Consumer PR - Business Director

As the Business Director on the European and Global FMCG portfolio business within Consumer PR, you will lead client partnership, strategic counsel and integrated delivery across the portfolio, designed to provide the client with fully focused senior leadership on some of the world’s most iconic FMCG brands. The role sits at the intersection of earned‑first thinking, culture‑led marketing, and integrated agency delivery, ensuring that PR, social, influence and advertising work together to create impact at scale across diverse markets. This pivotal role places you at the heart of our operations for a large FMCG portfolio. Your remit will span from the initial spark of ideation—identifying trends and innovative opportunities that drive cultural relevance—to meticulous development of cutting‑edge strategies tailored to diverse market nuances and brand objectives. You will lead the charge on defining compelling creative narratives and content frameworks, ensuring brand consistency and breakthrough engagement, and then oversee flawless execution across platforms and geographies. This role demands a holistic leader capable of driving innovation, navigating complex client relationships, and delivering measurable results within a dynamic, multi‑market agency environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the senior day‑to‑day client lead for European and Global teams, building trusted, long‑term partnerships.
• Provide strategic counsel across brand, reputation, partnerships and cultural activation.
• Lead complex, multi‑market stakeholder management across global, regional and local teams.
• Ensure the FMCG brand has consistent, senior‑level leadership fully embedded in the brand business.

Global & European Strategy Development

• Lead the creation of global and European communications toolkits, frameworks and playbooks that balance global brand consistency with local market nuance.
• Embed earned‑first thinking into all toolkits.
• Partner closely with creative and strategy leads to shape culturally relevant, insight‑led ideas.

Market Management & Intelligence

• Oversee market engagement across Europe and priority global territories, acting as a central connector between the brand’s global teams and local markets.
• Ensure clients are consistently informed on market trends, cultural shifts, competitor activity and emerging opportunities.
• Champion local market insight, ensuring work is adaptable, relevant and executable across diverse regions.

Global Events & Partnerships

• Lead the communications strategy and delivery for global brand moments and events, ensuring alignment across markets.
• Play a central role in developing and activating brand partnerships, embedding them seamlessly into toolkits and campaign narratives.
• Work with market and agency leads to bring partnerships to life in locally relevant, culturally resonant ways.

Team Leadership & Integration

• Directly manage a London‑based team, working alongside creative and strategy leadership.
• Foster a collaborative, high‑performance team culture grounded in integration and shared ownership.

What Makes This Role Different

• 100% dedicated to the FMCG portfolio, allowing for deep brand immersion and long‑term strategic thinking.
• Operates at true global scale, balancing global brand stewardship with local market realities.
• Deeply partnership‑led, with collaborations embedded into brand strategy.
• Strong emphasis on earned‑first, culture‑first marketing, influencing how integrated campaigns are built from the ground up.
• Sits within a fully integrated agency model, requiring constant collaboration across disciplines.

Key Leadership Competencies

• Proven experience in global and/or European leadership roles, ideally within FMCG or large‑scale consumer brands.
• Exceptional stakeholder management skills; confident navigating complexity.
• Strong understanding of how global brands operate across markets, with sensitivity to cultural and market nuance.
• Demonstrated experience working in integrated agency environments across PR, advertising, social and influence.
• A passion for culture‑led, earned‑first marketing and its role in driving brand relevance and business impact.
• Commercially astute, strategically minded and comfortable operating at senior client level.
• Genuine interest in and affinity for the drinks brands and the wider FMCG landscape.

Leadership Management

• Defines and communicates the overarching vision for the Influence practice, develops communication strategies that align the department with agency leadership and fosters a culture of open dialogue and mentorship for senior leaders.
• Architects the department’s operational structure to support profitability and growth, oversees P&L, leads resource forecasting, and ensures the practice handles complex, large‑scale business needs.
• Holds ultimate accountability for the entire department’s commercial and creative performance, empowering directors while maintaining transparent high‑level communication with executive leadership.
• Acts as the final point of authority on the most critical business issues, makes high‑stakes decisions that protect the agency’s commercial interests and mentors directors in strategic problem‑solving.
• Champions and funds a departmental learning culture, defines long‑term talent strategy, creates career pathways for all levels, and builds a best‑in‑class team through senior hiring and mentorship.
• Embeds Ogilvy values into the practice’s core processes, from recruitment and client management to performance recognition.

Skills for Your Growth to Client Partner

• C‑Suite Partnership & Business Acumen—transition from a practice leader to a C‑suite strategic advisor, developing a deep understanding of the client’s entire business model, competitive landscape and financial drivers to become an indispensable partner to their most senior leaders.
• Integrated Solution Leadership—evolve from leading a single capability to orchestrating the agency’s full suite of services, mastering the integration of diverse crafts from brand advertising and PR to consulting and data to solve the client’s most complex business problems.
• Enterprise Commercial Strategy—shift focus from departmental P&L management to owning the entire client commercial relationship, driving enterprise‑level growth by identifying strategic opportunities across the client’s organization and negotiating large‑scale, multi‑year partnerships.
• Relationship as the Core Product—move from a role where craft is the primary product to one where the strategic client relationship itself is the core deliverable; success will be measured by building unwavering trust and long‑term loyalty at the highest levels.

Personal Qualities

• Extensive and proven experience in a senior leadership role.
• Strategic yet pragmatic.
• Culturally curious and globally minded.
• Confident, collaborative and calm under pressure.
• Energised by complexity, scale and partnership‑driven work.
• Demonstrated track record of P&L ownership and delivering significant, year‑on‑year business growth.
• Proven success in leading and winning multi‑million‑pound new business pitches.
• Exceptional leadership skills with experience in shaping departmental culture and developing senior talent.
• Strategic visionary with the ability to anticipate market trends and define a clear, forward‑looking path for the business.
• Outstanding commercial acumen and sophisticated negotiation skills.

How We Help You Thrive

• 25 days annual leave + 1 volunteer day.
• Bupa Healthcare.
• Enhanced maternity, adoption and shared parental leave.
• Flexible working model with core hours 10am‑4pm.
• 1.5:1 matching pension structure.
• Wellbeing and health: up to £25.00 per month towards physical or online exercise class membership, Unmind membership, LifeWorks tool and annual eye tests.
• Season ticket loan and cycle‑to‑work scheme.
• Life assurance.

Ogilvy is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers. If you need any assistance seeking a job opportunity, or if you need reasonable accommodation with the application process, please contact us at accommodations@ogilvy.com. Note that this contact is only for candidates who are requesting accommodation. Emails for other purposes, including application status requests, will not receive a response.