Planning Director

We are looking for a Planning Director who can elevate our strategic product, supercharge our creative work, and bring cultural intelligence and clarity to everything we do. The Planning Director is a senior strategic leader responsible for shaping the thinking behind our biggest client partnerships and creative outputs. Reporting into the Executive Creative Director, you will work across our diverse client roster, leading briefs, building strong strategic platforms, and infusing cultural insight from brands, properties and fans into our work. You will partner closely with Business Directors, Creative Directors, and our broader Planning team to ensure our work is bold, intelligent, and culturally connected. You will be both an inspiring strategist and a hands-on collaborator who makes complex thinking feel simple, compelling, and actionable.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development of sponsorship and partnership strategies across multiple clients and categories (sport, entertainment, lifestyle, tech, consumer brands).
• Shape long-term strategic narratives and frameworks that unlock fresh thinking and guide creative development.
• Translate brand, category and audience insights into sharp, inspiring briefs that set creatives up for success.
• Bring clarity and simplicity to complex information (no jargon, no over-intellectualising—just powerful, insightful strategy).

Cultural Intelligence

• Demonstrate deep curiosity about culture, sport, entertainment, fashion, gaming, music, behaviour, technology and beyond.
• Identify and translate cultural shifts, audience behaviours and consumption patterns into strategic opportunities for clients.
• Ensure ideas and sponsorship solutions go beyond impressions and create action from our audience.

Data & Research Excellence

• Build strategies grounded in solid data, research and behavioural understanding.
• Leverage a range of research methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, cultural, social and audience), working with internal/external partners as needed.
• Turn insights into simple, powerful narratives that inform decisions and inspire creative teams.

Creative & Pitch Leadership

• Serve as strategic lead on new business pitches—setting the narrative, uncovering insights, and helping craft winning stories.
• Collaborate with Creative Directors and teams to ensure ideas are strategically anchored and culturally relevant.
• Bring energy, storytelling craft and a fresh point of view to pitch rooms and client presentations.

Collaboration & Teamwork

• Be a central part of our Europe-based Planning team—mentoring senior planners, supporting development and fostering a collaborative culture.
• Partner with Business Directors to influence client relationships and guide long-term strategic planning.
• Work shoulder-to-shoulder with creatives to develop and refine ideas, ensuring seamless strategy-to-creative.

Client & Stakeholder Management

• Lead strategic conversations with clients, becoming a trusted adviser to senior stakeholders.
• Provide clear recommendation paths and steward clients through strategic decisions.
• Constructively challenge briefs in a considered way.

Continuous Improvement & Leadership Contribution

• Support growth of existing accounts through proactive thought leadership, opportunity spotting and category innovation.
• Contribute to the agency’s strategic vision, tools and planning frameworks.
• Champion strategic excellence in sponsorship and partnership marketing internally and externally.
• Represent Octagon at events, conferences and within relevant industry conversations.

Requirements

• Significant agency experience in strategy or planning (sports, entertainment, brand partnerships, or creative agency experience ideal).
• Proven track record of leading strategy on major clients, global brands, or culturally influential work.
• Strong pitch experience, including shaping narratives, developing insight-led stories, and presenting confidently.
• Ability to translate brand/category/audience insight into sharp briefs and practical strategic frameworks.
• Strong cultural fluency and curiosity, with the ability to convert cultural shifts into actionable partnership opportunities.
• Experience using research and data to build strategies and communicate insights simply and powerfully.
• Confident senior stakeholder management skills, with the credibility to advise and challenge constructively.
• Collaborative leadership style, able to mentor talent and work closely with creative and business teams.

Benefits

• Core benefits (available from start date) – unlimited holiday allowance, AXA private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, pension scheme with 4.5% employer contribution, Employee Assistance Programme, Perkbox.
• Flexible benefits (available after probation) – Gymflex, dental insurance, travel insurance, health cash plan, Cyclescheme, interest-free season ticket loans.
• A Flexible Workplace – we have a number of initiatives in place to ensure that our team have the flexibility to balance work with their lives, this includes unlimited holiday and flexible working options.
• We also run a number of internal programmes to support physical and mental wellbeing, alongside learning and development opportunities to support career development and progression.

About Us

We’re the global sports, entertainment, and lifestyle-marketing arm of Omnicom. A collection of 800 fans bound by a single mission: To create work that earns attention.

How We See The World

We live in a world where time is our most precious commodity, and our audiences’ patience has never been shorter. As an industry, we’ve never had to work harder to gain the attention of the people we’re trying to reach. The way we see it, there’s two ways to go about it. Attention is either bought or it’s earned. Paid attention ensures your brand will be heard – and that’s a good start. But attention that’s earned ensures your audience listens to what you’re saying. At Octagon, our purpose is to create work that earns attention. Through smart partnerships and generous ideas, we compete for, capture, and ultimately earn the attention of those who matter most. Have we got yours?

Octagon is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, disability, or any other basis prohibited by law. We make our careers website accessible to any and all users. If you need an accommodation to participate in the application process, please contact us at JobAppAccommodation@ipgdxtra.com. This email address is not for general employment inquiries or vendors; rather it is strictly for applicants who require special assistance accessing our employment website. Due to volume, messages sent to this email address that are not related to an accommodation cannot be answered.