Hunterlodge is a UK-based, full-service agency with a growing portfolio across Higher Education, B2B and Consumer sectors. We combine creativity, data and a focus on effectiveness to help clients build their brands and achieve commercial results.
Following significant growth, we are looking for a Senior Strategic Planner to strengthen and challenge our thinking. This is a senior, client-facing role with commercial influence and a clear pathway towards senior leadership.
The Role
You will be a brand and communications strategist who understands how audiences discover, evaluate and choose brands in a changing media and digital environment. You will help clients define where to compete, who to prioritise, what to stand for and how to communicate effectively.
Starting with the client's business objectives, you will turn research, audience understanding and market insight into a clear strategic direction. You will develop positioning, propositions and communications plans that give creative and media teams a shared foundation for their work.
Working closely with the Senior Creative Strategist, media specialists and account teams, you will connect long-term brand building with immediate campaign objectives and help shape our strategic services and approach to effectiveness.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead brand strategy across key accounts, including market assessment, segmentation, targeting, positioning and proposition development.
- Develop communications strategies that define objectives, audience priorities, messaging, channel roles and the journey from awareness to action.
- Challenge and clarify client briefs before creative and media development, identifying the underlying problem and the most useful strategic response.
- Plan and interpret qualitative and quantitative research, combining audience, competitor, cultural and performance insight into actionable recommendations.
- Develop audience segments, personas, customer journeys and messaging frameworks; work with data specialists to apply propensity analysis where it adds value.
- Partner with media and digital colleagues to connect brand strategy with channel planning, balancing brand building and activation.
- Lead client workshops and regular strategy reviews, proactively identifying opportunities, risks and changes in audience behaviour.
- Shape pitch strategy and new business narratives, contributing to presentations, networking and industry events.
- Evolve the agency’s insight frameworks and strategic services, using AI and research tools with appropriate validation and judgement.
- Define measurement frameworks with media and analytics colleagues, assessing brand, communications and commercial outcomes and applying the learning.
- Mentor colleagues and develop our understanding of youth audiences, while bringing relevant thinking from other sectors into client work.
Skills & Experience
- Extensive experience in strategic planning, brand strategy or communications strategy, with a proven track record of leading work at a senior level in an agency, consultancy or in-house team.
- Strong grounding in segmentation, targeting, positioning and brand development and communications planning.
- An understanding of how brands grow and how communications influence behaviour, with the ability to connect long-term strategy to practical campaign decisions.
- Experience commissioning, conducting or interpreting qualitative and quantitative research, and assessing the strength and limitations of evidence.
- A confident understanding of modern media and digital channels, including search, social, content and CRM, and how they work together across the customer journey.
- The ability to translate complex information into a clear strategic recommendation and a useful brief for creative and media teams.
- Strong commercial awareness and experience using performance evidence to improve recommendations and demonstrate effectiveness.
- Excellent writing, storytelling and presentation skills, with credibility in senior client conversations and the confidence to challenge constructively.
- A record of contributing to pitches, client growth and the development of colleagues.
- Experience in Higher Education, complex B2B markets or youth marketing. Sector knowledge is beneficial but is not a prerequisite; we actively welcome learning and perspectives from other industries.
- Experience using audience intelligence platforms, social listening, digital analytics or AI-assisted research tools.
- Experience applying propensity analysis, advanced segmentation or other modelling outputs to strategic decisions, working with specialist colleagues where required.
What We're Looking For
You combine analytical depth with a clear point of view. You ask useful questions, distinguish evidence from assumption and make complicated challenges easier to understand.
You are comfortable leading client conversations, ambitious about the quality of the work and motivated by helping both clients and the agency grow.
Benefits & Progression
- Profit-share bonus scheme aligned to agency performance.
- A clear development and progression pathway towards senior strategic leadership and potential board-level responsibility, linked to performance and agency growth.
- The opportunity to influence agency direction, strategic services and ways of working.
- Comprehensive CPD programme with IPA recognition.
- An inclusive, ambitious culture, with exposure to national and international campaigns, senior stakeholders and competitive pitches.
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Senior Strategic Planner in Rickmansworth employer: Hunterlodge Advertising
Hunterlodge is an exceptional employer that prioritises the growth and development of its employees, offering a comprehensive Level 3 Apprenticeship in Advertising & Media. Located in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, the agency fosters a collaborative and dynamic work culture, providing hands-on experience with real clients while supporting continuous professional development through fully funded training programmes. With a focus on employee wellbeing, including mindfulness sessions and social events, Hunterlodge is dedicated to nurturing talent and creating a rewarding career path in the advertising industry.
