Strategic planning course, become an advertising professional

Have you thought about taking a strategic planning course but you have doubts about this immense universe that surrounds the discipline and you want to know if it is the appropriate course for you?

Here we answer all the questions you ask so you can make the best decision for your career. And if after reading the article you want to be the best account planner in the industry, of course you can consult our Bootcamp in Strategic Planning, an intensive 12-week course in which you will learn everything you need to work as a planner.

what is the strategic planification?

To understand what strategic planning in advertising is, we have to understand all its names. Also known as “Account Planning”, this discipline has focused since its inception on the implementation of a strategic plan to meet the established advertising objectives. According to the dictionary of Marketingdirecto.com It is an Anglicism coined in the 60s.

It is a method that is based on the observation and collection of consumer data for the purposes of finding an insight and creating a creative brief that leads to a better advertising campaign, brand communication and media plan.

The creative ideas that are most focused on business growth are always those in which there was a strong collaboration between the creative department and the account planner (also known as strategic planner or ad planner). This happens because the account planner is the one who is closest and knows the consumer best, which allows us to develop much more focused and effective strategies.

Difference between strategic and tactical planning

Strategic planning is very useful when achieving objectives and making decisions. Once the general objectives have been obtained, more specific ones are established. The tactical planning of a company is based on achieving these short-term objectives of each department of the company. To do this, each worker follows guidelines in each indicated process.

What is a strategic advertising plan and how is it made?

Now yes... we already understand its meaning and what this discipline is for, but if we go to the specifics, we want to know in practice what a strategic plan consists of, how it is made and what its parts are. Well, here we tell you.

Whenever you set goals, the first thing you do is make a plan to achieve them effectively. In advertising we do the same thing by putting it in a document, and since the objectives are always customer-oriented (even if it is to increase sales, they can only grow if the consumer increases consumption) The plans always start from the intrinsic knowledge of the target. This factor is the only one that cannot vary, although each agency has its own methodology, none can start without in-depth knowledge of its target audience.

Having said this, it is worth pointing out three essential truths that must be met to carry out an effective strategic advertising plan:

1. An account planner must always prioritize in their work creating an advertising campaign according to the needs of the market having carried out the corresponding investigations to have an early response on the client's behaviors. It can happen in an agency that each department fights to give greater importance to its own work, but it is the ad planner's job to make the creative department, the accounts department and the client understand that They are the ones who must draw up tactics to facilitate the work and ensure the objectives and success of the campaign., so everyone must align themselves with what they propose.
2. In today's world there is no doubt that consumers look for something in advertising that adds value to their lives or to society. So in each society advertising is different. That's why It is an important quality of a planner to be knowledgeable about culture so as not to generate rejection by the public in the proposals that are made..
3. Despite the advances and growth of this doctrine, some few still consider it a “luxury” for the company or agency. That is why it is worth highlighting the very clear advantage that the strategic planning department means in any company: add perspective, orientation and context to the creation process, which makes for a more dynamic process and better teamwork that unites the client as an integrative part.

What does a planner do?

You already know what strategic planning in advertising is, now you want to know what your work will consist of. Good, An account planner is the person who is present both in the development of the strategy, as in creative development. He is responsible for creating and directing all research relevant to the brief. But their job is not only to fulfill the analytical and strategic function, they are also an essential part of creative work, since they are the ones who must discover insights and collaborate with the development of creative ideas, ensuring that they do not deviate from what they want. the consumer.

Working in an advertising agency, a world of possibilities

If you want to work in an advertising agency you have to know all its parts and know that each one is very different from the other. There is room for all types of profiles and the good thing is that each one contributes their potential to the creative process. Although without a doubt The planner's job is the most multidisciplinary there is, you can also, for example, focus only on the creative phase if you are from this department, or on account management if you are an executive.

Strategic planning in advertising

Both business strategic planning and strategic planning in advertising are variants of a subject that focuses on the consumer to effectively and creatively meet business objectives and solve problems. To know if you want be an account planner within an advertising agency You have to know the work process and know what responsibilities you will have at each stage.

All projects begin with the business objectives proposed by the client. The planner must analyze it and see if it is well focused. Then a brand strategy is defined in which possible solutions are proposed for the problem posed. The last stage of the process is the creative proposal in which the idea is expressed to connect with consumers, and the execution, which is the download of that idea to all its executions. The strategic planner is responsible for determining the brand strategy, guide the creative department to develop the main idea and control that the executions are in accordance with the brief.

Strategic decisions in advertising

The short term may be tempting, but the truth is that all the strategic decisions that are made have to take into account the general and long-term vision of the business, regardless of whether they are for specific projects or problems, you must always have a unified vision. little further.

It must be taken into account that the sales strategy has evolved in recent years and Brands require greater innovation in their proposals. That is why digital immersion, which we will talk about later, is so important.

How to do strategic planning and what methodologies exist?

Beyond all the methodologies that the subject offers us, we have to understand that the same steps do not always have to be followed in the design of a strategic plan. To know how the strategy is going to develop, it is necessary to ask the right questions that give us answers regarding the situation and objectives of the company. This will give way to establishing objectives, analyzing the market, identifying strengths and weaknesses, studying the competition, developing an action plan and monitoring execution.

Strategic planning models

As we have said previously, there is no strategic plan equal to the other. They all depend on where you start and where you want to go, which is why we propose different strategic planning models that adapt to the established objectives. There are immediate action models, long-term models, brand value models, innovation models, renewal models, and many more models that adapt to the purpose of the ongoing project.

Phases of strategic planning

Client brief: Every process begins when the client sends a brief. This has to be interpreted by the agency since many times the client is not clear about the problem. The planner interprets the brief to define the problem and begin the strategic plan to solve it. It is the planner's responsibility to define the brief since this will then be the document that endorses all the actions carried out by the agency.

Marketing Research: once the problem has been established, it is time to investigate the market and define where the brand, the competition and the consumer are. We use the toolkit, planner tools to analyze the context, trends, competition, shopper journey, define the brand architecture, etc.

Digital Immersion: Today more than ever it is important to take into account the digital advances that influence brands, since these have produced a change in the business model. A good account planner must be aware of these changes, how to make the brand fit and the resolution of the problem posed in the digital environment.

Insight: The client's brief has already been interpreted and defined, the entire context of the brand and the problem posed has been investigated, and an analysis of current market changes has been carried out with respect to what it is trying to solve. This is where the analytical part ends and the creative part begins. Once the planner has all this data and interprets it, the long-awaited insight is reached. The key that will guide the entire creative process.

Advertising Briefing: Well, we now have everything we need to give a work brief to the creative department. They will work together with the planners, who will ensure that they do not go beyond what is established and follow the guidelines established to achieve the best result. Creativity in this case is a collaboration of joint work between both departments.

Assessment: Finally the client approves the idea and puts it into practice. Now is the time to evaluate the process and the results in case corrections are necessary and to prepare a results report, which justifies that a good job has been done.

Strategic planning examples

If you are interested in seeing success stories, you can see the winners of the Efficiency Awards. Awards that are based on the achievement of the objectives set out in the strategic plan for different advertising companies in the sector.

Without a doubt, everyone who wins an “Efi” has used strategic planning as the structure and guiding principle of the entire campaign.

Strategic planning course

Have you read our article and Are you determined to become a strategic planning professional? Well, you've found the right place!

Master in strategic planning at Miami Ad School Madrid

For 14 years we have been leaders in training professionals in our school with the Master in Strategic Planning in Madrid. It is the most successful and experienced advertising master's degree in the country.

Our alumni have come to give their careers a boost and today they are working in the best companies in the world. Not only do they have the best training but they are part of the school with the best networking in the industry.

The master's degree consists of a practical case of strategic planning. Starting from a real brief given by a different client each year (this year Air Europa), going through the entire process, working in collaboration with the students of the Master of Creative Advertising They function as if they were the “creative department” of the school, and finally presenting the project to the real client.

Here we leave you a video of Pippa Seichrist, Global Director of Miami Ad School, where she tells what the work methodology of the “Real Word Ecxperience” school is like.

Meeting Point: Furthermore, on graduation day, a meeting is organized between the students and the best professionals in the world of planners in which they talk about the project carried out and conduct a short interview with up to more than 30 professionals with whom they also exchange their business information. contact. We call this event “Meeting Point” and together with the Portfolio Review They are the best networking event held in the entire educational industry in Spain.

Without a doubt this event makes our master's degree, the best Master of strategic planning in Spain.

Masters with the most exits

Who is the master in strategic planning for?

This Bootcamp in Strategic Planning It is aimed at professionals who work with brand building, business management, projects, and much more. You can be an account executive who is interested in how to advance in an advertising agency, a creative who wants to redirect his career towards something more methodical, if you work in a media agency or even if you have studied advertising and want to do this specialization to start In this sector. There are also entrepreneurs who are interested in strategic planning for development and innovation within their own companies, or if you are interested in being an entrepreneur, this is a very useful master's degree for that.

Miami Ad School is the school with the most experience in the sector, with the most top professionals as instructors, with the best companies that collaborate in the “real case” and the largest networking event in the country.

If you want to work as a planner and guarantee professional success, without a doubt you have to come to Miami Ad School Madrid.