Some of the Flight Feather team were lucky enough to attend the IPA Effectiveness Conference. It was a proud moment seeing our agency’s logo on screen alongside 43 other UK agencies currently holding IPA Effectiveness Accreditation. Since then, we’ve been revisiting the sessions, reflecting as a team, and have pulled together three key takeaways we wanted to share.
1. Let’s talk about THAT influencer study
Of all the insights shared at the IPA Effectiveness Conference, one slide has dominated LinkedIn: a chart showing the long-term effectiveness of influencers. When read correctly, it suggests influencers deliver above-average ROI, outperforming even TV. Exciting news for anyone championing influencer marketing, but several important caveats were made clear at the conference that are getting lost in the online buzz.
The influencer data set was drawn from limited global submissions and the chart is based on only 59 UK examples. The rest of the chart’s benchmarks come from a different study, Thinkbox’s very robust Profit Ability 2, so the comparisons aren’t like-for-like. On top of that, only influencer campaigns which showed a positive impact were included, creating an inevitable data bias.
The study was never intended as definitive proof on influencer marketing, but rather a first iteration of a project they hope to build on and improve in future. The presentation was called The Wild West of influencer measurement for a reason!
So yes, influencers appear to be a powerful long-term channel, but while the study’s findings are impressive and exciting, claims that they’re now “the most profitable” should still be taken with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Amid the excitement over influencer marketing ROI, a key insight from the study is often overlooked: success depends on the brand to influencer fit. Making sure that the influencers’ “content aligns closely with brand values” and that they would genuinely use this product without being paid is the most powerful predictor of success.
2. Go big or go home
The latest work from Effectiveness guru Les Binet focuses on the importance of actually putting budget behind advertising. As an industry, we often talk about the power of really strong creative or the importance of having the right media plan. And if you really are working with a set budget, these are two key levers you have control over. But perhaps as the chart shows, CMOs on average now view the creative or media choices as being as important as how much they spend.
The truth is, even the most amazing creative can’t build your brand if no one sees it. On the other hand, pouring your entire budget into paid media for a poor quality ad that doesn’t boost brand recognition won’t work either. For brands working within budget constraints, the key is striking the right balance between investing enough to produce powerful creative while ensuring you’re maximising media investment as much as possible.
3. The importance of experimentation culture
Our final key takeaway from the day comes from a session Jennifer Shaw-Sweet of the Linkedin B2B Institute ran on the importance of experimentation culture. This one really resonated with us as Flight Feather’s Effectiveness value is grounded in our commitment to experimentation and continuous improvement. We always ensure we have Test and Learn Roadmaps which guide controlled experiments to help improve our clients’ channel mix, targeting, and creative.
Summarising the main lessons from Jennifer’s presentation:
Room to be wrong: Always remember that not everything works, and that’s OK! When you refer to an idea you’re trying as an experiment, it makes it clear that it might succeed or fail, and you’ll improve in the future based on the results.
Respectable, robust results: Put the effort in and set up to measure robustly so that you trust the results. Make sure you set your hypothesis, understand what you think will happen, and have a proper measurement framework that will capture the impact.
Compound learning and value: Experiments should go beyond the immediate campaign and the marketing team. Think about how you can get wider stakeholder buy into the experiment and results, and make sure you capture your learnings and share them widely within the business.
The above are just three examples of the great content that was shared at IPA Effectiveness Conference 2025. If you’re interested in hearing more, or in speaking to an agency that puts Effectiveness at the heart of everything it does, feel free to get in touch!
The talks and presentations referenced:
The Wild West of influencer measurement (Dominic Charles, Wavemaker UK)
Go big or go home (Les Binet, Binet Consulting Ltd & Will David, Media Lab)
The Case for Experimentation: Findings from the IPA Effectiveness Leadership Working Group on Experiments (Jennifer Shaw-Sweet, The B2B Institute)
