Digital Planning Director

About the Group

The world is obsessed by small start-ups or the largest corporates. Most UK media agencies are built to serve the top 100 spending clients, and there are a multitude of boutique agencies to serve those starting out in business. The Specialist Works is different. We are built exclusively for marketers at entrepreneurial brands. Businesses that are past the messy start-up stage but are worlds away from the slow-paced nature of large corporates. Our clients span large privately owned businesses (often PE backed, founder-led or both) and small to mid-cap public enterprises. They are fighting larger, more established competitors and know they need to think and behave differently to win. The marketers leading these brands are innovative, resourceful, moving at pace and in all-out growth mode.

Role Overview

As a Digital Planning Director you’ll have the opportunity to shape our approach to digital media planning, evolving our proposition and delivering it to clients in a way that drives meaningful growth for both the online team and the wider agency. You will own the growth and development of a group of key clients, acting as senior contact and escalation point. Working closely with your Head of Department you will help define the agency’s approach to digital planning and build solutions that better meet the needs of entrepreneurial brands. You are accountable for the quality of work across your client portfolio, proactively managing resources across all levels in line with client opportunities, in partnership with Head of Departments and will play a key role in developing the online team and elevating planning standards across the agency. You will act as a guiding light—bringing energy, positivity and a “what’s possible” mindset that inspires those around you.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan and clearly communicate cross-channel digital media strategies across CTV, online video, display, digital audio, paid social and partnerships.
• Ensure these plans clearly deliver on campaign objectives and can be carried seamlessly into activation.
• Oversee that activation, inform inflight optimization choices and proactively build delivery insights into future planning recommendations.
• Lead the integration of digital media into broader ATL and communications strategies.
• Act as senior client contact and escalation point for key accounts.
• Confidently identify actionable insights across campaign activation, build and present PCA’s ad use that insight to inform future plans.
• Independently manage and grow GP through client and product development.
• Own forecasting and reporting across agreed clients and channels, overseeing bookings and financial performance.
• Help define the agency digital planning approach, building solutions that better meet EB needs and shaping strategy, activation processes, and team development.
• Embed agreed planning principles and best practice across the team.
• Lead the online video, display and digital audio team in partnership with the Head of Digital, ensuring consistently high standards in planning are translating through to equally strong activation, reporting, and campaign performance.
• Lead supplier relationships across CTV, online video, online display, digital audio and Tiktok and use these relationship to innovate and better service the needs for Entrepreneurial Brands.
• Play a leading role in new business and pitches, progressing to senior digital activation lead with minimal Head of Department input.
• Alongside your Head of Department, work in partnership with the Commercial & trading team on client proposals, scope of work, and SLAs, supplier agreements and trading relationship.
• Contribute to group-wide tools, frameworks and initiatives.

Key Deliverables

• Delivers sustained growth in gross media investment and GP across 5+ key digital performance accounts, driven by strong campaign performance, proactive growth initiatives, and trusted client relationships.
• Established as a senior, trusted client partner and primary escalation point for digital planning, maintaining strong relationships and consistently high client confidence.
• Accurate, timely client and channel forecasting delivered and fed into Head of Department, with clear accountability for performance vs targets.
• Demonstrate autonomy and commercial ownership with minimal management input.
• Consistently high standards of digital planning that follows through to activation, reporting, and campaign performance delivered across all accounts, with best practices defined, embedded, and continuously evolved.
• Measurable uplift in team capability and confidence in digital planning through ongoing development and upskilling.
• Be a key point of connection across online, AV, print and OOH teams – enable the intersection of digital and all wider offline channel buys.
• A clearly defined and evolving digital planning approach and frameworks, with solutions that better meet EB needs and strengthen strategy, planning, activation, and team effectiveness.
• Strong, commercially beneficial partnerships established and maintained across key suppliers and partners.
• Meaningful contribution to new business success, progressing to leading digital activation in pitches with minimal Head of Department input.
• Take a leading role in wider agency projects to improve agency output.

What We’re Looking For

• Leadership – Proven ability to motivate, guide and develop teams.
• Strategic Thinking – Experience developing effective digital media strategies that deliver business outcomes.
• Financial Acumen – Strong commercial understanding and forecasting capability.
• Communication – Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Problem-Solving – Ability to identify and resolve complex client and media challenges.
• Analytical Skills – Turn data and insights into compelling planning recommendations.
• Industry Knowledge – Advanced knowledge of digital media planning across CTV, video, display, audio, social and partnerships and its associated activation.
• Client Leadership – Exceptional client management and relationship-building capability.
• Supplier Management – Ability to build commercially valuable supplier relationships.
• Experience – Typically 8+ years in digital media planning and leadership.
• Nice to have – Comms planning and offline planning/buying experience.

Working Conditions:

A minimum of 3 days per week in the London office. May require occasional travel to meet clients and attend industry events.

Benefits

We provide an exciting, fast paced, people first environment that allows everyone to grow, learn and thrive. We work a 9-day fortnight, meaning staff have every other Friday off! We offer all our employees share options, and we’ve built a benefits package that invests in our employees’ long-term personal and professional growth and wellbeing.

Our Values

• Passion: You share your excitement about what drives you.
• Inquisitiveness: Ask “what’s possible?”. Ask “why not?”.
• Caring: Be a good professional, a good colleague and a good human.
• Knowledge: Know plenty. Share it. Learn more.

And we live them every day #IamPICK

Social and Environmental Commitment

At What’s Possible Group, our mission is to build a group our people are proud of. Proud of what we deliver to clients. Proud of how we treat each other. Proud of our commitment to people, planet and profit. Having rolled out a What’s Possible University with learning modules & policies, including anti bribery & corruption, DE&I and code of ethics, our people have continuous personal development, and the group is continuously improving. We are dedicated to embedding social and environmental responsibility into every aspect of our business. You'll contribute to initiatives that promote social equity, diversity, and inclusion within our workplace and in the content, we create, whilst actively supporting and promoting sustainable best practice by, continuously working to minimise waste, (for example, water & cardboard recycling), prioritise eco-friendly suppliers, (for example, renewable energy switch), and promote remote work to reduce carbon emissions. Your role as a Digital Planning Director will include supporting these efforts by helping to implement green office practices, coordinating initiatives that enhance our corporate social responsibility, and ensuring our operations align with our values of sustainability and social responsibility.

Sound good to you? Then get in touch. At The What’s Possible Group our culture, our creativity and our passion is powered by people. People just like you. Diversity and difference drive innovation, not only for us but also for our clients and is at the heart of everything that we do. The What’s Possible Group is proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all, regardless of race, gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation or age as we seek to recruit the very best at The What’s Possible Group from a diverse talent pool. If you require flexible working options, please still get in touch and we’ll be as accommodating as we can.