Job Purpose
The account planner will manage and support various aspects of strategy and research across agency and client teams. The ultimate goal of this position is to drive the development of compelling and relevant communications ideas, and inspire creative advertising. The ideal candidate has an interest and approach to planning, is comfortable working directly with clients in both a lead and support role, has the ability to work with teams across agency functions and disciplines, and is able to switch between working independently and collaborating as part of a team.
Duties
- Leverage existing research to translate relevant information to client and agency resources
- Identify and track trends, opportunities and threats for client industries and organizations
- Conduct competitive analysis for client brands and offerings
- Develop positioning and messaging for client brands and offerings
- Develop, manage, and analyze research projects
- Design and moderate workshop sessions, focus groups and in-depth interviews
- Collaborate with others to craft insights and develop creative briefs
- Present ideas, conclusions and recommendations to client and agency teams
- Represent the voice of the customer in agency work
Experience
- 2 years of experience working in a strategy or planning role in an agency environment; or a Masters degree in a related field
- Comfortable buying primary research from full service vendors, and purchasing syndicated research when appropriate
- Working knowledge of techniques to develop positioning, messaging and other verbal identities
- Intermediate skill-sets in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint
- Comfortable interviewing and presenting to agency and client-side executives
- Basic knowledge of data analysis
- Above-average writing skills
- The ability and willingness to think creatively