Senior Planner / Strategist in London

Established in 2004, OLIVER is the world’s first and only specialist in designing, building, and running bespoke in-house agencies and marketing ecosystems for brands. We partner with over 300 clients in 40+ countries and counting. Our unique model drives creativity and efficiency, allowing us to deliver tailored solutions that resonate deeply with audiences. As a part of The Brandtech Group, we're at the forefront of leveraging cutting‑edge AI technology to revolutionise how we create and deliver work. Our AI solutions enhance efficiency, spark creativity, and drive insightful decision‑making, empowering our teams to produce innovative and impactful results.

LOCATION: Barcelona, Spain

REPORTING TO: Strategy Director

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE ROLE AND TEAM

Working in direct partnership with a leading European pet care client (part of a major international food group), the Senior Planner / Strategist will play a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction for four leading pet care brands. Embedded within our dedicated on-site agency hub in Barcelona, you will collaborate closely with the client's Global Brand Teams on high-impact global briefs. Your focus will be upstream and conceptual: uncovering transformative consumer and cultural insights, authoring inspirational creative briefs, defining brand and communication strategies, and building comprehensive global master toolkits. This is an exceptional opportunity for an ambitious, culturally attuned, and insight-driven strategist to establish foundational strategic frameworks, elevate creative ambition, and influence the global trajectory of major pet care brands.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

• Global Brand & Communication Strategy: Partner directly with the client's Global Marketing Leads and Brand Managers to define overarching brand, communication, and campaign strategies across cat and dog portfolios. Architect robust Global Master Toolkits, guidelines, and campaign architectures designed for global consistency and seamless future adaptation across regional markets. Interrogate client challenges to uncover the real commercial and cultural problems strategy needs to solve, converting complex business goals into clear, actionable creative propositions.
• Audience Insight & Cultural Intelligence: Dig deep into pet owner (pet parent) behaviours, motivations, and cultural trends using qualitative discovery, social listening tools, and audience data platforms (e.g., GWI, category research). Translate data and category trends into rich, inspiring human insights that ignite breakthrough creative ideas. Help clients stay at the forefront of modern marketing, championing audience-first and culturally resonant thinking across all touchpoints.
• Creative Partnership & Briefing: Work as a trusted partner to the Creative Director, Art Directors, and Copywriters, guiding conceptual thinking from discovery through to final presentation. Craft sharp, inspirational creative briefs and lead energising briefing sessions that give creatives a clear springboard for conceptual work. Provide constructive strategic feedback during the creative review process, ensuring ideas are both strategically sound and creatively daring.
• Client Partnership & Ways of Working: Establish strong, consultative relationships with client brand teams, becoming a trusted advisor on brand positioning, consumer journeys, and creative effectiveness. Collaborate with the Strategy Director and cross‑functional leads to establish best‑practice strategic frameworks, briefing templates, and workshop methodologies for the account.

WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE

• Experience: 6-10+ years of brand and communications planning experience within top-tier creative agencies, brand consultancies, or dedicated/in‑house client setups.
• Sector background: Proven experience working on FMCG, CPG, Pet Care, or consumer lifestyle brands. Experience navigating multi‑brand portfolios is a significant plus.
• Global & conceptual scope: A demonstrated track record delivering global briefs, brand platforms, and master campaign toolkits (brand and communication planning, not solely channel execution).
• Strategic craft: A balanced blend of analytical rigour and creative intuition, capable of mining data for genuine insights and distilling complexity into punchy narratives.
• Storytelling & presentation: Outstanding written, narrative, and verbal presentation skills, with comfort facilitating workshops and pitching strategic platforms to senior global stakeholders.
• Collaborative spirit: High EQ, curious, and proactive, with the ability to thrive in a fast‑paced, collaborative embedded agency environment.
• Languages: Professional working fluency in English is essential, as it is the working language for global briefs. Proficiency in Spanish is a strong advantage.

Our values shape everything we do: Be Ambitious to succeed, Be Imaginative to push the boundaries of what’s possible, Be Inspirational to do groundbreaking work, Be always learning and listening to understand, Be Results-focused to exceed expectations, Be actively pro-inclusive and anti-racist across our community, clients and creations.

OLIVER, a part of the Brandtech Group, is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive working environment where all employees are encouraged to reach their full potential, and individual differences are valued and respected. All applicants shall be considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by local laws.

OLIVER has set ambitious environmental goals around sustainability, with science-based emissions reduction targets. Collectively, we work towards our mission, embedding sustainability into every department and through every stage of the project lifecycle.