Director – Communications Design

About Us

Initiative unlocks business growth for the world’s most ambitious brands. We believe in the power of media to reshape our industry and orchestrate a brand’s entire consumer experience, by balancing both what unites people and what makes them different. 

When brands unite people in culture, they build Fame, and when brands connect individuals to their unique journeys, they build customer Flow. 

Media responsibility is at the forefront of everything we do, whether it’s creating media plans that reflect the diversity of our communities, promote brand safety, and foster sustainability. 

Our agency celebrates diversity in an inclusive environment where all of our 6,000+ strong talent across 90+ markets feel seen, heard, and valued. Our vision is to create not only a better media company, but also a better media industry, and maybe even a better world. 

CLIENT OVERVIEW

Volvo Cars – Driving Change Together
Many brands talk about purpose, but Volvo embodies it. Its values, deeply ingrained in its identity, drive its success. Volvo places its brand and purpose at the core of its business. The guiding principle, For Life, reflects its mission to provide freedom of movement in a personal, sustainable, and safe way.

Personal – For Life
Life is precious, and so is living. Volvo helps people embrace life, celebrating individuality and the freedom to be themselves. The company strives to simplify life, reduce stress, and enable joy and peace of mind. Rooted in Swedish values, Volvo prioritizes quality of life as much as life itself.

Sustainable – For Life
Volvo protects people and the planet, aiming for net-zero emissions and a circular economy. Its commitment to sustainability improves lives globally.

Safe – For Life
Since 1927, when co-founder Gustaf Larsson declared, “Cars are driven by people. The guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo, therefore, is and must remain, safety,” Volvo has been synonymous with safety. It continues to pioneer the safest, smartest mobility technologies to protect lives.

Missions
Volvo’s five missions drive its business:

People: Empower employees to live the company’s values, positively impacting customers, partners, and society.

Product: Deliver people-centered, fully electric products by 2030.

Technology: Develop innovations benefiting people and the planet.

Customers: Foster growth through strong consumer relationships and omni-channel approaches.

Digital: Build secure digital infrastructure to enable scalability and efficiency.

Volvo Cars is advancing toward full electrification. Electric and hybrid models now make up nearly 50% of sales, making this a pivotal time to help shape the future of mobility with Volvo’s inspiring teams. Our job as Volvo’s global media agency partner – as part of a fully integrated team with Initiative - is to help them meet their ambitious sales and electrification goals in 31 countries worldwide.

DISCIPLINE OVERVIEW: COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN

Communications design is the discipline and practice of crafting how a brand idea will be delivered through communications across an owned, earned and paid ecosystem in order to achieve a desired behavioral outcome.

Initiative’s Communications Design team is creating the future of planning.  Borrowing skills from User Experience, Digital, Public Relations and Content, these media professionals are responsible for curating how people connect and participate with brands through culturally rich ideas.  Instead of considering the experience of a brand in components (media / channel planning), Communications Designers think about brand experience in totality (ecosystem planning) ensuring every encounter is useful and impactful. 

The Communications Design team dynamically brings brands to life through their actions. They:

• Are experts in consumer and communications behavior, and how changes in behaviors are creating new opportunities for connection
• Lead the creation of the dynamic ecosystem approach to deliver a strategy
• Work with partners (media, creative, technology, platforms, Specialty Business Units) to curate how a brand should connect within culture
• Lead the identification of the right audiences to address how to meet business goals, and guide the quantification of connection encounters holistically
• Champion innovative, forward thinking activities that help brands create value with their audience.

Role Description

As Director, Communications Design you are at the forefront of bringing the next generation of planning to life.  As the Design leader of your client group, you are responsible for ensuring the adoption and adherence of communications design principles across your client base, ensuring your team consistently delivers best in class idea led, culturally empowered communications ecosystems that drive effectiveness.

With experience gained in detailed media, digital, communications or experience design roles, you are an expert in the European media landscape and what this offers us for ecosystem planning, and how channels and experiences work across paid, owned, earned and shared connections.  You are considered a communications trailblazer amongst your peers & clients. When it comes to managing big projects you are a skilled & experienced conductor of stakeholders. Your experience allows you to think outside the box and if necessary re-design the box altogether. These abilities enable you to orchestrate and oversee the design & produce market leading communication campaigns through ecosystem planning.

Your experience across clients, categories and audiences means you are brilliant at seeing connection opportunities and ideas immediately within briefs. Your involvement and team guidance ensures brilliant strategy becomes impactful design.  Across your client group, you are well versed in the business opportunities and challenges of your key clients.  You are up to speed on their audiences and categories, and what this means for consumer behavior.  Working together with the Initiative strategist, and key partner collaborators (clients, brand teams, brand strategists etc.) you are able to provide strong strategic counsel to your design leads on how to execute against a particular brief. 

You will lead omnichannel media planning with local and digital hub teams using global templates and tools. Implement audience targeting aligned with global segmentation frameworks. Incorporate learnings, MMM insights, and data into planning. Ensure compliance with playbooks, SLAs, and global standardization. Outline timelines and key deliverables for seamless cross-team communication.

Key Responsibilities

Client

• Responsible for regional communications design product excellence across major planning initiatives across designated client base including playbooks
• Present the communications design and recommendations to regional clients in collaboration with other crafts
• Oversee the day to day requirements and workflow of the client as it relates to Communications Design outputs, in consultation with Client Leads
• Oversee client education program around communications design relevant marketplace trends.

Internal

• Lead best in class omnichannel communications design approaches and innovation, and adherence to standard global processes
• Ensure that data, learnings and MMM lead planning outputs & recommendations
• Responsible for the communications design brief deployment and relevant stakeholder engagement across teams
• Responsible for effective design of communications architecture and ecosystem delivery across Owned, Earned, Shared, Paid (OESP) for your clients.

Commercial

• Responsible for implementation of communications design deliverables as part of client business development & growth strategy

Desired Skills & Experience

• Experience in integrated planning role in media, publisher / vendor, or communications discipline (digital, content) in a regional role
• Automotive experience preferable
• Ability to lead strategic thinking for integrated marketing communication plans encompassing traditional and non-traditional media strategies
• Ability to ensure consistency and best practices across all projects; strong project management skills
• Ability to interrogate, interpret and implement data into media plans
• Strong organizational, analytical and leadership skills
• Proven ability to develop and maintain high level professional relationships with senior clients, colleagues and vendors
• Ability to assess client needs for utilization and development of planning and research tools and resources
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
• Strong experience/involvement in new business planning and presentations skills

Employee Transparency

At IPG Mediabrands, we celebrate differences and believe this makes us stronger. IPG Mediabrands are equal-opportunity employers committed to championing an inclusive culture that provides a sense of belonging for all our employees. We do not discriminate against any applicant based on age, disability, race, colour, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, belief, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Please reach out to our Talent Inclusion Specialist Jess at [email protected] if you would like to have a confidential conversation regarding any adjustments that would ensure our recruitment process is accessible for you. Please note requesting a reasonable adjustment will not affect your application.

The Perks

We aim to provide all our people with a supportive and fun work environment where you can develop your full potential and benefit from the broad range of opportunities within the agency. When you join us, we want to make sure you feel valued – and that you are rewarded for your fantastic work. So, we also offer a range of benefits:

• Flexi–leave, with 25 days annual leave to be taken as minimum. In addition to your holiday entitlement, the office usually closes between Christmas & New Year
• Free breakfast and free lunch
• Early finish Fridays
• Core Hours (Mon-Thurs, flexible start/finish times)
• Retail discounts
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice car scheme
• Wellbeing programme, including Headspace & flu jabs
• Interest free season ticket loan
• Paid time off for Volunteering
• Group Income Protection
• Life Assurance
• Private Medical Insurance or Health Cash Plan (dependent on level)
• Group Personal Pension Plan with matched contributions from 3-6%
• Generous Parental Leave & Pay
• Independent mortgage advice
• Financial education
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free eye tests
• Flexible benefits including Dental, Travel insurance, Cycle to Work, Gym Discounts and many more!