APG Netherlands. Does Holland need a Strategy Foundation?

Juli 31st, 2011 • People

I live in Amsterdam for a bit more than a year now. There is an old joke about Germans (no, not the one with the towels or with invading other countries) that whenever you put a German somewhere he will try to found some type of club. And I am no exception to this rule.

After arriving in Amsterdam I tried to get in contact with (professionally) likeminded people. And I was surprised to find out that it wasn’t quite easy to meet other Strategists.  I knew some of the local Strategists via twitter but all connections between them were 100% personal – either you knew a couple of your colleagues from other agencies or you didn’t. No real professional network structured collaboration of the Dutch and the Expat Strategists in and beyond Amsterdam.

Thanks to the support of (the perfectly well connected) Heather Le Fevre I was able to invite the major share of Amsterdam’s Brand/Account/Creative/Younameit Planners to a bimonthly ‘Stammtisch‘ event which we organize via a Facebook Group (feel free to apply for access if you consider yourself a Amsterdam Strategist). Our little group has grown to more than 60 Planners in and around Amsterdam and we meet on a regular basis.

But honestly – shouldn’t interaction between Strategists in the Netherlands be more than an informal Beer every once in a while? I think it should.  And I would like to discuss whether this should be something they call Account Planning Group (APG) in the UK and in Germany. Yes, I am talking about a formal institution.

So what is an APG and why is it purposeful? APG UK defines the mission in the following way

• Encourage dialogue among the members and provide a ‘home’ for planners, representing the interests of the planning community.
• Provide training especially for younger members of the community
• Give access to Case Studies
• Enable new publications on the subject of planning, contributing to other publications, and organising various events and debates.

APG is a not-for-profit organisation run for and by its members. That means it needs some kind of membership fees. And it also usually requires a small team to run day-to-day operations on behalf of the larger community. If you want to learn more about the role of the Account Planning Group check out the UK’s APG website.

Question 1: Do the Netherlands need an Account Planning Group?

An Account Planning Group can play an important role to attract and train future planning talents.

Planning still is a highly diverse profession. It is not very well defined while simultaneously more and more ‘new’ types of Planners appear (which is good). But this lack of ‘standardization’ makes it hard for young Planners to find their ideal role. And I did not even mention the young people who would like to become Planners but who don’t know how. Agencies are simply too busy to train their young Strategists effectively while there is an increasing demand for more Strategists. See the problem?

But it’s not just about training Junior Planners. APG’s enable exchange and cross-agency collaboration. And to a certain degree they leverage standardization or add a certain degree of common understanding to an issue. In August 2009 a couple of Digital Planners and I started the first Digital Planning Workshop for APG Germany. Our objective: to make digital marketing tangible for traditional Strategists. A very good experience and something that still exists as a recurring event in Germany.

So however you want to put it: An Account Planning Group generally is a very helpful institution. Or in other words: I think there should be an Account Planning Group in Holland.

Question 2: But do we want to create one?

So the theory sounds great. But as usual realizing such a concept is a whole differerent story. Germany’s APG is based on the UK concept of an Account Planning Group and it is also mandated from the European APG HQ in London. I know there were two attempts to founding an APG in the Netherlands. But none of them found enough supporters and/or the ones who actually had the idea left the country.

So after informally contacting APG UK for a bit of advice they offered support for the possible foundation of the Account Planning Group Netherlands. And I would like to understand whether there is general support for such an idea in the Netherlands. It is a lot of work to set up something like an APG Netherlands. And it requires a clearly articulated agreement by the agency Strategists in this country to move forward with this idea. But I would like to start the discussion with this post.

Please share this post with Strategists from all over the Netherlands. Our little group in Amsterdam is about 60 person strong right at the moment. But we are interested to leverage exchange with other Planners in and beyond Holland. Founding an APG may be a good way forward or maybe we leave it as it is. I just want to understand whether we can create a foundation for Strategists in the Netherlands that is more than just having a Beer together.

What do you think?

Tags: Amsterdam, APG, apgdigital, Netherlands, Strategy

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