Dove Men Care

Not strictly related to this blog but Dove Men Care reminds me of something. I know that there is a growing market for male skin care and that the Dove brand is well placed to deliver the products. But the brand has recently defined itself by its Campaign for Real Beauty featuring ‘real’ women. This is great and strong. But it kinda gets in the way of launching a mens range.

I am reminded of the time when the manager responsible for Wash & Go, the brand built on the benefit of  needing only one bottle in the shower, insisted to me that the obvious next extension to the Wash & Go range should be a separate Shampoo and Conditioner. Apparently as a brand we underperformed in these sectors….

Good luck to the Co-Creation Hub

Some agencies are getting together to create a new model for clients as reported in Marketing Week. The collaborative approach is great and real-time thinking appears to be built into the model. However whilst I wish them luck I can’t help but feel this has been tried in various ways before. Holding companies have tried to facilitate this type of collaboration, The Sandpit at FCB was another example, the Engine Group are facing some challenges.

The difference here is that the world has moved on and the principles of co-creation are better understood and familiar to more people. I am sure those involved have thought through the challenges they will face and solved these problems. Also interesting that planning is central to the concept.

The biggest problem seems to come down to who has the client relationship and how to split the revenue. This is why I am intrigued by the thought that planners could act as the connective tissue, almost below the radar, revenue neutral. Are planners key to achieving real collaboration without running into the same political barriers and self-interest that has hindered these approaches in the past?

Helge Tennø on The future of Planning?

There are thoughts here on diversity, collaboration and strategy & creative together from Helge and others featured in the Redscout video. I agree that planning has a fundamental role to play in the modern agency. There are still many views as to the future role of planning but I am hearing a common theme. Whatever role planning has to play it should be a more active role.

Danny Whatmough – will marketing die in 2010?

Not so much the death of marketing but certainly a change. Danny Whatmough considers the future of marketing and one of his conclusions is that we will need to be more responsive. Thinking and acting in real time will drive the way we develop and implement our communications.

John Willshire on invisible planners

Some interesting thoughts on the role of planning from John here. Planning should only be noticed when it is not there and its focus should be preparing the ground for others. I think though that this applies not just within agencies but between agencies. Planners working together across disciplines can make things work better and help join things up. When it works the individual agencies don’t notice it but when it is missing we feel the pain.

Sue Imgrund on planners diversity

Thought this post from Sue Imgrund on Extrawurst makes a good point. Planners have always been called upon to turn their hand to a huge variety of tasks. Perhaps as agencies have become more specialised we have lost sight of this. We may still spend a good deal of time outside our comfort zone but as our comfort zones become smaller, stepping outside doesn’t take us very far.

Diverse experience helps give us the confidence to feel uncomfortable.

Alan Mitchel on VPI – Who controls the data is king

Data is power. I think that there will be seismic shifts in the balance of power over the next few years and data ownership will play a big part. We will all need to spend much more time thinking about this stuff.

This is a concise POV from Alan Mitchel.

Sue Unerman and Will Harris on real time thinking

To start off a piece in Media Week. Real time insight leads us to re-think how to go about planning communications.  This presents some pretty hefty challenges to the way we are organised.

I was interested in Will Harris’ solution for Nokia which he presented at the BoBT. He is going to take individuals from different agencies and have them work in a room together. This will be managed more like a magazine with weekly editorial meetings reviewing options and planning actions for the following week. As he admits, it may not work but we have to try different models and find out.

This blog

I am going to post here links which relate to the points made in the Declaration of Interdependence. The topic areas I am keen to explore are;

the need for diversity in planning
behavioural change thinking
real time thinking & planning
strategy & creative coming together

If you come accross anything related to these themes then please let me know.

Also blogging

Justin Bassini and Robin Wight both tempted you to their blogs. Here is where you can find them. escapingthematrix.basini.com and  http://saveadvertising.co.uk/