Thanks to the fact my predecessor was [well, actually ‘is’ as he’s still here, just now as an ECD] such a good planning director, I’ve inherited a good bunch from him.
The thing I like the most is not that they’re all talented, but that they’re so bloody diverse.
I’m not just talking in terms of nationality [though there’s everyone from Russian, Taiwanese, Singaporean, Thai, English &, of course, Chinese] but interms of their interests, approaches and opinions.
I genuinely believe planners should be less about advertising and more about life – and my lovely team embrace that view perfectly.
The reason I am such an advocate of this approach isn’t just because it allows their creative mind to identify much broader ways to influence change, but it allows them to take lessons and learning’s from one area and adapt it to another … which often can create results that go way beyond normal category conventions and yet maintain relevance, resonance, interest and motivation.
That is one of the reasons why I don’t like anyone only ever working on one account … even if that account is made up of multiple categories. The other reason is that if you spend all your life with just one client, you can lose your sense of objectivity and that is almost as an important tool in the planners arsenal as things like empathy,curiosity, imagination and insight.
I have some plans for my team which I’ll be discussing with them in the coming weeks, but funnily enough, it’ll be more to do with broadening their experiences and understanding than honing their planning chops … because for me, I’d rather have smart, adaptive & worldly than smart, solid & myopic.