Over the last few years, I’ve worked on several campaigns where the objectives and/or the budgets shifted substantially between the insight and planning process and execution. In some cases, we were communicating to a different audience, or with a different message, or with a quarter of the original budget. How can you build anticipating that … Continue reading The twelve month marketing plan vs. real agency life
Category: Planning
10 things I wish I’d been told when I started agency life
1. It is NEVER OK to be bullied in the workplace 2. Going to the pub after work is not compulsory 3. Manage and protect your workload to allow time for the inevitable crisis that will need dealing with 4. Learn how to tell which battles are worth fighting 5. If you don’t like certain … Continue reading 10 things I wish I’d been told when I started agency life
insight has to come from an interesting idea
Since work seem to have woken up to the fact that I can string sentences together in a relatively coherent written form, I have become Insight Led Think Piece Mailer Woman. Pulling together interesting trends, anecdotes and research feedback to come to an 800 word point of view about a given topic or trend is … Continue reading insight has to come from an interesting idea
a day in the (reality checked) life
You know those ‘day in the life; and ’24 hours with’ pieces that turn up in trade mags and the business section of the newspaper? They make working in AdLand sound very glamorous, but I’m afraid the life of this Planner is rather more mundane… 8.40 Arrive at work. Go to kitchen. Coffee pot is empty. Decide … Continue reading a day in the (reality checked) life
more charts and graphs to back us up
Heather’s annual Planner Survey 2009 is up and running. Planners should head over here to take part and click here to sign up to receive the results (students, recruiters and so on also all welcome to receive the results). Page one of Heather’s 2007 survey looked like this:
You sometimes don’t know what you’re digging for until you find it
In pursuit of Insight, I’ve tried an awful lot of ways of trawling through desk research. I’ve enjoyed access to experienced desk researchers who come back with 100 pages on everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-air-fresheners and work experience students who think Lexis Nexis is a kind of car. I’ve also done my fair share of my own desk research … Continue reading You sometimes don’t know what you’re digging for until you find it
Is research helping us find the right answer – or just one that isn’t wrong?
With the economy making everyone increasingly risk averse, it seems to me that Jon Steel's adage about clients using research not as a navigational tool but to protect themselves and their career from a fiery end is becoming increasingly apt. With limited research budgets and risk averse clients it can be very tempting to use … Continue reading Is research helping us find the right answer – or just one that isn’t wrong?
Are you saving them money?
We are officially in recession, the economy is nose diving and there’s no question that clients have got less money to spend. Unless you happen to work in Digital (where every agency I know is still turning work away because they’re too busy), it’s looking a bit bleak. I’ve already written about how as Planners … Continue reading Are you saving them money?
Wanna be a Planner? Straight talking advice for graduates.
image courtsey of spell with flickr I’ve be running into a lot of wannabe Planners recently and without wanting to sound too harsh, here are a few home truths you need to hear before you decide on Planning as a career path. Please take them in the spirit of kindly advice that they were meant! … Continue reading Wanna be a Planner? Straight talking advice for graduates.
Beemer brand love
I’ve been thinking a lot about Brand Love recently. Not quite in a Lovemarks relationship/performance expectation way, but in a (perhaps more British?) understated, mostly unacknowledged way. Take my relationship with BMW. I drive a little One Series. Do I really need it? No. Was I probably always destined to own it? Yes. Just after … Continue reading Beemer brand love