The Home for Planners & Strategists
APG 'How To' Events
APG ‘How To’ events are short sessions delivered by experts, designed to cover off some of the topics you ask us to feature in our programme. They are concise, compelling and you should come away informed and confident to have a go, whether it be writing better propositions, selling your strategy or grasping the practice of media planning. We designed them with younger strategists in mind but in truth they are suitable and interesting for anyone doing planning and strategy as it’s always good to do a bit of revision or hear a new perspective.
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'How To' get the most out of your strategy skills (with Will Humphrey)
13th May | 5pm-6pm BST | Online
Creative strategy can be the best job in the world, not least because the skills you learn as a brand planner are so transportable.
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The APG is doing an occasional series of events where we talk to strategists who have taken their skills into new areas to find out which skills they brought with them, how they apply them, what new things they have learned and how they think other people can benefit from their experience.
Will Humphrey
Will Humphrey was a strategist in agencies for 15 years, working in different manifestations of the planning discipline and in a variety of excellent agencies. He left his most recent role at Wunderman Thompson two years ago and jumped ship to McKinsey. He has some fascinating insights into the difference between life in agencies and the ‘The Firm’ and how he has been shaped by the experience to date.
Event Details
Date: Monday 13th May 2024
Time: 5pm-6pm BST
Platform: Zoom
Tickets*:
APG Members = £7.50+vat
Non Members = £40+vat
*tickets are non-refundable
Tickets:
'How To' Get the Proposition Right (with Michael Lee)
15th May | 6pm-7pm BST | Online
The crafting of the proposition has a mythical status in awards papers narratives. But is it justified or overhyped?
Has the shift towards experience rather than just message-based advertising reduced its importance?
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And how on earth do you know whether you've written a great proposition?
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Michael Lee, former APG Chair and Chief Strategy Officer at VCCP London, will cover off a number of well-known case studies and provide some practical advice on how to craft your proposition to increase the chances of stimulating a creative leap of genius.
Event Details
Date: Wednesday 15th May 2024
Time: 6pm-7pm BST
Platform: Zoom
Tickets*:
APG Members = £7.50+vat
Non Members = £40+vat
*tickets are non-refundable
Tickets:
'How To' Write Brilliant Briefs and Deliver Brilliant Briefings (with Martin Beverley)
28th May | 5pm-6pm BST | Online
In this session Martin Beverley, Co-Chair of the APG and CSO at adam&eveDDB, will be focusing on how to write brilliant briefs and deliver brilliant briefings.
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He will cover principles for writing the best and most effective briefs and creating the most inspirational briefings. There will be plenty of examples, tricks and tips that can be put into practice.
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This session is for Planners and Strategists who want to get better at briefing advertising campaigns that work across all channels.
Event Details
Date: Tuesday 28th May 2024
Time: 5pm-6pm BST
Platform: Zoom
Tickets*:
APG Members = £7.50+vat
Non Members = £40+vat
*tickets are non-refundable
Tickets:
'How To' Use GenAI and ChatGPT
15th May 2023
Speaker: Oli Feldwick
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Oli Feldwick, Head of Innovation at The&Partnership and seer to the strategy community unpacked how to think about AI, strategy and creativity.
His talk included models for thinking about it, how to integrate into your practice, practical guides to prompting and some inspiration on the potential for working with AI in the future.
'How To' Make Sense of Media Planning: The Mechanics
7th March 2023
Speaker: Will Richardson
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We covered the nature of the business you are working on and how that drives the big strategic objective. What metrics are important to help achieve your objective? For example, do you need reach or response? Then we covered how a media planning audience is created: what does a media planner need to know about their audience, and where do they find this information? Then we looked at choosing the right channel mix for your objectives and audience. We used real life examples to demonstrate how useful tools like Media Mix Navigator can be.
How Not to be Afraid of Numbers
9th November 2022
Speaker: Sam Fowler
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This session focused on equipping you with a toolbox of tips and tricks Sam has picked up during his time in the industry, so you can quickly focus on what matters, feel confident in handling data and begin a journey to making numbers work for you.
'How To' Be a Better Problem Solver
29th June 2022
Speaker: Matt Holt
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The session focused on equipping you with a range of pragmatic tools and principles that Matt has picked up over the years so you can become better at diagnosing problems and master the art and science of problem-solving.
'How To' Give a Great Briefing
30th March 2022
Speaker: Martin Beverley
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Martin covered a series of principles for writing the best and most effective briefs and creating the most inspirational briefings.
'How To' Make Sense of Media Planning: The Magic
28th March 2023
Speaker: Will Richardson
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Having established your foundations, how do you craft your approach to get the most out of your media? It’s about making your assets work hard, even on a small budget; shaping your campaign to maximise impact; putting yourself in your audience's shoes and adding colour to quantitative data. This is where different parts of the multi-agency team can work together, and you can bring some magic to the party as a non-media planner charged with the creative strategy.
'How To' Work Constructively with Creatives
29th November 2022
Speakers: Alaina Crystal and Toby Allen
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In this session, we covered how planners can best work with creatives, that age-old partnership that can lead to some of the biggest bust-ups and the biggest breakthroughs.
'How To' Write Brilliant Briefs and Deliver Brilliant Briefings
4th October 2022
Speaker: Martin Beverley
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Martin covered principles for writing the best and most effective briefs and creating the most inspirational briefings.
'How To' Get the Proposition Right
25th May 2022
Speaker: Michael Lee - APG Chair
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Michael covered off a number of well-known case studies and provided some practical advice on how to craft your proposition to increase the chances of stimulating a creative leap of genius.
'How To' Work Constructively with Creatives
16th March 2022
Speakers: Alaina Crystal and Toby Allen
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In this session, we covered how planners can best work with creatives, that age-old partnership that can lead to some of the biggest bust-ups and the biggest breakthroughs.
The session was led by Alaina Crystal, Global Head of Strategy at Purpose and Toby Allen, Executive Creative Director at The&Partnership, who collaborated closely in their time at AMV BBDO on campaigns for Bodyform, Snickers and Plan International UK.
'How To' Become a Better Critical Thinker
16th March 2023
Speaker: Matt Holt
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In this session Matt Holt, CSO at Digitas UK, explained what critical thinking is, why it’s important, and why human beings aren’t natural critical thinkers. The aim of the session was to equip you with a range of pragmatic tips, tools and techniques that Matt has picked up over the years so that you can become better at critical thinking.
'How To' Be a Better Problem Solver
22nd November 2022
Speaker: Matt Holt
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The session focused on equipping you with a range of pragmatic tools and principles that Matt has picked up over the years so you can become better at diagnosing problems and master the art and science of problem-solving.
'How To' do Strategy on the Outside
6th September 2022
Speakers: Craig Mawdsley and Bridget Angear
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Craig and Bridget gave a clear and insightful view on how to set up and run your own creative strategy business. They demystified the process of setting up and prospering outside the conventional paths.
How Not to be Afraid of Numbers
4th May 2022
Speaker: Sam Fowler
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This session focused on equipping you with a toolbox of tips and tricks Sam has picked up during his time in the industry, so you can quickly focus on what matters, feel confident in handling data and begin a journey to making numbers work for you.