Hizzonah's Blank Stare

So, one of the first posts I've wanted to write about is DEFINING ACCOUNT PLANNING. I know what it means, and most people in the advertising and marketing industry know what it mean. Actually, as I write this I realize this is NOT true; that is precisely why I'm writing this post - so many people in our industry DON'T know what it means to be an account planner. And lay-people? FUGETABOUTIT! In any event, this topic has been on my mind A LOT lately. It started a while back, and it was reinforced last weekend. Some background:

1) I work for an agency where account planning is relatively new. Over the past two years we've put the discipline and people in place such that Planning is now a part of our creative process. Thus, it's still a novel concept, and one that our youth-heavy agency does not truly understood, or embrace.

2) My Dad's Blank Stare. So, I had a nice impromptu evening with my dad last weekend, let's call him Hizzonah. He's a judge, but you probably guessed that. Very rational, logical, process-oriented, but only relatively comfortable with my industry. He loves talking about what he's read about advertising from the Wall Street Journal. (He thinks I work for Omnicom and he loves to tell people that). So we were having a lovely dinner out, and got to talking about my job, and the recent promotion I had gotten. And he's inquisitive (it's where I get it) and so he starts asking me about my job and what I do and all that. And, of course, I am so excited to prove myself to my Dad, show him what I've learned and how smart I am. But as I explain to him what I do, how I do it, what it means, I slowly come to realize I might as well be speaking Arabic, for all he can understand about what's coming out of my mouth.

So, then I give him what I think is a truly brilliant answer. "So Dad, you watch 60 Minutes, right? Andy Rooney? Well, I'm like Andy Rooney."

Well, the blank stare ensued, but I still think it's a fairly interesting way to talk about planning. Here's why:

Andy asks questions.

That's what a planner does. Always inquisitive, always, wondering, pondering, musing, percolating, pulling things apart to better understand them in the end. I think that's what makes being a planner so great. You never rest until you can make sense of something, and will use amazing tools to get at those answers.

My boss likes to say that planning is "defining the path that is yet to be" for a brand. Another colleague says it like this: "we are responsible for understanding the consumer first, and the brand, and where those two come together."

Wikipedia defines Account Planning as "the discipline that brings the consumer into the process of developing advertising. To be truly effective, advertising must be both distinctive and relevant, and planning helps on both counts."

I think the APG defines it the best, and when I moved into planning and read the APG's specs on planning, I realized how utterly lost I'd been up until that point in my life. I did not know why I could do these things, or how to harness them, but then "Planning" came along and I had a purpose.

So I will try to figure out how to upload this APG article written by Merry Baskin, and originally developed by Stephen King and Stanley Pollitt.

So, when it comes to talking about planning at my agency, and what planning can do for our clients, I might still get blank stares, but slowly and surely, one by one, when planning is involved, and people see how it helps and why it's so important and how it gets us to better ideas, that's how I define planning. It's me knowing what planning is, doing it everyday, asking the questions, plugging for more information and being smart about using it to to the best of my ability.

But I still stick to my Andy Rooney analogy about asking questions, the right questions, questions that make you think and open up more questions and doors and take you to a place that, once the answers are applied, are beneficial to your clients business. Blah blah blah...That is still the answer I will tell Hizzonah and maybe one of these days I will no longer get a blank stare.

One last thing that does make me feel better was Hizzonah's question to me... "so, where did you learn all this stuff?"

Happy Birthday Planning!

I found out when I was at the AAAA Planning Conference earlier this week that Planning turned 40 this year. Here is the picture that I took at Merry Baskin's presentation. I feel really lucky and privileged to be part of such a creative, innovative and amazing group of people. When my boss told me that I have "planning in my blood" my heart smiled.

What I Want to Be When I Grow Up... & Account Planning Survey 2008

My colleague passed this on to me, and I have been passing it on as well. It's a survey that a planner at Publicis put together; I guess it's in its 4th year. No matter what you say, everyone wants to compare their situation with others in the industry. I know I do. She posted it on Slideshare.

Planner Survey Results 2008

view presentation (tags: lefevre heather survey planner)

I think I'm in line with the survey. I have a bit of a different situation; technically speaking I'm a Senior Strategic Planner at TracyLocke. But I've only been in planning for a year and a half. But, I've had planning in me for a long time. It just took me time to find planning! And when it found me, as I tell everyone who asks "I feel like I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up!"

Message for Future Generations

I was lucky enough to attend this year's planning conference in Miami, FL. I have lots of thoughts on the conference, but that topic deserves it's own posting. So more on that later.

But I wanted to share this crowdsourcing tool that famed planners Domenico Vitale (Lowe) and Mark Earls (HERD Marketing) created for the AP08. It's a depository of wisdom from planners across the country. I added a few thoughts, but more generally, I learned from it.

It's called "Message for Future Generations." Here's the link: http://futuregenerationsplanning.wetpaint.com/?t=anon.

What's In a Name

So, posting #2 (I will stop calling out what number post I'm writing...soon :) ). Of course, the first question you'd ask would be "what does the name mean?" I was trying on a number of names for size as I drove home today. I should note that I had A LOT of time to think today. I was planning on spending my day lounging on the beach at my family's beach house, but alas, the weather had other plans for me. So my mom and I did our own "public service" by cleaning, doing laundry, changing beds, throwing out stuff, instead of baking in the heat. In any event, because the sea and I could not commune today, there was a lot percolating in my head. About this blog, what I would call it, what I would say, what wouldn't I say. To make a long story short, "Plannerette" has two meanings:

• One: I am a woman and typically adding "-ette" to a word signifies the female version. As in "majorette" or "bachelorette" (which, by the way, I never, ever want to be called or have a party under said name). You get the gist. Does this word wreak of sexism or belittling the female gender, you might ask? Nah, I'm confident in my feminity, and I am an "ette" who likes all things feminine - perfume, lipstick, high heels, cute undies)...
• Two: I think, though it's not grammatically correct, that "-ette" also means small, miniature, or maybe junior. And I am a young planner. With a lot to learn. And I have no shame in saying that. But more on that later (or sometime)

So, Plannerette it is. It's a young planner's view of the world.

A Blog Virgin

So this is my first-ever blog post, on my first-ever blog, but I am recently inspired. It's not that I wasn't inspired before, it's just now I feel it's my time to do this. For so long I wondered to myself "will people care?" and I suddenly realized to myself, "gee, it's not for anyone else, it's for me!" (And I did state this to myself vehemently, with a fist pump into the air.)

So you ask "why this foray into blog-land? why now? what prompted you?" To all those questions, I am going to explain, really just for the sake of archives and record-keeping. Just a little background: I am a fairly recent indoctrinee (is that a word?) into the world of account planning, as in strategic planning, in the advertising and marketing world. I've been working in marketing for 9+ years but became a planner in January 2007, after a long stint on the account side. As an account exec, I looked at planning jealously, envious of what planners did, and I was FINALLY able to convince enough people at my agency (TracyLocke) in CT that I was of the planning ilk. Speed up 1.5 years and here I am today, starting my first blog.

Fresh from the AAAA Planning Conference in Miami, FL last week, I became reinvigorated and refreshed and I realized that wantws to share my point of view of planning, and advertising in general. Driving along the highway, I realized that I might have an interesting take on planning: I readily admit that I am a new planner, still learning with a long way to go. And I think that perspective is interesting. There are so many blogs and sites and stuff for more experienced planners; maybe this naive, idealist planner with a penchant for introspection and to-a-fault honesty could provide insight to someone (anyone?). Plus, I want this to be my "journal," so to speak, of all the things I am learning, seeing, hearing; capturing those cool things in one place (I have too many random small pieces of paper languishing in my notebooks and in my pda)!!! It's going to be so exciting. AND FUN, because I've never done this before, and I really do need to get hip to this "web 2.0" world.

So enjoy, because I think I will.