It's a record

There are 151 entries to the APG Creative Strategy Awards 2025. 

The biggest number ever submitted to our awards.

And it’s more than just a big number.

It’s a giant stamp of approval for creative strategy as a discipline:

By the authors who toiled so hard to write and refine their papers. 

By the agencies who support the awards because they are proud of their strategic thinking and want to showcase how it’s done.

And by their excellent clients who (sometimes reluctantly) are up for sharing their success stories. We are very grateful.  

So what happens next? Every flavour of strategy demands a diversity of evaluation. 

All the papers will be judged by a gang of brilliant strategists, hand-picked to represent a range of thinking, experience and expertise. Under the inspired leadership of Kit Altin: Luke Alexander-Grose, Rebecca Burchnall, Daniel Deeks-Osburn, Ayo Fagbemi, Amy Gilmore, Max Keane, Emily Lewis-Keane, Rebecca Munds, Lola Neves, Omar El-Gammal, Lisa Stoney, Matthew Waksman, Sam Williams and Ben Worden are in for many weeks of mind bendingly interesting reading and too many late nights. 

There are two rounds of shortlisting. Every paper in Round 1 is read and marked by at least 4 different people. At Round 2 every judge will read all the papers in contention. That’s as many as 70 or 80 papers per judge. 

I sometimes wonder why the short listers sign up for it. Except I know really, because every time they tell me it was among the best experiences they’ve had as a planner. 

That it was exhausting but inspiring. 

That they felt privileged to get a bird’s eye view of the strategy landscape, to read so many brilliant examples of planners being ingenious and clever in the pursuit of problem solving. 

And that having to mark so carefully and then discuss those papers with their peers was right up there as an inspirational experience. 

I’ve cast my eye down the entry spreadsheet, and the variety of brands and agencies entering suggests every flavour of strategy really will be in evidence. And that’s critical because the awards must reflect the myriad ways in which creative strategy is applied in an ever changing cultural, business and media landscape. 

Submitting a paper is an optimistic and positive act. It’s a vote of faith in the future of the discipline and it’s the ultimate act of sharing in a community that thrives on learning.  

We need the best examples of creative strategy as it is being practised now, in the real world, for inspiration and new ways to tackle new and old problems.

So the future of the discipline is in the hands of those shortlisters who will give your paper their all, treasure it and give it every chance to succeed.

A big thank you to them, and most of all a big thank you to all of you who bust a gut to get your paper in. 

Sarah Newman

APG Director