“If I would have listened to the marketplace, I would have built a faster and cheaper horse.”
Not such a bad mind – that Henry Ford character. The Henry Ford quote also tells us a bit about planning. It tells us that planning is a creative process – a process where you don’t just ask, but you actually listen. And when you’ve listened, you don’t just make a fast and cheap horse. Instead, you interpret, you dream, and you innovate. You make a T-Ford. That’s what planning is.
The other day I met with an ad-agency in New York. It wasn’t just any ol’ agency, but a small agency with some of the worlds best creatives working there. It’s probably one of the companies in the world with the most creative genius per capita. They didn’t have much of a planning department, and I sensed a healthy skepticism to planners. It’s not surprising. They come from a culture where planning is separate from the creative process, where you’ll often end up with something that… looks like most advertising today. And if you are a very intuitive strategic creative, that must be madly frustrating.
Maybe planning is an obsolete term. Maybe we should introduce the agency model I suggested in an earlier post:
1. Administration (project- and relationship management)
2. Research (listening)
3. Communication Strategy (concept development)
4. Technical direction (technological innovation/evaluation/design)
5. Excecution (design, copy, directing, performing)
(Note that this is NOT a linear proces, but an iterative one).
I don’t believe that creativity is a random and unmanageable process. I think you can create a manageable process, institute measurable goals for creative production and then achieve them. And then you will achieve results. You’ll be rich. You’ll be famous.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Håller med dig till fullo. Överhuvudtaget känns det som om termer hindrar folk från att utvecklas och låser in dem i en viss position. Inom kommunikation måste man förstå varje del av processen. Ditt resonemang är helt klart intressant. Det räcker inte längre att bara förstå och specialisera sig på ett område. Och vi kanske borde tänka om helt och håller hur vi jobbar.
Tack för din kommentar. Den här branschen behöver obekväma människor som stör byråerna och utbildar/inspirerar marknadscheferna. På med hjälmen och benskyddan!
Vem är du, och kan jag läsa någonting du skriver någonstans?