APG Awards UM’s Sam Geer The Title Of 2015 Planning Idol

Sam Geer from UM has been awarded winner of the 2015 APG Planning Idol competition, announced last night at a ceremony at Sydney’s Bar 100.

Challenged to encourage parents to see Reachout.com as a place to seek advice and information around mental health issues among young people, the winning entrant was selected for exemplifying a thoroughly thought-through strategy, which was clearly and compellingly articulated and presented.

The ceremony took place following a day of final judging whereby a shortlist of 15 finalists from more than 50 applications presented their strategies to a panel of APG Committee members, Reachout.com representatives and Chairman of Judges and APG Chair, Angela Morris.

Reachout.com’s director of marketing and communications, Ashley de Silva, said, “ReachOut knows the power of young people because we involve them in everything we do – from how we deliver our service to the products we build and the way we engage online.

“Being involved with Planning Idol was a great opportunity for us to hear from an extremely talented group of young planners early in their careers. The winning entry was built around strong insight that could help break down barriers to communication between parents and young people so that conversations about tough times are easier to have at home.”

A highly commended award was also presented to Sarah Hood from BMF who came a close second following rigorous debate within the judging panel. Sarah also received the prize for best research.

The award for Best Written Paper was delivered to Craig McLeod (GPYR), with Eloise Liley (Blue Hive) taking awards for both Best Insight and Best KPI-Setting.

This year’s student prize was awarded to Olivia Robins, from University of Otago; advertising specialisation, The Brandbach.

Angela Morris, chair of judging and the APG, said, “APG Planning Idol has become an important biannual event for nurturing young planning talent in Australia – it is rare that young strategists get the opportunity to take such leadership over a big, live brief and expose those ideas to a range of industry leaders.

“There were some fantastic insights and unexpected approaches to solving what was a challenging brief. All of our finalists should be proud. Congratulations to Sam and our other award winners for their outstanding work.”

See this year’s brief here. Sam’s winning strategy will be available online in the coming weeks.

APG Planning Idol is supported by Pollinate, leaders in innovative research and influence strategy. APG Idol is part of The Communications Council program to foster talent within the marketing communications industry through ongoing professional development initiatives.

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