Account Planning School Of The Web - Second Assignment

OK. Here we go. Seconds out. Round Two. Would anyone like to play again?

I'm going to do it slightly differently this time, rather than tackle a whole strategic problem in one go we're going to focus on a particular aspect of the planning process - namely target audiences. I think this'll give everyone a chance to really think, experiment and show-off.

The task is this:

Think of a brand. It could be anything. From any geography. It could be fictional.

Now, I want you to think of a target audience for that product. It doesn't have to be the obvious audience, but it could be. Now, I want you to explain the relationship between the audience and the brand. And I want you to suggest some ways that this relationship could be extended, developed and strengthened.

That's it. I guess it's a bit like a research debrief - but you should focus on thinking and insight rather then on doing actual primary research.

Things to think about.

1. Don't assume your reader will know the brand you choose. You have to explain enough about it that we understand what's interesting about the relationship.

2. Your key job here is to be insightful and interesting about the audience and their relationship to the brand. This means bringing them to life in some way. And it means thinking beyond the obvious transactional relationship - what are the underlying motivations and ideas.

3. Make sure you finish with some recommendations - not in-depth communications plans but key thoughts about how this relationship could be improved.

4. Things to think about with an audience - how do you define them? what are they like? what do they care about? what connects them to the brand? what kind of relationship is it? how should we communicate with these people?

A good piece will be:

1. Easy and interesting to read and digest.
2. Insightful about people and their relationships to brands.
3. Focused, clear and no longer than it has to be.
4. Imaginatively and compellingly written and put together.

I'm hoping this will be fun and that it should make an interesting set of stuff to read because we'll all get to read about different brands and audiences from around the world.

Same rules as before - no more than 1,000 words. Powerpoint or Word. No more than 2MB. Everything to be with me on or before midnight on December 15th (GMT).

Does that all make sense? Seem like an interesting idea? Questions? Thoughts?

Comments

[andreea nastase]

I hope you don't have a legal age or something because I intend to send mine too :D

[Iain]

Hmmmmmmm.... Interesting. It's a very very very broad brief and on first glance I find it hard to think about how to start. Any brand? Any audience?

My initial thought is that 'lesson 1' was much easier to compare entries like-for-like, whereas this time it's going to be very tricky to hold up submissions side by side. I'm sure there'll be some worthwhile learnings though...

[andreea nastase]

I'm having problems sending it by email. Although it's only 221KB, I get an over quota return mail.

To what address should I mail it?

[russell]

Sorry. I think my mailbox is filling up and I haven't had time to empty it. Perhaps try again tomorrow?

thanks

[Julie]

So excited to see comments from the second assignment. Russell, do you have an idea of when you might begin to post something?

[Phill]

Russell,
I've just stumbled on to your site.
is it too late for me to play.
i'm a creative, I thinking about jumping over to the planning side.
Are there going to be anymore assignments?

[russell]

phill,

It'd be excellent to have you aboard. The next one will be around Feb 1st.

[cait123]

Are there any Connection Planners participating in this blog? I'm curious - what do Account Planners think about the concept of a Connection Planner? Some agencies have very blurred lines between the two disciplines.