Planning Manager - Toyota Lexus

Location

Epsom, Surrey | United Kingdom

Job description

Description

Position at mSix&Partners

Who is mSix&Partners

mSix&Partners is one of the fastest growing media network in the world. We have marked the chapters of our expansion with new client relationships: TalkTalk helped us open our doors in the UK, Toyota enabled us to grow into EMEA and EA has strengthened our presence and offering in APAC and North America. Today over 50 offices and spanning 5 continents and this role of Planning Director is key to our continued growth and success

We take our clients and people Further Faster.

As a joint venture between independent agency network The&Partnership and GroupM, backed by WPP, we offer our clients the best of both worlds. Because of this unique structure, we create new operating models that integrate agency functions and often embed our people into our clients’ marketing teams. Our ability to come together with our clients, regardless of whether co-located or working remotely, has proven critical to our success.

The way we behave - Honest, Energetic and Pioneering:

• Honest: we build trusted relationships through openness, focus & clarity
• Energetic: we meet people with warmth & positivity. We say ‘yes, and not ‘yes, but.’
• Pioneering: we drive forwards, looking for new technology, new ideas & new sources of growth. We are driven to look for the next innovation, to meet our clients’ challenges

We are known for delivering great award-winning work for our clients. We have continued to win industry accolades throughout the last year whilst also celebrating our people’s achievements who have also seen individual industry recognition.

We have been awarded the IPA CPD Gold accreditation in the UK for continuous professional development of our people for 3 years in a row, and in 2022 we won the IPA CPD Platinum accreditation alongside a small group of agencies. We have won Campaign’s Best Places to Work 2022, which recognises mSix as one the best employers in our industry, showing our commitment to our culture of learning and our focus on the professional development of all mSixers, in order to become the most important place in their careers. In 2022, we also won Digiday’s Best Workplace in Young People’s Careers. 

Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion commitment:

We are committed to being a diverse, equitable and inclusive agency with the aim to build and retain teams that represent the communities we operate in. Our Global employee-run DEI group, The Collective, are pioneers in delivering and maintaining accountability of these commitments. 

We were the first media agency in the UK to partner with Ambitious about Autism and launch an internship programme designed to actively champion neurodiversity and unlock the potential of young autistic adults. Now in its fourth year, our commitment continues, expanding our already successful internship programme and calling the industry to open their doors and minds to young autistic talent. 

Further to this commitment to pioneering diversity and equality in our business, we welcome people of all backgrounds into our agency. We want our people to bring with them diverse attitudes, opinions and beliefs into a culture where they are treated with respect, can be comfortable being their authentic self and feel like they belong. We are therefore keen to encourage applications from people from all walks of life and we want you to be at your best throughout the recruitment process. Please reach out to us to discuss any specific adjustments, or how we can help you throughout the recruitment process. 

The Role

We are looking for an experienced Planning Manager or ambitious SAE looking for their next role to join us and work within the Toyota & Lexus account team. The Planning Manager is a pivotal role at the heart of our team, working directly with our clients to design and deliver award winning planning and media solutions. This is a fast paced and exciting role and we want someone who can build on this to oversee planning strategies and ideas that inspire both the client and the wider team. 

The Toyota/Lexus account is a key piece of business for the agency and we have now successfully built an in-house team at the client offices in Epsom. The account is 100% integrated with a creative team and includes various specialists to ensure data and insight-led planning is at the heart of what we do. We’ve established a great team with strong feedback, campaign results and award wins. The main creative and media team is based in the Epsom office which means we have a very strong relationship with each other and our client. We sit in the marketing department so that we really do behave like a true extension of their team. Typically, the media planning team will spend 2 days a week in Epsom and 1 - 2 days a week in London at M/Six and The&Partnership offices. An element of flexibility is required to ensure we are available for our clients and work around their business commitments. The Toyota offices are large but welcoming, set within landscaped gardens so that we are surrounded by greenery. We encourage our team to spend time here and, in the M/Six and &Partnership London offices so that everyone gets the benefit of both worlds. 

Toyota is the world’s second biggest global car manufacturer and one of the UK’s leading car brands. Lexus is one of the fastest growing premium brands. These are very exciting clients to work with, with large budgets divided across brand and performance campaigns. Our great past, present and future campaigns include the Lexus Hoverboard, Toyota Hybrid and up-coming Olympics and Lexus RZ campaigns.  We also work on Toyota’s new global mobility brand Kinto which is launching in 2024. 

Toyota and Lexus expect The&Partnership, as their lead agency, to work with them at the very start of the marketing process. This means our briefs begin with business problems, with us inputting on budgeting, portfolio management, strategy, audience insight, and agreeing the most suitable KPIs. Our recommendations are expected to extend wider than just media/creative solutions. We also run the search (paid and organic) activities for Toyota, Lexus (and Kinto) with a fully embedded team.

Role Responsibilities

• Work with and support the Planning Director and Business Director in planning across all channels
• Coach, develop & support the Planning Executive
• Take full ownership of key brands and lead on end-to-end cross-channel media recommendations across several brands, ensuring that it is fuelled by insights/data and tells a clear story - pulling in cross-team and senior support as and when required
• Overseeing relevant outputs (inc. those from the Planning Executive) – ensuring that every document is ruthlessly quality controlled for excellence & is delivered on time (e.g. media recommendations, finance queries, competitor reports etc.)
• Have a very good understanding of client’s business and industry sector, and the challenges facing them
• Keep up to date with industry news so that you have a very good understanding of the media landscape and share with wider team
• Behave like a true extension of the clients’ team and provide a point of contact for clients and manage day-to-day queries
• Attend and present regularly at client meetings on a variety of different topics, with gravitas
• Check Synthesis and media schematics on a monthly basis and ensure all historic campaign spend is reconciled and update Planning Executive with future spend forecasts
• Challenging historic ways of working – ensuring that we continually deliver work that is integrated, commercially sounds, and fit for the modern media landscape
• Maintain good relations with external agencies, internal teams & media owners to build an understanding of what services and products exist
• Raise the profile of the account in the agency by producing, submitting (and talking about publicly) our work
• Ensuring that all financial aspects are accurate and delivered on-time (e.g. reconciliations, payments, billings, financial tracking)
• Support EMEA team with adhoc requests
• Manage reporting requests, working with specialists and other team members to ensure quality and consistency of output
• Have a good knowledge and application of core media tools including AdIntel, TGI, YouGov & MediaExplorer
• Know and articulate our agency vision, behaviours & values
• Feed into the client newsletter and ensure bi-weekly distribution
• Work closely with the creative team and develop an understanding of their tools and processes
• Manage the preparation of competitor spend and audience insights reports
• Manage the creation of post-campaign-analysis reports 

Behaviours Required

• Demonstrates curiosity - Has a drive to make themselves better at what they do and to increase their knowledge. Maintains a detailed topical knowledge of relevant media developments, and actively seeks opportunities to learn. Encourages curiosity in their team.
• Highly Collaborative - Facilitates productive working relationships across the agency and ensure strong professional relationships are formed by the team with creative agencies and media owners.
• Proactivity - Is a self-starter who takes the initiative and develops solutions off their own back with minimal support. Volunteers or creates opportunities to expand their experience and positively impacts those working at m/Six.

Measures of Success

• Client feedback / Client Satisfaction Scores
• Feedback from the team / 360 reviews
• Campaign Effectiveness / Award Winning Work
• Client retention

Job tags

Salary