Our industry has never been more obsessed with fame. It seems we planners can’t just work on reaching the right audience with the right message in the right way – we have to also earn media, go viral, make an impact on culture, achieve fame. No pressure.

But what actually is fame? Are we, in our communications agencies, actually delivering it? Are we even capable of delivering it? If we are, should we?

To help answer these questions, we’ve brought together Alison Phillips and Richard Huntington to tackle these sticky questions from very different angles.

There are 151 entries to the APG Creative Strategy Awards 2025. 

The biggest number ever submitted to our awards.

And it’s more than just a big number.

It’s a giant stamp of approval for creative strategy as a discipline:

By the authors who toiled so hard to write and refine their papers.

By the agencies who support the awards because they are proud of their strategic thinking and want to showcase how it’s done.

And by their excellent clients who (sometimes reluctantly) are up for sharing their success stories. We are very grateful.  

So what happens next?

When you work in an agency, it’s tempting to see all your strategy work through the lens of what creative teams want. We’re all prone to assuming that strategy is only good if it stimulates great creative work. But you can provide more value for your clients if you think a little more broadly, to produce strategy that stimulates a whole range of different activities (including great creative work). This session tells you how.

What makes a news story different from a brand idea and how do you earn attention from journalists?

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We get it. Budgets aren’t getting bigger. Every agency needs to reach more people with less media budget. On top of that, leadership keeps talking about wanting to “impact culture.” No wonder every team in the cross-agency working group is working up earned ideas for the back of the deck.

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This ‘how to’ will dig into what makes a news story different from a brand idea, and how you can actually earn branded attention from journalists.

As the Chair of Judges for the APG Creative Strategy Awards 2025, I am thrilled to announce that this year we want to welcome entries from as far and wide as possible - to broaden out the awards so they truly represent and celebrate every flavour of strategy.

From utopian to dystopian scenarios, the APG is working with planners, internationally, to game out what the possibilities might be and how we can get there.

This is a brand new APG course for Strategy Directors. You may have been promoted relatively recently or you’re about to take the step up. Either way you’re a highly capable strategist with plenty of experience but you now need to embrace a different mindset and start leading the business and the team.

Michael Hines will be sharing hard, practical, useful advice on how to handle new product launches, using launches for Ford, McDonald's, Samsung, Nike, Old Spice and Clash of Clans to highlight what works and doesn’t, how launches can be a path to the upper echelons of client organisations, and how working on launches can bring in truly imaginative thinking and ground-breaking marketing practice.

An evening of practical and friendly advice from strategy leaders including Jo Arden, Martin Beverley, Nicky Vita, Rosie Collins and Amy Gilmore.

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There will be short talks covering the topics that people most want help with and a chance to ask questions and hear about other peoples’ experiences including:

• How to approach interviews

• How to make the most of your personal brand and personal story telling

• How to network

As DE&I policies undergo a seismic transatlantic shock, the APG strongly believes in the importance of representation. After all the job of the planner has always been to get inside peoples’ heads and lives to understand them better. 

But what do we mean by representation? Is it realistic to even try to reflect the nation? And is it counted in hires or lived experience?

The APG Creative Strategy Awards has always celebrated strategic brilliance. For 2025, we're amplifying that mission by opening our doors wider than ever before. As Chair of The Shortlist Jury, I'm thrilled to announce not only an extraordinary panel of judges drawn from across the strategic spectrum, but also a series of exciting changes to the awards themselves - all designed to discover and celebrate strategic excellence wherever it exists.