Role:Business DirectorDepartment /Team: Connections Planning
Role Objective
We are recruiting for a Business Director who is an exceptional and driven media planner, to join our Connections Planning team working on the Unilever account.
Unilever is one of the world’s and UK’s leading FMCG companies, with an incredible portfolio of household names. Unilever’s product portfolio comprises five business groups; Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care products, Homecare products, Food and Ice-cream. They have a long-standing heritage of putting their customers at the heart of everything they do – and leading with the principles of driving positive change through their brands.
Your role, as a Planning Lead will be focused on leading a team to deliver the planning and account management across one of Unilever’s five categories, working across some iconic household brands such as Persil and Comfort. You will get the opportunity to design exciting, award-winning campaigns as well as work with channel specialists to make those plans a reality. This involves everything from defining the approach to audience, designing the connections plan across both brand & performance using all relevant touchpoints as well as advising on media innovation and measurement. We have strong inter-agency relationships, working closely with creative, PR & experiential and influencer agencies and enjoying senior client exposure. The client offers the opportunity to deliver fresh ideas & push boundaries to continue their business growth. We have a very strong relationship with the client and are often seen as an extension of their team. Mindshare work on the Unilever account globally, and whilst this role is UK specific there is a lot of collaboration between the teams.
About the role
You will be expected to demonstrate experience and knowledge in:
- Great stakeholder management with both clients and agency alike (across both junior and senior levels)
- Ability to work with clients to ensure the brief is right with clear and measurable objectives in place
- An ability to think and work ‘audience first’, translating audience insight into actionable audiences
- Specify how to build and target audiences in addressable and non-addressable media and validate the approach to ensure that the defined audience can be reached at the scale required
- Designing an approach that outlines how and where we will connect with defined audiences in media
- Designing the connections ecosystem & plan, working closely and collaboratively with channel specialists
- Day to day management of campaigns as a key liaison between clients and channel specialists
- Designing measurement & testing framework to inform as well as measure and optimise the campaigns
- Line management of planning team within account structure
- Responsibilities to the planning department as senior member of the team, contributing to Business Director board meetings and leading work streams.
SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS:
- You show a passion for media and the industry with knowledge of the main trends that help to inform your thinking and output.
- You have clear opinions and an understanding of what makes a great media campaign – tangibly prove your plans are aimed at achieving excellence in planning craft.
- You can create a holistic measurement framework that is relevant for the brand and every campaign (setting KPIs, methods i.e., which tool/system, necessary tracking) and plans for adaptation/optimisation).
- You must have extensive experience leading senior client relationships, managing all agency teams, leading and delivering client projects and tackling challenging conversations.
- You are an excellent team player taking the responsibility for working in a collaborative, inclusive way to allow specialists to contribute.
- You demonstrate a high degree of organisation that leads to successfully managing workflow for self and more junior members of the team.
- You are open-minded, flexible and embracing of agile ways of working.
THE IDEAL CANDIDATE:
- As Business Director you will be responsible for the leadership and delivery of best-in-class planning and implementation.
- You will have a strong desire to deliver innovative and effective work both reactively (in response to briefs), and proactively (spotting those opportunities for insight and innovation outside of briefs).
- We expect our Business Directors to show a breath of understanding of media channels, as well as in-depth and speciality understanding in how to discuss the present and future role each channel plays as part of a comms strategy.
- Strong people management skills.
- Collaborative both in the day-to-day account role and across the planning department.
About the planning department
The Connections Planning team plays a crucial role in designing the audiences, connections, content and measurement that deliver the most innovative and effective solutions to clients. To do this requires a team of people with a high degree of knowledge of the UK media market and a deep understanding of the role of technology in driving opportunities to target audiences, it’s impact on the connections and content that will engage people, and how media can be measured and optimised.
Members of the team understand consumer trends and are able to translate insights and strategic direction into actionable media solutions. They interact with a wide range of other teams including Intelligence and Strategic Planning, the specialist channel teams that execute the media, and the Live Planning team that optimises across all media channels.
What we can offer you
- A strong salary commensurate and in-line with relevant experience
- 25 days annual leave and your birthday day off
- Ongoing internal and external training opportunities
- Flexible working
- The opportunity to attend industry conferences and awards nights
- Career and personal progression
- Private Healthcare
- Excellent pension matching structure
About Mindshare
Mindshare is a leading global marketing and media services network with billings in excess of £23billion worldwide. We work with some of the most famous businesses and brands in the UK – such as Unilever, Ford, KFC, Nike, Marks & Spencer and TK Maxx. The Mindshare network consists of 116 offices across 86 countries throughout the USA, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific; each dedicated to forging competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands.
Our approach
Our ambition is to drive Good Growth for our clients.
Good Growth is about delivering growth that is enduring and is considerate of people and planet. Media is a powerful force, and we need to be mindful of the responsibility that it brings. We help our clients make better decisions by ensuring we use media in a trusted, inclusive and sustainable way. We recognise that in order to drive Good Growth, we need to place people at the heart of everything we do. Understanding people, not demographics allows us to place media meaningfully into their lives.
Good Growth is a big ambition – one which inspires change for the industry but also for our agency and we achieve this through our values of Energy, Empathy and Impact.
Working for Mindshare
Our brilliant people allow us to deliver our ambition. We invest heavily in their development to ensure they are progressing and thriving wherever they work in our business. We also think inspiration for our staff is key and our pinnacle and flagship event of the year, Huddle, connects people, opinions and perspectives across borders and is all about learning something new and participating.
Committed to Diversity & Inclusion
We have a big dream at Mindshare, to become the most inclusive place to work in the country! This will take time but the whole agency is passionate about making it a reality. To support this, we currently have 8 Employee Resource Groups available for our people to join and be a part of including, Roots, PrideM, Women in Business, Enable, Declassify, 0Borders, ADAM and Working Parents. These groups hold the agency to account for making progress and, along with our Mental Health Allies, design and lead events and initiatives that help us create a welcoming environment to all and a place where everyone can be their most confident self.