Positions: Associate Director, Communications Design - Volvo

IPG Mediabrand; London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks an Associate Director of Communications Design to lead innovative media strategies for a prestigious automotive brand. In this pivotal role, you will manage cross-market media plans, optimizing performance and ensuring compliance with global standards. You will drive collaboration between local and digital teams, enhancing brand engagement through strategic audience targeting. This is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of media planning while fostering a culture of creativity and inclusivity. Join a vibrant team that values diversity and empowers you to make a significant impact in the media landscape.

Benefits

Flexi-leave

Free breakfast and lunch

Early finish Fridays

Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme

Interest-free season ticket loan

Paid time off for volunteering

Private Medical Insurance

Generous Parental Leave

Employee Assistance Programme

Flexible benefits including Gym Discounts

Qualifications

• Experience in media planning and analysis, preferably in a regional role.
• Strong communication and presentation skills are essential.

Responsibilities

• Manage cross-market media plans to exceed benchmarks and targets.
• Lead omnichannel media planning with local and digital teams.

Skills

Media Planning

Performance Analysis

Communication Skills

Project Management

Team Leadership

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Marketing or Communications

Master's Degree (preferred)

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

Media Planning Tools

Job description

Associate Director, Communications Design - Volvo

Location: London, England, United Kingdom |

Location: London, England, United Kingdom | Agency: Initiative - United Kingdom Ref#: 15364 | Job Function: Planning | Type of Contract: Regular

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 OVERVEW

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.

Department Overview

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 Associate Director, you are responsible for managing cross-market media plans across Volvo to ensure that everything meets and exceeds benchmarks and targets. You should identify where performance is weak and find opportunities of strong performance, providing recommendations to boost effectiveness. 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.

You are the day-to-day contact and lynchpin for these plans and the internal team. You will update both internal and external stakeholders on actions, the live status of campaigns, and pacing against the plan. You should be an authority on Volvo’s business and performance media to the agency and team around you. It is essential that you ensure that new opportunities are identified for innovation and test and learn programmes.

In this role, you are responsible for the management of junior team members including appraisals, goal setting and performance management, ensuring that the next generation of brilliant communications designers are effectively supported, trained and developed.

As Associate Director, you are an expert in the Initiative design process, tools and techniques, and how to best apply and adapt these for a given scenario. You are a gifted planner who is able to synergize multiple data points into a clear recommendation to maximise campaign performance. Ensuring both transparency and alignment in performance tracking and updates both internally and externally.

Key Responsibilities

• Responsible for the development and optimisation of detailed communications plans
• Communicate learnings and proposals to boost performance to the relevant stakeholders
• Manage the outputs of day to day requirements of Volvo- regional campaigns
• Responsible for presentation of client education program around Communications Design and relevant marketplace trends.

Internal

• Responsible for the management and training of design team in communications planning & performance fundamentals
• Responsible for the best practice application of planning approach including key tools and techniques to surface media and marketing intelligence and insights to produce an effective communications plan across owned, earned, shared, paid (OESP)
• Write and manage outputs from RFP submissions from the Design discipline

Commercial

• Contribute to the implementation of communications design deliverables as part of client business development & growth strategy

Desired Skills & Experience

• Experience in planning role in media, publisher / vendor, or communications discipline (digital, content) in a regional role
• Experienced in analysing the performance and optimization of channels
• Automotive experience preferable
• Excellent written, verbal communication and presentation skills
• Strong time-management and organizational skills
• Required PC proficiency and solid working knowledge of Microsoft Office (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)
• Proven problem solving ability
• Ability to work successfully within a team, handling multiple projects and meeting tight deadlines under pressure

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 [e-mail] 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)
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice car scheme
• 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
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free eye tests
• Flexible benefits including Dental, Travel insurance, Cycle to Work, Gym Discounts and many more!