h e l l o !

today we are going to talk about account planning, miami ad school, how to try to get a job afterwards, new york city, your story, my story, brand stories, people, process, advertising and anything else you want.

but first..

from classmates to lifelong friends.

what is account planning?

strategy in military terms: a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. tactic in military terms: employing available means to accomplish objective.

a look at the traditional ad agency departments.

so where does the planner fit in?

anthropologist voice of consumer

support for account

right hand to client

investigator

voice of clarity

researcher

inspiration to creative

investigator

brief writer

a day in the life.

before the brief

qualitative or quantitative research getting a client brief workshops with product insight team competitive analysis developing positioning statements testing already developed key messages

after the brief

Getting client and creative to buy-in Thinking of different ways in Brainstorming with creative team Making sure creative is on brief Tweaking the brief to match the work Sending inspiration to creative team Writing set-up story slides for the work Presenting work to client Making decisions based on performance

a look at the brief.

the brief it’s a source of clarity, inspiration and direction. every planner has their own style. every agency has their own template. some briefs are left open while others are written tightly. creatives sometimes want different ways in and thought starters. client and account typically approve the brief. a brief doesn’t have to be a piece of paper. some people ignore briefs. others edit them until the end.

“this tension between control and freedom is at the heart of creative briefing. getting it right isn’t easy. however, i believe that whilst you need to rigidly control and give clarity about the problem you are asking creativity to fix, being open-minded and giving people freedom in how they solve it is the smartest thing any briefer can do.”

- pete heskett, art of the brief

common sections on the brief background what is the objective? what is the problem (awareness, trial, sales)? what is the real problem (price, cultural irrelevance, unclear product benefit)? what category are we in? audience who are we talking to? what do we know about them demographically or psychologically? are they users or non-users of our brand (retain vs. recruit) what is our insight and strategy? after looking through the lens of culture, consumer, brand and category, what is our target insight? using our target insight, what is the plan we want to make for our communications? what will support our strategy? what are the brand and product truths that support our strategy? what do we want our outcome to be? after our target sees our ad, what do we want them to think, do or feel? mandatories and considerations what are we making? what should the creatives keep in mind when developing the work? timing when do we go to market? budget how much money to we have to play with?

tips on writing a brief write, re-write and write again. running a napkin with doodles on it to a colleague is allowed. the words should jump off of a page. the briefing moment does not have to be in a room. know it’s the first step in the creative process and not the last step in the strategy process. client and account typically approve the brief.

why tone is so important.

how to go about finding the real problem. ask many, many questions. you’ll have the chance to ask clients about their creative brief and to ask consumers about their hopes, dreams and fears. rephrase the problem. example: when an executive asked employees to brainstorm ways to increase productivity, he got blank stares. but when he rephrased his request as ways to make their job easier, he couldn’t keep up with the load of suggestions. challenge the assumptions that come in. remove bias, come up with different ways of looking at the category and provided problem. example, if you’re working on a restaurant brand, don’t assume they have a clear menu. fill your brain with goodness. this is a great time to fill your mind with as much information about the current category, competition, audience, historical advertising and product.

along with framing up the problem in an interesting way, getting to a core insight is arguably the most important thing.

the five whys to an insight.

why? the battery is dead. why? the alternator is not functioning. why? the alternator belt has broken. why? the alternator was well beyond its useful service life and not replaced. why? the vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule.

the key to uncovering insights was given to you in pre-school.

“just move me, dude.”

let’s look at an advertising idea. and then a less-than advertising idea.

congratulations. you just opened your own advertising agency and your first client is warby parker. they asked you to create their next advertising campaign. what do you ask them?

category culture

consumer company

c a t e g o r y

what category are we in? who else is in our category? what category could we be in? can we re-define the category? example: we’re not in the pretzel business but in the share of stomach category

c u l t u r e

what is happening in the world right now? can the product tie to a movement? is the brand going with a cultural trend or against it? is there a specific group of people that we can focus on? example: if it’s known that many new yorkers are waking up earlier than ever before, how can a brand or product fit into the 7am time slot?

c o n s u m e r

what is the current behavior of our consumer? how do we want to change their behavior? what words do we want our consumer to use when telling their friend about us? what are their conflicts, passions and goals? who are they influenced by?

c o m p a n y

what are the functional and emotional benefits? what is your client’s goal? what is their boss’s goal? what is the company’s goal for this advertising campaign? what is the company’s goal for the next five years?

your turn. four teams. one per section.

a good place to start.

it’s arguably the best job in the world

five learned lessons from being a planner.

the skills are transferable  

planners aren’t needed to make work but are there to make the work better  

inspiration fades. stay with it and get out there  

planners don’t need the answers but need to know how to get them later  

it’s time to say goodbye. and hello to the best three months of your darn life.