The deadline for entering Admap’s annual Future of Planning essay is fast approaching.

However rather than a future of planning essay, I felt it much more appropriate to write a ‘future of planners’ piece. Mostly because I don’t believe the next generation of potential planners are as attracted to our industry as they once were.

Yes, the golden era of planning, or the days of the planner as the advertising rock star are well and truly over.

Hence I didn’t think it was worth entering, I’ll just blog about it here instead (and it’s less work and carries no fear of failure. In my head I have won). So here it is.

It’s probably best to broach this subject by starting with a question. If you were graduating now, all bright eyed, ambitious and hoping to change the world, which companies would you be applying to? Mine certainly wouldn’t be the ones I originally applied to about 10 years ago.

Whilst there might be a few agencies in the mix (such as where I work obviously), it’s now filled up by companies such as Apple, Google, Intel, Pixar or Facebook, potentially even consultancies, or IDEO and Frog over a traditional agency. The options for smart, analytical, creative and curious people are in abundance.

One of which is starting a venture of your own. Whilst more ventures will fail than succeed, the general feeling of the moment is that anything is possible. It’s all very Silicon Valley and it might just be me, or the economy but the amount of smart and not so smart people leaving the ad industry to pursue a personal venture is increasing rapidly.

A lot of this comes down to experience and the fact it isn’t really seen as necessary anymore. This is a bit of sweeping statement and there are many exceptions to the rule, but when I meet ‘experienced’ ad or marketing people they are generally long in the tooth and the very people that are making the industry less innovative.

Experience is still valuable, but it isn’t something that young people feel like they need to wait for in order to succeed. Gone are the days of having to work your way up from the mailroom (yes this does still happen) or being the research dogs body, you can just get on and do it, you don’t need permission.

Even client side is becoming sexier and its not just to work on brands such as the Nikes of this world. Take P&G with its ‘Inspired by purpose’ positioning and focus on design strategy.

For me at least, that sounds way cooler and meaningful than running groups and writing briefs for ads, even for great ones. It takes you much higher up the food chain and closer to the making of stuff and most importantly a difference. (And you don’t have to deal with precious creative directors, which is always nice).

Agencies also used to hold all the cards. If a brand wanted to drive sales, the easiest thing to do was to create some adverts and book some media. Brands needed agencies to do that for them. That is obviously no longer the case. There are more ways to skin a cat and its increasingly possible, easier, cheaper and more effective to do things in house and through other channels and partners.

That’s not to say that all innovation will or should happen in house, or that agencies won’t be required, but any planner with an ambition will look to be at the centre of innovation, at the heart solving real business problems or be on the margins of cutting edge R&D. Advertising still has a future, but it’s no longer the strategic lynchpin in your plan that it used to be, it’s now merely a service.

What would you find more attractive? Transform an industry? Change the world with a new product? Or help create an award-winning ad? Even the coolest integrated, digital, social media thingy isn’t be as cool as a Nike + Fuelband. Yeah it will need advertising, but I’d rather have contributed to the product than the ad.

So what do agencies need to do to attract the next generation of smart people?

The majority of answers to a client’s problem do not lie in advertising, they lie in creating new products, services or even new business models. This is something that young planners will organically follow. Therefore common sense suggests that ad agencies need to focus on the 3 other Ps of marketing and not just promotion.

Agencies need to make more money from developing products and services, and not just ads. It’s critical if they are to survive and also attract the best talent. Ultimately agencies have the potential to create great ideas that can help a business over and above advertising.

BBH is a great example of a ‘traditional agency’ being ahead of where the industry is moving via Zag. I also wish more agencies would put their money where their mouth is, just like Anomaly by creating its own IP.

Agencies need to really get rid of any process that creates divisions around the ownership of an idea and help planners get closer to the making of stuff. Promote entrepreneurialism by getting them to help make things happen. Perhaps even give them a share in any IP they help create?

Spend money on them and help them learn a new skill that’s not just brainstorming, social media or storytelling. I’ve interviewed young planners who know a bit of code. This is cool and something I’d bite my arm off to have learnt when I had more time.

Get them working on something extra curricular that’s not advertising to stretch thinking and bring something new to the table. It might be a Google 20% kind of thing. Let them work on a project that has the potential to create new revenue for the agency but also new ways of thinking.

All in all, we need to learn from other industries to make our industry more attractive to budding planners. Perhaps we are even talking about changing the industry we are in?

Essentially the future of account planning has no future without account planners.