{"id":748,"date":"2016-04-14T08:49:59","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T07:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/?p=748"},"modified":"2016-04-14T08:49:59","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T07:49:59","slug":"lets-hear-it-for-the-planner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/lets-hear-it-for-the-planner\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Hear It For The Planner"},"content":{"rendered":"

A version of this post appeared on Mediatel\u2019s Newsline on April 5th<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pity the poor communications planner, buffeted this way and that by the latest fads and the hottest trends, by variable research and more and more data, by clients who it seems want more and more for less and less, and by traders who ignore their beautifully crafted plans to buy whatever they fancy from anyone prepared to give them a deal.<\/p>\n

Who on earth would want to do it? Well, me for a start \u2013 if I ever enjoyed any sort of reputation in agencies it was as a planner. I thought it was the best job in the agency, and I still do. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

You get to involve yourself in, to understand and (let\u2019s be honest) to interfere in the client\u2019s business. If you\u2019re good you\u2019ll make a difference.<\/p>\n

You can get as close as you choose to the creatives, certainly close enough to influence the output.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re encouraged to understand consumers, to watch how they behave, and see how those behaviours interact with the vast array of available communication channels.<\/p>\n

You learn what works, what doesn\u2019t, and you get to apply that learning the next time around.<\/p>\n

If you talk to clients it\u2019s generally the planner that gets the plaudits; the brickbats, if there are any are these days reserved for the traders, and the digital specialists far too many of whom are simply too distant from the business of making their advertisers successful.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month Josh Chasin, Chief Research Officer of Comscore wrote this<\/a> in the US trade title Mediapost:<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we are still in the advertising business, where success derives from putting messages in front of people that influence and compel them to buy stuff. As savvy as we get about the math and the zeroes and ones, it is important we don\u2019t lose sight of the human, holistic side of the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

That success comes from great planning.<\/p>\n

Mediatel held an event <\/a>this week to ask: has planning lost its mojo? It\u2019s not a stupid question \u2013 there are many reasons to suggest that today it\u2019s all about the algorithms, the automation, the trades.<\/p>\n

But all of these things are tactics, a means to an end. Sure they\u2019re important and relevant but never forget that 50% off the wrong thing doesn\u2019t automatically make it the right thing.<\/p>\n

Planning is all about pulling together multiple strands into a coherent strategy, and then seeing that strategy translate into something effective.<\/p>\n

Planners are curious; they like nothing more than asking around, reading points of view, being challenged, finding new inspiration from wherever their curiosity takes them.<\/p>\n

Planners understand that ads come from somewhere, that they are crafted<\/a> and that ensuring they are seen by and acted on by those at whom they\u2019re aimed is in itself a craft.<\/p>\n

Do we really think we can automate everything, to let machines decide what goes where and when?<\/p>\n

Do we really believe that we would be in the mess we\u2019re in with adblockers if every ad was crafted even a little like the PG Tips<\/a> example?<\/p>\n

Planners are the media agencies\u2019 salvation. You can automate all but the most senior and best traders out of a job, you can use data to guide and fine tune what we say and to whom, all of that is fine but there\u2019s a very big difference between \u2018guiding and fine tuning\u2019 and creating.<\/p>\n

Really good planners create. All power, and all mojo to them say I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A version of this post appeared on Mediatel\u2019s Newsline on April 5th Pity the poor communications planner, buffeted this way and that by the latest fads and the hottest trends, by variable research and more and more data, by clients who it seems want more and more for less and less, and by traders who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions\/749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}