Planning Executive

Operating Company: GroupM - OpenConnect

Role Title: Planning Executive

Department / Team: GroupM - OpenConnect

Location: London, 1 Southwark Bridge

About GroupM

GroupM is the world’s leading media investment company responsible for more than $45B in annual media investment through agencies including Mindshare, Wavemaker, EssenceMediacom and T&Pm. GroupM creates competitive advantage for advertisers via its worldwide organization of media experts who deliver powerful insights on consumers and media platforms, trading expertise, market leading brand-safe media, technology solutions, addressable TV, content, sports and more.

About OpenConnect

OpenConnect is a bespoke team within GroupM, created to support BT Group in the UK. The team comprises over 100 specialists in media, data, and technology, managing over £150m of media billings for BT Group's consumer and business divisions. It’s a challenging yet fun team to be part of, working with some of the most forward-thinking clients in the industry.

Practice Summary:

Media Planning are experts on the paid media landscape and how consumers interact with it. We architect and steward holistic media plans throughout their lifecycle, owning the creation of overall plans, cross-channel budget allocation, in flight cross-channel optimization & reporting and post-campaign analysis. We are our clients’ key contacts for a unified view across all aspects of their campaigns, narrating the story of the campaign from planning recommendation through to PCA.

Position Summary:

The Planning Executive supports team deliverables across the campaign lifecycle. The Planning Executive will be present in client briefings so that they are clear on the Business and Campaign objectives and how these impact the media challenges at hand. The role will consist of helping to source campaign insight through using both internal and external tools along with working closely with our media partners. Finding insight, deep diving into our core audiences and helping bring the media plan to fruition through adoption of close working relationships with our internal activation teams are all key to success!

The Planning Executive will also develop good working relationships with our creative agencies to ensure assets are produced as per the media plan and supplied on time.

Account Summary:

We are looking for a sharp and enthusiastic Planning Executive to join the Open Connect (EE) teams, working across EE performance campaigns. You would be part of one of GroupM’s flagship accounts working within “Open Connect”, a collective of 100+ experienced cross-media marketing professionals. You will experience the Broadband, Mobile and TV market and help work towards Award Winning campaigns.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities:

• Meet with vendors and attend presentations to build knowledge of the media landscape.
• Support media planning managers to ensure the smooth delivery of campaigns and their performance against agreed outcomes.
• Conduct research and compile data to guide and support planning and optimization recommendations.
• Compile and validate creative specs. Collaborate with creative agency partners to ensure deadlines are met.
• Collaborate with Activation teams to ensure plans are on brief and supplied on time.
• Prepare data for reporting and analysis.
• Assist in the management of Test and Learns for assigned campaigns.
• Contribute to internal case studies for the sharing of learning and best practice.

Competencies (specific knowledge, skills and abilities):

• Basic spreadsheet capability (VLOOKUP, Pivot Table) are a must.
• Able to create presentations, in slides or document format.
• Numerically minded, an interest in pulling actionable insights from media data sets.
• Able to use industry standard media research tools upon training (e.g. Comscore, GWI, TGI, YouGov).
• Sound written and verbal communication skills, with the desire to learn and advance.
• Strong organizational skills, close attention to detail and ability to multi-task.
• Ability to adhere to deadlines.
• Ability to work independently and to collaborate in a team environment.
• Able to recognize when problems could develop and know when to escalate to managers.
• Proven understanding of the media landscape.
• Develop strong relationships with Activation teams to facilitate flawless execution of plans.
• Communicate effectively across all levels of the team and across all practices.

What you can expect from GroupM

GroupM’s mission is to shape a new era of media where advertising works better for people. We do this by employing the world’s very best talent to solve some of the toughest challenges of today’s marketing landscape. It’s important that we hire people whose values reflect those of our own: genuine, results-focused, daring and insightful. As an GroupM employee, we promise you a workplace that invests in your career, cares for you and is fun and engaging. We believe these factors create a workplace where you can be yourself and do amazing work.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, or marital status.

GroupM and all its affiliates embrace and celebrate diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We are a worldwide media agency network that represents global clients. The more inclusive we are, the greater work we can create together.