Director, Strategy, Europe

Reporting to: Chief Strategy Officer, Europe

About WPP Media

WPP Media represents the collective strategic power of WPP's leading media agencies across Europe, including Mindshare, EssenceMediacom, and Wavemaker. Our mission is to redefine value for our clients, guiding them through complex market dynamics and enabling sustainable growth. We foster a culture of intellectual curiosity, pioneering thought leadership, and collaborative problem-solving, empowering our diverse talent to shape the future of marketing.

Role Purpose

The Director, Strategy, Europe, will be a senior strategy position playing a crucial role working alongside the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), Europe, in elevating WPP Media's strategic product, thought leadership, and consultative capabilities across the European region. This role will contribute significantly to shaping WPP Media's go-to-market strategy in Europe, ensuring our offerings are market-leading and deeply integrated with our clients' business objectives.

Working closely with the CSO, this individual will assist in supporting the development of market-specific and highly differentiating strategies, and bringing a strategic lens to all interactions with key European clients. The Director will be instrumental in fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning within the strategic community, translating complex market dynamics into actionable strategies that drive tangible business outcomes for our clients and differentiate WPP Media as a strategic leader in the European market.

Key Responsibilities Include:

Strategic Vision & Support (Europe): Support Strategic Narrative Development: Assist the CSO in creating, evolving, and communicating WPP Media's strategic narrative and go-to-market strategy for Europe, ensuring alignment with global WPP and WPP Media strategies while incorporating regional and local nuances. Strategic Product Enhancement: Contribute to the continuous development and enhancement of WPP Media's positioning across Europe, helping to drive differentiation and ensure our strategic skills and capabilities anticipate market advancements. Consultancy Offering Support: Support the CSO in moving beyond media-centric solutions to provide high-value strategic advice on broader marketing and business transformation challenges for clients. Thought Leadership Contribution:  Assist in crafting a new narrative for WPP Media in the broader European market. Client Consultancy & Growth Support: Client Partnership Assistance: Support the CSO and European CEO in partnering with WPP Media's most significant European clients at a C-suite level, assisting in providing high-level strategic counsel that addresses their core business challenges and drives transformative growth. Problem Solving & Analysis: Apply a consultancy-style approach to assist in diagnosing complex client problems, simplifying challenges, and identifying innovative, data-driven solutions that deliver meaningful and measurable business impact. Organic Growth Enablement: Help identify and support significant organic growth opportunities within existing client relationships by identifying unstated client needs and white space. New Business Support: Provide support in shaping the strategic direction and compelling narratives for major new business opportunities and pitches across Europe, ensuring WPP Media presents winning ideas and strategies. Market Growth Plan Assistance: Support the CSO in working with market CEOs to develop and standardize annual market-by-market strategic growth plans, including preparing for periodic review and support sessions. Strategic Community & Talent Development Support: Community Engagement: Work closely with the CSO, European ExCo and local market strategic leads to foster a cohesive and collaborative strategic community. Capability Building: In collaboration with regional and local markets, support the development and implementation of an industry-leading business strategy capability. Organisational Facilitation Support: ExCo Material Preparation: Assist in compiling and curating ExCo working sessions and materials, and support the drive for best-practice sharing across ExCo and the region. WPP Media Materials: Assist in driving the creation of materials as required by WPP Media for WPP Media ExCo sessions and broader WPP requirements.

Candidate Requirements

The ideal candidate will be a highly motivated and analytical individual with a strong foundation in strategic thinking and a desire to continue to drive positive change within a large, sophisticated organization. They will possess a strong understanding of the media and marketing ecosystem and a keen interest in business consultancy.

Essential Skills & Attributes:

Strategic Acumen: Demonstrated experience in contributing to strategic initiatives, with an understanding of media and marketing strategies. Consultancy Mindset: Proven ability to apply a structured, problem-solving approach to business and marketing challenges, and to support the translation of strategic recommendations into actionable plans. Market Interest: Strong interest in marketing across different industries and categories, with an ability to understand how media can drive growth. Communication & Presentation Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and persuasively. Drive for Excellence: A strong desire to contribute to excellent work and a commitment to high standards. Ecosystem Awareness: Awareness of the media investment, ad tech, martech, and agency ecosystem. Analytical & Curious: Strong analytical skills combined with a proactive and curious approach to learning and challenging the status quo. Stakeholder Collaboration: Ability to collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders in a complex matrix organization. Problem Simplification: Ability to assist in simplifying complex challenges and identifying pragmatic solutions. Resilience & Adaptability: Positive attitude, ability to maintain composure, and adapt to changing circumstances. High EQ & IQ: Demonstrates both high Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Intellectual Quotient (IQ) in interactions with clients, internal stakeholders, and WPP agency partners. European Market Interest: Interest in working across multiple European markets and understanding cultural nuances.

What you can expect from WPP Media Europe:

Our mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world. We achieve this by attracting and retaining the very best talent to solve some of the toughest challenges of today's digital marketing landscape. We are deeply committed to hiring individuals whose values reflect those of our own: genuine, results-focused, daring, and insightful. As an employee of WPP Media, you can expect a workplace that profoundly invests in your career development, genuinely cares for your well-being, and is both fun and engaging. We firmly believe these factors collectively create a workplace where you can truly be yourself, thrive professionally, and consistently do amazing, impactful work.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability.

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