Strategy Director

Key Responsibilities: Strategic Leadership & BEP/IMC Development: Drive the end-to-end development of comprehensive audience and communications strategies for Gold and Silver IMC projects and multi-market brands , ensuring alignment with overall brand objectives, business goals, and our established BEP/IMC development framework . Be a key player in our strategic evolution, actively contributing to the 'Leading' and 'Collaborative' shifts outlined in our 2025 vision, acting as a primary strategic partner to clients and internal teams across WPP. Contribute significantly to the strategic direction of BEP for the EMEA region, guiding its implementation and internal training initiatives. Audience Expertise & Insight Generation: Leverage your deep understanding of consumer behaviour and WPP's resources to drive profound audience understanding through proprietary tools, market research, behavioural data, and cultural insights. Identify key segments, motivations, and journey touchpoints, maintaining and evolving Colgate Audience Catalogue for the Division. Identify sources of growth and translate them into locally relevant audience strategies, advising our Hubs on effective audience activation and enrichment. Oversee the development of critical WPP comms-specific insight work for EMEA, sharing best practices across the network. Communications Frameworks & Ecosystem Orchestration: Develop robust communications architectures and ecosystem maps that define the role of different channels (paid, owned, earned) and content types across the consumer journey, encompassing Colgate’s Brand Experience planning process (touchpoints, roles, formats, KPIs, messaging, destinations). Lead content briefing alongside creative teams and ensure timely delivery of key comms planning elements, including the creation of comms planning ( A ttention C onsideration P urchase L oyalty ) templates, asset lists, and toolkit production . Oversee the integration of division-level initiatives (e.g., Ogilvy social strategy, OAC 1PD workstream) into comprehensive comms plans, ensuring seamless execution. Client & Stakeholder Management: Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to clients, presenting complex strategies with clarity and conviction, fostering strong relationships, and identifying opportunities for growth and innovation. Manage the planning process end-to-end, coordinating crucial internal and external meetings (briefings, check-ins, creative strategy, market alignments), managing timelines, scope, expectations, and writing internal briefs. Ensure market needs are thoroughly accounted for in division comms plans, acting as a key liaison. Integrated Planning & Collaboration: Collaborate seamlessly with your colleagues in media buying, creative, data sciences, analytics, and other specialist teams (e.g., WPPCP creative planners, WPPCP client teams, WPP Media Digital, Audience team, ACE team, Ogilvy ), ensuring strategies are translated into effective and measurable execution within the BEP process. Work closely with Channel specialists, including Retail/eCommerce , to develop integrated, omnichannel strategies and lead WM Hub teams on eCommerce and eRetail strategy. Innovation & Future-Forward Thinking: Stay at the forefront of evolving media landscapes, ad-tech, consumer behaviour shifts, and emerging platforms, proactively integrating new approaches into planning frameworks, specifically championing 'True Innovation' via target test-and-learn approaches. Drive the evolution towards enhanced 'CX' by fostering closer integration of commerce with the ACE team and stronger insight capabilities, leveraging your internal understanding. Contribute to adding innovation and challenging existing approaches in IMC briefs. Team Development & Mentorship: Guide, mentor, and inspire junior planners, fostering a culture of strategic thinking, creativity, and continuous professional development, and actively participating in upskilling brand teams . Performance & Measurement: Define clear KPIs, work with analytics teams to establish measurement frameworks, and contribute to post-campaign analysis to optimize future strategies and demonstrate ROI, including supplying data for MMM analyses for priority/lead markets and brands. Thought Leadership: Contribute to internal and external thought leadership initiatives, sharing best practices, case studies, and insights across the WPP network and industry, including contributing to professional strategy, 1PD, influencer, and special projects . Actively participate in new business pitches, bringing strategic vision and innovative planning approaches to prospective clients. Skills and Experience Experience: Progressive experience in media planning, communications planning, or strategic planning roles, with experience on multi market or global clients Proven track record of developing and leading successful, integrated omnichannel communications strategies for major brands across multiple markets, with a strong emphasis on EMEA. Demonstrated experience in a leadership role (director level), managing and mentoring strategic planning teams. Strong background in digital media planning and strategy, with a solid understanding of traditional media. Direct experience with Brand Ecosystem Planning (BEP) and Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) frameworks is highly desirable. Skills & Knowledge: Expertise in audience segmentation, consumer journey mapping, behavioral economics, and demonstrated proficiency in leveraging WPP's Audience Catalogue and proprietary tools . Proficiency with media planning and research tools (e.g., Comscore, Nielsen, MRI, GWI), with a strong command of WPP proprietary tools like Connect+ (WPP Open) . Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate complex data into actionable insights and compelling narratives. Exceptional presentation and communication skills (written and verbal) with the ability to articulate complex strategies clearly to diverse audiences. Deep un