Company description About Publicis Commerce: Informed by data, our passionate team strives to deliver Hero Moments for our clients’ brands in the final mile of the retail customer journey. We pride ourselves on being able to provide winning client solutions delivered across 7 core capability areas: Data & Consumer Insights; Shopper Marketing & Integrated RTM; Field Marketing; Events & Activations; Promotional, Risk, Reward & Loyalty and Retail POS Strategy Overview The Business Unit Director (Activations) will play a pivotal role in building and maintaining strong relationships with clients, identifying new business opportunities and promoting our offerings. The ideal candidate will be commercially driven with a deep understanding of business insights, strategy, sales and activations and creative systems, ensuring the successful delivery of client and product solutions. Responsibilities Responsibilities (include but are not limited to): Brand Activations & Experiential Marketing Develop and execute experiential marketing strategies to drive brand awareness and consumer engagement. Plan and manage activations such as in-store promotions, trade shows, sponsorship events, roadshows, and pop-up experiences. Ensure activations align with overall marketing objectives and sales targets. Integrate digital and tech-driven elements (AR/VR, interactive kiosks, social media tie-ins) to enhance engagement. Client Relationship Management: Oversee key client relationships. Develop a thorough understanding of client business drivers and requirements. Promote our company’s solutions to meet client needs and sustain business growth. Collaborate with clients to develop tailored activation and sales strategies. Build and maintain relationships with retailers, distributors, and trade partners to drive product sales. Negotiate contracts with venues, suppliers, and external partners for activation events. Business Insight Integration: Maintain an understanding of overall business insights that overlay strategy creative, systems, and data. Ensure integration of these insights in client solutions. Internal Stakeholder Liaison: Collaborate with internal stakeholders to ensure campaigns are delivered on time and within budget. Event and Campaign Management: Manage and execute small to large-scale events, Roadshows, conferences, campaigns & in-store activations across a varied client portfolio. Deploy end-to-end channel solutions effectively. Sales & Revenue Growth Develop activation campaigns that directly contribute to lead generation and sales conversions. Work with sales teams to align activations with sales strategies and objectives. Identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling during activations. Track and analyze sales data from activations to measure effectiveness and ROI. Leadership and Innovation: Demonstrate organizational, project management, communication, and leadership skills, with the ability to brief creative on conceptual requirements. Develop innovative solutions that push boundaries and deliver exceptional results. Qualifications Proven experience as an Activations Specialist or similar role in an agency environment. Strong ability to build and maintain strategic client relationships. Commercially savvy with a deep understanding of client business drivers. Excellent organizational and project management skills. Exceptional communication and leadership abilities. Innovative mindset with a passion for developing cutting-edge solutions within tight deadlines. Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams and manage multiple projects simultaneously. Act as the key interface between the customer and all relevant internal stakeholders. Quickly act to resolve any issues and problems faced by customers and deal with complaints to maintain trust. Prepare regular reports of progress and forecasts to internal and external stakeholders using key account metrics. Develop and manage account plans for all current clients with input from all key internal stakeholders TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE/QUALIFICATIONS: Bachelor's Degree in the appropriate field of study or 5-6 years of relevant work experience within a similar environment   EXPERIENCE: 5-6 years of commercial, sales, activations & marketing industry experience Experience in managing growth, improving profitability of sales, advertising & marketing services Additional information Business growth Ensure yearly revenue targets are met. Intimate knowledge of the client’s business, market environment and products/brands to propose solutions for the growth of their business. Proactively address client challenges with innovative solutions to ensure revenue. Communicate the progress of monthly/quarterly initiatives to internal and external stakeholders that translated into additional revenue.   Strategy outline Support the Business Director by developing and evaluating short and long-term strategic, commercial & business objectives. Drive and champion the group's strategic goals, living shared values and core behaviours. Inculcate core values and behaviours in the culture, beliefs, and behaviours of the Leadership Teams of Publicis Commerce Contribute. Consistently within the leadership capability set as well as enabling agile teams. Excellent out-of-the-box, pitch-winning creative and strategic reverts. Proactively reverts to clients not waiting for briefs/orders from clients. Keep abreast of competitor activity/new market communication and share with client and team timeously.   Growth & Profitability Support the acquisition strategy of the Publicis Groupe. Assessment & structuring of partnership opportunities Drive the optimization and harmonization/integration of the operations of acquired entities with those of the Publicis Group Identification and implementation of resource & infrastructure optimization opportunities Identification & implementation of best-practice (both directions) Drive efficiencies, economies of scale & resource optimization through Publicis Commerce   BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES   Analytical, critical, and strategic thinking capabilities Commercial acumen Innovative Results and solution-oriented Influence Detail and deadline oriented. Strong management skills Presentation skills Personality Attributes: Ability to remain calm under pressure Confident Assertive Resilient Proactive “An inspirational leader” Meticulous with attention to detail Other: Flexible to work beyond normal office hours (overtime if and when required) Driver’s licence and own vehicle Publics Groupe is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and prohibits any forms of Discrimination or Harassment. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all our employees in line with our Employment Equity Plan. All appointments will be based on qualifications, experience and best fit but preference will be given to all affirmative action candidates or designated groups. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not hear from us within 2 weeks after submitting your application, please consider your application as unsuccessful.