Planning is bigger thinking
Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone’s week has started out on the right foot. Today’s interview is all about the planning job market and looking at planning from a broader perspective.
I recently happened upon a piece in Advertising Week’s blog, that was an interview with an up and coming Strategic Planner named Cristina Pansolini. I asked Cristina to interview for this project, and although she was unavailable for an interview, she got me in contact with a few of her colleges, the interviewee for this piece being one of them. So a big thank you to Cristina for her generosity, it means a lot.
Today’s interview comes from Steffan Bankier, a Strategic Planner at Saatchi & Saatchi. A bit of background, Steffan went to the University of Pennsylvania and majored in Visual Studies with a minor in Consumer Psych. After some planning internships and a job as a Jr. Planner at Wunderman for 9 months, Steffan moved to Saatchi where he’s had a chance to work on some more broad planning opportunities. His views on planning?
“…I think it is most effectively used on larger scale issues, like branding and business development, where it combines psychology with business and helps brands and products identify new growth areas. Sadly, I think a lot of smart planning is lost when working on smaller tasks, like developing an ad within a campaign or trying to find an insight to paste into a brief. The planning job is so new and broadly defined, that I feel that many times, it can become so diluted that the fresh and insightful thinking that goes into the work can quickly be erased. Hence why I think it is most useful when used on a macro, strategic scale beyond making spots.”
As of late, I’ve been tailoring my interview questions to the people I’m talking to, (more on that later.) So for this interview, I was curious to know more about the following. Enjoy, and send me your thoughts and feedback, I’d love to hear from you.
1. What was it like pursuing a career in planning, not having a degree in advertising? Did you find that it was easy to land an internship/job? Difficult? Why?
Other than connections, the only benefit of majoring in advertising is that you learn the lingo which makes you look like you know what you’re talking about. I think for planners especially, the more far out the major the better-it gives you a fresh and unique outlook. Landing a job is always hard. However, more and more agencies seem to be hiring at the Junior level, and getting an agency internship in any role can always help get your foot in the door for when the time comes to land a job. To be honest, most of the Junior Planning jobs and internships seem to be very hit or miss. I’ve heard great things, and then again, I’ve also heard shockingly bad things.
2. How does your background in visual studies and consumer psych help you with planning?
Visual Studies and Consumer Psych allowed me to customize my learning and cover a lot of ground. They’re also great because people always ask what it is, which gives me the stage to talk about my background and tailor it to the specific situation. In an interview, this is crucial. Consumer Psych helps me understand what people want, Visual Studies helps me understand how to scratch that itch. I also learned a ton through my thesis, which got me excited about how the internet is drastically changing our habits and how we can improve the world, (make money), by predicting these future needs.
3. What’s a recent problem you’ve had to solve, and how did you solve it?
Last week I was putting together a deck and needed to find sales results for a specific product. The company didn’t share its records, so I called them up and told them I was a Senior Planner at Saatchi & Saatchi and was putting together a deck about best in class branding and was hoping to get some of their numbers. The CMO got back to me within the hour and sent it all over the next day. Sadly, that part got cut, but the guys were very helpful and their food bars are killing it apparently.
4. What is your philosophy on brand identity/development in relation to planning?
If used early enough, planning can make or break a brand. Smart planning can raise your brand above the competition or help identify new needs and opportunities. When a brand is young and still identifying its products, its messaging and its strategy, planning can help keep this focused on a single purpose. This helps guide future decisions while giving the brand meaning beyond selling a product or service.
5. When is planning the most effective, and when is it the least?
Too many times planning comes in too late, or isn’t given enough emphasis to really make a difference. You can’t expect a planner to come in and salvage a brand that has already spent years entrenching itself into a position. Big companies dislike change, and I get that to some extent. I love when a company has been making the same products, the same way, with the same type of ads, but wants the planners to “come up with a big idea” to change everything. If they are trying to improve, it should be a given that things will need to change. And small changes rarely get noticed. Using insights to create another iteration of the same ad will only get you so far. Planning is bigger thinking, and big thinking should come in as early as possible, especially with companies who fear change.
