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Redscout’s SPUR video series is something of great interest to me and many others, I'm sure. Being a young planner "wannabe" it's interesting to see how experienced practitioners view the world of planning and how they think it will shape up in the future. I'm looking forward to future editions of the video series.  

Here's a something I found particularly interesting:

"Planning was conceived as the thinking behind creativity. But the conventional planner has become a caricature: thinking in an ivory tower and post-rationalizing the doing of others. But today – as the industry, agency, and world-at-large have evolved – the definition of planning, and its future, is unclear."

Building on this thought, I recently asked some planners on twitter for their views on "what makes a good planner?” all in 140 characters. All the responses that I recieve will be added to this blog post, as and when I recieve them.....

All other responses are also welcome :) 

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Armano  "Curiosity, excellent communication skills, an analytical mind, creative spirit and the ability to detect and synthesize patterns"

markhadfield "A good Planner is being able to provide more than 1 answer to this question, but throwing out the wrong ones and keeping the best." "(and to always have the last word. ;-) )"

jasonlonsdale "A great planner should be the trusted provocateur: strategically robust yet creatively inspiring; laser-focused yet open-minded"

Will_Humphrey "A good planner has the same qualities as a chinese finger trap."

FamousRob  "There is rarely one 'correct' answer, but a great planner helps focus the thinking and creative work as close to it as possible."

katylindemann  "A good planner should be interested as well as interesting, have an insatiable curiosity, and able to make the complex appear simple."

theplanninglab "A respectable planner combines strategic + creative excellence, and a positive can-do attitude with as little bullshit as possible."

VicHoon "Speaking as someone who works for planners, the most successful ones are curious polymath critical thinkers with an ability to wing it."

Manuel Stolte "a good planner feels and thinks like consumers and has the lead in knowledge of human nature..."

GabrielRossi "Understanding that marketing is a way of thinking rather than just a set of tools. Planning is jut part of the equation."

tarik "Passionate by people and their behaviors. Not afraid to cut the crap and fancy to please the only one opinion that matters: Consumer’s"

paulisakson  " Furious curiosity, endless empathy, intelligent intuition, acute insightfulness and a fierce loathing for the status quo."

bud_caddell "A healthy ignorance of business as usual, little to no reverence for the past, and a desperate need to build the future."

johngriffiths7  "Someone who can find the shortest path between insight and execution and prevents egos getting in the way."

Adverplanner "Great Planners complete a rubik’s cube of trends, tech, insights & brand values so creatives can use it to create something amazing."

jo_vanna  "Curiosity, digging skills of a detective, love of anthropology, ability to see and make conceptual connections, love of learning."

faris  "Ask instead perhaps what planning is, and what makes it good. Then get really nice, really smart people and get them to do it."

chrisgallery "There are two kinds of people in advertising,those who simplify and those who complify. Good planners simplify,bad planners complify.Simple."

BenShaw  "Being able to look at every aspect of life and apply data, insight and creativity to blow peoples minds away with brilliant ideas."

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Kingsmill confession's is really bugging me.

What were they thinking? Who has confessions about bread? The answer: not the majority of the people who buy the product, in fact, not many people in general!

The actual confessions on the site seem a bit forced, even fake. For example:

I lock myself in the stationery cupboard at work so I can enjoy my favourite sandwich in peace and quiet"

Here is some of the more "real" confessions that have been posted as comments on YouTube:

"I wipe the under side of my balls with kingsmill gold........it's very refreshing"

"Kingsmill confessions haven't posted mine up about me being a former employee that used to jizz in the dough."

 "I wipe my arse on kingsmill.... its soft and very absorbent" 

Well, I guess the last one isn't so bad. At least they got the message that the bread is soft.

People will remember this campaign for all the negative jokes it's generated not the actual confessions on the website.

Damage to the brand? I think so.

Engaging customers with your brand is important but I think a lot of brands need to assess if what they are doing is truly engaging. Good engagement is viral, you tell your friends, and you share it. I doubt confessing your bread sins on a website is something you would mention to your friends, unless you were telling them one of the jokes above.

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This was an interesting point made by the AKQA founder Ajaz Ahmed, earlier this week.

I totally agree! Increasingly people are becoming more savvy. Blocking out advertising that doesn't benifit them. Advertising is seen all around us, yet how much of is actually taken it? How much of your marketing activity sells your product or service. After all isn't this the name of the game?

The best forms of advertising in this day and age is not advertising.

So how do you reach people now?















By being helpful and giving solutions.

By helping people connect with each other.

  
By creating genuine benifits.

As I mentioned in a previous post, it's not about creating campaigns that create short term gain for a brand, its about movements. This is done through creating relevent content that engages, answers problems and enhances peoples lives.

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bridging the gap!

After some interesting conversations on twitter earlier today and of course having been to several large ad agencies over the last 3 years, I’ve been thinking about the agency of the future.

Integration is so important in advertising campaigns these days but what about integration in actual advertising agencies?

I’ve spoke to various “old school” type planners in the past month; they are working or have worked at some of the biggest agencies in the country. One thing they all echoed is that advertising is indeed changing and the roles will be next to change.

Advertising agencies will need people who can thing strategically and creatively.

The days of the pure left brain thinkers (planners) and pure right brain thinkers (creative’s) could be numbered. The new breeds of advertisers will infuse creativity with strategy.

They will bring strategic direction and art direction.

They will bring insight and creative flair.

Above all, they will design profitable yet appealing solutions.

One of the things that were said to me by a traditional planner is: your course is too far ahead of advertising. Basically, it is already producing “creative strategists” like me. I found it very difficult to put a label on what I do; I'm a strong creative but just as strong analytically. So I don't fit into any set agency role without losing one aspect of my skills. The larger, more traditional agencies don’t have room for us yet. They will have in 5 years when the changes have happened but until then we have to choose what we want to lose, creativity or strategy.

The type of role a creative planner would play was summed up nicely on Ivans blog over at adsoftheworld.com:

This guy brings to the table his knowledge and proficiency in understanding a client. Strategic thinking is definitely a pivotal part of this new role, but at the same time he can creatively interpret data coming from the client, and create a platform for the creative team. He gets a task from the client for which he creates an insightful brief. Then he briefs the creative team, giving them enough meat to create a campaign. The team then gets back to him with the solution, which he evaluates, keeping in mind the client's requirements and also the creative aspect. If satisfied, he presents the work to the client.

So what are your thoughts? Is this already happening? Does it need to start to happen?

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Picture via: http://www.startagardeningbusiness.co.uk

At 3 Monkeys No Banana we are often approached by small start-ups wanting marketing/branding advice and direction, which of course if fine. However what we seem to find is that we are undertaking a lot more than simply brand strategy, it turns into business strategy. A lot of businesses come to us with business problems and try to answer these through branding. Of course you can't solve an underlying business problem through brand strategy.

The most common problem for this seems to be the lack of understanding of the customer’s needs, they have a product or service yet know little in terms of how this is any different then an existing offering or how their particular product/service can fulfil a customers need, whether that be functional or emotional. It can be frustrating at times especially when the owner of the business doesn't see a need to carry out research or feels he/she knows enough through assumptions.

Every business should start by identifying its markets, primary and secondary. Finding out how their product benefits them, what their customers want, need, fear, live and breathe. I can’t see how you can start a business venture without having a deep understanding of who your customers are!

As marketers the first hurdle for us is convincing the client that simply creating a nice logo, print ad and slogan won't sell the product. One of the things we try to do is help them understand their value proposition and then devise and deliver a more defined and measurable strategy along with understanding their market, customers and innovative marketing techniques.

The worst thing, well most frustrating is when they have worked with "marketing" people before who are nothing more than bedroom graphic designers. The clients have the ideology that producing a few pieces of marketing literature that simply communicate the product and its features will gain sales and brand loyalty. Strategy defines your communications not creative. It takes a lot sometimes to drive this message home to business owners.

Ok, rant over.

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Well apparently it's Confucius's birthday today or so the new Google logo of the day tells me.

So, I thought how Confucius's teachings can be relevent today, 2,560 years after his birth. Not as tough as you may think.

As this is a blog centred around all things brand, I got thinking and found one of his famous quotes:

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Now how can we apply this thinking to everyday brands? If we think of customers they are bombarded with advertising, it may be on the radio (I hear) on the tv or via the outdoors ( I see).

The one thing that non of these mediums can do is interact with them, yes we they can hear your great radio jingle or watch your amazing tv advert but the one thing that engages people more than anything is being a part of something!

Let's take a recent example, t-mobile. They created effective communication by involving their audience and engaging them with the brand both offline and online. This proves more effective then simply giving your audience a one way piece of communication. Interaction is king. The more your audience can connect with you, engage with your brand the stronger your message will be. I'm pretty sure the people in the video below will remember this for a much longer time then any other piece branded communication.



Remember, it was written over 2,000 years ago but it's as relevent today as it has ever been!

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Where ever you look these days a similar trend is seen:

- Mediocre products
- Undifferentiated benefits
- Poor media placements
- Little or no ROI


So, you have to ask the question: why are brands still creating short term campaigns that give no benefit to their brand in the long term? The simple answer is to make quick bucks. In an environment where customers are more savvy, media tolerant and after the best deal, outwards campaigns do little or nothing to gain their loyalty. Brands need to create movements not campaigns. Loyalty cannot simply be achieved by short term tactics, strategies need to be created and implemented focusing on the customers core needs.

The best approach to this is using a multi channel strategy. Find the idea and then apply it across the mix. The one thing to bear in mind is, the mix doesn’t simply mean paste your message everywhere you can! Find out where your customers “hang out”, if it’s YouTube create video content, if it’s facebook, create facebook applications. Simply bombarding customers with your message isn’t the solution. As you can see from these examples, interaction is king. Let your customers do the talking and by all means join in, word of mouth is still the strongest form of advertising and this will create momentum for your brand. Brand building doesn’t happen with one campaign, it’s a continued effort, connecting with your customers on many platforms and not pushing the hard sale.

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