Career guide
Account Planner: What Agency Strategists Do and the Path to Strategy Director
An account planner is an advertising agency strategist who represents the audience in the creative process. Planners research the people a campaign needs to reach, find the insight the work should be built on, and write the creative brief. Most agencies now call the job strategist, and it leads up to strategy director and chief strategy officer.
Key takeaways
- An account planner is an advertising agency strategist who brings the audience's point of view into the work and writes the creative brief.
- Account planning began in London agencies in the 1960s, and many agencies now call the role strategist or strategic planner.
- Agency strategy roles include brand strategy, communications or connections strategy, cultural and social strategy, and data or effectiveness strategy.
- The usual agency strategy ladder runs from junior planner or strategist to senior strategist, strategy director and chief strategy officer.
- A strategy director leads the thinking on a group of accounts, manages strategists and is often central to new-business pitches.
Planning is the part of the agency that asks “why would anyone care?” before the work gets made. If you’re the person who reads comment sections for fun and always wants to know what’s really driving a decision, this might be your department.
What is an account planner?
An account planner is the strategist on an agency client team. Planners make sure the work is built on a real understanding of the audience: what they think, what they need and what would change their behavior. They turn that into the creative brief that the copywriters and art directors work from.
Account planning took shape as its own discipline in London agencies in the 1960s, as a third role alongside account management and creative. The UK’s Account Planning Group, the discipline’s professional body, describes the planner in its planning job guide as the agency’s expert on the consumer, there to make the brand’s communications more effective, and notes that “strategist” has become the more common title. “Account planner” and “strategic planner” are still used for the same job.
(Sales teams also use “account planning” for planning how to grow a customer account. That’s a different job.)
What does an account planner do?
A planner’s week moves between research, thinking, writing and presenting. Typical work:
- Research the audience: interviews, focus groups, surveys, social listening, search data, the client’s own data.
- Study the category and competitors: what everyone else is saying, and where the gap is.
- Find the insight: a true, often unspoken, observation about people that the work can be built on.
- Write the creative brief: the audience, the problem, the insight and the single thing the work should communicate. See our creative brief template.
- Brief and stay with the creative team: answer questions, react to ideas, help choose the strongest.
- Help present the work to the client and explain why it should work.
- Measure: decide what success looks like, then read the results and feed what was learned into the next brief.
- Pitch: build the strategy for new-business pitches.
What types of agency strategists are there?
Agency strategy has split into specialties, and job titles often tell you which one a role is.
| Type | What they focus on | Common titles |
|---|---|---|
| Brand strategy | What the brand stands for, positioning, the long-term idea | Brand strategist, brand planner |
| Communications / connections strategy | Where and how people should meet the work across channels | Comms strategist, connections planner |
| Creative / campaign strategy | The insight and brief for a specific campaign | Strategist, account planner, creative strategist |
| Cultural and social strategy | Culture, trends and how the brand shows up on social platforms | Cultural strategist, social strategist |
| Data and effectiveness | Audience data, measurement and proving the work worked | Data strategist, effectiveness lead |
At smaller agencies, one strategist does most of these. Our brand strategist guide covers brand strategy in depth, and the creative strategist guide covers the paid-social version of the role, which grew up at performance and DTC teams.
How is an account planner different from an account manager?
The account manager owns the client relationship, the timeline and the budget; the account planner owns the audience insight and the brief. They work side by side on the same client team, and both present to the client.
| Account planner | Account manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Represents | The audience | The client and the agency’s business |
| Main output | Insight, the creative brief, the strategy | Timelines, budgets, status, client relationship |
| Key question | “What will make people care?” | “What does the client need, by when, for how much?” |
| Skills | Research, synthesis, writing, presenting | Organization, negotiation, communication |
The advertising agency structure guide shows how planning fits with the other departments.
What is the career path to strategy director?
The agency strategy ladder usually runs from junior planner to strategy director and then to running the department. Titles vary by agency.
| Level | What changes |
|---|---|
| Strategy intern / junior planner | Research and support; drafting parts of briefs |
| Strategist / planner | Owns the strategy on smaller accounts or projects; writes briefs |
| Senior strategist | Leads strategy on bigger accounts and pitches; mentors juniors |
| Strategy director / group strategy director | Leads the thinking across a group of accounts, manages strategists, central to pitches |
| Head of strategy / chief strategy officer | Runs the strategy department and shapes the agency’s point of view |
What does a strategy director do?
A strategy director leads strategy for a set of clients, manages a team of strategists and is accountable for the quality of the briefs and the thinking behind the work. They spend more time with senior clients, on new-business pitches and on developing the people on their team, and less time doing the research themselves.
How do you become an account planner?
Show that you can find an insight and write it down simply. Planners come from many backgrounds: research, account management, social media, journalism, anthropology and psychology are all common.
- Write two or three short strategy pieces. Pick a brand, describe its audience and problem, find an insight and write a one-page brief. These are your portfolio.
- Learn the research basics: how to run a short interview, read a survey, use social listening and search data.
- Read effective work. Award-winning effectiveness case studies show how strategy and results connect.
- Look for a way in: strategy internships, junior planner roles, or a move from account management or research inside an agency.
When you present your thinking in an interview, explain it the way you’d explain it to a friend over coffee. Strategy hiring managers are listening for how you think, and your own phrasing shows that better than borrowed jargon. Our guide on how to get into advertising covers the other entry routes.
How much does an account planner make?
BLS has no separate figure for account planners or strategy directors. The nearest US government group is market research analysts and marketing specialists, on our marketing specialist salary page. Strategy directors who lead teams are closer to the marketing manager salary figures.
FAQ
Is account planner the same as strategist?
Usually, yes. Account planning is the original name for the discipline, and most agencies now call the role strategist or strategic planner. The job is the same: represent the audience, find the insight and write the brief.
What makes a good creative brief?
A good brief is short and gives the creative team one clear thing to say, to a clearly described audience, based on a real insight. If the brief tries to say five things, the work usually says none of them well. Our creative brief template has a format to copy.
Do account planners need a portfolio?
It helps. A few short strategy pieces or briefs show how you think better than a resume can. Senior strategists often bring case studies of campaigns where they wrote the strategy, with results.
What is the difference between a strategy director and a creative director?
The strategy director leads the thinking that goes into the brief: the audience, the insight and the strategy. The creative director leads the ideas and the work that answer the brief. They work closely together, especially on pitches.
Do in-house teams have account planners?
Not usually under that title. In-house, the same thinking is done by brand managers, brand strategists, insights teams and in-house agency strategists. Agency planners often move in-house into brand strategy or consumer insights roles.