Planning Manager, Client Leadership

The planning team are the guardians of creating industry leading, unrivalled work at Wavemaker. We are central conduits to all specialists, striving to push boundaries and have a positive impact on consumers and brand. Wavemaker is looking for a Planning Manager to join our growing planning team, to create impactful cross channel campaigns and build your media planning skills.

Responsibilities

Develop an in-depth understanding of media channels including where, when and how to use them based on the client brief; Have a skilled knowledge of Wavemaker and industry media planning tools and be able to train other team members; Have a skilled understanding of industry best practices and planning theory; Develop a fundamental knowledge of Wavemaker Purchase Journey thinking and Provocative Planning Philosophy; Ownership of campaign activity including briefing teams, collating response, managing client's deliverables, and ensuring accuracy across all workstreams; Work closely with the planning and activation teams to ensure the day-to-day account is run efficiently and effectively; Be able to bring in specialist teams where needed to work on briefs and client questions; Ensure financial management processes are always excellent and met in a timely manner; Become a trusted main day-to-day contact for junior clients, learning their business and ways of working; Support in managing Planning Executives to ensure they are on track with daily tasks, mentor and challenge them with new projects to develop their career; Start to develop a proactive problem-solving mindset but know when to flag any issues or concerns with Planning Director

Requirements

Embrace WPP & WPP Media's shared core values: Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity; Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust; Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise; Demonstrates knowledge of the media landscape including future trends, best practice and challenges; Comfortable using (or briefing out) the various products, platforms and systems that comms planning use; Develops breadth and depth of industry understanding; Confident presenting both direct from platform and developing a story from data; Can confidently answer client questions and liaise with internal teams on best solutions to use; Applies focused questioning and systematic research to understand the problem and wider impact; Translates business problems into solutions; Quickly generates appropriate solutions informed by previous experience; Understands how to resolve escalated issues and supports others to problem solve; Has a good understanding of how the agency operates and works with their clients; Knows about the client's business and who the key decision makers are there; Builds a working knowledge of market trends affecting the client and agency; Responds to stakeholder requests in an accurate, timely and professional manner; Leads dialogues between and with internal and external people; Breaks down complex technical information into understandable language; Manages and takes ownership of several projects/tasks accurately and thoroughly; Teaches others the importance of accuracy and thoroughness; Delivers accurate reports with value-added insights and actionable findings; Accountable for the ongoing management of campaign budgets; Uses knowledge of media ecosystem, industry trends and clients' business pressure points to build a persuasive story; Generates or facilitates new ideas, methods, innovation or creative media solutions; Finds solutions for client business problems using media; Applies knowledge of client, audience, channel, market and category to deliver compelling multi-media plans; Translates learnings and trends to create effective marketing communication strategies; Application of purchase journey thinking and visualisation of how the media plan works across channels; Translation of strategic direction into directional role for media, channel role and behaviour in channel; Identifies and recommends budget shifts as campaign is in-flight where appropriate; UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location

Benefits

Employee resource groups; Frequent in-office events; Competitive medical insurance; Group retirement plans; Vision and dental insurance; Significant paid time off; Preferential partner discounts; Employee mental health awareness days