Vice President Director, Account Planning - job 4 of 5

Digitas Health is the Agency of Now: the first global connected-health agency, purpose-built for marketing today. Digitas Health specializes in helping health brands navigate a complex and shifting media environment to create deeper, more relevant connections with their consumer and professional customers.  With offices in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and London, it is a member of the world’s largest healthcare communications network, Publicis Health. As a member of this elite network, Digitas Health is also a member of the Paris-based Publicis Groupe S.A. (Euronext Paris: FR0000130577), the world’s third-largest communications group, second-largest media counsel and buying group, and a leader in digital communications.

Web: www.digitashealth.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/digitashealth | Twitter: www.twitter.com/digitas_health

The Digitas Health Account Planning team uncovers breakthrough customer insights and helps our teams to turn them into big creative marketing ideas. Planning is part of the creative organization (and tightly integrated with creative) and reports to the SVP/Head of Planning.

The ideal Vice President/ Director, Account Planning candidate has at least 8 years' experience developing and applying breakthrough customer insight in a marketing, creative agency or professional services firm, as well as exceptional thinking, communication and influence skills, leadership, and energy. Most importantly, we seek candidates with enthusiasm for pushing the frontier of how marketing can evolve to meet the needs of an ever more powerful consumer. 

This is a freelance (hourly rate) position. 

Detailed Description

The VP/ Director is the customer insight “lead” for designated Digitas Health clients, with 3 primary responsibilities:

• 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

Additional responsibilities for this position include:

• Proactively determining where and how in-depth insight about the consumer’s attitude and behavior can help make our clients’ marketing more successful and where the opportunities are
• Identifying key customer insights from existing client/Digitas Health data and translating them into relevant marketing program implications
• Applying innovative research and “listening” methodologies to create relevant, breakthrough customer insights
• Partnering with our cutting-edge primary researchers, internal analysis group and client data/research organizations to maximize their work’s customer insight and marketing program application value
• Optimizing the impact of customer insight in the creative/program development process by inspiring and partnering with creatives on your team
• Expertly applying the Digitas Health Branding approach to marketing program development, and inspiring your teams to embrace a “pull” approach to marketing
• Leading team brainstorms that efficiently produce breakthrough insight and maximize team contributions
• Building productive collaboration and enabling successful teamwork
• Creating demand for account planning’s contributions by demonstrating its impact
• Managing 2 mid-level planners

• At least 8 years’ experience working in marketing and/or strategic services organizations – e.g., general advertising agency account planning group; management consulting firm; brand strategy firm; large DM firm strategic planning/account planning group
• Qualitative research expertise and experience applying innovative qualitative research techniques
• Familiarity with interpreting and applying quantitative research
• Undergraduate degree in a discipline like history, American studies, political science, anthropology/sociology, journalism, or psychology
• Graduate degree is also a plus (e.g., MBA, Masters)
• Familiar with segmentation, analytics and media research tools (e.g., MRI) a plus
• Exceptional customer insight skills
• Intuitive ability to understand what makes consumers “tick”
• Ability to discern the customer insight and “human truth” from mounds of data
• A passion and empathy for the consumer’s perspective
• Avid follower of how marketing is evolving to meet the needs of the ever more powerful consumer; you can tell the difference between YouTube and an inner tube
• Ability to challenge the team to uncover “what’s in it for the customer”
• Passionate about applying cutting edge qualitative methodology to the development of insight
• Experience applying insight to marketing program development
• A knack for helping creative teams understand an insight and translate it into creative magic
• Passion for working with creative people
• Exceptional writing, communication and influence skills
• An inspirational, compelling personality and way of working
• you have the ability to quickly gain the trust of clients and internal team members at all levels
• Excellent teamwork and leadership skills
• A leader and a team builder
• Web experience (and passion!) is highly relevant
• Demonstrated ability to build demand for account planning
• Experience successfully bringing account planning to clients and teams who haven't used it before
• Ambition, accountability, and drive
• You like to do things in a new way, you like convincing people of your point of view, you are driven to succeed

About Publicis Health

Publicis Health is the premier global health and wellness communications network. We are one of the four solutions hubs of Publicis Groupe, the third-largest advertising and media company in the world, giving us unparalleled global reach. We manage top-tier agencies specializing in promoting innovative solutions in advertising, medical education, clinical trial program development, sales and marketing, digital, market access, and medical and scientific affairs. Our nearly 6,500 employees work at 15 agency brands across 60 offices located in 10 countries. We are a connected solutions hub, equipped for continual business
transformation in today’s world. We integrate services across our global offices and brands to deliver on our clients’ needs. Each of our agencies brings a unique approach to business, which makes us even stronger together. We understand the rapidly changing healthcare environment and leverage it to maximize the potential of our clients’ brands.

Web: www.publicishealth.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/publicishealth

Twitter: www.twitter.com/PublicisHealth/

Not all applicants will be contacted. PHCG is an equal opportunity employer.

No vendor/agency solicitation please.