• by Andrew Ettinger , January 2, 2009

The only thing worse than pitching a new piece of business is winning it. I jest, of course - but it is incredibly hard to ramp up a new account. Learning its intricacies is exhausting. If you're lucky, the previous agency will send you a box of old post-analyses and random documents. However, an even better way is to utilize the product firsthand. Personal experience illuminates the difference between understanding and true knowledge.

When RJ Palmer picked up the media assignment for a chicken producer, the client sent over the creative agency's account director. He gave a flawless, three-hour brand review that impressed even the most jaded among us. A few weeks later we trekked to the client's headquarters to tour the test kitchen, the hatchery, a farm and, yes, even a processing plant. Not even close to what we expected. Seeing for ourselves how the company raises millions of chickens a year and brings them to market gave us true insight into its different product lines. The experience transformed our understanding of the brand. It demonstrated that book learning will only take you so far.

I contrast that incredible experience with a very large CPG account early in my career. For a long time I wanted to visit one particular brand's shampoo factory. The brand manager could not understand why. I admit, I simply thought it would be a cool experience. Looking back, I see it could have been a great learning experience. Understanding how a product is made and how it gets to market is integral to the marketing process. These are not ancillary to developing an advertising plan - they are core concepts.

Limitations exist, of course. First, there is simply not enough time to experience every aspect of our clients' businesses. Ideally, I would have more hands-on experience with all of my accounts. Attending one ice cream chain's franchisee conference gave me fantastic insight into their scoop-shop business. I wish I could attend events like that more often. But with more than a dozen accounts to manage, I don't have the time (after all, this column is not going to write itself). Second, I can't make use of every product. We are bound by our circumstances, including age, neighborhood, income and interests. You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's rye bread, but you do have to be a woman to use Ortho Tri-Cyclen. Certainly that was a hindrance when I worked on Johnson & Johnson's female-oriented products. There are limits.

Practical experience should apply to media selection, as well. TV buyers must watch TV, print buyers need to read magazines, and so forth. Active participation is the only way we can stay abreast of trends. While I joke to my friends that I surf the Web for a living, it's not too far from the truth. We must use leading-edge concepts like Facebook applications, for example, in order to really understand them.

A few years ago, I bought an Xbox. Initially, I only watched DVDs on it, assuming I would not like the games. Then a sales rep from EA gave me a game. After one long, snowy, housebound weekend, I was hooked. Months later I realized I had almost completely stopped watching TV. It was then that I really understood why men ages 18-34 are disappearing from Nielsen's radar: Video games can be cinematic experiences. Guitar Hero has supplanted MTV. This insight came from actual use. Morpheus from the Matrix movies explains it best: "There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path."

Allocating media dollars at the vendor level demands qualitative decisions. Buyers must use their product knowledge to find suitable make-goods. Opinion-based recommendations are part and parcel of the media buyer's job. The creative-media agency gap is a perpetual barrier to synthesizing the media plan with the brand objectives, but so is a superficial understanding of the product itself.

Ultimately, firsthand knowledge helps us make subtle shifts to the media plan, thus moving it from good to great. Understanding only the facts and figures about a demographic target devalues the nuances. Filling in those small gaps completes the plan. After all, there is a difference between knowing and really knowing.