The Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) has strengthened its bid to become the sole representative body for the marketing and communications industry by adding three members.

The agencies Thinkhouse, Real Nation and MCCP have all signed up to become members after a pitching drive by IAPI chief executive Tania Banotti. This follows the addition of Focus Advertising, Atomic and iProspect last month and brings the total IAPI membership tally to 54 agencies. Acorn, Boys and Girls, Bloom, Ican, Lucidity Digital and Persuasion Republic all joined last year.

Authoritative voice
"The more agencies that join, the stronger we can be," says Banotti, who is courting "a number of smaller digital agencies" to boost the ranks.

Banotti, who joined IAPI in 2012, believes a single organisation that represents “the broadest swathe of marketing communications agencies” will have a more authoritative voice, rather than the half-dozen bodies that currently exist.

It also makes sense in an industry the size of Ireland where companies are looking to rationalise their membership fees and where professional functions have merged.

“Everybody is doing everybody else’s job,” she says. “I think in the long term, there will be one representative body, and we want that to be IAPI.”