Is Planning killing Blogging?

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

NEIL COWAN — Tue, 29 May 2007 08:32:34 GMT

Your article in Campaign (25 May) saying 'account men don't blog' is probably meant to include 'new business men' (and women) I suspect. Well, despite the potential 'account men' limitations, this new business person does try. Bestest Neil Cowan :-) http://blogs.chemistrygroup.co.uk/newbusiness

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Double Ambitious — Tue, 29 May 2007 07:30:22 GMT

I think James struggles to understand anything other than literal meanings Will.

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Rebecca Caroe — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:11:39 GMT

Great stuff. I was posing the question "What is the creative agency equivalent to opensource?" http://caroe.typepad.com/rebecca_caroe/2007/05/whats_the_creat.html and I think you have the beginnings of an answer here. To be sure, the move to the new business model will begin with client sand brand work is an obvious start point. BUT they key question for me is how to collaborate and create the 'beta' sharing ideas under the radar. Your email list for the tech interest group might be a nascent form of a trusted group to contribute to these discussions. Do you ever talk about clients or is it just about methods and new tech finds online? Widen the debate! Join in. Move the discussion on from just 'what can we do for brands' to 'What can we do for our agency?" Rebecca

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Will Humphrey — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:06:08 GMT

James Walters - of course we are here to sell. That's the most important thing. We'd all be out of a job otherwise. But if you can tell a story/get something into the cultural lexicon, I'd have to say that it improves sales - look at everything from Yorkie (Not For Girls), Smash Martians, Honey Monster, Tango, Pot Noodle.. etc..

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Rory Sutherland — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:07:46 GMT

James is right. We have a "tech interest group" email list (it should be a blog I know but. hey, it's old) which positively hums with shared stuff. In defence of old-worlde creative people, they are judged exclusively on originality in a world where it is very hard to be original. In media planning or tech fields, because of the explosion of possibilities, it's just that bit easier to innovate. The trick lies in making the innovative idea happen, which is where the collaboration comes in. Now a question for planners. Does strategy have to be original, or does execution make it so? Or both? Discuss.

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

James Cooper — Tue, 22 May 2007 08:52:39 GMT

Rory, as ever you're spot on. But also, as ever, I will stick up for digital creatives over the traditional folk :) Perhaps it's a generational thing, perhaps not, but certainly every digital creative I know is far more happy to open up their idea treasure chest in puiblic (all agency meetings or blogs) than any creative living in a TV department. I guess that's because the opportunities to make a brilliant TV spot are disappearing rapidly before their very eyes whilst the digital opportunites just get crazier and crazier every day.

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

James Walters — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:57:59 GMT

Story telling business? I love this guy. We're in the box shifting business and mostly its boxes of washing powder (okay, cubes, sachets...) and sometimes the box has four weeks and a stick shift, but its still a box.

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Will Humphrey — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:35:55 GMT

I'd have to say no, but everyone should have a view on the story that the work creates. We're all in the story telling business, after all.

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Amelia Torode — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:35:48 GMT

Agree - The best planners and strategists should be creative thinkers and vica versa. In fact the question Are Planners the new Creatives? is what I am meant to be talking about at the PSFK conference that I'm taking part in -

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Will Humphrey — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:24:30 GMT

Dan - I think that's a great point (and I'm not just saying that because my father is an account man). Good exponents of every discipline, be it creative, planning or account management, will have a degree of overlap. However, those who shy away from it deserve to be lambasted. And no, I'm not suggesting every planner should write the end line, or every creative long to do the job of account management; I just think it's dangerous to hide in a silo of a job description.

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Rory Sutherland — Mon, 21 May 2007 13:40:59 GMT

Dan makes a fair point - I apologise (except for the BMW bit).

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Amelia Torode — Mon, 21 May 2007 13:22:24 GMT

Nice post. The "blogging killing planning" debate seems such odd one really. I struggle to work out how in this new web 2.0 world anyone would worry about something this. They should be applauding it. I have never felt as connected to another plannery -types (and they're not all planners by any means) all over the world as I do at the moment, I have never had such a wealth of knowledge and debates at my finger tips and I have never felt more confident about the future of my discipline today as I read the best of the plannery type blogs out there! www.ameliatorode.typepad.com

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

DAN SHUTE — Mon, 21 May 2007 11:37:06 GMT

I couldn't agree more, Rory - it would though be remiss of me not to stand up for my own discipline, that of the humble Account Man. Victims of our own bad publicity, the meteoric rise of the free thinking planner is once again threatening to cast Account Men into the dark. A lot of us still wear suits, a lot of us still recognise that taking the client for a long lunch is an important part of the job, and dammit, a lot of us still carry a damn good bag. But to draw a clear line between us and blogging (and thus the thinking of the future) is to do us a bit of a disservice. Do we not blog? I certainly do. What's more, even before I took the plunge myself (and laying your thoughts bare to the world can be an intimidating plunge to take) I read every damn blog out there (and not just, I think it's important to state, those with 'Advertising' in the title). It's all information, it's all the real world, and a good Account Man should know as much about what's happening as the planner he or she works with. I firmly believe that a good Account Man will have something to add at every stage of the creative process: the client should automatically turn to him for help and advice before any brief is written; the planner will want to bounce ideas off him or her, sometimes just for sense check, but sometimes because a good account handler/planner relationship can be as productive as a good creative team; and a creative team will want to share rough ideas so that they can get not just a transposed client view, but a valid creative view on a piece of work for a piece of business that he knows as well as anyone. As Richard H has recently said with regard to the APG awards, good thinking can come from anywhere, whether you're wearing pinstripe of jeans and a corduroy blazer. It’s a great shame that the traditional view of Account Men is still being propagated, and most importantly that it’s presumably being supported by the behaviour of certain Account Men. I’d venture though that as with media, there are no truly bad disciplines in Advertising: just terrible exponents thereof. Some of us aren’t quite as old-fashioned as people would have you believe. PS 'Nature's BMW Drivers' though? That's going on my business cards.

re: Is Planning killing Blogging?

Will Humphrey — Mon, 21 May 2007 11:23:46 GMT

Wonderful stuff Rory. I especially like the notion (was this Mr Davies's thinking?) of 'polyphonic' brands. Co-operative thinking is definitely the future.