Lessons in effectiveness from the IPA Effectiveness Conference 2025

At a time when budgets are tight and resources are squeezed, embracing an effectiveness mindset is essential for advertisers looking to prove the value of creativity. 

At the IPA Effectiveness Conference speakers shared insights from the IPA Effectiveness Awards and unpacked how to best invest your marketing budget in a chaotic economy. Strategists, planners and industry leaders proved that marketing effectiveness is more than theory. It is an essential part of growing a brand, no matter the size. 

The big and small of it 

Forget the long and the short, this year, speakers considered the importance of both big thinking and small, incremental reach. 

Effectiveness stalwart, Les Binet, Founder of Binet Consulting Ltd, urged the industry to think bigger at a time when budgets are shrinking. While advertising is getting more efficient, with ROI on the rise, profits are declining. “Budget is eight times more important than ROI,” said Binet, continuing: “The single most important marketing decision you'll make is how much you spend.” 

Binet shared that a ‘doing more with less’ mindset is resulting in small thinking. Targets are getting tighter and plans getting smaller, leaving large audience segments such as over 45s (who hold over 50% of consumer spending) neglected. At a time of cautious spending, he urged advertisers to ‘think big again’. 

This thinking was backed by Will Davis, Chief Data Officer at Medialab Group, who pointed to the importance of a media mix that combines both online and offline sources. Despite rhetoric that linear TV is on the decline, Davis’ data pointed to the importance of linear TV in drawing profit over a longer period of time, using the award-winning Laithwaites TV case study as a proof point. 

Advocating for fewer, bigger and better advertising campaigns, Binet called on the audience to: "Optimise your media mix before commissioning creative.” He explained: “Don’t make the assets if you can't give them decent exposure.”

At the small end of the debate, Tom Roach, VP Brand Strategy at Jellyfish, highlighted the importance of ‘brand building with littles’ and ‘exploiting the effects of platforms working together’. With audiences’ attention split across multiple media touchpoints, an approach that takes into account ‘imagination, repetition, AI for speed, scale and consistency’ can maximise results.

Roach pointed to Vaseline’s Verified as an example of how to spread a campaign across multiple platforms and social media touch points with a cohesive through-line. By creating with a platform approach, brands are able to maximise audience attention and get the most out of their media mix.

Make room to experiment 

A macro or micro approach both benefit from experimentation. Too often marketers do not have the permission to fail, but without experimentation and learning it is impossible to fine-tune an effective approach. 

The Laithwaites case study, highlighted by Binet and Davis, shows how a test and learn mindset can lead to maximum results. Hesitant to invest in broadcast media by jumping in with both feet, the brand instead allocated test budgets in regional areas and ran simulations to garner real-time insights. By running experiments with impactful creative, the brand was able to craft a strategy that delivered an estimated £1.63 of revenue per £1 invested. Running experiments allowed the brand to unlock long-term growth.

Building the case for experimentation, Jennifer Shaw-Sweet, EMEA Lead B2B Institute at LinkedIn, added: “When something looks unfixable, we need to come up with a fresh approach to solving problems.” Speaking alongside Tom Hallett, Head of UK Media Effectiveness at Sky and Islam Almasri, Head of Media Strategy at Sky, she presented findings from the IPA Effectiveness Leadership Working Group on Experiments that spanned the importance of making room to be wrong, reframing the language of risk to one of opportunity and compound learning. Through embracing a culture of experimentation Sky has been able to optimize media budget, build brand equity and empower its marketing function to be more creative.

New tools, same rules

New research from the IPA explored how influencer marketing delivers strong ROI and long-term results, with an array of new data points showing influencer marketing to be a key driver of effectiveness. The findings span 220 campaigns from 144 brands across 36 sectors and 28 markets and capture over £133 million in influencer spend. The data shows that influencer marketing delivers commercially, particularly when the brand influencer fit is strong.
While the findings show influencer to be a key component to the media mix, there is still no perfect method to getting it right every time. However, the data shows that campaigns are always better when brand and creator align. “Gone are the days of working with brands that thrust a script upon you,” said creator Sam Cornforth.

Highlighting the increasing importance of influencer marketing, Alistair Macro, Former Chief Executive Officer at McDonald's UK added: “The same rules of marketing always apply, we just have new tools.”

While the power of music and sound dates back to the times of town-criers and forms its connections in the womb, Roscoe Williamson, Director of Global Strategy at MassiveMusic, underlined the growing importance of sound in brand building.

A new IPA study on the importance of music found that highly engaging music can increase ROI by an average of 32% and highly fitting campaign music can make consumers nearly seven times more willing to pay higher prices. From Intel’s famous sonic brand to the likes of McDonald’s, ‘I’m Loving It’ penetrating the cultural zeitgeist, Williamson warned brands not to underestimate the power of sound. 

Build a brand and they will come

Sharing insights from his 20 years of experience at McDonald's, Alistair Macrow explained: “As a CEO, the marketing function is disproportionately important to you; it has the ability to change the trajectory of a business.” Yet he warned: ‘Don't underestimate the power of marketing, but don't overstate it. It is not the brand. Marketing shines a light on a brand, and if good, adds a bit of sparkle.”

He opened up on the challenges that McDonald’s faced nearly 25 years ago when ‘even our best customers didn’t particularly like us’. Macrow’s challenge was turning customers into advocates and building brand love, which was done via ‘I’m Loving It’. The overarching platform informed Macrow’s decisions both as CMO and CEO, marketing to not only McDonald’s customers but to suppliers and franchisees as key stakeholders as well.

A deep dive into Yorkshire Tea’s ‘Done Proper’ brand platform caused Thinkbox’s Elliot Milard to call into question the position of AI in creativity. When faced with the challenges of a declining category, a strong competitive set and the habitual nature of tea, Yorkshire Tea’s ‘Done Proper’ was born from its existing office ethos: ‘We do things proper’. The campaign sees famous people from Yorkshire doing everyday office tasks, filmed in the real offices with real staff present. It is a campaign built on consistency and rooted in the brand’s truth. Milard pointed to the emotional connection that customers have with brands, impossible to replace with AI. 

Karen Owen, Chief Growth Officer, European & Pacific Developed Markets at Kraft Heinz, lifted the lid on how Heiz has successfully built that all important emotional connection. Five years ago, the brand was stuck in a marketing rut with an academic and product-focused approach. It needed to build an emotional connection. Owen shared that the answer to the brand’s problem was found in its approach and its customers. Heinz is a brand that values quality, innovation and creativity, it had strong existing assets in its brand ‘key stone’. 

Moving from functional to ambitious, Heinz created a campaign in which it asked its customers to draw ketchup from memory and each would draw Heinz. Getting inspired by the irrational love its customers have for its products, the brand created ‘It has to be Heinz’. The ad where a man is sad his suitcase was confiscated from him is inspired by the true story of Ringo Starr taking a suitcase of beans on holiday. Now, brand recall is so strong that Heinz has created a variety of ads that don’t feature any logo but can be instantly recognisable. Heinz’s strong brand is its biggest asset.

In an industry obsessed with the new and the next, creative consistency is arguably the most underrated tool in marketing. Long-term results do not happen overnight. Embracing an effectiveness mindset is key to unlocking sustained growth and proving the value of creativity.