Planning Director

About the Opportunity

An opportunity to grow one of our most important client portfolios and work on a true national institution.

An opportunity to help shape and grow a Financial Services portfolio doesn't come along very often. So when it does, you take it.

Working across an established client base, you'll play a key role in deepening relationships, expanding our offer and helping unlock the next phase of growth for the agency.

Alongside this, you'll lead one of our flagship accounts: Post Office Insurance, a true national institution undergoing significant transformation. From highly engaging social content and persuasive broadcast TV to immersive digital experiences and hard working in branch communications, we are creating an end to end ecosystem that supports customers at every stage of their journey.

It's a unique role that combines the challenge of growing a strategic client portfolio with the scale, visibility and impact of one of the UK's most recognisable brands.

Key Responsibilities of the Role

• Thought leadership and shaping strategic thinking and decision making across your accounts and the financial services portfolio.
• Drive creative excellence through sharp insights, inspiring briefings and productive collaboration with creative teams.
• The ability to develop brand strategies and propositions; creative briefs; client presentations; audience profiles; customer journeys; communications and channel strategies.
• Writing decks with a good narrative.
• Communications planning.
• Taking a big picture view of your clients' challenges; considering all factors that might affect their brand and communications strategy and developing strategic recommendations to drive our clients' businesses forward.
• Developing and substantiating a strong point of view, presenting with confidence and credibility, being able to take internal and external audiences on a journey.
• Preparing and facilitating client planning sessions and strategy workshops.
• Designing, commissioning and managing research to support the development of strategy and creative work.
• Defining measures of success for initiatives and evaluating the impact of our work over time.

Essential Skills and Experience to Deliver this Role

• The right attitude; an ambition to make great work.
• Clarity of thinking.
• Collaborative with all departments and levels.
• Pushing for very high standards both strategically and creatively.
• Always bringing a point of view to the room.
• Comfortable engaging in constructive discussions and offering fresh perspectives.
• Building strong relationships with other departments within the agency and with key clients.
• Thorough knowledge of all aspects of the planning craft in order to be able to initiate and complete all sorts of planning projects from marketing strategy to communications development and evaluation.
• Able to interpret all forms of evaluation.
• Proven experience, ideally in retail and financial services with significant experience of integrated planning in an agency environment.
• Must be fully conversant with digital channels (without necessarily being a digital specialist).
• Must be a strong communicator (verbally and in written work) who is passionate about creative product and who can clearly present ideas to internal and external audiences.
• Must be flexible, self motivated, capable of managing competing priorities while maintaining quality and delivering to deadlines.
• High levels of proactivity, quality control and personal curiosity are essential in this largely self directed role working closely with agency leadership.

Package and Benefits

• Salary: £75k - £90k
• 25 days' holiday, increasing to 29 after 2 years' service + Bank Holidays.
• Company pension scheme, with enhanced employer contributions after 1 year of service.
• Medical Cash Plan - including employee assist programme, contributions to dental, optical, physio etc.
• Employee Discount Scheme - an online platform for all staff offering a variety of discounts at various shopping outlets, gyms etc.
• Electric Car Purchase Scheme via salary sacrifice.
• Outstanding training and progression, including access to LinkedIn Learning and the Mission Group Learning Management System.
• Employee referral scheme.
• Regular staff social events.
• Company Christmas closure.
• Long service awards.
• Cycle To Work scheme.
• Mission Share Scheme.
• Happy to talk flexible working.

Equal Opportunity Statement

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed (Level 1) Employer. We have committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible, communicating and promoting vacancies, offering an interview to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job and anticipating and providing reasonable adjustments as required.