GroupM - Senior Media Planning Director - Integrated Planning

About Essence

Essence, part of GroupM, is a global data and measurement-driven agency whose mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world. Clients include Google, Target, NBC Universal, T-Mobile and the Financial Times. The agency is more than 1,600 people strong, manages over $3.6B in annualized media spend and deploys campaigns in 71 markets via its global offices throughout North America, EMEA and APAC.

The Senior Media Planning Director is the lead media planner at Essence India. Their role is to lead a team of media planners, energizing and inspiring them to deliver innovation and great thinking. They are a unifying force within the multi-practice client team, collaborating closely with Client Services, Strategy and Activation leads to collectively steer the team to excellence.

Functions/Responsibilities:

Ultimately responsible for all deliverable from the media planning team, ensuring the high quality delivery of tactical response presentations, in-flight reporting, insightful post campaign analyses and clear and considered briefings to the Activation (buying) team and the point of escalation for team issues (within and outside of the team).

- Collaborates closely with all senior stakeholders on responses to brief and the ongoing successful running of the client account.

- Leads the direction of client Learning Agendas (special projects), collaborating effectively with Analytics.

- Drives internal thought leadership and team process/workflow enhancement, increasing work quality, making us more efficient.

- Sets the quality standard for one or more planning deliverable per year, improving them over time via team/client feedback and incorporation of evolving external context.

- Plays a key role in new business pitches.

- When required, drives the success of new client on boarding, alongside Client Services.

- Identifies and produces two case studies per year suitable for external recognition and award submissions.

- Line manages multiple reports and supports a wider team with career development and Essential (staff) satisfaction.

- Works closely with the regional practice lead on development of the media planning product.

Competencies (specific knowledge, skills and abilities):

1. Superb client relationship and management skills.

2. Ability to translate business and marketing KPIs to appropriate media KPIs.

3. Superior presentation design skills, in slides or document format.

4. Ability to represent and advocate for Essence, internally and externally.

5. Strong public speaking skills

6. Expertise in industry standard media research tools

7. Excellent organizational skills, close attention to detail and ability to quality control work.

9. Ability to adhere to deadlines and project manage multiple campaigns.

10. Development and maintenance of productive relationships with vendor partners.

11. Proven problem solving and decision making skills.

12. Ability to work independently and to collaborate in a team environment.

Management Responsibility

1. Able to inspire, energies a team, leading by example while coaching juniors.

2. Provides timely and actionable feedback to aid in team development and improvement.

3. Monitors and supports Essential satisfaction across client teams, identifying and implementing ways to maintain or increase satisfaction.

4. Fosters excellent working relationships across the client team to facilitate flawless execution of plans.

5. Communicates effectively across all levels of the team.

6. Provides awareness and recognition for jobs well done.

7. Participates in the Essence mentor ship programme.

What you can expect from Essence:

Essence's mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world. We do this by employing the world's very best talent to solve some of the toughest challenges of today's digital marketing landscape. It's important that we hire people whose values reflect those of our own: genuine, results-focused, daring and insightful. As an Essence employee, we promise you a workplace that invests in your career, cares for you and is fun and engaging. We believe these factors create a workplace where you can be yourself and do amazing work.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, or marital status.