Be The Planner

Most of the emails I get about this site are people asking how to get into planning. Which just goes to show how fascinating all my pictures of Arthur are. So in a bid to offer a little bit of public service, I'm going to share some thoughts about that. And then hopefully other planners will add their thoughts too and the world of the would-be planner will be immeasurably improved.

I'm going to start with what kind of person you need to be, to be a good planner. This is about temperament, rather than skills. And, NB, its based on my own peculiar view of the world.

1. You Need To Be Interesting

Which means someone who's Interested in stuff. Planners tend not to have much power. They have influence. They're often competing for attention - of their clients or of the creative people - the best way to win that attention is to be interesting. So you need to be good at presenting, talking, listening, writing and you need to be interested in what you're doing.

2. You Need To Be Broad

See Creative Generalist. Planning is, for the most part, not about originality or startling creative breakthroughs. It's about making connections between seemingly un-connected stuff. Or taking lessons from one category to another. You need to be able to get interested in, and up-to-speed with all sorts of odd things, pretty quickly. Yellow fats one day, mobile telephony the next. All the time being able to talk about top directors and photographers. And exciting new regression analysis tools. And you should want to read the HBR, Blueprint, Heat and The Beano. You need to be numerate, literate and visually competent. You need to be happy to talk to all kinds of people about all kinds of things. (This is where I fall down. I'm too shy to be a good researcher.)

3. You Need An Enthusiasm For Brands And Communications And Advertising And That.

Yes, lots of your friends think brands suck and are manipulative and are ruining the world. If you think that, then a) you're mostly wrong and b) you probably shouldn't be a planner. If you think they're just trivial in the larger scheme of things, then a) you're mostly right and b) you probably shouldn't be a planner.

4. You Need To Be Happy Not To Be The Hero

Planners don't do much on their own. They're always part of a team. The clients build the brand. The creatives make the ads (or whatever). Account management have the power. You're always part of a process - never at the end of it. So you have to be comfortable with never being the hero; never being the striker. The best you can hope for is mid-field general. If you want to be a hero you have to sublimate it into something else, like starting your own blog.

Anyone got anything else to add?

Next time I'll get to skills. And then talk about the good and bad bits about the job.

account planning
brands
advertising

Comments

[Scrubber]

5. Be British. Or at least spell 'colour' as intended.

[Christian]

Be curious (ok that's point 1 and 2) and naive (no preconceived ideas, having opinions but not being too opinionated ).
and articulate.And know how to use imovie and make powerpoint look sexy (or even better know how not to use powerpoint).

[Rob Mortimer]

Thanks for that!

And your pics of Arthur are interesting, just not always the most debatable posts!! :)

[Luca Vergano]

I'd add something. BE LIKE THE BASS PLAYER. Like Sting on Walking On The Moon. Like McCartney on tons of tracks. Be a backbone, keep it simple but unforgettable.

[russell]

I like the Bass Player analogy a lot.

I'm coming to the tech skills bit. But iMovie etc are crucial.

My entire career is based on the fact that I worked out how to put pictures into PowerPoint way before most other planners. Thinking back maybe Scrubber taught me.

[LisaE]

Having been offered a place on one of the graduate training schemes for this September, I'd be interested in your views on how to get the most out of my first year on the job. I realise things will vary from agency to agency, but any general pointers would be useful. What should I aim to achieve? How will I be most useful? What would your ideal trainee planner do for you/the agency/themselves?

So far I've been told a trainee planner is rare and that no-one will know quite what to do with me.

[Sylvain L]

I remember attending an IPA conference, when I first started, where St Luke's planner was saying that planning is all about axes & fireworks.

1) You need an axe to cut the clutter down into smaller pieces
2) Then it's all about bringing together 2 unexpected elements of the clutter so it produces a firework.

This is the day I understood what planning was about.

I think it very much ties in the "It's about making connections between seemingly un-connected stuff" you mentionned.

[Marc]

need to be happy to talk to all kinds of people about all kinds of things.

...This is where I fall down. I'm too shy to be a good researcher.

But you over come this via:
...need to be happy to talk to all kinds of people about all kinds of things.

Which really is a culmination of open-mindedness, & a constantly evolving knowledge base.

Which I have learnt can be spoiled in by one thing - over focus.

Get out there and just live. If your mind really suits the role of planning then it will not just come forward, but drop itself in your lap.

[a planner in Detroit]

A few more thoughts:

1) have a really good left and right brain
Its not enough to be good in one area: you need to be able to both analytical and creative - often at the same time. Seeing inteersting little bits of information (something Russell alluded to) but then read somethign else into them

2) Ask lots of questions - even the obvious ones.
Its part of being v. curious which is a planning natural (and somethign everyone esle has said)

3) Don't be overly intellectual.
The simplest soutions and the ones creatives seem to work best with (in my experience) are very single minded. Often planners get to intellectual or want to tell people all about the consumer. KISS it.

4) Have no fear - confidence slolves a lot :)
Ta for this blog by the way - the pics of Arthur are great to !

[Chris Wojda]

To anyone looking to become a planner, I'd say:
- Don't worry about being "brilliant" everyday. And, if you find yourself working for someone who has such expectations of you, accept the idea that planning probably will never work at that agency and you should probably look for work elsewhere.
- Don't fear failing... in fact, embrace it and make sure you learn from it.
- Find people in the agency (and out of the agency) who are smarter than you and do your best to surround yourself with them.
- As a junior, I discovered that it's most always best to offer opinions in the form of a question. Rather than saying, "I think..." say, "What if..." Fair or not, few seasoned people want to take strategic advice from someone who is new.

[anthony]

My favourite half-planning thing I like to do is go to a different supermarket each time i shop, from the Waitroses all the way through to the Lidls.
It doesn't take up any extra time and watching/listening to people and being a trolley snoop is 100 times more interesting than reading stuff.

[russell]

Good shout Anthony. I'd not thought of that. That's very smart. My similar thing is every week to try and read a magazine you've never read before. You get to some very esoteric stuff very quickly. But it's a great way of getting out of your usual mindset.

[Harry]

"I'd add something. BE LIKE THE BASS PLAYER. Like Sting on Walking On The Moon. Like McCartney on tons of tracks. Be a backbone, keep it simple but unforgettable."

Errr.. if you could bring your analogies up to date they would be a lot more helpful to us younguns who weren't raised on the oldies. Cheers.

[M@]

Harry,
You also need an appreciation of things passed to be a good planner. A sense of history wouldn't go astray.

A decent planner may have done a bit of research to find out the significance of' McCartney on a ton of tracks', instead of just whinging that you didn't understand something because it wasn't spoon fed to you.

[M@]

Besides, no one knows the name of J Lo's bass player....

[harshal]

Loved the bass player analogy :)

Legend has it that a certain John Entwhistle wanted to be cool - everyone in the band had their own peccadalios.

Here's what he decided to do; bought a purple rug to stand on - a sort of self-knowing way of being cool, if you will.

Russell has figured this out tho ;) read the Linus comment about the blanket..

[Gustavo Casas]

I thought this is a very good explanation and a answer to my basic question about planners !!
i´m very glad that you posted this here.