Report from the Account Planners Conference

Each year several hundred planners come together for the annual International Account Planners Conference, sponsored by the 4As. Our theme in 2007 was “Creating Possibilities”. This year there were twelve countries represented, with over 700 planners in attendance. The three-day conference took place during the first week of August, a perfect time of year to visit San Diego and to enjoy the cool summer weather they have year round. In this report I’ll share key thoughts from the presentations of two speakers who told us their inspirational stories of creating possibilities.

Keynote Speaker: Sir Ken Robinson


The conference began with a presentation on the challenge of cultivating creativity. The keynote speaker was Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized leader in the field of creativity for business and education. Sir Robinson’s message is that every organization has to find new ways to succeed in a world that is changing faster than ever before. Revolutionary changes are transforming how business works, creating an urgent need to promote creativity and innovation in the workplace.
Sir Robinson defines creativity as the process of having original ideas. The first step is imagination, the capacity that we all have to see something in the mind’s eye. Creativity uses that imagination to solve problems — call it applied imagination. Then, innovation puts that creativity into practice as applied creativity.

Hear more from Sir Ken Robinson:
Check out the speech he gave at
last year’s TED conference.
http://www.ted.com

The key to future success for all businesses is understanding creative intelligence and the idea of human resources. Sir Robinson argues for radical changes in corporate cultures to make the most of our human resources. He gives the example of Pixar, a company that understands the imperativeness of innovation and has enabled its corporate culture to foster creativity. The company created Pixar University – a program that offers educational classes, events, and workshops daily. Every employee is entitled to spend four hours a week at Pixar University, and are encouraged to not take job-related classes. Sir Robinson believes this keeps employees’ minds alive. One can’t be creative if their mind is not stimulated, just as one can’t be an Olympic athlete if they don’t train regularly. He concluded by emphasizing that the secret of the creative corporation is to look hard at employees and begin to realize their strengths. Because creativity is found in helping people find their talents.

Eric Ryan – Co-founder of Method, “People Against Dirty”

At the age of 27, Eric Ryan founded Method, a San Francisco-based consumer goods company that has reinvented home care products with an innovative branding and product design approach. Eric began his career as a planner, and used his planning skills to identify the opportunity to create the brand and marketing/communications plans that led to this unparalleled success. Method is a partnership between Eric and his college roommate Adam Lowry. It was founded in 2000 with $300,000 from their personal savings, friends, family, and others. Today, they have annual revenues of over $40 million.

In five short years, Method has challenged some of the world’s largest multinationals in home cleaning, laundry, personal care and air care to become the fastest growing consumer products company in the US.
Recently, Method was named number seven on the Inc. 500 list for fastest-growing companies in America.

Eric’s partner, Adam Lowry, graduated from Stanford with a degree in chemical engineering and says, “I knew as a chemical engineer that there was no reason we couldn’t design products that were non-toxic and used natural ingredients. It would be more expensive, but as long as we created a brand with more ‘premium-ness’ about it, our margins would support the extra investment in product development and high-quality ingredients”.

In essence, Eric and Adam have now crafted a master brand in home care. The brand’s tag-line “People Against Dirty” reflects more than a penchant for a clean home, but for clean air, clean water and clean living. Method is a modern lifestyle brand – not just a green leafy brand.


Consumers realize they can be “green” without making a sacrifice in performance or design, as such, package design is core to their business model. Method was going up against big soap companies like
P&G and Unilever with limited resources. They knew disruptive packaging would be required, so they recruited designer Karim Rashid and introduced a startling bowling-pin-shaped dish soap bottle that
put Method on the map, earning the brand coveted distribution with Target and a cult following. Today the brand offers green products and packages in Method’s distinct style.

As his final message to us as planners, Eric noted that the role of planners and planning continues to play an integral part in the on-going operations of the company. Today, Method’s advertising agency has a
planner assigned to the business who works out of Method’s offices in San Francisco. Planners are involved at all points along the R&D continuum, leading ideas through to on-shelf, in-store and all points of
communication. This is truly where the future of planning lies, in growing ever more immersed in all aspects of our clients’ business.

Joy Fournier Director, Customer Engagement Planning Cheil, NAHQ