How did you cross over from creative to strategy?

Now, I'm aware that it has been many years in the making. I started writing poetry at a very early age and during my childhood I took many classes that certainly exercised my creative soul (ie. ballet, painting, guitar, among other.) In college I went for Marketing, the closest thing to advertising.

One day, in my early years as a copywriter, I learned that any word itself has no meaning; that words only mean something in the mind of those who use them (same goes for ideas). At that point, strategy became part of my process and, many times, a source of inspiration.

Creatives usually receive a strategic document (AKA brief) with each job. After my realization about words I saw that tool in a new light. I didn't always inspire me but it did helped to sell a few ideas that some thought clients would never buy.

The original idea of making the crossover came from a visionary (now a very good friend) that at the time was HR Manager of Grey PR. He was hiring a planner in a year when the position was still new to the local industry. The requirements? They were more like a profile, a particular skill-set and background mix, instead of years of literal planning experience. He was convinced I had “it” and explained a job description very different to what I knew from working with planners in the past.

I did further research and found an upcoming trend with a whole new vision of the planning role. It turned out that most activities attached to the position, where the same I was already doing as a Creative Director @ARC/Leo Burnett. Certainly, he was right. So I made the move and I loved it. I had the chance to learned from masters, other Creative/Strategic Planners that were making historical changes in advertising mecas such as England, Brazil and Mexico.

I'm new to advertising, what is exactly what you do?

Well, most of us in the field get that a lot. My usual reply is that I get paid to read, think, write and talk. And yes, that is something we all do except that I get paid to do it exclusively for a specific client, brand or product that needs to solve a particular problem or meet a certain objective.

In a more familiar TV show context, let’s say I do for my clients what doctors do in the hit series House. They hold meetings to throw ideas based on what they know about medicine and patients history. They agree on diagnosis and decide the best course of action. For example, the options for the best course of action could be treat the infected liver (the cause) or treat the fever (the symptom). The treatment could go from antibiotics to surgery or both. Translating this into what I do:

- The product or brand is the patient.
- I read and/or ask questions to understand the “patient’s history”.
- The “throwing ideas part of the meetings” is brainstorming (thinking).
- Using my experience and whatever information available about the “patient” to identify the problem to be solved or the objective is the diagnosis.
- Deciding the best course of action is defining the strategy.

To understand what in my job is equivalent to treatment, let’s take a closer look to our example:
- I do make recommendations ie. Antibiotics vs. surgery, etc. meaning I could tell you “your best option is to do a TV Ad or a web banner’s campaign” or whatever applies.
- I can provide you with the antibiotic or the scalpel in the form of an idea, a text for an ad or a PowerPoint presentation of a Marketing Plan if that’s what you hired me for.

BUT MY JOB ENDS HERE.

What I’m trying to say is that I do not administer the treatment or, in advertising terms, I do not design the ad, produce the commercial, buy the media spot, or coordinate the event. The farther I can go, if you ask for it when you hire me, is to be part of the process to make sure everything is according to strategy or within the creative scope you approved. Also I can be there to help you making decisions about the project ie. during the casting process, the approval of a layout, creating a presentation, etc.

I hope this helped you get a better idea. As you can see there's not much glamour or parties involved; not in my role. If you asked the media people that's another story. f you need more info let me know ;-)