John Griffiths - 98% Pure Potato

Here follows a list of the pioneering planners we interviewed. What makes this book special is that the story is drawn from interviews with all of those listed.

Joined JWTs media department in 1968 with a degree in pure maths and discovered that negotiating skills were more highly prized there. So he moved into the new planning department. He then realised he could have more influence on strategic thinking by working as a senior account handler. But during the 1990s he was brought back into the planning department to manage it. He developed a system called Total Branding deployed by JWT worldwide to implement integrated brand communications.

Was brought into BMP as a graduate trainee in 1975. He was spotted by Martin Boase and moved across into account management and then a senior role in the agency. A former chair of DDB, he is current chair of the Code of Advertising Practice and the advertising think tank Credos.

Started his career in Masius as a media planner where he worked with mainframe computers, then moved across to J. Walter Thompsons media department. He was present at the meeting in August 1968 when Tony Stead suggested that the new role be called account planning. And he was one of the first who moved from media into the new planning department. John eventually moved on to work at other agencies as an account handler. He has worked as a researcher with Peter Cooper at CRAM and as a lecturer of advertising.

Was hired as a graduate trainee into Boase Massimi Pollitts planning department in 1975. He was headhunted to start the planning department at Abbott Mead Vickers when BMP was a top 20 agency and AMV a mere start-up. From there he founded his own agency Butterfield Day Devito Hockney. When we interviewed him he was Global Chief Strategy Officer for Interbrand.

Was brought to CDP from the London Press Exchange to start a planning department there in 1972 when Frank Lowe arrived to be the new MD. CDP was one of the first agencies after BMP and JWT to set up planning and they used it quite differently. (CDP is arguably the most creative agency the UK has ever produced so this warranted a closer investigation.) Five of those we interviewed had worked there. Jay Chiat, besotted with CDP, came over to discover their secret. It was David Clifford who explained how planning could be used to sell clients work they would otherwise be too nervous to run. Chiat returned to the US determined to bringing planning into his agency and found Jane Newman (see below) in New York. David went on to work at Lintas and McCann Erickson.

Cited by Stanley Pollitt as one of the first two planning hires (ever) in 1966 when he joined Pritchard Wood as a graduate trainee, to work in the experimental market planning department. He joined J. Walter Thompson just in time for the start of their account planning department in 1968 and then joined the fledgling Boase Massimi Pollitt a couple of years later. He was Head of Planning during the 1970s.

Paul Feldwick

Joined Boase Massimi Pollitt in 1974 as an account management trainee then moved across to planning after a year. Paul is a former planning director of BMP, a former chair of the IPA Effectiveness Awards (twice) and arguably the most well known of those we interviewed. Often referred to as a planning guru, he is author of What is Brand Equity, Anyway? He co-authored with Robert Heath the paper, Fifty years of using the wrong model of advertising. And in February of 2015 published The Anatomy of Humbug How to Think Differently about Advertising.

Was recruited by Stephen King into the J. Walter Thompson planning department in 1970. She had already worked in New York for five years in a variety of roles in advertising research. She describes herself as an intuitive who understands brands. Lee worked on Unilever for many years until she moved first into HR and then the training of planners around the world.

Started as a qualitative researcher at BMRB but was recruited into the J. Walter Thompson planning department in 1970 and spent her whole planning career in the agency.

Started as a Unilever marketing trainee from where she was headhunted into J. Walter Thompsons planning department in 1975. She acquired a reputation for being one of the most persuasive planners in the department. After JWT, she moved to be planning director at McCann Erickson.

One of Stanley Pollitts first hires, Peter Jones was a founder member of the market planning department at Pritchard Wood in 1965. He moved with the directors to Boase Massimi Pollitt when it was founded. Peter was instrumental in setting up and defining the planning department he moved swiftly into senior management specifically negotiating acquisitions and the flotation. He eventually became a global board director of DDB in New York. Peter also managed a parallel career as an entrepreneur and trainer in horse racing, culminating with him becoming the chairman of the Tote.

Jack started his career as a creative at J. Walter Thompson. Jeremy Bullmore persuaded him to move across to the planning department in 1974. During the 1980s he moved to work as a planner at CDP, before moving to the market research agency SRU.

One of the first three graduate trainees hired into the planning department at Boase Massimi Pollitt in 1969 a year after it opened. John was one of those who set the standard for what planners did at BMP. He founded his own agency Madell Wilmot Pringle and a research agency Drummond Madell. He also did a stint as chairman of EuroRSCG. Hes the only former planner we interviewed with his own yacht and trout stream!

Was another of the three graduates hired into Boase Massimi Pollitts planning department in 1969. She quickly established herself as a formidable planner, managing the next two graduate trainees, Ross Barr and Chris Cowpe. Jane moved to America to work first in Chicago and then in New York. Jay Chiat hired her to start planning in Chiat/Day. The first thing she worked on was Apples 1984 campaign. Jane is generally regarded as the founding mother of North American planning. After a number of years she went off to travel the world and now lives in Kenya working on the Thorntree project improving education for Samburu girls from one of Kenyas nomadic tribes. She was inducted in the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2014.