Planning for the Best: Jon Gittings on Being “An Aspiration, Play and How Person”
Based in the US on the West Coast, Jon’s remit at Wavemaker includes responsibility for key clients including Adobe’s global strategic direction and global brand strategy for Colgate, as well as developing new business opportunities for the media agency.
A familiar face in the GroupM family, he has led the transformation of strategy at Essence since 2018, building a nascent team into an indispensable discipline that has driven client and new business growth, delivered new product development and nurtured talent. In his career spanning over 20 years, Jon has held roles as Chief Growth Strategy Officer at Mediacom, Global Communications Planning Director at OMG and European Strategy Director at OMD.
Jon has a deep love of the strategy craft and everything that comes with it, whether growing teams that make a difference or inventing products that change the status quo. He relishes the opportunity of an unsolved problem and creating strategies that ideas just fall out of. Along the way he’s built many award-winning solutions for some of the world’s most inspiring and ambitious brands and helped grow some of the world’s most lauded agencies. He owns over 5,000 comic books and dreams of playing trumpet in a second line brass band.
LBB> What do you think is the difference between a strategist and a planner? Is there one?
Jon> There’s definitely a difference, but the industry is very good at confusing the issue and using the terms interchangeably. I’m a big fan of Lafley and Martin’s strategic cascade. Its original application wasn’t comms or media but it translates nicely. The cascade runs as follows:
- What’s our winning aspiration?
- Where will we play?
- How will we win?
- What capabilities must we have?
- What management systems do we need?
For me a strategist identifies the winning aspiration and the winning playing field, then meets the planner in the middle, collaborating to identify the ‘how’. From there the planner takes the choices made into capabilities, resources, and systems.
LBB> And which description do you think suits the way you work best?
Jon> I’m definitely an aspiration, play and how person. Capabilities and systems are interesting and it’s important to stay connected to how those questions are being answered but it’s the upstream stuff that gets me excited.
LBB> We’re used to hearing about the best creative advertising campaigns, but what’s your favourite historic campaign from a strategic perspective? One that you feel demonstrates great strategy?
Jon> What an unfair question. Historic? VW Beetle, the Conservative Party 1978 (don’t judge… it worked), Axe? Old Spice? Dirt is Good? Thank You Mom? I guess the one I personally keep coming back to is Guinness’s 'Good things come to those who wait.' There’s beauty in the way the brand, product, experience and distinctive visual identity come together. Of course, the peak was 'Surfers' as experienced on the big screen whilst stuffing your face with popcorn washed down with Diet Coke.
LBB> When you’re turning a business brief into something that can inform an inspiring creative campaign, do you find the most useful resource to draw on?
Jon> I don’t know how many times I’ve read or heard that “there was this amazing piece of data that unlocked the idea.” However, every time I read or hear it, I smell bullshit. I love data and believe passionately in what it enables, but in 30 years the only consistent answer for me is space and time. It’s a cliché but “eureka” really does happen in the bath, on a run, on a flight etc. The secret to solving a business problem creatively is to first feed your brain, let it do the work and then put it in an environment far removed from the problem you’re trying to solve to let the answers come out.
LBB> What part of your job/the strategic process do you enjoy the most?
Jon> Noodling in sets of data to find out what’s really going on with a brand and their consumers. Writing stories. I find the act of writing often reveals a solution rather than just having a solution and then writing it up. Bouncing thinking and ideas back and forth with people, whether on chat, in person or in a workshop. The connectivity and creativity of conversation never fails to improve the work.
LBB> What strategic maxims, frameworks or principles do you find yourself going back to over and over again? Why are they so useful?
Jon> Laws of growth in marketing;
Behavioural science levers, cognitive bias, principles of influence… anything written by Kahneman, Haidt and Cialdini;
The good old fashioned marketing funnel. It’s the foundation of good marketing despite its many detractors.
Why are they so useful? They operate as a nudge when you get stuck, and as a benchmark that keeps you honest.
LBB> What sort of creatives do you like to work with? As a strategist, what do you want them to do with the information you give them?
Jon> I don’t think it’s about ‘what sort of creatives’. Ultimately, it’s the strategist’s job to inspire the creative team so the onus is on me not them. And if they can take my words and use them as fuel to create a story that connects meaningfully with consumers and sells more product then I’m a happy bunny.
LBB> There’s a negative stereotype about strategy being used to validate creative ideas, rather than as a resource to inform them and make sure they’re effective. How do you make sure the agency gets this the right way round?
Jon> I hesitate to answer because I have often reversed into a strategy from the beginnings of an idea. And I think that is a perfectly viable method for coming up with a strategy because your experience and intuition are as valid a tool as a database or research study. But for general practice I understand the point. As for getting it the right way round, it starts with respecting the brief and the process.
LBB> What have you found to be the most important consideration in recruiting and nurturing strategic talent?
Jon> Money.
Just kidding. The most important job is building and sustaining a collaborative, open and inclusive team culture. Empower them to achieve their best, rather than telling them what to do or marking their homework. And loudly celebrate their work when they deliver.
LBB> In recent years it seems like effectiveness awards have grown in prestige and agencies have paid more attention to them. How do you think this has impacted on how strategists work and the way they are perceived?
Jon> The first part of my answer is Pepsi vs. Coke. I’ll let you guess which soft drink is Cannes and which one is Effies/IPA. The rest will hopefully be obvious. What is important is that the meta analysis from awards papers (thank you Binet & Field) has over time helped change the conversation around strategy and its contribution to marketing.
LBB> Do you have any frustrations with planning/strategy as a discipline?
Jon> Many, but it’s bad manners to complain in public.
LBB> What advice would you give to anyone considering a career as a strategist/planner?
Jon> Yes. Do it. It’s incredibly rewarding.
Read and experience. Voraciously. Never stop asking why and remember that strategy is always about choice, sacrifice and simplicity.
Don’t take the brief at face value. Try to get at the brief behind the brief. For example, one client wanted a completely overhaul of their brand strategy, but the real story was they were terrified about collapsing magazine sales. Ignore the industry bullshit. If everything in advertising that was supposed to be dead was actually dead, the market would have sold out of headstones. Remember that strategists need other people more than other people need strategists. So if you find that you are walking up an ivory tower, have a stern word with yourself and head back down.
Accept that a lot of your work will die on the vine so remember to take satisfaction in solving the problem irrespective of whether the solution gets executed. That’s ok. Honestly.
Always walk in the shoes of real people. Never forget that whilst we care passionately about our clients, their brands, our ideas, we are just a blip on their radar, a fleeting moment in their busy and far more important lives.
How long have you got? I can go on. And on. I frequently do.
