Strategic Planning in Digital Ad Agencies

Traditionally account management, creative and media were the three powerhouses of an agency, however in the 1970s ad agencies in the UK recognised the need for an additional function that sought to bring together these elements in order to drive strategy and focus for campaigns.  This led to the development of what we now refer to as Strategic Planning or Account Planning and is pivotal to the advertising process.  Account planning can vary from agency to agency, but typically account planners are concerned with the consumer’s point of view and insert the consumer’s viewpoint all along the advertising strategy and creation.  They work closely with the creative team and through research and insights they serve as the voice of the consumer. The kind of person that makes a good planner is one who understands what makes consumers tick, they ‘get’ what they’re into and have strong research skills. Unlike a market researcher who post hoc will assess the success of a campaign, a planner has input at every stage of the process.

So what’s the big deal? Are planners not just glorified qualitative researchers? These are the kind of criticisms that are commonly levelled at the planning function.  Pardon the cliché, but we now live in an information age so there’s an even greater need for this information to be distilled and disseminated so that it is meaningful and useful in isolating key trends and developing campaigns.

For digital agencies, it is key that strategists are part of the production process so that digital platforms are developed that take clients into the future. Account planners/strategists use information to develop campaigns that are relevant to their audience which in turn increases engagement and develops communities for the clients’ customers and fans. And because planning is literally about thinking ahead and embracing change, it becomes an even more essential function in the dynamic and ever-evolving digital agency. 

Wedding music

Very recently I was at a wedding in Italy (fabulous in every sense of the word), but while there I got thinking about the kind of music that people choose for the afters of their nuptials. See, the thing is, quite often the whole music set-up is not great.  If there's one thing that makes a wedding for me is the fact that I can get up and dance around like a mad eejit for two or three hours.  I'm not particularly fussy either; I'll dance to any old cheese, in fact the cheesier the better. But unfortunately many weddings fall short in the music department.


Now this is not because the bands have lacked musical talent or anything like that; it's generally because of other things going on. For example, I've been to numerous weddings where there were only a small handful of people getting their groove on because everyone else had congregated in an entirely different room (most probably close to the bar). It doesn't matter how good the band are, no amount of talent can make up for the fact that it's no fun dancing with just one or two others.  Or there was another wedding where two very talented boys played all their heartfelt tunes on acoustic guitars.  I don't fault their musicability, but seriously, who wants to hear that kind of music at a wedding? This is not at all conducive to a boogie and a complete and utter party killer.  There have also been weddings where I can't remember the music at all.  Maybe I was a little inebriated?  To be honest, that's unlikely to explain my memory loss as no matter what the wedding I'm likely to be fairly merry.  Also, there have been a few weddings where I've been completely blown away by the entertainment so drink can't be blamed for any forgetfulness.


Top of the list has to be the wedding where Smash Hits played. The place absolutely rocked, people raving, moshing, doing the whole 'big box little box' moves and generally just going a bit mental.  Shame I was in a velvet dress (don't judge, it was classy) because I was a sweaty mess (which is not at all classy).  Or more recently, at the wedding in Italy they had a local band playing loads of hits followed by a playlist of all our own music we'd compiled via a Facebook group.  Everyone likes having a sense of ownership eh?  Another great one was an impromptu band named Wed, Wed, Wed.  In their younger years they'd done a few gigs together and they used to do a few songs of their own but on the whole they mostly did covers.  Needless to say they never went anywhere because they were a bit crap but as a wedding band they were amazing!  Not always in tune, not always in time either, but their sheer energy and their random comedic injections were the source of much hilarity and fun having.


Fortunately I'm not in the market for a wedding band so I don't have the pressure to choose a band that creates a night to remember.  But in the event that I do, I think I'd go for a band that guarantees the best craic.  That seems to be the common denominator.


Written while listening to my Cheesey Rock Playlist - songs include: Need You Tonight (INXS), Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns n' Roses), We Built This City (Starship), Straight Up (Paula Abdul), Just Can't Get Enough (Depeche Mode) and Raspberry Beret (Prince) to name a few...

Surplus - Google+ extension for Chrome

One thing I've noticed about Google+ is that it does not give you notifications in the Tab in the same way that Facebook, Twitter or even Gmail does. 


Take a look at the image below (you might need to click on it to make it a bit bigger), check out the Gmail tab and you can see that I've just received one new mail, as it happens, this email is a Google+ notification, yet, the Google+ tab does not include a (1) on it.

However a clever little extension developed by antimatter15.com integrates Google+ into Chrome. So...if you look to the right of the address/search bar you will see a little '1' in red box and that's my notification.


Nice :) 

YΔCHT - Shangri-La Review

I really don't know what it is about DFA, but I tend to really like everyone that's signed to them.  My most recent crush is YΔCHT, an electropop duo from Portland, Oregon.  While they seem to be around for quite a few years, they only came to my attention after the recent release of their fifth album Shangri-La.


Given the layered, post-punk electro vibe of their sound, I'm assuming their influences include Blondie, Talking Heads and quite definitely LCD Soundsystem - the granddaddy of their label.  Claire C. Evans contributes most of the vocals on this album which bear similarities to Annie Lennox's contralto tones (albeit not nearly as tuneful).  However, in Paradise Engineering she assumes the role of a female rapper which leads to obvious comparisons to Debbie Harry, or to James Murphy himself. In fact, the beats (e.g. cowbells) and bass on this track are almost identical to LCD's Us v. Them on Sound of Silver, or to Pow Pow on This is Happening.


As a starter point I would recommend Dystopia; this is a track that grabs hold of you in an almost visceral way and stands out as an obvious single. Unfortunately for YΔCHT, rumors have been flying around the internet that the main hook in Dystopia makes reference to a song called 'Fire, Water, Burn' by that awful rap/rock ensemble the Bloodhound Gang which, needless to say, has been wholeheartedly denied by YΔCHT. Mind, after having listened to 'Fire, Water, Burn' I can see the lyrical parallel between the two but I'm sure this is just a coincidence as I cannot for the life of me see why the likes of YΔCHT would want to associate themselves with a band who are almost their antithesis in every way.


One hugely redeeming feature of this song is the nicely animated two-track video of Utopia and Dystopia which can be viewed here (this is the clean version):



Utopia / Dystopia (The Earth Is On Fire) (Clean Version) from DFA Records on Vimeo.



While this album will not win any prizes for originality, it remains a catchy, foot tapping, listenable album that is worth a whirl.


Best tracks: Dystopia, Paradise Engineering, Tripped and Fell in Love, Shangri-La

Radio Soulwax

DJs extraordinaire, 2manyDJs launched Radio Soulwax today which is a 24-hour mashup masterpiece.  It can be accessed directly through their site, http://www.radiosoulwax.com/, or through their iPhone and Android app.  The app is particularly cool as it provides a download option as well.

Loving it so far! 

More thoughts on Google+

As with Blogger, Google+ is really nicely integrated with YouTube, but what would you expect seeing as they own both? Image here:

I'm sure it's deliberate in that they didn't want to clone Facebook entirely, but there's no 'Like' button. Instead they have a +1 option which publicly shows what you like, agree with or recommend.  Unlike the traditional Like button, if a person was to happen upon the content that you '+1'd' (is that a new verb now?), they will be linked back to your profile. You can also make all your +1s public to people in your circle on your profile, however this is not a default setting.


As expected you can directly access Google+ anywhere in Google by clicking on the 'Yourname +' button on the top left-hand corner of your browser. Although for some reason this isn't the case for Calendar, you have to access it via the Sharing section on the top right hand corner.


Which brings me onto the Sharing function, I really like that you can share (status update if we are to use Facebook terminology) from anywhere in Google, without having to have open a separate tab/window.


When in Google+ there is no Home button and I very presumptuously jumped to the conclusion that the UI was a little clunky, however, I just discovered that you can revert back to your stream by clicking the Google+ no matter where you are - neat!


And finally, I'd just like to make a correction to my last post - I had assumed that you cannot see what your profile looks like to other users.  Apparently you can by going to https://plus.google.com/settings/privacy or, and this is a lot easier than Facebook's version, you can go to your Profile and underneath the Edit Profile button there's a 'View profile as' option, all you need to do is enter the user's name and voila!

Google+

Apart from feeling quite privileged to have it (yes, I'm a complete nerd), I really don't know what I think about Google+. Now, this isn't because there are a very limited number of people on it, and activity is definitely slack, it's because I think it lacks some of the functionality that Facebook offers.


Firstly, you cannot hide 'all posts from this user', the only options it gives are 'Report abuse', 'Mute this post' and 'Block this person'. Maybe this is a feature that'll be added later, who knows. See image below:

You also cannot see what your profile looks like to different people in the way Facebook does (this point is corrected and discussed in my next blogpost).


One nice thing about it is that it seems to be very open in the way Twitter is so there's no need for friend requests, you can just add people to your circles as you wish and they can reciprocate the gesture if they like.

Hello and welcome!

While watching the insanely accurate/funny Being a Dickhead’s Cool for about the millionth time, I decided, ironically, that I would start my own blog. 

The purpose of this blog is to comment on new (and old) music, emerging trends in digital media and also to randomly waffle about anything else that takes my fancy.  

So to get the ball rolling, here is the offending video which led me to this: