Wednesday, September 23

The über chipper scrapbook- chapter I


So, you are interested in planning. How do you get started? How do you start finding insights? How do you start being useful to an agency/client? There´s only that much you can absorb by reading and listening. And there´s only that many planning work placements in town. I´ve decided to borrow the "book crit" system from the creatives... I mean, it may be not be perfect but it´s a start. I´ve started preparing a scrapbook with brand ideas and hopefully with the input of some super inspired people, I will begin to learn the basics and discover my own voice.
* Why chipper? you have to be! if you want to learn, be prepared to have some of your ideas killed (without mercy). But don´t let that hurt your confidence (quite the opposite), it will be worth it at the end.

Anyways, these are the people I saw last week and here´s their advice:

MARTIN BEVERLEY, AMV
1. Simplicity! try organising your thoughts using these models
Get...To...By...
Product Truth...(verb) eg KitKat... relax
2. Explain the business purpose, audience profile and possible execution for each idea.

NICK KENDALL, BBH
1. Simplicity!! (more models)
Try putting a few circles around a bigger circle. Fill the outer circles with market, audience,competitors... what do they lead to? (bigger circle)
2. Does your idea answer "what" "who" "how" and "why"?

NEIL GODBER, M&C SAATCHI
1. Simplicity!!!
Try summarising your core idea into 5 words (or less).
2. When a market is shrinking, do you want to expand it or gain share?

CLARE HUTCHINSON, WCRS
1. Simplicity!!!! (last model)
Business problem...insight...idea...reality
2. Use your instincts! come up with a hypothesis and then look for facts to support/reject it.
3. Immerse yourself into the problem. Look for different angles (who´s buying the product? who´s the expert in the field? etc). The more you know, the more people will come to you for answers.


Here´s a link for Neil Godber´s interview:
http://www.careerplayer.com/careers/advertising-and-pr/advertising/account-planning/neil-godber---board-account-planner.aspx