Associate Director, Comms Planning

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MOST CREATIVE MEDIA AGENCY NETWORK | 11 TIMES IN A ROW BY THE GUNN REPORT ADWEEK’S GLOBAL MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR 2019 & 2020 OMD USA is a proud part of the global OMD network. In the US, we have 2,250+ people across 9 offices, dedicated to delivering insights that unlock demand potential, ideas that ignite consumer desire and results that accelerate business growth for our clients. We are a dynamic, creative and influential agency network that collectively combines to make OMD the most awarded agency network in the world.

OMD is seeking an Associate Director, Comms Planning to help shape how a leading brand connects with consumers through media. You will translate business priorities, audience understanding and brand strategy into communications plans that build relevance, strengthen consideration and support business growth.

Working with OMD Strategy leadership, you will lead day-to-day comms planning across assigned workstreams on a high-profile, fast-moving account. This is a hands-on role for someone who can develop a clear point of view, bring teams together and move work from insight to recommendation to activation. You will connect OMD’s strategy, planning, Data Strategy, analytics and Investment teams with the client and its integrated agency team.

Responsibilities

Develop audience-led communications plans

• Translate client briefs into clear business and communications objectives, priority audiences and the changes in perception or behavior media needs to drive.

• Combine consumer, category, competitive and cultural insight to identify opportunities for the client. Show how the brand’s positioning should influence where, when and how it appears in media.

• Develop communications frameworks that define channel roles, messaging context, sequencing, timing and investment priorities across brand and performance activity.

Connect audience insight and data to activation

• Partner with Data Strategy and client teams to translate audience segmentation, personas and customer journeys into usable planning and activation choices.
• Use Omni and relevant first-party, syndicated, platform and qualitative research to develop recommendations. Brief specialists on the questions to answer and interpret the findings for planning.
• Work with Data Strategy and activation teams to assess audience scale, addressability, overlap and data limitations. Ensure strategic audiences can be reached in practice and that data use follows client and agency requirements.

Partner with Investment and the integrated agency team

• Engage Investment early to shape achievable recommendations, balancing audience fit, reach, frequency, cost, timing and partner capabilities.

• Write clear briefs for Investment and activation teams, with audience priorities, channel roles, desired outcomes and criteria for evaluating partner responses. Resolve gaps between strategic intent and proposed execution.

• Collaborate with creative, social, sponsorship and other agency partners to connect paid media with the wider communications plan. Evaluate cultural, sports and partnership opportunities against the client’s objectives and brand fit.

Move work forward and build client confidence

• Own assigned workstreams from brief through recommendation and activation handoff. Set priorities, coordinate inputs and deadlines, and keep decisions and next steps clear across teams.

• Respond to changing briefs and tight timelines with sound judgment. Develop a recommendation with the evidence available, make assumptions explicit and escalate material risks with proposed solutions.

• Present clear, persuasive recommendations to clients and internal teams. Challenge assumptions constructively and turn discussions into decisions and agreed actions.

Build learning into planning

• Partner with analytics and Investment to define success measures and a focused learning agenda before activation, linking communications objectives to brand and business outcomes.

• Translate campaign results, audience findings and market developments into specific recommendations for optimization and future planning. Develop test opportunities with clear hypotheses and decision criteria.

Raise the quality of the team’s work

• Coach junior colleagues, delegate clearly and review work for accuracy, strategic logic and readiness for client discussion. Support direct-report development as the team structure evolves.

• Bring relevant media, technology and cultural developments into the team’s thinking. Share useful learning and turn promising ideas into practical opportunities for the client.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of relevant experience in communications planning, media strategy, integrated media planning or audience strategy, ideally within an agency.

• Experience leading planning workstreams on a complex account and turning business objectives into recommendations that teams can activate.

• Strong understanding of audience research, segmentation and customer journeys, with the ability to interpret quantitative and qualitative evidence and work effectively with data specialists.

• Broad knowledge of video, social, digital, audio, out-of-home and partnerships, including how channels work together across brand building and demand generation.

• Demonstrated partnership with Investment or activation teams, including briefing, evaluating proposals and navigating delivery constraints.

• Strong storytelling, presentation and client relationship skills, with the confidence to make and defend a recommendation.

• Proven ability to manage competing priorities, work independently and maintain quality in a fast-moving environment. Experience coaching or supervising junior colleagues.

• Proficiency in presentation and analysis tools and familiarity with audience and media research platforms. Omni experience is helpful; ability to learn new tools is essential.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience. Insurance or financial services experience is helpful but not essential.

#LI-LW3

$70k-$125k

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