These days, marketing and PR pros can sound an awful lot like Ross Geller trying to move a couch. We throw around the word “pivot” more than ever, and it’s necessary. Platforms change, news cycles move faster, audiences behave differently and any given cultural moment can completely change the conversation around a brand.

Agile marketing has helped us get better at responding to that reality. It offers freedom to work in shorter cycles and adjust along the way. But every turn of the year still begs the same questions: What’s the plan? What’s the scope? And how do we prove it all paid off?

Which, to me, begs an even bigger question: What should we be asking our annual plans to do in the first place?

Somewhere along the way, annual planning started to look a lot like a to-do list.

How the heck did we get here?

Once upon a time, you could build a MarComms strategy with concrete flights and waves of impact, establish your audiences and objectives, map out the work and feel reasonably confident that the strategy you developed in December could carry you through the following year.

There’s still value in the foundation. We need the annual plan. We need the SOW, budget and a solid idea of the objectives we’re working toward. In some ways, those needs are greater than ever.

The problem comes when those things become so specific that we spend the next 12 months trying to execute them exactly as written.

Develop 24 social posts per month. Execute six media relations campaigns. Coordinate four influencer activations. Distribute a quarterly newsletter. Check. Check. Check.

The team stays busy. The calendar stays full. All the deliverables get delivered. But what saves us from overspending on the wrong things can sometimes cost us in relevance and results. What happens when the opportunity we didn’t plan for turns out to be more valuable than one of the things we did? Or when the audience or business priorities shift halfway through the year?

That’s where I think we can really pivot and start planning for the destination, not every turn. What sounds like a motivational phrase on a poster in a 90s bedroom is actually pretty sound advice for the marketing world in 2026. Who would have thought!

The best strategy leaves room for opportunity

Instead of throwing the plan out the window, focus your efforts on an annual strategy that:

• Establishes the business objectives, audiences, priorities and desired outcomes
• Gives the team a clear sense of the principles that should guide the work
• Creates enough structure to keep everyone moving in the same direction without mapping out every tactic before we know what the year will bring

The result is a framework that gives the agency and client context to evaluate opportunities and shift resources without losing sight of the strategy.

Clarity around the core commitments and resources allocated within the client’s investment is still essential. What changes is how we deploy those resources as new information emerges.

But the thing is, this approach requires trust. Trust in the agency to be proactive and use resources responsibly, and in the client to be responsive to prioritization and tactical shifts. Both sides also need to agree upfront on how they’ll make trade-offs when execution plans change. 

So how do we do this in practice this planning season? Like all good things in the fall, with a little PSL. 

PSL: Plan. Strategize. Learn.

In my world, PSL season stands for more than pumpkin spice latte season. (Although anyone who knows me knows I love those, too.) It’s also Plan, Strategize & Learn season.

I’ll admit the acronym is a little cheesy, but stay with me. Here’s how it translates to what we should actually be doing as we prepare for the year ahead. 

• Plan what we can. Forecast the trends and headlines we can predict, and the opportunities and threats we know are on the horizon. Set annual outcomes and quarterly priorities so everyone knows what we're working toward.
• Strategize. Establish an allocation of resources that’s structured with business objectives and audience realities in mind, but don’t prescribe specific campaign concepts or deliverables. Instead, focus on potential pathways to activate as the year unfolds. Think, “awareness push in Q1,” and not, “influencer campaign with X partners and Y theme.” Those pathways can paint a picture of “in scope” deliverables and even core commitments, but it’s key to reserve resources for emerging opportunities and avoid a mentality of treating potential tactics as etched in stone.
• Learn and keep learning. Establish benchmarks and build in a commitment to curiosity, measurement and proactive evolution. As the year unfolds, review performance regularly and decide what to continue, change or stop.

The key is that none of this prevents us from recognizing when the smartest move is different from the one we imagined in December. There’s no prize for executing a plan exactly as written. What good is it to execute every asset and hit every deadline if you totally miss the moment?

‍The best plan is the one that works

As we approach 2027, I say we approach planning season with one of my favorite Gatesman core values in mind: thrive through change. Instead of closing the year out with a lengthy to-do list, let’s close out the year with smart, strategic guardrails.

And maybe even a well-earned PSL.