You might remember I posted some Rules a while back.
It might surprise you that people have asked one or two questions about it. This worries me, I didn't think of them myself, they are merely the sum total of years of observing what really goes on.
I thought I would nevertheless publish some elaborations I have shared based on requests for clarification here and there.
Today we'll focus on Rule 30. Getting out the bubble. Someone asked how they were supposed to do this when they are chained to their desk and also required to support their thinking with 'established' forms of research....you know, primary surveys, Google Trends or TGI and Touchpoints.
The response to this begins with a sad truth about a close friend and the breakdown a the person's relationship with their girlfriend. The individual got the job of his dreams, you would want to work there, everyone does. He soon found that the new employer new this, and demanded the highest commitment and work ethic. 14 hour days in other words. He didn't mind, it was fun, it was stimulating. But a year later, the love of his life left him. She liked the income he was bringing in, she didn't mind seeing a lot less of him, she was quite a catch, very independent, lots of hobbies, lots of friends. One of those girls you hate because she was stunning AND searingly clever and interesting.
She left him because he was boring. Just doing his job made him a one trick pony, he ended up having nothing to talk about apart from work. Dull, dull, dull.
This is what happens with clients, and indeed agency employers. Clients like you to make them think, to look like you're one step ahead of them. Planners need the right to be in the room, creatives can do strategy, so can media buyers, even suits.... as well as their proper jobs.
A planner is there to do two things:
Make the original, new stuff safe to buy
Share interesting stuff no one has thought of (grounded in truth of course)
Like my friend, if you can't keep things interesting, or make the interesting easy to get to grips with, you are not needed.
Now let's look at that in more detail, based on the question.
First, if you're chained to your desk, and I mean you haven't time to wander around a shopping mall once a month, or chat to people you've never met on the tube, or read stuff only slightly connected to the day job and the client business, or just reading their annual report...then get out while you can, or manage your time better. Otherwise you won't be chained to your desk anyway, you'll be fired.
Second, once you create some time, and you have some proper insight from the real wold, the trick is to THEN apply it to some of the accepted tools - use TGI, touchpoints or some survey, or street interviews to make what you've discovered easily digestible. The real craft of planners isn't to simply find a strategy, or insight nugget, it's to make it easy to buy for clients who don't like taking risks.
In other words, the real craft isn't about insight, it's about how you tell the story.
Which brings me to another relationship. The one with my 5 year old, Star Wars loving daughter. She's a little headstrong, I need to make her WANT to do things. How?
I tell her its what Rey would do.
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