How to Plan Advertising

I přesto, že ta kniha je 20 let stará, tak je tam spoustu základních informací, které platí i dnes. První dvě třetiny jsou v podstatě povinností pro každého stratéga. Zbytek už se zaměřuje na nová média (tehdy se začaly objevovat první online reklamy), takže některé věci se teprve vyvíjely a je zde popsaný i způsob, jak by planneři měli přistupovat například i k designu nebo PR. Velmi zajímavá je samozřejmě i část věnovaná tehdy novému mediálnímu plánování v reklamní agentuře.
Zde je několik zajímavých výtažků z knihy:

“Advertising agencies, unlike research and consulting companies, have always had to both solve the problem and create the solution. We have always had to take responsibility for the quality of both the input (strategy) and the output ( execution). Our hearts and our minds therefore are uniquely in the right place.” - MT Rainey

“The good planner works along similar lines as a doctor: listening carefully to his or her client, noting the unsaid as well as the spoken report, looking for the clues. Then probing for other explanations, clarification, more information, personal views. The point of this analogy is that, just as with the investigation of an illness or ailment, the exploratory nature of the strategic process begins and ends at a very definite point. Whilst the planner (like the doctor) may enter the process some way down the line, his or her first task is to go back to the beginning and define the problem in the clearest possible terms. Only then can he or she start to broaden out the investigation of possible causes – possibly casting the net very wide. And then at some point comes the need for distillation as the planner moves into a more prescriptive mode: identifying and evaluating possible treatments as he or she starts to move towards a solution.” - Leslie Butterfield

“Experience teaches good planners that the best defined business problems generally lead to the quickest and most appropriate advertising solutions.” - Leslie Butterfield

“Planning is excellent when we all remember why we are doing this in the first place; collectively to produce great advertising which elicits the right response from the consumer.” - autor neznámý

“From a client's point of view the planner is often perceived to be in a unique position of trust. The planner did not write the creative work and so is expected to be less emotional about it. The planner is not selling the creative work and so is expected to be more objective. This position of trust allows the planner the potential to get closer to the client's business that anyone else on the team.” – Paul Edwards