Account Director - Planning & Strategy

2074 - Account Director - Planning & Strategy 

About the role: 

The planning team are the guardians of creating industry leading, unrivalled work at WPP. We are central conduits to all specialists, striving to push boundaries and have a positive impact on consumers and brand. 

We are looking for a Planning Account Director for our prestigious automotive client account for the UK. This role is central to translating our client's modern luxury vision into actionable media plans that drive desire and deliver exceptional results. The Planning Account Director will be responsible for transforming the strategic frameworks, uncovering deep consumer insights and leveraging the full capabilities of WPP Open to create hyper-personalised, immersive brand experiences that connect with high-value audiences at every touchpoint. This individual will be a strategic partner to the client and internal WPP teams, ensuring all media efforts are aligned with our client’s brand objectives and business goals. The planning account director will work closely with the strategy, planning and activation teams to ensure the transition of the strategic approach to planning and activations. 

WPP handles the media planning and buying for some of the world's smartest advertisers.  Supported by keen consumer insight, analysis and experience, we are the largest media planning and buying network in the world.  This team will be at the forefront of WPP agency integration model working alongside creative, production and underpinned by data and technology in WPP Open. 

 In this role, you will: 

 Media planning craft: 

• Develop an advanced understanding of media channels, channel ecosystems and planning best practices. 
• Start to translate strategic approach into planning practices for specific client briefs and pitches. 
• Have an advanced understanding of WPP’s Purchase Journey thinking and planning philosophy across all client work. Including being an expert in a broad set of internal tools, as well as external tools to build a deep understanding of the consumer, the client’s business and its specific opportunities.   
• Have an expert overview of the media market landscape, trends and start to build media owner relationships. 

Campaign management & effective communication: 

• Oversee campaign management, ensuring quality control and output is of the highest standard. 
• Develop a skilled understand of commercial practises and of the wider agency. 
• Build and maintain client and agency relationships at a mid-senior level, to ensure a comprehensive understanding of stakeholders and client business. 

 Comms planning and storytelling:  

• Own planning presentations including defining the inputs needed and working with the wider teams to compile work and meet deadlines. 
• Lead brainstorm and idea creation for campaigns 
• Start to independently problem solve, including integrating and questioning data and insights and find solutions based on knowledge and experience. 

 Core skills: 

 Practice Area Knowledge – Skilled 

• Develops breadth and depth of industry understanding. Becomes confident using tools, technology, techniques and systems and is able to train others. 
• Comfortable presenting both direct from platform (OS, Architect etc) and developing a story from data but delivered outside of platform (Telmar etc). 
• Can confidently answer client questions and liaise with internal teams on best solutions to use. 

 Problem Solving – Skilled  

• Uses critical questioning and maintains a broad perspective when analyzing information to gain a deeper understanding of the problem and wider impact.  
• Quickly generates appropriate solutions informed by previous experience.  
• Understands how to resolve escalated issues and supports others to problem solve. 
•  Supports or leads troubleshooting communication for issues. 

 Stakeholder Relationships – Skilled 

• Has an expert knowledge of client and agency structures.  
• Can identify key decision makers and understands their perspectives which is used to build relationships.  
• Has strong knowledge of the client sector/industry which is shared to build strategies and plans.  
• Identifies strategic issues and raises questions to help stakeholders explore and understand their wider business challenges.  
• Can easily suggest business solutions to match client/stakeholder needs and achieve objectives. 

 Effective Communication - Advanced 

• Leads the delivery of relevant and accurate information to drive maximum impact. 
• Consistently delivers communications to influence and educate all levels of seniority, appropriately judging the demands of the situation.  
• Creatively develops presentations and comms to help with the understanding/education of complex information.  
• Guides others on the best practices and approaches for creating clear, concise and organized communication materials to convey plans in a user-friendly way. 

 Campaign Management – Advanced 

• Reviews the work of others to ensure accuracy and thoroughness objectives have been met; provides coaching on ways to improve work outputs.   
• Applies best practice to campaign management and acts as the escalation point for issues.