The Wall Blog » planning

Why great planners have to be dumb

Robin Grant — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:19:04 +0000

Tod Norman, partner at brand response agency Watson Phillips Norman, on why great planners have to be dumb.

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What makes a brand?

Robin Grant — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:34:15 +0000

I think we've typically thought about marketing as the creation of moments – communications, events, spectacles, launches, etc. Similarly, I think these moments make up only a very small part of the view customers have of a brand. Instead the vast majority of what informs a person's view of a brand is the day in, day out usage of the product/service.

How to do Direct (and Digital)

Robin Grant — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:42:53 +0000

Shaun McIlrath, Creative Director at Hurrell and Dawson on how to do Direct:

it is your job to help your clients be uncorporate – to be human. You can do it through comms, or by working within the company to help make it more accessible and helpful to the customer – but do it, because it will make their behaviour more distinctive and their comms more engaging.

A move to zero media spend?

Robin Grant — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:14:36 +0000

James Gordon-MacIntosh with an interesting post (I agree with some, not all, of it) on the move to zero media spend:

The media that they would have bought is being replaced – for many of them – by the creation of original, engaging content that the brands themselves generate and own.

PR Agencies are starting to hire account planners…

Robin Grant — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:59:31 +0000

Richard Moss, EVP at Weber Shandwick, on their recent hire of DDB's Leo Rayman into the role of European Head of Planning:

The PR industry has transformed itself in recent years, by putting measurement at the heart of its agenda. Today insight is increasingly being adopted as the new agenda as clients provide increasingly complex challenges that require much deeper insights into the influences behind today’s customer behaviours. As a result we are commissioning research reports, buying into new consumer panels and uncovering new streams of data in a way that never happened before. And this of course is the issue. Does a fantastic publicity person, also have the necessary skills to sift through all of this data and identify what is relevant or not? Can a creative guru, always separate dreams from reality? Can the slick account man, say no?

Research is the only route to measuring effectiveness

Robin Grant — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:51:37 +0000

Richard Huntington:

We need real attempts to prove the commercial value of immersing people in a brand's world and having them interact with it and share it with others, not to mention the means by which to model the sales effect of digital activity and prove its contribution to the client's bottom line.

Why the social object is the future of marketing

Robin Grant — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:10:08 +0000

Hugh MacLeod with a seminal post on social objects:

From now on you won’t have the TV Commercials to rely on to start your conversations. People are ignoring you. The only way your product is going to spread is by word of mouth. The only way it’s going to get word of mouth is if there is something in it for the person talking about it.

How to do digital planning

Robin Grant — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 23:12:46 +0000

Carrying on from Tom Hopkins' missive on the subject, comes a much more practical how-to guide from Iain Tait on how to do digital planning. Go read…

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It’s all about the data

Robin Grant — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:32:30 +0000

Following my post from a few weeks ago, Revolution have been kind enough to publish an article about Flybe's eCRM programme, which I spent a good part of last year and early this year helping to create. There's also an artitcle from marketing Direct which covers some of the same issues. Don't let people tell you data isn't sexy. It is.

Read more on It’s all about the data…

Of course advertising is expensive, that’s the bloody point

Robin Grant — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:10:06 +0000

Rory Sutherland, again:

There's no point in being a peacock with a moderately good tail. Go for great or don't bother at all. That's the principle that creatives understand and accountants don't.