Planning Director (12 Month FTC Maternity Cover)

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Croud is a global, full service digital marketing agency with a unique business model that helps businesses drive sustainable growth in the new world of marketing. Croud was recently named a Sunday Times Best Place to Work for the second year in a row, and was named Performance Marketing Employer of the Year by PMW. At Croud, we unlock potential by elevating our people, clients, and communities within a rapidly advancing and complex economy. We operate as a unique scaled network of Intelligent, Creative Specialists, enabling us to deliver superior brand outcomes and unlock potential for our people, our clients and our communities. Our culture is strategically driven and inspired by a shared long-term vision. It is collaborative and connected, with a focus on continuous learning and mutual support. We are energised by future thinking, driving innovation to achieve better outcomes. We are instinctively generous, actively including and empowering our people. Above all, we are purpose-driven, committed to positively impacting our people, the planet, and our global communities.

ROLE OVERVIEW

At Croud, Planning Directors are responsible for growing our clients’ businesses by matching incisive strategy with the plan to deliver it. That requires strategic smarts, a detailed knowledge of media and media planning and the ability to build transformative partnerships with clients. They form part of the leadership structure of our Client Teams, tasked with delivery against commercial objectives and leading strategic thinking and innovation for their clients.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Client Retention & Growth

• Work closely with senior client stakeholders to identify and solve key marketing challenges, as well as internal collaboration with other teams at Croud to produce strategy with broad buy‑in and media plans.
• Steer Croud’s relationships with key clients and build a deep understanding of the commercial drivers of their business.
• Be responsible for every stage of the campaign planning process: interpreting a client’s objectives, creating measurement frameworks, writing incisive strategy, building testing methodologies and diagnosing performance.
• Lead on annual planning for key clients: set strategic direction for the year ahead, socialise it amongst Croud teams and client stakeholders and build the plan for putting it into action.
• Lead on all cross‑channel media planning, ensuring that investment decisions made on behalf of clients are rigorously informed by all the available data.
• Collaborate - and provide direction to - the activation teams, ensuring all plans are complete, accurate and innovative.
• Responsible for audience, market and competitor intelligence projects, ensuring that work is insightful and actionable.
• Deliver complex marketing problem solving; turning solutions into strategies to present back to clients.
• Contribute to your Team’s understanding of a client’s category, brand and audience.
• Create repeatable and distinctive ways to share that information with the wider Croud team and ensure that the way we present is always as client‑centric as possible.

• Drive revenue for Croud through existing account growth and contribution to business development.
• Act as an important contributor for pitches: work with Planning Partners on setting the pitch strategy, determining the narrative and creating a framework for other contributors to use.
• The potential to act as part of a Team Triumvirate, delivering against the outlined KPIs.
• Ensure all Strategy & Planning work is delivered according to budget.
• Build strategic relationships with senior stakeholders, acting as counsel for key decisions about marketing investment.
• Drive client‑centric solutions that exceed expectations and deliver tangible business value.

• Manage a Planning team within a client hub, including line management of one or more Planning Managers.
• Ensure all Strategy & Planning work delivered to clients is of the highest quality and market‑leading.
• Contribute to a culture of continuous development within the Strategy & Planning team, and help to advance our product and offer to clients.
• Give feedback on requirements for training, working with Planning Partners to ensure availability of required resources.
• Represent Croud at industry events, public speaking and thought leadership.
• Be a champion of Croud’s values and culture, fostering a positive and inclusive work environment.
• Represent Croud with integrity and professionalism both internally and externally.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Demonstrable in‑depth experience as a Planner or Account Director. We’re open to candidates from comms, media or digital planning backgrounds, or who currently work in strategy roles.
• Experience of campaign planning that has driven demonstrable results for clients.
• Experience in CPG and/or Multi Brand Retail a bonus, but not a requirement.
• Extensive experience of presenting to clients and ’selling‑in’ ideas, and of working closely with senior stakeholders to understand their business objectives.
• Hands‑on experience of key digital marketing platforms is preferred. These include (but are not limited to) Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Ads Manager, DV360.
• Hands‑on experience of industry planning & insight tools is a nice‑to‑have. These include (but are not limited to) TGI, GlobalWebIndex, SimilarWeb.
• All the essentials: Excel/GSheets, Powerpoint/GSlides.

COMPANY BENEFITS

Croud operates a hybrid working model with a minimum of 3 days a week based in our London office and the remaining days from home if you wish. Croud offers a clear path to progression for all members of staff. We are committed to offering development opportunities alongside a support system of regular performance reviews. The opportunities are endless! On completion of the three‑month probation period, every employee is eligible for the benefits listed on our careers site which include:

• Sabbatical: Paid sabbatical at 7 years with an option to take it unpaid at 5 years.
• 25 days holiday a year.
• Discretionary annual performance based incentive.
• Sale commission.
• Recruitment referrals bonus.
• Health & Wellbeing contribution.
• 2 Recharge Days each holiday year.
• Ride to Work scheme.
• Railcard Season Ticket loan.
• Home office chair and home office screen.
• Free fruit, breakfast cereals, snacks and tea & coffee in the office.
• Enhanced Primary and Secondary family leave as well as extended Parental Leave and Shared Family Leave.
• Life insurance and income protection.
• Medical Cash Plan.
• Pension.
• Curated 3rd party learning platform as well as access to Croud Campus (our bespoke learning and development platform).
• Peer to peer recognition scheme 'bonusly'.
• Team off‑sites/regular socials.
• Year‑round holiday parties.
• Flexible working options.
• Day to make a difference.

Standard hours are from 9.00am to 5.30pm, there’s flexibility if agreed in advance with your line managers (it may also be necessary on occasions to work outside of these hours). Croud is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the grounds of a person's gender, marital status, race, religion, colour, age, disability or sexual orientation. All candidates will be assessed based on merit, qualifications and their ability to perform the requirements of the role.

OUR VALUES

At Croud, our vision centres around the idea of unlocking potential. We do this by elevating everyone in an inclusive and progressive culture, empowering individuals to deliver their best work. This means we build better brand outcomes, and unlock potential for our people, our clients and our communities. We live and breathe five core values that foster a culture where everyone can thrive. Our commitment to elevating each other is fundamental to both our cultural and business success. The ideal candidate will excel in and demonstrate the following:

• In it together - our value on integration, collaboration and outcomes.
• Eye on the future - our value on futurism, creativity and passion.
• Generous in spirit - our value on people, development and inclusion.
• Do what you say - our value on integrity and accountability.
• Make a difference - our value on purpose and impact.