Strategic planning has been disrupted. The evolution of digital has forced us to re-think the very fabric of how agencies create marketing experiences. From channels to evolvable worlds, from disciplines to hacking, agencies need to change and embrace change. This 4A's presentatio, a collaboration between Laura McFarlane and myself, was presented by Laura at the Planning conference in 2013.

1. Strategy &
The Agency Model
Adapt, evolve or else…

2. “We can no longer look at
change as a transition. Rather,
we need to permanently
embrace it as a catalyst for
growth.”
Agencies need an “un-model”

3. What’s Changed?
Rethinking strategic planning
FROM TO

4. Fundamental Changes in
How We Go About our
Business
“Your remit now includes being
a data jockey, a brand leader, and an innovator.”
- David Cooperstein, Forrester

5. In fact the whole Shape of our work has changed
Rapid cycle testing and ongoing interpretation – analysis fuels optimization and
adaptation
PLAN EXPERIENCE MEASURE

6. Intelligence Experience Evolvability
We Make Strategies
Organize Around Three Principles:

7. Intelligence

8. Every two days now, we create as much information
as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.
- Eric Schmidt

9. One billion pieces of content are
shared via Facebook’s Open Graph
daily.

10. The volume of data created by US companies
alone is enough to fill 10,000 Libraries of
Congress.

11. A retailer using big data to the fullest could increase
its operating margins by more than 60%.
-McKinsey

12. Data
Evolution of Data. Where we’re going and when.

13. More than just data:
Intelligence

14. Breadth of Inquiry, Skills, Methods

15. Macro-trends
longitudinal forces influencing
societal or platform shifts
Human-intelligence
blended qualitative and quantitative
understanding of why trends and
behavior are what they are
Micro-behavioral
the actual behavior of people captured
through analytics across digital touch
points
Machine-driven
real-time responsiveness driven by
both immediate behavior and
regressed behavioral frames
ResearchActivity&InsightDepth
Strategy /
Operations
Operations
/Optimization
Touch-point
Optimization
Purpose Time scaleType
Strategy
Weekly – quarterly
Daily – monthly
Real-time
Monthly – quarterly
Deep Analysis

16. Consumer Intelligence Process

17. Mission Control

19. What it Means for Strategists
Evolve and organize around new notions of
intelligence
Getting good with data
Designing experiences that not only generate
data but can continuously be improved by it.

20. Experience

21. Connected Consumers,
High Expectations

22. Challenge: Putting consumers into context
How consumers live their
lives.
Connection with the category
and marketplace.
Connection (if at all) with the
brand.
Identify and model the
opportunities.
Identify connections and
nature of the experience.
Assign role and function and
metrics to each connection.
Determine Return on
Experience.
View
Product
on a PC
View
Banner Ad
Download
An App
“Like” a
Product
on
Facebook
Out of
Home
Poster
Watch
Video on
Tablet
TV Ad
Check
Twitter
Seek
Opinions
on Social
Read
Blogs
Join
Loyalty
Program
Share
Link on
Facebook
Add to
Cart
Read
Ratings
and
Reviews
Interact
With A
Kiosk
Text
Picture to
a Friend
Website
Go to
Retail
Store
Interaction
With A
Sales
Associate
BUY

23. Build Worlds not Ads
VALUE + MEANINGSTORIES =
CONTEXT +
ACTION
SYSTEMS =
STORYSCAPING

24. Purpose, People and Product are all we need.
Building “Worlds”
that Don’t Need Marketing
• Nike's spending on TV and
print advertising in the US
has dropped by 40% in just
three years, even as its total
marketing budget has steadily
climbed upward to hit a
record $2.4 billion last year
• Where is the money moving?
To connected product
development, digital and
social service platforms
where communities can
engage more deeply with the
brand.

25. What’s
Different?
• The role of content in the story –
social, location, context
• Allows hero in the story to craft the
narrative
• Enables connection between people,
places & brands
• Always-on, joined at any time or place
• Has an underlying connections
platform
• Real-time data and analytics
• Aggregating data over time yields
massive advantages

26. New tools for understanding
and measuring experience
• Sensors and instruments
• Qualitative as well as quantitative data
sources
• Always on, dynamic models of behaviors
• Analytic tools

27. New dimensions for
assessing…
And new
models for
measuring
ROX
BRAND &
MARKETING
ROI
RETURN ON
MEDIA &
CHANNELS
EXPERIENCE
OPTIMIZATIO
N
FITACCESS SENSE CONTINUITYCONTROL

28. What it Means for Strategists
“Crowdsourcing” the Strategy
MEDIA
CONTENT
CREATIVITY
ANALYTICSSOCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
STRATEGY
UX
INSIGHTS

29. Evolvability

30. 1. the capacity of a system for adaptive
evolution.

31. HACKER
PLAN MORE LIKE A

32. Driving Growth
Creating a system for incremental innovation
Agility to continually adapt to the changing
landscape of consumer and technology
Designing growth into service and product
Having a “Growth Hacking” department

33. Rapid cycles between Intelligence, Marketing and Product.
Leverage data and insights to generate hypotheses, put in
market and test on an ongoing basis.
Refine, course correct.
What it Means for Strategists
Speed & Agility

34. To Sum Up…

35. The Un-Model; New Skills and New
Processes Required to Work in Concert
4 RULES:
Strategy is drawn from a wider range of disciplines;
Intelligence, Experience and “Growth Hacking”.
Technology is now table-stakes.
Deep and continuous investment in consumer intelligence and data will define us.
Massively distributed skills and deep, constant, agile
collaboration.
From disciplines to ‘pods’.
From waterfall to agile or scrum.
A nimbler approach: continuously iterate technology and experience based on
findings.