NORTHERN PLANNER

I was asked by someone recently what planning was like in the North of England. 

Someone from a very good London agency, good clients etc, looking for a better quality of life. 

Here's what I said…

 

What you need to prepared for, in general, in the creative side of things at least, is that you just won't get the same kind of clients and do the same kind of work. 

You'll find though, that while there are less big TV campaigns, there are lots of really interesting, more integrated projects. You'll need to be good at getting how channels fit together and creating strategic platforms for IDEAS, rather than advertising ideas. 

That can be really interesting. Especially when the silos between discipines are not like they are in a London outfit. Or between outfits even .

But prepare for a certain lack of sophistication. Not much, but you might find that a few folks are a bit complacent and don't have a big enough frame of reference of what good looks like these days. But that's ace, it's a chance for you to have some impact.

But then again, you'll need to roll your sleeves up and get stuck in.

While suits will be suspicious of you and creative types will see you as an unnecessary evil at first, if you can help suits with the client relationship in non-threatening way, while helping creatives get their head around the complex media choices –  and give them a great springboard -generally mucking in and being  generous with your ideas and freeing up the skills of others, it can be really rewarding. 

But you'll have to prove yourself. More than someone from around here. No one will take your word for it about anything. But good places will give the chance. 

So choose your agency wisely.

There are less of them and much less planner roles.

Good planners are always sought after, but perversely, the good jobs don't come up much. So make sure you've found out what the culture is like, if it fits your general world view and you like the people. 

Because you might end up there for a while.

And some places ARE horribly 'regional'. The kind of places with the creative director dressed head to toe in  All Saints, who thinks he can do the strategy, not to mention the writing and art direction, when really, he's an okay designer. The kind of place with the head of clients services or MD who has only ever worked on small regional clients and don't really get it either. This is fine of course, it works for them. It won't for you!

Coming back to that 'blur' between disciplines. Even at a big London place like yours, you'll have found the media folks trying, and doing, more of the core comms planning and even content. It's really happening out here. 

That's why I've ended up in a media agancy and have found it really enjoyable. Planning folks are naturally curious and get bored quickly. Grappling daily with the sharp end of new media innovations and the realities of the modern media landscape is tremendously interesting. And working directly with Google or another media owner, the real experts at communications that captures the imaginations of people.

Nothing is more stimulating than that. You get to brief creatives, but the creatives are real content experts!

So, if you want to move up North, the place with a real COMMUNITY, is Manchester. There are great places elsewhere, but less concentration of organisations. 

And if it's on the cards, if you want to muck in, if you're prepared to take people with you, if you choose your employer carefully (watch out for the complacent lot) and might even consider a different species of agency…

You'll find that job satisfaction and quality of life are not mutually exlusive. 

See you soon maybe!