The infamous Bill Bernbach once mused that "Advertising is fundamentally persuasion". So how can you get better at persuading people? In this session, Simon Gregory (CSO at BBH, VCCP) explains the foundations of building a convincing argument and walks through some key tips from acting like a hostage negotiator to weaponizing positivity.

The APG Creative Strategy Awards are on again in 2025. So if you’re true to the literal interpretation of ‘planner’ or indeed ‘planning’ you will already have started work on your entry. 

If however, you’re a by-the-seat-of-your-pants, wild, hard, last-minute-ride kind of planner (belying all practical interpretations of the ‘planning’ thing) you’ll be getting down to it sometime in early March, tripping fearlessly and with blind optimism through to the 3rd April deadline. 

But there is a middle way. And we’ve organised it for you so you don’t have to any planning (of the practical boring kind). 

Instead, you can devote your time to crafting the perfect paper.

There are 3 workshops: Logic, Magic and Sparkle. You can do 1, 2 or all 3 of them. Between them, they cover the essential ingredients of the perfect creative strategy case history delivered by the experts in writing and winning APG awards.

The APG A-Z is a series of 26 short and inspiring videos that are designed to give you all the basics for a proper understanding of the practice of planning and strategy. Whether you’re just starting out in an agency - be it in advertising, media, social, design, whatever - and have planner or strategist in your title, or you work for a client or research company and have a professional interest in strategy, this course is for you to do in your own time.

The clue is in the name. It’s the place on the APG site where we bring together all the precious bits of strategic learning that can help you navigate a tricky problem, give you fresh inspiration or just wake up your jaded planning brain when you need help but don’t know where else to go.

​

To get a taster of how excellent these resources are for members, we’re giving you the chance to download one example of each for free.