• by Joe Mandese , March 9, 2007

Initiative North America, on a role with a new management team and new business streak that includes both Bayer and Revlon, has tapped a highly regarded consumer guru as part of its burgeoning strategic planning team. The executive, Sarah Power, who was senior vice president-communications strategist at MPG, is one of two top executives bolting the Havas unit. Richard Linnett, director of MPG Entertainment, has also left following a reorganization of the branded entertainment unit, and has joined Omnicom's Fathom Communications as director of entertainment marketing.

Power, who was named senior vice president-strategic planning at Initiative, was at MPG for less than a year, and previously held a similar position at Carat where she ran Procter & Gamble's family care and baby care divisions, and was a key player in creating the communication planning process for both Carat and P&G.

At Initiative, she reports to Rob FitzGerald, executive vice president and managing director, who took over Initiative's East Coast operations last summer with an eye toward beefing up its strategic planning capabilities. FitzGerald had been president of Initiative Japan and head of the network's North Asia operations.

FitzGerald said recruiting Power is something of a coup for Initiative, coming at a time when there is acute demand among media agencies to hire experts in consumer behavior and strategic planning, which are becoming the new "rock stars" of the agency world, on a par with great creative directors, "but without the attitude."

Over the past year, demand for strategic planners with proven consumer insights has escalated as big agencies have sought to bolster or reinvigorate there teams and as smaller, or tactical agencies have sought to bring in more of a strategic capability.

In fact, Initiative's sister agency Universal McCann has been on a hiring tear to rebuild its communications planning department as part of a revitalization of that agency under new chief Nick Brien.

Meanwhile, true independents like Horizon Media and KSL Media have been building out their own strategic planning function and are raiding executives from bigger agencies.

FitzGerald says demand for such talent is coming from pressure from clients who are seeking deeper insights into how consumers use media and how that relates to their brands. The problem, he says, is that the function is not clearly defined, and the skill sets may not exist in many traditional media agencies. Many of the new strategic planners, or communications planners are coming out of account planning background at traditional brand agencies. Others are coming out of traditional media planning backgrounds. Others are being home grown.

"Basically, I'm representing the consumer for our clients," says Power. "And I work with the planners to make sure every decision we make understands the consumer, how they're using media, and what their response to advertising is. Moving forward, I think that's where Initiative will be focused."