This week saw one of our regular huddles, a show&tell from Nabila and Selicia, with some great conversation in the call.
One of the themes which came up was about how valuable it can be working with someone not just as a powerpoint-factory, but as a trusted advisor, someone who listens, connects, even perhaps stops you from continuing with a project.
The role of problem definer, impartial advisor, and critical counsel is one that's often overlooked, and the idea that strategy is this thing at the start of a project, the first 10% before other things happen, needs to be let go. Even the word "planning" implies there's a start, middle and end of something.
Strategy isn’t just an output, it’s also a red thread. Modern work is more fluid, faster, incremental, and strategic counsel can be dynamic throughout the work, not just at the starters pistol.
If you’d like to present some of your thinking, work, a provocation, side hustle or observation in an upcoming show&tell, drop me a note.
This week sees the launch of a new community and network for comms strategists and media planners - the MPG.
Born out of last year’s “Advertising Who Cares” summit, a working group of industry leaders have been working hard behind the scenes to create a new body, specifically for media planners and strategists, sitting alongside the well established APG.
The MPG will run an extensive programme of activity covering training courses, debates and how to guides designed to unpack the fundamentals of media planning, encourage independent, critical thinking, and provide a view on the world of comms and media that is universal, rooted in decades of experience and insight.
Outside Perspective spoke to Sally Weavers, co-founder of Craft Media, who has been one of the industry leaders spearheading the initiative.
We are hoping that the MPG will fill multiple gaps in our industry.
Being part of a gang (or an industry faculty if you want a more formal term!) will be both professionally and socially important. Strategists tend to keep themselves to themselves - and this has been even more marked since covid - and there is both joy and growth through meeting and discussing the industry with peers from other agencies. It’s cheap therapy…and it will also help you to consolidate your own thoughts and position on developments within the industry away from the hot-takes of linkedin contributors and the showboating on industry stages.
It will provide baseline training for a generation of planners who are adept of using planning tools but need to be able to think critically about the output. We are at our best when we question and debate solutions so we need to nurture that muscle of critical thinking. Our planning fundamentals course is a shared view of what good looks like and will give planners the confidence to challenge assumptions.
It will bring the two strategic sides of the industry (creative and media) back in the room together to talk and share points of view.
Membership of the MPG includes access to a Core Skills Comms Planning course, which has been pulled together by some of the best in the industry. In light of AI and the broader conversation about a lack of investment and training of core skills for strategists and planners, why is this so important?
AI has really grabbed the headlines over the last year and unsurprisingly agency groups have invested heavily behind it. It’s a game changer for our industry allowing us to analyse at speed complex data sets and saving ourselves weeks of work.
We’ve always been brilliant at embracing the new and AI is no different. But understanding the inputs of systems like this is critically important so that you can question the output. And I think that’s where we are falling down with our younger planners who simply don’t have the craft skills to understand what is going on beneath the bonnet.
That’s where the collegiate group of industry experts at the MPG can help with some quick advice and tips, alongside some deeper dive training and debates.
I think it will be a great refresher of what good looks like and if you are a consultant who’s been working independently for a few years it might demonstrate some new ways of thinking or techniques or case studies that can help fuel your own work.
There’s lots of talk about the changing shape of strategists and our work, T-shaped to M-shaped for example, debates around depth of specialism vs more broadly generalist capabilities, and the move from strategy in agencies to getting closer to clients. Where does MPG sit in this shifting landscape of strategic people?
This is quite difficult to answer on behalf of all the different shapes of strategists in the industry.
We are all aware that the headcount within strategy teams in agencies is on the slide. My personal view is that good comms strategy is a gamechanger for clients and for the last 20 years
it has been given away for free by agencies (both creative and media) in order to win the creative development or the buying, and as a non profit making discipline it’s then been watered down to a framework done quickly rather than thoroughly.
So I think we need to get back to a place where clients are happy to pay for good strategy and then agencies will be prepared to invest in talent to develop good strategy. And that strategic offer will vary according to what’s important for each agency.
Membership to MPG is now open, and you receive the same benefits as APG membership, plus specific launch benefits for new MPG members who join between 1st April-31st May 2026.
» Read more about the MPG and apply for membership here: https://www.apg.org.uk/mpg
» The inaugural “Fundamentals of Media Planning” session is happening on May 19th, and MPG members get 50% off. Register for the event here: https://www.apg.org.uk/mpg-training
» After a week of being chronically offline, I’m all for a return to frictional/non-interactive media. Sweden agrees.
» on smell.
» has just published a Q1 Macrotrend update
» Mike Litman on what the new strategist does/is/has
» on staying visible without being annoying (i’m just annoying without being visible)
» Dollar Shave Club’s is AB testing AI ads vs traditional ads - thanks Rowan
» MPs are using Chat “gee pee tee” - thanks Joel.
» How long does it take to turn around a brand - insight from
» Next week is Coworking for strategists and insight folk: April 13th in London
» What’s in a name? ask nametag.live
If you’re looking to sort out your Making Tax Digital compliance, which affects many UK freelancers in 2026, Taxfix have offered OP members one month free on their MTD software. More details here.
» Baiba Matisone and Christopher Owens have compiled a scrapbook to address marketing’s language problem, something we discuss a great deal in the community. Grab their free ebook here.
» Selicia Richards-Turney and Krista Casey are hosting a free event on how Women Can Negotiate Without the Backlash on April 20. Register here.
A digest of recent gigs found and shared via our community - plus things from our friends and partners. Want to reach 5k+ strategists for your next project? Drop me a note.
[UK] Freelance Snr Influencer Strategist via Profiles
https://bit.ly/4233ZBa
[US] Freelance CRM Strategist at VML
https://bit.ly/4mlA68P
[US] Freelance Creative Strategist at BM Digital
https://bit.ly/4234fQE
[UK] Freelance Senior Brand Strategist via craft
https://bit.ly/4vjQieC
[DE] Freelance Social Strategist (fluent in german) at VaynerMedia
https://bit.ly/47Qh1pe
[US] Freelance Social Media Strategist at HEADLINE
https://bit.ly/4cu3OF9
[US:NY] freelance to perm Senior Content Strategist at Havas CX
https://bit.ly/3Oe1NUa
[UK] FREELANCE Brand & Cultural Strategist with a deep, lived understanding of consumer culture in Japan via Profiles Creative
https://bit.ly/3O3D7xS
[Remote] Freelance Brand Strategy B2B with energy sector and Arabic language exp at HAALA
https://bit.ly/4sJRpCE
[DE] Freelance Creative Strategist (growth marketing/meta/google) at GetYourGuide
https://bit.ly/47t2Ar4
Don’t forget, we share these in real time here:
» Web
» Telegram
» Whatsapp
+ and of course, our slack channel if you’re a community member.
That’s all for this week.
mk✌️
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