The Effectiveness Culture Index. The first independent, international benchmark of effectiveness culture, built by Go Ignite in partnership with the World Federation of Advertisers.

Marketing effectiveness is decided by culture, not by tools. The Index measures that culture across the world’s largest advertisers, so that for the first time a marketing leader can see where their organisation stands, where the gaps are, and how they compare.

Why it exists

Section 02

The industry measures everything except the thing that decides whether measurement works.

Every year the major surveys of marketers report the same picture: fragmented data, measurement nobody fully trusts, insight that arrives after the decision, and a board that still asks what marketing is worth. What none of them measures is the culture that produces that picture. Who owns effectiveness. Whether priorities hold when a senior voice pushes. Whether anyone is allowed to say a campaign did not work.

The industry has had no credible benchmark of effectiveness culture since the IPA’s Effectiveness Roadmap Survey was discontinued. Organisations cannot compare themselves with their peers, and nobody can see whether the culture is improving or not. The Effectiveness Culture Index fills that gap.

The partnership

Section 03

Built by a practitioner. Fielded by the world’s advertisers.

The Index is a partnership between Go Ignite and the World Federation of Advertisers, whose members are the world’s largest marketers and whose national association network spans the major markets.

Go Ignite brings the framework and the instrument. The Index is built on the EFFECT Framework, which I developed across twenty years inside O2, Samsung and the brands Go Ignite has worked with since, and which underpins every Effectiveness Culture Diagnostic I run. I designed the survey, I lead the analysis, and I author the report.

The WFA brings the reach and the governance. An effectiveness steering group drawn from the WFA’s CMO, media and insight communities has shaped the survey, and the WFA distributes it to its members and through partner national associations. That combination is what makes the Index independent and international rather than one consultant’s client sample.

What it measures

Section 04

Six dimensions. Thirty six statements. Twelve minutes.

The survey scores an organisation’s effectiveness culture across the six dimensions of the EFFECT Framework: Empower People, Focused Priorities, Fix Processes, Elevate Insight, Create Measurement Systems and Transform Culture. Each dimension is tested by six diagnostic statements, alongside an overall rating and a short set of classification questions, and takes ten to twelve minutes to complete.

Individual responses are anonymous and are never published. Where several people from one organisation respond, their answers are aggregated so the organisation can see its own profile. Results are cut by seniority, function, sector and geography, which is what lets the report show, for the first time, how far the view from the boardroom differs from the view at the desk.

What you get

Section 05

Something for every respondent, every organisation and the industry.

For you. Every respondent receives a personal scorecard across the six dimensions, free, shortly after completing the survey.

For your organisation. Where enough colleagues respond, your organisation receives its own effectiveness culture profile benchmarked against the Index, including the gap between what senior leaders and their teams believe. This is the view no other survey provides.

For the industry. The first Effectiveness Culture Index report is published in spring 2027, free to every participant: the international benchmark, the six dimension profile of the industry, the gaps that matter most, and what the highest scoring organisations do differently. The Index runs every two years, so from the second wave it tracks whether effectiveness culture is improving.

Timeline

Section 06

Fieldwork this autumn. Analysis over the winter. The first report in spring 2027.

October to November 2026 · Fieldwork

The survey opens to WFA members and partner associations, and to any marketing organisation that registers here.

Winter 2026 to 2027 · Analysis

Scores, benchmarks, seniority and sector cuts, and the organisation level profiles.

Spring 2027 · Publication

The first Effectiveness Culture Index report, launched with the WFA. The second wave, and the first measure of movement, follows in 2029.

Take the survey

Section 07

Register now. Complete it in October. Share it across your team.

The survey opens in October 2026. Register now and I will send you the link the day it goes live, with your personal scorecard following as soon as you complete it. If you are a WFA member, you will also receive it through the WFA.

The Index is strongest when more than one person in an organisation responds. If you lead a marketing function, the most useful thing you can do is ask your leadership team and the people doing the effectiveness work to complete it too. The gap between those two views is the finding most likely to change how your organisation works.

About the framework

Section 08

The Index is built on the EFFECT Framework, the methodology at the centre of Go Ignite’s practice.

The framework was developed in senior in house roles at O2 and Samsung, refined across six years of consulting engagements, and is the basis of the Effectiveness Culture Diagnostic. It defines six dimensions of effectiveness culture: Empower People, Focused Priorities, Fix Processes, Elevate Insight, Create Measurement Systems, and Transform Culture.

Read the framework in full

The Next Step

The Index tells you where your effectiveness culture stands against the industry. The Diagnostic tells you why, and what to do about it.

A discovery call is the way to start that conversation. Thirty minutes. No obligation.

Book a discovery call