Presentation on the 7 'deadly' sins of account planning given at the 2007 AAAA Account Planning Conference by Gareth Kay of Modernista! and ... less Mark Lewis of DDB San Francisco

1. seven deadly sins
gareth kay - head of planning, modernista!
mark lewis - planning director, ddb san francisco

2. people
against
lazy

3. quot;i'm just surprised that no-one's
thought of a better idea yet”
stephen king on planning

4. success?
“in most categories a brand’s market share is
stationary”
4 out of 5 categories seen as increasingly
homogeneous
less than 1 in 10 ads seen as different
4% response rate successful in dm
0.5% average click through rate for banners

6. we think we’re changing, but we are
what we do
old assumptions
old models of communication
old behavior
misplaced
action

7. deadly sin #1
living by old, unchallenged assumptions

8. is this it ??
awareness
interest
desire
action

9. we’ve based our thinking on an anomaly
now

11. a half century oddity
tv other communication
passive active
monologue dialogue
centralized decentralized
image substance
money stickiness
what ‘we’ do what you do to what
we do

12. deadly sin #2
we care about the wrong objectives

13. the usual suspects are wrong
awareness…
…when meaning and familiarity matter
more in our world of overchoice
attitude…
...attitude and attributes, adjusted for
size, don’t change
image…
…image doesn’t shift until after behavior

14. the real objective

15. energy
and the world is made of energy
and the world is electricity
and the world is made of energy
and there's a lot inside of you
and there's a lot inside of me
and the world is made of energy
and the world is synchronicity
and the world is made of energy
and there's a lot inside of you
and there's a lot inside of me

16. it’s not what you got, it’s how you use it
y&r’s bav found that a brand’s energy changes the dynamics of
differentiation and relevance
andrew ehrenberg: salience is what matters
hall & partners: momentum rules

17. Source: McKinsey Quarterly

18. ye can ney break the laws of physics Jim
low entropy high entropy

19. deadly sin #3
our craving for simplicity
and order of outcome

20. embrace complexity
randomness creates energy
culture craves complexity
the thrill of the new

21. information predictability…

22. …or information entropy
the more random the source of
information is, the higher it’s
entropy and the more information it
has

24. how does this fit?
brand onions, brand prints etc. are designed to force
consistency…
…but that means less energy

25. “consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative”

27. culture craves complexity
“it takes a thousand voices
to tell a single story”
native american saying

30. the thrill of the new

31. john grant and the molecule
specials eg
language, frappucino
eg ‘skinny’
habits
formation
‘my sister’
range
book
and options
book
barista
better reading
culture ordering
coffee system akelah and
mission
used grounds the bee
in store
for gardeners starbucks
performance
sofas and
company
and art
social starbucks
ambience
responsibility salon
africa 05
hearmusic
fair trade Xm
coffee
music cd
cause
burn your own
publicity
cd
in store

32. deadly sin #4
what’s the main message?

33. everything in its right place

34. the reality is everything is intertwingled

36. reality is more ambiguous
(especially in Italy)

39. knowledge vs. information
We work hard to find the right message, for the right target at the
right time
But this only works if the information’s and it’s value doesn’t
change once it’s in people’s hands (and it does)

40. from thinking to doing

41. deadly sin #5
self-importance

42. “people look at what interests them and sometimes it’s your ad.”
howard gossage
“often our biggest mistake as managers is believing that, in
general, customers care a lot about your brand. they do not.”
patrick barwise

43. it’s about having a social mission, not just
a commercial proposition
to get a marketing literate and resistant culture enthusiastic about your
brand, then your brand needs to have an enthusiasm bigger than your
category
create something of social meaning above your product or service
your point of view on real society and life, not Nielsen categories, allows
you to connect in mutually beneficial and contagious way
it’s about being useful to customers and relevant to your brand

44. real beauty, not moisturizer

45. heart health / cholesterol, not margarine

46. encourage messy play

47. good design is a right, not a privilege

48. against dirty

49. deadly sin #6
it’s the big things that matter

50. the world of fat tails

51. phase transitions
Change is never smooth, continuous or instant

52. complex systems, huge changes

53. we live in complex systems,
not unstable ones
why are we over complicating the input and
oversimplifying the outcomes???

54. we live in an unstable world
“i gave volunteers variations of a newspaper story describing an
assassination attempt on a fictitious president. those who were
given the version where the president died were significantly more
likely to attribute the event to a conspiracy than those who read
the one where the president survived, even though all other
aspects of the story were equivalent…
…to appreciate why this form of reasoning is seductive consider
the alternative: major events having minor or mundane causes - for
example, the assassination of a president by a single, possibly
mentally unstable, gunman, or the death of a princess because of
a drunk driver. this presents us with a rather chaotic and
unpredictable relationship between cause and effect. instability
makes most of us uncomfortable: we prefer to imagine we live in a
predictable safe world, so in a strange way, some conspiracy
theories offer us accounts of events that allow us to retain a sense
of safety and predictabilityquot;
patrick leman
Source: New Scientist, July 11 2007. Via Mark Earls:
http://herd.typepad.com/herd_the_hidden_truth_abo/2007/07/big-things-big-.html

57. deadly sin #7
learn then do

59. the 1 in 20 rule

61. so, in summary

62. Old assumptions
Wrong models
Misplaced doing
of thinking

63. seven deadly sins
1. old assumptions should remain unchallenged
2. awareness and image are the things that matter
3. simplicity, predictability and order exist
4. messaging works
5. what we do is important
6. focus on the big things
7. learn then do

64. seven ways to make brands and their
communication matter again
1. challenge (the old) assumptions
2. energy is what really matters
3. embrace complexity
4. be uncomplete
5. be humble
6. sweat the small stuff
7. DO then learn then DO again

65. “if you don’t like change, you’re
going to like irrelevance even less”
general eric shinseki

66. embrace uncertainty
forget the planning (sort of)
don’t predict (less theory)
get out there and try

67. transmission is not the only way
communication can work…
…through modeling
…as feedback
…by making you present
…by being interesting
quot;people will forget what you said, people will forget what you
did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
bonnie jean wasmund

68. planning for uncertainty
a linear process ! a continuous process of creation
presenting to clients ! co-creating with clients

69. planning for uncertainty
one size fits all campaign ! frequent micro-initiatives
big stuff ! small stuff
strategy to execution ! strategy in execution

70. energy ! noise
it’s not about getting noticed, it’s about demonstrating
motion

71. thank you
and be very
www.garethkay.com
www.planning-outside-in.blogspot.com