Has planning lost its Mojo?

Ahead of Mediatel’s event of the same name, we hear from Enreach’s Brian Jacobs on the future of media planning.

Pity the poor communications planner, buffeted this way and that by the latest fads and the hottest trends, by variable research and more and more data, by clients who it seems want more and more for less and less, and by traders who have been known to ignore their beautifully crafted plans to buy whatever they fancy from anyone prepared to give them a deal.

Who on earth would want to do it? Well, me for a start – if I ever enjoyed any sort of reputation in agencies it was as a planner. I thought it was the best job in the agency, and I still do. Here’s why.

You get to involve yourself in, to understand a little about and (to be honest) to interfere in the client’s business. If you’re good you’ll make a difference.

You can get as close as you choose to the creatives, certainly close enough to influence the output.

You’re encouraged to understand consumers, to watch how they behave, and see how those behaviours interact with the vast array of available communication channels.

You learn what works, what doesn’t, and you get to apply that learning the next time around.

Planners, unlike far too many traders and adtechnology specialists, are client-focussed; what they care about is their client’s success.

A few days ago Josh Chasin, chief research officer of Comscore wrote this in the US trade title Mediapost:

“Ultimately, we are still in the advertising business, where success derives from putting messages in front of people that influence and compel them to buy stuff. As savvy as we get about the math and the zeroes and ones, it is important we don’t lose sight of the human, holistic side of the equation.”
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That success comes from great planning.

Has planning lost its mojo? It’s certainly not a stupid question – there are many reasons to suggest that today the media business is all about the algorithms, the automation, the trades.

But I have to answer ‘no’. The automation, the algorithms, even the trades are all tactics, a means to deliver the end product. Certainly they’re important and relevant but the end product must surely be the delivery of the plan.

The plan comes first – after all it’s what the client buys.

I believe that adtech can contribute greatly to plans, as well as to the efficiency of the buys. It’s why Enreach has developed Audiences Guaranteed, a platform that allows planners to plan whilst automating as much as possible of the execution of the final plan.

We see planning as being all about pulling together multiple strands into a coherent strategy, and then seeing that strategy translate into something effective.

We want to create the space and the data for planners to do what they do best, and to provide the technology that translates the plan into a delivered campaign.

Planners are curious; they like nothing more than asking around, reading points of view, challenging and being challenged, finding new inspiration from wherever their curiosity takes them.

Good planners bring something machines can’t (at least not yet), in that they’re able to balance an understanding of the data with the ability to think creatively around a problem.

I don’t believe that we would be in quite the mess we’re in with adblockers if more ads were placed with more thought attached, as opposed to relying on automation driven by the lowest common denominator of cost.

Planners are the media agencies’ salvation. You can automate all but the best traders out of a job, you can use data to guide and fine tune what we say and to whom, but there’s a very big difference between that, and creating.

Really good planners create. All power and all mojo to them say I.
Brian Jacobs is founder director and chairman of Enreach – and a sponsor of next week’s event. For more details on how to attend, click here.