Account planners merge data with creativity to craft innovative ideas.

Originally, account planners discovered insights about consumers and applied those insights to creative ideas. They specialized in understanding the connection between consumers and brands, blending research with media planning, brand consulting, and account management. Today, account planners"often known as strategic planners"are crucial figures, who use consumer insights to inspire data-driven ideas that reshape brands and businesses. They blend science and art, leaning towards the artistic side. This role may be referred to as creative strategy, brand strategy, or brand planning.

Account planners merge digital and social skills with brand strategy, often collaborating with tech companies. They require advanced skills in data analysis, cultural understanding, knowledge of competitors, brand building, and understanding customer journeys.

The digital era has fragmented advertising, making brands and ads everywhere. Each person experiences messages and brands differently. Advertisers must capture consumer attention with engaging content that offers value.

Successful account planners possess traits like curiosity, intuition, empathy, adaptability, cultural awareness, a sense of humor, and strengths in both analytical and creative thinking.

Account planners are brand stewards, ensuring their integrity and success.

Account planners need to grasp how brands grow and their role in connecting products with consumers. Strong brands can charge higher prices because people value them. Brands simplify choices for overwhelmed shoppers.

Branding has become more complicated because nowadays, people are bombarded with messages from various media channels. Each person receives different brand messages at different times, and they react differently to them.

Advertising agencies create and maintain brands to keep them consistent and recognizable. Having one main agency can help clients decide how to use brand assets effectively in their marketing strategies and channel plans.

A brand house maintains brand consistency and guides the organization.

A brand house is like a blueprint for a brand. It's a single chart that lays out the main ideas behind the brand. People all across a company use it to make decisions about the brand. This chart helps keep marketing messages consistent and makes it easier for customers to understand the brand. But it's not just for marketing"it helps the whole organization stay focused on why it exists.

In a brand house, you have a few key things: brand purpose, brand mission, brand positioning, three brand pillars, and brand personality. The brand mission is about "what we do," while the brand purpose states "why we do it." The brand purpose also acts as an answer to something negative in the culture, like stress or distrust. For example, if there's a brand that makes comfort food, its purpose might be "We bring love to any table."

Understand Brand Essentials

The brand mission tells what the organization does and sets a reachable goal. For instance, Tesla aims "To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy." Brand positioning shows how a product or service meets customer needs. It's like a marketing tool. For example, a comfort food maker might position itself as "Comfort food that's good for you."

Brand pillars give clear guidance to employees or express service ideals. John Deere's pillars are quality, integrity, and innovation. Southwest Airlines has a "warrior spirit," "servant's heart," and a "fun-loving attitude."

Brand personality gives the brand human-like traits. Etsy is seen as "Honest. Unique. Hardworking." Harley-Davidson's personality is "Macho. Adventurous. Free."

Consumer research seeks to gain fresh insights into consumer behavior.

Account planners play a crucial role in representing consumers' perspectives during the creative process. They research to understand the beliefs and behaviors of the target audience. While methods like focus groups have been used in the past, they often fall short as consumers may not react well to new ideas. Instead, qualitative research methods provide deeper insights.

Qualitative research involves techniques like one-on-one interviews, mini-focus groups, and social listening. Among these, brand deprivation and ethnographies stand out as particularly effective. Brand deprivation involves consumers giving up their favorite products for a while and sharing their experiences. Ethnographies entail researchers visiting consumers in their homes, and observing their behaviors, speech, and body language to uncover subtle insights.

Data supports risky decisions by showing they can succeed.

Data aids account planners in identifying business and consumer opportunities. It provides evidence for the viability of new ideas and guides decision-making. Understanding people's feelings, behaviors, and decisions is crucial, and data sheds light on these aspects. It offers insights for enhancing branding and marketing strategies and proves the effectiveness of various marketing approaches. Data facilitates creativity without stifling innovative ideas.

KPIs anchor data loop encompassing business

The data loop starts with setting goals using key performance indicators (KPIs). Then comes the creative process, testing ideas, measuring outcomes, and checking if the strategy meets the original KPIs. The account planner leads this whole process.

After deciding on KPIs, the account planner analyzes the business. This means studying the client's industry, checking annual reports, interviewing executives, and talking to experts. Next is cultural analysis. This helps see if the brand is culturally relevant and identifies lasting trends. For example, Airbnb noticed people wanted belonging, immersive travel, and a sense of place. Competitive analysis helps understand the category and its usual ways " and where there's room for creative risks.

Consumer analysis is crucial for account planners. They need to understand the audience and their connection to the brand and category " not just what they think but why. Brand analysis digs deeper into this relationship. It looks at where the brand stands in the market " whether it's a leader, a tired brand, or something in between. It considers things like the brand's history, its look, and what people believe about it.

Summarize key info to inspire excellent work effectively.

The creative brief is a concise yet engaging summary of the account planner's research, crafted to guide creatives without overwhelming them. It typically includes the main brief, an extension brief, and specialized briefs like content, digital, and media briefs. The main brief should not exceed one page and must avoid overwhelming creatives. It should simplify the most vital information, using clear and concise language. This brief should address the business problem, define success, identify the target audience, describe how they currently perceive the brand, outline the desired outcome in terms of their perception, and specify the desired action. The main focus of the brief is a statement of the core idea that will influence the target audience's perception and action. It should include "reasons to believe" (RTBs) that support this idea, define the brand personality, and list deliverables and any mandatory elements like a tagline or mascot.

Customer journey maps highlight engagement

A customer journey map helps us understand how people decide to buy something. It shows all the steps a customer takes from thinking about buying to making the purchase. This map is super helpful for account planners because it shows how customers feel at each step, which helps us figure out how to keep them interested.

The map starts at the point when the customer decides to buy. Then, it goes back to when they first thought about buying something in that category. After that, it follows their experience with the product or service and whether they talk about it to others.

To make a customer journey map, first, we need to know what business problem we're trying to solve and what we want to achieve. Then, we pick a team to work on it. We set goals, like how many people we want to reach. And we look at lots of information about the category, the brand, the culture, and what customers are like. By mapping the customer journey, we can find ways to make things better for our business. For example, when we did this for Planet Fitness, we found out that many people felt too embarrassed to go in, so they just sat in the parking lot and then left. Knowing this helped us figure out ways to help new customers feel more comfortable.

Creatives thrive on boldness and risk-taking.

Bold work attracts free attention, called earned media when consumers share daring and innovative content. Creatives must stay updated with changes in culture and consumer behavior. Airbnb shows the benefits of taking risks: it shook up entire industries and economies while altering people's perceptions of normalcy. Playing it safe and producing dull work doesn't cut it " and great ideas always involve risk. Account planners facilitate bold ideas by blending data with creativity.