Kathryn Bigelow stood before the Academy Awards audience last night and while accepting the Oscar mentioned that Directing in Film is really “just great collaboration”.

In my career, I’ve had the pleasure of several planning bosses – each influencing the way I think and the way I approach strategy. In no short order, I’ve worked for Mike Canterbury (who has since sadly passed, but whose presence is still felt at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney), Adrian Barrow (now Global Planning Director on Diageo at JWT New York), Sudeep Gohil (now Founding Partner at Droga5 Sydney), Bram Williams (most recently Head of Content at Channel [V] Australia) and now Claudine Cheever (formerly of Goodby Silverstein and now running the 34-strong Strategy Department at Saatchi & Saatchi New York).

The “Planning Director” title, at its best, should be “Planning Coach”. The best Planning Directors are those who not only spot a good insight or a good idea, but are those who work constructively with their teams (junior and senior) to help uncover the great ideas still left unsaid or undiscovered. Specifically, becoming a Planning Coach is about leaving the ego behind. I’ve found that the best Planning Directors are those that are happy to balance the twin roles of being a planner and a manager to the department.

Good Planning Directors establish a philosophy, a practice and a culture for the department. Whether its Colin Drummond’s Cultural & Business Insights department at Crispin Porter + Bogusky or Richard Huntington’s work on Insights as Revelations at Saatchi & Saatchi London, great Planning Directors are able to develop a differentiated planning offering that defines an Agency and gives everyone (clients, prospective planners) a taste of each Agency’s version of strategy. When a Planning Director is relied upon to be simply The Best & Most Expensive Planner in The Agency, you have a problem. A Planning Director is not a Senior Planner for a reason: they don’t “plan” all the time, they Direct. And, in Bigelow’s case, when they Direct, they’re really just collaborating with some other smart, creative minds.

Every brand has an anthem. Or at least thats what we in agency-land like to tell the clients that manage them.

In every category, there exists an “ownable” territory that is worth a manifesto of empty thoughts all linked by a common theme. These anthems became useful in establishing what Adam Morgan (he of the “Eatbigfish” phenomenon) calls a ‘Lighthouse Identity’ – essentially, the idea that a brand can espouse values that consumers can live by, rather than brands whose values are informed by their intended audience. In this school of thinking, you could think of the more common brand-value associations: Coke and Happiness, Apple and Creativity, Nike and whatever you’re meant to take out of Just Do It.

Values are important to the brand and the organisation behind it. But if you don’t have tangible, solid proof of what these values offer as a point of difference you risk creating the sort of work that improves brand likeability scores but doesn’t work in selling a product or service.

Don’t get me wrong — I love the “art” part of the weird art/science mix that marketing is. And I admire its ability to create irrational response from an audience. But what I do get confused about is the reason for marketers to debut new “anthem” efforts in market in order to “refresh” what the market thinks about it.

Take Volkswagen USA. Having dumped creative hotshop Crispin Porter Bogusky for Deutsch LA, it landed during the Superbowl with “PunchDub”.

They continued with the “Das Auto” strapline, but what you have here is a cute device (Punch Dub!) that tells you absolutely nothing new about VW. So, there are 13 vehicles from VW: including the New Beetle from 2002? At least Apple’s “Think Different” manifesto in 1997 heralded the introduction of the then-revolutionary iMac.

For me, the brand anthem, brand manifesto – whatever you want to call it – is an important tool for Agencies and Brands. Here you have a rallying cry to bring together the many internal audiences on the Client side. Where it goes wrong, of course, is when the tidy slides you put together for the manifesto end up becoming the public-facing idea for the brand. “BMW doesn’t create cars, they create Joy?“. “Diesel is about Stupidity?“. Lets remember that consumers weren’t part of the offsites, the brand strategy workshops, the many steps involved in developing manifestos that are meant to inspire work afterwards.

But while the strategist always feels good that the manifesto was sold, the strategist should always work to actually figure out what the consumer should hear, not JUST what the brand manager was looking for in the assignment.

Here’s the rub: every brand has an anthem, but not every anthem should be sung in public. If you have a new product, service, innovation – SOMETHING – then you have every right to proudly stand and hit the high notes through a major campaign. If you don’t, then you should leave the pithy slides, the slick video edit and the beautiful script to the dealer or franchisee meeting.

Most brands would love to sing about themselves, but smart brands know that its better to actually DO things worth singing about in the first place. But maybe I’m just being, er, stupid.

The Mothership

Moving to New York for me feels like a TV spin-off. I leave my major storylines at home (family, relationships) but keep on a familiar trajectory (still working in advertising, still very much the big guy who eats and drinks too much and fits strategy into his day somehow).

This season will be filled with lots of new characters and lots of new plot twists and turns. Personally, I’m looking forward to it. Professionally, its a new challenge and a new reason to dust off the writer-within and use this blog as a means to share my stories and perspectives in this weird but amazing country. I’m at Saatchi & Saatchi New York and whilst everything on this blog is my opinion alone, you’ll hopefully gain a glimpse into my work projects and some of the great stuff we’re cooking at the Agency. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I will writing it.