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ielsen's upcoming total audience measurement tool—which the company shared exclusively with Adweek on Tuesday—will finally show networks and advertisers how their content is viewed across all platforms. But as the company works with top industry execs to evolve video measurement, Nielsen says its new data will also help buyers optimize their media plans.

In March, Nielsen acquired data management platform Exelate to help with programmatic buying

"We're able to bring all our data assets together in one place and create a respondent-level database," said Clarken. Advertisers can carve out segments for audience buying, which Exelate will pull together and then make real-time programmatic buys.

Planners should for example, be expected to be able to: Intelligently interrogate buyer data and apply it to the development of communication strategy Have a least a passing knowledge of some of the fundamental laws of markets and the dynamics of brands Decode tracking data and usefully apply it to the development of strategic recommendations Have point of view on how and when to use quantitative research – and be able to articulate to clients which companies to use and why Interrogate customer segmentation data Commission quantitative projects Write a research recruitment screener Design both qualitative and quantitative questionnaires Know the different the types of both qualitative and quantitative research available, their methodologies, uses, and the suppliers thereof Conduct their own qualitative research Bring to bear an informed understanding of how different kinds of communications work in different kinds of circumstances, for different kinds of brands, across different kinds of channels and touchpoints Develop effectiveness models for campaigns and activity Formulate recommendations on how to evaluate the effectiveness of communications Provide an informed perspective on the new and emergent models of effectiveness Understand the methodological differences between the principle copy-testing suppliers (know your enemy) Evaluate the commercial impact of communications activity Have an understanding of econometric modeling

Just to be clear – the planner is an advertising person. Planners work with research, but in advertising. Ultimately, they must be able to interrogate, synthesize and apply this information and insight to the development of creative work. And that does of course involve the application of intuition and imagination too. For as Stephen King wrote, “the whole process of advertising is not a safe, cautious, step-by-step build-up.”

The skills listed above are not acquired overnight. They take time to develop. And acquiring them can sometimes feel like a long and arduous journey. Sexy and cool it ain’t. The implications should be obvious: If you don’t have a boss who can teach you these craft skills, move on. If as an agency you’re not investing in the craft skills of your planners, you’re failing them. And if as a planner you’re not interested in acquiring the craft skills and find it all a bit tedious, you’re failing yourself. Worse, you’re in the way.

Once upon a time, Schwinn pretty much owned the American bicycle market and, with models like Varsity, Continental, and of course, the Paramount, defined American-made bicycling dominance. But that was back when a carbon frame was something you made with a pencil, and brands like Trek, Specialized, Cannondale and Giant had not climbed onto retail bike racks.

Schwinn is hoping to get its brand mojo in high gear with a new campaign aimed squarely at a vast consumer base of recreational riders:

The $5 million-plus marketing push -- Schwinn's largest in at least a decade -- includes TV, print, Internet banners, a new Web site (RideSchwinn.com), social media, and a major retail rethink for Schwinn's big-box and independent bike shop retailers, based on the idea that a forest of bicycles on store racks does not a brand make.