IPA’s media research guru Belinda Beeftink to retire
Belinda Beeftink, the IPA’s research director, is retiring after 18 years at the agency trade body.
Widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading authorities on media research and insight, Beeftink developed the influential IPA TouchPoints cross-media planning system.
She has been research director since 2018, following the retirement of predecessor Lynne Robinson, who had held the post for 25 years.
The IPA has not yet named a successor for Beeftink, who will retire at the end of the year.
TouchPoints legacy
Having joined the IPA in 2007, Beeftink took over the day-to-day running of TouchPoints a year after its launch as a one-off project. It is now a multimillion-pound research project whose subscribers include media agencies, media owners and Ofcom, and incorporates multiple industry currencies including Barb, Rajar and Pamco.
Over time, TouchPoints achieved several industry firsts under Beeftink’s stewardship that led to more qualitative insight included in the research, such as being the first survey to combine diary data with an extensive lifestyle questionnaire. It also incorporated the first industry-wide survey to measure emotions and mood, as well as generating word-of-scores for campaign planning tools.
Beeftink has been a judge for the Adwanted Media Research Awards since its inception in 2015 and has been the head judge for the past three years, including the 2025 edition that will be announced on 5 March.
She is also a former chair of the Media Research Group and in 2021 was awarded an honorary fellowship from the Market Research Society in recognition of her efforts to evolve audience measurement methodologies.
Beeftink: ‘This is an industry that doesn’t stand still’
Beeftink told The Media Leader: “I have had one of the best jobs in the industry, working across media research and audience research in particular, has been my passion.
“It’s been challenging, fascinating, complex and great fun in equal measure. No doubt I will miss it and will miss all the brilliant people I have had the pleasure of working with over the years. But I am pleased to be leaving with a strong, capable and excellent team in place who will continue to fly the flag.“
Writing for The Media Leader in August, Beeftink highlighted that there has been “tremendous change” over the last decade with how consumers behave and their willingness to take part in media research.
She said: “It is a growing challenge to keep respondents engaged and willing to share their data. At the same time, we have seen enormous change in technical developments, from increasingly harnessing the power of big customer datasets to creating synthetic data and now using AI as part of our solutions.
“Alongside these developments, there has been continual pressure on businesses to provide research solutions with very tight budgets. This is certainly an industry that doesn’t stand still and embraces new developments and opportunities as they arise.”
Industry reactions
“Belinda is one of the big players in media research and has been an amazing asset to us over her long IPA career. Whilst we obviously wish Belinda the very best for a long and enjoyable retirement, we will miss her terribly and she will be a hard act to follow. Thankfully, she leaves behind an excellent team with a deep understanding of this most, technical area of advertising.”
Paul Bainsfair, director-general, IPA
“Belinda’s contribution to TouchPoints and the industry has been nothing short of extraordinary. It will feel like one of the last ravens leaving the Tower of London when you go through the Belgrave Square IPA door for the last time.”
Ian Dowds, CEO, UKOM
“Belinda always seemed omnipresent in all the key forums — driving forward all things good in our industry. You will be a very hard act to follow.”
John Carroll, director of research and audiences, Rajar
“I have really appreciated Belinda’s contribution to the board and the fantastic wisdom that she has shared. Belinda will be missed both by the board and by me personally.”
Iain Jacob, chair, UKOM; former EMEA CEO, Publicis Media
“The whole industry will want to thank you for your contribution to media research and wish you well in the future.”
Jim Jarrett, head of research operations, Barb
“Belinda’s impact on the media research industry over the years is enormous, particularly being the driving force of TouchPoints. Everybody here at Adwanted wishes her a fantastic retirement.”
Rob Laurence, head, Adwanted Connected
“We’ve been honoured to have worked closely with Belinda over many years on the Adwanted and Mediatel Media Research Awards, both as a judge and in more recent years in her capacity as head judge, for which we are hugely grateful.”
Anne Tucker, head of research, Adwanted UK
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