Planning Manager

Agency :

Havas Media Group

Job Description :

The Media Development Manager is responsible for developing and deploying best practices for media experiences. S/He implements a standard way of developing a media plan and standard format for media plans within the Havas Media Group.

The role sits between Strategy and Activation and is the point where Strategy is translated into Media Experiences for clients.

Planning Manager Job Description

Agency - Havas Media

Location - London - Havas Village

 

About Havas Media Network 

Havas Media Network (HMN) employees over 950 people in the UK & Ireland. We are passionate about helping our clients create more Meaningful Brands through the creation and delivery of more valuable experiences. Our Havas mission: To make a meaningful difference to the brands, the businesses and the lives of the people we work with, and our core proposition is more human and delivering lasting impact. 

HMN UK spans London, Leeds, Manchester & Edinburgh, servicing our clients brilliantly through our agencies including Ledger Bennett, Havas Market, Havas Media, Arena Media, Forward Media, DMPG and Havas Play Network.

Our Ambition

At Havas Media Network we create Meaningful Media that drives growth for the world’s most ambitious brands. Guided by our values—Human at Heart, Head for Rigour, and Mind for Flair—we embed genuine human insight, data-driven discipline and creative daring into everything we do.

This role sits at the heart of that promise—bridging day-to-day planning with specialist capabilities to ensure data-driven thinking enhances every stage of media delivery.

The Role

Planning Manager is a key role within the team, focused on supporting the Planning Director and Planning Executive to ensure the client has the optimal media support in place.  Working alongside your Planning Director the role focuses on media planning and activation, ensuring you are helping delivery the strategy and driving Media Experience (Mx) for your clients.

This role is to work on/across Dreams, Hyundai and Viatris.

Dreams are the UK’s leading bed retailer, operating in a competitive category shaped by changing consumer needs and value-conscious purchasing. Strong, integrated brand communications play an important role in building consideration and driving sales.  We are looking for a Planning Manager to support on the day-to-day planning and client servicing across Dreams’ brand media activity. Channels will include AV, OOH, Audio, Social and OLV. The role will connect strategic thinking with effective campaign delivery, coordinating media plans across channels and working closely with the client and internal teams to ensure activity is joined up, on brief and aligned to business objectives.

Hyundai is one of the top 15 car manufacturers in the UK.  We retained the account (along with Kia/Genesis) for a further 3 years at the start of 2026 further growing our European relationship with them.   As the race towards electrification continues a focus on hybrid or electric models is key to becoming carbon neutral.  Their newest launch of IOINIQ 3 is not only leading their electrification agenda but also the industry as a whole.  It’s a challenging but exciting time in the auto industry as brands fight to win out in this space!

Our contract is held through Innocean (responsible for delivering creative and all digital media) and therefore they essentially are our client too.  It is therefore key we balance both relationships along with our European colleagues too through the whole process.  We have great clients who are engaging and passionate….we have been receiving excellent service satisfaction scores so we are looking for

someone who can continue to help support the team in delivering this.  An interest in cars and or the carbon neutral agenda is also a plus but not a deal breaker!

Viatris is a leading healthcare company with a portfolio including Viagra Connect and Dymista. We are looking for a Planning Manager to support the planning and delivery of integrated campaigns across AV, OOH and digital channels. Working closely with clients and specialist teams, the successful candidate will combine strong media planning and account management skills with a curious mindset, continuously seeking out new opportunities, innovations and ideas to drive growth and campaign effectiveness.

 

 

What behaviours we need from you: 

 

As a Planning Manager, you are the heartbeat of the agency and your team at Havas. You will be a positive, motivated individual with an attitude and mindset to convey a can do attitude and continue to build out your media understanding and learning. 

For your team, you will be critical in making sure your client’s business’s and, your team around you are supported taking an active role in delivering against: 

• Coordinating the work of others effectively.

• Actively sharing knowledge among peers

• Enabling the development of junior reports, and working with a Director to produce development plans for more junior members of the team, ensuring they have opportunities to learn all the expected disciplines

• Effectively delivers constructive feedback to peers and is receptive to feedback

• Demonstrates initiative in professional self-development

• Supports others in taking independent action

 

Role Competencies: 

 

The successful candidate will be able to deliver upon the following: 

• Owning day-to-day relationships with key media owners and clients

• Able to effectively communicate results, tests and day-to-day optimisations with internal and external teams

• Responsible for billing accuracy and timeliness and lead the financial booking and reconciliation process for campaign on their clients

• Works with a Director to develop incremental business proposals in line with wider agency priorities

• Can identify and understand relevant commercial terms, processes, and concepts to deliver agreed outcomes

• Is able to identify and define target audiences built out from relevant tools on who the target audience should be and cites previous work to support their ideas.

• Has a clear understanding of the steps within Havas Planning process and support the delivery of the overall strategy

• Become efficient in using relevant industry tool, for example, Telmar, Touchpoints, Hitwise , Addynamix, Mediaplanner, YouGov

• Able to create channel briefs with support

What’s on offer from Havas: 

We want you to do the best work of your career. To support you in managing your career, as well as your commitments and priorities in your life. We have created a modern, market leading approach to personal benefits, wellbeing, and care: 

• We have shown at Havas, that we can all work productively in a new Hybrid manner

• To give you even more flexibility, and support a better balance between work and life, Havas employees are given the opportunity to work remotely from anywhere in the world for up to 4 weeks per calendar year.

• Alongside a generous holiday allocation and birthday off, we are all allocated one day per quarter as mental health days. These are simply days you can take off, guilt free and without eating into your holiday allowance.

• We have modernised and introduced a market leading parental package for our employees. The Parental Life at Havas policy enhances, broadens, and encourages the uptake of parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, type of relationship, type of parentship or any other potentially defining characteristic.

• We also haven’t forgotten about those benefits that make a meaningful difference to you personally, from a Rental Deposit Loan (so you can secure your new place), season ticket loan to ease travel and free mortgage advice for the getting on the property ladder we have you covered and much more!

• We haven’t lost the fun stuff either, subsidised gym membership, social club, early Friday finishes and weekly bar nights

 

We work in a hybrid working model – in office and remotely 

Current policy is for minimum 3 days in office. 

Office Location: 

London – Havas Media office 

 

  #LI-NK1

 

 

Contract Type :

Permanent

Here at Havas across the group we pride ourselves on being committed to offering equal opportunities to all potential employees and have zero tolerance for discrimination. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, disability and other factors that have no bearing on an individual’s ability to perform their job.