies are accelerating the benefits of working within larger networks but may face headwinds with clients buying ‘what you can do for me’ rather than the brand.

This article provides a brief summary of the JFDI 2019 New Business Barometer comprehensive analysis of the UK advertising and marketing and agency world. If you would like further information about the Barometer, please contact mark@jfdi.uk.com.

The IPM Learning team has announced an exclusive, Member-only partnership with JFDI for 2019. IPM Members receive a 15% discount against a selection of JFDI’s commercially-focused half-day sessions. Click below to find out more about the next workshop ‘Feeding the New Business Pipeline.’

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Integrated Marketing agency, ZEAL Creative, is on a mission to become the ‘World’s Most Recommended Marketing Agency,’ aiming to achieve this by building and inspiring a great team – achieved through constant training and personal development.

With this in mind ZEAL has announced a unique training partnership with the IPM to deliver their coveted IPM Diploma to 11 of their team in an exclusive intake.

The ZEAL IPM Diplomats 2019 are as follows: Colleen Rea, Gabi Sulek, David Gill, Sophia Huddlestone, Lisa Nyman, Chris Mitchell, Lexy Woolley, Callum Saunders, Lucy Cranshaw, Jen Grayson, Kenya Peters.

This is the first time that an agency has committed to such numbers in one intake and as a result the IPM have brought their IPM Diploma in-house to ZEAL.

IPM Managing Director Paul Cope, applauds ZEAL for taking the lead on training: “It’s great that so many of our members use the IPM Diploma to train their teams on brand activation, shopper marketing, and experiential.  ZEAL’s commitment to our programme this year is unprecedented and underlines their ongoing journey to create the very best work. I was last at ZEAL only last month to award them their European IMC Effectiveness Award and I’m sure that this latest step will only improve their ability to deliver industry leading work for their clients”

IPM Learning Manager, Anna Kinast, outlines the learning journey ahead:“For ZEAL we have brought the IPM Diploma to them, at a time which suits the agency best. The 11 candidates that ZEAL have put forward can look forward to an intense but hugely rewarding training experience combining face-to-face training days alongside online learning.”

MD of ZEAL Rachel McHale explains why the agency has made this commitment: “As myself, and ZEAL’s founders Rob and Stewart grew up in this business, the IPM Diploma was a big part of all our development journeys.  Over the years the IPM Diploma has successfully evolved to cover the wide world of brand activation and shopper marketing and as a result it is the best in class option for training our team in the skills of our industry.  By working closely with the IPM we have together created a programme that dovetails perfectly with the day-to-day demands of the agency.  I am excited to see how this investment will make an already brilliant team, even better.”

For more info on the IPM Diploma, visit the IPM website.

The IPM Diploma officially opens at ZEAL on 23^rd January with the first training days on 12^th and 13^th February.  The whole agency will be supporting their IPM Diploma candidates in their learning journey and wish them the very best of luck.

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Aliya Ladha, Marketing Executive at TCC Global, shares her experience of this year’s IPM 30 Under 30 programme.

To anyone thinking about applying for the IPM 30 Under 30 programme, I highly recommend it. To say that the programme has been a fantastic experience is an understatement. It has given me the opportunities to stretch myself and offered me learning experiences that will be vital not only in my career but also in the personal decision-making process.

I was totally over the moon when I found out that I was chosen as one of the 30 candidates to participate this year. There were hundreds of applications from candidates with some of the best credentials and from all walks of life. Hence, you can’t help but feel a little lucky even though candidates are picked on merit. Only 30 special unique candidates progressed through to the programme for 2018 making us the 30 Under 30 young future leaders of the promotional marketing world.

The application process: I submitted my application in time for the October 2017 deadline and by mid November I was notified of my successful offer of a place on to the programme. It almost felt like a validation of my future ambitions because the programme recognises you as a young future leader of the promotional marketing world. Your employer could nominate you or you could nominate yourself for the application process. The wait for the results felt long but was well worth the wait once the 30 names were announced online! To celebrate we had a special awards evening where for the first time the 30 Under 30 cohort met, mingled and celebrated our first step into the programme with receiving award certificates which took place in December.

Before joining the programme I attended the webinar where the team answered valuable questions like if moving employer/ cannot make a session etc. What happens if you are unable to make a session and so on? This really got me excited about being part of the programme and showed how much the IPM 30 Under 30 cared for us on such a strong programme.

The IPM 30 under 30 programme has opened myself to so many opportunities and I have met some of the brightest people in the industry. I am sure I will be able to establish professional relationships with most of these people and collaborate in exciting projects in the future. Any person to be on the programme or thinking to be on the programme would learn lifelong skills to put into practice at any time in their careers. So on a cold evening I travelled to central London to attend my first session just to receive an warm welcome by the participants and the IPM hosts. It really makes you feel included from the word go.

The sessions: The programme involved 4 sessions throughout the year led by industry experts, which added real value to every session we attended. These covered: Career and Personal Development; Client Development and Negotiation; Smarter Working and Managing Stress and IP Mythbusters.

The sessions were very informative and gave us the chance to ask the experts about their experiences, challenges and solutions to problems they have faced within the sector. I could not believe that I would have the opportunity to share the same platform with the best and brightest in the industry without IPM 30 and 30. The whole programme is designed to take your imagination, thoughts and capability to the next level.

Networking drinks after each session were another great additional aspect organised by the IPM team after each session. This gave us another opportunity to interact with the industry leading experts. It also allowed our group of peers to mingle and share experiences, journeys and grow our network. In a nutshell, the programme really does instil the belief in you that the sky is the limit.

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