Roz Chernoff, senior VP and Global Planning Director for Publicis Advertising visited UNC today. I attended Prof. Sinclair's Media class in which she spoke about the planning process and then took her on a quick tour of the campus with another student. Then we got to sit down with her and ask her questions--Sounds exciting doesn't it?! Well, since I'm interested in Account Planning, it was nice to get a professional's perspective on things.
For those of you who don't know a lot about Account Planning I'll give you a quick summary of what it is (based on what I know and what Roz said). Planners build strategies that build brands. The role of Account Planners is to bring make sure the brand strategy reflects the voice of the consumer. The planner takes insight from the company and the consumer, and sometimes the category and fuses it into a brand thought. Planning nurtures the creative process and planners make sure that strategic insight drives the creative executions. Basically, the planner sets up the brand's story, makes sure it is relevant to consumers, and sees that it is expressed at every point in a campaign.
The end product of a planner's thinking and research is the creative brief. This is what is given to creatives that will guide the executions, the individual ads, promotions, etc. I like account planning because it is creative and requires many different skills--researcher, story-teller, psychologist, insight-finder, connector, etc.
So that's what I like about Account Planning and that's what I know. I'll be reading Truth, Lies and Advertising