Senior Research and Insights Executive

Agency: Havas Play

Job Description:

Havas Play UK helps brands produce Remarkable work in culture, building branded entertainment, partnerships, social & influencer, experiential and content people want to spend time with, sitting within Havas Media Network and connected to the wider Havas Village in London. We deliver through integrated divisions spanning Strategy, Creative, Activation, Content & Media Partnerships, Production, and Measurement and Evaluation, enabling truly 360 campaigns from insight to impact.

Our recent work and relationships span leading brands and rights holders, including EE, JD Sports, Jaguar Land Rover, Major League Baseball, The FA, HSBC and Jet
2.

You will be the day-to-day insight lead for a core client, owning the measurement & evaluation workstream and turning audience, cultural and performance data into clear recommendations that shape strategy, creative and activation. The role combines hands on analysis with proactive client management and close collaboration across Play’s Strategy, Creative, Client Services and Activation teams.

Working with the head of the measurement department, you’ll design and deliver quant and qual research (surveys, simple communities or depths), plus desk research, social listening, market intelligence and media/performance analysis - translating findings into stories that inform briefs, creative territories, channel choices, and evaluation frameworks.

• Build learning agendas and M&E frameworks tied to brand and campaign KPIs; deliver regular reporting and “so what” recommendations for optimisation and post‑campaign effectiveness.
• Plan and analyse quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews/mini groups; synthesise desk research and cultural trends into sharp POVs and brief inputs.
• Translate social, search and content signals into audience and cultural insights that guide creative and channel choices.

• Use HMN’s Converged / Converged.
  
  AI to connect audience intelligence with planning and activation, ensuring privacy‑first cross‑platform planning and transparent reporting.
• Run social listening and conversation analysis (e.g., Talkwalker or Meltwater) to size spaces, track sentiment/themes, identify creators/communities and monitor brand/campaign health.
• Build profiles using audience data sources (e.g., You Gov, GWI), enriching segmentation with attitudes, interests, media habits and fandom cues.

• Co‑create audience definitions, comms tasks and test‑and‑learn roadmaps; shape measurement plans aligned to the Intelligence → Design → Activate → Measure cadence.
• Develop evidence‑based brief inputs (problem definition, audience tensions, passion points, role for brand) and contribute to integrated Playbooks and pitch narratives.

• Provide concise insight packs for ideation (audiences, trends, formats, creators) and pressure test ideas against data‑backed hypotheses.
• Set up live dashboards and weekly readouts during flight to inform agile optimisation across social, influencer, content and experiential.

• Be the primary day‑to‑day contact for insight/M&E: run WIPs, manage timelines and scopes, brief partners/suppliers and ensure outputs are accurate, timely and commercially sound.
• Present findings simply and persuasively to client stakeholders, capturing decisions and next steps.

You’re a data‑curious storyteller who loves culture and cares about effectiveness. You can move from a spreadsheet to a deck to a room of stakeholders with confidence, and you’re comfortable owning the plan as well as the detail. Loving sport and embedding culture in your work are big ticks but not essential, as long as you’re willing to immerse yourself in our world.

• Agency side experience in insight, strategy or analytics with hands‑on delivery of research, reporting and client communication (typically 2–4+ years).
• Proven ability to distil complex data into clear narratives and recommendations for strategy, creative and activation teams.
• Competent in Excel/Sheets, PowerPoint/Keynote and data visualisation…