The IPM, the UK industry body for promotional marketing, has just celebrated a phenomenal 100% success rate for the 2015 intake for both its IPM Diploma and its IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma.
IPM Diploma graduates received their certificates from IPM President Lord Black and Chairman Graham Temple. IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma received theirs from Lord Black and John Sylvester, IPM Vice Chairman.
Both courses saw every student pass, with many achieving credits and distinctions. In the IPM Diploma, 60% of candidates were awarded a credit and 9% a distinction. In the IPM Incentive and Motivation Diploma, 40% of candidates achieved a credit or distinction in their final mark.
The IPM Diploma is seen as the best possible grounding for anyone responsible for running promotions within the UK and mainland Europe. The course involves a series of assignments and a set brief that has to be completed within a six-month period.
Candidates leave the course with a foundation knowledge of promotional marketing necessary to understand the discipline’s role within integrated communications campaigns, including planning, instigating and managing effective promotional marketing concepts with confidence.
The IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma is a qualification specifically designed for the reward and recognition industry. It takes the form of a distance learning programme with seven modules and a set brief that are to be completed over a five-month period.
It provides a thorough understanding of Incentive & Motivation techniques and is widely recognised within the industry as the benchmark for best practice, ensuring that candidates are able to confidently plan, instigate and manage Incentive & Motivation campaigns.
Beth Pridham, Brand Manager at Odeon Cinemas, received a distinction in the IPM Diploma 2015. She says: “The depth of knowledge gained around keeping promotional activity legal, fair and air-tight was especially interesting and crucial to my day-to-day role. The insight modules also encouraged me to really think about how to engage with a particular audience to achieve our desired business-focussed objectives.”
Agencies, brands and service providers frequently highlight the wider business benefits of sending staff on IPM run Diplomas, courses and seminars. To put it simply, businesses that train their staff are more successful than those who don’t.
Jessica Mason, Account Director at Haygarth, mentored Maria Marti, another distinction candidate in the 2015 IPM Diploma intake. Mason said: “The IPM Diploma really benefits team members, especially giving them the confidence to advise our clients and manage demands and expectations. Recently, three of our Promotional and Shopper Marketing team members gained two merits and a distinction; we were thrilled to support them all through this.”
Pia Zeyss, Senior Account Manager at AYMTM, who took the IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma, added: “Having not had much exposure to the strategic part of reward and recognition, the course provided a very good insight into the way we can currently reward and recognise as well as motivate and incentivise employees. I now feel far more confident in talking to my clients about the communications and reward strategy elements of a programme rather than only being able to comment on event logistics and the end reward. Being able to apply a solution to a brief was especially insightful in understanding this part of the industry we work in and linking the two sectors together.”
Carey Trevill, Managing Director at the IPM, commented: “Our training leads the world in terms of building promotional campaigns from the ground-up, giving candidates of any background and experience the confidence they need to run compliant and creative activities. We’re delighted that all the candidates passed, and that a high proportion did so with a credit or distinction.”
The IPM Diploma 2016 course starts in March, while the IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma 2016 course kicks off in May. For more information on either, visit the Training section of the IPM’s website.
