On Tuesday 24 March, 60 young planners and strategists got together for one of our regular #APGYP sessions generously hosted by MRM, to talk briefs and briefings with Paul Feldwick and Pete Heskett of JWT.
Paul's must read new book: 'The Anatomy of Humbug' is reviewed in brief on this site and we were privileged to have both the guru and the senior practitioner present to discuss some of the excellent and thorny questions raised in the discussion.
What did APG Young Planners say about the event?
"I loved this event. I thought it was a really informative evening. I learned more in one night than I have in 6 weeks. I felt like the talks gave me confidence that the way I was writing briefs and utterly failing at them was maybe down to the method I was using instead of my potential incompetency to write a brief or even explain one. I'm now going to trial a few different ways of writing a brief and getting to know our creative team better so that I know how to deliver strategy to them. Thank you!"
"It was really great - a privilege to hear from Paul Feldwick especially."
"Personally, the best thing about the APGYP is it provides a space to ask all the 'stupid' questions, and see if anyone else is struggling with the same things. So on that note it was very helpful to have the 5 minutes to talk together and come up with questions and share advice, and I actually found that one of the most helpful bits!"
Speaker Biographies
Paul Feldwick
Paul worked in advertising form over 30 years, he became head of planning at Boase Massimi Pollitt and later a Worldwide Brand Planning Director for DDB.
He was Convenor of Judges for the IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards in 1988 and 1990, sometime Chairman of the APG and of the AQR and Fellow of the IPA and of the MRS.
He has been an independent consultant since 2006 working in the field of strategy, brands and organizational change. His latest book, The Anatomy of Humbug, deals with one of the hardest questions in our industry: “How does advertising work?”
Pete Heskett Global Planning Director J. Walter Thompson
Pete has spent the last 20 years travelling the world on behalf of global advertising agencies (JWT, BBH, TBWA, Lowe) and their clients (Unilever, Diageo, Apple). In that time he's become a fan of pao de quiejo in Brazil, Raan in Mumbai, and Xiaolong Bao in Shanghai. Whilst digesting he's learnt that as human beings what unites us is far stronger than what divides us. However, he's also realised that the more you get in touch with how different the world can be the greater the opportunities for creativity there are.
Most importantly he's learnt that Brazilians describe advertising as 'propaganda' - he likes that kind of honesty but believes that if advertising can try to be more than just commercial propaganda we can maybe prove that Bill Hicks wasn't right about the 'final solution' needed for those in the advertising and marketing industry.