The dedicated programme, APA Planners comprises:
* ASK Planners - an extension of the free, new business consultancy currently offered by APA to prospective clients
* A dedicated website www.apaplanners.co.uk
* Planners Monthly Briefings – a programme of over 50 seminars
The service, designed to champion channel-neutral, editorialised content will be available to all media planners interested in partnering with a customer publisher. Ultimately it will give them easy access to the medium, helping them to capitalise on the strengths of the channel and find the right agency for their clients’ needs.
The initiative will be headed up by Patrick Fuller and Julia Hutchison (pictured), chairman and COO of the APA.
www.apaplanners.co.uk will serve to reinforce the value of customer publishing as a core element of the marketing mix and demonstrate how it can boost results. The site also showcases the medium in action, with detailed case studies and industry news and developments.
The announcement follows a research study commissioned by APA in 2008 into media planner attitudes to customer publishing, led by Douglas MacArthur OBE.
Julia Hutchison, COO, APA comments: “Over a year ago we identified media planners as key contributors to the future of the customer publishing industry and we are delighted to follow up our study with a dedicated service to engage this community. As customer publishing has achieved significant growth in recent years, engaging in the industry can be a daunting task for those with little experience of the breadth of the medium. As such, we are a building on the phenomenal success of our client offering, APA ASK, and extending this service to planners to share insight and knowledge to facilitate finding the perfect customer publishing partner for their needs.”
