account planner
A strategist who uses audience insight and research to guide an agency's creative and media direction.
Definition
An account planner, also called a strategist, represents the audience inside an agency. The planner studies customers, markets and competitors, finds the insight that makes a campaign relevant, and writes the strategic part of the creative brief. The role bridges research and creative. A planner's work should be visible in clear problem statements and audience descriptions, not jargon. When evaluating agencies, ask to see how their strategists reached a recommendation, including the evidence they used. Not every agency uses the title, so ask who does the strategic thinking and what research or data they usually draw on.
In a sentence
The account planner interviewed customers before writing the brief.
Her insight shaped the campaign's central idea.
