Popular courses

Popular Courses that we continue to offer

One or two day programmes for a minimum of 15 delegates

Course 1 Understanding client business

Course 2 Effective digital communication

Course 3 Account handling skills and running international business

Course 4 Creative idea generation and judgement

Course 5 New business skills

Course 6 CEO and senior management development – leadership skills

Course 7 Communications effectiveness

Course 8 Media Planning Skills

Course 9 Embracing and leading change

Course 10 Strategic brand planning skills

Course 11 Adapting to the world of social media

Course 12 Maximising your personal impact and communication

Course 13 Leading teams for high performance

Course 14 Negotiation Skills

Course 15 Winning with Procurement

Our training courses cover many of the core skills and disciplines required by practitioners in the communications industry and are run by experienced practitioners and proven trainers committed to inspiring every participant.

We believe that people learn by doing as much as by listening, so our courses are run as interactive sessions encouraging all participants to throw themselves into the subject matter with energy and passion.

Although designed as two day courses to allow time for the content to be fully explored and give the participants time to work on their skills in the break-out and feedback sessions, some of the courses can be run in a single day if necessary. We are happy to run these courses either for individuals from different agencies or for teams from a single agency or network, or to tailor the specific aspects of the courses to suit individual agency needs.

COURSE 1

UNDERSTANDING CLIENT BUSINESS

Understanding clients’ business is the third most important factor when appointing an agency and the most often quoted reason for leaving them. Yet account handlers spend so much time managing projects that they lose sight of why they’re managing them.

This course helps agency employees get a real and tangible understanding of their clients’ business. It will give them the confidence and inclination to want to find out more about their clients’ business and through this create new revenue building opportunities and happier clients.

It is aimed at account handlers with at least two years experience. They will have a good grasp of working with clients but are ready to look for opportunities that exist when they really get under the skin of their business. In this course, we use a mix of case studies, workshop sessions, anecdotes and discussion. We emphasise the importance of seeing the bigger picture but also getting immersed in the data when it matters.

We aim to give our delegates the tools, motivation and confidence to dig deeper and ask the right questions. Having a deeper grasp of our clients’ business will help them win new assignments and create even more effective ideas.

COURSE 2

EFFECTIVE DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

This course covers the key aspects of digital communication. It is designed to ensure that all agency

employees understand the fundamentals of digital communication and think more strategically and holistically about how to advise their clients in the digital arena.

The course will help to break down any misconceptions about digital communication being a separate discipline and look at the importance of approaching all client communication briefs from a 360 degree perspective from the outset. The course is run for account handlers and planners with at least five years experience even if they have not had specific digital responsibilities to-date.

COURSE 3

ACCOUNT HANDLING SKILLS AND RUNNING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

This course covers the key skills needed to develop great account handling capabilities and helps attendees develop the skills they need to become modern, professional account handlers.

The course covers key areas from winning the trust of clients, managing their creative and timing expectations, to managing cost control and effective client communication.

The course looks at the requirements of running international business in local markets and ensures delegates understand both the wider context of such business but also the expectations placed on local agencies working within a network context. Aimed at account managers and account directors with at least three years experience, this course will help agency employees develop and improve their account handling skills, enabling them to become more confident in handling difficult client situations as well as to begin to understand more about the key areas of client communication, procurement and negotiation – a must for all account handlers in today’s business environment.

COURSE 4

CREATIVE IDEA GENERATION AND JUDGEMENT

This course is run for creatives with five or more years’ experience. It looks at techniques for thinking laterally and creatively around a client brief. It challenges creatives to go beyond the obvious and to find ideas that resonate with consumers and ultimately produce more effective and valuable communication.

The course will help creatives develop their understanding of the core strategic requirements of a brief and develop better idea generating techniques, as well as learning and practicing important selling skills. The course will involve analysing some of the best and most inspiring ideas as well as giving delegates the chance to work on briefs, share their ideas and learn from the feedback and comments of their peers and trainer.

It will explore different ways of working – solo, in pairs, in teams and accessing on-line communities. It will stress the importance of being open to new influences, but also tackle the issue of when to die on a sword for an idea!

COURSE 5

NEW BUSINESS SKILLS

This course is designed to enable all agency employees to understand and involve themselves in the business of new business. The course covers both the skills needed for prospecting for new business opportunities and those needed to run and win pitches. The course will help delegates understand the need to develop a clear and differentiated positioning for their agency and give them the skills needed to make the most of every pitch opportunity.

This course is designed for agency employees from all disciplines with at least five years experience and is not designed solely for new business directors; in tough economic times, winning new business is the life line for every agency, and everyone in the agency must share responsibility for attracting and winning new clients.

Delegates will also learn the truth about what clients love and hate about pitching agencies, why they really change agencies and key tips on how to manage resources in the most efficient way whilst working as a team.

COURSE 6

CEO AND SENIOR MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS

This course helps both current and next generation CEOs to look at the fundamentals of leadership, the importance of developing a clear and compelling vision for their agency and communicating this concisely and powerfully. It looks at issues of coaching, personal impact and the ability to develop strong team work across an agency environment.

The course will help delegates understand the interpersonal skills needed to inspire confidence in their peers and help bring the best out of the people they work with. Delegates will benefit from a hands-on opportunity to learn and practice new leadership and communication skills, and to learn from sharing this experience with others.

COURSE 7

COMMUNICATIONS EFFECTIVENESS

This course will give delegates a real understanding the commercial value of creativity and how to demonstrate success on your brand. It is a thorough introduction to communications effectiveness.

It is aimed at account handlers and planners, as well as marketing professionals with at least two years experience in advertising or marketing. In this course we use a mix of teaching sessions and hands-on group workshops to help you understand how to assess the commercial value of your creative output, how to create a framework for effectiveness on your brand. We will give tips on what to consider and how to structure your effectiveness award submissions for the IPA Effectiveness and Euro Effie awards.

The course will address the following topics:

•What is effectiveness?

•Why effectiveness is important

•Interrogating the business issue

•Setting business objectives

•How to build a communications model

•Choosing the right KPIs

•How communications works

•Creating a framework for effectiveness

•Understanding the basics of econometrics for non-econometricians

•An introduction to Payback and ROMI

•Top tips on crafting effectiveness award submissions for the IPA and Euro Effies

This course will help you gain a better understanding of what effectiveness means, what we as an industry should be aiming towards and what effectiveness can contribute to the client/agency relationship. By the end, you will have understood how to initiate an effectiveness strategy on your business to demonstrate the commercial value of your work. This will be followed by tips on how to craft effectiveness award submissions for the Effectiveness Awards and the Euro Effies.

The trainers will also hold individual mini-sessions with each participant to help them build the communications model on their chosen brand and give advice on the right KPIs.

COURSE 8

MEDIA PLANNING SKILLS

This two day course, for media planners with 3-5 years experience, will explore the steps you need to consider to invest most effectively your clients’ budgets, from evaluating the business case for targeting to measuring the outcome of the plan, how clear understanding of brands, markets and media are essential to create the optimum plan and why creativity is not the preserve of the creatives.

Media planning has evolved – integrated communications planning is what clients now demand from their media agencies. More choices are available than ever before to engage with increasingly fragmented audiences – audiences now empowered through technology to become vocal brand ambassadors or brand critics.

Through a combination of discussion, group work and case studies, you will leave the course with a better understanding of the processes and approaches you might employ to develop maximum return on investment for your clients.

COURSE 9

EMBRACING AND LEADING CHANGE

This course will equip leaders within the marketing and media environments to react nimbly and decisively to identify, seize and maximise the opportunities that change brings. It covers the key skills and behaviours a leader needs in order to survive and thrive in our constantly changing business environment.

Delegates will cover:

•Creating a vision/roadmap for change and communicating this

•Success factors and de-railers

•How they stack up as leaders of transformational change

•Managing stakeholders during times of change

•The conditions and mindsets required for changing organisational culture

The course is aimed at senior managers or anyone in the marketing and media space who want to sharpen their change skills. This course is a prerequisite for managers who want to remain at the cutting edge of the mastery of change. Delegates will benefit from a highly interactive and participative environment in which to practice new skills and receive feedback. The learning will be placed firmly in the context of their current challenges in leading change.

COURSE 10

STRATEGIC BRAND PLANNING SKILLS

A brilliant creative execution will only be effective if it is based on a sound strategy. This course will help you to hone your skills as a strategic brand planner, so that you can write creative briefs to inspire outstanding advertising that will bring commercial success. A good brand planner

needs to blend different types of skills. You need to be both analytical and empathetic. You must be a team player and be able to think for yourself. You communicate with clients, consumers and the different agency departments.

During the two days you will have the chance to work on a case study, from client briefing through to judging creative ideas against your creative brief. You will leave this course with a deeper understanding of different research methods, developing consumer insights, evolving the communications strategy and how to write creative briefs to truly differentiate the brand from its competitors.

COURSE 11

ADAPTING TO THE WORLD OF SOCIAL MEDIA

The emerging world of social media is one that is very different from the media landscape we are familiar with. Within this new world influence is based around what people say to each other, not what you say to them. And these conversations mostly happen in places and spaces that people create for themselves, not within websites or digital platforms that organisations build for them.

Adapting to this world therefore requires a different approach. This course will explain how to enter the social media space effectively – avoiding mistakes and focusing on where value can be created. Specifically it will look at monitoring and social search, responding to conversations, creating social content and engaging with or creating digital communities. It will also give practical experience in using some of the key social media tools as well as looking ahead at the new tools that are emerging.

COURSE 12

MAXIMISING YOUR PERSONAL IMPACT AND COMMUNICATION

Trainers love to say “research tells us…” – always a good ploy to support a point and here’s one that cannot be disputed: we create an impression within approximately seven seconds of meeting someone for the first time. What are you going to do with those seven seconds? This course is concerned with this and other powerful questions:

•Do you feel fresh and switched-on when engaging with the people you meet?

•Do you believe in the power of your own influence?

•Can you liberate a presentation from the dreary captivity of PowerPoint!

•Are you making the most of language, verbal and non-verbal?

There’s great pleasure to be had in the powerful business relationships we build when we learn to develop our innate ability to connect and inspire. Another little aphorism trainers love to use: people fall into one of two camps, Radiators or Drains.

Be a Radiator!

COURSE 13

LEADING TEAMS FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE

This course is designed for all those who lead a team or who will shortly be promoted to such a role. The course will consider how to give clear vision and direction to a team as well as clarifying the characteristics of high performing teams. Participants will have the opportunity to determine how their team stacks up currently against these characteristics and will be encouraged to come up with actions to improve their team’s performance.

Delegates will also reflect on their own leadership style and how to flex this in order to motivate and get the best from the individuals in their teams. The course will help individuals deal with team dynamics and interactions and will enable individuals to determine ways to keep their teams refreshed and renewed. Delegates will benefit from a highly interactive and participative environment in which to practice new skills and receive feedback. The learning will be placed firmly in the context of their current challenges in leading their teams.

COURSE 14

NEGOTIATION SKILLS

“As I hurtled through Space, one thought kept occupying my mind….every part of this Space Shuttle had been supplied by the lowest-cost bidder”: John Glenn

If this is your mindset after dealing with client procurement teams, then you need to know how to negotiate.  Too often the cry is that “we hate procurement”, “they don’t understand us” when in fact many agencies are ill equipped and not prepared to be able to understand the mindset of procurement and how they work.  One of the complaints from client procurement teams is that agencies are poor negotiators and actually say yes too easily (which creates suspicion).  Here is the course to help you learn and understand about negotiating with procurement.

The course will be mix of theory and practical.  It will look at the problems that you are dealing with, talk through the methods that you can adopt and help you develop techniques and strategies in order to get you to your BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement). You are negotiating every day at the moment but don’t realize it.  This course will walk you through the process and make you more confident next time you are sitting across the table about to negotiate a contract and fees.  The practical exercises will be fun but will illustrate the point that both negotiating sides have different agendas and it is about learning how to reach a win: win for both parties at the end of the process.

COURSE 15

WINNING WITH PROCUREMENT

Procurement is increasingly involved with marketing – on pitches, fee negotiations, rosters, contracts and general costs. This course helps agency employees to understand why Procurement people behave as they do; their corporate responsibilities through to commercial motivations and gives some practical advice to help agency manager win with procurement.

It is aimed at anyone who has to deal with Procurement employed by their clients at any stage of the marketing cycle and covers all facets of their involvement with agencies:

Rosters
Agency selection
Pitch process
Fee negotiations
Rate cards
Agency performance reviews
Evaluation and PRBs
Best and worst practice – by clients & agencies
Golden Rules and Hints & Tips

This course helps agency personnel gain a real understanding as to what makes Procurement people ‘tick’, and how best to work with them – particularly for new business purposes, and how to ensure you are paid fairly for your fine work.

Agency margins are under increasing pressure from client procurement departments, the need to understand the procurement process and be better equipped to help win in procurement has never been greater.