EssenceMediacom has announced the appointment of Jack Graham as national head of planning, adding to planning capabilities in Australia.
Graham joins from UM Worldwide where he has spent six years in senior strategic planning roles, most recently group strategy director – Sydney. He is no stranger to the GroupM family, having previously spent three years at Wavemaker in roles spanning analytics and insights, planning and strategy.
As a renowned planning leader, Graham brings broad, deep knowledge of marketing science, business strategy, and digital technology and an ability to see communications trends and solutions clearly. He knows how to turn data and insights into a story and use tools and technology to deliver a strategy.
Graham will report to the CEO and work closely with the agency’s strategy, and product leads, including chief strategy officer Sophie Price and chief product & marketing officer Matt Scotton to elevate the planning function and seamlessly integrate planning and strategy products to better enable channel/audience thinking that delivers effective growth-driven strategies for clients.
See also: EssenceMediacom welcomes Matt Scotton as chief product and marketing officer
See also: EssenceMediaCom appoints Stevie Douglas-Neal as managing director
As national head of planning, Graham will lead a team of 15 planners across Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, who work in close partnership with the agency’s 12-person strong strategy team, which also includes head of strategy Rob Frost, who joined from MediaCom New York and Marine Turner Group strategy director who joined from MediaCom London in 2022.
Pat Crowley, EssenceMediacom Australia & New Zealand CEO, said: “In transitioning our two agencies to create and build EssenceMediacom in Australia & New Zealand, the importance of data driven audience planning has been elevated.
“Paired with a big innovation and creativity agenda, it’s a craft that we are seriously investing in, by building a large, dedicated team, plus new tools and technology powered by the largest owned data set in the country.
“Jack was a standout in our global search for the national head of planning. I’m excited for him to join our team and have no doubt he’ll have an immediate and marked impact on our agency and our clients’ businesses,” Crowley added.
Graham said of his new role: “I couldn’t be more excited to be joining the team at EssenceMediacom. As a career planner, there is not a more motivating challenge than harnessing the power and energy behind this new and unique agency into market-leading work for clients.
“I look forward to joining EssenceMediacom at such a pivotal time and contributing to how the agency develops and delivers solutions for the next era of advertising,” he added.
EssenceMediacom has an enviable roster of global and local clients in Australia & New Zealand including Adidas, Coca-Cola, Commonwealth Bank, eBay, Google, KFC, Mars, Myer, Uber.
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Top image: Jack Graham