I need information & insight about being a strategic planner at a digital agency.
October 1, 2008 7:51 AM Subscribe
Advertising folks: So, you’re a strategic planner! Or, you work at a digital agency! I’d like to get some thoughts and advice from you.
I’m not extraordinarily unhappy in my current job. But I’ve been offered the chance to jump to a potentially fantastic new job (as a planner at a digital agency), that I happen to know very little about. So, I’m hoping some of you can answer some questions that will help make this decision easier.
If you’re strategic planner at a mid-size agency: What do you like about your job? What do you hate? How do you feel about “career pathing” (do you find yourself changing employers every couple years? Is ‘moving up’ something that it’s important or that happens regularly?) What are the day to day methodologies you use – are you doing a lot of interviews? Consumer research? Trend research? What? How do you find your interactions with the other departments/account folks/creatives?
If you work at a digital agency: How is life different than at a traditional agency? How do folks fare if they aren’t really ‘tech people’ or from a digital background? Is the work as interesting and as varied as at a traditional agency? Do you end up overly specializing, and its difficult to move back to a traditional-agency role when you leave? Is the kind of expertise you build in the non-digital world seen as important to the digital job? What do you love about it and what are your frustrations?
Thanks!
If you’re strategic planner at a mid-size agency: What do you like about your job? What do you hate? How do you feel about “career pathing” (do you find yourself changing employers every couple years? Is ‘moving up’ something that it’s important or that happens regularly?) What are the day to day methodologies you use – are you doing a lot of interviews? Consumer research? Trend research? What? How do you find your interactions with the other departments/account folks/creatives?
If you work at a digital agency: How is life different than at a traditional agency? How do folks fare if they aren’t really ‘tech people’ or from a digital background? Is the work as interesting and as varied as at a traditional agency? Do you end up overly specializing, and its difficult to move back to a traditional-agency role when you leave? Is the kind of expertise you build in the non-digital world seen as important to the digital job? What do you love about it and what are your frustrations?
Thanks!
Another former strategic planner here, from a government agency.
I loved strategic planning. It allowed me to get to know a little bit about pretty much everything that happens in our agency. I got to meet fantastic people.
The writing was always fun, and trend analyis from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective is great. Getting to tell higher ups "What this means, or will mean, for you" was always a thrill for me.
However.
Getting to tell them is great, getting them to listen is another thing. Strategic planning often involves looking down the road a distance, something that management can get frustrated by. Sometimes people want a plan that speaks to them right now. Trying to get people to buy into the idea that planning, particularly strategic planning, involves the future, and that this would be good for them, was not always an easy task. Sometimes it makes you want to yell.
Career pathing has always been great for me, but perhaps that's a government thing. I've found that I can easily apply strategic planning to other planning areas. But the great thing was that it also opened doors for me in other, more program, operational oriented, areas of the agency. Because often that "little bit about pretty much everything that happens in our agency" was of value. Perhaps not as much as years of hands on experience, but certainly better than hiring on someone who knew nothing at all.
posted by aclevername at 11:11 AM on October 1, 2008
I loved strategic planning. It allowed me to get to know a little bit about pretty much everything that happens in our agency. I got to meet fantastic people.
The writing was always fun, and trend analyis from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective is great. Getting to tell higher ups "What this means, or will mean, for you" was always a thrill for me.
However.
Getting to tell them is great, getting them to listen is another thing. Strategic planning often involves looking down the road a distance, something that management can get frustrated by. Sometimes people want a plan that speaks to them right now. Trying to get people to buy into the idea that planning, particularly strategic planning, involves the future, and that this would be good for them, was not always an easy task. Sometimes it makes you want to yell.
Career pathing has always been great for me, but perhaps that's a government thing. I've found that I can easily apply strategic planning to other planning areas. But the great thing was that it also opened doors for me in other, more program, operational oriented, areas of the agency. Because often that "little bit about pretty much everything that happens in our agency" was of value. Perhaps not as much as years of hands on experience, but certainly better than hiring on someone who knew nothing at all.
posted by aclevername at 11:11 AM on October 1, 2008
Sorry, I completely didn't see the part where you were looking to hear from Advertising folks only. My bad. Hopefully you can glean something useful from my answer regardless.
posted by aclevername at 11:13 AM on October 1, 2008
posted by aclevername at 11:13 AM on October 1, 2008
Response by poster: ah clevername, that's okay. It sounds like your experience is relevant anyway. Thanks!
posted by Kololo at 2:06 PM on October 1, 2008
posted by Kololo at 2:06 PM on October 1, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
1. The strategy and insight that we assembled was often overlooked by creatives. Account management (the yes men) didn't have the backbone to keep things on strategy.
2. Clients often didn't expect "solutions" to come from ad agencies. Often our research would reveal issues beyond marketing communications, but we weren't in a position to say "you really need to focus on training employees or improving you warranties more than creating a new logo."
I would imagine that digital planning would be more quantitative than traditional planning since there is so much data associated with how people use websites.
I hope your experiences will be better than mine. Digital is a growing area of advertising. I would find out who is doing the overall advertising strategy for the clients with whom you will work. You should figure out if you will be doing new work or just rehashing another agency's work for a digital format.
Moving agencies seems to be expected in the ad industry. Digital experience would only benefit you as it will become an integral part of most client's media plans.
posted by Andy's Gross Wart at 9:58 AM on October 1, 2008 [1 favorite]