Planning Lead, MGM Theatrical in London

The Planning Lead serves as the senior leader responsible for the development, quality, and coherence of all international media planning for the MGM theatrical and digital distribution slate. This role leads the global planning hub, translating strategy into clear, actionable media frameworks that scale across regions, and ensuring every market operates from a unified planning spine, channel architecture, and process discipline. The Planning Lead oversees the planning system end-to-end - defining global direction, establishing planning standards, guiding market interpretation, reviewing priority market plans, and ensuring a seamless transition into activation. The role shapes the multi-beat planning approach across early awareness, main campaign, opening weekend and sustain, maintaining strategic coherence and campaign readiness across the entire slate. Acting as the connective bridge across strategy/planning, activation, LA-based portfolio leadership and local markets, the Planning Lead maintains visibility across all titles. The role ensures clarity, consistency, and quality across markets while empowering teams with clear expectations. In a fast-moving theatrical environment, the Planning Lead is accountable for providing the predictability and rigor required for exceptional global execution.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of the planning for each title, including audience architecture, channel roles, pacing, and investment guidance.
• Translate strategic direction into clear, modular frameworks that can be adopted by diverse, local markets.
• Define planning standards, templates, and expectations that ensure consistent global quality.
• Maintain visibility across all planning workstreams and ensure coherence across titles and markets.
• Partner closely with client lead and studio clients to develop incremental recommendations and implement tracking drills at speed.
• Lead the development of filmmaker deliverables in partnership with client lead.

Title Planning & Campaign Architecture

• Lead central planning for each release, ensuring alignment with global strategy, insights, and studio objectives.
• Define the multi-beat planning approach trailer, early awareness, main campaign, opening weekend and sustain.
• Provide clear planning inputs (briefs, guidance, benchmarks, timelines) to markets and activation teams.
• Partner with activation leaders to validate feasibility, resourcing, phasing, and deliverable alignment.
• Anchor measurement inputs and learning agendas within the planning process.
• Recommend first-to-market, betas and exclusive opportunities on relevant platforms.
• Support inspiring local teams through global ideation sessions, connecting actionable ideas to activation teams.

Global-to-Local Orchestration

• Ensure all markets understand what is global, what is local, and where adaptation is expected per title.
• Guide markets through interpretation of the planning spine, providing clarity, support and senior-level direction.
• Conduct targeted reviews of market plans (priority titles, major markets, or escalations) to ensure alignment, quality, and accuracy.
• Ensure planning documentation flows consistently across markets, the hub, and LA teams.
• Lead offline pan regional campaigns, partnering closely with local teams to ensure plans are culturally relevant in market.

Insights, Research & Competitive Intelligence

• Oversee the integration of cultural trends, marketplace data, and competitor intelligence within the planning process.
• Lead creation of audience deep dives for key titles and genres, alongside market landscape reviews and translation into planning implications.
• Partner with analytics to ensure performance learnings inform future planning frameworks.
• Development of internal and competitive film comps.

Collaboration Across Strategy, Activation & Ops

• Partner with Digital Activation Lead and activation teams to ensure plans translate seamlessly into trafficking, QA, pacing, and optimization structures.
• Collaborate with Operations to maintain planning workflows, tool adoption, timelines, deliverable expectations, and quality control checkpoints.
• Ensure cross-functional alignment during key beats (briefing, pre-launch, launch, post-launch).

Leadership of the Planning Pod

• Lead and develop a Hub team of planners across levels, providing coaching, clarity, and direction.
• Establish rigorous quality standards and ensure consistent use of templates, tools, and workflows.
• Support planning resourcing, prioritization, and capacity management in partnership with Ops.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, accountability, and integrated problem-solving.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to enhance the planning model, strengthen global consistency, or improve tools and frameworks.
• Introduce new planning methodologies rooted in platform intelligence, testing, and cross-title learning.
• Embed innovations and best practices into repeatable processes, ensuring scalability across markets.

Qualifications

• Significant global or multi-market media planning experience, ideally in theatrical or high-velocity categories.
• Deep expertise in channel strategy across digital, AV, social, programmatic, OOH, and partnerships.
• Demonstrated ability to lead planning across multiple markets, titles, and timelines simultaneously.
• Strong ability to synthesize insights, simplify complexity, and translate strategy into actionable media plans.
• Experience managing and developing a planning team.
• Strong operational capability and comfort working within structured workflows.

Bonus Points

• Experience working with a studio, distributor, entertainment franchise, or global content pipeline.
• Familiarity with Amazon’s narrative-first culture and leadership principles.
• Experience developing global toolkits or planning playbooks.
• Exposure to WPP Open data environments or advanced planning tools.

Life At WPP Media & Benefits

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in‑office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days. WPP Media is an equal‑opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers. We believe the best work happens when we’re together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That’s why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process. UK based role requires individuals to have the right to work in this location.