Comms Planning Director - Hiring

INTRODUCTION TO CRAFT

Craft Media London launched in 2018 with the intention of filling the strategic hole that exists between media and creative agencies. We focus solely on communication strategy plugging into the planning teams at creative agencies or clients directly to help determine exactly what comms needs to do in order to meet business objectives. We had noticed (and don’t tell them this….) that creative agency planning wasn’t business rigorous enough so ideas were just that, ideas. And media agencies were overly focused on the commercial numbers which resulted in bland planning with no creative leap. So, we sit in the middle, acting as an interpreter and ensuring that we deliver campaigns that are both effective and efficient.

We are a small specialist strategic agency. This is important as it means that we can get to the answer faster than most agency teams. It means that we don’t have to send a squad of people to a meeting each with their own areas of expertise. We can give you an immediate point of view based on years of experience rather than waiting for a piece of analysis to be done. It also means that we absolutely know our stuff. We have a reputation as the Crafty team who get to grips with complicated comms challenges, give creative agencies an opportunity to create great and different work and who play nicely alongside every partner.

If media buying is needed, we have a relationship with all the independent agencies (and some of the networks) which we partner with to provide this specialist. 

Craft provides strategic direction and planning and we help clients identify the right agency for them and they would focus on delivery/buying.

The CRAFT Founders

Jen Jones

Jen is the co-founder of Craft. She has over 25 years’ experience in media agencies in London and globally, including Mindshare, PHD, & Maxus 

During her career, she has been nominated for and won various Media Week and Campaign awards and has been named one of Campaign’s Top 10 Planners in the UK for the last 7 years. She is a regular speaker at industry events and is never short of a point of view on the world of comms.

She regularly judges at industry events including Cannes Media Lions, Campaign & Media Week awards, D&AD, APG & YouTube Effectiveness. 

Sally Weavers

Sally is the co-founder of Craft. She has over 30 years’ experience in the industry and has worked for agencies covering the full range of communication disciplines: creative (JWT/WCRS), brand (Branded) and media (Vizeum, UM, Initiative).  

Sally is a member of WACL: a network of the most senior women in the 

communications industry, sits on the Facebook Client Council, is a long-term tutor for the Ad Association’s Media Business Course, a Campaign Top    10 planner and a regular judge on industry awards panels.

Her career highlights include launching the new MINI for BMW, rattling the directory enquiries market with 118 118, helping Tesco through some significant challenges and bringing Amazon Alexa to the UK. 

Small but mighty

We are small but have already started to make our mark, working with startups like Smol and Ruggable, through to established brands which needed some strategic love – like Fever Tree, Selfridges, Wagamama & Interflora through to the biggest brands on the globe – Deloitte, Twinings & BT for business.

We never know what the next brief might be….

Communications Planning Director

The three core areas of responsibility for the Comms Planning Director are:

• Development of your team; set the space to develop the Planning Managers so they can take on more planning & client responsibility.

• You are the client and account lead; it is your responsibility to establish and develop strong client relationships and ensure that we have positive and productive relationships with all of our agency partners.

• Set the standard for our planning; working alongside the Strategy team to ensure that brilliant strategy culminates in innovative and effective communications plans.

The Crafty Planning Team:

At Craft we have the ambition of becoming the best planning team in the UK. It’s a big ambition that we will judge by our ratio of awards to staff numbers versus other agencies.

Our mindset can be summarised as ‘Taking one step further’. This doesn’t mean pushing every part of every plan and spending 1000 years to get to an answer. It means finding an opportunity to make at least one part of the plan better than it would have been, every time. 

There are three key behaviours supporting our mindset, by making these a part of our day to day, we produce world class campaigns:

• We build around micro-insights: Whilst the big game changing sledgehammer insights are important, we don’t stop there. We keep investigating to find ‘micro’ insights that may affect how we execute a plan, and weave these throughout.

• We are audience obsessives: We identify interesting target audiences, avoid lazy demographic platitudes and use a diverse range of data sources to complete our understanding. Then we bring them to life through brilliant storytelling.

• We foster a culture of creativity: We reject the notion that creativity is something people either have or they don’t. We use a number of techniques to come up with ideas that get campaigns truly noticed.

Key requirements:

You should have a strong planning background with the ability to translate a communications strategy into a media planning recommendation, considering best formats, weighting, flighting and activation tactics to deliver against core objectives of a campaign.

You should have a solid understanding of all media touchpoints and be able to define the tasks for media and content, develop channel roles and investment priorities based around tasks.

You should consider the role of non-Paid media channels in your response for your client - stretching your thinking into Owned, Earned and Shared comms.

Team:You should have a high level of enthusiasm; care about the business and want to make a difference. The Comms Planning Director should develop the team & lead with confidence.

• Ensure the Planning Managers have space & opportunities to lead client projects.

• Build time to demonstrate the application of media strategy & the bridge into a media plan.

• Develop & master the ability to manage upwards. 

Clients:

Relationships are paramount to this role, and you should find joy in your ability to build and maintain strong client and agency relationships. You should be the central point of contact for your clients.

• Integrate into your client’s team; establish & develop close client relationships built on trust. 

• Effectively communicate & preempt potential issues. 

• Run (agree with clients) the process for campaign planning. 

• Build out your network within your clients business. 

Planning:

You should be comfortable thinking beyond paid media (make recommendations on owned, earned and shared) and have a point of view on creative. It is the responsibility of the Comms Planning Director to ensure effectiveness (e.g. econometrics and brand-health modelling) is appropriately embedded in our work.

• Ensure our work demonstrates Crafty planning. Support the Business Director /Strategic Business Consultants / Comms Strategists to deliver best-in-class media solutions for your clients.

• Lead on media strategy: translating comms frameworks into planning principles

• Overseeing relationships with buying agencies (where relevant) and the media implementation process. 

• Speed of thought (use experience to get to the answer quicker). 

• Master of planning & insight tools (inc media owner network). 

• Lead core-client RTBs. 

• Championing our culture of open, honest and respectful feedback.

Experience

4-7 years of experience within a media / communications agency.

Measure of success

This role will be judged against the specific delivery of the outlined tasks

By 360 degree feedback from key client personnel

From 360 degree feedback from Craft

From 360 degree feedback from Media Agency key contacts.

Area of special interest

• All members of Craft take on an area of special interest / media owner with the media landscape.

• You should endeavour to build relationships with the key media owner(s), to be kept abreast of new developments and technology.

• You should contact trade bodies and work closely with our media buyers to ensure we fully understand the media planning tools and systems that are used.

• We should look for new ways to leverage insights from your area and apply it to our work.

• If there are training courses, or conferences you would like to attend you can apply for funding.

• You should spread your knowledge around the wider Craft team.

• You should champion the sharing of knowledge in your area across Slack and also Google Drives.

Process

• Send CV & note summarising why you would like to work at Craft to Jen@craftmedia.london

• Shortlist invited to have a 30 min chat with one of the Partners

• Shortlist will be given a short brief to demonstrating your thinking style

• Present to Hiring Manager & Founders

• Final Selection

Timing

It is important we find the right person for this role so we are not putting time pressure on needing this to be filled by a date. We would rather give ourselves time to find the right person.

Salary bracket & benefits

This Role would be offered starting at £50k+ depending on experience

You would be eligible for the Craft Pension, AXA health cover, life Insurance and the company bonus scheme.

IT and equipment

You will be provided with an Apple Laptop, additional accessories required will be supplied on request.

We work primarily on Google Drive, with Slack, we also provide Office 365 to enable better collaboration with some clients and agencies. 

We stay in contact across email, Slack and Whatsapp depending on type of project, account and other stakeholder involved. 

You will provide your own mobile phone, of which 75% of the bill can be expensed monthly back to Craft.

We are supported by an IT contractor for any issues.

Working hours, flexibility and holiday

Craft works a flexible working policy

We are all in office on Thursdays

Our working hours are 9.00am - 5.30pm

We then expect in a normal week Craft staff come into the office 3+ times or more. 

This is not mandated and you can speak to your line manager about what working style is best for the task you are working on.

We believe in hiring grown-ups and trusting you, but we ask you to think about: ‘What working pattern is best for me?” as well as ‘What working pattern is best for my team?’

We operate a right to disconnect policy ensuring clarity in the break between work and personal life is clear and transparent for all staff.

You are entitled to 28 days annual leave a year, 3 of which are taken between Christmas & New Year.

Work from Anywhere (WFA)

We offer 1 week (5 working days) a year where you can work from anywhere. 

You need to ensure your hours are shifted or co-ordinated with your team to ensure all client needs & team needs can be accommodated.

It is your responsibility to ensure WiFi is adequate for work requirements.

Please note that we allow working from a parent or family member’s house and don’t count this towards your WFA allowance. Working from a parent or family member’s house should only ever be for one or two days, you should still be in the office three to five days a week. If you’re travelling to a family home, please do this in the evening after work and not during the working day. This need not count as WFA.

If your parents live abroad, your working time should align to the standard GMT working hours.

Diversity

We actively encourage applications from those with diverse backgrounds.