The promise I made in my previous post (to write about my best idea of the last year) turned out to be a very difficult one, mainly because it is very hard to separate the ideas of a planner (account planner, strategic planner) from the ideas of others. I think that in the last year I succeeded in writing a number of good consumer briefs, however it is clear that a good brief is not a goal in itself - the quality of a brief can be judged only from the effectiveness of advertising. And I leave the assessment of the effectiveness of the 4 campaigns submitted by DDB to the jury of the Password contest.

I will outline a very simple yet efficient idea which during the year has certainly helped create a favourable environment for creative solutions to the client’s business problems.

Early last year, I regularly faced unpleasant choices when I had to choose among all the activities I liked and considered valuable, for example, reading fiction or professional literature, sports activities or visiting friends etc.

To make the process of choosing simpler, I arranged priorities according to the required amount of time and put them into an unvarying seven-day structure, similar to what the architects planned the Seattle library, only simpler.

Now, here is the schematic result.

Working days = work + family + professional literature

Saturdays = sports + friends/family + professional literature

Sundays = family + fiction

I admit that this is not particularly exciting, but that’s what a strategic planner’s work is like – understanding the target audience’s action, laying aside unnecessary things by finding the main motivators and/or obstacles and convincing everyone involved of the necessary action, including oneself.