02/17/2008 10:33:17 AM 
(2) 
(2) It isn't Account Planning.
The science and nature of the discipline is the subject of the book Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior written by the founder of Adaptive Path, Indi Young.
All the charts and images from the book are up on Flickr and can be seen in the slideshow below. They show just how much detail and rigor goes into the process and informs us humble planners that writing briefs for ads might be a different and perhaps easier ballgame.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Posted by Ed Cotton
Ed-
Nice find and a very interesting read. Organic's Information Architecture methodology is similar (though not as exhaustive for most sites), and we came to many of the same conclusions when we launched a movie lover's site for reelzchannel.com. Wish I'd had this to refer to then! As you can imagine, we are looking at the identical problem from the opposite direction- how to integrate account planning into an interactive agency. What I can add is that interactive planners don't just focus on user experience design. When it comes to planning for online advertising, the process is actually pretty similar to a traditional ad agency - gather insights, write a creative brief, press for continuity around the strategy as the creative executions are being developed. Where it becomes interesting and sustainable for interactive shops to bring in account planners is when online advertising is tightly linked to site experience design, particularly for immersive sites supporting high consideration purchases.
Posted by Misha Cornes on 02/19/2008 08:04 PM
Nice find and a very interesting read. Organic's Information Architecture methodology is similar (though not as exhaustive for most sites), and we came to many of the same conclusions when we launched a movie lover's site for reelzchannel.com. Wish I'd had this to refer to then! As you can imagine, we are looking at the identical problem from the opposite direction- how to integrate account planning into an interactive agency. What I can add is that interactive planners don't just focus on user experience design. When it comes to planning for online advertising, the process is actually pretty similar to a traditional ad agency - gather insights, write a creative brief, press for continuity around the strategy as the creative executions are being developed. Where it becomes interesting and sustainable for interactive shops to bring in account planners is when online advertising is tightly linked to site experience design, particularly for immersive sites supporting high consideration purchases.
Posted by Misha Cornes on 02/19/2008 08:04 PM
It appears you don't have Flash installed.
well said. it's a little daunting isn't it, how much there is to learn about this field? or at least figure out the smartest way to bring it into the fold, as you say.