NORTHERN PLANNER

Let's be honest, agency folk come in two types.

The ones who think planners are a pain but necessary.

The ones who think planners are a pain and complete waste of time.

But if you're moderately nice to a planner, and even treat them from time to time as someone who is occasionally helpful, they'll be so embarrassingly thankful, they'll end up doing all sorts of stuff for you. 

If you're a creative, chat to them, especially if there's a live brief. Rather than telling then to go away until the first creative review, ask them what they really think, what were the things they considered that didn't end up in the brief.

Ask them about the audience, what to they like, what do they care about, what excites them? Because a brief in most places is about reductionism and 'messaging'. Unfortunately, it's not about tone of voice, culture and the real lives of the people you're aiming at.It's not a springboard for ideas.

If they're any good, they'll have all sorts of stuff in their heads about this. The stuff may well help you crack the brief. Most of it will be crap, but most likely, something will tumble out you find useful.

Same if you're a suit. It's natural for you to want to control everything, especially the relationship with the client. It's easy to think planners are a threat to that relationship.

But trust me, the last thing a planner wants is to have to make small talk, get shouted at for going over budget or anything that involved invoicing. But if you have a good one, they'll add all sorts of stuff to a meeting, not by talking too muchm but by occasionally saying something interesting. And clients fire agencies for all sorts of reasons. Being useless is one, but so it the fact they're bored.

Also, when you're struggling over powerpoint, or wondering how to sell the work, they tend to be very good at understanding how an idea works and even post rationalising it when it's off brief. And they can write powerpoint for you very quickly.In fact, like above, if you're uncommonly nice, they can do all sorts of stuff for you.

If you're anyone in an agency in fact,in any department, talking to anyone, don't be a tosser. Agency life is odd,the departmental stuff, the constant jockeying for position naturally leads to confrontational behaviour. Little of this is of much help to anyone. It's amazing what can you get done by being nice. Try it.