Connections Planning. What is it actually?

Oktober 20th, 2009 • Allgemein

Since the beginning of 2009 my employer Neue Digitale / Razorfish has integrated all strategic disciplines in one Connections Planning team. As Social Influence Strategist I am part of it together with with different strategic backgrounds. I admit, I did not always feel comfortable in properly defining the different Planning Concepts. And the rather ‘new’ Connections Planning idea adds just one more label to the different strategic disciplines which can exist in an agency.

Our concept of Connections Planning integrates the work of Account and Brand Planners as well as Media and Analytics, and Social Media. Its core idea is to engage customers where they are and not by putting the customer’s media use into the center of attention. Its goal is to use the strength of data-driven marketing activities and integrate all other disciplines to strategically interact with the user and maximize value for all stakeholders.

Connections Planning is a young term. And there are some definitions around and some agencies might find different approaches for the same term. The reason for this post is, I found two interesting decks lately which revolve around the term ‘Connections Planning’. And both are pretty insightful and definitely worth to take a look at.

Two decks on Connections Planning

Griffin Farley has come up with this great deck which tries to define the different strategic disciplines in nowaday’s agencies…which it does quite well. Particularly interesting is how he distinguishes Media and Connections Planning. And his blog Propagation Planning is definitely cool.

The second deck which I would like to mention here is from Jason Oke who criticizes nowaday’s use of the term Connections Planning. The deck is pretty upfront and criticizes how agencies used the term by now (I did not know, so many agencies are using it at all). He demands a holistic, experience and long-term driven 365 approach, instead of setting up Connections Planning as a sexier tool to win awards. Oke’s idea, ‘Planningness’ was just taken to Planningness, the Unplanning conference:

In a time when the world belongs to brands and people that do things, rather than talk about them, we thought it might be time for a conference where we get our hands dirty and learn how to make stuff.

Good to go, here is the deck.

It’s not very surprising that the term Connections Planning is not yet fully defined. Maybe it never will be. As in traditional strategic disciplines agencies will have to find their respective way to realize this concept. Nevertheless, I found these two decks remarkable as they try to define stuff and attribute key properties to a new way of thinking in Marketing.

I would be very happy to receive as many comments on the different aspects of Connections Planning as possible. Do you know it? Do you use it? Is it new at all? Tell me.

And don’t get me wrong: this is

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Tags: Agencies, Analytics, Connections Planning, CRM, Definition, Ideas, Media, Planning, Presentation, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Tools, Trends

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