The Role of Account Planning in U.S. Agencies Margaret Morrison

University of Tennessee

Eric Haley University of Tennessee

INTRODUCTION

Account planning, after originating in the United Kingdom in 1965, spread to the United States in the early 1980s and grew. In 1995, approximately 250 people were employed in U.S. account planning; only four years later this figure had quadrupled to over 1,000 (Taggart, 1999). Account planning departments are now fairly common in the U.S. advertising industry and are found in large full-service agencies as well as medium-sized agencies and smaller creative boutiques (Nelson and Kent, 1999).

While the industry trades and several popular press books have focused on or included discussions of account planning (see, for example, Steel, 1998 and Fortini-Campbell, 1992, 2001), account planning has generated relatively little scholarly research. A review of the academic literature reveals only six studies of account planning. Three of the six focused on the planning process (Barry, Peterson, and Todd, 1987; Maxwell, 1996; Schofield, 1990) and are relevant to the current study, which examines how account planning is presently integrated in U.S. advertising agencies.

This article reports the results of a national survey of account planners and is part of a larger study aimed at assessing the attitudes and opinions of planners in the United States. Specifically, the study reported here focuses on the following questions: (1) How is account planning integrated into U.S. advertising agencies? (2) In which areas of strategy planning would account planners like to be more involved?

U.S./U.K. 1987 BENCHMARK

In the first published study of account planning, Barry, Peterson, and Todd (1987) investigated agencies in the United States and United Kingdom to see whether they used traditional marketing research or account planning. In total, 122 agency respondents participated in their mail survey (approximately 20 percent U.K. agency participants and 80 percent U.S. agency participants).

It is not clear who the participants (by title) were in the Barry, Peterson, and Todd study, or to whom the questionnaires were sent. No description of participants is given beyond "agency respondents."

The study sought the answers to three key questions: (1) Do agencies have a system for gaining consumer perceptions? (2) If yes, what is the function called? (3) How are consumer perceptions implemented into the advertising development process? Results indicated that 75 percent of U.S. and 100 percent of U.K. agencies had some system for gaining consumer perceptions. However, while 88 percent of U.K. agencies termed this function "account planning" only 6 percent of U.S. agencies identified it as such. Instead, U.S. agencies characterized their system for gaining consumer perceptions as market research or planning (47 percent), strategic research, planning and development (10 percent), or creative research, planning, and development (5 percent).

Results in the survey suggested that at this stage in U.S. account planning, planners/researchers in American agencies interfaced with the creative team far less than their British counterparts (Table 1). Further, U.S. researchers reported that consumer perceptions and emotional insights were used to develop creative strategy or creative briefs only 5.8 and 18.4 percent of the time, respectively.

To examine the different rates of adoption of account planning among advertising agencies and direct-marketing agencies in the United Kingdom, Schofield (1990) queried 36 senior executives of direct-marketing agencies on the three questions of the Barry, Peterson, and Todd (1987) study and compared his results to what Barry, Peterson, and Todd had found. Similar to the advertising agencies in the Barry, Peterson, and Todd study, nearly all U.K. direct-marketing agencies reported having a system for assessing consumer perceptions and feelings. Half of the direct-marketing agencies identified the function as planning, half said that researchers or account planners are involved in on-going discussions with the creative team and only two direct-marketing agencies reported that account planners wrote creative briefs. Schofield concluded that unlike in full-service agencies, planners in direct-marketing agencies are not involved in accounts on a day-to-day basis. Instead, the tendency of direct marketing agencies is to rely on testing functions (such as comparisons of treatments, copy, envelope size, etc.) in lieu of the more qualitative techniques used by account planners. He argued that direct-marketing agencies need to implement account planning into direct-marketing campaigns, as it is the most accurate way to tap into consumer behavior and uncover insights that might be overlooked with traditional testing.

The Barry, Peterson, and Todd (1987) and Schofield (1990) studies are important to consider in any new study of account planning because they set benchmarks against which the current state of U.S. account planning can be assessed. A critical question going forward in U.S. planning at agencies is: Are consumer perceptions, emotions, and feelings implemented into the advertising development process?

Journal of Advertising Research Vol. 46, No. 1, Mar 2006

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Popular press books and trade articles shed some light of the potential role of account planning. In 1999, Steel noted that

A new model for advertising is necessary that is based on the understanding that consumers are people and recognizes that people are inherently complex, emotional, unpredictable creatures, whose relationships with each other and with the "things" (including brands, products, and advertising) around them are more important than the "things" themselves (Steel, 1999, p. 23).

It is now accepted that account planning does recognize the complexity of humans and their emotional attachment to products and that this understanding can be translated into effective campaigns extending far beyond advertising. The planning function in U.S. agencies may have progressed beyond only advertising. Steel notes that planners are most useful when they go beyond advertising solutions and into broader business solutions. He states that planners "should be telling a client how demographic, cultural, economic, competitive and attitudinal change is affecting their overall business, and how changes in fundamental business practices are required if they are to succeed" (Steel, 1999, p. 36). Others feel that insights derived from planning should not only inform message strategy development, but also media planning, promotions, packaging, and other types of marketing decisions (Boyko, 1999). To date, however, the degree of planning integration has not been examined on a level that considers both the analytical data of existing scholarly studies and more speculative discussions in the popular press. The current study aims to address these evolving roles for planning.

METHOD

Survey construction

A survey instrument consisting of 27 integration items was created (Table 2). Planning has evolved rapidly from the days of the Barry, Peterson, and Todd (1987) and Schofield (1990) studies. Thus, although these were the only existing studies to document how consumer insights are integrated into the advertising development process, the items from these studies were modified in light of what we now know about the work of planners. For example, an item from these original studies was "used to develop strategy" (Table 1). Given the move toward IMC and the call for account planning to be integrated at all stages of marketing, this item was operationalized in the current scale through six items: ● general business strategy development, ● brand strategy development, ● media strategy development, ● public relations strategy development, ● sales promotion strategy development, and ● creative strategy development.

Similarly, the item "develop creative brief" from the original study was supplemented based on the findings of Maxwell (1996), which documented the fact that a large amount of a planner's time is spent doing research in advance of the brief and also producing the brief. And, once produced, the brief is presented to various personnel within the agency. Most often these are account executives and creatives (Kover and Goldberg, 1995), although the Maxwell study suggests that clients are another point of interaction. Thus the original item "developed creative brief" was operationalized using the following 10 items: ● research design in advance of creative brief, ● primary data collection in advance of creative brief, ● primary data analysis in advance of creative brief, ● secondary data collection in advance of creative brief, ● secondary data analysis in advance of creative brief, ● writing creative briefs, ● production of creative briefs for presentations, ● presenting creative briefs to creative department, ● presenting creative briefs to account team, and ● presenting creative briefs to clients.

To assess the level of involvement planners (and thus, account planning) have at various points of development in a communications plan, each item was evaluated using a 5-point Likert scale with endpoints of 1 = not at all involved and 5 = very involved. To gain further insight into planning integration, this scale was coupled with another assessing the same 27 items. The question for this second scale asked planners to "please circle the areas that you feel you should be more involved in than you currently are, or less involved in than you currently are. If you feel your level of involvement is appropriate, circle neither."

The survey began with a working definition of an account planner. The first question of the survey queried whether potential respondents felt qualified to participate based on the definition. Respondents were next asked whether there was an account to which they were currently assigned that demanded substantially more of their time than their other accounts (i.e., a "primary" account). If respondents indicated that they worked on a primary account, they were instructed to answer the rest of the questions with this account in mind. If no primary account was indicated, respondents were asked to answer the rest of the questions with their overall account assignments in mind.

To strengthen the instrument and make sure it was grounded in the experience of planners, the initial draft was reviewed by the board of the Account Planning Group U.S. (APGUS), the largest national professional organization exclusively devoted to account planning. The instrument was then pretested with six additional individuals who worked in account planning.

A mailing list of 2,286 APGUS members and their affiliated companies was obtained. To call attention to the survey and enhance response rate, a letter explaining the nature of the study and encouraging members to participate was placed in the registration packet that attendees received at the 2000 APGUS conference (held two weeks before the survey was mailed). After the listings were verified through phone calls, the sample contained 1,161 names from 245 different agencies.

FINDINGS

Three hundred forty-five surveys were returned yielding an overall response rate of 29.7 percent. The 345 completed surveys emanated from 147 different agencies.

Sample characteristics

Participants ranged in age from 21 to 62 with an average age of 34.7 (Table 3). In terms of gender, the sample was skewed toward women (56.2 percent). On average, respondents had worked in planning six years. Though by nature the job of an account planner is a management-oriented position, it is useful to think of these management positions as either "senior" or "junior" level. Most of the sample (52.5 percent) had senior management titles (for example, Vice President, Manager, or Director), while the remaining 47.5 percent listed more junior level-management titles (for example, Assistant Planner, Senior Strategic Planner).

How are planners integrated into the advertising agency process?

To address the question of how planners are integrated into the advertising agency process, a factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed on the 27 items to reduce the data set to areas of related planner involvement. The analysis yielded a four-factor solution based on eigenvalues greater than one. The four factors were (1) creative strategy articulation, (2) tactic evaluation, (3) creative strategy development research, and (4) activities beyond creative strategy development or articulation (Table 2). These four factors accounted for 57.23 percent of the variance in responses.

The findings suggest that planners are most involved in creative strategy development research (factor mean 3.47) and creative strategy articulation (factor mean 3.51). Planners are involved to a lesser degree in evaluation of tactics (factor mean = 2.90) and least involved in activities beyond creative strategy development or articulation (factor mean = 2.66), such as public relations and sales promotions strategy development.

In which areas would planners like to be more involved?

To find out how planners feel about their current level of involvement in the 27 activities, respondents were asked to state if they wished to be more or less involved in each activity. In the majority of cases, planners reported being satisfied with their current level of involvement. Areas where planners desired more involvement were media strategy development (24.5 percent of planners wishing to be more involved), public relations strategy development (18.3 percent), general business strategy development (15.8 percent), presenting advertisements to existing clients (14.9 percent), and sales promotions strategy development (14.3 percent) (Table 4).

DISCUSSION

In general, planners indicated at least some interaction with most of the items measured. Indeed, the fact that over 90 percent of respondents reported having some level of involvement for 21 out of the 27 items suggests that at least on the surface, planning is fairly well integrated in the modern agency. Further, among planners reporting some degree of involvement, ratings of 3.0 or above for 20 of the 27 items reinforces the finding that planning has experienced integration, especially with brand/creative strategy development and briefing.

When the items were collapsed into the factor solution, two of the four factors-creative strategy articulation and creative strategy development research-reinforced what is known about the role of planners to date. Account planning was originally conceptualized as a way to add the consumer's voice and insight to the table in the all-important stages of creative strategy development, helping the account team understand the emotional and rational worlds of their targeted consumers. The results of the factor solution suggest that this is still the bastion of account planning in U.S. full-service agencies. The factor solution also reveals that planners are not as involved in the tactical evaluation of campaigns (factor 2) as they are with creative strategy development (factors 1 and 3).

Strategy for other IMC tools

The integration of planning seems to be lacking in three key strategic areas beyond message/brand strategy important to integrated communications campaigns: developing media, public relations, and sales promotions strategy (items loading on factor 4). This was true even though the respondents came from full-service agencies that typically plan IMC campaigns or interact with other assigned agencies that handle these tasks. The fact that these three elements of the communications mix received some of the lowest means for planner involvement suggests that while account planning might thrive in more traditional advertising campaigns, it is probably not being utilized to the fullest extent in IMC campaigns.

According to Boyko (1999), insights derived from planning should not only inform message strategy development, but also media planning, promotions, packaging, and other types of marketing decisions. For example, the most insightful and masterly crafted campaign based on consumer insights is worthless if the right consumers do not emotionally experience the message. Along the same lines, a perfect message delivered in an inappropriate media environment could negatively impact a product. These two examples suggest the need for planning to be integrated into decisions involving media strategy.

Twenty percent of the sample in this study expressed a desire for more involvement with public relations strategy development, an area that also exhibited the lowest involvement mean of any item measured. Insights generated from planning offer much promise for understanding both the internal and external publics common in public relations campaigns. For example, insights generated from planning

can help employers key in on important issues for employees and could lead to the design of more effective employee morale or incentive programs. Keen insights could also be used to increase interest in the content of employee newsletters by identifying and highlighting issues of high employee interest.

How do other team members view account planning integration?

In interviews with planners from the United States and United Kingdom, Hackley (2003) found reports of conflicts between planners and other account team members because of the integrated, cross-functional nature of account planning. That is, account managers may not like account planners taking over strategy development or having direct contact with clients, tasks that were formerly part of account management exclusively. Creatives may not like planners evaluating their creative executions in relation to the brand strategy. Also, a recent internal agency survey at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, a pioneer of account planning in the United States, found little agreement throughout the agency as to the function and value of account planning (Atkinson, 2003).

Clearly, insights from other team members regarding the perceptions of planning are needed. For example, are creatives satisfied with the level of involvement of account planners in the advertising planning process? Do creatives want more or less involvement on the part of planners? How do the perceptions of advertising creatives compare with those of the account planners in the present study? Do account managers perceive conflicts with the function of account planning or individual planners? Such studies may give some insight as to whether the role and benefits of planning asserted by leaders in account planning are understood and shared by others in the advertising planning process.

How can planners become more involved in other aspects of strategy development?

It would also be interesting to examine how professionals in public relations, sales promotions, media planning, etc., view the function of account planning and the role of an account planner as related to their respective jobs. Leaders in planning have asserted that account planners can positively impact the many aspects of business strategy beyond message strategy development (Boyko, 1999; Steel, 1999). This study has shown that account planners in full-service agencies are able to have some say in decisions beyond message development, including media strategy, sales promotion strategy, general business strategy, and public relations strategy; however, these are also the areas in which planners tend to be least involved.

The factor solution can be used to track the development of planning.

The four-factor solution presented in this study provides a conceptual framework within which to trace the development of account planning in advertising agencies. The four factors represent both the traditional areas of planner involvement (i.e., creative strategy development, briefing) and also planner involvement at other stages of the communication planning process (i.e., evaluation of communication tactics and development of public relations, media, sales promotional, and general business strategy). Future research can use the factor solution provided in this study in multiple ways to track the development of account planning in U.S. advertising agencies.

Given the desire of leaders like Steel (1999) and Boyko (1999) to have planning move into areas of business strategy beyond only mass advertising planning, future research should examine the fourth factor to see if the reliability of this factor increases over time. This may indicate greater acceptance of the role of account planning in areas beyond traditional advertising planning.

CONCLUSION

In summary, the results of this study suggest that account planning is integrated up to a certain point in modern full service U.S. advertising agencies, and that planning today is more highly integrated into the advertising development process since Barry, Peterson, and Todd (1987) first published their study of planning in the United States 16 years ago. Further, most planners express high degrees of satisfaction with their involvement in molding consumer perceptions, emotional insights, and lifestyle observations into message strategy or creative briefs for mass advertising. Nevertheless, this study also highlights areas where integration of the account planning function is lacking and in need of improvement. In particular, the areas of media strategy, sales promotion, and public relations development could benefit from insights generated by account planners.

BIOGRAPHIES

Margaret Morrison (Ph.D., The University of Georgia) is an associate professor in the School of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Tennessee. Her work appears in the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Health Communication, and the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.

Eric Haley (Ph.D., The University of Georgia) is a professor in the University of Tennessee's School of Advertising and Public Relations. He is also active professionally as a custom consumer research consultant. His work has appeared in such outlets as the Journal of Advertising and the Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising.

REFERENCES Atkinson, Claire. "Goodby: Advertising Account Planners Are Lost: Internal Agency Survey Finds Wide Doubt about Their Effectiveness," AdAge.com, September 9, 2003.

Barry, Thomas E., Ron L. Peterson, and W. Bradford Todd. "The Role of Account Planning in the Future of Advertising Agency Research." Journal of Advertising Research 27, 1 (1987): 15–21. Boyko, Rick. "The Evolution of an Idea." Presentation made at the 1999 Account Planning Conference, San Diego CA, July 1999. Fortini-Campbell, Lisa. Hitting the Sweet Spot: How Consumer Insights Can Inspire Better Marketing and Advertising. Henley-on-Thames, UK: The Copy Workshop, 1992, 2001 (2nd ed.). Hackley, Christopher E. "Account Planning: Current Agency Perspectives on an Advertising Enigma." Journal of Advertising Research 43, 2 (2003): 235–46. Kover, Arthur J., and Stephen M. Goldberg. "The Games Copywriters Play: Conflict, Quasi-Control, A New Proposal." Journal of Advertising Research 35, 4 (1995): 53–61. Maxwell, Ann. "What Do Account Planners Do?" Presented on "Account Planning: Add the Consumer's Voice and Stir" Panel. In Proceedings of the 1996 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, Gary B. Wilcox, ed., University of Texas at Austin, 1996. Nelson, Ted, and Megan Kent. "The Power of Conversations." Adweek Eastern Edition 40, 28 (1999): 3a. Schofield, Albert. "The Role of Account Planning in the Direct-Marketing Agency." Journal of Advertising Research 30, 5 (1990): 61–66. Steel, Jon. Truth, Lies and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning. New York: Wiley, 1998. Steel, Jon. "Tests Ahead for Account Planning." Advertising Age, September 20, 1999. Taggart, Lynne. Coordinator, Account Planning Group U.S., Phone interview, 1999.

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