Role: Business DirectorDepartment/Team: Connections Planning
Role Objective
We are recruiting for an Business Director who is an exceptional and driven media planner, to join our Connections Planning team.
You will be working on the Ford account in the UK – the biggest auto advertiser and one of the biggest accounts at Mindshare. We work in a unique ‘full service’ model meaning that the media teams collaborate closely with creative and account management teams within the Ford agency structure (primarily working with VMLYR).
Therefore we foster a fully integrated team approach across media, creative and client, working together across the 3 team locations – 2 days (Mon-Tue) at Ford’s Dunton office (a short taxi from Shenfield on the Elizabeth Line- Travel costs are covered), 1 day (Wed) at VML Sea Containers House and 1 day (Thu) at Mindshare Rose Court.
About the role
In this senior Planning role, your primary responsibilities include directing and overseeing the creation and execution of integrated media strategies that deliver outstanding business results for Ford UK. You will lead strategic planning, annual budgeting, and work with the ‘Live Planner’ to maintain ongoing campaign performance, with a particular focus on channel choice and consumer/category insight.
More detailed information below:
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Leadership:
- Lead the development of strategic planning and annual media strategy – developing strong audience insights and using category understanding to inform campaign approaches and execution.
- Guide client teams during briefings making sure we have clear and actionable briefs.
Relationship Management:
- Maintain strong partnerships across Ford UK, VMLYR, Channel teams, central agency teams, and other cross-agency partners.
- Act as primary strategic liaison with VML teams for responsive inputs, creative assets, and delivery management.
- Ensure consistent, transparent communication across all campaign developments and changes.
Team Leadership:
- Direct and mentor the Connections Planning team, managing workloads, fostering professional growth, and ensuring the timely delivery of quality outputs.
- Oversee weekly status reporting, maintaining clear accountability for campaign outcomes.
Campaign and Budget Management:
- Own the strategic management and adaptive allocation of annual and campaign-specific budgets.
- Identify potential campaign risks and proactively manage mitigation strategies to safeguard performance.
- Ensure campaigns deliver effectively against set KPIs, adapting strategies in real-time as needed.
Innovation and Collaboration:
- Collaborate closely with central strategy teams to integrate local initiatives with broader strategies.
- Continuously explore and introduce innovative media solutions to enhance campaign effectiveness.
- Champion digital innovation and emerging media platforms to maintain Ford UK’s competitive advantage.
About you
- Proven senior level experience in strategic media planning, ideally within automotive or comparable industries.
- Demonstratable ability to simplify and decipher complex client requests, clearly visualising strategic solutions, and guiding teams towards actionable approaches
- Extensive experience managing complex budgets, strategic planning, and team leadership.
- Expert-level knowledge of audience research, insights, and planning tools (e.g., TGI, Touchpoints), with awareness of supplementary media owner tools and data sources.
- Skilled in designing sophisticated measurement frameworks, demonstrating clear and actionable insights.
- Exceptional communication and relationship management skills, confidently presenting strategic recommendations to senior clients.
- Passionate about driving strategic innovation, demonstrating flexibility, proactivity, and a challenger mindset.
- Highly organized, with strong foresight and forward planning abilities, managing priorities proactively, anticipating client and team needs, and consistently delivering against deadlines.
- Committed to team development, collaborative work styles, and continuous personal growth.
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, 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.