Manager, Planning in London

Wavemaker UK is looking for a Planning Manager to join our growing planning team, to create impactful cross‑channel campaigns and build your media planning skills.

In This Role, You Will

• Media planning craft
  • Develop an in‑depth understanding of media channels including where, when and how to use them based on the client brief.
  • Have a skilled knowledge of Wavemaker and industry media planning tools and be able to train other team members.
  • Have a skilled understanding of industry best practices and planning theory.
  • Develop a fundamental knowledge of Wavemaker Purchase Journey thinking and Provocative Planning Philosophy.
• Campaign management
  • Ownership of campaign activity including briefing teams, collating response, managing client’s deliverables, and ensuring accuracy across all workstreams.
  • Work closely with the planning and activation teams to ensure the day‑to‑day account is run efficiently and effectively.
  • Bring in specialist teams where needed to work on briefs and client questions.
  • Ensure financial management processes are always excellent and met in a timely manner.
• Effective Communication
  • Become a trusted main day‑to‑day contact for junior clients, learning their business and ways of working.
  • Support in managing Planning Executives to ensure they are on track with daily tasks, mentor and challenge them with new projects to develop their career.
  • Start to develop a proactive problem‑solving mindset but know when to flag any issues or concerns with the Planning Director.

Skills And Experience

• Practice Area Knowledge – Skilled
  • Develop breadth and depth of industry understanding.
  • Become confident using tools, technology, techniques and systems and is able to train others.
  • Comfortable presenting both direct from platform (OS, Architect etc.) and developing a story from data but delivered outside of platform (Telmar etc.).
  • Can confidently answer client questions and liaise with internal teams on best solutions to use.
• Problem Solving – Fundamental
  • Uses critical questioning and maintains a broad perspective when analysing information to gain a deeper understanding of the problem and wider impact.
  • Quickly generates appropriate solutions informed by previous experience.
  • Understands how to resolve escalated issues and supports others to problem solve.
  • Supports or leads troubleshooting communication for issues.
  • Asks questions and performs routine or basic analysis to define problems.
  • Generates some solutions in own area of work and suggests additional sources of information to further investigate problems.
  • Seeks a variety of perspectives and inputs and probes for more information to fully understand the problem and wider impact.
  • Provides communication support for troubleshooting issues internally and externally with third parties.
  • Develops a broad understanding of industry tools, technology, techniques and systems as well as application.
  • Can run simple tasks independently and either present to clients directly or package for wider team.
• Stakeholder Relationships – Fundamental
  • Has a good understanding of how the agency operates and works with their clients.
  • Knows about the client’s business and who the key decision makers are there.
  • Has good understanding of agency and client and their business goals and challenges.
  • Builds a working knowledge of market trends affecting the client (and agency).
  • Responds to stakeholder requests in an accurate, timely and professional manner and seeks to have a good understanding of client needs and challenges.
• Effective Communications – Skilled
  • Breaks down complex technical information into understandable language, guiding others on best practice.
  • Uses knowledge and expertise to generate comprehensible, broadly‑applicable communications.
  • Designs differentiated communications (content focus, style, presentation, etc.) for various internal and external audiences based on an understanding of their differing levels of familiarity.
  • Attends client and agency meetings to present.
• Campaign Management – Skilled
  • Teaches others the importance of accuracy and thoroughness so that sufficiently detailed information is logged correctly.
  • Manages and takes ownership of campaigns from start to completion, maintaining accurate pipeline and campaign information across elements of the plans.
  • Delivers accurate reports with value‑added insights and actionable findings to improve campaign performance.
  • Be accountable for the ongoing management of campaign budgets and finance reconciliations.
  • Balances several projects and tasks simultaneously with minimal error and without losing track of important details or deliverables.
• Compelling Storytelling – Skilled
  • Applies big picture thinking in work and proactively leverages an understanding of the organisation and key industry trends.
  • Understands the different elements of responses.
  • Designs differentiated communications (content focus, style, presentation, etc.) for various internal and external audiences.
• Ideas Creation – Skilled
  • Regularly engages in new projects/activities that can help solve identified barriers or opportunities as part of planning.
  • Can identify the relevant partners to bring ideas to life.
  • Uses wider industry knowledge and trend understanding to help generate solutions that can deliver against communication objectives.
• Comms Planning – Skilled
  • Applies knowledge of client, audience, channel, market and category to effectively deliver compelling multi‑media plans.
  • Translates learnings and trends to create marketing communication strategies that are effective with clear measurement.
  • Application of purchase journey thinking and visualisation of how the media plan works across channels.
  • Translation of strategic direction / platform / provocation into directional role for media, channel role and behaviour in channel.
  • Identifies and recommends budget shifts as campaign is in‑flight where appropriate.

Life at WPP Media & Benefits

WPP Media is an equal‑opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. The role is UK based and requires the right to work in the UK. WPP Media offers a comprehensive benefits package including competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision and dental insurance, significant paid time off, partner discounts and mental health awareness days.

Legal Notice

Please note this is a UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location. Our privacy policy can be found on our website.