Regional planning executives John Woodward and Gavin Heron have set
up Greater China's first Account Planning Group with the support of
London's APG to address the lack of planning knowledge in the
region.
Woodward, regional planning director at Leo Burnett, and Heron, regional
strategic planning director at TBWA, warned there was a danger that
advertising in the region was becoming "irrelevant", with expatriate
agency planners lacking an understanding of local culture and
habits.
"If you look at some of the work being done in Hong Kong, not all the
best creative work has powerful strategies to support it," said
Woodward.
"Particularly in times of recession, all clients and agencies need to
ensure money spent results in advertising that is relevant and
insightful.
A lot of the agencies here work largely with expat planners that have
been trained or have learnt planning elsewhere.
"This is not a long-term solution for the agency. It is important that
you train as many people as possible locally so that they understand the
local culture and habits in the region."
Heron added that it was "high time planning starts to get the attention
it needs" and stressed that successful campaigns needed planning from
the start. "Unless you can link it to strategy, creativity will simply
become more and more of a commodity," he said.
The group is backed by London's APG, which aims to educate local
planners on what planning actually involves.
Woodward said planning provided individuals with the tools that would
ultimately enable them to bring a distinct and crucial set of
capabilities to an agency.
"With a limited history of planning in Hong Kong and China, the need is
great and the APG will exist to fill the gap in training resources in
many agencies," he added.
The APG, which will launch in Australia, China and Singapore, will run
its first training session on 'Creative Briefing' on December 12 and 13
in Hong Kong, with UK planning heavyweight Merry Baskin.
Woodward said the first training session had received a positive
response, with all but one place in the course booked.
"As for the future, we will be looking to set up in early December a
meeting to bring together a broader number of planning directors for
long term training," he added.
The group has set up a website at
www.theonecentre.com/apgasiapacrego/default.html for registration.
