18/10/2018

Tom Roach, multiple Gold IPA Effectiveness Award winner and head of effectiveness at BBH, the IPA’s Effectiveness Company of the year 2018, gives some simple, practical tips on how to succeed in advertising’s most rigorous effectiveness awards.

Writing an IPA Effectiveness Awards entry is probably the hardest thing you can do in advertising. 4000 people have climbed Everest. But only about 1000 people have written an IPA awards entry, and only around 70 people do so, every other year.

Of course, it goes without saying you’re going to need a great strategy, great work, and great evidence that it was effective. That’s down to you, your team, your agency and your client. This blog post isn’t going to help you with that.

Writing your entry is going to take months of blood, sweat and tears by you and the team you assemble to help you. So stop reading now if you’re not up for the challenge.

But here’s the really bad news. With a conversion rate of around 50% from entry to shortlist, if you really want to win one, you’re going to have to write two.

So if you’re still keen, here are 24 simple, practical steps you can take to help you win.