Planning Director

Location – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia


Orchestrate all brand planning, strategic planning and analytical activity for all accounts within the agency. Ensure all deliverables required from the group, internally and externally, are met in an efficient and timely manner. Identify opportunities to constantly improve the quality of thinking applied to client business.



Role and responsibilities

Lead an integrated group of market insights and junior planner(s) in the delivery of all requirements to support the growth and development of all client business.
Ensure strong collaborative relationships within the agency network and externally with key agency and client partners to consistently elevate the quality of thinking and ideas applied to the client business
Work with the design and implementation of research as a tool that can be used to help generate insight, devise strategy, and evaluate the consumer relevance of the creative work.
Oversee and complete all administrative and research responsibilities required:
Write dynamite creative briefs that are useful and inspirational to the creative team. Brief the creative teams.
Translate consumer insight into actionable brand ideas and steward the idea- brief to execution- through the creative process.
Translate consumer insight into actionable brand ideas and steward the idea- brief to execution- through the creative process.
Lead the integrated insights and strategic planning group in a way consistent with the agency’s goal of bringing a strong analytical foundation
Develop and implement standardized strategic planning tools to foster consistency over time and across projects, continuously enhancing the process through specific planning tools as well as syndicated or proprietary databases that enhance the level of thinking and insight injected into the entire process.
Actively grow the abilities and skill of the department members through formal training programs, mentorship and hands on learning.
Spearheading the design of meaningful communications experiences for their Client business. This includes:
Building the talent, tools, and best practices to leverage insights into powerful communications strategies and ideas.
Pro-actively working with Clients, Internal team members, and other agency partners to drive towards ideas that are strategically powerful, as well as creative, innovative and measurable.

Requirements and Competencies


The Planning Director should embody these values focusing on providing key strategic insights for our big-brand clients. Central to this is the responsibility of developing brand growth strategies across the agency, and mentoring team members in Account Planning.
The incumbent will interact with and analyse existing data, which might consist of: published market reports, distribution data, usage and attitude surveys, and awareness tracking studies, advertising research in order to support strategic and creative ideas.
Actively support new business activity where required.


Qualifications


Bachelor’s Degree; degree or concentration in Advertising, Marketing, Social Sciences (Anthropology/Sociology/Psychology) preferred. Graduate Study/degree a plus.
9+ years of related work experience in advertising
Experience in consumer/market research, exploring human behaviour, anthropology/psychology/sociology, and advertising/marketing/media.
Demonstrated business acumen and a track record of success
Strong and proven strategic skills and the ability to apply them in the development of marketing/communications solutions.
Strong understanding of and ability to work with both qualitative and quantitative data
Makes the complex seem simple by using intelligence, natural intuition, research and data in partnership with colleagues across the agency
Experience conducting focus groups. Track record of developing deep consumer understandings, strategic insights, and innovative ideas for brands.