Both D&AD and IPA are both highly regarded organisations, giving out awards in the forms of pencils for D&AD and for IPA, the ‘Effectiveness’ award. However there’s far more to both of them than just this.
Let’s start with IPA, priding itself on the sheer quality of their award winners, where entries have to pass two different panels of both industry and client professionals and prove itself that whatever amount was paid into the work has been well spent. Adding an IPA award to your achievements seems like marketing gold, the judging criteria is very clear as to what obstacles the entries have to be able to overcome, and with excellence.
Clarity of case: How well written, structured and presented is the case?
Scale of task: How difficult is the task communication the entrant was asked to undertake?
Strength of solution: How imaginative or impressive is the strategic, creative or media solution?
Scale of effect: How impressive is the return from communication investment?
Strength of proof: How convincingly and credibly does the paper establish the link between communication activity and commercial performance? How difficult is the measurement task?
Use of channels: How well have the communication channels been exploited and evaluated?
New learning: Has the case taught us anything new about how communications work (e.g. ‘longer and broader’ effects, interactions between channels), or about how to evaluate them?
Recent winners include ‘Wispa’ for Best Dedication to Effectiveness. ‘Hovis’ for Effectiveness Company of the Year and ’02′ for Best Media. Although the awards are what IPA is best known for, it also provides workshops for expansive learning and teaching in order to push your marketing/advertising strategy into the big league.
D&AD seems like a whole different type of organisation, appealing to a different set of people. Personally, I find it to be more accessible and not as far removed as IPA seems. Its awards cover a wider range of subjects from Book Design to Radio Advertising, and it holds two different categories for both professional and student individuals/groups. Winning a D&AD yellow pencil sets your work apart from others and stands for a whole lot, the idea of being recognised by D&AD seems far more likely than IPA, which appears to hail only to those that are already established rather than to fresh graduates as well.
As opposed to the IPA awards criteria, D&AD takes a different route and offers a range of briefs (depending on the subject) that entrants must undertake and produce an outcome for. Allowing more freedom to your response rather than set rules seems like the biggest difference between these two. Of course there’s more to it than just the yellow pencil, D&AD provides workshops, presentations, talks and a ‘talent showcase’ in the form of New Blood.
“Hordes of aspiring creatives from the best advertising and design courses across the world descend on Shoreditch for D&AD’s annual graduate showcase, hoping to secure jobs and work placements from agencies, studios and brands scouting for the next big thing.”
Although both offer a similar service, they seem miles apart in my mind of what they stand for. I’m probably standing a bit biased as I’ve been aware of D&AD for longer and have flicked through their annuals more than a few times, so am familiar with them and what they stand for, providing an opportunity for students to get their work seen by some of the greatest talent scouts going, where otherwise it may not be a possibility. Whereas IPA seems almost exclusive to large agencies and mass marketing campaigns, not a bad thing by any means but not as much of a variety that D&AD has to offer.
