Drewbot

I always pour over Agency Spy posts regarding planners. Not for the articles, but for the inevitable comments. Posters are always angry, frustrated, and fed-up with the planners at their shops. A sampling:

I’ve never met a planner that brought any true insights to the table. Mostly they regurgitate research. Or even better, tell you what you already knew, eating up time that could be spent thinking.

And:

It usually takes a planner or a group of planners three months to write a brief. They have minimal input as the client over rules them on every point, because they have little knowledge of branding.

Then they stick it in front of a real creative and read it word for word like they are presenting.

And:

Planners were once called research. Planners were once called media. Planners were once called insight. Planner were once called engagement. Planners were once called innovative. Planners were once again called planners.

I call them overpaid.

In my experience as a planner the above comments are all valid.

Planners often get lost in the thought-process and ignore the processes that exist outside them. They step on toes by assuming that they monopolize the “smarts” in the agency, ignoring the strategic abilities of creatives and the contextual knowledge of account people.

The best planners I’ve worked with understand that the role of planners is to make everyone else at the agency better. Everything they do should inspire creatives, arm account people with insights and knowledge, and help media planners be more relevant and efficient. That’s it.

Alain Sylvain’s suggestion in this post that a planner’s job is to, “bring smarts into the mix,” seems designed to anger everyone who’s worked with him.

In fact, most of the conferences and summits planners hold (the original subject of the linked Agency Spy post) don’t help their reputation with creatives. PSFK’s SPUR illustrates this perfectly: the summit is composed entirely of planners! For a job where you you almost solely work with other positions, navel gazing with a group of your own is pointless and compounds the perception problem.