In a Communications House, Planning is the room that connects with every other...

We're being bombarded with information. Our homes are targeted, door-dropped and satellite-linked; our public spaces are cluttered with hoardings; our workplaces are cold-called and e-mailed.

Thousands of sales, marketing and brand messages are aimed at us every day. If we paid attention to all of them, we'd go insane. So to cope, we've all developed the ability to screen out the inappropriate or the untimely.

In other words, message sent ≠ message received.

So if you want people to engage with your marketing message, you'd better make it relevant to them. And you'd better talk to them where and when they feel like being talked to. Only then will you cut through and actually communicate.

A one-size-fits-all mentality is no longer enough, and simple communications integration is no longer enough either; we need to move beyond integration to genuine communications and channel neutrality.

So Communications House is more than a name for us here at McCann Erickson Bristol. It is what makes us unique in the South West.

It is our flag of neutrality.