Purpose of the role:
The Planning Associate Director is expected to lead the Integrated OMG team by delivering superior client satisfaction through the building and execution of strategic, competitive, and creative media plans. The Associate Planning Director will have an intimate knowledge of the client’s business and the media marketplace and apply this knowledge to help the OMG integrated team to drive results and exceed client KPIs. The Planning Associate Director will mentor and supervise direct reports
You will be the leader. You will guide an enthusiastic team of cross discipline professionals. You will elevate the team’s performance through leading by example. You will consistently give your best and encourage the same from others. You will be engaged in the ongoing day-to-day work with specific focus on liaising with the integrated team to create remarkable plans designed to exceed the defined success metrics. This result will be achieved by leveraging proprietary tools including OMNI Studio, incorporating best practices, understanding investment strategies, incorporating analytics and being open to different ideas and perspectives.
You will be an essential and valuable member of the OMG team through positive and professional engagement of client teams, agency partners, media partners and field experts. Multiple data points and facts will enable you to develop defendable OMG opinions, perspectives and hypotheses. You will focus attention towards OMG business and operational goals to help ensure the ongoing health of the agency. Financial targets, investment obligations and proprietary tool adoption are some of the key areas of attention.
An excellent Associate Director is both creative and an analytical leader. They will be recognized for their business acumen, entrepreneurial vision, passion, sense of organization, customer service, level of rigor, teamwork, leadership, accuracy, attention to detail and creativity. Lean forward and get started!
Your Responsibilities:
Media Planning – Ensure the team infuses every plan with thoughtful, functional, creative, data-driven executions rooted in insights. Familiarity with market research and media applications are crucial. Incorporate measurement and campaign optimization for ultimate performance
Team – Engage and supervise your team with enthusiasm, knowledge, questions and ideas. Aim towards the future…. prepare to be a coach and mentor while being open to receiving valuable feedback from others. Leverage your team to grow skillsets, presentation skills, detail-orientation, technical skills, leadership and critical thinking. Ensure you are engaged with your Director/VP as the business requires
Client Management – Build and maintain an effective working relationship with appropriate business leaders to continuously grow the account. Provide a unique point of view to help clients interpret the best way to test and scale new approaches and identify opportunities to grow their business. Account health is rooted in client satisfaction
Cross Team Alignment – Be an agency leader and ensure the team is inclusive of multiple disciplines – strategy, marketing sciences, activation, business lead – and externally to understand and develop the most appropriate media concepts and buying strategies across multiple platforms
Some Specific Responsibilities:
- Maintain appropriate confidentiality of client and agency information
- Ensure team is focused to deliver against stated OMG business targets and programs
- Key contact for appropriate senior level client business and full team
- Complete understanding of the client-agency contract
- Responsible for overall media process (planning/buying/on-line/strategy/data management etc)
- Own the relationships with appropriate partner agency personnel
- Accountable to the OMG Senior Leadership team for working towards defined agency goals for finance, employee development, new business growth, training and overall health of OMG
- Accountability for providing ongoing strategic insight into client business
- Actively support/input/develop strategic documents/discussion
- Participate in new business pitches as required
- Contribute to the OMG team with respect to recruiting and completing Growth Plans and performance reviews as appropriate
- Client Interaction / Satisfaction
- Understanding client marketplace dynamics (economic, sales, competitive, consumer)
- Ensure utilization of OMG Proprietary and industry research tools in plan development
- Fully understand the financial and billing position of each client
- Ensure appropriate preparation and presentation of reports and strategic analyses to clients and/or support the team as they develop reports/documents
- In depth knowledge of all media – offline and online and strategies
- Print, OOH, Radio, Broadcast, Social, Digital, event, sponsorship
- Demonstrate solid expertise/knowledge of data and analytics
- Ensure proper client training from a media/communications perspective
- Actively participate and ensure team supports OMG Values and agency initiatives
- Run client education seminars
- Prepare and manage the Growth Plans for all direct reports
Key Qualifications
- University/College education in marketing, communication or other relevant fields
- 8+ years of experience in media or related fields
- Bilingualism an asset but not required
- Working knowledge of digital and traditional media ecosystem
- Knowledge of Industry Tools/Resources as asset (BBM, Google Analytics, Adwords etc)
- Working knowledge of Excel and Microsoft Office Software