Director, Media Planning & Strategy

Job Description

The Media Strategy & Planning Team at ESPN develops innovative media plans that drive awareness, consumption, subscriptions, and brand affinity across all properties and platforms to affect the ESPN business.

We need a nimble, dynamic and poised leader who can understand the various marketing challenges that our business faces and think creatively and strategically about how owned & off-channel Media and data can be used to drive results.

The Media Director will provide strategy & thought leadership in creating and executing the development of integrated media plans using on & off channel Media. This role works with multiple in-house teams and external agencies on a daily basis, in a leadership position and have autonomy of their campaigns.

The ideal candidate uses superior communication skills to define & defend strategies, uncover new targeting opportunities to buy more efficiently and uses data & insights to understand the outcomes we drive through Media.

Must enjoy working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with a proven ability to handle a high-volume workload with a positive attitude.

This role reports into the Senior Director of Media Strategy & Planning.

Responsibilities:
• Lead Media Strategy and Planning of annual campaigns bespoke to fan behavior, and objectives with a focus on Direct to Consumer (ESPN+) and Live Sports initiatives
• Create the strategy and framework of the communication/media plans that will deliver on goals
• Work closely with internal teams to drive information gathering and data analysis efforts to be fan centric and platform agnostic
• Manage day to day work with greater marketing teams: brand teams, in-house creative agency and media agencies towards a seamless and integrated marketing campaign; ensuring creative is well aligned to strategy; consult on best practices by platform
• Guide Associate Managers and Planners through fundamentals of the planning process
• Delegate responsibilities, mentor, and train Associate Managers and Planners including oversight into projects – monitoring for progress and accuracy of all communication plans/assignments
• Stay on top of sports industry trends, ad products, consumer and viewing behaviors to inform media plans

Basic Qualifications:
• Minimum of 10 years Media experience (brand or agency)
• Minimum of 5 years managerial experience
• Demonstrated understanding across all media forms and measurement (including Mobile, Search, Social, TV) and how to synthesize into cohesive plans
• Understanding of media strategy, development, and storytelling of holistic media solutions and planning
• Proven leadership ability – experience managing external agencies, internal partners & direct reports
• Persuasive storyteller and presentation abilities. Must be comfortable developing and delivering strategic presentations
• Passion for data-driven marketing and experience with devising effective strategies based on true insights
• Comfortable with digital & TV data & analytics
• Can foster and grow talent
• Excels at media fundamentals and can educate all levels

Required Education
• Bachelors Degree

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gmeb33-18-118-184-237-42 in your application.