has Planning got too pretentious?
12 June, 2012 at 1:03 pm 2 comments
The latest issue of Admap arrived yesterday, courtesy of the APG. The cover (and the six Admap Prize award-winning essays inside) focused on Planning 3.0.
As an Account Planner, this should have been a must-read. Instead I’ve just retrieved it from the recycling bin (where I chucked it after a quick flick through) in order to take the pic above.
Taking or writing about Planning is tricky. It’s such a play-to-your-strengths, individual thing and almost every Planner does it slightly differently. And as any Planner who has had to explain what they do for a living to someone outside the industry knows, it’s challenging to sum up in a few sentences.
But I really think there’s no need to go all academic or introspective. Planners are there to help make communications more effective. And to do that, agencies and their clients need to like, respect and understand us. Spending thousands of words speculating on the future of our role while using terms like symbiotic mutualisms probably isn’t going to further that cause.
Entry filed under: Account Planning, Planning. Tags: Admap.
1. Rob Mortimer | 18 June, 2012 at 10:47 am
We’re supposed to be able to improve the way we talk to people. We are not academics. Of course it’s good to get a wide range of reading and skills, but the more we try and make ourselves in academic smart-arses the further we will take ourselves from the people we are trying to reach.
We need to be smart, but brief and insightful. So while the principles discussed here might be sound, we have to phrase them like planners, not like Fortune 500 companies writing press releases.
2. Ben D | 21 June, 2012 at 6:28 pm
I would argue that the problem with many Planners (of which I am) is the general pretentious behvaior. At least from my experience with planners I know here in the US, many view themselves as bon vivants versus business partners, then wonder why clients don’t see their value. Many truly like to hear themselves speak, versus figure out how they can help. My last manager (Head of “Planning and Perspectives” would spout his perspective for 25 minutes, then never actually deliver a solution…