Planing
verb: /plein-ing/
Moving at speed to rise above whatever's holding you back.
ON DEMAND
STRATEGIC PLANNING
FOR AGILE MARKETERS
Strategic Planing is a brand and communications planning consultancy for agencies and clients that want to rise above organizational inertia and information overload.
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How does Strategic Planing work? It's simple: Focus on the things that add value, collaborate, and hack the online world to eliminate the things that add unnecessary time and cost to a project.
NEED A FRESH
SET OF EYES?
Strategic Planing is an objective, experienced voice just a phone call away. I can help you accelerate your process, provide inspiration from unexpected places, and help you achieve clarity in a sea of information.
NOT LOCAL?
NOT A PROBLEM.
I live and work in Tokyo, but for the past 20 years, the average distance to my clients has been over 6,000 km. We can use time zones to our advantage to stretch the working day and produce results faster.
GLOBAL CROSS-CATEGORY EXPERIENCE
I've lived and worked in 6 countries and developed brands and campaigns that span the globe. From fast moving consumer goods to automotive, quick service restaurant, technology, finance, retail, tourism and consumer durable goods, there are few categories I haven't touched.
HOW CAN I HELP YOU?
BRAND PLANNING
A simple, collaborative approach.
Whether you're looking to develop a corporate mission statement, brand purpose, brand journey or simply need a more compelling and actionable way of talking about what you've already developed, I can show you a practical, pragmatic approach to coming up with a solution your company and your customers will love.
CAMPAIGN DEVELOPMENT
Creative focus and collaboration
Whether you're working with a large integrated agency or with a group of specialty shops, it's sometimes hard to stay true to the big picture.
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Because sometimes you need a little inside-the-box thinking. I'll help you define the sandbox and inspire everyone to be incredibly creative inside that box.
SECOND OPINION
Fresh eyes for tough questions.
Even the best of teams sometimes hit a wall and need a bit of new energy to get back on track.
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It's not about starting over or reinventing things, it's about giving you the boost you need when you need it most.
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Most of the time, you're probably already closer to the answer than you realise.
COACHING
Good people can become even better.
Do you have staff or teams that could benefit from a bit of objective advice or training to hone their strategic skills? Are you looking to improve your client/agency relationship or working method?
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The Strategic Planing approach can help your teams focus on the things that matter, take ownership of ideas and inspire the partners they work with.
WORKSHOP FACILITATION
I might not have all the answers, but I've got a lot of very good questions
Give me an hour, an afternoon or a day, and I'll give you a collaborative experience that identifies the real issues, generates creative options to move forward, and leaves everyone feeling invested in achieving a solution.
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Within a few days afterward, I'll come back to you not with a meeting summary, but with a plan and options to put into action.
PITCHES & RFPS
Moving beyond the beauty contest.
Agencies are great at coming up with killer creative ideas for the client's brief but they don't always have a clear strategy for HOW they plan to win. And similarly, clients often focus on WHAT they want their prospective partner to DO, without having a clear idea of HOW they want to work together.
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I can help you set yourself up for success and offer an experienced hand on both sides of the fence when the double edged sword of pitching comes calling.
STEVE WRIGHT
Strategic Planer
I’ve worked as a Strategic Planner in large advertising agencies for over 20 years. I spent the first half of my career complicating things to prove I knew what I was doing and I'm spending the back half simplifying things because I know what I'm doing.
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I've helped develop everything from global campaigns and destination brands to new products, segmentation models and those little stickers that explain taxes on gas pumps.
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At various times, I've worked in public relations, founded the online division of a major agency, run planning departments, authored one of the travel world's most influential Twitter accounts, run a travel film production company, branded a country, a state, two cities and two provinces, worked with almost every category you can imagine (ask me about pitching the Bible), founded the social media practice in a big agency, and lived and worked in 7 cities around the world. It's been a fun ride.
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Along the way, I've learned two things: complex processes rarely result in simple answers; and paying someone an hourly rate is a lousy way to get them to work quickly.
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But most importantly, I've worked with a lot of great people, agencies and clients. I've learned a lot from them. And now I'm enjoying helping other people.
STRATEGIC PLANING IN ACTION
THE 6PM EMAIL
An agency had been struggling for several weeks with a brand positioning project. I quickly realised the real issue was a lack of alignment between the CEO and the marketing team.
I did a deep dive into the sector, found inspiration in a legendary hip hop artist, and wrote 4 or 5 new ways forward to bridge the gap and break the impasse. What ended up getting approved wasn't what either side had been fighting for, but an exciting new idea that they could all get behind.
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Total engagement: 3 days.
Distance to client: 8,151 km
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THE FAMILY BUSINESS
A long-time client referred me to a large family-run business. They were looking for some new ideas to make their marketing campaigns work harder.
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I spent a couple of days experiencing their brand as a customer, ran a cross-functional workshop and interviewed most of the key stakeholders.
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I realised they'd only be able to optimise their marketing if they could agree on what business they were really in. We ran a second workshop and held an all-staff meeting later that afternoon to see if we were on the right track.
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Three years later, the company remains on the path we set over those few short days. Sales are up, the customer experience has improved significantly and their marketing programs are focused and effective.
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Total engagement: 4 weeks
Distance to client: 11,179 km
THE EMPLOYER BRAND
A global giant had struggled for years to improve its image as an employer. Positive self-perception was at odds with the public's stereotype-laden image of the brand's employees.
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Rather than confronting the misperceptions head-on (it's never a great idea to tell people they're wrong) I suggested we start by acknowledging and agreeing with the stereotypes, but frame them up in a positive new light. That's called marketing judo.
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The resulting campaign captured the public's imagination and entered the political dialogue as a great example of a company standing up for its employees. Research showed the campaign produced double digit improvements in everything from brand image to food quality. The campaign has since been picked up by other international markets.
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Total engagement: 2 weeks
Distance to client: 20 km
WHEN OPPORTUNITY COMES KNOCKING
A long-time destination marketing client woke up one morning to find themselves featured in an online meme that was taking the internet by storm. We quickly realised that the opportunity wasn't to amplify the virality of the meme, but to turn it into something more valuable that could outlive the meme's 15 seconds of internet fame.
We turned the meme into an online ambassador for the brand. And for the next two years, I authored the brand's twitter feed, showcasing the destination through the eyes of a most unlikely but highly lovable spokesperson.
Over time, online mentions shifted from the meme to coverage of the destination's best in class social media program. We became the world's most influential destination marketing organization on Twitter (as ranked by Klout), ranking in the Top 10 Travel Brands overall alongside Lonely Planet, The Travel Channel and Orbitz, and far surpassing DMO's with much larger budgets and awareness.
It's a great example of how being agile and a bit clever can trump even the best laid plans.
Total Engagement: 2 years
Distance to Client: 3,537 km