Starcom is the Human Experience Company; we believe that our clients’ competitive advantage lies in understanding people better, and acting on that understanding faster than the competition.

The future lies in bringing together media, creativity and data to create powerful experiences that will drive faster growth. We are the flagship Publicis Media agency to do this through our Power of One client teams that span clients such as Stellantis, P&G, Samsung, P&O and Visa.

We work differently to most agencies and base many of our models on consultancy ways of working to build a more agile workforce in this hybrid world. We complement our account teams with Squads – small teams that work for a short period to solve a specific brief. We hold cross discipline Sprints to crack client briefs at speed. These processes are designed to fuel high performance and fast results through collaboration.

Even in this most challenging period, Starcom has had an exceptional 12 months. We have welcomed brilliant clients such as Stellantis, Ferrero, Axa, KP Snacks and E.ON into the fold. Our client satisfaction scores are among the highest in the market, significantly above agency norms. We place a huge focus on our team and have driven flagship DEI and L&D programmes within Publicis Media; our goal is to help every individual reach their fullest potential and we encourage everyone to make “Brave Plays” in how they approach their work and their own career development. As a result, we have an exceptionally energised and committed talent base, all of us proud of our welcoming and supportive culture, as evidenced by our recognition as one of Campaign’s Best Places to Work in 2021.

Starcom operates in over 100 markets across the world. We have very close ties to our global HQ in Chicago who encourage learning and sharing best practice with our colleagues around the world. We are part of Publicis Groupe.

Global marketing is everchanging and our leading international client seeks to lead their media innovation across the global.  The award-winning Alcon global team drives the marketing and media vision across 30+ countries in the world and is seeking a new planning director to spearhead this ambition.  This senior role sits at the intersection of global client strategy and agency product acceleration, and is perfect for an ambitious communications planner looking to fast track their career in global media.  The Alcon global team leads a media community of 150+ team members around the world from USA to Australia, unifying product strategies and go-to-market tactical approaches for multi-billion dollar brands in the Alcon portfolio.  The global planning director is the strategic lead of this effort and is hands-on with setting the Alcon Media Standard and driving the global partnership and innovation agenda. This high-profile role includes day-to-day collaboration with the senior-most clients around the world, as well as senior agency leaders across the Publicis Groupe.

This role is focused on leading the strategic communications planning product of the agency teams both in London and our local markets around the globe.  The planning director is expected to develop and steward the tactical media priorities and strategic focus areas of Alcon efforts around the world, working with both direct reports and collaborating with local planners to improve the Starcom plans in market.  To this end, the role requires a charismatic leader that will be able to carry a strong senior voice and position in both client and creative agency partner debates about the strategic marketing decisions that need to be made.  This opportunity positions the role at both the strategic head of the Alcon global media efforts, and provides opportunity to be a lead voice in the cultivation of our global Starcom product with senior colleagues around the world.

See Brilliantly.  Alcon aspires to lead the world in innovating life-changing vision and eye care products because when people see brilliantly, they live brilliantly.   Today, in partnership with Starcom, they are transforming their marketing approach to deliver more participative experiences that drive behaviour change across categories.  Starcom’s global relationship with Alcon is a refreshingly true partnership, where collaboration at all levels is standard and there is mutual commitment to continuous improvement together, allowing team members to flourish and thrive.   In the last 2 years, our Starcom efforts have led to 3 industry award recognitions for Alcon global programs, including their first award win for Campaign’s “best international strategy 2022”, beating major brands across FMCG and other categories to the podium!

• Planning and client relationship experience, including the ability to provide strategic POVs
• Charismatic and enthusiastic team leader who can facilitate active discussion with clients and partners, and comfortable navigating strategic debates
• Experience leading media planning projects that includes integrated communications across paid, owned, and earned media, functional knowledge of digital and technology changes in the marketplace, and basic trading knowledge across channels
• Comfortable leading an integrated agency team (creative, PR, production etc)
• Strong critical thinking skills to quickly assess challenges and potential implications of decisions, assert a point of view and defend a position, with focus on finding solutions while considerate of implications
• Tight project leadership skills including driving accuracy, organization and collaboration from our team
• Experience managing direct reports and comfortable with direct management of career development and coaching needs for their reports
• Ability to think through and design over-arching marketing idea rational and tactical approach to a programme executions

Starcom is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of society and does not discriminate on grounds of race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation or gender identity. We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities and for candidates in our application process.  If you need assistance or adjustment due to a disability, please contact us.