Planning Account Manager

the7stars and Bountiful Cow; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Uncounted holiday

Flexible & hybrid working (4 days in-<

Professional training

Wellbeing days

Private medical insurance

Pension

Cycle to Work

Profit share eligibility

Job summary

the7stars in Covent Garden is looking for Planning Account Managers to work across a mix of leading consumer and service brands. The roles offer ownership of busy client accounts and opportunities to step up into greater responsibility within an integrated planning environment.

You’ll partner with specialist teams to deliver omni‑channel media strategies, including social, online video, TV, DOOH and search, while developing client relationships and driving insightful planning decisions.

Qualifications

• Agency-side media planning experience required.
• Experience in online and offline media planning and buying.
• Strong organisation and ability to manage multiple workstreams.
• Excellent time management and deadlines.
• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills.
• Keen problem solver.

Responsibilities

• Be the day‑to‑day contact for clients and maintain relationships.
• Obtain briefs and craft responses with the7stars teams.
• Use industry tools and data to recommend channels.
• Present recommendations alongside media plans.
• Build audiences using profiling data and conduct segmentations.
• Coordinate with specialist teams to ensure best‑practice implementations.
• Monitor campaign performance and report to clients.
• Prepare year plans and finance trackers; central query contact.
• Create plans and analyses in Excel using pivot tables.
• Manage relationships with media owners and negotiate opportunities.
• Share best practices across the agency and participate in pitches.
• Develop understanding of data, insights, strategy, digital and media.

Skills

Media planning

Account management

Omni-channel planning

Time management

Client communication

Presentation skills

Tools

Excel

Job description

About the7stars

the7stars is unlike any other agency. The distinction started the day we launched in 2005 when we named ourselves after a pub, but more importantly when we made a promise that we were going to do things differently.

And this commitment has stuck with us. It guides how we work, how we think and how we treat one another and can be expressed in a single word.

Freedom.

Our Freedom philosophy lives across our entire business from people, product and planning. It means we plan & buy media how we want, develop careers how we want, take holiday when we need it, invent tools when we need them, give people a platform to speak up, question and express themselves freely - but more importantly it has allowed us to create an amazing place to work.

We have a unique working environment and open structure which encourages personal development through client contact, teamwork, training, exposure to all media and internal teams – and a “sky’s the limit” approach to your growth within the agency.

the7stars is c300 passionate media people that are able to focus purely on creating great work for our clients.

If thinking freely and with integrity is your bag, then the7stars is an agency you should meet.

the7stars has a bespoke and inspiring working culture. We operate a flat structure without job titles and encourage an entrepreneurial attitude where you get out what you put in.

We are looking for people who get excited by the solution, have ideas and are passionate about the ability of media to make a real difference to businesses.

We’re growing our client planning teams and currently have a couple of opportunities for Planning Account Managers to join the7stars, working across some brilliant and very different consumer and service brands.

There’s flexibility in the level of experience we’re looking for. Some of the opportunities could suit an established Account Manager who is used to taking ownership of busy client accounts, while we’re equally interested in experienced media planners who are ready to step up into their first Account Manager role, take on greater client responsibility and broaden their planning experience.

Across the roles, you could find yourself working across a mix including:

• A major FMCG portfolio covering some of the UK’s best-known ice cream brands. This is classic consumer brand planning, with significant seasonal investment across TV, BVOD, online video, social, OOH and retail activation – particularly around the key spring and summer trading periods.
• A well-known food-to-go brand with a sizeable UK restaurant estate as well as a growing retail presence. The account brings together brand and location-led planning, with opportunities around store footfall, geo-targeting, commuter and lunchtime audiences, mobile and DOOH.
• A major healthcare brand spanning private medical insurance, healthcare, dental and care homes. This is a fully integrated account with activity across TV/AV, OOH, audio, digital video, social and search, giving you exposure to a broad mix of brand and performance activity.
• A distinctive, well-known consumer brand with a long history of memorable advertising. With a strong personality and an instantly recognisable brand character, it offers the opportunity to work on FMCG planning where maintaining salience, cultural relevance and a consistent brand identity really matter.
• A global investment management business, giving you exposure to a very different type of planning challenge. Here the focus is on communicating a considered financial proposition to prospective investors, working in a category where trust, education and longer‑term decision‑making are particularly important.
• One of Britain’s most recognisable and established brands – a genuine British institution. The account offers a broad mix of planning challenges across brand and performance, giving you the chance to work with a brand that forms a familiar part of everyday life across the UK.
• A financial services industry body focused on helping people better understand investing. This brings a different kind of communications challenge again – using media to support education and behaviour change around stocks, shares and investment, rather than simply promoting a conventional consumer product.

There’s a genuinely varied mix of planning across these accounts. You could be working on a big seasonal FMCG campaign, thinking about how media can drive footfall around particular locations and occasions, helping a famous brand find new ways to connect with consumers, or bringing brand and performance activity together for a large service business.

Whichever client mix you join, your role will sit at the heart of the account. You’ll keep across what’s happening – the money being spent, where, when and how – while increasingly taking ownership of client relationships, briefs and the planning process.

We’re particularly interested in people with a good grounding in digital media planning – whether that’s paid social, online video, PPC or broader digital planning – alongside an appetite to develop across the wider media landscape. You don’t need to arrive as an expert in every channel. What matters is that you’re curious about media, commercially switched on, highly organised and keen to build your experience across genuinely integrated planning.

You’ll work closely with specialist teams across the7stars, bringing their expertise together into joined-up recommendations for your clients. For someone stepping up from Planner level, that means an opportunity to move beyond contributing to plans and start taking greater ownership of them; for an established Account Manager, there’s plenty of complexity, variety and client responsibility to get stuck into.

You’ll be part of the account management team, making sure our clients love working with us and that we’re delivering outstanding work for them.

Key Responsibilities

• Being a key day-to-day contact for clients – helping to maintain strong working relationships and ensuring they are kept up to date with all activity on the account
• Obtaining briefs from clients and working with relevant the7stars teams to create client responses
• Using industry tools, client insights and data to pull together channel implementation recommendations
• Presenting recommendations to clients alongside media plans
• Building out audiences using TGI and YouGov Profiles, as well as working with data and insights to create more sophisticated segmentations
• Liaising across specialist teams at the7stars to ensure best-practice implementation across all plans
• Monitoring campaign performance whilst active, coordinating with channel teams and updating clients on performance throughout campaigns
• Coordinating and collating central account management documents such as year plans and finance trackers, as well as being a central contact for account queries
• Creating plans and reporting analyses using Excel; intermediate skills such as pivot tables and functions are ideal
• Building and maintaining relationships with key media owners and external partners and negotiating the best opportunities for clients
• Sharing best-practice work with the wider agency through company meetings, case studies, the website, social and other channels
• Participating in wider the7stars initiatives, including Values Weeks
• Getting involved with relevant pitches and new business opportunities
• Working alongside specialist teams across the7stars to continue developing your understanding of data, insights, strategy, digital and the wider media landscape

Requirements

• Agency-side media planning experience, either at Account Manager level or as an experienced Planner ready to take the next step in your career
• Experience in online and offline media planning and/or buying, with an appetite to continue developing your expertise across more platforms and channels
• Someone who lives and breathes media. You’ll be coordinating across channels, so a genuine interest in understanding the media you’re working with is a must
• A working knowledge of the wider media landscape
• Comfortable operating as an omni‑channel planner rather than being purely digitally specialised or purely ATL‑led
• Strong organisation and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams
• A practical ‘doer’ who rolls up their sleeves and gets the job done
• Excellent time management skills and the ability to multi‑task whilst working towards key deadlines in a fast‑paced environment
• Strong interpersonal skills – confident speaking to teammates, clients, third parties and media owners
• A keen problem solver
• Strong presentation skills and the ability to communicate information and strategic ideas clearly, both written and verbally

Our working pattern is Monday-Thursday in our Covent Garden offices, hybrid working on Friday.

Benefits

• Uncounted holiday
• Discretionary performance-related summer profit share & Christmas bonus
• Flexible & hybrid working with a focus on togetherness (4 days per week in the office)
• Personalised training plan & access to coaching
• Wellbeing days
• Flexible pension plan through Royal London (8% employer contribution under £35k)
• Optional private medical insurance (Vitality) & cash back plan (Medicash)
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Work from anywhere up to 2 weeks each year
• Paid-for gym membership with a choice of 5 gyms
• Enhanced family-friendly policies
• Personal finance advice & support
• Life Assurance & Critical Illness cover
• Profit share scheme (after 3 years’ service)
• Electric Vehicle scheme
• Nursery Partnership
• Tech & Cycle to Work scheme
• Season ticket loans & expensed Railcard
• New Business Bonus eligible in your first years as a the7stars employee

the7stars is committed to creating a diverse environment, where employees feel empowered to share different ideas, perspectives and experiences in a collaborative and creative work environment. Equality and inclusion are at the heart of our culture. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.