The IPA has officially announced a new sponsor, Moore Kingston Smith, and content programme for its Accelerator scheme to help support start-up agencies, accelerate the collective pool of agency learning and grow the overall IPA agency community.
The IPA Accelerator scheme is designed to give up-and-coming agencies, whose gross income does not yet qualify them for full IPA agency membership, guidance, help and inspiration as they grow their businesses. This includes access to certain IPA courses, qualifications, events, resources and publications*. The Accelerator community, which has grown from 3 to 66 start-ups in just over a year, will also benefit from a new scheme sponsor, Moore Kingston Smith.
Moore Kingston Smith is the only firm of accountants and advisors with a dedicated media office where over 100 media specialists proactively support independent businesses. Using their experience in the sector they work with agencies to help maximise growth and profit potential. Working with the IPA, Moore Kingston Smith will provide the Accelerator start-ups with a tailored calendar of events specifically designed to help them as they start out on their growth journeys. The first event ‘Understanding the numbers’ takes place on 14 July, focusing on how agencies can review their performance, which key ratios they should be tracking and how they can benchmark their results against their competitors and industry averages. The session will include analysis from Moore Kingston Smith’s highly regarded Annual Survey which analyses the performance of over 250 marketing services companies.
In addition, the Accelerators will be invited to contribute to a new content series in which they will share their insights into lessons they’ve learned, what’s keeping them up at night, and what they think the future holds. This learning will help the community to learn from one another.
Once the start-up Accelerator agencies reach the IPA’s gross income threshold and other criteria for membership, they are welcome to apply to continue their pathway into full IPA agency membership, swelling the overall numbers of informed, leading, award-winning agencies within the IPA community and adding to the collective learning and development of the business.
Says IPA President Julian Douglas, “Starting and running your own agency is both exciting and demanding. We are delighted that Moore Kingston Smith has joined us to help advance the fortunes of these ambitious start-up agencies with tailored training and support. Existing IPA agencies can learn a lot from start-ups’ mentality and approach, and start-ups can equally gain great insight from the experience and effectiveness of existing IPA agencies.
We see the Accelerator scheme very much as an opportunity to 10X our IPA community and 10X our collective learning. I urge any start-up who is looking for resources and support to fuel their success to get involved.
Says Francesca Robe, Director at Moore Kingston Smith, “We are delighted to be sponsoring the IPA Accelerator programme. As leading accountants and advisers to the advertising sector, we understand the challenges that start-up agencies face from day one. We know that every agency is different, so we are able to customise our support to suit, however, our overall aim remains the same and that is to ensure we help each business to maximise growth and profit potential.”
Any start-up interested in joining the Accelerator scheme, free for the first three months, can contact IPA Head of New Business Alex Buxton for more information.
*This includes certain legal advice and templates and its pitch protection deposit facility; access to the IPA professional development courses and CPD programme, access to IPA apprenticeship initiatives including Creative Pioneers and AdUnlocked; and access to IPA resources, publications, events and networking opportunities with the established IPA agency community.
There is no charge for a start-up agency’s first three months in the IPA Accelerator scheme, following which a non-refundable fee will be payable of £1,000 + VAT for each subsequent 12-month period in the scheme (or such other fees as the IPA may determine from time to time).