The other part of me - by far the larger part - is still in love with planning and, as such, I felt very privileged to be a judge at this year's Account Planning Group (APG) awards. This really is the 'World Cup' of the planning art, and the 25 presentations I sat through over two days underlined the incredibly varied ways this sometimes nebulous discipline can make the difference between conventional competence and inspired brilliance.
As a digital practitioner, however, I was slightly perturbed that only one of the 153 entries to make it the shortlist stage was by a digital agency - and Tribal DDB is, after all, part of a wider agency that is one of the two birthplaces of planning. So what does this say about the state of planning in digital?
The obvious conclusion is it's in a pretty parlous state, but I'm not sure that would be entirely fair. Digital agencies are relatively new to planning, and much of what they do might go unrecognised by planning's creators, Stanley Pollitt and Stephen King.
What's interesting, though, is that planners in more generalist agencies are behaving more like their digital counterparts. They aren't just analysing and facilitating, they're getting their hands dirty - working closer than ever with the creatives to define and refine the idea; informing the channel choice and campaign format, as well as the message; and collaborating with consumers to manage and develop ongoing campaigns.
In the context of the APG awards, this sort of stuff is fascinating because it's new. But I suspect many planners within digital agencies don't realise this, and therefore don't attribute enough value to what they do, day in day out. Certainly, they failed to articulate that value this year. Next time around, I hope they find their voice.
While they're at it, though, they should also seek to nurture the oldest planning virtue of all - because what resonated loudest for me, amid all the spangly newness, was the critical role played by inquisitive, intelligent research. This is still where planners make the most difference - both in unearthing original insight and in marshalling hard evidence to persuade clients to be bold.
If your planners aren't doing this, then you really do have a definition problem. In fact, you should probably drop the word from their job titles, too.
John Owen, joint managing partner, Dare, john.owen@haymarket.com.
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