Senior Planner

OVERVIEW: The Senior Planner is the customer insight "lead" for the Agency; primary responsibility for planning as it relates to the client’s brand. Based in Ridgefield Park, NJ and reporting to the Chief Strategy Officer.

DUTIES:
•    Leveraging customer insight to help the team come up with great creative marketing ideas
•    Identifying high impact opportunities for developing breakthrough customer insight
•    Creating innovative approaches for coming up with customer insight
•    Collaborating with the clients marketing department
•    Liaising with clients to identify specific business problems and develop ideas
•    Communicating with colleagues within the agency, such as creative and account managers, in the process of developing a campaign
•    Analyzing a wide range of information in great detail to gain a comprehensive context to advertising strategies. This may include demographics, socio-economics and the market for the clients product and market share
•    Proactively determining where and how in-depth insight about the consumers attitude and behavior can help make our clients marketing more successful
•    Identifying key customer insights from existing client/data and translating them into relevant marketing program implications
•    Applying innovative research and "listening" methodologies to create relevant, breakthrough customer insights
•    Optimizing the impact of customer insight in the creative/program development process by inspiring and partnering with creatives on your team
•    Leading team brainstorms that efficiently produce breakthrough insight and maximize team contributions
•    Reconciling the differences between consumers current perceptions of the brand and the way in which the client wishes the brand to be perceived
•    Meeting the client to learn the background to the brand and advising on possible approaches or adaptation of approach to the target market
•    Building productive collaboration and enabling successful teamwork
•    Creating demand for account plannings contributions by demonstrating its impact

SKILLS & REQUIREMENTS: 
•    At least 10 years experience working in marketing and/or strategic services organizations - e.g., general advertising agency account planning group; management consulting firm; brand strategy firm
•    Qualitative research expertise and experience applying innovative qualitative research techniques
•    Familiarity with interpreting and applying quantitative research, segmentation, analytics and media research tools (e.g., MRI)
•    Exceptional customer insight skills
•    Experience applying insight to marketing program development
•    Exceptional writing, communication and influence skills
•    Excellent teamwork and leadership skills
•    Experience across channels, including web experience
•    Ambition, accountability, and drive

ATTRIBUTES:
•    Must possess drive to succeed
•    Extremely detail-oriented and organized with an adherence to a standard if excellence
•    Action-oriented and passionate individual that thrives on challenges
•    Proactive self-starter, with the ability to work w/a minimum amount of supervision, but who is also a team player
•    Ability to multi-task and be flexible in meeting deadlines and urgent requests
•    Must possess excellent client services skills, be polished and present well
•    Full integrated media experience preferred