My background is in Planning. I went to Miami Ad School and learned from great planners across the country that planning is a way of doing things. It doesn’t have to be a department but rather a philosophy that we have a job to do: to shift a target from point A to point B. They’re thinking one thing, and we want them to think (or do) another.
In MAS, Catrina McAuliffe repeated a quote from Jane Newman to our class: “It’s not the planner’s job to do the planning, it’s the planner’s job to make sure the planning happens.” As one of the first planners in the U.S., Jane was extremely insightful.
While explaining the history of planning, Catrina went on to say: “Your generation of planners will be the one to re-define how communications are working. You need to grow up great.”
So, how are communications working? To be sure, they’ve become fragmented, multi-task enabled, and cluttered. Planning’s job would be to un-clutter it all, carve out a niche, identify a target, and make sure there’s an emotional connection being made so after all is said and done, at least it’s memorable. 
These days, I find myself wading through the thick, deep, fast-moving waters of social media. It really sort of is a black hole of opportunity – for communications, for planning, for marketing, for brands, for culture, etc. Social media is here to stay. The popularity of the medium is high because as members of a community, we seek connections with others. But before “social media” was here, we called these shared but non-communicative communities, brands. A brand was the non-tangible glue that held business together with culture. And the communication or “dialogue” primarily happened in a consumer’s mind as a result of a 2 dimensional message they’d seen transmitted to them (TV, print, outdoor). This was and is traditional media – what we’ve all become familiar with and have consistently seen advertising spending decrease in since the rise of digital (interactive) and social media.
Digital and social are flashy and new. They’re the new guys in town and rather than risk being left behind, a good number of companies are treading the waters, unsure of what they’re looking for but treading them nonetheless. And consumers & culture are right there along side them. So if they’ve already all jumped in the water, where does this leave planning?
We’re most likely standing on shore figuring out how to organize them in the water to make sense of where we should go or what we should do next. Or maybe you’re of the mindset that you might as well jump in and figure it all out once you’re in there. Which one are you? Skeptical to jump into digital or social until you have it all figured out or are you more likely to jump in, learn how to swim and where you’re swimming at the same time?
At my current job, I’m in the latter group. On a daily basis, I’m swimming and navigating. My planner towel is still back on shore, comfortably dry, and while I yearn for the safety and security to be able to see the forest for the trees, I also know there will be a certain level of satisfaction when I finally find my way through the deep waters of social media and come out on the other side, a more diverse, certainly digital, and possibly more adventurous planner.
So to Catrina, I say “Mid-way point, communications are changing, but I’m still swimming alongside of them. Happy to see you in the stands cheering. I’m ready for a beer when I get out.”
How many times has this happened to you: Client comes to you with a request, you come up with a solution, you execute, and then you’re asked to report on the results…thing is, you didn’t set objectives to begin with. Well, maybe you said “our objective is to fulfill our client’s request,” but if you’re just fulfilling, you’re making ends meet, not necessarily getting ahead. Setting objectives gives the team and the work goals to achieve – they give us something to work toward. So rather than being vague, when setting objectives, it’s important to make them S.M.A.R.T.
Risky business. That should be the alternative name for advertising.
