It was Sherlock Holmes that said a successful detective needs three attributes: observation, deduction and knowledgeable. That probably feels pretty familiar to any Planners in the room.

In any psychometric testing I’ve done, I’ve always been smack bang in the middle of creative and analytical. And for a long time I viewed that as a crude reminder that I was neither very good at being creative, nor at being analytical. It wasn’t until I found the planner role that I felt I’ve found a home for this balance of attributes.

What is an Account Planner?

I’ve been collecting bits and bobs of information on the planning role for some time now, with the view to writing this blog post. But it wasn’t until my tutor asked me to define the planning role that I’ve now knuckled down and got on with the task.

You see, I’m currently writing my Masters dissertation on the process between the client handing their brief off to the agency, and the creative brief being finalised handed off to the creative team.

So what is a planner?

Creative Pool, special recruiter in agencies and creative roles, defines the advertising planner as such:

Account planners set the communication strategy for advertising campaigns. They establish the goals and objectives, target audience, message and tone in which the campaign should be delivered.

Planners define how a particular strategy can help a client add value to their business, and inspire creative teams to create advertisements in order to achieve this. They use research, trends and data on markets, consumers and culture to help them to do this.

Ok, sounds great. But, then what is a Strategist? According to Planning gurus APG, a Strategist is just:

A more relevant adaption of ‘Account Planner’ for marketing in the digital age. Whilst a ‘plan’ suggests rigidity, a strategist is able to react, adapt and optimise in a dynamic market place.

Cool. Got it. So what’s a Comms Planner, and a Brand Strategist, and a Media Planner? Argh! Ok, so we can get this. Larissa Hayden, who used to be the Communications Planning Director at BBDO New York defines the roles in the following way:

Brand Planners focus on “who” we’re talking to and “what” we’re saying.

Comms Planners gives us “how” the idea shows up and also “when.”

Media Planners tell us “where” the idea shows up in media.

So what we’re talking about here could be referred to as a Planner or Account Planner, but more recently is known as a Brand Planner or event Brand Strategist.

Account Planner to Brand Strategist

We’ve moved on from Stephen King’s 1968 definition of an Account Planner as the voice of the consumer within the agency, to the role of the Strategic Planner is to provide strategic rigour to the implementation of the campaign.

What do these two definitions have in common? They’re both about keeping our feet on the ground. Making sure that we’re living in reality. That we haven’t totally drunk the KoolAid that the client and the creative team is serving up.

Where do they differ? A Brand Strategist takes a wider view of the situation. Whereas an Account Planner gets down and dirty with the consumer to understand the how and why and where of their interaction with the product to generate a unique and interesting insight, a Brand Strategist gets down and dirty with the whole landscape, the cultural context, consumer trends, the market environment, competitors, everything down to the weather, perhaps.

The planner community

One thing I love about Strategists (or Planners, but I’m going with the word Strategist to cover all manner of sins) is that what starts as a scribble can end up as “strategic rigour” of almost academic strength.

If you’re a regular visitor you may have noticed that I’m a huge fan of Mark Pollard. Mark is a fantastic thinker, and has done wonders for the Strategist/Planner industry. And he does some fantastic scribbles. One that’s particularly relevant here is his scribbles on the Account Planning process.

This is a totally subjective, flexible and often non-linear process. Which I think is why it’s so hard to define. To codify. How do you create a framework for a process where every different part of the process is different every time you go through it?

This phenomena is summed up perfectly in the infamous 1974 JWT Guide to Planning, which any research into this arena would be remiss to omit.

Colin Gray, however, has a good go at describing the process below. And it’s from slightly more recently than 1974 (2018).

Strategist on strategy

And so, to wrap up, I love collecting bits and bobs that Strategist write about the work they do. They’re a self aware bunch, who fight through loneliness, introversion, exclusion and corporate bullshit, to pour their soul onto a page. Here are some of my top hits.

The greatest trick
The agency ever pulled
Was making you believe
That what you do
Isn’t a product &
can’t make money on its own.
Secret is: strategy is a standalone product you can do & monetize on your own.
Whereas, making ads takes a village. And a production company. https://t.co/x8y0KStocG

— Faris (@faris) November 10, 2018

Is anything as desirable as simplicity?

— Chris Bartley (@cambartley) August 5, 2019

I’ve always worked in creative agencies, but the more i work the more i realise that:

– good media / comms planners are creative at their job
– good creative people know media

We’ve built false dichotomies to justify fees, but invariably it works best when those walls come down

— Rob Estreitinho (@robistyping) June 25, 2019

One reason strategy can struggle in agencies is that people are pain-averse.

Strategy is painful.

To sustain long periods of ambiguity, interpersonal tension, and to relish problems and insights is emotionally uncomfortable work for many.

— Mark Pollard (@markpollard) July 16, 2019

Are you a planner, strategist, consumer researcher or similar? How do you define your role? And how do you define success within that role? I’d love to hear from you!

Be brave. Feel stupid.