Account Planner Job Description
The Account Planner drives the strategic direction of each campaign, and ensures the creative work not only fits the brand but is also strategically focused. The Account Planner is a key role, but many agencies place the burdens of account planning on the account manager or director. Learn more today!
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What is an Account Planner?
The Account Planner's role is quite different from that of the other members of the team. A good Account Planner will be a strategic, critical thinker and researcher who is more in tune with the consumer than the client.
In short, account coordinators, executives and managers know what the client wants (or needs) and Account Planners know what the consumer wants. They drive the strategic direction of each campaign, and ensure the creative work not only fits the brand but is also strategically focused. The Account Planner is a key role, but many agencies place the burdens of account planning on the account manager or director.
Education Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in advertising, business, marketing, or a similar field
- Extensive experience in the ad and marketing industry
- May have worked a supervisory role
Account Planner Essential Skills
- Creative and able to think around problems
- A rigorous and logical thinker
- Strong presentation skills
- Excellent written and spoken communication skills
- Able to work as part of a team
- Good memory for facts and figures
- Good meeting deadlines
Account Planner Roles & Responsibilities
- Gain a comprehensive context for advertising strategies by analyzing a wide range of information in great detail, including demographics, socio-economics and the market for the client’s product and market share
- Drive the overall strategic direction of creative campaigns
- Ensure that the creative team's work is focused strategically and is within brand guidelines
- Guide production planning activities ranging from developing and revising production schedules, forecasting trends and customer demand, and managing logistics
- Redesign website and direct all online advertising efforts including paid search, SEO, blogs and data feeds
Day-to-Day Duties
- Commission research from outside organizations to inform advertising strategies
- Run qualitative research groups; use a variety of market research data to monitor cultural and social trends and their impact on consumers’ attitudes, behaviors and perceptions
- Provide the creative team with a clearly defined brief that contains concise information on the product, audience and strategy so that they can develop creative ideas applicable to the media channels that will promote the idea most effectively
- Set the communication strategy for advertising campaigns
- Develop, manage and analyze research projects