The process of becoming a member
Costs of membership
Who is eligible to become a member
Obligations of membership For details of how to become a personal member of the IPA, please click here .
The process of becoming a member
1. Contact
Jo Wardle to discuss costs, benefits and obligations: 020 7201 8240
2. Download and complete the
corporate membership application form - see the
Application scoring guide 3. Undergo financial, legal and agency checks
4. Have your application approved by the
IPA Membership Committee 5. Have your application approved by the
IPA Council Costs of membership
Each member agency pays an annual subscription based on its gross income (i.e. turnover less direct cost of sales) for the previous year. Please note that salaries should not be included as a cost of sale.
To find out how much your subscription would be, you can use the online
subscription calculator The IPA reconciles each member’s account annually, once it has received the agency’s audited gross income figure for the previous year. To this end, the IPA sends each member a
Reconciliation Form in April.
It is a requirement of membership for all applicant agencies to pay a Registration Fee of £470 (including VAT at 17.5%). An application will only be processed once payment has been received. Please note that this fee is non-refundable in the event of an application being rejected.
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Who is eligible to become a member
The IPA represents agencies and only agencies, not clients, advertisers or media owners. So our focus is absolutely single-minded when it comes to promoting the best interests of our members.
To qualify for corporate membership, an agency must satisfy the following criteria:
1. An agency shall mean a company that is primarily concerned with the provision of branding advice and services to clients, designed to create, maintain and enhance the value of their brands through advertising, design, media planning and buying and marketing communications. Only agencies complying with this definition shall be entitled to be members of the IPA.
2. An agency applying for admission to IPA membership shall give an undertaking to observe, in the event of admission, the provisions of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the IPA, the IPA Rule Book and all other rules and regulations of the IPA for the time being in force. Such undertaking shall be included in the form of application for admission and shall be signed by the agency’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or equivalent authorised person.
3. The agency shall only be considered for membership of the IPA (and be permitted to remain in membership) if it can prove to Council and the IPA Secretariat that it:
- Complies with the definition of “agency” set out in 1 above;
- Is not directly or indirectly controlled or owned by an advertiser, media owner or supplier (to preserve its independent judgment and media neutrality, and to prevent conflict of interest);
- Has and maintains a gross income of at least £480,000 per annum, or such other figure as Council shall from time to time decide;
- Is solvent and has been trading continuously for at least two years;
- Has no recent history of insolvency or other voluntary financial arrangements or of the disqualification of any Director(s);
- Supports self-regulation and complies with ASA adjudications;
- Commits to achieving Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation by the end of its first full calendar year in membership;
- Is based in the European Union; and
- Passes a resolution at a Board meeting approving membership.
Please note that entry into IPA membership is at the sole discretion of the IPA Council. Council is not obliged to explain its reasoning behind its decision to the applicant agency.
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Obligations of membership
All member agencies are bound to:
• observe the provisions of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the IPA and the IPA Rule Book;
• pay their annual subscriptions by the due date on the invoice;
• commit to achieving CPD accreditation by the end of their first full calendar year in membership and to maintain annual accreditation thereafter;
• notify the IPA in writing prior to 1st November, should they wish to resign from membership at the end of any year, to avoid subscriptions becoming due for the whole of the following year.
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