SVP, Strategy

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. For more information, visit wpp.com.

WPP Media is WPP’s global media collective. In a world where media is everywhere and in everything, we bring the best platform, people, and partners together to create limitless opportunities for growth. For more information, visit wppmedia.com

About WPP 650

Join an award-winning team at the heart of UK government, where your work will genuinely shape lives. As part of WPP650 you’ll be part of a supportive, collaborative environment that values curiosity, kindness, and growth. Together, we use behaviour change principles to design smarter services, influence better decisions, and help millions of people across the country.

Named WPP 650, after the 650 UK constituencies, the name is a reminder that our work must reflect the full breadth of the country, every community, every audience. No two days are the same. The challenges are complex, the problems worth solving, and the learning constant. You’ll tackle issues that matter, alongside talented colleagues who care deeply about what they do. It’s demanding – but always rewarding.

This is meaningful work with real-world impact – the kind you can point to with pride.

Role Summary and Impact

As our new SVP – Strategy, your leadership, strategic nous and creative thinking will play a pivotal role in defining the future of WPP650, ensuring our ambitions, priorities and long-term plans translate into meaningful outcomes for the 650 constituents.

This senior leadership role is instrumental in designing and implementing the communications strategy and planning capabilities that underpin our work with the Government. Responsible for uniting and guiding a talented team of strategists and planners, you will drive innovation in our planning methodologies, help develop new tools, and build robust platforms to ensure we consistently deliver outstanding and always improving client outcomes.

Working closely with Client Leadership, Planning and Operations, you’ll play a pivotal role in coordinating clients’ strategic priorities with budgets, KPIs and delivery plans.

This role works closely with colleagues in Choreograph Product and Choreograph Services to ensure tight integration between the builders and users of OMS. You’ll also engage with other senior strategists across the wider WPP network as we build increasingly tight and seamless connections across our capabilities, housed inside OMS.

Skills and Experiences

At WPP Media, we believe in the power of our culture and our people. It’s what elevates us to deliver exceptional experiences for both our clients and each other. In this role it will be critical to embrace WPP & WPP Media’s shared core values:

• Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity.
• Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust.
• Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise.
• Creates strategic recommendations for clients to address long-term category challenges in complex landscapes (e.g. 3-year strategy)
• Contributes to the WPP650 strategic vision and narrative
• Help develop and embed the strategic vision among senior stakeholders on client side and within industry
• Anticipates external factors– both macro and micro – which may demand a change in approach
• Identifies solutions that will work in practice, coupling innovative thinking with considered risk taking and pragmatism
• Can proactively identify potential areas of success for clients outside of campaign briefs
• Can objectively challenge team and specialist colleagues\’ analysis, mediating diverse opinions and inputs.
• Supplies a wider perspective when reviewing overall content and quality, ensuring excellence of written material.
• Presents with impact and leads discussions at senior levels
• Delivers presentations to wide-ranging high-level audiences in both client and industry settings
• Sets a standard of behaviours and ensures their adoption by the wider team
• Develops a consultative, trusted relationship with senior/ C-Suite clients with a focus on transformation needs and future growth plans
• Serves as an escalation point for major issues and leads with clear and incisive judgement
• Understands P&L for strategic resource allocation and advises on necessary adjustments to enhance profitability
• Strategy Experience: With knowledge and experience of working with the government or on similar work
• Client Work: Ability to partner with clients at C-suite level and partner agency stakeholders to be their confidante and drive brand growth outside of just briefs. Be quality control check for all presentations and workshops with client. Actively prospect, as well as drive commercial opportunities for growth on the client – i.e. Audience research, effectiveness, etc.
• Thought leadership: Drive WPP650 reputation as being the most provocative thinking agency in the UK. Develop innovative thinking and approaches to the big topics of the industry, spearheading the thought leadership that comes out of the agency, ensuring it is provocative and distinctive.
• Agency: Be an ambassador for strategic excellence. Drive a culture of curiosity and push for the best thinking and creativity, through bringing in best class examples for the team to grow, as well as initiatives, processes, etc. to harness the best thinking and creativity.
• Team: Lead the team to become a department of strategic excellence, recognised within the industry for sharp, provocative thinking that clients clamour for.
• Storytelling & Persuasion – The ability to develop a compelling narrative and use multiple storytelling techniques to sell in a strategy, idea, media argument, etc, whether from scratch, or taking the existing components from teams and building a compelling and exciting red thread from end to end.
• Marketing & Media Industry Theory and Thinking – the Science: having knowledge and understanding of the core Media and broader Marketing principles as well as the key literature and thinking that guides the best practices in Media and Communications
• Creativity – The Art: The ability to weave creativity into every aspect – whether it’s thinking differently about a problem, bringing new combinations of data, insight or even media formats together, and pushing the boundaries of the thinking and the ideas to take brands to a new place
• Critical Thinking: The objective analysis and evaluation of a business, media or human challenge in order to identify insights and form a point of view
• Leadership: the ability to lead a team of strategists, known to be individual thinkers, as well as lead across disciplines, collaborating with different department heads and agency leaders to push excellence and innovation within the agency.

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.

Please note this is a UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location

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Demographic Questions (UK)

At WPP Media we are committed to building a business and culture that is inclusive, and we believe that having a workforce that represents the society we live in is key to our success.

As part of this commitment, we have created this voluntary survey to include the collection and analysis of diversity data across our recruitment.

The following questions do not form part of your application, are completely optional and are not shared with our hiring teams, but we would be grateful if you would complete them to help us monitor fairness and equality across our recruitment process.