Brand owners want big ideas, not ad-tweaking

Argues that clients will find it difficult to get the same sort of quality solutions in-house that they could get from ad agencies and offers up a number of pointers on the role that planning could and should play.

Planning @50: What is its future?

This article is part of a series of articles marking the 50th birthday of planning. Read more.

Thirty-five years ago, I started my first job as a planner in a London agency. An early acquaintance there – a healthily cynical account man had on his pinboard a newspaper headline that read simply: 'Planning: the god that failed.' The reference was actually to town planning. But the irony was sweet and, I suspect, still resonates now, in the middle of what is an intense debate on the future...

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