Account Planning

Account Planning

Before starting my advertising course, I wasn't sure exactly what the 'Account Planner' did.

AP is the area that should bring objectivity to the process, bringing the consumer into the equation and influencing the creative process. The Account Planner should find a key proposition that is motivating to the consumer, differentating from competitors and true to the product. Basically, it is finding the golden thread or key insight.

The role of the account planner is large, from chosing the target audience, understanding their key insights, determining a position for the brand, developing a communications strategy and setting media/creative stratgies. The part of the process that brings all of this together is 'the creative brief'.

Look out for a future post all about the process of 'the creative brief'.

Putting together a Portfolio

Check out the new post on the Creative page for tips on putting together a portfolio for the advertising industry.

Ambient - The Simpsons way...

I have just noticed this ambient advertising for The Simpsons on I Believe in Advertising.  From what i can tell, being sponsered by the government in the UK to help tackle obesity, doesn't really work when encouraging the public to take the escalator. Any thoughts on the brands contradicting message? For other bits of Ambient Advertising, have a look here: http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/category/ambient-outdoor/

So what is Media Planning???

Media Planning is one of the final steps in the advertising process. The ultimate purpose of a media planning company is to get an advert in the right place. That is, they strive to ensure that a suitable target audience is identified, analysed and the largest number of members belonging to that group see the ad in question. This is achieved through detailed research into the everyday lives of the target market particularly focusing upon their media habits, a typical housewife, for example, cannot be reached by advertising on Dave or in Men’s Fitness magazine.

Media Buyers, who actually purchase the advertising space for brands, strive to get the best deal with media owners, with which they build an ongoing professional relationship over time; after all, many brands require the national reach The Times can offer for example and so buyers are in constant contact with titles such as this. 


Attending Bournemouth University and completing a degree in Advertising and Marketing requires students to complete a minimum of 6 weeks work experience. I completed my placement at MediaCom, a media planning agency and would just like to introduce the company before going on to describe media planning and buying in more depth in further posts! 


MediaCom is a media agency owned by GroupM, the number one trading group in the market. MediaCom spends the most money annually than any other agency in the UK (£937m in 2009). It is proud of the long term client relationships it maintains, for example working for P&G for 41 years and Universal for 23. It’s offices in Dublin, Edinburgh, Manchester, London and around the world all share the same aims and objectives. 


The agency strives to keep its reputation as the “Campaign Media Agency of the Decade”. As the market grows in a way that makes it harder to cut through, MediaCom’s company vision is “leading the industry in the age of dialogue” whereby it finds new and innovative ways to communicate to consumers. One of its vital objectives is to focus on non-traditional advertising and emerging media, such as mobile phones, iPad and iPhone applications and Social Networks. MediaCom has a full proof structure which carries a client from team to team throughout the organisation, from researching the brand, right up until post campaign analysis by the buying team. 


Consumers are always maintained at the heart of the MediaCom process, and they have 5 main brand values by which they stick; accountability, passion, creativity, ahead of the game and straight talking.

Find Your Route Into Advertising - List of Top 50 Ad Blogs

Here is a list of the Top 50 Advertising Blogs, this should give those looking into the advertising business an idea of the different routes that can be taken...often you may not realise that advertising is not just the creative department, there are many roles.

If you want like the look of one, there are different routes to get into each area, ranging from a more online media focus or creative art focus. Check the list out and see which you would be most interested in as a starting point. http://www.spotlightideas.co.uk/?p=909

Some of these blogs that I particually like are...

AdFreak - http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak 
Adverblog (which has a wide range of areas covered) http://www.adverblog.com/
Confessions of an Advertising Student (an ad students views on recent ads and industry related blogs)  - http://confessionsofanadvertisingstudent.wordpress.com

Can you measure creativity

The arts institute over in Canadaland think you can

http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_test.htm

take the test to see which side of your brain is dominant and what type of thinker you are. It's pretty long winded but the results are quite interested. I'm not too sure about the wording of the responses though :)

Food for thought....

Really interesting talk by Ken Robinson on creativity within today's education system. Clearly something needs to change. What are your thoughts on this??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY