McJ is looking for a media director who leads with audience-first thinking and a data-driven mindset, that is balanced by the ability to seamlessly lead a cross-functional media strategy team. This person is a creative thinker and an expert in leading multichannel paid strategies with a strong focus on client ROI. This is a senior leadership position in the media department, and this person will be responsible for owning the overall client relationship and strategic development of media plan recommendations via research and collaboration within a cross-functional agency team. This role requires significant collaboration across all disciplines to develop consumer-first insight-based solutions that bring the brand message to life in unique and compelling ways. The media director is a key agency relationship builder with brand clients, vendor partners and partner agency teams, while also being responsible for the management, development and coaching of the media planning team.
What You'll Do:
Serve as an expert and thought leader on media strategy and digital media planning/buying practices for the department and brand clients.
Partner collaboratively with brand strategy, comms strategy and creative to create compelling strategies and unique executions for client campaigns.
Lead a media planning team in building multichannel media plans, final recommendations and campaign performance reports that help achieve client business goals.
Oversee budget management, reconciliation and client scoping efforts ensuring accuracy and accountability on financial elements.
Continually monitor current media landscape as well as consumer, category and competitive trends, serving as a thought leader to agency teams and brand clients.
Be a source of confidence with the clients so they trust you as an expert in cross-platform, audience-first strategy development.
Serve as agency ambassador and industry leader via participation in thought leadership such as social media, industry conferences, events and press opportunities
Ability to train, motivate and foster a strong, cohesive working team.
Act as a mentor for professional growth within the media team — with direct growth and development responsibilities to Associate Media Director and supervisors.
Ability to effectively handle personnel issues and provide recommendations on additional resources needed.
Help to continue to evolve curriculum to train media team on best practices, buying approaches and negotiations, analytics and tracking, campaign implementation, digital channel allocation, emerging opportunities and new partnerships.
Work to strengthen operations and processes, both for client team as well as department.
What You Bring:
7–10+ years of experience developing strategic media recommendations and overseeing digital media campaign execution, acting as a key agency contact.
Deep understanding of strategic media planning and execution, with experience developing consumer-first strategies, planning across both offline and online media (focus in digital, social and influencer channels is preferred).
Familiarity with web analytics tools such as Google Analytics.
Exceptionally skilled in Excel and PowerPoint (and Google products), with the ability to discuss how those functions can be applied relative to the media planning process.
Expert in negotiating and constructing media plans, with understanding of planning, buying and activation.
Robust proficiency in basic functions within systems and tools related to the media planning process (e.g., media management system, billing system, competitive and targeting tools).
Well-versed in the art of storytelling when presenting; able to confidently present and “sell through” ideas both internally and to clients, while coaching team members on these skills.
Strong experience and principles navigating cross-department relationships.
Leadership and supervisory experience in terms of developing media professionals, including strategic and people management skills.
Curious by nature. Active in digital ecosystems, technologies and communities that are changing our business and eager to find ways to make them work for our brands.
Thrive on mentoring others and desire to share knowledge.
Resourceful, positive, do-what-it-takes attitude with attention to detail and accuracy.
Handles stressful situations with maturity. Confident in team and client interactions.
This is a remote position.