Friday, October 12, 2007
Thin Planning
I was judging some awards yesterday and it really struck me how many entries seemed to be pictures of a problem that someone (probably a client) had identified. Taken in the round, there seem to be relatively few agencies trying to get under the skin of the problem, of the consumer and make a creative leap. Instead they're relying on a bit of data planning or segmentation to mechanise their way to a solution. Of course, this means planning has to be too thinly spread across the industry. Most agencies have a planner, but it has to be a token gesture, on this evidence. I beleive Nike once specified thier agencies sent a planner and a designer to briefings - the 'creative team'. Perhaps the industry needs to realise that it needs planners at breadth and depth if it's going to make work more interesting (and award winning), and thereby make the industry look better, and prevent the brain drain to other sectors like banking.
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2 comments:
Hi Robin - Having worked with 'planners' in digital, direct marketing and more traditional ad agencies, it strikes me that they all have a different definition of planning depending on the discipline focus of their own organisation. Ad agency planners tend to be strategic and focus on desk and qual. research to generate insight. Direct marketing planners generally focus on customer databases and segmentation as their source of insight and digital planners tend to be driven by a 'technological possibility' focus. For example, in my experience, ad agency planners don't generally do data and databases - but critical insight is as likely to come from these areas as it is from a focus group - especially with the wealth of behavioural data now available. I suppose, to coin a phrase, we need a mashup in planning. To me, the uberplanner would be someone who can work across all three areas. But unless all planners' brains are in a state of constant expansion (and some do seem to be), depth will inevitably have to give way to a degree of "thinness".
Hi robin, how you doing?
I tagged you on the Media Snackers meme. See if you're interested here: http://www.lucavergano.com/the_blurber/2007/11/media-snackers.html and keep the discussion going!
Cheers
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