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This the part of the site where we upload, and encourage you to send and share lots of interesting stuff about planning and strategy.

What transformed your thinking in 2016?

Nov 30, 2016
5 min

What transformed your thinking in 2016?

It’s a good question, and with a year like 2016, rich pickings for the thoughtful strategist. It’s also the reason why we have chosen Transformational Thinking as our theme for the 2017 APG Creative Strategy Awards. So unable to resist a little branded theming we decided to soft launch the awards at the final Noisy Thinking of the year by asking ‘what transformed your thinking?’ of the people who lead the strategy in some of the most interesting agencies. We gave them 6 minut

Why being a Planner is like being an Icelandic detective

Nov 16, 2016
2 min

Why being a Planner is like being an Icelandic detective

It's not just the long, gloomy Icelandic winters that make Detective Erlendur Sveinsson a rather moody figure. His life has had more than its fair share of drama and tragedy: A broken marriage, children battling alcohol and drug addiction and a job that gives him an all too close up look of human suffering and brutality. Erlendur, an obsessive and brilliant detective, is the star of Arnaldur Indridason's beautifully sparse and emotionally gut-wrenching series of murder myster

APG West | Perspectives in Planning

Nov 8, 2016
5 min

APG West | Perspectives in Planning

At the beginning of his talk last week, Mark Hancock, head of planning at The Real Adventure, noted the habit former Tesco CEO Terry Leahy had of interrupting any executives who offered him an opinion. Before they could tell him what they think, Leahy would say, they should first tell him what they know. Knowledge was a big theme throughout all the talks. So too it’s more confident cousin, truth. For Leahy’s phrase neatly summed up everything planning should be: an authentic

Workshop-tastic.. a short-ish rant

Nov 7, 2016
1 min

Workshop-tastic.. a short-ish rant

Warning: Short Rant Follows: Is it just me or do more and more of our clients (and, sadly, some colleagues) think they can answer nutty brand problems by simply stacking the nearest conference room full of 'key stakeholders', percolating a few ideas (using creative techniques, of course) for a morning, stir, add salt and then, hey presto, emerge before lunch with an answer that removes the need for further discussion or considered thought? While I think there can be treme