Planning above and beyond Part One

John Griffiths started his account planning website five years ago.

I vaguely remember this because he sent out an email to planning mates and invited me to be listed as one of his "people". Those were the days when I was rather scared of this whole internet business (plus a change) and I declined. However, he got some great freelance planning gurus and it surprised me no end that he'd publish contact details for his competitors.

Five years on the site is an important source of account planning knowledge and he has become a recognised name in our industry. I attended the APG AGM in May and remember the discussion, tinged with chagrin, about what he has accomplished.

There are three people who inspired me to blog. John's number one on the list. He's a great guy to know and to call with web questions. Last time I did, I got sucked in to trying to figure out where Orlando is from Miami as he was on google earth and his kids wanted to find Orlando. Just because I'm American doesn't mean I know all the geographic areas well! But I knew it was west and north of Miami and we got there in the end.

I interviewed John for over an hour and the following covers a tiny bit of what we discussed.

Why do you have a website?

My reason for starting it? I thought it would be a cheaper way to contact people without having to call them up. The cost was low, £60/70 a year. The real cost is your time. You have to keep an eye out otherwise you could spend all your time fiddling with it.

It's about imagination and enjoyment. And I thought it would help me get work and I'd develop relationships with planning directors. In that I've been partially successful.

My rule was to change it once a month and put things on that wouldn't date. I spend half a day or so a month updating and adding new content. I never figured out what it would look like after five years.

I started to get emails from very high profile people and from around the world. My site traffic got to 800 sessions and this was beyond my wildest dreams til I realised it could be just one individual logging on! Since then it has gone ballistic. This year the site has had at least 4,000 individuals every month. I can track unique visitors but not by individual email addresses.

I don't know who's visiting but I can tell which pages people have looked at. There's a flaw in the business model. You can't collect against it. I would like to figure out which routes through the site were most popular and which bits of the site were working, and for whom.

Half the fun of the website is you have to find out what works. I never realised I needed to put key words on so they could be searched for. The reason other people find your site is because someone has linked to it so I had to learn to set up links.

Many of my "bright ideas" just didn't work. But the saying goes, if you want to succeed, increase your failure rate. With these new comms channels, you have to learn and find out what works.

What are the top articles?

The most downloaded articles? 'Planning beyond advertising - how does it work outside advertising' - that has been downloaded 100 times a month since 2003 when it was in Admap. Also the integrated planning article.

What was your thinking five years ago?

I think planners are very curious people and planning changes all the time and that makes it interesting. I got very excited because I could postpone the boredom factor by working in other areas. When I worked in different disiplines I found it very exciting. I wanted to communicate that to people and I think I have. Plus I wanted to have common cause with other planners, to network with those facing similar challenges.

No one is helping people outside advertising understand account planning. But everyone talks a good game. I don't have a chip on my shoulder about advertising planning. In the end it's what you're interested in. But advertising planning doesn't transfer tidily to other comms areas. If you think advertising planning works in a specific way you'll screw up big time. Ad planning needs to be reconfigured.

Stan Pollitt started it by making qualitative research really simple. He said just look at heavy, light and non users. But that is terrible advice for direct marketing.

John, at BMP he's only ever called Stanley and he is remembered as an eccentric character, holding forth in the pub and stubbing out his cigarettes in the pocket of his tweed jacket.

What he did was right for mass advertising but you've got to figure out what is appropriate. Advertising works with mass audiences but five people will have five different opinions. Other channels do certain things well.

What's interesting that's happening these days?

The single biggest issue, and it's not new but ad people are being blown away because people now resent advertising. We've been disrespectful. We need now to have a dialogue. All new communication channels have a respond channel. We like people to react but we don't want them to talk to us. We love passivity.

You have to interact with people. People spend money when they engage. But it's down to costs and we don't have time for it. Clients should take risks by engaging with their customers. It may push up costs. It certainly takes more time. That's the price.

I've reviewed books on the site for five years. Publishers now send me books to review. £3,000 worth of books were bought on the website last year. I've started interviewing these authors. It's interesting to hear how they talk and to challenge their thinking. The authors have fantastic insights but no channel to contact account planners.

What made you start running drinks evenings?

Another hobby horse of mine is some of your great ideas don't work. So here's the truth - invitations on the internet don't work. You'd think the networking opportunity would be appealing but it's not. So I just phone up my planning friends and they bring their friends.

When are you going to start blogging?

There are loads of planning blogs, about seven or eight. Russell and Richard at Red Cell and W&K. I blogged a bit earlier in the year, from my mobile when I was travelling in the Middle East. The pressure to publish every couple of days is too much for me.

What is your definition of a blog?

An online diary where people can regularly publish information about themselves and it's personal. It has an element of authenticity or authority. Blogs have to tell the truth. I think that's part of the code. People are presenting themselves as they are.

Russell's is the original. There's a guy in Spain too - hidden persuader? I've heard that Weiden and Kennedy have blogs for each account. They've replaced writing contact reports with blogs and that's an amazing way of working.

Are you ever inhibited?

Rarely. When I was travelling in the Middle East I was aware, if someone told me a funny story about what happens on the street in Saudi Arabia I wouldn't get into trouble but they might. I realised I needed to start editing myself on behalf of other people.

I feel a little guilty. I put some stuff up last year that related to the election in America. I feel I should have put things up on our election while it was on and I feel bad that I didn't. But the British election was a non event. It's very easy to criticise people from somewhere else.

John, when are you sending me that picture? I know how to work with jpegs so can't wait to receive it.

End.