What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Brand Planner position at HLK?
We are seeking a Senior Brand Planner to lead clients in solving problems and building the foundation of behavior-changing ideas. We are looking for someone who is able to challenge those around them, see opportunities others often miss, and bring a creative and unique approach to every brand. The individual in this role will work with all disciplines in the agency in a lead planning role on brands and support Planning Directors on other brands as identified. This role requires skills in defining problems, developing research, and extracting insights that lead to big ideas for our creative teams. This individual should excel in building team consensus, driving internal and external stakeholders to alignment, and shepherding a strategic solution built on a single main idea through to creative and tactical output. A Senior Brand Planner is the starting point for discovering ideas that change behavior and drive success for our clients’ brands. We are looking for thinkers who are creatively curious, have an instinct for a good story, and have the confidence to challenge conventional thinking.
\n- Develop brand strategy and apply the strategy to guide broader teams to developing campaign, creative, media/channel and content development based off that strategic foundation
- Take the lead in organizing content or stimulus for client workshops, internal work sessions or brainstorms with creative teams
- Transform client assignments into innovative and inspiring creative briefs and conduct briefings, distilling all that you know into a singular, strategic idea for creative teams to work from
- Lead research projects on behalf of your client team and in partnership with any research stakeholders (internal/external)
- Analyze and distill research, develop points of view, and present findings and points of view to set the team or client up for success in the next phase of the project
- Develop client relationships as planning lead for your brands, pushing and challenging clients to guide strategic work through to creative
- Assist the Planning Director in creating consumer journeys, brand positioning, brand identity and messaging, and communication architecture
- Assist the Planning Director in new business pitches
- Oversee junior planners’ work when necessary and provide mentorship on creative brief writing and presentation development in the department
- Five to eight years of relevant advertising/marketing experience, ideally in brand planning, strategy or research
- Experience developing creative briefs and strategic frameworks for programs, campaigns and messaging/content
- Research skills, including methodology development and ability to make recommendations off of research findings
- Experience preparing proposals to sell in new work and developing new business pitch materials
- Experience with brand positioning, audience research and insight development, campaign platform and message development, digital and channel strategies, building customer journeys, and campaign ecosystem
- Confident, articulate and have excellent instincts for human behavior
- Curious and driven to learn new things
- Able to articulate a point of view at any given time on the industry, brand, consumer or communications you are working on
- Compelling storyteller and persuasive presenter
- Connects the dots between disparate ideas and challenges to bring clarity and focus
- Reasons both logically and emotionally to drive out-of-the-box solutions
