Client Planning Director in London

Role Overview

You will join one of our four client teams who, like the rest of the7stars, challenge themselves to deliver bespoke strategies for clients. This role will focus on Bupa, a major new client win for the agency. The business spans multiple healthcare categories, each with different audiences, challenges and operating models. Your role will be to deliver outstanding strategic planning and client leadership across this important account. You’ll work closely with specialists across the business to ensure we develop the right audience, measurement and activation strategies — delivering best-in-class collaboration and contributing to our culture from day one.

About Bupa

Bupa is a leading healthcare company operating across four core business units:

• Health insurance – private medical insurance for individuals, families and businesses
• Healthcare – direct access to care through health centres and digital healthcare services
• Aged care – UK care homes and retirement villages
• Dental – the UK’s largest private dental provider

Each business unit serves distinct audiences and has different media requirements, but all operate under a unified brand ambition: to become the most customer-centric healthcare company. Bupa is at an exciting turning point as it rethinks how it shows up in media, moving toward a fully integrated and creatively ambitious approach. As their agency partner, the7stars will be responsible for building impactful full-funnel media plans that deliver measurable business results.

Responsibilities

As Planning Account Director, you will:

• Lead the client team across day-to-day account management, media planning and campaign performance
• Deliver best-in-class media planning proposals and maintain strong client relationships
• Work closely with the Planning Client Director to build deep client knowledge and develop effective planning responses
• Coordinate specialist teams across the agency and manage contributions to planning proposals, campaign reviews, performance optimisation and supporting analysis
• Act as a trusted partner to clients, supporting and constructively challenging them where needed
• Support proactive strategic work that goes beyond the brief and adds value to the client relationship
• Champion agency tools and technology to strengthen planning recommendations
• Train and develop junior planning team members across planning, insight gathering, category learning and campaign analysis

Skills & Experience

We’re looking for someone who:

• Has a genuine passion for media planning and a strong understanding of the media landscape
• Is confident planning across all channels, with a solid understanding of digital and performance media and how channels work together
• Has experience managing end-to-end plan delivery, from briefing through to PCA
• Has excellent attention to detail and can work effectively under pressure and to quick turnarounds
• Can clearly articulate agency planning frameworks and approaches both internally and to clients
• Has excellent communication, presentation and interpersonal skills
• Builds strong client relationships and keeps stakeholders informed and engaged
• Is confident leading client calls and internal meetings
• Has experience managing and developing others, with the ability to delegate effectively
• Can support, nurture and challenge junior team members to help them grow
• Actively adopts and uses AI tools in day-to-day work to improve productivity and planning outcomes
• Wants to contribute to agency new business pitches and wider growth initiatives

Experience using the following tools is beneficial:

• Telmar
• Brand Index
• TGI
• Nielsen
• Pathmatics
• SimilarWeb
• Reporting dashboards such as Datorama and Looker

About You

We’re looking for people who:

• Get excited by solving problems and believe communications can make a real difference to businesses
• Back their ideas with confidence and commercial understanding
• Are committed to delivering excellent client service and understanding what matters most to clients
• Want to grow with an agency and take on increasing responsibility
• Are entrepreneurial in mindset and motivated to do the best work of their career

Salary & Benefits

Competitive salary dependent on experience and expected impact in role

• Uncounted holiday
• Discretionary summer profit share and Christmas bonus
• Free breakfast and company bar
• New business bonus eligible in your first year
• Private medical insurance
• Gym membership (choice of four local options)
• Personal finance advice
• Season ticket loan
• Cycle to work scheme
• Techscheme
• Life assurance
• Critical illness cover
• Income protection
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, fostering and adoption leave, including phased return to work and enhanced pay
• Royal London pension, including Green Pension option
• Employee assistance programme and wellbeing support

About the7stars

the7stars is unlike any other agency. The distinction started the day we launched in 2005 when we named ourselves after a pub, but more importantly when we made a promise that we were going to do things differently. And this commitment has stuck with us. It guides how we work, how we think and how we treat one another, and can be expressed in a single word: Freedom. Our Freedom philosophy lives across our entire business — from people, product and planning. It means we plan and buy media how we want, develop careers how we want, take holiday when we need it, invent tools when we need them, and give people a platform to speak up, question and express themselves freely. More importantly, it has allowed us to create an amazing place to work.

We have a unique working environment and open structure which encourages personal development through client contact, teamwork, training, exposure to all media and internal teams, and a “sky’s the limit” approach to growth within the agency. the7stars is 300 passionate media people focused purely on creating great work for our clients. UK-focused, we also operate within an agile global network of like-minded partners, extending our client portfolio into Europe and the US. If thinking freely and with integrity is your bag, then the7stars is an agency you should meet.

Working Pattern

Monday–Thursday in our Covent Garden office, with hybrid working on Fridays. the7stars is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment where employees feel empowered to share different ideas, perspectives and experiences in a collaborative and creative workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.