Plan? What Plan?

03 September 2025

‘Planning’ is having a moment. There are posts on measurement, on MMM, on Origin, on cross-media, on using data, on owning data, on what we mean (or should mean) by outcomes, on where we’re all going wrong and from when. At least it makes a change from the horrible mess that is ‘buying’.

The trouble is, ‘planning’ has become one of those words that means different things depending on who’s using it. It is a member of the ignoble club of mis-understanding. Fellow members include ‘outcomes’, ‘reach’, ‘impressions’, ‘views’, even ‘agency’. To qualify for membership, any attempt to define what exactly a word means is followed by: ‘It depends’.

To an OOH specialist, the proportionate mix of different formats constitutes ‘planning’. To a video expert the balance between broadcast, streaming, YouTube, FB Video requires ‘planning’.

There’s nothing in any way wrong with this, what we used to call intra-media planning is essential but there’s an issue that is a lot more consequential than what we put in some dictionary of terms.

And that issue is: clients won’t pay for intra-media planning. Why should they? The balance between OOH contractor A and contractor B is something the agency does as a matter of course. They can’t buy space (in this case) without doing it.

Agencies have since the dawn of time worried about how to increase their revenues. I remember the old commission versus fee debates; and the jealous glances cast in the direction of management consultancies.

Regardless of what is on social media, this is not a new problem.

The Cog Blog has commented many times over the last 12 years on the various smart, devious, open, hidden ways agencies have tried to extract more from their clients; or as the agencies (and I) would prefer it – how to get paid fairly for the value they bring.

Increasing revenues from clients falls into the too difficult bucket for many, who prefer the easier route of looking to vendors. This is neither wise nor any kind of long-term strategy for success.

Agencies of all hues spend their lives advising clients on what they should do. ‘Listen to your customers; make sure you satisfy a customer need’.

Five years ago in a post considering lessons from the 2020 recession I wrote:
“We are very quick to offer advice to others but, like the cobbler whose children went without shoes we are less good when it comes to our own industry”.

We all know clients need help. Furthermore, ‘planning’ as I mean it, is immensely valuable to clients.

How to justify and build my budget? How to split the budget? What % to advertising, what to events / PR / sponsorships? Within advertising, what to video, what to audio, what to online? Within online what to Meta, etc. And on.

The last part of those questions is classic agency-land; the first part isn’t. The middle bit? Sort-of, depends on who you believe.

And yet it’s the first part that’s the most valuable, the most needed, and also where the greatest opportunity lies.

Marketing budgets are by definition larger than ad budgets; offering services that move upstream from advertising can if done well unlock new sources of revenue.

It’s essential in explaining effect. Which channel delivers the greatest effect is an important and actionable output from modelling; what happens downstream, within a channel is less easily explained in any manner that can be acted upon.

It’s the difference between strategy and tactics; between upstream and downstream; between big picture and points of detail.

These are all comms issues; how to use different channels to communicate. There’s a whole separate stream of expertise built around what used to be called account planning; what to say on these channels and how to say it. The two streams are interwoven, like two strands of rope combining to make the rope stronger.

This may all sound a bit esoteric, but it isn’t.

Clients won’t pay extra for planning, so runs the perceived wisdom. No, they won’t nor should they if ‘planning’ means deciding between YouTube and TikTok.

But if ‘planning’ means building and justifying a budget, dividing up what can be done by advertising, and what by some other means of communicating a message, then working hand-in-glove with creative teams to ensure a perfect fit between medium and message, two factors come into play.

First, you’re more likely to deliver success. Second, you’ll be providing value worth paying for.

Planning is the key to rebuilding the trusted relationship between the agency as partner and the client.