Kasey Fechtor, Brand Planner, on the Anatomy of Strategy

Type breaking into advertising in Google and it will return about 460 million results.  That’s more than five times the results that pop-up when you type breaking into acting. It’s definitely tough out there for an ad maven in the making. But don’t give up before you get started.  Read what Kasey Fechtor (@kfechtor) has to say about the field first. She’s got some advice that will help you get to ad land.

Kasey  is a brand planner at PJA advertising+marketing in Cambridge, MA. She graduated from Columbia with a BA in Creative Writing and started her career at Arnold Worldwide.  Photographic evidence suggests that she owns at least one silly mustache.

How did you end up in the advertising/marketing industry?

I got an early start in advertising when I was two; my dad was/is a creative director, and I did a voiceover reciting “This Little Piggy” for an anti-litter campaign in Cleveland (it won a Telly award, and my dad ordered a trophy for me). As a kid, I always loved getting to spend a day at the agency (what kid wouldn’t like a pinball machine, free food, and a big set of fancy markers?), and I was always proud to see his ads on tv. My senior year of high school I interned at an agency, where I took a stab at some copywriting and reverse-engineered some creative briefs. My intern advisor there gave me a copy of “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This,” and that book followed me to college and remains on my bookshelf here in Boston.

 What drew you to strategy? 

I studied creative writing in college, and I thought I wanted to be a copywriter. But what I loved most about writing was getting into my characters’ heads, and I would purposefully pick characters who I knew nothing about so that I could learn about someone new. A professor once said that the key to a great story is really understanding your character and that, if you ever got stuck, you should go back to the character; he almost always had the answer. Change “story” to “ad” and “character” to “consumer,” and that’s brand planning.

What advice would you give someone trying to break into the advertising  field who does not necessarily have a lot of experience?

My advice is to go and seek out advice from as many people as you can. If you know someone in advertising, or if you know someone who knows someone in advertising, chances are they’ll be happy to sit down and talk to you. Advertising is this pay-it-forward industry — almost everyone has been helped by someone else at some point, and that makes everyone more willing to help others.

 What are some characteristics of a good strategic planner?

The best planners are curious, observant, and insightful. They have a good balance of right and left brain — the “creative” and the “strategy” of “creative strategy.” In terms of background and education though, a good planner can come from anywhere. I’ve met a great planner who went to Miami Ad School and another who started her career in zoology.

 What do you do on your typical day? Is there a typical day?

There is no typical day in advertising, because it’s all client-driven. But depending on the day, you may find me writing a brief, researching competitors, interviewing a consumer or analyst, reading up on my clients’ industries, designing a survey, or going to a conference. Oh, and doing my time sheets. They don’t tell you about time sheets in school.

Posted by jonathandecosta on April 4, 2013

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