Why The Strategist's Job Never Really Ends

Peter Picard got his start in the research department at Leo Burnett. He was recruited out of the Myth & Symbol Program in American Studies at the University of Minnesota to add cultural perspective and context to the work of the department.

His career has included stints in account management, account planning and primary research at BBDO, Ogilvy and TRU, a youth-focused research and insights firm. He came to Blue Chip in 2016 to help develop our strategic planning and research department, SPARQ, which he currently directs for the agency.

LBB> Is there a difference between a strategist and a planner? Which best describes the way your team works?

Peter> As someone who was introduced to the somewhat radical British discipline of ‘account planning’ during its formative stages in the US, I have had this question pop up many times in my career.

In elevating the strategic discipline and building a planning function at Blue Chip, we deliberately chose the term ‘strategic planning’ to capture the broadest definition of our capability, and we added ‘research’ to the department descriptor to reflect our commitment to the investigative expertise so critical to strategic impact.

Thus, we became the strategic planning and research team, or SPARQ, comprised of strategic planners with consumer research expertise. 

Our department vision is simple: to be the leading-edge strategic planning team in the industry. With that ambition in mind, we work hard to instil a ‘strategic planner of the future’ mentality on our team, offering professional development and expertise in every aspect of strategy and planning, cultivating and deploying empathy as our superpower and adopting a creative orientation that inspires ideas that drive change.

LBB> What maxims, principles, frameworks do you find yourself going back to over and over? Why are they so useful?

Peter> Our strategic planning approach is human-focused – we believe that a well-crafted, impactful strategy is at heart a story about people that involves brands.

In crafting strategic stories, we recognise the critical importance of foundational data – we think of data as the footprints and fingerprints of real people – while acknowledging that logic alone potentially leads to the same uninspired place as our competitors.

We embrace empathy as our superpower and define strategic problems in human terms. We search for and deploy human insight to shatter the status quo and ignite change in real lives.

In that sense, we don’t just navigate change; we actively harness it as our most potent weapon to drive transformation for our clients and their brands.

In terms of frameworks, we have several tried-and-true favourites that we deploy – all developed to advance the impact of creative commerce and all flexible enough to adapt to changing marketplace dynamics and unique client objectives.

Our strategic process is simple by design, beginning with the development of a ‘Bring Change Brief’ that directs strategic thinking and ignites the process. To develop this seminal brief, we begin by conducting separate investigations into target consumers, category competition, client brands and cultural trends.

Our simple end goal is to identify, within the context of cultural forces and category dynamics, how a brand uniquely delivers what is critically important to its target audience. 

Where these separate investigations converge is where sparks truly fly, allowing us to uncover penetrating insights that inspire creative solutions and drive change.

We capture and distil our findings in a set of overlapping circles, a classic Venn diagram, that allows us to visualise strategic convergence and identify points of maximum impact.

We then craft a simple ‘Bring Change’ statement that builds from the Venn and directs the change to be affected in-market. We like to joke that we think in circles to provide straightforward direction. But it works for us – all captured on a single page! 

We also deploy brand foundation frameworks that we construct using data and insights from our own investigations, primary research and client brand guides.

Within these frameworks, we work carefully to curate information in language that imparts clarity and precision while inspiring strategic action. Typically, we organise these brand foundation components in a simple strategic pyramid, supported by foundational brand attributes, rising upward to brand purpose and essence. And we have learned how to distil foundational brand frameworks into inspiring brand positioning statements designed to ignite and direct change.

Finally, we have proven communications planning and PESO frameworks that allow our strategists to bring brands to life and drive sales at every touchpoint in the consumer journey. 

So, frameworks are important to us in SPARQ, and we have several that we rely on to drive the best thinking for Blue Chip and our clients. But we never mistake frameworks for real thinking. Our frameworks help structure our thinking, but our people deliver the ideas.

LBB> There is a negative stereotype about strategy being used to validate creative ideas, rather than as a resource to inform them and make sure they are effective. How do you make sure the agency gets this the right way round?

Peter> At Blue Chip everything begins with the ‘Bring Change’ brief that captures consumers’ real stories as they intersect in meaningful ways with client brands.

In crafting the brief, we strive to capture true stories – driven by empathy and insight, supported by relevant data – that provide both direction and inspiration for creative development. These stories are written with marketplace change in mind, but they are not intended to deliver or dictate creative solutions. 

Further, while crafting the brief is primarily the responsibility of SPARQ, the brief itself is not considered final until it has been reviewed and committed to by the agency team.

During creative development, an approved brief becomes the guide and touchstone for the work. In that sense, it is a critical tool to evaluate the creative work and to validate that it has stayed ‘true’ to what is critically important to the target. The brief represents the consumer, while we in SPARQ represent the brief. 

Finally, we do have a validation technique that we frequently deploy during creative development that allows us to understand how well creative concepts communicate to, resonate with and motivate target consumers. Led by SPARQ researchers and ideally conducted in the formative stages of development, we call the technique creative development research.

While it is used to evaluate and potentially validate creative effectiveness, its primary goal is to include consumers in the development process to make creative work as impactful as possible prior to production. It is a collaborative and high touch​ technique, embraced by the creative team and appreciated by clients.

LBB> What part of your job do you enjoy the most?

Peter> I have to say that I like being a strategic planner. I like doing the work, every day, with my team and with my agency and client partners. I look forward to coming to work and facing the next challenge.

Of course, the strategist’s job never really ends – we’re always turning up some new thought or website or YouTube video or random verbatim that sets off a string of new ideas at any time of the day or night. Planners are famous for having notepads and markers in every drawer in the house. 

Here are a few passion points that make the job especially rewarding. Working with creative people is one. Creative people see the world a little differently, and they make sense of things in unexpected ways. It feels good to help inspire their ideas.

Secondly, the rush of insight – that moment when you feel a shift in the universe and the whole puzzle reveals itself in a way that shocks and delights. Whoo!

The strategic séance – nothing is more satisfying than sitting around a table with a group of strategists as the solution is somehow summoned to the surface.

And finally, the endless lure of discovery. There is so much to learn, every day. The light is never out for a strategic planner. And discovering new ideas just never gets old.