Account, Strategic Planners

Account planners, strategic planners, planners "The account planner is that member of the agency's team who is the expert, through background, training, experience, and attitudes, at working with information and getting it used - not just marketing research but all the information available to help solve a client's advertising problems." - Stanley Pollitt "Planners are involved and integrated in the creation of marketing strategy and ads. Their responsibility is to bring the consumer to the forefront of the process and to inspire the team to work with the consumer in mind. The planner has a point of view about the consumer and is not shy about expressing it." - Fortini-Campbell The ultimate goal of the planner is to work with consumers as partners in the process of developing advertising. This relationship with the consumer allows planners to involve their input at every stage of the process and to inform and inspire creative ideas that guide and validate the resulting campaign in the consumers interests. Planners are the “consumer’s representative” of the account team. According to Jon Steel advertising can exist without account planning, but planners add an element of creativity to the advertising mix. They are typically people who are interested in meeting people and talking to the consumers. Planners want to find out what makes people tick and use that market information and research data to guide the campaign process. It is the planner’s job to take all this information and funnel it down into a short idea that helps inspire and directionalize the creative department. Planners have the ability to bridge together their understanding of the consumer and the awareness of how this knowledge will be used within their own business. It is the account planners' job to understand and draw insightful conclusions not only from the consumer, but also the brand. Because communication channels have presently multiplied, it is even harder, and more crucial, for communication to break through this clutter and reach the target audience. The planner must provide "the edge" that will ensure that a client's message will do just this. (APG Group, 2001) According to Fortini-Campbell, there are five main roles that an account planner must fulfill; First, they must discover and define the advertising task. They have the job of organizing information about the consumer and the marketplace from every possible source, including the client and agency data and secondary research. Second, they prepare the creative brief. The creative brief is the tool that the creative department uses to conceptualize ads. Another main purpose of the brief is to define the proper positioning of a brand. Third, they are involved in creative development. During creative conceptualization, it is the account planner's duty to represent the consumer. They may also interact with the creative department through the sharing of initial consumer responses to ad ideas or advertising approaches. Fourth, they must present the advertising to the client. The planner informs the client of "how and why a consumer will react to [specific] advertising." Finally, they track the advertising's performance. Through their follow-up research, account planners track reactions to the ads in the actual marketplace and provide Creatives with additional information. There are numerous characteristics that make for a good account planner. Fortini-Campbell state that a person must possess intelligence, experience, strong observational skills, and judgment. The account planning group adds that account planners must have the skills to "conceptualize and think strategically. They must also be able to argue their viewpoint coherently. Being a team player and having a strong personality are also positive attributes. Ideally, an account planner candidate will have some experience in market research, brands, advertising and communications, and people management. (APG Group, 2001). The account planner is the bridge between the business side to the creative side of a marketing campaign. On the business side, the planner works with the account manager to understand what the client is looking for and then relate that to what the consumer wants. On the creative side, the planner helps to create an expressive snapshot or a single-minded directional creative brief to lead the way to the drawing board. A good account planner is inspiring by nature, passionate for advertising and has respect for creativity. They are intuitive and curious about consumers and relationships. Planners must be educated in marketing and research techniques. Secretly planners must be little detectives looking for truth and understanding. They must also be numerate, imaginative, and creditable when it comes to translating and presenting research.

Learn the Planning Process

Planning process It is safe to say that the way planning works varies from agency to agency, and even within an agency, from planner to planner. A typical planning cycle starts with a study of the brief from the client and secondary research, meaning any research that is currently available. Then the planner must delve into the consumer and retrieve primary research that is applicable to the client brief. The planner must brief the creative on the upcoming campaign. Understanding the brand attitudes and its individual elements is important to the diagnostic research. At this point all the information must be funneled into a creative brief and presented to the creative team. It is important that the account planner rationalize the advertising and its message to the client. Once chosen or approved by the client the planner can take steps to pre-test the ads to ensure that the research, branding, message recall and ideas of the consumer are appropriately applied and at satisfactory levels. The account planner’s job never ends. Once the advertising is public the planner must constantly evaluate the campaign for effectiveness, so that changes can be made if necessary. In today's advertising field, "almost every advertising agency (and their clients) benefits from a disciplined system for devising communications/advertising/commercial strategy and enhancing its ability to produce outstanding creative solutions that will be effective in the marketplace." It is the account planner's task to act as the "consumer's conscience" and guide this process through the use of their knowledge of the consumer. Stanley Pollitt believed that the following three attributes are essential in producing effective account planning (Steel, 1998):

• 1) It means total agency management commitment to getting the advertising content right at all costs. This means creating effective advertising instead of focusing on maximizing profits or keeping the clients happy. Pollitt believed that you could only make "professional judgments about advertising content with some early indication of consumer response." He did not mean that this rule would "represent a choice between effectiveness and profits, stable client relationships, or outstanding creative work." It would represent the choice how to prioritize the three.
• 2) The agency commits the resources to allow planners to be more than temporary role players. Account planners must be given the leeway to work with the data and research that they see fit, and must not be pressured into working more, than say, an account director. If planners are stretched over too many accounts, their knowledge of the account and the consumer will suffer. The account planner and account director must form a relationship common to that of an art director and copywriter. The two roles "have a common aim," but bring forth different skills.
• 3) It means changing some of the basic ground rules. Once consumer response becomes the most important element in making final advertising judgments, it makes many of the more conventional means of judgment sound hollow. "Conventional means" representing the affection a Creative has over an idea or the prejudice of a client that challenges research evidence. Fortini-Campbell state that, because the role of account planning varies from agency to agency, it must be "constantly worked at to be done correctly."

Account Planning

List of the planning strategy.Taken from an article by George Creel which appeared in Advertising Age on September 16, 1991.

• 1) Account planning is the solution to the advertising industry's malaise. (While account planning can strengthen an agency's creative product, no one discipline can solve all of the problems of an agency.)
• 2) Account planning leads to breakthrough creative. (Account planning does provide the background and consumer research to develop creative work, but breakthrough creative is a result of a superior creative staff.)
• 3) Account Planning is the key to winning the new-business pitch. (Pitching is a "team sport" that requires all of the departments of an agency to work together.)
• 4) There is a process for account planning. (There are numerous ways to execute proper account planning; Intuitive skills, a passion for advertising, and personal involvement are all essential and are a good place to start.)
• 5) Account planning is a continuous process. (Advertising is expensive!)
• 6) Account planning is new name for research, qualitative or otherwise. (Research is only one of the tools that account planners use to discover insightful information.)
• 7) Account planning and research departments can coexist. (Each department must have a clear definition of its role and must know who is in charge of whom.)
• 8) Clients like account planning. (They LOVE it - if it is free).
• 9) Account planning is the role of the account planner. (Good solutions can come from anywhere or anyone.)
• 10) Account planning is glamorous. (It is fun as well, if you have the passion to fight for your beliefs.)
• 11) Account planners sit in the room while the ads are made. (The account planner must articulate strategy to the creative team before the ad is created.)
• 12) Good account planners are hard to find. (Account planners can come from all backgrounds and disciplines.)
• 13) The best account planners are English. (No particular culture. race, religion, sex. or national origin is better at account planning than another.)