Battle of Big Thinking 2025
It was the strategy mash-up of the year. We brought back 7 of the winners from the APG Awards to battle it out in front of a live audience in the cinema at Channel 4.
Each winner gave a 5-minute presentation of their thinking and then had one minute to persuade the planners in the room, and on livestream, to vote for their pitch to represent the 'tastiest' flavour of strategy. MC David Wilding whipped the audience into a frenzy of expectation and free flowing Quality Street and Liora Ingram skipped away with the prize for advocating ‘keeping it honest and real' for Pot Noodle.
You can watch the film of the evening, including all the speeches and some masterful mc’ing by David Wilding in a sparkly jacket. Oh, and there’s a clown and a couple of blokes in boiler suits. It is nearly Xmas after all.
Award Winning Presentations from 2023
Watch some of the final judging presentations from our 2023 award winners
Sex Never Gets Old: The Power of Noticing
2023 Gold Award
Presented by: Kit Altin & Bruno Carramaschi
Yorkshire Tea
Long term brand building done proper
2023 Long Term Thinking Gold Award
Presented by: Loz Horner
'How To Win' APG Awards Presentations
See below for tips and tricks from past awards winners and judges on how to write, present and win an APG Creative Strategy Award.​
Martin Beverley, Chair of the Shortlisting panel for the APG Awards in 2023, talks about how to get your paper on the shortlist with tips and tricks for writing a stand-out paper and best practice examples.
How to write a winning paper
Michael Lee, CSO at VCCP and Chair of the Awards Shortlisting Committee in 2021, knows what makes a good paper and talks about the cases that stood out for him in 2021 and why the judges shortlisted them. He gives excellent guidance for writing your paper.
APG Awards 2021 Golden Shorts
This is a series of events where we examine the ingredients for success and talk to the award-winning planners about how and why it worked. If ever you questioned your role as a creative strategist, you can rest assured that, done well, this is magic.​
2021 Grand Prix & The Nursery Special Prize for Best Contribution to Brand
How do you follow the ‘best ad ever’? You re-discover the brand’s roots of generosity and restore its original purpose. Planner and Author Sophie Kerbegian and Executive Creative Director, Chris Birch, generously share how planning breathed new light into Cadbury, turning around the fortunes of an iconic but ailing FMCG brand.
Formula E
2021 Gold & Special Prize for Best Application of Broad Thinking
Embracing your weaknesses as a brand is not an easy feat, but in this case, it paid off. Formula E was able to create excitement in an industry that was in jeopardy and turned a profit for the first season in its history. Authors Peter Wilson and Matt Rebeiro share how they turned their strategy from defense into attack.
Guinness
2021 Gold Award
It’s a brave move to encourage people not to buy your brand. And the ‘Guinness Clear’ campaign did just that. They not only confronted the impact of heavy drinking during Six Nations and helped consumers build healthier habits around drinking, but increased the ROI in the process, creating a positive change for both the consumer and the brand. Hear AMV BBDO’s David Edwards and his creative partner Tim Riley as they discuss their strategy behind the campaign
Childline
2021 Gold Award
How do you utilize a tiny budget to create a huge impact? Childline is a fantastic example of how you use quantitative data and bring it to life with real understanding. This campaign dismantled the harmful self-perceptions of a generation of young people for a charity that can help. Kit Altin, CSO, and Lucas Peon, CCO of The Gate London share the behind the scenes of Childline’s ‘Nobody is Normal’ campaign.
Libresse/Bodyform
2021 Gold & Pinterest Special Prize for Inspired Creative Thinking
When you’ve already smashed the taboos in a category, what do you do next? This is a brilliant example of using truth and creativity to help a brand punch way above its share of voice and pushing an already groundbreaking campaign further to build the business. AMV BBDO’s author Bea Farmelo and creatives Augustine Cerf and Lauren Peters illuminate their thinking behind the ‘#wombstories’ campaign.
KFC UK & Ireland
2021 Gold Award
What if you embraced the competition instead of fighting them? This case is a lesson in brand confidence and shows how to re-establish market leadership and brand stature in a mature market. Tatiana Jezierski, Strategy Director from Mother tells their story behind creating this one of a kind campaign.
McDonald's Canada
2021 Gold & Davies+McKerr Special Prize for Best Insight
These strategists could have overlooked this mundane client brief. But instead, they found a radical solution that dismantled the harmful self-perceptions of GenZ and created one of the most successful recruitment campaigns in McDonald’s Canada’s history. Cossette’s Max Keane shares their journey behind the ‘Friends Wanted’ campaign.
Starbucks
2021 Gold & Special Prize for Best Example of Diversity & Inclusion
In this campaign, planning made a major contribution towards informed awareness and acceptance of trans people, helping an unpopular corporation take on a sensitive societal issue with overwhelming support. Planner, Raj Thambirajah, and Creative Director, Eli Vasiliou, share behind the curtains for the Starbucks campaign ‘What’s Your Name?’.
Past Awards Launch Events
See below for videos of our past APG Awards Launch Events.​
Speakers:
Kit Altin | Chair of Shortlisting Jury
Tom Roach | Chair of Judges
Emily Harlock | APG Co-Chair
Rory Gallery | 2023 Gold Award Winner for Partners Life NZ
Joan Devereux | 2023 Gold Winner for Flora Plant
Bruno Carramaschi | 2023 Long Term Thinking Gold Award Winner for Anusol
Short, punchy and inspiring, we heard about the breadth of possibilities for writing papers, the best examples of creative strategy and what a really good case might look like.
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Speakers:
Kate Waters | Chair of Judges
Martin Beverley | Chair of Shortlisting Panel
Michael Lee | APG Chair
Max Keane | 2021 Gold Award Winner for McDonald's Canada​
APG Awards Launch 2021
Hear all about the breadth of possibilities for writing papers, the best examples of creative strategy and what a really good case might look like. ​
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Speakers:
Vicki Holgate | APG Chair
Charlie Snow | Chair of Judges
Michael Lee | Chair of Shortlisting Panel
Gareth Goodall | 2019 Gold Winner for Dosist
Bridget Angear | 2019 Grand Prix Winner for Bodyform/Libresse
