The Home for Planners & Strategists
APG Top Models and Super Models
The most useful strategic models and how to apply them. With Jon Leach.
There are two series of models: The Top Models series which is complete and available below, and the new Super Models series which will be appearing week by week and posted below until summer 2021.
The idea is to create and house a broad library of strategy frameworks. Each one is an essay conceived and written by Jon Leach and consisting of a mix of theory, real life examples and practical tips on how to apply them. In doing so he has drawn not only on his eclectic brain and capacious memory, but also on vivid examples of all kinds of strategic problems he has encountered in his long and varied planning career working across creative, brand, PR, sports marketing and more…
The Top Models Series covers all the more ‘basic’ models and approaches. There are 11 in all. The essays variously contain:
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Explanations
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References and theory
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Case history examples
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A step by step recipe for applying the model
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Suggested tasks that let you have a go yourself
The Super Models Series is more advanced, and can encompass a range of models rather than concentrating on just one. These more sophisticated essays build on knowledge you can acquire by reading and playing with the Top Models. There are 13 Super Models in all.
How to search for a specific model
If you would like to view the models you can click 'view model', and type in your APG Membership details (email and membership number) to get access. You can also search either Top Models or Super Models using the search bar below.
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Top Model 1: Just for Starters
This is the first in a smorgasbord of models and frameworks that we will lay before you over the coming weeks. Much like a good hotel, we hope to serve you up something fresh and tasty on most visits (although weekend service may be a little patchy.....
Top Model 2: I Hear Jerusalem Bells Are Ringing
As we saw in Model 1, a two by two is a good basic tool for planners. But a two by two derived from hard data is a great tool, if you want to rule the world, and clients rise when you give your word.
Top Model 3: Together We Map
It is no coincidence that the strategy process is, at is most reductive, “where are we now, where do we want to get to, and how do we get there?”. A good map or model can help us in that strategic process.
Top Model 4: All the Single Ladies
Stretching the limits of the two by two, and using archetypes, to boost your empathy with consumers.
Top Model 5: Teenage Mutant Ninja Models
The Boston Matrix, and some slightly tricky maths, shows how smokers might take to vaping.
Top Model 6: Fine Slicing the Internet of Beef
Searching out two by twos on the internet to map out today’s Twitter culture wars.
Top Model 7: Waving not Drowning
Using Alvin Toffler’s Third Wave model to place asthma devices, Brexit and China in context.
Top Model 8: The Road to Angmering Pier
How the Greiner Growth model can re-boot your agency or department.
Top Model 9: Pilfering other People’s Pyramids
Stealing from the best and using the Attention Pyramid to manage your own media consumption.
Top Model 10: My Cousin Timmy
Applying the Spiral Dynamics model to understand how PR agencies think differently from advertising agencies.
Top Model 11: Lost in the Fog and Hunting the Big Fish
The final Top Model: Using two by twos to organise your work projects and control your working day.
Super Model 1: The Dilettante Planner Goes for a Ride
This is the first of the Super Models series. A review of the classics but also a reminder to seek out the genuinely new.
Super Model 2: Two’s company, three’s getting crowded
The benefits - and pitfalls - of stretching a two by two into a three by three.
Super Model 3: Memories, all alone in the spotlight
How to keep models poised in your mind, ready to pounce on marketing problems.
Super Model 4: Beware the Dunes of Padstow Town
A model inspired by the spread of viruses shows how any Word-of-Mouth campaign should be structured if it is going to be effective.
Super Model 5: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Wrong
How the Rollercoaster Model can get you from being unbearably wrong to actually getting it right.
Super Model 6: But some were more equal than others.
How the spiral dynamics model can inspire better football, better politics, better planning, and even better pies.
Super Model 7: Chronicles of a death foretold
How 3 geopolitical models can help you make predictions about the coming decades.
Super Model 8: Bringing Harmony Through Division
How to lay it all out so they get what you mean.
Super Model 9: In the Circles of Our Minds
How circular models can guide our thinking. But sometimes trip us up.
Super Model 10: Up with the Gods
How to insert models into workshops to raise the performance of any group.
Super Model 11: On The Spectrum
How the spectrum is one of the simplest models to work with. And offers comedy gold.
Super Model 12: Less is More
How just two neuro-hormones - oxytocin and serotonin - might explain many patterns in marketing.
Super Model 13: To the Stars
A chance to review all the models from this series, but more importantly, an invitation to break new ground in model making.