A new industry body, the Media Planning Group (MPG), has launched to improve the quality and creativity of media planning, as well as to support the development of the next generation of planners and strategists.
The MPG is a membership organisation dedicated to training, debate and thought leadership in media strategy. It will operate alongside the long-established Account Planning Group (APG), the non-profit organisation founded in 1979 to champion account planning within creative agencies.
The MPG will deliver a programme of training courses, industry debates and practical guidance, including ‘how-to’ resources covering the fundamentals of media planning.
A spokesperson for the MPG said: ‘With technology and AI taking centre stage, this is a focused attempt to put human thinking and human interaction back into a process that has become increasingly automated and bring media and creative back into the same room.’
The MPG launch event will take place on 23 April as one of the APG’s ‘Noisy Thinking’ sessions, with speakers including WPP Media’s David Wilding, Craft Media founder Sally Weavers and VCCP Media CEO James Shoreland debating different views on whether ’the black box is the future of media planning’.
Shoreland, who is a part of the MPG steering group, said: ’We’re coming out of a phase of the industry where we need to bring back critical thinking alongside data and tech to understand where human thought comes into the thinking process.
‘The mission is, through a series of events and educational modules for both client and agency folk alike, to bring them up to speed about how planning can be even better if we reframe the role of data and technology within that.’
The initiative was born out of the Advertising: Who Cares? Movement, which was founded by Nick Manning Brian Jacobs, after several media leaders, including Pippa Glucklich, former CEO of Electric Glue, attended its annual conference in October.
The launch comes amid growing concern about a young planner problem. Early-career planners are often described as under-trained, less engaged and more inclined towards channels popular within their own peer groups, particularly social media. To address this, MPG will host its first in-person training course on 19 May, aimed at planners with three to five years’ experience. The session will focus on developing strategic approaches to client briefs.
Annual membership is priced at £240 + VAT for UK-based planners and £195 + VAT for international members, with discounts available for group registrations. Members will receive APG-equivalent benefits, alongside additional launch incentives for those joining during the initial sign-up window.
