Gurgina Sandhu, Social Media and Content Coordinator at the IPM, summarises their biggest thought-leadership and networking event that took place this week.

On Wednesday 19^th June, we had our biggest thought-leadership and networking event of the year,  IPM CONNECT 2019, which was kindly hosted by Field Day and sponsored by Worldwide Special Risks. The event included a morning session featuring a series of presentations from industry and regulatory opinion leaders examining various aspects of ‘trust and transparency’, and providing practical tips on how to address it. In addition, the IPM’s agile market research partner, Zinklar, did a live, real-time research project throughout the day.

The day consisted of 6 guest speakers who each gave different viewpoints on the issue of ‘trust and transparency’:

Speaker #1: Penny Power OBE, Founder of Ecademy, pioneer of Linkedin and author of ‘Business is Personal’ – The Open One

Her talk consisted of the importance of mental health, and personal vulnerabilities and how brands and personal brands should consider being open about these insecurities. She suggests that this humanises the brand and that enables audiences to connect and trust it.

“Learning how to be transparent as an individual starts from understanding how to be open yourself. We are in an open, connect world where the only way people can trust you is to be open and trustworthy around your vulnerabilities, your errors, your mistakes, your life.”

Our first speaker of today is @pennypower OBE, Founder of Ecademy, pioneer of Linkedin and author of ‘Business is Personal’. She’ll be sharing an industry commentator’s view on #trustandtransparency. #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/n8WKSIe3Hw

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker @pennypower says that “the key ingredient in #trustandtransparency is empathy and openness.” pic.twitter.com/kVtzQesgh0

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker #2: Shahriar Coupal, Director of the Committees, CAP & BCAP – The ASA James Bond

Shahriar Coupal shared a regulator’s view on the issue of ‘trust and transparency’ and spoke about the public’s confidence in online advertising. As a director of CAP, Shahriar shared that they banned 10,850 ads due to breaching the ASA standards of advertising being legal decent, honest and truthful.

He also spoke about the lack of transparency in influencer marketing, stimulating thought around to what extent audiences consider influencers to be truthful.

Our next guest speaker is @ShahriarCoupal, Director at the @ASA_UK, who will share a unique regulator’s view on the issue of #trustandtransparency. #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/HFjlSz8fFy

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker @ShahriarCoupal shares why #trustandtransparency is important in effective compliance and regulation of advertising. #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/T3b03kFtMR

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker #3: Julian Davies, Global Marketing Manager at Bombay Sapphire – The Millennial Branding Hater

Julian Davies shared a brand’s view on the issue of ‘trust and transparency’, specifically talking about the gin industry. He talks about the concept of marketeers distorting the truth and shares how brands now have to be wiser than marketers as a result.

“We have to be wiser than the marketeers – there was a class action against Tito’s as they distorted with words such as gluten free even though 99.9% of alcohol is gluten free.”

He also shares the distortions in research bias in millennial branding and shared an example that stated 66% of millennials believe that the earth is flat – which of course is not true.

Our next guest speaker is Julian Davies, Global Marketing Manager at @homeofbombay, who will share the brand’s view on #trustandtransparency. #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/WXUAUHw2ay

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Julian Davies shares the relevance of authentic brand positioning in #trustandtransparency. #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/74unscsg9b

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker #4: Karen Fraser MBE, Director of Credos Think Tank Advertising Association – The Research Specialist

Karen Fraser MBE shared an industry view on the issue of ‘trust and transparency’ with a unique presentation from the advertising association that looked at the good, the bad and the troubling in advertising. She shared consumer favourability on advertisements and whether they found them believable. Of course, it was found that consumers believed those adverts they generally liked.

Our first speaker this afternoon is @KarenFraser_MBE, at @CredosThinks and researcher at @ad_association, who will share a unique industry view on #trustandtransparency. #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/qOOI7qkviy

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker @KarenFraser_MBE, shares an Advertising Association presentation on the importance of #trustandtransparency. #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/vu0Oc6wxHT

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker #5 Iain G Morrison, Chief Marketing Officer at University of Greenwich – The Man who’s middle name letter ‘G’ stands for ‘Gin’

Iain Morrison shared an educator’s view on the issue of ‘trust and transparency’ and specifically looked at the importance of building a trusted industry to attract the best young talent from higher education.

“Over the last 5 years we are 14% down on attracting UK students to this creative course set, EU and international are up 17% and 25%.”

He also spoke about the importance of mental health, and shared some personal stresses he faced. He then went on to express how brands need to start waking up to what this means for their staff and consumers.

“I think a lot of sectors are slowly waking up to the ticking time bomb of staff absence days over mental health and how serious that can be. Slowly brands are considering what that potentially means especially for their consumers.”

Our next speaker is @igmorrison, Chief Marketing Officer from @UniofGreenwich, who will share a unique educator’s view on #trustandtransparency. #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/MUlseStFzf

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker @igmorrison, shares the importance of building a trusted industry to attract the best young talent from higher education. #IPMCONECT2019 pic.twitter.com/K1jyLVqpRU

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker #6: Stewart Hilton, Co- Founder & Creative Partner at Zeal Creative – The Stuart Show

Stuart Hilton gave an agency’s perspective on ‘trust and transparency’ and shared 21 tips for building trust with clients. One tip he mentioned was honesty with clients as well as the team. He said that being honest and owning up to mistakes and errors in the first instance so that collectively the team can work on the error together to make it right.

“You made a mistake, and even if it wasn’t your fault, just apologise. Clients appreciate honesty and are more likely to trust you for it.”

Our final speaker is @stewarthilton, Co-founder & Creative Partner at @zealcreative, who will share a unique agency’s view on #trustandtransparency. #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/ECEptOlAZP

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Speaker @stewarthilton shares @zealcreative’s 21 tips for building trust with clients. #IPMCONECT2019 #trustandtransparency pic.twitter.com/NABDkYIhJk

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Panel Discussion

The panel discussion featured the six guest speakers where audience members asked questions that ranged from political advertising, to the use of technology, to whether agencies should also take the blame for upheld complaints about advertisements.

We’re now taking questions for our panel #IPMCONECT2019 pic.twitter.com/sxJ9SI2mJv

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Julian Davies from @homeofbombay says “we don’t use technology to harness our story, we just make sure the story is there.” #IPMCONECT2019 #trustandtransparency pic.twitter.com/Uvgnne1UO6

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

During the event, IPM research partner from agile marketing specialist, Zinklar collected consumers perspective on ‘trust and transparency’ using their real-time market research platform. It was found that most people were undecided about whether they found advertising they saw last night believable or realistic.

Abhijeet Roy from @Zinklar talks us through their marketing research software at #IPMCONECT2019 pic.twitter.com/BSDdHoOGwN

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Real-time users were also asked what brand they think is honest, reliable and acts responsibly?

The results are in from @Zinklar and they found that most people were in the middle about whether they believed tv ads pic.twitter.com/9gxZTccmfP

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Abhijeet Roy from @Zinklar reveals the brands that consumers think are honest and reliable at #IPMCONECT2019. pic.twitter.com/tQQLnPFncl

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

Duncan Wood, Managing Partner from Ingenuity shared what Ingenuity are about and spoke more about the new partnership with the IPM for the agency referral scheme. Stay tuned to the IPM for more updates on that…

Duncan Wood, Managing Partner at ⁦@IngenuityLondon⁩ talks about the agency and brand partnership with IPM at #IPMCONNECT2019 pic.twitter.com/smhjRojjpq

— IPM (@IPMUpdates) June 19, 2019

That is a wrap of what happened at IPM CONNECT 2019. Thank you to all our speakers for sharing their perspectives and speaking with us yesterday and to Worldwide Special Risks for sponsoring, Field Day for hosting, and Ingenuity London for facilitating.

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The IPM’s biggest thought-leadership and networking event of the year confirms its impressive line-up of speakers for the event on 19^th June at Havas, London (10.30am-3.45pm). You can see the full agenda and reserve your place here.

At a time when our industry is awash with the language of uncertainty – Brexit, click farms, fake news, chat bots, AI – the issue of ‘Trust and Transparency’ is never far from the surface. Savvy consumers insist on it, the best brands are built on it, agencies are expected to deliver it.

This unique IPM event, kindly hosted by Field Day and sponsored by Worldwide Special Risks, includes a morning session featuring a series of presentations from industry opinion leaders examining various aspects of this challenge, and providing practical tips for how to harness it. In addition, the IPM’s agile market research partner, Zinklar, will undertake a live, real-time research project on the day, from brief to results in just a few hours.

The afternoon will give attendees an opportunity to network with a mix of agencies and brands, hosted by IPM partner, Ingenuity.

The exciting speaker line-up has been confirmed as…

Penny Power OBE, founder of Ecademy, pioneer behind LinkedIn and author of ‘Business Is Personal’.

Having been a business owner for over 20 years, Penny called herself an Accidental Entrepreneur for many years. Stepping out of employed work and into the risky world of business ownership was a powerful learning. The catalyst for this was the opportunity Penny saw in 1998 for business people to connect online, creating the world’s first social network for business, pre-dating LinkedIn by 4 years.

Penny leads with a culture of open, real and honest contribution to the audiences she speaks to, her intention is always to make people feel stronger and more capable and for them to see the opportunities that lie within their own ability to take personal responsibility and be a “leader of their own life and business”. Penny was awarded the OBE in January 2014 for her contribution to entrepreneurship in the social digital sector.

Shahriar Coupal, Director of the Committees, CAP & BCAP

As Director of Advertising Policy and Practice, Shahriar oversees the organisation’s Regulatory Policy, Copy Advice and Compliance functions. As Director for the Committees of Advertising Practice, Shahriar is responsible for the effective running of committee business, which includes updating the UK Advertising Codes and associated guidance. He also oversees the effective running of the various CAP Panels and BCAP’s Advertising Advisory Committee.

Shahriar previously worked at Ofcom. He studied Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury and Economics at Birkbeck.

Julian Davies, Global Marketing Manager, Bombay Sapphire

With a career working on some of the biggest brands across the alcohol sector including Stella Artois, Peroni and Bombay Sapphire over the last decade, Julian brings front-line experience from his time defining and implementing brand positioning and strategies to bear, and can talk in an informal, irreverent style of his experiences executing across the full marketing suite.

With a particular focus on “grassroots” brand building – working with influencers, building authentic brand experiences, and having the patience to build real and lasting consumer trust, Julian will talk about how he has earned the trust of consumer tribes on the brands he’s run, and how clarity and consistency on this process from a planning point of view should lead to commercial success.

Karen Fraser MBE, Director, Advertising Association

Karen leads Credos, the think tank for advertising and commercial communications. Karen created the report series Advertising Pays which shows the £120bn contribution advertising makes to the UK economy. Credos also monitors advertising’s impact on society. The Minister for Women and Equalities took Karen’s work on advertising and young women’s self-esteem to the United Nations.

Previously Karen has consulted to brands, agencies and government on strategic communications. She has given a speech at a dinner in the House of Lords on advertising and Brexit. Her work has featured in The Economist, The New Statesman, Financial Times, and on Radio 4 and Newsnight and she won a worldwide competition for a place on the Harvard Business Review: Breakthrough Ideas List for her article about corporate reputation.

She was awarded the MBE for services to diversity and advertising in the Queen’s 2017 New Year’s Honours list.

Iain Morrison, Chief Marketing Officer, University of Greemwich

Working in a number of top London advertising agencies before moving client side, Iain held a variety of senior marcoms roles at the UK’s national tourist board (VisitBritain), and the UK’s largest social enterprise (Better) before becoming Chief Marketing Officer at the University of Greenwich.

He’s also a Non-Exec Director at Shared Assets; a leading ‘think and do tank’ focused on making land work for everyone. Iain’s passionate about delivering ‘work that works’ and volunteers with NABS to help nurture the industries future talent.

Stewart Hilton, Co-founder & Creative Partner, ZEAL Creative

Stewart is the co-founder and Creative Partner at IPM member agency ZEAL Creative.  ZEAL has grown from 2 to 42 people in just 5 years with offices in Manchester and London. They have a track record of working over the long term with big fmcg clients like Nestlé, Kellogg’s, Pringles and McCain.

They currently hold the highest client recommendation score for Activation & Promotional Marketing in the UK as measured by the Drum Recommends (9.2 out of 10).  ZEAL’s mission is to be the ‘World’s most recommended agency’.

The post IPM confirms the full line-up of speakers at CONNECT 2019 event on 19th June appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

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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Teams from the promotional marketing industry competed in the IPM Bowling Tournament in Manchester at the end of March 2017, with Zeal Creative taking away the King Pin trophy.

The tournament was held at the All Star Lanes, Deansgate, Manchester on March 28^th 2017, and attracted entries from Inspire, Refinery, Zeal (two teams), The IF Agency and Granby Marketing Services.

All teams played one game each with the two highest scorers then competing in the final, which saw Zeal defeat Inspire to claim the King Pin trophy. The picture shows both Zeal teams with the trophy.

The IPM runs a number of networking and social events for its members in London and major hub cities, including the IPM 5-a-Side Football and IPM Netball Tournaments, which are both scheduled to take place on April 20^th 2017 at the Play On Sports indoor arena, close to the Whitechapel Tube Station in London’s East End.

For details of costs and how to enter teams, as well as the dates of other social, networking and professional events, see the Events section of the IPM website, call 020 3848 0444 or email contact@theipm.org.uk.

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