Account planning:

Medium to large-sized advertising agencies divide their work into various

departments, traditionally splitting functions into interacting with clients and
looking out for their interests (account management), buying advertising
(media), and creating advertising (creative). As the importance of research has
grown, ad agencies have combined old functions of researchers (who gather
information about consumers and markets) and account managers (who keep an
overall vision of the client's interests) into a role called account planning.

Account planners combine research and strategic thinking. If the account

manager is closest to the client, the account planner is closest to the consumer.
The account planner is the person on an advertising team who is most likely to
have spent time with consumers using the product, or in focus groups asking
them about how they think about the product. And in an era in which the brand
is sometimes at least as important as a specific product (for instance, Nike as a
brand has a place in the culture that far exceeds the particular performance
characteristics of their shoes), the account planner is responsible for
understanding the place of the brand in the consumer imagination. They are
different than a simple research function in that they stay engaged in the
campaign process throughout. Rather than offering research insights to others at
a single point in time, they use research to continue to provide insights within
the campaign process.

However, in Australia the original conception and the original launch of the
planning role also included on-going marketing counsel to the agency teams and
to clients who needed it. The reason for this was the pioneer account planner’s
experience as a senior researcher at Unilever working with Unilever’s marketing
teams and its many successful brands.

Chris Cowpe described it this way:

"Account planning is the discipline that brings the consumer into the process of
developing advertising. To be truly effective, advertising must be both distinctive
and relevant, and planning helps on both counts."

History:

Account planning is a job title that exists in most London and UK advertising
agencies. Account planning gained a foothold in the U.S. in the mid 80’s and has
been growing ever since.

Beginning in 1965, Stanley Pollitt felt that account managers were using
information incompetently or inexpediently because the researcher was not
involved in the campaign process. Because of this, Pollitt suggested that a
specially trained researcher should work with the account manager as an equal
partner. After the opening of the Boase Massimi Pollitt (BMP) agency, in 1968,
Pollitt introduced his idea, only slightly revised. Stephen King, believing that
clients deserved a better way of doing things, proposed a process of advertising
development that had a little less gut feeling and a little more scientific
foundation. This process involved rigorous analysis of a brand and its position in
the competitive market place. This process creates an advertising message from
the marketing objectives and the client’s business objectives. In 1968, J. Walter
Thompson (JWT) established a new department called “account planning,”
coined by King. In Australia the course of history was different. The inventor of
the role in 1965 was David Brent, a senior researcher at Unilever who had served
as a senior para-military police commander in a long, major counter-insurgency
jungle war in Asia and in the national secret service followed by ad agency
account service, creative writing and media management. These qualifications,
skills and experiences led to the launch of the new role in a Sydney agency in
1966.

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[4]

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[4].

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.

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 account 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 [5]:

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."

Essential truths:

Account planning exists for the sole purpose of creating advertising that truly
connects with consumers, according to Jon Steel. Planning has made its move to
the forefronts of larger agencies in the US, thanks in part to Jon Steel, but for
some it is still considered a luxury. In many accounts, the account directors will
claim the development of strategy. In case there's no account planner on the
account, it's a team effort; client, account director and creative director. It must
be clear where account planning is creating an advantage. Account planning
adds context, a wider perspective, guidance and opinion to advertising
development.

Having an account planner involved in the account has led to more integration
within the agency, which has resulted in better teamwork in trying to combine
the needs of the client, the market and the consumer. Account planners
stimulate discussions about things that were overlooked before, such as,
purchasing decisions, brand-consumer relationship and specific circumstance
evaluation.

The main change inflicted on advertising by account planning is, to approach

every marketing challenge, starting with the consumer. Traditionally qualitative
research has been conducted via focus groups, but it is the Jon Steel style of
focus group - focus groups in a creative way - that has changed the way some
agencies apply this kind of research. “The best research and strategic thinking in
the world is absolutely worthless without a creative executions of similar
stature,” Steel said. The goal, in turn, is to create and maintain a meaningful
relationship with the consumers.

In present day society, there is no doubt that consumers around the world have
knowledge and interest in advertising. It is something that has become part of
our society and it possesses a "means of contributing meaning and values that
are necessary and useful to people in structuring their lives, their social
relationships and their rituals." However, there is a difference among cultures
concerning advertising. One such difference is between the UK and the US. While
in the UK there is a high approval for advertising among consumers, consumers
in the United States believe that advertising insults their intelligence. There are
seven goals that have been achieved in the UK thanks to account planning:

1.Having a planner on the account has led to more integration within the agency
and better teamwork in trying to combine the needs of the client, the demands
of the market, and the expectations of the consumer.

2.The planner has brought an added dimension of understanding to the process

of developing ads, by stimulating discussion about: purchasing decisions, the
brand consumer relationship, and how the advertising is working in specific
conditions.

3.Helping to win new business: by instilling confidence in the prospective client

as a result of a comprehensive and disciplined approach.

4.Defining more tightly-focused strategies: the result of an enhanced

understanding of the consumer.

5.Stimulating creative development: the result of more productive contrast

between the creative department and the consumer.

6.Helping to sell ads: by explaining the way they work.

7.The quality and creativity of advertising in the UK has grown in line with
account planning, thus proving that the function has helped, rather than hinder
this trend.

Myths about account planning:

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.)