What is account planning? The role, its origins and the mindset

Account planning is the discipline that brings the consumer’s voice into advertising. It’s where most of today’s brand and creative strategists come from, including me. I’ve worked in planning and strategy at agencies in Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney for more than 20 years. This guide covers what account planning is, where it came from, what planners actually do and the mindset that makes a great one.

What is account planning?

An account planner is the strategist inside an advertising agency whose job is to understand the audience deeply and make sure the work is built on a real insight about them. Where the account manager represents the client and the creative team makes the work, the planner represents the consumer. The planner writes the creative brief, feeds insight into the creative process and checks that the work will land with the people it’s for.

Where account planning came from

Account planning was born in London in 1968. Stanley Pollitt at Boase Massimi Pollitt (BMP) and Stephen King at J. Walter Thompson both created the role, frustrated that research was being used to judge ads after the fact rather than to shape them from the start. Planning later spread to the US, most famously when Jay Chiat introduced it at Chiat/Day in the 1980s, and then around the world.

The best book on the craft is still Jon Steel’s Truth, Lies and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning. I was lucky to interview him: the future of strategy with Jon Steel.

What does an account planner do?

• Understands the audience: through research, data, culture and time spent with real people.
• Finds the insight: the human truth that explains behaviour and gives the work its tension. See how to write a consumer insight.
• Writes the brief: a clear, single-minded creative brief that inspires the team.
• Guides the creative process: helps judge and sharpen ideas against the strategy.
• Shapes pitches: frames the problem and builds the strategic story.
• Learns from results: tracks what worked and why, and feeds it into the next brief.

The account planner, as described by John Furr

My favourite description of the role comes from John Furr, and it still makes me smile:

“The account planner is like a mother. Someone who is expected to know it all. Someone who knows what is right and what is wrong. Someone you can trust; whose advice you seek when things go out of sorts. Someone who can settle arguments without seeming to take sides. Someone who will find time when others can’t. Someone who is interested in everything that affects you. Someone who will be there through thick and thin. Someone you probably forget to thank as often as you should. Someone whose work is never done.”

John Furr

The planner’s mindset: openness

“In order to see the world, we must break with our familiar acceptance of it.”

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

I think this is one of the most important ingredients of a good strategic thinker. Whether you’re trying to understand someone with a different perspective or talking to someone from a different background, you have to come forward without assumptions. If we keep seeing the world in familiar ways, we won’t discover anything new.

It’s only when we’re truly open to the unfamiliar that we understand people as they really are. That understanding becomes insight, and insight is what helps us create truly different brands.

Account planning vs brand strategy today

Many agencies now say “strategist” instead of “planner”, and the role has widened into brand strategy, creative strategy, comms planning and data. But the heart of it is the same: represent the audience, find the insight and make the work better. If you’re thinking about a career in strategy, read my guide to becoming a brand strategist.

Account planning: FAQs