Associate Director, Media Planning

General Purpose of Job

The Associate Director, Media Planning is responsible for developing an understanding of clients’ business model and pain points and translating them to custom media strategies. The ideal candidate will have a passion for digital marketing, a deep knowledge of all media channels, both online and offline, and the ability to think critically. The Associate Director will work on existing client strategy and, in some cases, lead new client strategy opportunities. He/she will strategically develop media plans that deliver against goals/KPIs and provide ongoing guidance for next‑level strategies that lead to significant impact for the client’s business. The Associate Director also leads a team of planners and managers to support growth and changing needs in a continuously evolving media landscape, fosters a positive and productive team culture, and builds strong collaborative relationships internally and externally to elevate the quality of thinking and ideas applied to each client’s business.

Location

NY, Chicago or Minneapolis offices, 4 days a week

Key Responsibilities

• Work with Media Planning leadership to develop innovative and custom solutions in achieving client goals for prospective and current clients.
• Collaborate with strategy, communications planning, and creative teams to define media strategies that are integrated across moments and tactics and align with client campaign objectives.
• Oversee media strategy, campaign creation, budget, optimization, and testing for full‑funnel, multi‑platform campaigns across all paid channels including television, radio, print, out‑of‑home, digital, social, and mobile media.
• Leverage insights, learnings, and modeling to determine the right channel mix and strengthen data‑informed portions of media plans.
• Stay current with advances in media, the competitive landscape, and vendor capabilities; use that knowledge to influence current and future business plans and strategies.
• Drive media innovation, thought leadership, and best‑practice sharing throughout the department.
• Develop and nurture relationships with media partners and technology companies to secure first‑mover access, competitive rates, and innovative programs.
• Identify and lead prioritization of media projects to manage workflow across the assigned client portfolio.
• Establish and share media best practices and benchmarks across teams, highlighting opportunities to test, learn, and optimize based on customer insights, competitive initiatives, new channels, and offerings by channel.
• Assist or lead in the preparation and presentation of new business pitches as requested by supervisor.
• Represent the agency’s mission, capabilities, and goals accurately to assigned clients, business development prospects, and other potential industry allies (vendors, peers).
• Review all marketing strategies and research for assigned clients as a “quality control” function.
• Understand each client’s market, challenges, opportunities, and competition.
• Think strategically and tactically to meet client needs, improve current services, or deliver new services.
• Maintain contact with key industry associations and organizations.
• Perform other responsibilities as they are developed and defined.

Job Requirements

Education

Bachelor’s degree required.

Experience

• 7+ years of media experience at both a tactical level (implementing) and a strategic level (guiding and training); agency experience is a plus.
• 3+ years in a management or supervisory role.
• Exceptionally strong verbal and written communication skills to effectively interact with clients, vendors, and all levels of the internal organization.
• Ability to identify, recruit, and retain top talent; experience positively managing personnel issues.
• Proven quantitative and analytic capabilities; expertise in translating data into insights.
• Proven ability to manage multiple, simultaneous short‑ and long‑term projects.
• Track record of demonstrating strong judgment and prioritization capabilities.
• Ability to implement change quickly to support evolving client initiatives or marketplace occurrences.
• Working knowledge of third‑party media research, including Nielsen, MRI, Scarborough, Media Radar, DoubleClick, and YouGov.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Experience building client decks and pitching current and potential up‑sell opportunities.
• Expert understanding of media planning, distribution, and syndication of content.
• Collaborative approach and all‑in attitude.
• Client‑facing track record.
• Skilled at and enjoys manipulating and understanding data, drawing actionable data‑driven decisions to drive sales and marketing efforts.
• Strong interpersonal, partnership, and influencing management skills.
• Self‑motivated and creative strategic thinker who thrives in a fast‑paced environment.
• Extensive knowledge of the media industry, demonstrating depth in media strategy and performance‑based marketing across all channels, media analytics/ROI, and planning and buying local and national media (digital and traditional).
• Proven ability to develop and manage paid media plans that meet or exceed business objectives.
• Influential and persuasive communicator with strong interpersonal skills; exceptional ability to grow and foster internal and external relationships.
• Strong presentation/story‑telling and impeccable written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to learn and understand each client’s business; act as an extension of the client with working knowledge of issues that could influence media decisions.
• Display a natural curiosity as a “student of the industry” with a desire to learn and teach, applying knowledge for the ongoing betterment of client media plans.
• Ability to lead and develop a high‑performing team, with a record of employee growth and development.
• Passion for a purpose‑driven, team‑oriented, client‑first, cross‑functional culture.
• Demonstrated problem‑solver with the ability to provide creative solutions that result in positive outcomes.
• Ability to articulate a clear and compelling vision to direct and maximize the team where all roles and responsibilities are well defined, understood, and managed.
• Expert synthesizer of detail and information for client, peer, and management consumption.
• Exhibits sound business judgment to navigate everyday client and team challenges, commanding authority and respect.

Compensation

Employees can be expected to be paid an annualized salary range of $97,000–$125,000, based on variations in knowledge, skills, experience and market conditions.

#J-18808-Ljbffr