some tips for young planners

Short

Recently I was invited by @CHMKT (one of the top digital spaces about planning in Brazil & Portugal) to give some tips for young planners. This was my article:

 

A lot of people have given tips for junior planners before me so I will try to avoid the most common ones in order to add some new value.

Since I joined Razorfish, Spain 1 year ago, all my colleagues from traditional agencies asked me how it is on the digital side of planning and how digital planning works. My answer was simple; I’m still doing the same but it’s more complex. This fact has a lot of implications for the way each planner does their job. For instance besides the common strategy framework, you need to have a deeper knowledge of technology and touch points, and not just in helping to tell a story, but also in helping to create interaction and engagement with the target, it is more about story-telling.

I think it would be a good tip for newcomers to have it clear that our task is not about digital planning but planning in a digital World.

More than ever, planners have to be connected to culture; that’s how we detect emerging adoptive behavior and get spontaneous feelings about our target.


Listening first. Planning is the process of going from information to inspiration and currently we have real time information in conversations that helps us to focus on a starting point in the strategic process.

The art of Disconnection & Balance (very useful also if you are in a relationship and have an iphone)

- Stop being 24/7 connected to the Marketing World, to campaigns… you need time to organize your inputs and think about them

- Look for Balance, look for feeding your life with real and not mk experiences.

- Being connected can turn your mind into merely a machine of references; Steal as much you can, but make it your own. 

- Use Zoom Eyes: Currently you have a wider range of thinking, be flexible to play with macro and micro behavior and to move between big ideas and small ideas, because size matters.

Do & help to do things

- Be nosy & problem solver.

- Get balance between being a producer of content & consumer of content

- Destroy your cv: you don’t need it. It’s better to show what your potential is, (i.e the google job experiment,  Graeme Anthony used youtube annotations for his video cv or the guy who created a social ad focus on razorfish fb group to get an interview, etc..)

Work on your POV, don’t hide it in public meetings, don’t let it dilute inside the group but embrace the failure and build it again.

- Be more collaborative and generous, 24/7 Brainstorming relationship mode.

Warning: Planning is more than just Social Media Strategies, I make this remark, because lately I see a lot of juniors who have great knowledge about social media, but poor knowledge about how to be and to build a social brand.

I miss a bit of “passion” in junior planner’s faces so please show your passion and above all have fun!