Director, Planning,UK

3710 - Director, Planning

Role Overview

As Strategy Director for OpenConnect, you will be the driving force behind the strategic comms planning output across BT Group’s complete brand portfolio, spanning consumer powerhouses (EE, BT, Plusnet) and BT Business. Reporting directly to the VP/Head of Strategy & Comms Planning, you will take operational charge of the planning floor, transforming upstream business logic into world-class, insight-led comms strategies that inspire both creative agency partners and senior client marketers.

This role is purpose-built to transform our day-to-day strategic craft. Historically, our challenge has been moving beyond tactical execution, mechanical planning, and dense data slides. Your mandate is to revolutionise our narrative storytelling, unearth genuinely motivating human and cultural insights, and package complex strategies into crisp, executive-ready presentations that command authority.

Sitting at the intersection of media, data, and creative, you will ensure our strategies are not just written, but deployed, partnering seamlessly with creative agencies across the BT Group roster to deliver unified, culture-shaping work.

Key Responsibilities

Elevating the Strategic Output

• Shape the Comms Output: Take direct ownership of the quality, consistency, and rigour of all comms planning deliverables emerging from the planning cohort across EE, BT, Plusnet, and BT Business.
• From Information to Insight: Move the team away from surface-level observations and data dumping. Unearth sharp, tension-led insights (category, cultural, consumer, and company) that unlock unexpected media behaviors.
• Stage 1 Architecture: Translate Stage 0 portfolio growth strategies into clear, actionable comms ecosystems, defining distinct role-for-channel tasks, full-funnel journeys, and Get/To/By frameworks that guide activation.
• The Applied Strategy Mandate: Champion applied discipline over theoretical deck-building. Ensure strategies actively steer media channel choices, investment weights, and creative formats ("If our strategy isn’t actionable, it’s useless").

Executive Packaging & Narrative Storytelling

• Rewriting the Narrative: Radically elevate the standard of strategic storytelling across the team. Replace tactical, jargon-heavy decks with compelling, commercially grounded narratives that captivate marketing directors and executive leaders.
• Executive Packaging: Master the art of the synthesis. Package complex media systems, technical mechanics, and multi-brand nuances into succinct, punchy, C-suite ready narratives that clearly articulate the "So What?".
• Visual & Verbal Clarity: Coach the planning cohort on visual layout, storyline momentum, and presentation delivery, setting a new benchmark for what an OpenConnect strategic deliverable looks and feels like.

Creative Agency Partnership & Ecosystem Integration

• Inter-Agency Roster Leadership: Act as a strategic partner to creative and BT strategists across the BT Group roster. Build collaborative, high-trust working relationships that dismantle agency silos.
• Upstream Creative Collaboration: Where possible, engage early in the creative development cycle to influence ideation, ensuring creative platforms and media channel architectures complement, push, and amplify each other.
• Bridge the Creative/Media Divide: Serve as the connective tissue between creative ambition and media capability, co-developing unified campaign playbooks where media environments make the creative idea unmissable.

Multi-Brand & Enterprise Breadth (Consumer + B2B)

• Consumer Portfolio Rigour: Maintain clear distinction, tone, and strategic guardrails across consumer brands, ensuring EE, BT, and Plusnet execute with distinct roles without internal friction or audience overlap.
• BT Business Acceleration: Partner with the enterprise leads to bring consumer-grade storytelling, behavioural insight, and dynamic comms planning into the B2B space (SMEs, Corporate, and Public Sector).
• Cross-Pollination: Identify shared learnings, testing frameworks, and effectiveness benchmarks across consumer campaigns and adapt them strategically for BT Business.

Team Upskilling

• Arms around the team: Actively mentor, manage, and coach planners in the team, transforming them from reactive brief-takers into proactive strategic partners.
• Support on comms planning culture within the Open Connect team, bringing planners together in weekly council sessions, leading stretch sessions, training etc.
• Embed Best Practice: Institutionalise consistent comms planning toolkits, framing templates, and insight-mining methodologies across the entire account team; get them using the data at our fingertips, always looking beyond TGI! 
• Instill Strategic Confidence: Build a team culture anchored in conviction, strategic bravery, and clear point-of-view, empowering planners to defend ideas and challenge client briefs with commercial intelligence.

Candidate Profile & Qualifications

• Senior Comms Planning clout: Experience in senior Comms Strategy/planning, Connections Planning, or Integrated Strategy roles within top-tier media or creative agencies.
• Master Storyteller: Exceptional ability to distill messy, highly technical, and data-dense inputs into elegant, high-impact stories tailored for CMOs and Marketing Directors.
• Insight Hunter: Demonstrated ability to find provocative, emotionally resonant human truths and cultural tensions that unlock fresh creative media solutions, not just reporting what the data says, but proving why it matters.
• Creative Fluency: Experienced working alongside top creative agency strategy leads, with the diplomacy, creative vocabulary, and collaborative skill to shape work jointly.
• B2C & B2B Versatility: Consumer comms experience combined with the intellectual curiosity and agility to tackle the complex, account-based nuances of BT Business.
• Team Player: Natural mentor who loves developing planners, raising team morale through their positivity, enthusiasm and energy, to support building an environment of strategic excellence.

Life at WPP Media & Benefits

Our passion for shaping the next era of media is powered by our commitment to Be Extraordinary, investing in our employees to inspire transformational creativity. We also Lead Optimistically, firmly believing in and Championing Growth and Development for every individual. This commitment allows WPP Media employees to leverage the extensive global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, build vital professional connections, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. 

We Create an Open environment built on trust and respect, where everyone feels they belong and has opportunities to progress. This inclusive culture is fostered through a variety of employee resource groups and frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our comprehensive benefits package reflects this commitment, including 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 characteristics. We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection in this open and supportive environment. 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. 

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While we appreciate all applications received, only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. 

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