Planning Director
We are looking for a Planning Director or experienced Senior Planner to work across our purpose-led brand, behaviour change and impact-driven communications.
This is an important role, working closely with the senior team to lead strategic thinking for clients, support new business and identify growth opportunities across existing relationships.
The right person will bring clear thinking, strong communication skills and the confidence to operate in senior client conversations. They should be able to diagnose complex business, brand and audience challenges, then turn that understanding into sharp strategy, inspiring briefs and effective creative work.
They will need to be culturally aware, commercially minded and interested in the issues shaping people’s lives, choices and behaviours. This could include experience across purpose-led brands, social impact, behaviour change, public information, health, sustainability, financial inclusion, education, community, charity or public sector work. The exact background is flexible, but they must understand how to create communications that shift perception, drive action and deliver measurable results.
The role needs someone who is confident with research, data and insight. They should be able to take different sources of evidence, find the useful truth within them and build a clear strategic argument that clients and creative teams can buy into.
They should also understand how ideas travel. This is not just about paid media or campaign messaging, but about how work earns attention, creates conversation and influences behaviour.
They will be a strong creative partner, able to write clear briefs, guide creative development, challenge constructively and protect the strategic integrity of the work through to delivery.
Key responsibilities
Strategy and insight
Lead the diagnosis of client challenges and define the strategic approach needed to solve them.
Use research, data, cultural understanding and audience insight to build clear strategic recommendations.
Turn complexity into simple, compelling strategic narratives.
Write focused creative briefs that inspire original, effective and impactful work.
Create a clear thread from insight through to strategy, communications planning, creative development and measurement.
Stay close to relevant cultural, behavioural, social and category trends.
Help raise the quality and consistency of strategic thinking across the agency.
New business and growth
Support the development of the agency’s strategic offer across purpose-led brand, behaviour change and impact-led communications.
Work with senior leadership and new business teams to identify opportunities and shape strong approaches to prospective clients.
Contribute to pitches across brand, campaign, behaviour change, purpose, product and tactical briefs.
Create persuasive strategic narratives, pitch materials and thought leadership that open doors and help convert opportunities.
Help spot and shape new income opportunities across existing clients.
Effectiveness and impact
Work with clients and internal teams to define what success looks like and how it should be measured.
Apply effectiveness thinking to campaign planning, delivery and review.
Turn strong work into useful case studies, including awards submissions where appropriate.
Use performance learning to improve future strategy, creative and communications planning.
Client development
Build trusted senior client relationships.
Lead or support key planning conversations with retained clients.
Work closely with client service teams to identify organic growth opportunities.
Bring proactive thinking to clients beyond the immediate brief.
Team and agency contribution
Contribute to the agency’s strategic culture through mentoring, knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Work well with creative, client service, media, research and delivery teams.
Support the development of junior and mid-level strategy talent.
Contribute to senior discussions around strategic output, team priorities and agency growth where required.
Experience and skills
The successful candidate is likely to have at least 8 years’ strategy experience, gained in agency or relevant client-side environments. They should have experience across brand strategy, campaign strategy, communications planning and behaviour-led creative work.
Experience in purpose-led, behaviour change, social impact, health, sustainability, public information, charity or public sector work would be useful, but this does not need to define their whole background.
They should be able to show evidence of effective work, strong client relationships, pitch contribution and the ability to turn insight into creative and commercial impact.
They will need:
Strong strategic planning skills.
Excellent written and verbal communication.
Strong audience insight capability.
Confidence with research, data and evidence.
The ability to simplify complex challenges.
Creative judgement and strong briefing skills.
Commercial awareness.
New business and pitch experience.
Senior client handling skills.
A collaborative, proactive and self-starting approach.
If you would like to hear more about this Strategy role or if you are interested in exploring other Strategy & Planning jobs please get in touch. You can email me at zoe@theindustryclub.co.uk or call me on 07943 425 491 or follow me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-edwards-strategyrecruiter/
Thanks!
Zoe
We are committed to ensuring and supporting representation from all backgrounds across the creative industry, irrespective of race, religion, belief, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability or socio-economic background.
With this in mind, we welcome applications from all areas of the community. Please do get in touch and let us know if there is any additional support or reasonable adjustments we can cater for, to ensure our process and roles fit your needs and creates a comfortable & enjoyable recruitment process.
