The service

The IPA Information Centre provides member agencies with news, statistics and data to aid work such as competitive reviews, new business pitches and campaign planning. We can offer desk research on anything from market sectors and trends, to brands, products and people.

We also have a wide range of IPA experts and consultants to call upon to help with specific enquiries when required.

We aim to respond to members, wherever possible, within 48 hours of receiving the brief.

How to brief us

You can email us at — info@ipa.co.uk — or telephone between 9pm - 5pm, Monday to Friday on: 020 7235 7020 (please ask for the Information Centre). 

As with any brief, the more detail and context you can give us, the better!

IPA Info Search

You can also undertake your own search via our new online library IPA Info Search Members can access top-line research on a wide variety of product categories, topics and trends. Please note this is an additional element within the Information Centre’s overall offering and does not replace the regular e-mail enquiry service.

Infovision

Infovision is a new blog developed by the info centre. It discusses and analyses topical trends and insights through monthly thought pieces. We also use it to highlight interesting trend reports and features when we find them.

Advertising industry statistics

We have compiled a useful summary of advertising industry resources, including adspend trends, creative industry overviews agency league tables and brand rankings.

Who we are

There are three full-time Information Professionals in the team:

Sian Bateman — Sian joined the IPA in October 2003 from Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, where she worked as an Information Officer for four years. Prior to this she worked at the Register Group/CTC as a Client Services Manager. Sian oversees the Information Centre area of the IPA website. She has a BA Honours degree in History and Drama from the University of Winchester. Sian is an Associate Member of CILIP.


Maureen Gonsalves — Maureen began her career in the media at Enigma Productions, David Puttnam's film production company.  She then joined the Information Department at BMP DDB (now DDB UK) where she worked for 14 years at the Billco Group, followed by freelance work at Leo Burnett's information department, Leo IQ.  She joined the IPA's Information Centre in 2004. Maureen works closely with the IPA's Databank, the in-house database of IPA Effectiveness case studies. Maureen is an Associate Member of CILIP.

Jenny Naish — Joining the IPA in July 2010, Jenny has come from TBWA\ where she worked in the customer insight department as an Intelligence Planner for two years. Previous to this she has worked in a variety of roles within the communications and marketing sector, as well as acquiring some experience as a journalist. She has a BA honours degree in English Literature and Drama.


Lena Roland — Lena Roland has a Masters in Information Science from City University London. She has worked in Information Knowledge within the advertising industry for over 12 years in agencies such as Grey, DDB and BBH. She currently works as a Consultant Information Specialist for the IPA. Her research, the ‘future of history’ investigates the challenge of preserving born digital materials, will be published later this year. She is a member of LIKE, a networking group of Information professionals. She is a guest lecturer at City, lecturing in Digital Curation and Advertising Domain Analysis.

Our resources

A wide variety of resources are used to answer research briefs, including the LexisNexis news database*, Brand Republic, McKinsey, marketing and advertising books, official statistics, trade publications, etc, and the web/online resources. (*Member agencies are entitled to 5 free LexisNexis news database searches per month, after which additional searches are charged at £50 each.)

We can also provide a wide range of information and material via the IPA website, including best practice guides, publications, links to external surveys, etc.

Some examples of research briefs we have recently answered:

We receive all manner of questions relating to different sectors, brands, people, etc. For example:

•    Could you provide me with examples of social media campaigns for car brands ?

•    Could you tell me about the recent changes in media consumption patterns?

•    What are the most visited websites for the 50+ age group ?

•    How much are brands spending on green marketing ?

•    What does Easter mean and how is it celebrated in different cultures?

•    How many sausages are consumed in the UK each year?

What we can't provide

Importantly, there are areas that we can’t help with, for reasons of cost or copyright:

•    Media spend data (e.g. Nielsen).
•    TGI data.
•    Creative monitoring (e.g. Xtreme).
•    Market reports such as Mintel, Datamonitor, Verdict and Forrester.
•    Papers from competitor organisations (e.g. APG, Esomar).

What about confidentiality?

We realise our member agencies may be pitching against each other and send similar requests to us. We treat every brief individually and confidentially. 

CILIP Code of Professional Practice

As a department we are certified members of CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) and we abide by its codes of professional practice. For further information please click here. CILIP Code of Professional Practice for Library and Information Professionals