Three cheers to PSFK and Redscout for their thought-provoking SPUR series, which looked at Account (or Brand) Planning. The final segment talks abou the future of Planning:

I’m not sure what the future of Planning is, but I know this: The friends I have who act as planners – whether they have that exact title or not – are some of the smartest, most creative people I know.  They are thinking, and crucially doing exciting, innovative things that have a direct impact on how brands communicate to consumers.

Cool glasses? Check. English accent? Check. Must be a Planner. (Gareth Kay of Goodby Silverstein)

As tools, methodologies and economic & social dynamics change it is the planners and other brand strategists that will set the course.  If I had to take a guess, I’d say look for planners to start popping up in roles outside of traditional agencies, or even ad agencies at all. Digital shops, PR firms, design houses, retail… Planners can play a role in all these areas as all aspects of business become connected.

If you’ve got a brand planner hang on to her; if you don’t have one, get one.

If you work at an ad agency, the role of the strategic (or account) planner is well known to you. Originally conceived by J. Walter Thompson and Boase Massimi Pollitt in the UK in the 1960s, the discipline has played an increasingly important role in advertising over the years.  If you want to read the definitive book on the subject, check out Truth, Lies and Advertising by Jon Steel. More great planner info and resources at the Plannersphere wiki and the Plannersphere Ning group.

A couple of developments in the world of planning recently that I thought were worth sharing. First, PSFK, in conjunction with RedScout, has a tremendous video series on planning. They gathered the smartest folks and asked some intriguing questions. The video series is called Spur, here’s the intro video:

Watch episode 1, Is planning impotent? Overcoming planning’s identity crisis here. Episode 2 is entitled, “Talent.”

In other planning news, Mike Arauz from Undercurrent has been doing what Mike Arauz does; ask penetrating questions that challenge our notion of the status quo. First he asks, “What is strategic planning?” then follows that up with “On strategic planning (again…)”

It’s an interesting time for agencies of all stripes. The ones that will survive are those that have the courage to ask tough questions of themselves and adapt to the needs to the clients.

Occasionally a topic comes up that inspires a longer post with commentary and viewpoints beyond my own. With so much talk recently about crowdsourcing it seemed like a good time to really tackle the issue. I’m positively thrilled to have input from some of the top minds in advertising and marketing communications contribute to this post. I want to thank Johnny Vulkan, Cliff Lewis, Evan Fry & Aaron Bateman who provided thoughtful commentary to this post as well as those who I have linked to for adding their insight to the discussion. I encourage you to print it out, bookmark, and of course share it with others.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF CROWDSOURCING

It's all his fault

If it seems like you’ve been hearing a lot about crowdsourcing lately, it’s because you have.  Crowdsourcing is one of those buzz words, like synergy or viral that people are throwing around now to cover just about anything.  According to Wikipedia, the term was coined in a June 2006 Wired magazine article by Jeff Howe.

My first experience with the concept came when I participated in The Beast, the Alternate Reality Game tied to the Steven Spielberg movie, A.I., back in 2001. As a member of the 6,000+ strong  Cloudmakers group, I joined fans from across the world to solve puzzles and interact within this fantastic fictional world. We worked together to create a ‘collective detective’ that competed against the puzzle makers, not against each other, and it was brilliant.

And now crowdsourcing is very much in vogue. Howe took the concept and ran with it, turning it into a book, as did James Surowiecki with his tome, The Wisdom of Crowds.

THE CREATIVE INDUSTRY EMBRACES CROWDSOURCING

Crowdsourcing is gaining steam within the advertising agency community at the same time as another issue becomes more pressing - the broken agency business model. Shops big and small, from a variety of industries (ad, PR, digital) are all looking to do things differently. Earlier this year Agency Nil took a bold stand with their “Will work for all it’s worth” manifesto. That was followed by the recent launch of Victors & Spoils, which somewhat boldly bills itself as The world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles.

PSFK has more on Agency Nil here, and George  Parker sounds off on Victors & Spoils via PSFK here. Other great takes include Amadeo Plaza of Crayon on V&S and Contagious takes a look at V&S here. BBH Labs on Agency Nil here and here. You can read my interview with Alex Bogusky of CP+B and Hank Leber, founder of Agency Nil, here regarding agency business models. The Proffesional Artists League is taking a pretty strong stand against Work-for-Hire which can be interpreted as crowdsourcing. Take a look at their POV here.

AdAge is currently running a poll (through Nov. 6) asking if crowdsourcing is a threat to agencies.

BRANDS JOIN IN ON THE ACTION

I’m excited to see really smart people like the ones at AN and V&S make bold moves like this. Creative industries need this sort of thinking to keep them from stagnating. But here’s where it gets interesting. If you’re going to crowdsource, why does the client even need a middle man like V&S? Mountain Dew seems to have asked that question and come up with the answer: They don’t.

As part of their Dewmocracy campaign, the fizzy beverage is crowdsourcing their new TV ad. From the website:

Mountain Dew asked their biggest fans to band together and create the next DEW, from the flavors to the TV ads. Now’s your chance to get involved.

1) Create A DEW Spot
Direct, shoot and edit a 12-second DEW spot that shows off your skills.

2) Upload it
Your 12-second video must be submitted here by 11.30.09

3) Cross Your Fingers
Approved videos will be added to the gallery to be voted on by DEW fans. When voting closes, the six leading submissions will be revealed. In the end, three finalists will be selected to receive funding for a :15 TV DEW spot.

Once again the indespensible PSFK has more here. From the PSFK piece:

The brand insists this initiative will not impact its relationship with agency of record BBDO Worldwide, who has been involved with Dewmocracy from the start and will continue to play an important role in the process.

I don’t think this is a threat to BBDO, but is it a threat to V&S?

Apparently this whole crowdsource thing is a big hit with the junk food crowd as Snickers is in on the action as well. [Disclosure, my agency, Taylor, does some work with Mars, but is not involved with this project]. Another crowdsource effort comes from Genesis Today, who will award $10,000 for a good Social Media idea.

After the jump, insight from principals at Agency Nil, Victors & Spoils and Anomaly as well as agency biz model gadfly Agency Future.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a little while since I’ve written a love letter to PSFK, but they’ve recently knocked out several things worth taking a look at. Now, there are plenty of sites out there that aggregate good content, but PSFK always seem to find stuff I dont’ see elsewhere:

What does the future of Urban Design look like? From an i09 article.

Nicko Margolies and Christine Huang riff on the Telegraph’s article of 50 Things that are killing the Internet.

And finally, PSFK impresario Piers Fawkes was asked by (must read) Monocle magazine to give his thoughts on luxury and fashion in NYC. Make sure you grab Monocle too read the full article.

Generallisimo Francisco Franco is dead!?!??

Just a quick note on some recent stuff I came across…

I’m a big fan of people who actually do, and don’t just run their mouths. That’s why I love folks like PSFK and Rob Walker.

PSFK’s next Good Ideas Salon on August 20 is already sold out, but keep an eye out for the Oct event featuring Jan Chipchase.

Rob’s got some great side projects going on right now, find out the latest here.

Joe Jaffe from Crayon says it’s the Year of the Mobile in his latest Jaffe JuiceTV spot.

The gang over at Deep Focus has been very busy as Mad Men Season 3 kicks off Sunday night on AMC.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Nice kit, they'll still bottle it in the quarter-finals

PSFK (them again?!) points to Umbro’s recent launch of the newest England National Team kit: Extending the England Football Brand.  Umbro, a legendary name in football apparel, has created a specific site for the new kit, Tailored by England, a blog, as well as a pop-up store in London.

The Tailored by England site has a real interesting navigation and there are some great behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube, including:

Some really strong content marketing from the folks at Umbro. A football fan could spend a lot of time on the site and watching the videos. It doesn’t hurt when the teams wins 4-0 on their debut in the shirts either.