I've been a fan of Jon Steel's ever since I read "Truth, Lies & Advertising" back in 1999. I've also been following the recent blogs and goings-on of Russell Davies, whose work is quite inspiring to me. So you can imagine my delight when I found a recent podcast of Russell interviewing Jon. Check it out here.
During the course of their interview, Jon confirmed something that has been on my mind for several years:
Advertising doesn't have great 'generalists' anymore.
We're too splintered in the agency and I believe because of that we don't lead our clients in the optimum way. Therefore, in agencies whose structures allow it, I believe at the top level Account Management, Account Planning and Media Planning all need to be managed by one leader at key planning times. That person: the Campaign Planner.
The definition of the Campaign Planner will be forthcoming. It's not complicated, but is needed. I think it will be more suited for small and mid-sized agencies, but I could be wrong about that. I think work will become more effective because of it. I think it will better groom young AE's so they add more value in meetings than just conference reports. I think it will help Marketing Managers rely less on volumes of quantitative data and make better decisions. More like the decision making highlighted in "Blink." Finally, I think it's the evolutionary next step after agency integration.
The last thing our industry needs is another unwanted layer, but we'll test it out...
Here we go...
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