There are good reasons to read this blog
This is a blog for anyone interested in planning advertising and communications.
I named the blog after the last line of the Dorothy Sayers mystery, Murder Must Advertise. It's a great read by the way...about a serial killer on the loose in a London ad agency in the 1920s.
The blog is especially intended for account planners (or their equivalents) in advertising, design, and brand agencies. But anyone who is concerned with planning any kind of communications might find it useful.
The conventional wisdom about account planning is that it's the field that is concerned with understanding the consumer. That's true, but I believe planning is about more than that. Planning is the first step to great creative work. That often requires "understanding the consumer--but sometimes it might mean defying the consumer, or surprising her, or challenging her, or getting her to think about something she never thought about.
Planning can be a trap, and that's why anyone who practices it seriously needs to be careful with it. It can be far too easy to indulge in the predictable and the expected. In fact, one of the seamier sides of planning is "testing," that dreadful activity that almost always is a code-word for "let's second guess what the creatives are trying to do here."
How the blog works
I try to keep posts focused on single subjects that include insights that I hope will be useful in how to make the planning process more effective. This is not a blog with fleeting observations about pop culture or passing influences, though every now and then I will comment on timely subjects if I think they lend to deeper understanding about important themes.
Planning exists for one purpose: to inspire creativity.
In the worlds of advertising and design, creativity needs direction. In purer worlds, creativity does very well on its own. But when money is involved there is usually someone (usually the one with the money) in the background barking orders at the people trying to be creative.
I don't believe planners should bark orders at creative people, but I do think they should help them do their work.
All the postings in this blog fall into a category--such as observations, philosophies, strategies, fundamentals, or methodologies and techniques. These are all components of planning and by dividing things up I hope to help planners find useful subject matters that help them in their work.
I love planning, though through much of my career in this business I did many different things other than planning. But as I look back on it. planning has been the essence of how I have approached things. It's just the way that you find your way.
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