Egos in Advertising

The Ego Epidemic in advertising is ridiculous. This is one industry - probably because it's idea driven - that is high on ego and self-rightesness.

How many times do people take credit for someone else's idea? How many times do people add in comments to briefs/in a client meeting just because they want to be heard? How many times are people wrong and just don't say "Oops, didn't mean to do that?"

I'm in the account planning field and I am so sick of watching planners walking around all high and mighty. Like they are some kind of magical wizards that have all the wisdom and answers. Little do they like to admit that without the creative department they would be nothing. Nada. Hear that. Planning should inspire the creatives not be nit-pickers on briefs and wheels in a larger cog.

The greatest planners of all time are those that are genuine and not full of themselves. These are the ones that creatives take to, want to work with and go seek out for input. Those other planners out there - you know if you're one of them - are just wheels in the cog.

Second Life: Jim Said It, Not I

I work with some folks who are all about Second Life. Go on it Saturday nights, spend their working hours on it and such. To each there own, but I've got to say from my own brief experience (yes, I created an SL avator - I was a bit forced into the process - thanks Katie!) Second Life isn't so great. It's slow and there's not much to do. Heck, I just went shopping. Which in all honesty, I actually prefer doing in person much more than in Second Life. And there aren't a lot or in some cases any people around to even meet. Which I thought was one of the original principals of the Second Life exeperience. And with social networks being so hip right now (my 45 year old single godfather is even on Facebook) you think that Second Life would be desperately trying to foster social networking.

Second Life's numbers are even out of whack. How many people downloaded Second Life once and maybe logged back on once or twice to never go back again. I know that's me and I know that I've personally crossed paths with quite a few of these people. I love their honest reponses - "It's so slow," "I didn't know where to start," "It was a time suck." Now, that's what I would expect the average online joe to say.

So, cheers to The Office for calling a spade a spade. Case closed.

Ghostland Observatory

My friend was just a first time published contributor to PSFK. Trey and Jeff Squires wrote a piece on the loss of rockstar mystique. They cited one band that potentially still delivers the "What the f is up with them and how can I be more like them."

A piece that does bring to the forefront a topic I never even considered. With the over-exposure of celebrity and the ability to know more about their personal lives and behaviors, the mystique of the once untouchable, ethereal figure of "celebrity" is a bit lost is not gone. Only non-celebrities can keep a mystique. I question how anyone who goes from being a "I think I know that guy" to an "Everyone knows that guy" can have a mystique.

CALL TO ARMS. SAVE THE BRANDS.

Alert! Read Immediately and Pass Along to All Caring Citizens of the World.

BRANDS ARE BEING SILENCED

Brands have personalities and marketers are silencing their voice, emotions and behaviors. Bad people are trying to make many brands of the world act and say things that aren't authentic to the brand's spirit - in effect, suffocating them. We must join forces to help give brands back their voice!

This is serious stuff. Before we know it, all brands will be extinct. They will be killed off by greedy marketers who only care about the bottom line and NOT the consumer experience. Brands will be commoditized into just being products with features with NO authentic brand personality or voice. They will be contrived. Just like robots.

Is this what you want? Is this the kind of world you envision your children living in? One without the joy of counting on a Fred water in your time of dryness or refreshing your home with a pump of Method cleaning soap! These are 2 brands that have honorable protectors and I call on them and other caring citizens to help raise the awareness of this serious national crisis.

The time is now.

I'm calling on all good people of the world to help me on this new mission to help Save The Brands. Pandas and redwoods are not the only things worth saving. So are the Saabs, AOLs, Jaguars, Gaps and Dells of the world.

Consumers - we must join together and make these marketers aware that brands are worth preserving and saving just like the pandas of the world or our national parks. Brands are like people and they deserve to live happily and, in today's day and age, a little more freely. Give them back their personalities and let them breathe! Stop suffocating them by making them feature heavy. They are more than just features. They have real, emotional benefits to offer us, the consumers of the world. Brands have authentic personalities and they can make you smile, cry, scream, feel comforted. And now, more than ever - they need our help!!!

If you have a great brand, marketing it becomes easy and obvious. The brand's personality will lead you to the right distribution channels, the right marketing channels, the right tonality and the right messaging at the right times.

In the next few weeks I will start activating this movement and I am calling on you, good people of the websphere - and specifically, you, Mr./Ms. Brand Planner - to join the movement. Stay posted, spread the Save The Brands Movement to other concerned citizens and get prepared to join the crusade!

Visit SavetheBrands.org in the near future to make your mark on the world and help the brands regain their voice and actions.

Death of Planning

Came across this quote (actually a response to an adliterate blog: Are brand ideas too big for advertising) by Sir Winston and man is his thinking dead on:


“Planning is, these days at least, an utterly futile activity (and a very dull career). The instructive paradox is this: the brands that planners really admire (Innocent, Apple, Nike, Starbucks) do not and have never needed Planners to tell them what they're about. And the brands that Planners actually get to work on (the Vodafones, HSBCs, and BTs of the world) do not and will never care about any of this high-falutin' brand stuff anyway. So if you want to work on a cool brand, go and create one. Or, as a second best, work for one. But don't 'Plan' on one or hope you that you will have any real affect on the brand you Plan for. It is a (admittedly frequently amusing and entertaining) waste of time.”


That's why hearing Adam Gayner, inventor of Fred water, speak at this year's PSFK Conference in LA was absolutely inspirational. Passionate planners want to make a difference. They see opportunity where others just see research data or focus groups (gosh do I abhor the idea of focus groups - the enviornment is just so fabricated). They believe in the brand and the difference the brand can make in the world. The feel the emotions the brand can bring to consumers (joy, pain, nostaligia, confidence, friendship). Passionate planners go beyond the research or trending aspects of their gigs and desire to make a difference with their brand leading the way.

Sadly, Sir Winston isn't really off. Too many times, marketers don't understand the power and role of their brand and instead diminish it or mute it. And planners either fight for what's right or just become another cog in the machine.

Rise of Collaboration

Is the rise of the idea of collaboration a reaction to our present-day reliance on technology (i.e. email)?

Is this the start of a movement that brings back the value to human interaction and slows down the adoption of artificial intelligence? We all know that AI is the next big technological advancement that will drastically shift how we behave and interact.

Thoughts?

Fallon's Description of Connection Planning

So here's how Fallon describes Connection Planning (at least when it comes to recruiting). I like it. Having lived it - if it's done right the below is very very true and when done like the below is when it's most effective.

The part that's missing is that this a collaborative position. You can't do all of the below (at least not successfully) without collaborating with every department within the agency halls. You'll be ruffling feathers (specifically with account planners and media planners) and you'll need to foster a trusting and amicable working friendship specifically with the aforementioned departments AND creatives. Creatives are Connection Planners best allies. Love them, trust them and bounce ideas back and forth off them.

From Fallon's blog:
http://fallontrendpoint.blogspot.com/2007/04/help-wanted-connections-planners-fallon.html
You might be a Connection Planner and you don’t know it. If you work in politics and your job is to create complex communication strategies to narrowcast to multiple target audiences all towards one big defining win. You think of everything as an opportunity to extend your message: the photo op, the setting, the PR spin, the sound byte, whether or not to tell people the candidate windsurfs . . . You have passion for using communications to convince people to believe in something – a person, a cause, an idea.If you work in the media department of an ad agency but you’re a strategic thinker. You find yourself awash in tchotkes, boondoggles, flow charts, and Excel spreadsheets. When what really interests you is the big idea. And we’re not talking about tactics, we’re talking about the big strategic idea. The thing that makes it all go. You’re more interested in building the Velcro wall for the other guys (some who work in media) to know what should stick.

If you work in music or film and your job is to give albums or films their moment in time. You understand the communications complexity to making a film “open” weekend one, and the necessary actions before and after. You understand how the Web has changed music, and that some of today’s most popular bands were built by pasting small together over and over until it was BIG (see Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, etc.), and by urban street teaming and word of mouth (see hip hop, the mix tape).If you work in planning but your heart is in popular culture not research. If you find you’re less interested in giving birth to the big idea, and more interested in raising it in today’s fascinating new media world.

If you consider yourself more street smart than book smart. If you think you can learn a lot about communication strategy from American Idol, P. Diddy, and match.com. You’ve read the marketing books, but you want to bring them to life, to take action, not just philosophize. You know what's wrong, now you want the opportunity to do something about it.Sound like you?

If so, you’re already doing Connection Planning. Call Fallon to get paid.

Where Do Connection Planners Belong

Where oh where do Connection Planners or Consumer Context Planners really belong? Are they most effective in a media agency where in the past account planner types didn't have a spot of the team roster? Do Connection Planners also have a role at creative agencies where account planners are capable of pulling similar insights? Or do they have a role at neither?

I'm really curious to hear what others have to say about the most effective place to have Connection Planners. My hunch is that Connection Planners should:
- definitely live at media companies like the Starcoms and Mediavests of the world where "account planning types" were non-existent.
- not exist at creative shops that don't have a media department. What's the use there? creatives, account planning and partner media agency should be able to step up to the plate.
- not exist at full service shops that already have account planners and media planners. Both account and media planners need to be able to think beyond the brand loyalist and beyond reach and frequency to make it in this new media world. They need to rise to the occasion and be uberplanners.

...next entry to make us aware that account planners are spread to thin. we're often on too many accounts which unfortunately doesn't allow us to effectively be uberplanners.