Awards Advisory Service

The IPA wants to help authors to enter the awards and to be successful at entering! We know that our Awards are sometimes perceived as being difficult to enter but their rigour is what makes them so worthwhile to win! We thought entrants might like a little helping hand, so to that end we are launching our first Awards Advisory Service.

Entrants can choose whether to partake in this service by signing up at the pre-registration stage (ie before 31st January). This service is heavily subsidized by the IPA so participation for entrants costs just £200+VAT per entry on top of your pre-registration fee.

Signing up means you can have access to one of our panel of five Awards Gurus, individuals who are all experienced authors, judges and consultants on effectiveness:

Chris Baker, Bacon Strategy and Research
Merry Baskin, Founder, Baskin Shark
Ali Bucknall, Consultant
Peter Field, Marketing and IPA Databank Consultant
Gurdeep Puri, Founder, The Effectiveness Partnership

Awards Guru's will be asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, and the IPA will pair the entrant with the mentor ensuring there are no conflicts of interest along the way.

Entrant agencies and mentors will then undertake (roughly!) the following working arrangement:

a) Entrant agencies will be asked to submit an outline essay plan of the paper – indicating brand, summary of results, argument for ROI, thoughts on factors to be eliminated, and data to be collected. Mentors will be asked to review this essay plan via a meeting or conference call with the entrant agency. (approx 1 hour of mentors time)

b) Entrant agencies will then be encouraged to submit an initial draft to their mentor, feedback (approx 1 hour of mentors time)

c) A further draft may then be submitted (approx 1 hour of mentors time)

d) Incidental contact (approx 30 minutes of mentors time)

Terms and Conditions for the entrant agency and the mentor can be viewed here.

Chris started his career in market research at BMRB, moving to Saatchi & Saatchi in 1981, becoming Deputy Head of Planning in 1988. He became a founder member of Bainsfair Sharkey Trott (BST.BDDP) in 1990, where he was Planning Director. Subsequent mergers in 1997 and 1998 took him to senior planning roles at GGT.BDDP, then TBWA as Director of Strategic Consultancy.

He judged the IPA Effectiveness Awards in 1990, 1992 and 1994 and, as Convenor of Judges, was editor of 'Advertising Works' 7 & 8. He has won several IPA Effectiveness Awards over the years, including a Gold and Special Prize for Integration for the launch of the Central London Congestion Charge in 2004. He is a Full Member of the Market Research Society and a Fellow of the IPA.

He set up Bacon Strategy & Research (www.consultbacon.com) in 2008, bringing fresh thinking to solving brand, marketing and communications problems across a broad spectrum of clients.

Merry Baskin runs strategic planning consultancy Baskin Shark (where brands move forward or die!). A former chair of the Account Planning Group and Head of Planning at JWT London and Chiat/Day New York, she also teaches planning craft skills all over the globe. She pens a regular 'Best Practice' column for Admap, and is co-editor of 'A Master Class in Brand Planning: The Timeless Works of Stephen King'. Merry has won three IPA Effectiveness Awards, and was a judge in 2007.

Ali has worked in Advertising and Communications as a Planner and Strategist for over 20 years. Her experience covers a range of large and small agencies including CDP, WCRS, D'Arcy and more recently heading up Planning at Leo Burnett and Elvis Communications. She now works independently offering research, strategy, training, coaching and mentoring for agencies and client companies. She's worked across almost every sector including COI, P&G, Orange, Fiat, McDonald's and Cadbury. She's won four APG Planning Awards and has contributed to successes in APG, Euro Effies and IPA Effectiveness Awards. She was a judge for the 2007 European Effectiveness Awards and has been chair for various training courses for the IPA. Ali is a full member of the Market Research Society and a member of Women in Advertising and Communications.

Having graduated from Cambridge, Peter Field spent 15 years as an account planner during which time he authored two IPA Effectiveness Awards papers including a Gold for Hofmeister. For the last 14 years he has pursued consultancy and training roles, and judged the Awards in 1998. In the mid 1990s, Peter set up the IPA Effectiveness Awards Databank and in 2007 he contributed a chapter to The Sage Handbook of Advertising that draws heavily on the data from it. Examining the Databank more closely with Les Binet later in 2007, he co-authored Marketing in the Era of Accountability. In 2008 he went on to co-author Brand Immortality with Hamish Pringle, which also draws on the same data. In 2010 he authored The Link between Creativity and Effectiveness, which brings together the IPA Databank and the Gunn Report database of creativity to provide the most robust assessment yet of the value of creativity. He regularly writes and speaks about marketing effectiveness. In 2006 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the IPA.

Gurdeep Puri is a co-founder of The Effectiveness Partnership, a full service consultancy specializing in helping agencies and clients understand, maximize and demonstrate commercial value of their creativity. Previously Gurdeep worked at Leo Burnett as Head of Effectiveness. He has personally won 6 IPA Effectiveness Awards, and 13 European Effectiveness Awards, including three Golds. Gurdeep has been a judge on the IPA Effectiveness awards panel in 2009 and has also been on the second round judging panel of the European Effectiveness awards 6 times over the last 8 years.