RONNIE Duncan, Marketforce’s newest recruit, plans to get underneath your skin (or at least into the mind of the consumer) in his role as planning director at Perth’s biggest advertising agency.
In the same week that joint creative directors Lori Canalini and Adam Barker resigned from the company, Marketforce general manager Paul Yole announced the agency was the first in WA to appoint a dedicated planning director.
Mr Duncan is joining the team from Scotland, where he worked with a number of blue chip clients at one of the UK’s most exciting young agencies, Yellow M.
“Paul brought me in here (to Marketforce) to look at the reel and I was impressed by the creative product,” Mr Duncan said.
“I was really surprised by some of the work I saw here. It’s pretty well virgin soil for account planning and I felt there was a lot to offer here.”
As planning director, Mr Duncan will work closely with the creative teams, nutting out briefs from a consumer perspective.
“In a nutshell, planning is getting under the skin of consumers. It’s looking through their eyes and giving them a voice in the creative process,” Mr Duncan said.
Trying to get into the psyche of the consumer is a tough job but Mr Duncan claims the chance of getting great advertising is immediately stacked up when planning is a part of the process.
“In Australia you have strategic planners. You can come up with the best strategy in the world but if the punter doesn’t get it you’ve wasted hours of man time,” he said.
Marketforce claims the planning director role gives the agency a tangible competitive advantage over other Perth agencies, and claims it will provide clients with an even greater understanding of their relationship with their consumers.
“It’s a more creative role than people believe and what planning will do is bring the creatives on to the dart board more quickly,” Mr Duncan said.
“What is fascinating for me is that, coming to work here I’ve landed almost from another planet. I’m looking at Perth with a fresh set of eyes.”
