Richard Huntington writes clean sentences and places them on his site, Adliterate, for our enjoyment.
The business world has little time for the desperately bright, painfully academic, socially inept and ponderous planner.
Indeed, in our time squeezed environment it is tough to make the case for strategy at all.
See what I mean?
Hi David,
We’ve been practicing “fast” strategy in the states for 10 years.
This is what we do:
http://twoscenarios.typepad.com/citizen_strategist/8campaign-engines.html
I’d love to compete against a firm or their agency who can’t seem to make a “case for strategy”.
Well, I’ve made this argument before, but most agencies would benefit from dumping the planners and strategists and replacing them with additional creative help. But please don’t blame the industry or clients or squeezed timelines. Sorry, but you planners have failed to catch up and keep up with the speed of life in the big leagues. I’m tired of waiting five days for you to deliver a brief that says, “Brand X is a part of my life.” You’ve got access to technology like the rest of us. Use it to get insights faster. Or, heaven forbid, predict what’s happening so you’ve got a jump on things before the client comes with the assignment. Don’t get me wrong. There are gifted planners. Like the gifted creatives, they tend to work at the top shops. But most of you guys—particularly the ones who transitioned from being focus group agency researchers to planners—are worthless in today’s warp-speed ad world.
The great copywriters and art directors
are great strategists.
Otherwise they wouldn’t be great.
They’d be, at best, technicians, a pair of hands.
KJTK,
I would add the following: mediocre copywriters and art directors are still better strategists than most of the poseurs with strategist printed on their business cards.