Senior Associate Director - Planning

About WPP Media

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth. 

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com .

1343 - Senior Associate Director, Planning

About WPP Media

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 EssenceMediacom: A Leading WPP Media Brand

EssenceMediacom is a new breed of media agency. Grounded in analytics & insights and powered by data & technology, we believe in the power of media and creative to drive breakthroughs for the world’s best brands. We help clients understand the modern marketing paradox and discover the breakthroughs brands need to win with their consumers. We are designed for the new communications economy — built on data & technology, built for people & algorithms, built around diverse schools of thought, built to test & learn at scale, and, crucially, built to evolve.

Role Summary and Impact

We are looking for a brilliant Senior Associate Director to join the Suntory team. In this role, you will be one of the day-to-day leads across Suntory’s portfolio, with a primary focus on Lucozade – one of the most dynamic and culturally relevant brands in the UK, alongside two fast-growing Alcohol Ready-To-Drink brands: -196 and La Casera.

You will help drive forward ambitious, insight-led media planning across the account. You will play a key role in shaping clear, effective strategies grounded in audience understanding, cultural relevance, and performance, ensuring work is both commercially strong and creatively exciting. This is a high-profile, dynamic account with significant momentum, building towards Suntory’s centenary year in 2027.

The successful candidate will bring strong planning credentials, excellent client and team management skills, and a confident understanding of how to plan and optimise across multiple channels to deliver impact. You will be energised by pushing the account forward and passionate about delivering best-in-class work on one of the most exciting portfolios in the industry.

Responsibilities of the role:

• Oversee the day-to-day running of the account, ensuring flow and accuracy of work – ensure the campaign management process follows best practice, you are across all communications and establish yourself as the first port of call for clients.
• Build a strong relationship with your clients and become a trusted strategic partner – showing a deep understanding of your clients’ business and how communications can drive growth.
• Be a confident and competent communications planner who demonstrates a thorough understanding of our Systems Planning approach, while leading our planning responses from start to finish, ensuring we have a seamless working process with the implementational and specialist teams
• Grow your understanding of digital, data, and marketing technology - work closely with the Digital Implementation team to ensure growth and innovation is weaved into our planning.
• Strong understanding of your clients’ business & KPIs and how we are remunerated across the account
• Contribute to the commercial targets set for your business group by proactively identifying and pursuing additional services opportunities on your clients.
• Promote your team’s brilliant work, both within EssenceMediacom and beyond.
• Actively participate in and contribute to agency wide initiatives (i.e., huddles, stretches, pitches, etc).

Skills and Experience

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 .

• Strong management and client relationship skills
• People management skills to support AD in the management and development of Planners and Execs
• Solution focused mindset
• Enthusiasm, curiosity, and a team player mentality
• Self-motivated; an ambition to make the ordinary extraordinary
• A thirst to learn – be that the client’s business, people, brands, industry, trends etc
• An ability to prioritise and delegate, as well as manage both up and down
• Empathetic and self-aware
• Motivated to drive business results for both client & EssenceMediacom
• Positive, proactive approach to problem solving
• Calm under pressure
• Accurate verbal and written feedback and instructions

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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