The Winners
APG Creative Strategy Awards 2025
In partnership with Channel 4
This year, the judges took a bold and brilliant decision.
When we launched the awards, we announced the theme as ‘every flavour of strategy’. We called for entries that reflected the real diversity of creative strategy as it is practised now.
We got them. And they are awesome.
So for the first time ever, the Grand Prix is awarded jointly to all 7 Gold winners because they individually and separately showcase 7 absolutely excellent and strongly differentiated flavours of creative strategy: DP World, Dulux, Mayor of London, Müller Rice, Procell, Škoda and Very.
Congratulations to them, to Strategy Agency of the Year, Ogilvy UK, and all the prize winners. You have done us proud.
APG members can read all the winning cases on the APG Think Tank on Friday, 26th September.
Menu
The Stephen King Strategy Agency of the Year Award is given to the agency with the best overall performance, calculated from points for each award earned.
For 2025, the prize was awarded to:
Ogilvy UK
DP World
Three Degrees of Difference: How DP World started a global movement to change standards for an entire industry
Author:
Karin Robinson
Agency:
Edelman
Mayor of London
Planning's Hard Choice: How one word broke the silence of misogyny
Author:
Natalie Chester
Agency:
Ogilvy UK
Procell
Beware of your Battery Changer
Authors:
Neil Godber and Jonny Park
Agency:
VML UK
Very
Back in the Pink: How Culture Powered Very's Big Glow Up
Authors:
Kit Altin, Frances Gibbs and Ben Milligan
Agency:
The Gate London
Dulux
How Planning Helped Dulux Break Through the Class Ceiling
Author:
Ryan Thomson
Agency:
Ogilvy UK
Müller Rice
The Dumbest APG Paper Ever
Author:
Matthew Hayes
Agency:
VCCP
Škoda
Our Lord and Saviour the Škoda Octavia: How We Used Reddit to Resurrect Škoda's Most Overlooked Vehicle
Primary Author:
Joe Crust
Supporting Authors:
Henry Gray, Hamish Cameron
and Mike Treharne
Agency:
Leo Burnett
EE
In a category of births, marriages and deaths, EE is the stuff of life: Leaving a commoditising category behind, by serving new needs, with new ideas, and a totally New EE
Authors:
Olivia Stubbings and Will Moore
Agency:
Saatchi & Saatchi
Nike
How Radical Honesty Reset Nike Running
Primary Author:
Ollie Chakraverty
Supporting Author:
Becca Taylor
Agency:
Wieden + Kennedy, USA
Pot Noodle
From purpose to pleasure – how we brought Pot Noodle back to the sloppy bottom
Primary Author:
Liora Ingram
Agency:
adam&eveDDB
Xbox
The Everyday Tactician: How getting a football club promoted helped Xbox take a step closer to the future of gaming
Primary Author:
Alex Passingham
Supporting Author:
Mel Arrow
Agency:
McCann London
Heinz
Every flavour all at once: How Heinz’s sauce obsession created a product that helped sell many more
Author:
Rory Foster
Agency:
Wieden + Kennedy
Poppy's
A new normal in funeral care
Primary Author:
Craig Mawdsley
Supporting Authors:
Bridget Angear, Joanna Juber
and Rebecca Wilson
Agency:
craig+bridget
The V&A
How hyper-personalisation unlocked hyper-creativity for the V&A
Author:
Stuart Williams
Agency:
adam&EveDDB
British Heart Foundation
Fair Play & Football: How the BHF unlocked our hearts and wallets
Authors:
Jimmy MacAskill, Emily Lewis-Keane and Elena Georgiou
Agency:
Saatchi & Saatchi
Kōpū O Te Rangi
Switching Off the Toff with Pīkari Mai
Primary Author:
Augustine Morgan-Guthrie
Supporting Author:
India Davis
Agency:
Colenso BBDO, New Zealand
O2
Daisy vs Scammers
Primary Author:
Lotte Jones
Supporting Author:
Clare Hutchinson
Agency:
VCCP / faith
Uber
Trains, Now On… Uber?! How Uber Expanded Into A New Sector By Turning Its Biggest Weakness Into A Five Star Strength
Primary Author:
Matt Sadler
Supporting Authors:
Kieran Bradshaw and Matt Tanter
Agency:
Mother
Waitrose
Welcome to the Writers’ Room: What planning can learn from high-quality TV development
Authors:
Ophelia Stimpson and Emily Lewis-Keane
Agency:
Saatchi & Saatchi
KFC
Believe in Chicken again: Putting the “cult” into cultural strategy
Primary Authors:
Neasa McGuinness, Bhavin Pabari
and Aman Mundra
Supporting Authors:
Kieran Bradshaw and Matt Tanter
Agency:
Mother
NHS Blood and Transplant
Waiting to Live: Shining a light on children waiting for a transplant
Author:
Bishan Morgan
Agency:
VML UK
Paddy Power
A Shirt is Not Just for Christmas
Primary Author:
Darius Pasalar
Supporting Author:
Gareth Ellis
Agency:
BBH London
Uber
Alright our Uber: How Uber looked outside the M25 to be welcomed into the neighbourhood Up North
Primary Author:
Lucy Allen
Supporting Authors:
Kieran Bradshaw and Matt Tanter
Agency:
Mother
sponsored by ITV
‘Long-term Thinking’ is a campaign for a brand that has run for five years plus and is still running. We’ve awarded the strategic thinking that has successfully guided the brand or business over that time.
Dirt Is Good: Persil/OMO/Surf Excel
The Triumph of Dirt Against The Odds
Primary Author:
Rachael Stets
Supporting Author:
Ayesha Walker
Agency:
MullenLowe UK
Essity - Libresse/Bodyform
Live Fearless: The Guts Behind the Blood
Primary Author:
Yolanda Davis
Supporting Authors:
Vicki Holgate, Margaux Revol, Summer Taylor and Bea Farmelo
Agency:
AMVBBDO
Campaign Against Living Miserably
Planning for impact: How planners can make a difference on causes that matter
Primary Author:
Jack Gilbert
Supporting Authors:
Will Grundy and Martin Beverley
Agency:
adam&eveDDB
McDonald's
How embracing small truths helped a big brand deliver a big turnaround.
Primary Author:
Alysha Kishan and Tass Tsitsopoulos
Supporting Author:
Georgia Challis
Agency:
Wieden + Kennedy, USA
Great Western Railway
Finding new potential in the past
Primary Authors:
Kit Owens and Matilda Treloar
Supporting Author:
Sarah Carter
Agency:
adam&eveDDB
Channel 4 Prize for Best Example of Diversity & Inclusion
Kōpū O Te Rangi
Denise Williams Prize for Best Performance in Front of the Judges
Mayor of London | Natalie Chester
The Nursery Prize for Best Contribution to Brand Growth
EE
Davies+McKerr Prize for Best Insight
Dulux
Strategy Book Prize for Best Written Paper
Pot Noodle
Tracksuit Prize for Best Use of Data to Drive Brand Effectiveness
The V&A
Thinkbox Prize for Delivering Cultural Impact
Essity – Libresse/Bodyform
Prize for Best Strategic Response to the Challenge of Climate Change
DP World
Prize for Best Media Thinking
Škoda
Prize for Best Global Thinking (more than one market, ex-UK)
Dirt is Good: Persil/OMO/Surf Excel
Prize for Best Non-UK Paper
McDonald's
PR Special Prize
DP World
Prize for Creative Bravery
Mayor of London
Prize for Best Audience Understanding
Very
