Account Planning Survey Results
June 2008

The 411
• Fourth year to conduct the planning survey.
• Called upon planners to participate and pass on a survey.
• Bloggers again helped spread the word.
• Topics included the now usual suspects like salary, experience, and satisfaction,
along with this year’s special questions around negotiation from both boss and
employee points of view, blogs we read, and planning style.
• 798 completed surveys (compared to 466 last year) from March 14 - April 8.
– 56% Men/44% Women
– 461 from USA/337 from outside USA

Some overview info (in percentages)
Company Types Participants by Title
Size of Department Agency Type Avg. Size of Dept
at office location
at office location Large:
29% have
20 or more
Medium:
10.9 planners
Small:
5.5 planners
(21% are one-
person
departments)

Some overview info cont. (in percentages)
What would you say is your How is planning perceived
company’s reputation in the industry? at your company?

Officers and management (in percentages)
Are you an officer at your company
(i.e. VP, SVP, EVP) ?
Heads of Planning
Group Planning Directors
Sr. Planners
Planners
Asst. Planners
Is the Head of Planning at your company part of the executive
committee (i.e. top management)?

Recruiters
Did you use one?
The last time I asked this question in 2006, 41% said yes. Also, there’s no
significant difference between the US and outside the US on this.
Hall & Partners was able to show a correlation between higher salaries and using a
recruiter.
Senior Planner and up are the ones being placed by recruiters, which makes sense.

What’s your planning style? (in percentages)
We all need to be able to do a little bit of everything,
but what’s your dominant type?
I think these styles are true because few people resisted them. The “others” include
hybrids of a couple or are perfectly balanced all of the above. A couple of digital and
creative styles, but not sure what you meant. Leave a comment on the blog and
enlighten us.

How does your department operate?
Describe how collaborative your planning department is within the department. Are you working as
a lone wolf on your accounts? Do you have two or three or more planners per account to work
with? Is it set up in a way that you can learn from other planners on other accounts?
This one was hard to code. Some people talked about how collaborative the two or
three planners on an account are or aren’t. Others talked about how they must
deliberately seek cross-pollination among accounts. Then there is the collaboration
that is present or missing among creatives, planners and account.
Folks generally seem to think two planners on an account is “well staffed.” Smaller
places have more lone wolves or see themselves as consultants. Freelancers feel like
lone wolves too.
Sitting with your department seems to foster collaboration across accounts and
many planners have four or more accounts they are working on.

Top 15 blogs we read
Number of mentions

The perfect company?
If you could work anywhere, in any position that would utilize your
plannerly skills in some way, where would you choose to work?
(number of mentions)
Lots of mentions of wanting to work on political campaigns, the UN and think
tanks. A few mentions of starting own business or getting out of advertising at
Google, Apple, or Nike.

Planners on the move (in percentages)
Number of years at current co. How likely are you to change
USA jobs this year?
All planners
39%
Number of years at current co.
Outside USA
Stability increases as your job ascends.
Only 39% of GPDs have been with their
company one year or less. 34% of Heads
of Planning have logged a year or less.
“Very likely” to change is up 6% this year.

Our collective experience negotiating (in percentages)
Thinking about your current job, when you received your offer
which of the following describes the process you went through?
Interestingly, there are no significant differences among men and women or among
levels. Other includes certain titles or promises of a review a9er 3 or 6 months.

Negotiating from the bosses’ POV
291 people surveyed have responsibility for hiring and negotiating.
Here, they share some of the hiring practices at their company:
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

Negotiating advice from bosses
Consider the total package. Think about where the job is going. The vacation time. The other benefits.
Get everything in writing.
Don’t come off as entitled and push too hard for big salaries when you are junior.
For your first job, take what you can get.
Sadly, you have to jump around to make more money.
Women need to be stronger, firmer and ask for what they want even if it’s uncomfortable.
Articulate your value.
Never tell your current salary. You deserve what your skills and talent pull in that market, not what looks better next
to your old salary.
Negotiate hard. The salary disparity among my team is because some played hardball to get hired and some did not.
Don’t keep going back and forth. I did my best for the counter offer.
Highlight how you contribute to generating revenue. You will set yourself apart.
Never put out the first number.

Advice for new planners trying to land a job?
NETWORK FOCUS ON THE RIGHT PLACE
Talk to people who used to work where you want to Focus on places that actually care about planning
work to hear the truth. and realize the value/need.
Informational interviews are the way to go. Junior Do not enter as an account person and try to move
positions are rare. to planning. Start in creative and move to planning.
GET EXPERIENCE PERSEVERE
Don’t work in advertising. Stick with it. If you really want it, someone will cut
Get an internship. you a break.
Be hungry.
HAVE A POV
Don’t be scared to speak up. BUT DON’T BE ANNOYING
Develop your own perspective. Believing that you Forget the old advice about persistence. If I have met
are valuable will do wonders for convincing potential you and want to make you an offer, I'll stay in touch.
employers that you are. Emailing and calling twice a month is nothing but
irritating.
Blog.
HAVE A CLUE
BE INTERESTING
For pete's sake, know the agency you are talking to
Read interesting stuff.
and be passionate about them.
Be interesting enough that I’d want to have dinner
Show willingness and readiness to work hard on
with you.
boring crap. Tell me you're not afraid to look at data
Dynamic and interesting is always better than safe. tables for 11 hours a day if you have to.
I also like to see some background in the social Learn about the business world first - you're in no
sciences (psychology, sociology, anthropology) or position to offer advice to large corporations because
more creative venues (dance, theater, music). you think you know about consumer trends.
Studying abroad also shows that you're well-rounded Knowing whether cupcakes are coming back or not
and have had the opportunity to see things from a will not help GM sell more units. Sorry.
different point of view.

Salary results
Key to reading salary info
• Salaries are shown as bell curves (ok, bell triangles) - averages in addition to the 75th
and 25th percentile.
• For example, when you see a number listed under 75%, this is the average of
the upper 25% of the set, the number under 50% is the mean for the whole set,
and the number under 25% is the average for the bottom 25% of the set.
• Past years’ averages are in the upper right corner.
• I continue to divide among small, medium and large shops in the USA.
• Absolute minimum and maximum salaries are shown next to the “total” curves.

2005 Avg. 2006 Avg. 2007 Avg.
$39,580 $39,067 $38,219
Asst. Planner results - USA Years in planning 1.3 1.2 1.5
Years working 3.5 3.4 2.7
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Large Medium
Agency Agency
(n=17) (n=24)
$36,000 $46,294 $57,250 $33,833 $43,041 $54,000
Years in planning 1.3 1.3 1.3 Years in planning 1.3 1.7 1.8
Years working 2.5 3.9 4.5 Years working 2.2 3.1 3.2
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Small TOTAL
Agency (n=56)
(n=15) Min= $30K
Max = $70K
$30,000 $39,333 $53,125 $32,036 $43,036 $55,214
Years in planning 1.3 1.6 2.3 Years in planning 1.3 1.6 1.9
Years working 1.3 2.6 4.3 Years working 1.9 3.3 4.9

2005 Avg. 2006 Avg. 2007 Avg.
$59,145 $60,198 $60,311
Planner results - USA Years in planning 3.2 2.9 2.6
Years working 5.8 5.5 4.9
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Large Medium
Agency Agency
(n=32) (n=40)
$44,875 $60,719 $78,125 $41,220 $57,661 $74,825
Years in planning 1.3 2.6 3.8 Years in planning 2.3 2.5 2.7
Years working 4.9 5.9 9.9 Years working 3.6 5.3 5.4
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Small TOTAL
Agency (n=130)
(n=58) Min= $30K
Max = $140K
$39,967 $58,121 $84,800 $41,142 $58,476 $80,644
Years in planning 2.1 2.7 3.4 Years in planning 2.1 2.6 3.3
Years working 4.5 5.0 6.3 Years working 3.7 5.3 7.1

2005 Avg. 2006 Avg. 2007 Avg.
$83,926 $94,347 $104,084
Senior Planner results - USA Years in planning 5.3 5.9 6.0
Years working 9.5 9.9 9.7
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Large Medium
Agency Agency
(n=37) (n=35)
$78,111 $104,146 $134,667 $64,667 $94,028 $127,555
Years in planning 4.4 5.3 7.3 Years in planning 3.9 4.7 7.3
Years working 7.8 10.3 12.4 Years working 6.6 8.9 11.4
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Small TOTAL
Agency (n=117)
(n=45) Min= $40K
Max = $185K
$64,655 $85,891 $133,636 $67,679 $96,590 $133,514
Years in planning 4.9 5.0 6.2 Years in planning 4.2 5.1 6.6
Years working 7.7 9.3 11.1 Years working 7.4 9.5 12.3

2005 Avg. 2006 Avg. 2007 Avg.
$122,325 $157,310 $163,382
Group Planning Director results - USA Years in planning 8.6 9.9 9.7
Years working 12.0 13.7 14.2
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Large Medium
Agency Agency
(n=34) (n=20)
$116,875 $192,746 $282,125 $90,400 $146,855 $215,000
Years in planning 7.1 9.3 11.0 Years in planning 6.0 10.4 13.0
Years working 11.6 15.9 18.9 Years working 10.2 15.1 16.4
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Small TOTAL
Agency (n=78)
(n=24) Min= $68K
Max = $310K
$105,833 $158,292 $222,500 $147,342 $168,879 $172,842
Years in planning 7.2 8.4 8.7 Years in planning 8.5 9.2 8.8
Years working 14.2 13.7 14.8 Years working 13.8 14.7 13.5

2005 Avg. 2006 Avg. 2007 Avg.
$159,091 $172,188 $167,421
Head of Planning results - USA Years in planning 9.6 11.1 9.3
Years working 14.0 15.3 15.8
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Large Medium
Agency Agency
(n=14) (n=20)
$124,875 $178,893 $245,000 $128,200 $194,865 $253,000
Years in planning 8.8 9.9 13.0 Years in planning 5.8 12.7 23.6
Years working 12.0 14.9 18.0 Years working 12.6 15.6 15.6
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Small TOTAL
Agency (n=62)
(n=28) Min= $60K
Max = $300K
$92,407 $173,459 $266,428 $109,209 $181,159 $257,500
Years in planning 6.3 10.3 12.6 Years in planning 6.9 10.3 13.9
Years working 11.3 15.3 19.9 Years working 12.1 15.9 20.6

Grad school - do it for yourself or to break into planning
Asst. Planners with Asst. Planners with Bootcamp Asst. Planners with BAs
Masters (n=25) (n=5) Only (n=26)
Average Salary
$43,860 $53,300 $37,222
Average years in planning
1.7 1.2 1.4
Average years working 3.1 3.2 3.3
Planners with Planners with Bootcamp Planners with BAs Only
Masters/MBA (n=51) (n=19) (n=60)
Average Salary
$53,479 $64,368 $61,605
Average years in planning
2.5 2.8 2.5
Average years working 4.7 6.4 5.0
Sr. Planners with Sr. Planners with Bootcamp Sr. Planners with BAs
Masters/MBA (n=51) (n=15) Only (n=51)
Average Salary
$96,603 $91,700 $104,766
Average years in planning
4.9 4.7 5.8
Average years working 9.5 9.5 9.2

Grad school cont.
Group Planning Directors Group Planning Directors with
with Masters (n=35) BAs Only (n=43)
Average Salary $174,586 $168,223
Average years in planning
10.1 8.4
Average years working 15.9 13.7
Head of Planning with
Head of Planning with BAs
Masters/MBA/PhD
Only (n=35)
(n=27)
Average Salary
$189,332 $177,431
Average years in planning
10.3 10.6
Average years working 15.2 17.3

Planner U
What schools or training programs do you think produce good
planners? (number of mentions)
Over 50 mentions each for “planners are born not made” and “life experience”
which is likely why having a grad degree doesn’t mean you’ll make more money.
Many also recommended a degree in liberal arts or social sciences without naming
a place. And there were one and two mentions for many, many schools.

The New York factor
This comparison is difficult because “not NY” includes San Francisco, Boston, and other expensive
markets. There aren’t enough responses from any other markets at any level to compare. But I
continue to believe you don’t get a true cost-of-living salary bump from agencies in big markets.
Then again, most of our jobs are in big(ger) cities.
Asst. Planners Planners Sr. Planners
NY Not NY Not NY Not
(n=8) (n= 48) (n=39) (n=91) (n=29) (n=88)
Average Salary
$48,375 $42,146 $62,293 $56,955 $107,276 $93,069
Average years in planning
1.6 1.5 2.3 2.7 4.8 5.1
Average years working 4.5 3.0 5.2 5.4 8.8 9.7
Group Planning Directors Head of Planning
NY Not NY Not
(n=27) (n=51) (n=19) (n=42)
Average Salary
$178,000 $164,051 $201,584 $170,873
Average years in planning
8.5 9.6 10.2 10.1
Average years working 14.0 15.2 14.1 16.7

The Male/Female comparison
Cell sizes are getting bigger and the trend continues: mid- to senior-level women are being paid
a lot less.
Asst. Planners Planners Sr. Planners
M F F M F
M (n=57)
(n=20) (n=36) (n=73) (n=62) (n=55)
Average Salary
$43,825 $42,597 $60,645 $57,263 $100,241 $92,475
Average years in planning
1.6 1.5 2.6 2.6 5.3 4.7
Average years working 3.3 3.2 5.7 5.0 9.8 9.1
Group Planning Directors Head of Planning
M F M F
(n=37) (n=41) (n=31) (n=31)
Average Salary
$183,961 $154,552 $195,188 $167,994
Average years in planning
8.6 9.9 9.9 10.7
Average years working 14 15.5 15.2 16.8

General salary thoughts - USA
• Asst. Planners’ average salary is now over $40K a9er the direct request
last year. Seems fair to me.
• Sr. Planners and GPDs at medium- and small-sized firms turned out to
have the biggest disparities (lower salaries) this year compared to their
cousins at the large shops.
• Why are the more senior ladies pulling in less?

A word on the world
• We had 337 completed surveys from the rest of the world
• There were 73 from the UK, but not enough from any other country to do a
separate analysis
Argentina 5 Germany 10 Netherlands 8 Singapore 5
Australia 10 Guatemala 1 New Zealand 1 Sweden 5
Belgium 8 Hungary 1 Norway 2 Turkey 2
Brazil 38 India 15 Pakistan 1 Thailand 1
Bulgaria 1 Indonesia 2 Portugal 3 UAE 3
Canada 20 Italy 12 Romania 14 UK 73
China 5 Japan 7 Russia 10 Venezuela 1
Croatia 1 Latvia 1 Saudi Arabia 1 Asia (did not write country) 1
Denmark 4 Malaysia 7 South Africa 4 EU (did not write country) 1
France 8 Mexico 6 Spain 22 Did not specify 17

Did everyone use the currency converter???
UK averages
In US $$$
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Asst. Planner
Planner (n=24)
(n=5)
$40,400 $49,833 $67,014 $82,336
Years in planning 1.0 Years in planning 2.0 2.6 2.3
Years working 2.0 Years working 4.3 4.7 5.2
25% 50% 75% 25% 50% 75%
Senior Group
Planner Planning
(n=14) Director
(n=3)
$80,663 $114,487 $148,500 $173,196
Years in planning 5.5 5.6 6.8 Years in planning 6.7
Years working 11.0 11.0 13.5 Years working 18.3

UK averages cont.
In US $$$
25% 50% 75%
Head of
Planning
(n=21)
$131,316 $208,704 $285,063
Years in planning 8.8 9.8 11.0
Years working 12.8 13.7 16.5

Additional Compensation - USA (in percentages)
Please select each of the additional
elements of compensation that you receive
“Other” included free food/alcohol, working part-time, flexible hours, technology
reimbursement, relocation, stock options, on-site massages, public transportation
coverage, mileage, and overtime.

Additional Compensation - Outside USA (in percentages)
Please select each of the additional
elements of compensation that you receive
“Other” includes pensions, working from home, dividends,
massages, study leave, and expatriate housing.

How do we feel about our jobs? (in percentages)
How much do you like your current job?
Up from 7% last year.
Is the job less fun? Seems to be in line with more people looking to
change jobs.

Satisfaction with compensation by title - all
Very few people feel totally screwed, and unfairness decreases as we
ascend it seems
Completely Somewhat Fair Somewhat Really
Unfair Unfair Better Than Awesome
Fair
Assistant/Junior 6% 39% 42% 10% 3%
Planner 9% 36% 40% 14% 2%
Senior 5% 24% 47% 19% 5%
Group Director 5% 20% 49% 20% 6%
Head 3% 20% 43% 24% 9%
n=798
Not all add up to 100 due to rounding

How we deal - all
Which best describes how you feel about your job most of the
time? (percentages)
Almost all of the “other” mentions were from our friends outside the US, saying
they feel bored, looking for more challenge, under utilized, that it depends on
the project, get energy from stress, or stressful times don’t last forever.

Personal info
Gender Split US (percentages) Gender Split Outside US (percentages)

Personal info - all
Which best describes your ethnicity? (percentages)

Personal info - all
How many children do you have? (percentages)
Female planners are less likely to have kids. In the US, 21%
do. Outside the US, 12% do.

Personal info cont.
Of the 24% of planners with kids: Who takes care of them
while you are at work? (percentages)

Accents are just interesting
US Accents (percentages) Outside US Accents (percentages)
Accents currently do not correlate with a higher salary. It’s
a small group, but maybe we can see past the sexy accents
and pay people based on their brains. Novel thought.

Closing thoughts
• There was a huge increase of participation again this year. Thank you,
as always, for contributing. This is a ton of work, and I am very
grateful to Hall & Partners for the extra analysis they did as well as a
couple of elves who helped behind the scenes. The correlations only
showed using a recruiter as a contributing factor to a higher salary
among all of the variables.
• I love hearing your reactions, so please make comments, ask questions,
and suggest new questions for next year on my blog:
http://illchangeyourlife.wordpress.com
or email me at:
hklefevre@gmail.com