Senior Associate, Media Planning, UK

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com.

3783 - Senior Associate, Media Planning, UK

​Tactical Planning & Operational Excellence
End-to-End Media Execution: Drive day-to-end planning tasks, including audience research, media plan matrix management, creative spec collation, trafficking coordination, and financial reconciliation.
Tool & Process Proficiency: Utilize core agency and planning platforms (e.g., GWI, Olive, PFC, ad servers) with speed and precision.
Quality Assurance (QA): Ensure operational accuracy across campaign setups, tracking tags, media briefs, and billing milestones before deliverables go out.
Time & Priority Management: Manage your own daily schedule effectively, prioritizing tasks to consistently meet and exceed deadlines across concurrent campaigns.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Communication
Internal Team Partnership: Foster strong collaborative relationships with key discipline counterparts—including Client Services (CS), Activation, Analytics, and Ad Operations.
Cross-Discipline Alignment: Proactively initiate conversations across internal teams to troubleshoot issues, gather required inputs, and ensure seamless handoffs.
Lateral Management: Work laterally within the pod/discipline team to ensure alignment on campaign milestones and shared project timelines.

Meeting Support & Accountable Follow-Through
Meeting Contribution: Actively participate in internal campaign, tactical, and status meetings.
Action Item Ownership: Partner with Planning Managers to accurately capture meeting notes, open questions, and agreed next steps.
Resolution Driver: Take accountability for following up on assigned media actions and liaising with stakeholders to obtain timely answers.

Reporting, Data QA & Emerging Insights
Reporting Pull & Verification: Own the compilation and rigorous data QA of regular reporting deliverables (e.g., weekly pacing/performance, DCA inputs).
Pattern Recognition: Answer tactical, campaign-level questions (e.g., data source timing, pacing variances) and begin identifying noteworthy trends in performance data.
Solution-Oriented Thinking: Help outline initial observations and potential solutions for campaign hurdles alongside your Planning Manager.

Continuous Learning & Self-Growth
Category & Discipline Fluency: Deepen your understanding of client Product Areas (PAs), historical campaign performance, competitive context, and audience dynamics.
Communication Skills: Continuously refine both written and verbal communication to present technical media details clearly and concisely.

 
Independence & Reliability: Accomplishes assigned workflows with high autonomy while maintaining exceptional attention to detail and zero-defect accuracy.
Analytical Curiosity: Proactively asks "why did this happen?" rather than solely compiling raw data, beginning to connect data points into actionable insights.
Proactive Communication: Flags potential roadblocks or timing risks early with suggested workarounds rather than waiting for escalation.
 

Experience: 1–2+ years of hands-on media agency experience, preferably within digital media planning, media operations, or campaign management.
Tools & Platforms: Experience with audience profiling and media research tools (e.g., GWI) and media finance/planning platforms (e.g., Olive, Mediaocean, or equivalent enterprise planning software).
Analytical Acumen: Strong proficiency in Google Sheets / Microsoft Excel (formulas, pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, data reconciliation).
Organizational Skills: Proven ability to multitask and manage competing deadlines across multiple workstreams without sacrificing quality.
Interpersonal Skills: Clear, professional written and verbal communication skills; collaborative mindset with an eagerness to learn and share knowledge.