NORTHERN PLANNER

I read with great interest this article about planning all over the world.

Partly because the mug shot of Rob Campbell makes him appear to be forcing to smile while somebody squeeezes  his testicles.

But mostly because the challenges Gareth Kay faces in the US remind me of what it's like being a planner in the northern outposts of the UK.

Namely you have to fight for your right to be in the rooms and conversations that matter.

In fact, that's something all planners come accross at some point.

With clients, with suits, with creatives, with entire teams.

Many clients are not used to working with planners.

Many agency folk are in the same position.

Even worse, many disregard the discipline after suffering the kind of self important, over-complicating, intellectual snobbery that is more common that many of us would care t0 admit.

Planning isn't something that should get in the way, that you should suffer. It's about unlocking the best in others.

So getting credibility and building a relationship doesn't happen by divine right. It happens by demonstrating usefulness.

So what do you do when you're in the position where no one wants to work with you?

Wait for a crisis.

One of the most common stories in cinema is the couple or group who are either totally different, hate each other or have deep,unresolved issues that seem in-surmountable.

Until the crisis of the story is set in motion and, by overcoming it together, they form, or rediscover a tight bond.

A princess, a smuggler and a farmboy.

A hot, working class girl and geeky, middle class outsider (terrible film).

A bunch of rough Dwarves and a complacent Hobbit.

An estranged father and his children.

It's the same for planners and creatives/suits/clients/teams.

Be patient, look for a situation where everyone needs to pull together.

Internally, nothing brings a team together like a pitch or a scary make or break presentation.

Nothing makes a client love you like getting them out of deep hole.

In my own experience, I had a fashionista marketing director who prefered the company of other women. It was impossible to credibly break into conversations around Sex and the City and issues around kitten heels or wedges.

I had to wait she was dragged over hot coals by the board for spending thousands on a segmentation study when she didn't even know market share (their distribution model meant if wouldn't show up in the usual sources. Their product didn't even go through EPOS).

Then proceeded do omnibus work and a bit of maths to get a figure.

Got her out of the shit, got the board of her back, helped develop a proper growth plan based on real market dynamics.

Loved me forever.

There's the suit who can't resolve the isssue with the creatives.

There's the creatives who's campaign is on the verge of being killed by research.

Finally, and maybe not strictly moral. There is the 'give them enough rope to hang themselves' route.

Look for the situations you KNOW will develop into a crisis.

The rough with a tiny chink you know will become gaping chasm when it get's developed.

The route that's nothing more than beautiful mac work, devoid of any idea. Wait for the moment it has to developed into a real campaign.

The complex client brief the suits haven't understood, where the first stage presentation will be car crash.

And let it happen. Don't interfere, let them get on.

Then help them sort out the ugly mess they've created.

Not with smug superiority.

Not by saying, "Told you so".

But with quiet, considerate, helpful usefulness.

So……..

If I ran an agency and wanted to get a team working well together, I'd put them together on a pitch.

If I was a planning director and saw one of my team struggling to get to grips with an account or creative team, I'd do everything I could to get them together on a pitch team.

If I was a planner looking to earn the right to be listened to, or even invited into rooms – and I work in Yorkshire,that's my day to day – I would constantly be looking for moments of truth, where your colleagues or client is struggling with a crisis.

Less moral, but more effective, let them get on with making the rope for their noose, let them feel it beginning to bite into their necks and then step in.

As a Harold Macmillan once said about steers goverment; "Events dear boy, events'.

They also create the opportunity for you to prove your usefulness.