Do you have to go to Adschools to create great ads?

Strategy in advertising is not rocket science. It is not a complicated, mysterious route to brand success that can only be taught by Miami Ad School or Adschool or VCU Brandcenter. Strategic planning is mainly about having a true understanding about human beings, faaaar beyond statistics, Roy Morgan and even psychological research, and about understanding the brand you market faaaar beyond it´s USP and mission statements.

Strategic planning of champions is being a cupid for brands, finding an honest and real connection between rational and emotional needs within people, and the product or service that you are selling. From facts, you reach insights, that gives you keys that open hearts. Easy! The skill needed is to be able to make sense of it all, capture the essence and sense the right direction.

Many believe strategic planning in creative agencies is something you can be taught from agency land alone. But if you only learn from others in the same field, you will live your strategy life in a tiny little box and limit your thinking.

The Facebook site "Life.Then Strategy" asked people to name the best strategy books, and all of the titles suggested were about advertising strategy (see list below). Nothing wrong with that, but if you ONLY read about your little niche you will never be able to capture the consumer´s heart. I believe planners will reach another level if they start reading more about sociology, psychology, history and pop culture. When you read novels, magazines about fashion, boats or economics, and not just BandT and Marketing magazine, you will bring life into your strategies and see people more as humans than customers. Your thinking will be mature and free, instead of trapped in the adland prison.

"Agency experience" is somehow important to understand the process, the agency lingo, the way to please a client by using the right ROI promises and case studies, but if an agency wants to create creative work - how can it allow itself to just living in a box? Big ideas grow in an environment that is nutricious and where new air is constantly let in through the window. Audacious agencies create big ideas. Those who simply open their door for the agency trained will experience entropy, a low quality energy.

Bring in spice, open for life, let the unexpected in - see what kind of magic that can lead to.

What do you think? Am I right or wrong? Am I simply being self promoting my wicked cv, or do I have a point? Do you have experiences? Tell me :)

A Master Class in Brand Planning: The Timeless Works of Stephen King

Truth, Lies, and Advertising by Jon Steel.

Marketing 3.0 - Kotler

Beyond the Disurption - Jean-Marie Dru,

Tribes - Seth Godin

Cognitive Surplus - Clay Shirky,

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

‎"Rework" by 37signals

Positioning - Al Ries

A prayer for Owen Meany by John Irvin.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die Chip Heath (Author), Dan Heath (Author)... great book

The art of strategy' by Dixit & Nalebuff http://www.artofstrategy.net/

Also read: http://howwemove.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-strategic-planners-should-use-soren.html