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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.

Category: Best Use of Social ($2 million - $4 million) Few marketers, especially beauty brands, have made it their mission to improve their consumers' self-esteem. That's what Unilever brand Dove has done, making inroads since 2004 with its "Campaign for Real Beauty." But a lot can change in a decade. "In 2004 women were fundamentally benchmarking themselves against the images in a magazine," says Cindy Gustafson, managing director of the invention studio at Mindshare. "And in 10 years there's been an incredible seismic shift because of the advent of social media and technology. The fact is this is where women are now taking their self-esteem cues from." Mindshare analyzed 18 million tweets and found that a third of them contained negative beauty or body image content, and women were 50 percent more likely to tweet negatively about themselves. Dove decided to change the conversation and partnered with Twitter for the #SpeakBeautiful campaign, which encouraged women to use social media as a tool for body and beauty in a positive way. Given the image-conscious nature of awards shows, Dove launched #SpeakBeautiful during the Oscars' Red Carpet and published tweets every 30 minutes. It also sent 800 personalized messages to women during the event, hoping to inspire them to send positive messages. The results were impressive: The campaign scored almost 6 million tweets, over 800 million social impressions and reached a unique audience of 13 million. Compared to the Oscars in 2014 there were 30 percent fewer negative tweets and 69 percent more positive tweets about self-beauty. It helped Dove's brand perception, too. Among people who engaged with the campaign, 27 percent had a higher intent to purchase Dove products, according to Nielsen; brand sentiment also increased 17 percent, according to Twitter. —Kristina Monllos

Category: Best International Campaign ($1 million - $5 million) No one can dispute the success or ubiquity of Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign, which substituted the iconic Coke logo with people's names in a bid to personalize their carbonated experience. But how to keep it bubbly? Coke and MediaCom U.K. planted the flag for Year 2 of the campaign in England, giving viewers of Channel 4's 4oD digital catch-up TV platform (now called All 4) a chance to see their own names on bottles—a potential reach of 11 million. Led by Chris Binns, managing partner and head of engineering, MediaCom U.K. latched onto 4oD subscribers' sign-in names to create personalized ads for each viewer, ending the messages with the tagline "Share a Coke With …" followed by the viewer's name on the bottle. In total, the effort generated 4 million dynamically generated, highly personalized TV ads. And 4oD subscribers carried the effort one step further, with many taking to Twitter to register their happiness at seeing their names on the small screen. ("How did the 4oD Coke advert know my name and put in on a can? I'm so confused and happy!" tweeted @remzitomlin.) The effort, says Binns, "delivered that moment to millions of consumers in their own homes, in a natural way while they were doing something they loved [watching TV], rather than … hoping that they would find their bottles on store shelves." Furthermore, campaign awareness in the U.K. rose 17 percent, while ad recall jumped 71 percent and purchase intent gained 24 percent. —Michael Bürgi

Category: Best International Campaign (less than $1 million) To give fashion fans a sneak peek at the Alexander Wang x clothing collection at the department store H&M, media agency UM turned to Twitter as "the key to unlock the mysterious box of Wang." The IPG shop aimed to show fashionistas around the world that its client had the most exclusive apparel from a leading designer, and it built buzz (while downplaying competitors' campaigns) by focusing on bloggers and social media influencers in the high-fashion vertical. First, the client created a literal box that appeared in London's St. Christopher's Place. Curious fans could only view the fashion-forward contents of the box by tweeting the campaign's hashtag, and H&M followed by sending both personalized tweets and images/videos of the Wang items in question to these aficionados. Using this strategy, UM was able to create significant hype around the collection's release, despite having a smaller budget than previous campaigns. UM creative director Marcia Siebers says the campaign was "a direct consequence of our unique relationship with H&M," adding that the live personalization "built anticipation for everyone who got involved" and delivered a unique experience to both those who visited the physical site and those who watched online with "the speed that our fashionista customers demand." The campaign led to a 32 percent increase in positive mentions among influencers when compared to the client's preceding launch. It also facilitated a 179 percent monthly bump in Twitter mentions, with 80 percent of users tweeting about the collection more than once. Most significantly, all six London H&M stores sold out of the collection within 24 hours. —Patrick Coffee

Some 35% of U.S. adults have software applications or “apps” on their phones, yet only 24% of adults use those apps. Many adults who have apps on their phones, particularly older adults, do not use them, and 11% of cell owners are not sure if their phone is equipped with apps.

Among cell phone owners, 29% have downloaded apps to their phone and 13% have paid to download apps.

“An apps culture is clearly emerging among some cell phone users, particularly men and young adults,” said Kristen Purcell, Associate Director for Research at the Pew Internet Project

The rules are pretty simple: Allstar Products Group, the maker of Snuggie, is inviting people to enter the Snuggie Choice Film Awards via SnuggieFanClub.com.

All you have to do is create your own tribute, parody, song etc. — no longer than three minutes — and submit it to the webpage above. The contest ends on September 1 at midnight, at which point six finalists will be chosen by Snuggie fans. The finalists will be flown to New York in October. Awards () include a $5,000 grand prize and $2,500 for second and third place, Snuggies (natch), and the chance to appear in future commercials.

Reach: Addressable ads are currently available in up to 42 million households through live TV and video-on-demand. The pool is expected to reach 50 million households by the end of this year.

Measurement: Nielsen is not the currency. Operators typically use Rentrak or Kantar Media for audience measurement.

How it works: Marketers pinpoint their target audiences and create a household profile using data such as income, ethnicity, children in the household and car leases set to expire. They then work with cable operators to determine the number of addressable-enabled households that fit their target and serve commercials to just those homes.