Phaedrucide and Planning: The Link

picture by victor_nuno.

I have gone to great lengths to define what Phaedrucide means to me, a process which has been more to my benefit than to anybody else’s. Whoever braves the long winded definition will understand that I was hardly trying to make my point succinctly. By writing down my big nebulous idea I have come to understand it in new ways and it has sharpened my mental construct like a tool that I plan on employing all the time, putting phaedrucide to practice.

What’s this about planning you ask? As you know, I am an Adman in potential (yes, still working on removing the “in potential” from the title). I will spare you the details of my quest to join this monstrous profession, it’s bloody hard for those who want it and easy for those who fall into it accidentally. Just to give closure to the previous posts with examples of my graduate recruitment application, my greatest success was to make it to the final round of interviews at what is without doubt one of the best agencies in London. As you can tell I didn’t get the job, but hey, everything happens for a reason. More importantly, it was an amazing experience to learn from.

Anyway, during my quest, involving placements, readings, research, interviews, cosmic signs, nuggets of advice and stratospheric conversations on all things Adland , everything pointed me to my true calling: Account Planning (Strategic Planning).

The way I see it, planning is the intelligent backbone of advertising and media communications at large. It is the keystone between creativity and effectiveness. The role of the planner will vary between agency cultures but in essence the planner is responsible for truly understanding markets, trends and behaviours and responding with a brand communication that will suit these or if need be, change them. Planners are a fascinating breed, they are interested and interesting and I guess all aspire to live up to the description of a creative generalist. I could go on and on describing the role but that is hardly my point. That has been done. In fact since the advent of the plannersphere there are more and more planners (from juniors to gurus) sharing their secrets and opinions on anything and everything that is relevant, which in planning seems to be everything and anything. So any textbook theory has been documented and as the industry evolves the accompanying theory continues to be documented only now it happens in real time and through an incredible network of planning minds, all of these devoted to the cause of expressing their opinions on, well, everything and anything. Lots to learn, lots to read.

The plannersphere is about more than documentation however. It is a community with all the marvellous things that entails. Nuff said.

I want to join the conversation but I want to contribute to this community, not just add to it.

So here goes, I will continue pursuing and sharing my personal creative endeavours and will also throw in quick interesting nibbles to take the edge off the Phaedrucide intensity. On the planning front I will express my views and opinions on, crickey yet again, everything and anything. My vow however is to do so through the eyes of my Phaedrus, keeping Phaedrucide blazoned atop this page and atop my perspective. Russell Davies the Great says is straight, there are a million different ways to do good planning, This is mine.

I have also had a great idea, which I will expand at a later date, of using Phaerucide as a concept brand to plan around and think hard about. This could be an interesting ongoing project…

Anyway, just want to rephrase a sentence I made earlier in this post, with the accompanying attitude and gumption that I am throwing at it: I am a Planner in potential working to remove the ‘in potential’ from the title.

I have a meeting on Tuesday with what is possibly the best agency in London… the future’s bright.