Planning Director

Role Summary and Impact

Following a highly competitive pitch in Q4 2025, Reckitt consolidated its European media business with WPP. This was a major, high-profile win for WPP, and we are looking for a Planning Director to join the Reckitt central strategy and planning team at WPP Media. This team will act as the guardians of effective, industry leading strategic planning for Reckitt’s portfolio of brands across four categories; Self Care, Intimate Wellness, Germ Protection, and Household. We will be working closely with Reckitt’s central media, comms and strategy teams to look forward, push boundaries, deliver inspiration and have a positive impact on consumers and brands.

Responsibilities

Strategic planning craft

• Develop an advanced understanding of comms ecosystems and habitats, and planning best practices.
• Create central, multi-market planning recommendations with clear implications and direction for regional and market-specific media planning.
• Build expertise in a broad set of relevant internal tools and agents, as well as external tools, to develop a deep understanding of the consumer, the client’s business, and specific growth opportunities within. Getting hands on with tools, agents and data, to provide analysis and insight which supports and informs central strategy development, will be central to the role.
• Have a strong, clear and informed POV of the media landscape and marketplace, including relevant trends for Reckitt’s audiences and categories, with implications for planning and activation.
• Working closely with central category strategy leads, to translate central strategic recommendations into tangible, actionable and specific media guidance to markets – balancing strategic direction with tangible planning implications will be key.

Comms planning and storytelling

• Own planning presentations including defining the inputs needed, and work with the wider team across multiple disciplines (eg strategy, social, influencer, commerce, analytics, insight) to develop empirical, evidence-based planning recommendations.
• Problem-solve both independently and collaboratively, demonstrating intellectual curiosity to interrogate and understand data in order to unlock valuable insights.
• Demonstrate how strategic planning direction can be translated into tangible media and comms ideas and channel-level activations, with actionable examples to inspire and inform regional/local market plan development.

Collaboration and effective communication

• Partner with Reckitt internal comms strategy team, to deliver rigorous, data-led planning guidance.
• Work closely with key Reckitt stakeholders in multiple disciplines, and external partners (such as creative agencies), to get central planning buy-in, and to shape/inform creative asset development and requirements.
• Work hand-in-hand with WPP Media central client leads to provide oversight and governance of local market planning responses, providing clear, actionable and specific media direction to ensure local/in-market planning is reflective of central strategy.
• Challenge (in a positive manner) and ‘stick with the fight’ to ensure that planning recommendations are delivered as designed, with effectiveness and business impact paramount.
• Demonstrate flexibility and agility to work positively and productively with different people in different roles/disciplines/organisations.
• Build and maintain strong client relationships; become a valued and valuable member of the Reckitt client/agency team!

Skills and Experience

• Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity.
• Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust.
• Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise.
• Practice Area Knowledge –Advanced- Develops breadth and depth of industry understanding. Becomes confident using tools, technology, techniques and systems and is able to train others.
• Comfortable presenting both direct from platform (ie WPP Open) and developing a story from data but delivered outside of platform.
• Can confidently answer client questions and liaise with internal teams on best solutions to use.
• Problem Solving – Skilled - Uses critical questioning and maintains a broad perspective when analyzing information to gain a deeper understanding of the problem and wider impact. Quickly generates appropriate solutions informed by previous experience. Understands how to resolve escalated issues and supports others to problem solve. Supports or leads troubleshooting communication for issues.
• Stakeholder Relationships – Skilled - Has an expert knowledge of client and agency structures. Can identify key decision makers and understands their perspectives which is used to build relationships. Has strong knowledge of the client sector/industry which is shared to build strategies and plans. Identifies strategic issues and raises questions to help stakeholders explore and understand their wider business challenges. Can easily suggest business solutions to match client/stakeholder needs and achieve objectives.
• Effective Communication -Advanced- Leads the delivery of relevant and accurate information to drive maximum impact. Consistently delivers communications to influence and educate all levels of seniority, appropriately judging the demands of the situation. Creatively develops presentations and comms to help with the understanding/education of complex information. Guides others on the best practices and approaches for creating clear, concise and organized communication materials to convey plans in a user-friendly way.
• Compelling Storytelling – Skilled - Applies big picture thinking in work and proactively leverages an understanding of the organization and key industry trends. Understand the different elements of responses. Designs differentiated communications (content focus, style, presentation etc) for various internal and external audiences.
• Idea Creation – Advanced - Lead new projects/activities that can create ideas to deliver effective solutions to clients business objectives. Ability to proactively generate ideas to provoke and deliver against broader business strategies. Coaches other to gain new insights and view opportunities from different perspectives. Championing an environment that fosters innovation by encouraging others to openly share and build on new ideas, products and solutions.
• Comms Planning – Advanced - Applies knowledge of client, audience, channel, market and category to effectively deliver compelling multi-media plans. Translates learnings and trends to create marketing communication strategies that are effective with clear measurement. Application of purchase journey thinking and visualization of how the media plan works channels. Translation of strategic direction/platform/provocation into directional role for media, channel role and behaviour in channel. Identifies and recommends budget shifts as campaign is in-flight where appropriate.

Life at WPP Media & Benefits

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include 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 particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

Please note this is a UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location.

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