The Home for Planners & Strategists
You are an accomplished Strategist, maybe a Senior Strategist, possibly even a Strategy Director, but you will have noticed that what is demanded of you has changed.
Once you were allowed three weeks to “crack it”, now you are lucky to get three days; where you used to commission some research and ask some juniors to crunch some data, now you have to do it on your own (oh, and in three days, please); and where the job used to be about briefing the creative team and writing “the deck” for this year’s campaign, now you are working with a rotating team of specialists and an “always on” communication plan.
In short, as a Strategist, you have had to become much more agile to survive.
So in our online “Agile Strategist” interactive training course we are going to show you how to do great planning but do it faster, more independently and in shifting, complex environments with a wider range of colleagues and clients.
The Four New Skill Areas of the Agile Strategist
This course will bring to the fore the new skill areas that we believe an Agile Strategist needs.
These 4 new skills are NOT intended as replacements for your existing planning craft skills but rather as a new set of skills to be grafted on top of them. So, after this course, you should be equipped to do what you do already but faster, more independently and with a wider set of colleagues and clients.
1. Boot Strapper | You will learn how to get things going faster with fewer resources.
Skills taught:
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4 instant insight tools
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Use of free data such as Google trends and academic articles
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The joy of small data
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Accessing your own back catalogue
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Coming back to paper and people
2. Creative Dynamo | You will learn how to generate big ideas, small ideas, lots of ideas, at any time you need them.
Skills taught:
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The quantity method
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The A-Z method
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The “steal with pride” method
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How to make ideas easy to buy: alliteration, rhyme, triplets and rhythm as techniques
3. Arch Persuader | You will learn how to sell thinking internally, externally, to clients, to partners, to anyone to keep the idea alive and growing.
Skills taught:
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Quick models and reliable frameworks that sell
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Post-rationalizing with data , psychology and logic
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The 50 street selling skills
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Working with different types of people in the broader industry – how they think and what they like to buy.
4. Ego Ninja | You will learn when to push and when to bend; when to lead, when to follow.
Skills taught:
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Understanding and checking your ego
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Noticing and managing your emotions
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Listening to “the market of ideas”
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The art of the U-turn
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How to keep the flame alive when all seems lost
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What is “True North” for you?
Course Details
Cost
£1,085+VAT (APG Membership required)
Dates
31st March, 1st, 2nd & 3rd April 2025
Timings
TBC
Platform
This course will be run online. You will receive details once your booking is confirmed.
Please note, the sessions will not be recorded/filmed and we can’t offer catch-up sessions on future courses, if for any reason you can’t attend.
Course Enquiries
If you are interested in attending this Training Course, please e-mail Alison Trotter at alison@apg.org.uk
Jon Leach
The course convener is Jon Leach who despite starting as a planner in 1984 still works as a jobbing planner at Chime to this day. He was initially trained at BMP (the joint home of classic planning, alongside JWT), was re-trained by the radicals at HHCL in the 90’s, survived both the dot-com crash of the early 2000s and the rise of Web 2.0 in the late 2000’s. Since then he has continued to work as a planner with all sorts of digital, public relations, design and sports marketing agencies. Alongside this he has worked with most of the Top 20 advertising agencies as a trainer of planners, account handlers & creatives.
APG Training Course Cancellation Policy
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Should you cancel your booking for an APG training course, the following cancellation policy will apply: For a cancellation made more than 30 calendar days in advance of the training course, a full rebate will be applied. For a cancellation more than ten calendar days in advance of the training course, a rebate of 50% will be applied. For a cancellation less than ten days in advance of the training course no rebate will be applied.
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Training sessions will not be recorded/filmed and we can’t offer catch-up sessions on future courses, if for any reason you can’t attend.
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On occasion we may need to re-schedule training sessions - we reserve the right to do this at any time although we will aim to give you as much notice as possible.
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Attendance on Training Courses is entirely at the discretion of APG. There is no automatic right to attendance.
Testimonials
Thanks for a challenging and educating week, a generous batch of great tools, and new perspectives on account planning.
Great experience overall, and useful input to work and life!
- Strategist, Marketing Agency
Really fantastic - both, validating, reassuring and inspiring. Felt very timely for me.
- Communication Strategy Lead, Healthcare Agency
I think the course was good and provided practical techniques that will definitely help in real life scenarios.
I liked the breadth of the things covered and the structure.
- Digital and Creative Associate Director, PR Agency
Very useful - lots of techniques, tools, tips to go away and use.
- Strategy Lead, Marketing Agency
Course Tutor
