Overview
Become dynamic
Overall purpose of the role is to lead and inspire the Comms Strategy & Planning team; ensuring high quality and effective communications strategies for one of the world’s largest retailers, across all business areas. Support the Plan Do Review cycle and continually improve and evolve best practice and our offering to the client.
Key responsibilities and elements of the role:
1. Planning team management
2. Strategic direction for customer communications
3. Improving the company offering
The Planning Director is responsible for all strategic solutions proposed by the Planning team, driving the development of stretching Client communication strategies.
They will manage the Planning team with engagement across core client business areas including reward card scheme, dotcom and Direct/GM and Suppliers.
The Planning Director is responsible for supporting the strategic vision of the creative output for all mailings produced in-house.
They will act as a proactive and strategic lead confident in both online and off line communications helping the client ensure that they are multichannel across everything they do.
The Planning Director will develop the strategic & creative involvement with new business areas for both the client and their Suppliers
Key responsibilities
1. Planning team management
• Responsible for delivering the vision, strategy and objectives for the Comms Strategy & Planning team in line with the OGSM
• Improve overall Planning team offering to deliver best practice
o Ensure team are operating at a very high level and set key measures the team can benchmark themselves against
• Develop and grow the planning team; career management and talent planning
o Lead all recruitment – recruit ahead of the curve
o Represent and raise the profile of team members with senior stakeholders, as appropriate
o Hold regular meetings and one to ones with direct reports
o Foster a strong team atmosphere
o Inspire outstanding client work within existing areas and build involvement in new areas
• Ensure you and your team understand both company and client objectives and team is fully aligned
• Ensure the right environment in the team for knowledge sharing, career development and the development of new C&M ideas (insight and C&M propositions)
• Effectively collaborate with the Account Management team to deliver best in class customer communication programmes for the client
o Planning Director to work alongside Senior Client Directors
o Senior Planners and Planners to work with Account Directors & Account Managers
• Ensure team comply with all HR rules, and company procedures
2. Strategic direction for customer communications
• Drive forward the development of client strategies based on understanding, needs and priorities, and customer insight
• Collaborate on the overall evaluation process; support the team in interpreting analysis and developing recommendations
• Identify new opportunities, big ideas and creatively challenge our best practice communications programme – ensure relevant and timely presentation to the client to bring to market
• Provide proactive direction to the team and senior client stakeholders to lead and drive the communications strategy – this will include both Insight & C&M propositions
• Assume the senior point of contact for all Comms Strategy and Planning
• Build awareness of our Planning capability, positioning the company as a key strategic planning partner
o Leverage current Account Management engagement across wider business areas to increase our Planning footprint
3. Improving our offering
• Review the current ways of working and create a plan for the team to improve:
o Responsible for approving all clear and concise creative briefs produced by the team
o Ensure alignment with One Voice; support the creative team in developing our authority on One Voice and distinctive identities for our mailings
o Support the team in ensuring the creative output is single-minded, customer-centric and on brief every time
o Assist the Planning team to work alongside the account management teams to streamline the creative process; help us take responsibility and accountability for creative output on our mailing programmes
o Responsible for reducing lead times, increasing the use of company systems and expertise
• Responsibility for implementing a strong ‘right first time’ ethos within the team. Ownership of all strategic challenges within the team and ensure they are dealt with effectively and new processes put in place to improve our offering
• Drive the team to leverage best practice globally
• Ensure that the team have the right skills and training to deliver efficient world class strategic communications planning. Support the team to align with the ‘plan, do, review’ approach delivered by the account management team.
o Build effective, strong cross team relationships and knowledge to improve operations, trouble shoot, deliver best practice and feed into knowledge sharing forums e.g. Head of Targeting, Creative Director, C&M lead for TI
o Engender brand guardianship throughout the team to support the Account Management Brand Guardians.
If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.