PSFK Video Skills of the Rockstar Planner: Understanding the Human Condition
The final video in the PSFK Series: Skills of the Rockstar Planner is one of the most insightful of the series. The title, Understanding the Human Condition sounds profound and hard to grasp but it's actually very simple; it's the idea that planners need to think of their consumers as humans and really delve into what makes them tick. Beth Kaiser from Arnold often takes psychology, anthropology and sociology into account when researching her target and developing strategies. Alda Alpert simplifies the inherent skills of a planner as someone who is curious about what makes people tick, recognizing that skill as key to understanding how to engage consumers at various points. I agreed with both Dylan Viner, from JWT and Ben Parker, from Mother's zen approach in that planning is about valuing virtually every type of consumer and understanding their hopes, dreams and interests in order to connect with them.But above all, I have been thinking a lot about what Lee Maicon, from 360i said, about how more than ever, the skills of the planner aren't modern, that the height of technology has actually made us more human, drawing us back to humans as individuals rather than the masses. How are our needs as individuals shaping our relationships with brands? How is technology making us more human and what does "more human" even mean? My feelings are that social media enables us to virtually make the small, supportive communities that we've had in the physical world for centuries. In what other ways does technology make us more human?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e--9ZkuP7QY&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3&w=640&h=390]
PSFK Skills of the Rockstar Planner: Insatiable Curiosity
The title of the next video in the PSFK Skills of the Rockstar Planner should really be "Traits of the Rockstar Planner." In one of my weekend workshops at Miami Ad School, our teacher talked about planners always asking the "why" to every situation. From the moment I could form complete sentences, to the onset of Google, I managed to annoy my father completely by following up his answer to every single one of my questions with "why." Not to get too kumbaya but isn't understanding the first step to solving a problem?The planners in the video talk about having an innate and deep curiosity about the world, seeing patterns where others don't and being able to synthesize vast quantities of information. Fortunately for us planners, our abilities to synthesize information has yet to be replaced by a super RSS Reader or Google algorithm. But it's not just about absorbing information like a sponge, but about knowing how to find those facts and insights. Why get a Library Science degree when you can enter the seemingly more exciting world of planning?
Dominico Vitale from People, Ideas & Culture takes insatiable curiosity to the next level, saying that the "ability to turn knowledge into ideas is the core of talent. It's about what hasn't happened yet and what could be."
Vitale touches on the idea of disruption and planning leading to a behavior change which ultimately leads to the behavior of using a particular product. But it also leads to another area of planning, that which leads to research and development. What's a good ad without a good product?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTqGmzCq1qw&w=640&h=390]
PSFK Salon: Future of Real Time
Last Friday I essentially had my mind blown away from 9am to 9pm. In the morning I attended the PSFK Salon: Future of Real Time, afternoon took a Rorschach test for my friend's psychology class, and evening attended a screening of The Last Lions. Post on my evening to come but first I'll address the salon at the Soho House. To simplify, the salon discussed what the implications are of data created in real time; i.e. through mobile applications, GPS, status updates, instant photographs and video. Like a Twitter feed in 2011, there was a lot of information to take in within the one hour presentation. Their presentation is available online and breaks the topics down more thoroughly but here's what I took away:Implications of real time data for psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists and planners who study human behavior:
Sites like OkCupid collect data on dating preferences, behavior, dynamics between men and women etc. leading to a data-driven, better understanding of what influences our dating choices - among other insights.
Facebook, Twitter and a new British site, Mappiness, collect data on people's general state of being, monitoring social sentiment. Wouldn't it be nice to discover how a population feels at any given point in time and what influences these feelings without having to do a labor intensive survey? And there's Voyurl, which allows you to view the actual behavior of people on the web, understanding what websites interest them. Users can discover the most popular sites and content they never thought to look for without user generated, deliberate recommendations.
Implications of real time data for marketers and advertisers:
Marketers and advertisers can take all the above data and use it to better market their products. Fast Society creates a temporary network allowing groups to communicate via text, voice and share their location. Marketers can take advantage of Fast Society, connecting their product to an event or location. Twitcritic is a service that monitors the online buzz of movies. The service has a track record of predicting box office success. Essentially, the "like" or positive sentiments has become a new form of currency, creating a stronger connection between the consumer and brand. Before social media, all an advertiser had to do was sell a product. With the advent of the Like button, spread of information and consumer advocates, it is absolutely essential that a product stay true to their message and maintain the trust of their consumer. That sounds like progress to me!
The implications for real time data in the physical world:
Services like Harassmap allow users to anonymously report physical locations of where they were harassed in the world. Instant Mapping is a local tool that allows users to create a shared, visual experience of their environment. Viz Center creates a shared visual experience for disaster response teams, allowing for more efficiency in disaster response. SF Park is a sensor installed into San Francisco parking spaces and an iPhone app that reveals when spaces are empty, enabling users to find parking more efficiently and prevent traffic as long as their not too absorbed looking at the app while driving.
Finally, during the question and answer section, a passionate debate ensued about the implications of all this real time data being public. Andrew Hoppin, the former CIO of the New York Senate advocated making most of the government data public in the hopes that it will facilitate a conversation that will improve our society as a whole or give businesses the information to better serve their community. Services like New York's 311, is a step in the right direction, collecting data from their call center and sharing it with the public on open311.org. But governments need to be more transparent and make data easy to digest. While there is an obvious push from consumers for marketers to be transparent, governments are not held to the same standards. It seems we hold more power as consumers than as citizens but hopefully that will change with more government transparency. Adam Leibsohn from voyURL touched on the practice of corporations using our data for their gain, saying it was okay they did this, as long as they were transparent. I strongly agree with his statement. I value honesty, transparency and an attempt at understanding as a means to solve most problems and think that if a marketer wants to use my information to sell me a product that I want, then the more power to them, especially if they are improving my life.
(Polymaps: site that allows you to overlay data onto different maps)
So what did I learn from all this? In 2006, Time marked "You" as the person of the year, implying a shift that the individual and collective have control, a shift from corporations and the government. Taking this idea further - I believe our collective data will be the driving force behind government changes, cultural shifts and marketing in the years to come. Because Information is beautiful.
PSFK Skills of a Rockstar Planner: Communicating Ideas
The second video in the PSFK series published last summer is below. Once again, I looked back on the video with a new perspective and felt it was important to share and summarize their comments with my readers. As account planners, our audience is the creative team. We are essentially making ads to the creatives, hoping that they buy into our findings and ideas. Therefore, it's no surprise that the qualities needed to deliver an effective Creative Brief mimic that of a successful piece of marketing communication. The thread that runs through their responses is that account planners need to simplifying their message and sell the idea in a way that seduces the listener. This thinking can even be extended to the brand. Look at the top three most valuable global brands; Google, IBM and Apple. Can you simplify each brands' message in a few words? Google = internet search, IBM = computer intelligence, Apple = innovative, functional design.Now let's extend this to the interview process. Ada Alpert's coaches her candidates to be able to walk through their case studies during interviews, first mentioning the problem, answer, insight that lead to that answer, strategy then walking the interviewer through how you got there to solve the problem. So in essence, it's your job as a planner not only to sell the strategy and the creative work, but to also sell the idea that you know how to sell ideas. Pick case studies you feel passionate about and believe in without hesitation. I wrote about the first PSFK video in the series here and stay tuned for the rest of the series.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn40fvPDWeE&w=640&h=390]
PSFK: Skills of the Rockstar Planner: Intuitive Problem Solving
Back in June 2010, PSFK posted a video series entitled Skills of the Rockstar Planner. The video came at a perfect time while I was just finishing up my Miami Ad School Account Planning Boot Camp application. It was exciting to learn that all their commentary about planning matched my responses. I find this series especially interesting after having completed the boot camp. There are so many skills and components to planning that it's exciting having this series available as a mini review. Even within each video, you can see how each planner thinks and approaches situations differently. Some core ideas from the Intuitive Problem Solving that I picked up are:- Creativity is at the core of planning.
- Planners need intuitive problem solving skills and emotional intelligence.
- The ability to put disparate information together and connect the dots.
- Innate ability to imagine things that other people couldn't do; i.e. imagination and creativity. I find this particularly interesting because it really touches on how many planning departments look for planners from all different types of backgrounds. Writers, journalists, actors, singers, editors, photographers - all people you wouldn't imagine in advertising but they all have jobs that put them in other people's shoes.
- Take thinking from one discipline to another. There are human truths and patterns that can be applied from one area to another.
- Break logic and find a new space. This goes along the lines of influencing and changing human behavior.
- And one of my favorite lines of thought - it's okay to evolve thinking constantly. The journey of learning is messy but as Domenico Vitale implies, it's exciting and an evolution.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NepafwxD8&w=640&h=390]
PSFK Video on Account Planning
