Presentation given to the APG Spain on Oct 23rd 2017 - content slightly tweaked for a Spanish audience but basically introducing them to 98% Pure Potato and the reason why the key questions of account planning are as relevant today as when Stephen King thought them up 50 years ago

1. John Griffiths
Oct 23rd 2017

2. 2018 – the anniversary year

3. We need to talk..
 About the ideas that led to the invention of
account planning
 About the people who made it happen
 About whether planning is a success of a
failure
 And about the book which tells how it
happened..
 But first.. What about the name – what is
with potatoes?

5. Smash Martians
 A long running campaign created
by Boase Massimi Pollitt
 For a Cadbury instant potato product
 Winner of the poll: Ads most loved
by the UK public
 One of the first campaigns planners worked on
 The ads which started qualitative pretesting
 John Bartle was the client research manager at
Cadburys before he went to TBWA then founded BBH.
He wrote the foreword to the book
 98% Pure Potato was a joke in some of the ads

6. Why call the book 98% Pure Potato?
 It’s a scientific joke! Catches the idea of
making something right ‘–ish’
 British humour – planning started in London
(a very British invention)
 The book was crowd funded –
so the publisher didn’t make us
use a snappy title like
The invention of account
planning to make it easier to
locate among the other
boring business titles!)

7. Smashing Mad Men (and women!)

8. We need to talk about Mad Men
 The TV series which defined 60s advertising
but which was really all about the 1950s
 American corporatism
 The art of the hustle
 Post-rationalisation
 Sophistication – those martinis and bourbons
 Sexism – women as objects and 2nd string
(oh and dumb housewives)
 Madmen is the way popular culture
remembers a golden age of advertising

10. Enter the Britpack
 Its about energy
 Intellect – with evidence
 Irreverence and humour
 It doesn’t like American corporatism –
actually it wants to challenge US dominance
 It takes women seriously as colleagues and
as consumers of products and advertising
 It uses qualitative research to answer the
why questions that surveys can’t

11. The authors..
Tracey Follows John Griffiths

12. So we wrote this book
 Co written with Tracey Follows
the then chair of APG London
and CSO of J Walter Thompson
(now she is a futurist)
 Published in July 2016
 Crowdfunded by Unbound,
distributed by Penguin Random
..which tells the story of how
account planning began by letting
those who did it tell the story

13. What is it?
21 interviews with the earliest planners we could find at
J Walter Thompson and Boase Massimi Pollitt – with a
sideways glance at CDP
9 interviews with expert observers: creatives, agency
managers, researchers, suits, clients – even Stanley
Pollitt’s daughters
Time period: 1963-1980

14. Our interviewees include thought leaders
who have founded some of the UK’s most
successful advertising agencies
 Boase Massimi Pollitt
 Gold Greenlees Trott
 Lowe Howard Spink
 Butterfield Day Devito Hockney
 Bartle Bogle Hegarty
 Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury

15. Why we wrote the book
From tablets of stone
To oral history
Avoiding hagiograpy
Not a text book. Or a history book either
But a way to learn about the founding principles

16. No other account planning book does this
2007 20081998 200019971987 2015
2016
This is a one off!

17. Estoy buscando
un traductor!

18. What the book covers
The story of how it started
 What they actually did day to day
 Who they admired the most and why
 What they’re most proud of
 What they regret
How it relates to today’s realities for planners
 Skillsets
 Working with creatives
 Working with clients
 Building departments and culture

19. BACKGROUND TO THE START
OF ACCOUNT PLANNING

20. Rebellion against ‘scientific advertising’
How will people respond to advertising?
(American!)
^
What is the role of the advertising?
Hello Google,
Facebook,
Twitter
Instagram…

21. Advertising in the
cultural mainstream
The ads were better than the programmes..

22. Planning seen as an intellectual activity..
for {Oxford and Cambridge} graduates
Actually they weren’t as much of an elite
as they told you
(Maths A level)

23. Two distinctive founders
in two very different agencies
Stephen King Stanley Pollitt
Whose proteges were better planners than they were..
J Walter Thompson Boase Massimi Pollitt (now DDB)

24. The godfathers– creative leaders who
supported account planning!
The creative who co-creates
ads with customers
The twin who partners to
sell in target response thinking
and the power of the brand
John Webster Jeremy Bullmore
Creative directors at BMP and JWT

25. The function aligns with the business
model of each agency
JWT: no 1 UK agency BMP: the startup

26. The difference between JWT and BMP
 No 1 UK agency vs Start up
 Long term client relationships vs pitches
 Brand building vs Breakthrough advertising
 Marketing support vs Advertising specialist
‘Ad tweakers versus grand strategists?’
One of the goals of the book was to break through the mythology
of the standoff between the 2 agencies vis a vis account planning

27. No one type of planner
“I have no idea what makes a good planner but it seems to me you might
do. Do you want to come and work for me?” Stephen King offering Lee
Godden a job
“I was always positioned as a planner because my skills from the theatre
were artistic and my experience in a scientific laboratory were relevant. And
it seemed to work. But its quite important that planners which made it had
abilities both in the analytical scientific side and the creative side of things,
creative sensitivity. And that was me.” Jim Williams
“I worked with Ev in the same group for many years and what was fantastic
was the way she built a close relationship with creatives and getting them
to think her way.” Terry Prue

28. No one style of planning
At least 5 of the interviewees had trained planners around global networks

29. The twin hypotheses
 Planning is a global success – they even call planners strategists
now!
 Planning is a craven failure. It should be closed tomorrow to
save money – it makes no visible difference to quality

30. Account planning/strategy is an
established function – a global success
 Found all over the world
 In every kind of agency
 In many different roles
 BBC has planners – to manage audiences
 So does Ford and Diageo – marketing
companies. And Twitter

31. BUT
 Advertising a low margin business
 Planners have been corrupted by
 Post rationalisation and selling ads
 Where is the focus on the customer?
 Behaviourism has replaced cognitive models
 Bogus quant measures – pretesting, ad exposure,
big data
 Big agency networks and monopolistic media
companies (where are the startups?)
 Lots of terrible ads – with planning input!

32. SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER..

33. What planners are made of
ANALYTICAL +
CREATIVE
(this is essential)

34. The higher powers
 The terrier mentality
 The listening planner
 The spare pair of hands
 The persuaders
 Those who improve the
quality of the conversation
(Skills only Jedi planners possess)

35. Looking forward – Tracey’s take
 How to develop planning talent
 Strategy – move up the food chain or
towards execution?
 Creative briefing: experimentation vs
effectiveness
 Consumers – humanity vs technology
 Planning consultancy or culture

36. Planning a
British invention!
 Modern business, marketing, advertising,
market research started in the USA
 But account planning is a British invention –
the last significant innovation in how agencies
are staffed in the last 50 years
 Account planning is a heresy – it couldn’t be
invented in the USA

37. Measurement and evaluation
 Needs to measure real behaviour (not just
clicks) and intentions
 Know the limitations: what % contribution
does an egg make to tortilla espanola?
 Measurement has a cost. More measures =
less effective
 Measurement can
become a neurosis
detached from the
business

38. Consumer responsiveness is the original
and best planning idea – USE IT!
Customer feedback about products and advertising

39. The next book is about strategists in beehives
and a social model of planning:
“Its not how much nectar you find.
But how much you persuade others to carry”
Dancer (forager)
Dance Followers
(unemployed foragers)
WAGGLEDANCERS

40. The book that explains what
account planning is for (without
being a text book or a history book)

41. Get yourself a copy
And buy one for a friend!
Tracey Follows John Griffiths
publisher
distributor
‘This book needs to read by everybody who cares about planning’ Sarah Newman APG
hardback or ebook format