Connections planning in 2009

@Jasonoke
@Garethk

Does anyone here have the job

title connections planner?

*were sorry in advance

Caveat we dont mean to paint everyone

with the same brush. There is brilliant work
done by connections planners out there.
But as a total discipline, its in trouble.

Spring 2009
survey:
What is
connections
planning?

The argument:
Connections Planning hasnt lived
up to its promise.

Why Connections Planning is

where it is: a brief history.

Once upon a time, some rich white guys

decided to make money by spinning off
media from creative agencies.

This separated the creation of ideas

from the choosing of media

The underlying assumption is that media is

a container for holding messages and
turned media into a commodity to be
bought primarily on price.

But at exactly the same time,

the media landscape exploded.

And a new breed of ideas emerged,

leveraging the particular strengths of
different media.

Connections planning was an

attempt to fix the mistake.

It was the right idea.

But weve mostly been using it the
wrong way.

We use it to
generate stunts
for pitches and
award shows.

We use it to turn everything

into a medium.

We use it to find new places to

interrupt people.

We create fake movements for

things people dont care about.

We create utility that isnt

useful to anyone.

Basically,
we put more shit in more places.

And its not working.

The irony is connections planning

doesnt create very many
connections.

Where did it all go wrong?

Connections planning was

solving for the wrong problem.

It wasnt trying to build greater

value for brands or people.
It was solving for agency problems.
New revenue stream
Sexy new business tool
Award show friendly creative

It was dependent on the person

who did it.
We got connections planners, instead
of connections planning.
We dont have a shared approach or
way of working.

Its like pornography:

I know it when I see it

We applied the lens of advertising

(interruptive, message-based) to
new media.
Instead we should apply the lens
of new media (interactivity,
iteration) to advertising.

The opportunity:
Re-thinking the value of
connections planning.

The opportunity:
A new creative process, not an
output.

A process of putting human

connections at the heart of
everything.
Grounded in a deep understanding of
what people are trying to do,
what the brand is trying to do,
and how people use media.

A journey, not a destination.

Ideas as unfolding stories, a stream
of iterations and interactions that
invite people into the process.

Think of the flow of information

over time.
365 day planning instead of 360
degree.
Cultural latency is a strategic tool.

Think of the flow of information

over geography.
How do you create contextual value
in each particular space?

Think of the flow of information

over the depth of the story.
How deep does the rabbit hole go?

Think of the flow of information

over technology.
How can each medium &
technology be used to its full
potential?
The role of creative technologist is
increasingly important.

weloveyouso.com

h%p://www.missiong.com/show/Replay

A plan for what happens

after the connection.
What will people do with it? How will they
use it & share it? What might they remix?
And what will that mean for the brand?
How will we change because of our
interaction with them?

Learn from other disciplines that

create meaningful interactions.
We need to absorb practices & approaches
from design, information architecture, and
user experience planning.
Things like agility, rapid iteration,
prototyping.

Connections Planning has more in

common with Experience Planning
than media planning.
We are all experience designers,
whether we think of ourselves that
way or not.

Focus on
maximizing value for all.
Create thick value, with interactions
that are rewarding for everyone
media provider, participant, brand.

It isnt just about digital. Its

about planning for interaction.

Television

Solve real problems.

At the end of the day, our job is straightforward:
Whats the business problem?
What audience can best solve that problem?
What response do they need to have?
What experience could generate that response?

And the solution could live

anywhere.

Embrace the one-off.

Do we worry too much about campaigns?
Sometimes, affecting one thing well is powerful.
Commitment, not campaigning
It gives you a chance to learn: a one-off is just
something you havent figured out how to
dimensionalize yet.

We all have the same job:

making better ideas.
Whatever the job function, everyones job is
additive to a shared goal. Youre not
responsible for the brief or the channel plan
but for the idea. That requires a fluid
iterative interchange of strategic, media,
and creative thinking.

The $64,000 question:

Is connections planning a separate
discipline?
Are we niche-ing ourselves into irrelevance
with splintered sub-disciplines?
Should these just be core planning skills?

Topics for discussion:

1) Is connections planning a separate
discipline? Or a core planning skill?
2) What skills/methods do we need to
absorb from other disciplines?
3) What could the new idea team look like?
4) Whats holding us back from evolving?

Thanks.
@Jasonoke
@Garethk