The Home for Planners & Strategists
Essential Planning Skills
Next Online Course Dates:
25th February, 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th March & 1st April 2025
This is one of our most popular courses. Course tutors are the experts in each field and include Shekhar Deshpande of Meta, Vicki Holgate former APG Chair, Neil Godber of VML, Phil Barden and Julian Saunders.
This is a course with a difference. We want to focus the course on practising the Principles of Planning rather than just learning them. Our ambition is to arm you with ‘cheat sheets’ that will help you put the principles into action the minute you walk out the door.
Who is it aimed at?
This course is ideally suited for Planners and Strategists with 2 years+ of experience in the industry. It is designed for Strategists from a variety of disciplines – be it brand planning, digital planning, channel planning, engagement planning. It is also suited for Strategists with specialist experience who would like a more well-rounded view of Strategy, even though they may have spent more than five years in business.
What will you learn?
As with any APG training course this modular course mixes the theory and and practice of planning and is highly interactive, enabling you to take away tools and approaches and use them immediately in your day-to-day job.
Our ambition is that rather than blow you away with awesomeness, we will arm you with ‘cheat sheets’ that will help you put the principles into action the minute you walk out the door. We daresay you should remember (at least) the best bits a year after we have finished with you.
How have we chosen our modules?
We have drawn upon a panel of industry experts across Planning disciplines (in other words, old and classic ones as well as young and cool ones). With their help, we have identified the core areas that would be relevant to all strategists, across disciplines.
Course Content & Modules
Session One
Module 1: Getting to your one big marketing objective.
Module 2: Identifying the basis for your strategy
Tutor: Vicki Holgate
Session Two
Module 3: How to have powerful and enduring Brand Ideas.
Module 4: Unearthing and profiting from insights
Tutor: Shekhar Deshpande - Meta
Session Three
Module 5: Writing a creative Brief without writing one | Tutor: Shekhar Deshpande - Meta
Module 6: Briefing and working with creative people | Tutor: Dave Masterman - VCCP
Session Four
Module 7: Understanding people through (quant) data | Tutor: Sam Fowler - Craft Media
Module 8: Media Channel Planning | Tutor: James Caig
Session Five
Module 9: 21st century Brand thinking | Tutor: Julian Saunders - Joined-up Company
Module 10: The practical side of Behavioural Economics | Tutor: Phil Barden - Decoded
Session Six
Module 11: Effectiveness | Tutor: Neil Godber - Wunderman Thompson
Testimonials
"Great overview of the Planning process – great for highlighting room for improvement and getting inspiration. Helped put all of the pieces together."
- Planner, Integrated Agency
"Really well thought out structure and outstanding teachers – covered all the areas I had questions on as a planner."
- Planner, Creative Agency
"Incredibly useful – especially when putting our newly learned skills to the test with practical applications."
- Planner, Digital Agency
"Great breadth of content brought alive by a multitude of approaches and models, and made accessible through carefully thought out practical exercises."
- Planner, Digital Agency
Course Details
Dates and Times:
25th February, 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th March & 1st April 2025
1:30pm - 6pm London Time, apart from 18th & 25th March which will have an earlier start time of 12:30pm London Time (some sessions may finish earlier).
Format:
6 x Half-days
Platform:
Zoom
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.
Cost
£1,085+VAT (APG Membership required)
Course Enquiries
If you are interested in attending this Training Course, please e-mail Alison Trotter at alison@apg.org.uk
Shekhar Deshpande
Head of Strategy and Global Accounts, EMEA
Meta
Shekhar has led local and global Planning roles for JWT in three continents. He is passionate about mentoring and developing young talent.
Vicki Holgate
Former APG Chair & Strategy Partner at AMV BBDO
AMV BBDO
Former APG Chair & Strategy Partner at AMV BBDO
Sam Fowler
Partner
Craft Media
Sam Fowler has previously worked atVizeum, Goodstuff Sommunications and has recently joined Craft Media from MediaCom where he was Associate Strategy Director. Across his career he has worked with clients such as Coca-Cola, Sky & Spotify.
James Caig
Strategist and Trainer
James Caig is a planner, trainer and facilitator who has led strategy teams in media, creative, digital and CRM agencies. He has won IPA Excellence Awards, started APG West and has been a judge for the APG Creative Strategy Awards and IPA Excellence Diploma. Recently he's devised and run Persuasive Presentations training for more than 70 people.
Dave Masterman
Deputy Executive Creative Director
VCCP
David has spent over 20 years in the creative discipline and has previously worked at agencies such as JWT, BBH, Fallon and DDB UK. This gives him the unique insight of having received many briefs from planners over the years.
Julian Saunders
Founder
The Joined Up Company
Julian Saunders has worked as a strategist in most disciplines and recently in The Zoo at Google, where his role was to advise clients about effective marketing on digital platforms. He works directly for clients and specialises in running strategic workshops for them. Previous roles include: CEO of Red Cell, Non-Executive Planning Director of Good Technology, Executive planning Director of McCann-Erickson and Planning Director of Ogilvy. He publishes regularly, mostly in Market Leader (the quarterly journal of The Marketing Society), blogs at joinedupthink.com and was editor of The Communications Challenge (APG 2004) a pioneering textbook for planners about the impact of the digital revolution”
Neil Godber
Executive Planning Director
VML
Neil is a top planner, formerly of BBH and JWT London. He is now Executive Planning Director at VML, along with an IPA Fellow and Chair of the IPA Effectiveness Champions. He is multi-awarded for at APG Creative Strategy Awards and a winner of the Grand Prix for Dixons in 2011 and an expert in all things effective.
Phil Barden
Owner and Managing Director
Decode Marketing Ltd
Phil has over 25 years client-side brand management experience. After 16 years with Unilever, rising to Marketing VP, he worked at Diageo and T-Mobile. Whilst responsible for T-Mobile’s brand positioning and development around Europe he became a client of decode marketing consultancy and first encountered 'decision Science‘. He is now one of very few experts to combine a practitioner's perspective with a profound knowledge of decision Science.
Course Tutors
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.