Disappearing Act

Blame it on the recession if you like, but the honeymoon for account planning is well and truly over. Planners are feeling the brunt of the current agency downsizing more than most. There's a certain irony here, of course. We're in a climate where developing effective advertising is more important than ever, and yet the very people who focus their efforts on this objective have become an increasingly disposable commodity. No doubt many agencies had only a skin-deep commitment to planning all along—its de facto role as new-business "window dressing" now largely redundant. Others may find they were guilty of wishful thinking in expecting a planner's sharp briefs and "insights" to single-handedly transform mediocre creative into the award-winning variety. But for most agencies, the problems with account planning run much deeper.1. The use and abuse of insights To justify their paychecks and de marcate their turf, many planners have perpetuated the myth that they alone are responsible for "insights." This is compounded by the fact that many have overpromised and underdelivered. For an insight to have value, it must inspire creatives. The research is a means to an end, no matter how quirky or innovative it is. 2. The voice of the consumer … or the used-car salesman? Nothing strikes fear into account planners quite like the phrase "voice of the consumer" being used to describe their role. Besides making us feel like researchers, it raises red flags about how and why a particular agency might employ us. In the worst-case scenario, the phrase can mean, "Regardless of what the research seemed to tell us or the client, we can use the planner's perceived objectivity to help sell this lemon." Notwithstanding situations where research is poorly conducted and/or interpreted, such blatant exploitation quickly leads to a very dysfunctional planning department. Thankfully, this sort of thing is not universal—and is clearly self-defeating. But the planner as the "voice of the consumer" also highlights a more subtle but equally insidious problem. Like Rita Hayworth in The Lady From Shanghai, planners can get caught up in a world of reflecting mirrors if their main role is to play back what consumers think or feel. Once in this world, it's difficult to develop advertising that leads and gets ahead of the consumer. 3. The dangerous magic of proprietary processes Most agencies these days—even some creative hot shops—seem to have "proprietary processes" to develop advertising. But is the comfort that clients (and agencies) find in them misguided? The best answer is probably "sometimes." Some are proprietary in name only, expounding the same old clichés and truisms about brands and consumers. Their hot air is largely harmless since they offer more of a philosophy than a workable process.The more dangerous variety usually prescribe a series of sequential steps the planner must go through to find the one "right" answer. Explicitly or implicitly, they are based on a model of how advertising works that is either inaccurate or applicable only to certain brands under certain circumstances. Finally, there are a few processes that are truly proprietary and based on a rigorous, viable model of how advertising works. They encourage divergent as well as convergent thinking, thereby liberating rather than restricting the planner. Prescribed steps, where they exist, provide discipline and guidance, insulating the agency (and clients) from armchair philosophizing and the worst excesses of lazy, "a couple of focus groups should suffice" planning. So, if planning isn't working, agencies should interrogate their processes as much as their people.4. Overpaid ... and out of it? While some agencies have cut back planning because of a rational belief that it hasn't been providing an adequate return on investment, there's also an emotional argument gaining steam: that account planners are typically arrogant, rarely act as team players and refuse to believe insights can come from anyone but themselves. If these perceptions are reality, then such planners don't deserve to be gainfully employed, and the current economy is a good excuse to show them the door. However, these comments often belie a deeper problem that speaks to the underlying culture of an agency, its unspoken norms and its likely success in adopting account planning. Effective planning, by its very nature, is sometimes disruptive and can (and should) inject a certain amount of tension into an agency—to a point where there is more debate, lines of responsibility blur and previously shielded egos are threatened. If all it does is reinforce existing thinking, then it is largely redundant and can never deliver its full value. Agencies that suppress healthy debate, perpetuate a silo mentality or refuse to challenge a client's direction shouldn't have account planning. Like it or not, in the pursuit of effective advertising they need to establish a culture where the planner (or anyone else, for that matter) can politely—and without arrogance—tell the emperor that he's not wearing any clothes. 5. A prognosisFor my own sake, I hope planning survives. But agencies have to honestly ask themselves if they really want it—and if they're willing to go through the inevitable growing pains to fully integrate it within the fabric of their operations. And planners need to stop thinking they've got a monopoly on smart thinking.

Brand Marketing

Disappearing Act

Mark Thompson

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Mark Thompson