Member Article

Local marketing agency achieves coveted gold accreditation

Following numerous industry award wins in 2019, Sunderland-based marketing agency, Narrative, is continuing their winning streak in 2020 with their latest accolade.

Narrative has been awarded the gold standard in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA); an accolade awarded this year to a select 14 per cent of its 277 member agencies.

Rewarding those agencies who achieve outstanding results, the IPA CPD Gold accreditation scheme recognises and rewards CPD excellence. Demonstrating a genuine culture of learning, recipients of the gold award demonstrate that CPD is both central and essential to business success.

Joanna Taylor, creative delivery director at Narrative, said: “At the heart of our business, we foster a culture of professional development underpinned by a rolling programme of activities purposely aligned to our strategic goals.

“As a leadership team, we are engaged and intrinsically involved in the effective implementation of CPD across the organisation. United in our view of its fundamental importance to the agency’s success, and that of our clients, we have prioritised the creation of a genuine culture of learning.

Joanna added: “After opening the IPA CPD Gold submission project up to our CPD Committee, they too felt empowered to drive forward the submission, determined to contribute from both a content and aesthetic perspective.”

Resolute to go for gold within its first year of IPA membership, Narrative already had many of the processes in place alongside a positive appreciation of the value of CPD. Narrative’s investment in its staff has now been formally recognised by the IPA through the endowment of the CPD Gold standard.

Numerous members of the team at Narrative are active members of professional institutions such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), completing seminars and training courses to further enhance their skills and expertise. Plus, monthly ‘Narrate It’ sessions see Narrators sharing their knowledge across departments each month to ensure the cross pollination of learning peer-to-peer.

As an ally to marketers across the region, Narrative extend their culture of learning outside the organisation by providing their clients with the chance to attend exclusive ‘NarrativeExtra’ sessions, in which they can gain insights from industry experts, while sharing knowledge and experience with like-minded individuals.

MD at Narrative, Kieron Goldsborough, added: “Professionalising marketing and defining excellence, as a team and for our clients, sits at the core of our business plan. Enhancing clients’ brands and generating measurable success for them comes from our skilled team of expert Narrators.

“This award is testament to the team and their appetite to continually improve and grow with the business.”

The successful achievement of IPA CPD Gold follows Kieron’s appointment as the new IPA City Head for Newcastle and the North East just one month ago, in March. Keen to develop and enhance the region’s dynamic creative offering, Kieron’s additional role as a figurehead for the industry in the North East will see him champion and engage the outstanding talent in the advertising community as well as providing a voice for IPA members in the area.

Kieron added: “I genuinely care about the development of each individual and believe strongly that this kind of ethos enhances the reputation and effectiveness of the industry as a whole.”

It’s the first year that the leading marketing agency submitted its CPD programme for assessment and the IPA panel were blown away by their ongoing investment in individuals, plus how well embedded professional development is across the business. The IPA’s judging panel echoed the agency’s inspiring learning philosophy, stating: “This was a very good first submission by Narrative who have a very good and well thought through CPD story to tell.

“It is a great example of how a small agency can bring alive a strong CPD programme from training to appraisals and inductions. This is as professional and robust a plan as seen in far bigger organisations. The programme captures the imagination of both employees and clients and is clearly seen as a real tool for business growth.”

The workplace is evolving at a rapid pace, so much so that attracting and retaining exceptional people takes more than a competitive salary alone – it’s an ever-evolving hybrid of flexible working with positive employee experiences, as well as genuine opportunities for personal and professional development with valued and diverse ways to embed learning.

Standing out in a competitive marketplace is no simple feat, but this success highlights that by placing individual progress at the heart of business growth plans, progression is increasingly attainable.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tori Lynn .