Planning for the Best: A Love of Deconstruction with Ioana Dobrinescu

Ioana has a degree in anthropology and works as a strategy director for DDB Romania and Tribal. From dusty shelves to pop-culture, from perception to action, her job is to turn brands' ambitions into their next move.

LBB> What do you think is the difference between a strategist and a planner? Is there one? 

Ioana> I believe that strategy is more about the big game, that strategy answers to WHY and WHAT while planning answers to HOW. Strategy is about the big idea that holds everything together in thought, while planning is about identifying the right context, time, and place to do the most of it.

LBB> And which description do you think suits the way you work best?

Ioana> I do them both, but I define myself as a cultural strategist. 

LBB> We’re used to hearing about the best creative advertising campaigns, but what’s your favourite historic campaign from a strategic perspective? One that you feel demonstrates great strategy?

Ioana> For cultural strategy I admire Mercedes' campaign 'Grow Up', Beats by Dr. Dre 'You Love Me'. I believe these campaigns go beyond advertising.

Strategy that meets great ethnographical understanding: McCann Health for the Ministry of Public Health Afganistan -Immunity charm, Kraft Mac and Chesse 'It's Changed, But It Hasn't' is another one that I admire. 

LBB> When you’re turning a business brief into something that can inform an inspiring creative campaign, do you find the most useful resource to draw on?

Ioana> My clients. They know more than anybody about their business and I love to stick my nose into their business. There’s always more than the brief can say. Some marketers prioritise what they believe is important for you to know, or what they think will inspire the agency team. But there are always other concerns, different modus operandi from a company to another. The debriefing session is not one meeting to solve them all. Coming back the next day or two with a round of questions or a call always saves the day. Asking is caring. Most of my clients do appreciate a good talk about their struggles.

Then I go back to my cultural studies, doing my own ethnography, and going out and observing people from the distance like a mysterious detective in train station, but only to check how people eat their popcorn. LOL.

LBB> What part of your job/the strategic process do you enjoy the most?                  

Ioana> I enjoy many things about the work itself!

I love to think about how I know stuff, just to find out that I don’t know anything. 

Deconstruction is what I love the most. It can be deconstruction in relation to cognition. It can be a whole phenomenon that I get to understand from a new perspective. 

I like to see myself as a builder. I tear down stuff without altering their structure only to rebuild them again.

LBB> What strategic maxims, frameworks or principles do you find yourself going back to over and over again? Why are they so useful? 

Ioana> If I am lost, I go to the account director who always brings me to earth. At least in this moment where I am now. 

If I am stuck, I imagine what other planners that I worked with would have done to solve the problem. I had the privilege to steal know-how from the best planner in Romania. 

When I want clarity, I talk with the creatives. Good creative people can bring an objective perspective to the strategy and see the cracks in it – not by seeing limitations, but by helping me to be more precise with concepts, classification or just the logic of an idea.

If I am restless, I go back to the middle-way philosophy from The New Pope played by John Malkovich and brought to life by Sorrentino. 

LBB> What sort of creatives do you like to work with? As a strategist, what do you want them to do with the information you give them?

Ioana> Those who are still curious enough.

LBB> There’s a negative stereotype about strategy being used to validate creative ideas, rather than as a resource to inform them and make sure they’re effective. How do you make sure the agency gets this the right way round?

Ioana> The strategic departments in Romania started out as Cinderella but grew up as Hulk once the business flourished. Big clients call for strategy. Agencies started to understand that it’s in their best business interest to use the strategy department in the right way. The size of a strategy department is an indicator of the agency’s business health. The bigger the strategy department is, the more money the agency makes. Strategists are the first to come in when it’s good and the first to leave when business is going down.

Also, previous generations of planners ahead of me did the educational work of teams and directors so, I don’t have too. They told the industry that we are no salespeople, but we can be great with that. That we are not creatives, but we can have good input on making ads better, sharper, and stronger. That strategists are not the ones that search for the CDs curiosities online and make a deck, just because! 

Previous generations of planners explained their vision to the managing partners and worked together with them on a vision for a new business plan. They solved diplomatic problems and generated long-lasting relationships with the client.

So, the hardest part has been done by many great strategists ahead of me. My job is to preserve that.

LBB> What have you found to be the most important consideration in recruiting and nurturing strategic talent? 

Ioana> When recruiting I look for motivation. It is important to want and to be interested in the job. To care about being there. Until one can fake the lack of appetite, drive or motivation with 'professionalism', it is necessary for somebody that starts today to wake up happy about what they do and what they are going to uncover. 

When nurturing I need time, money and a good organizational culture that leaves space for failure and stupid questions. What I demand from the other side is discipline and respect about the work – time, form, and keeping one’s word. 

LBB> In recent years it seems like effectiveness awards have grown in prestige and agencies have paid more attention to them. How do you think this has impacted on how strategists work and the way they are perceived?

Ioana> Prestige is shared. We don’t work alone. We work in teams. Effectiveness would be nothing without the creatives that endure endless sessions of feedback, sleepless nights when shooting, and precise attention to detail when going into postproduction. Prizes would not exist if it would be for the project managers, the client service directors that always make things work, help the clients navigate the uncertainty and emotions, find their ways at lower costs than expected and always have a good word for their team. 

Effectiveness awards opened the doors of the strategy labs and made people aware of the questions we ask when we start a project. People got a glimpse of what we're working at, but I don't feel this necessarily brought prestige, maybe just another "smarty pants" label.

LBB> Do you have any frustrations with planning/strategy as a discipline?

Ioana> Qualitative Data shortage. 

“The sales over brand” endless struggle.

The "everyone is doing it so, we should be doing too" type of attitude in the MarComm industry.

LBB> What advice would you give to anyone considering a career as a strategist/planner?

Ioana> To have patience. 

To have patience when it comes to themselves. To give themselves the time to process information, to have time to think, to live, and to enjoy what they are curious about. To never judge themselves compared to others. Advertising is full of wonderful kids and images of glorious success by night. Always remember that that’s advertising too. 

When you make a mistake, your attitude towards it is more important than the mistake itself. 

Always speak up and say what’s wrong – with the market, agency culture, team rules etc. 

Nurture your curiosity. Look for people that think completely differently than you and try to listen without judging.