Space Race: An Inside View of the Future of Communications Planning - Hardcover

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Jim Taylor is one of the few true communication planners in the world. having spent the last six years doing virtually nothing else...originally, at a local level, in South Africa, where in 1998 he and Peter Vogel left Ogilvy to found Nota Bene, the Country's first media strategy agency...that has become a highly acclaimed agency specialising in communications planning. And more recently, in the UK, working for Mediaedge:cia:, Nota Bene's parent, in an international capacity.

He cut his communications planning teeth on Unilever in South Africa - business that Nota Bene won in a JV with Initiative Media - but has since gone on, in Europe, to develop communications planning on clients such as Visa, Beiersdorf, and SABMiller.

Within the discipline, Jim is particularly passionate about in-sore retail communication...an area that is under-researched and complex, but one that is vital to get right, and in which to build the brand and communicate the brand idea.

Jim lives in Guildford, UK, with his wife Ali and Kids Tom, Joe & Amy.

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The communications industry is in a period of structural and cultural turmoil, caused by the collapse of the full-service agency model and, more recently, the emergence of communications planning.

What is communications planning? It is the discipline of developing a holistic plan across marketing and trade marketing functions that creates a ‘big picture’ for consumers by weaving together every aspect of a brand’s communications. It’s known by many aliases. ‘channel planning’, ‘360^° planning’, ‘connections planning’, media neutral planning’ and ‘total communications planning’ are just a few of them.

Communications planning is the hottest topic in communications today. It is emerging globally and all agency types see it as their future; a latter-day ‘space race’ is underway to claim the territory. Yet no-one has addressed the issues on everyone’s minds: Where is this all going? Who will own communications planning? And how will it change things? Written by expert Jim Taylor and drawing on interviews with industry leaders including Rod Wright, MT Carney, George Michaelides, John Grant, Chris Ingram, Reg Lascaris and Charles Courtier, Space Race combines diverse insights with a clear point of view to offer a unique look at the future of communications planning over the next two decades.

“A great read for anyone thinking about the future of marketing. Jim Taylor eloquently challenges the status quo and cites the emerging use of data to create ‘communications planning’ – the foundation on which brand ideas will be built. In proposing a new order, he forces us to rethink brand management in a whole new way.”   Dawn Hudson, President and CEO, Pepsi-Cola North America

Aus dem Klappentext

At its simplest, Space Race is about the race for a space. A race that's on now, within the communications industry, to disproportionately own communications planning.

But at a more subtle level, Space Race is about a journey upwards. the book begins with our current state of inertia, naivety and hope; but then shows how technology will empower the discipline and get us off the ground. It takes us through a difficult period, where data drives planning and we 'cut through the atmosphere'. And it offers a glimpse of the future beyond. A future where, tied to ROL, ideas make a comeback and marketing embraces both communications planning and ideation, empowering itself in the process.

In the real space race of the 1960s, the smart application of ideas and technology put men and women into orbit and beyond. Over the coming years communications planning will propel the marketing communications industry through a similar paradigm shift. There will be difficulties along the way no doubt, but when the journey is complete the industry will have made its own giant leap, and in doing so produced something extraordinary.

"The most powerful marketing services agency of the future will be one that practices communications planning. If you have a stake in this story, and you're the impatient sort not inclined to wait, then you would do well to read Jim Taylor's terrific book." - KEN SACHARIN, AUTHOR OF ATTENTION!

"Jim Taylor is one of the most adventurous, alert and ambitious thinkers in the marketing industry. Which is why this book scares the boxer shorts off me. His analysis of where we are as an industry and where we could end up is spot on. Which means a lot of pain for the traditional agency model. I only hope people in ad agencies red this, learn from it, and make the predicted sunrise come along a lot quicker than Jim predicts.

If you don't get an epiphany out of this book, at the very least you'll feel enriched by a fresh and innovative look at the tough and exciting challenges facing marketing companies and their agencies.