Integrated Creative & Comms Strategist

Overview

Role OVO-View

Team: Brand Strategy & Management and Comms Planning
Location: London or Bristol based
Salary banding: £54,000 – £57,000
Experience: Mid/Senior Level
Working pattern: Full-Time
Reporting to: Josephine Kiernan, Head of Comms Planning
Sponsorship: Unfortunately we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.
This role in 3 words: Strategic, Creative, Unifying
Top 3 qualities for this role: Curious, Thoughtful, Driven

Where you’ll work

At OVO, we understand that a one size fits all approach doesn’t work for everyone. That’s why we created the OVO Way of Flexibility. All our roles are hub based (Bristol, Glasgow or London), providing a dedicated space for collaboration, connection and teamwork. You’ll also have the flexibility to work from home.

Company purpose & team

Everyone belongs at OVO. We are on a mission to solve the climate crisis and welcome diverse people from all abilities, gender identities, ethnicities, ages, sexual orientations, life experiences and backgrounds. The Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing team represents OVO to the world, responsible for brand platform, social media and communications that support our mission to make energy work for people and the planet.

What we do

Creative strategy and comms planning is a core function within the Brand & Marketing department. The goal is to build positive associations with consumers and inspire them to join our mission. Our work falls into three key areas:

• What we can say: Maintaining a macro view of all permissible messages and evolving long-term messaging.
• What we should say (and when): Aligning commercial goals, product pipelines, customer needs, competitor movements and external factors to build an impactful comms strategy each quarter.
• How and where we say it: Collaborating with channel-leads to define a holistic plan and translating it into insight-laden creative briefs for our in-house design studio.

The role involves broad responsibility across planning, creative development and stakeholder collaboration to ensure clear, distinctive and effective communications that reflect our brand strategy.

Your role in a nutshell

You will report to the Head of Comms Planning (based in London) and work closely with the brand team and the creative/design studio. You will help broaden visibility of the evolving business landscape, adhere to efficient processes, and act as a creative strategist for effectiveness and the power of creativity.

This is an exciting, broad role for someone who is organised, strategic and creative. It suits someone curious who considers themselves a bit of a “swiss army knife” with a desire to sharpen strategic thinking and planning skills.

Your key outcomes

• Be an enthusiast for our mission and products, building strong relationships with teams to understand pipelines and how they impact the comms plan and creative pipeline.
• Support the Head of Comms Planning on the yearly planning cycle, co-conduct stakeholder sessions, help create slide presentations, and contribute to the yearly Comms Planning Motherboard.
• Translate information from business lines to identify who needs to know what to coordinate key messages across marketing channels and keep the Comms Planning Motherboard up to date.
• Provide upstream visibility to Creative Studio leadership and project management to establish an upfront pipeline/schedule of creative briefs.
• Organise the centralised channel briefing process, acting as the first point of contact for product marketing leads and business lines to brief in communication requirements and outline the recommended comms strategy.
• Use the comms strategy to anticipate creative execution, leveraging customer and industry research to reveal insights for potential creative directions.
• Coordinate a monthly Creative Incubator to set challenging creative briefs for the studio, and support other proactive initiatives within the brand and marketing team as capacity allows.
• Support evolving the Comms Plan and cascade changes, including quarterly tracking of OKRs.
• Partner with stakeholders to interrogate briefs, add insights from research, and guide creative focus toward distinctive ideas aligned with brand strategy.
• Champion comms planning, creative effectiveness and reporting. Work with stakeholders and channel leads to collect data on creative output and campaigns, applying learnings to refine future briefs.
• Collaborate with the brand team to showcase ongoing comms planning work and its impact in monthly reports.

Requirements / What you’ll need

• A solid background in Research, Marketing, Advertising, Communications or related commercial functions.
• Ability to flip between organised planning and inspiring strategy.
• Strong organisation with attention to detail and an ability to manage many documents and changes.
• Insatiable curiosity to learn about the business, industry and drivers of commercial results.
• Ability to connect dots and make an impact through strategic thinking; you are the connective tissue rather than the final owner of every output.
• Passion for good creative and an interest in both consumer research and performance data to improve creative output.
• Understanding of brand importance and knowledge of different funnel channels.
• Ability to work both collaboratively and independently.
• Confident communicator who builds positive relationships and finds the right people to gather information from.
• Comfort working in an emergent area with energy to help embed the vision.
• Proactive thinker who seeks responsibility and is adaptable to change.

Compensation & benefits

• Salary: £54,000 – £57,000, depending on skills and experience.
• On-target bonus: 15% of salary.
• Green benefits and progressive policies, including 9% Flex Pay (4% pension auto-enrolled; 5% flexible).
• Holidays: 34 days (including bank holidays).
• Health and wellbeing benefits: private medical insurance or healthcare cash plan, critical illness cover, life assurance, health assessments, gym membership, travel insurance, dental and more.
• Lifestyle benefits: extra holiday purchase, dining discounts, home & tech loans, charity giving options.
• Home benefits: up to £400 towards any OVO Energy plan, discounts on solar, smart thermostats and EV chargers.
• Commute benefits: ultra-low emission car leasing, cycle to work, public transport loans.
• Belonging: 8 Belonging Networks to engage with; inclusive, diverse workplace.

If you have any additional requirements, there’s a space to let us know on the application form. Our People Team can tell you everything you need to know.