In agency life, there is never a dull moment. That is what makes it so fulfilling for us as a team at Fantastic. It is important to not only to deliver, but to look for opportunities to add more value for our clients. At Fantastic Media we believe the secret to being a smooth functioning, high flying marketing agency is to plan. To use our time wisely, creating outstanding creative, great copy and fantastic web development, and to always achieve results and value for our clients.

So, we’re giving you a peek behind the planning scenes to show you how we plan to get the best from our business, to get the best for yours.

 

What we do at Fantastic Media to plan your marketing

We start every morning in the board room as a full team touching base with Client Services, Web Development, and Creative. This sets everyone up for the day, with a clear idea of goals and results and exactly how we will achieve them. This helps our agency to run smoothly and to deliver for you.

Using resource management technology is one of the ways we track resources such as creative time to make sure we deliver for clients every day, week and month. Some examples of resource management software we use include Resource Guru and eResource Scheduler.

Don’t get us wrong, anyone who works in an agency knows it’s impossible to have our days planned to the minute. It’s just not feasible. But what we can do, is get a schedule in place to make sure we maximise all our time on the slow days as well as the quick ones (of which there are many). Client Services are always there to oversee any changes in schedule and keep Creative and Web Developers updated on the latest set of priorities. But this isn’t to say that Client Services are just walking in at 9am, waiting for a crisis to hit. They are always looking for more opportunities for their client’s businesses to shine.

 

With that being said, lets bust some myths about planning in a creative environment.

 

Planning creates progress

A truly integrated marketing agency doesn’t just come up with ideas and execute them. Nice as that may be, ideas rarely drive the results your business needs. We research, plan and execute.

At Fantastic Media, we always follow a tried and tested planning structure. Everything starts with INSIGHT. Deep dive, research, development and strategic thinking to create outstanding marketing activity for our clients.

We take a look at your business with you, getting to know all of its nuances, strengths, weaknesses, sector and market. We also deep dive into your audiences and their wants and needs. And use a number of specialist analytical tools to really unearth as much data and information as possible. Everything. The value in an agency taking this time with you is immeasurable. It’s the foundation of all our marketing Insights and great relationships with our clients. This deep Insight is what attracts many of our new clients in a huge range of sectors and retains them long term.

Using this INSIGHT and our marketing skills, experience, and expertise we present back to clients, in a number of ways, from business launch to rebranding and everything in between. We take all of the Insight, information and data – quantitative and qualitative – and show what we can do for you. INSIGHT present backs are the highlight of our planning with clients because we look forward to your reaction – many clients tell us they are blown away by the possibilities we present.

We then start planning the execution – where our strategy, creative, writing, paid media and social teams get involved in a lot of the detail. We work together to create bespoke solutions to meet and exceed our clients’ expectations and add value.

There’s a reason we focus on our values as an agency every step of the way. Our people are carefully chosen for their personalities and abilities. Each of which is as individual as our clients. We match the right personalities and skills with each client and deliver results that are quantifiable and presented to our clients monthly. And we add value to everything.

This initial INSIGHT process is the foundation for all activity that follows and serves as a benchmark for measuring progress.

 

Planning does not inhibit creativity

The idea that planning inhibits creativity is a total myth. What’s sure to inhibit it is fear of judgement, uncomfortable employees, strict rules and policies and a lack of plan.

We encourage all levels of the business to discuss ideas with everyone. This freedom of communication and freedom from judgement creates the activity we want to be able to give to a client.

And planning in advance gives our team time to really research and consider their activity. It allows for ideas to flow freely and be debated and challenged so that the best ideas come to the fore naturally. At Fantastic we’re a team of creatives who love nothing more than creative ideation – on everything from PR, content and social campaigns, to branding, web development and strategy.

Recently, we have hosted internal creative campaign sessions on a fashion campaign, a new service name, social media plans, video concepts, and so much more.

 

Planning boosts our agency’s reputation

Clients choose us because of our reputation for being truly strategic partners. They know that we dive deep, that we care, and that we are focused on their business success. Being organised and managing our resources effectively and efficiently gives them even more confidence in our abilities.

It means that we work in a coherent manner and execute well thought out plans. Our agency has credibility with clients, meaning they keep coming back to us for their marketing needs and increasing the success of their business.

 

Would your business benefit from well planned, tactical, and organised marketing activity? Get in touch.