Guest Professional: Charmian Tardieu

By Gigi Taylor

Please welcome Charmian Tardieu as our first guest professional to the Texas State University Account Planning blog....

Charmian has been an account planner for 15 years. She owns her own strategic planning company, MilesFuther. Her company is based in Hamburg, Germany.

Charmian grew up in the UK and Germany. She was part of the wave of British planners who introduced planning to US agencies. Charmian was Senior Vice President, Director of Account Planning at D'Arcy in Los Angeles. She has held senior account planning positions at Hal Riney, TBWA Chiat Day and BBDO. She also had a brief stint on the client side as a brand manager for Bacardi in Germany.

Here are her "words of wisdom".....


What is the most important skill necessary to be a successful account planner?
Curiosity to dig deeper and find out what really motivates people and drives markets, as well as a strong intellectual and emotional capacity to understand the brand and the bigger picture. Then the ability to put this together into a clear strategy that inspires creatives.

Are there any differences between account planning practice in the US vs Europe?
The UK in many agencies has a more established planner history so that planners are automatically integrated into the creative development process, whereas in the US and Germany planners are often more used as strategic consultants for clients on a whole range of matters, and not so actively involved with the creatives as in the UK.

What advice can give someone wanting to become an account planner?
Keep your eyes and ears open for all that is happening around you, and translate what you see into interesting insights into people, brands and social trends. Use these insights to inspire the planners in agencies you'd like to join.