Who We Are

VML, part of WPP, is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human first, award-winning work for blue chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports, as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and, most recently, Marketing Measurement & Optimization. In addition, VML's specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world's largest and most awarded health agencies. VML's global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney.

About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.

Job Description

Role: CRM Strategic Planner

Location: Gurgaon

About Us

VML is a global powerhouse born from the unification of Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R — two of the world's most powerful and accomplished creative agencies with complementary capabilities and geographic strengths. We have an industry-unique opportunity to provide our client partners with a fully integrated offering across brand experience, customer experience and commerce practices — powered by deep data and technology experience.

For more information, visit www.vml.com

Role Summary

We are looking for a highly capable data -obsessed CRM Strategic Planner to play a pivotal role in developing and optimizing CRM campaigns and customer journeys for our automotive clients. Working closely with our clients CRM and Strategy Leads, you will contribute significantly to shaping their customer relationships, designing strategies that captivate, convert, and retain their customers.

This role demands a blend of strategic thinking, analytical rigor, persuasive communication, and a keen eye for detail. You'll be instrumental in translating market insights and CRM data into actionable CRM plans, ensuring our clients achieve their business growth objectives through best-in-class CRM experiences.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Proposal Development:

Translate client business objectives, market insights, and customer data into clear, actionable CRM strategies tailored for the automotive sector.
Design multi-channel customer journeys that optimize engagement, conversion, and loyalty throughout the automotive lifecycle (e.g., pre-purchase, ownership, service, repurchase). Experience with martech (Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Campaign Manager or similar) a big advantage.

Presentation & Communication Support

Prepare impactful presentations and contribute to discussions that articulate CRM strategies and present business proposals to client Marketing and Strategy Leads, and other stakeholders.
Support the client's Strategy Lead in communicating strategic recommendations and influencing decision-making through well-reasoned arguments and comprehensive data visualization.

Performance Review & Optimization

Collaborate closely with our internal and client-side CRM Data Analyst teams to review CRM campaign metrics and extract actionable insights from campaign performance data.
Propose concrete, data-backed recommendations for adjustments and optimizations to maximize campaign effectiveness, engagement rates, and client business outcomes.
Support the implementation of A/B testing and experimentation as a core component of continuous improvement.

Strategy Translation & Execution Partnership

Work collaboratively with execution teams to proactively identify and address implementation challenges, iterate on execution plans, and recommend appropriate strategic adjustments when operational hurdles are encountered, safeguarding the integrity and effectiveness of the original strategy.

CRM Thought Contribution & Point Of View

Develop and articulate well-reasoned points of view on critical CRM topics, contributing to our agency's and clients strategic direction. This includes areas such as:

CRM Creative Best Practices: Advising on effective messaging, personalization, and channel-specific content for the automotive audience.
Personalization at Scale: Researching and developing approaches for hyper-personalized communications across various touchpoints.
Emerging CRM Trends: Staying abreast of industry innovations, competitor activities, and future trends to inform our strategic recommendations.

Qualifications

Experience: 4-7 years of progressive experience in CRM strategy, marketing automation, or customer lifecycle management, ideally within an agency environment or a high-involvement brand.
Industry Focus: Proven experience within the automotive sector is highly desirable, demonstrating an understanding of the unique customer journey, purchasing cycles, and brand loyalty drivers. Experience in other high-value, complex purchase cycles will also be considered.
Strategic Acumen: Strong strategic thinking skills with the ability to translate client business goals into tangible CRM initiatives and quantifiable outcomes.
Analytical Prowess: Solid analytical skills, comfortable working with data, deriving insights, and articulating data-driven recommendations. Experience working with CRM analytics platforms (e.g., Tableau, Power BI) and interpreting data presented by analysts.
Communication & Presentation: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a proven track record of developing and contributing to impactful presentations for client audiences.

Tools

Powerpoint, Excel, Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Einstein features or similar

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we've adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

VML is a WPP agency (NYSE: WPP). For more information,please visit www.vml.com, andfollowalong on Instagram,LinkedIn, andX.

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CRM Strategic Panner