Senior Planner
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About EssenceMediaCom: People First, Better Results
People First, Better Results articulates our belief that an agency is only as good as the people behind the name. We believe that our people are truly what differentiate us as an agency. It is they who drive the success of the company, attracting clients who want to work with the smartest, most motivated people possible. Because we believe in the power of our employees to build our business, we aim to work in a way that recognises this; creating a culture and working environment that is exciting, stimulating and challenging.
EssenceMediaCom is one of the world’s largest and most successful media networks with 7,000 people working in 125 offices in 100 countries. Our people and our culture are vital to our continued success. Like every company, we look to find the best people for the job. However, it doesn’t end with finding the best talent. We spend considerable time and funding ensuring that our people are motivated, have the best training and advancement opportunities and understand their clients’ businesses. We believe that by putting our People First, we deliver Better Results for our clients.
At EssenceMediaCom opportunities are endless. We invest in our people to promote them from within, work to nurture and help them develop and set up necessary succession plans so they do not feel stuck in their role. With so many different clients and many lines of expertise within the agency, it is possible to advance within one’s team or move onto grow in another team. Many trainings and experiences are made available to who challenge themselves and thrive to grow.
During these difficult times across the globe, we take pride in our connections and support for each other; whether you need a working environment and prefer to go into the office or stay home as you feel safer to work from home, our current arrangements make it possible for our people to choose what suits them best. We support team members with daily check-ins and weekly fun activities we put in place, never let go of the power of belonging with their team at EssenceMediaCom.
About Mars
Having been appointed in 2018 as their sole planning and buying agency, MARS are EssenceMediaCom’s biggest client Globally, with a total ad spend of just over $1Bn across 3 core segments: Confectionary, Pet, and Food. Our brief in 2018 was to help them drive transformation across marketing and media.
Marketing transformation for MARS means sustainable growth by ensuring every brand interaction creates shared value for the people, pets and partners they serve, ensure their brands:
· Thinking is founded in data-driven human insight
· Make content and media choices to be culturally famous and meaningfully personal
· Are purpose driven
About Mars Pet Nutrition
The purpose of this role is to join a centralised worldwide team who run all brands across 4 blueprint markets for MARS Pet Nutrition Europe.
Mars Pet Nutrition boasts some of the world’s best-known Pet food brands – including Pedigree, Whiskas, Sheba, Cesar and Dreamies. Mars Petcare is a significant segment in the overall Mars business, generating a substantial revenue for the company. With a portfolio of pet food brands, they aim to serve against any pet owner’s need for their pets and their mission is to make a better world for pets.
EssenceMediaCom have worked with Mars for many years in many key markets and we have a very strong relationship with them – we work very closely not just with the Mars marketing team but across their business. One of Mars’ key pillars is mutuality which is reflected in the way they work with EssenceMediaCom as the agency partner.
We are very proud of the work we have done with Mars in driving growth for their brands and this has been recognised with a host of awards - including Media Week, Campaign and Cannes. We believe these awards are a testament to how closely we work with Mars and our integrated approach, both within EssenceMediaCom and working in partnership with other agencies.
In December 2014, EssenceMediaCom secured the Mars planning business across all segments and in all markets. We followed this by consolidating both planning and buying as of January 2019.
The account win represents a step change in their approach to media planning & execution which EssenceMediaCom is driving the agenda for.
Role Description Global Senior Planner
This role is to work on Mars Pet Nutrition Europe on a Central Deployment Team (CDT) for 8+ Mars Petcare brands across 4 markets (UK/FR/DE/PL).
CDT team’s main role is to work with EssenceMediaCom European Brand Leads who define the strategy for the brands, craft this into an appropriate media plan for each of our markets and deliver that brief to the local investment teams for deployment, supporting them in seeing that through to successful execution.
A key client facing position that requires;
- Strong relationships and communication skills
- A communications planner who has experience across all media channels, particularly TV/Online Video which is a key growth driver for the Mars business along with strong digital focus.
- Coms planning experience and strategic thinking capability: the candidate should be motivated by creating smart and forward thinking connected digital communications plans to help solve problems.
- Skills to ensure global strategic guidelines are appropriately applied in local plans, while local nuances are reflected across plans.
The Senior Planner will have direct client contact and is responsible for working coordination with other Sr. Planners & team Exec. The Senior Planners report into the Global Manager and work closely with SPOC for Buying Teams on the planning processes from brief to execution to reporting for the clients in each market.
Highlights of the Role
· Be part of the European Mega Pet Care Team within the biggest client team at EssenceMediaCom
· Work across the blueprint markets and gain experience on cross-market portfolio management
· Work on brand communications gapping the bridge between strategists and local media implementation experts & our partner digital agency Essence and expand your experience across both strategic and tactical media
· Opportunity to work cross-channel, both ATL and digital.
· Be part of the digital transformation MARS are undergoing – learn more on the value of paid media by use of data, precision, working through the pet owner journey across different objectives and different channels/vendors
· As part of the global team, have access to learning and growth opportunities delivered through trainings and on the job experience such as workshops and pitches
· As part of the wider MARS team have access to opportunity for growth and invest in yourself towards your career goals
· Have leadership that mentors/coaches to help you ask the right questions and choose the right path in your journey
· Be part of a flexible, fun team that rely on High Support, High Demand principles; we trust each other, support each other and as a result, expect brilliant performance
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Key Tasks
Client Management
Client Management
· Participate in calls and meetings with clients to understand their business, and discuss performance and future strategies
- Support the creation of rationale for a media plan, any optimisation decisions, and their outcomes
- Support in delivery of reports, post-campaign analysis and insights
Media Planning
· Review brief and strategic guidance from the client and with the AD and Manager translate it into an implementational media plan
· Work with AD/Manager to research audience, media touchpoints and source of growth opportunities
· Interrogate historic performance data (where available) to determine or optimise the existing opportunity and key variables which might improve the effectiveness of our media plan.
· Create media plans via planning templates and manage booking sign off
· Carry out research on competitive analysis, audience profiling and market trends and key audience touchpoints
· Access key 1st/3rd party data to maximise insight and targeting strategy
· Work with local media specialists to create media plan which contains core KPIs linked to business objectives, with a “test and learn” strategy in place
· Meet regularly with (offline and online) publishers and digital partners to discuss the brief and generate relevant and innovative ideas, understand available tactics, e.g. use of data, technology, creative and trading techniques to drive volume and efficiency
· Provide media specialists in market with their brief – budget, audience, phasing, targets and any other relevant information to support their detailed in-channel planning
· Manage output from media specialists – planning; reporting; insight/analysis
Reporting & Optimisation
· Work with the buying teams, and Media Executive to interpret performance data and decide on optimisation opportunities
· Generate key charts/slides which demonstrate performance, test learnings and next steps
· Ensure strong commentary that gives insight and action (not just saying what the result/trend is)
· Deliver regular reconciliation reports where appropriate
Team Management
· Work with and develop the Exec, making sure they understand the targets, media solutions and analysis techniques required to maximise effectiveness of our plans, and we are providing strong media delivery and financial reconciliation
· Manage the media specialists to ensure they are correctly briefed and supported in their scope of work