Sunday 13 January 2013

So, you want to work in Planning?

Mmm, yellow fats. A classic planning problem.

Hello all.

I'd say about half of the emails I receive about getting into advertising relate to planning.

And, being a planner myself, I'm more than happy to offer advice, especially as it's a tricky line of work to get into. When I was trying to get into it, I read an awful lot of Russell Davies's blog (the planner who did a lot of very good work on Nike and Honda, amongst others) - and, I think, is still a good resource. Additionally, the London Strategy Unit has begun to run a short course for wannabe planners that you should check out.

Planning is always a hard thing to write about, much less explain coherently (though the APG has a brilliant guidebook on it) if you've never done it. And, for most of the folks reading this, the opportunity to do planning is fairly remote.

Now, when you're in the job as a junior planner, there's a post in the AdGrads archives that might be useful. But for those who've never had to write a planning presentation, or want to understand what goes into it, I've written a short presentation to help show how you'd put something together to show your client, and set up what the creative work will be - along with a communications plan, something to  indicate how you'd spend the media money in an ideal world.

I thought it would be a good idea to pick a brand and answer a fictional problem to help folks understand the thought process that goes into a planning presentation - one that's away from the typical sexy brand (your Nikes, your Apples', your Budweiser's) that most think of when they talk about their favourite work. And, after all, the 'yellow fats' category is amongst one of the most traditional planning problems to tackle.


Have a go yourself. Send me your presentations, or put it up on Slideshare, and we can have a Q&A as to how you've tackled it.


Most of this presentation was written with a bit of desk research, some time spent in-store and some time spent chatting to the typical consumers (mums, in short). Check out the ONS, read up on new launches in the category - and see what you think. If I was planner on the business, there'd be a raft of information I'd receive; but in this instance, don't worry about being 100% right when it comes to buying behaviours...just use whatever research you can find on or offline.

The presentation's below, and you can download it (or get in touch with me - william.humphrey at yahoo.co.uk if you'd like the keynote presentation with notes) from Slideshare.



NB: The business has come up for pitch; it'll be interesting to see what sort of work they come up with.

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Ogilvy's 2013 Account Management Scheme..

The man himself, in full mad man garb.

Hello, all.

Another agency has opened its grad recruitment doors in 2013.

This time, it's the turn of Ogilvy, who've just launched their account management graduate scheme for 2013. The page can be accessed here.

This scheme is an amalgamation of the old summer placement scheme and the account management schemes of years previously. To find out more about the structure, have a look here.


Key dates include the closing dateFebruary 18th, the interview and assessment day (the week commencing April the 8th), and when the scheme starts (1st July) and ends (30th August). Assuming all goes well, you'll begin the fellowship in mid-October.

Good luck, gang. You can ask questions of Ogilvy via their twitter and Facebook accounts.

Thursday 3 January 2013

McCann & Ogilvy...

Perhaps not this chap...but someone like him..

Hello adgrad folk.

It's 2013, and given that the dust has settled from quite a lot of schemes pre-Christmas, I thought it might be an idea to draw your attention to a few agencies' successful candidates - how they got on and in.

Who knows, it might help you redouble your efforts for next time, or - if you're due to graduate the year after, provide you with some much needed tips for your first application.

The first is a short video McCann have produced following their 'McCademy' graduate scheme. Find out more here. The video's below:



A successful Ogilvy planning fellow, John Hillier, has written a very good blog post on the topic of his application to the 2012 scheme. Read it here. His twitter account is here, should you have any questions/tweet yourself.

I hope those two are useful. As ever, check the adgrads archives - there are a fair number of posts about how to prepare application forms/interview successfully.