**Company description** We are the Human Experience Agency. We believe the growth opportunity lies in people. We understand and anticipate human desires to deliver media experiences of value. We call this PeoplePoweredGrowth! Focusing on both business outcomes and human outcomes is proven to deliver stronger growth for clients. PeoplePoweredGrowth identifies the intersection between what people want and what brands need, to create media experiences of value. PeoplePoweredGrowth orchestrates the right talent and capability to solve for clients’ unique business challenges through interconnected capability. PeoplePoweredGrowth embodies a way of thinking, working, and learning; challenging the status quo and always reaching for a better. It is a culture of never standing still. Starcom is a full service, global media agency with a presence in multiple markets around the world. We believe in the power of our network and work closely with our global colleagues to ensure that we are providing our clients with global best practice, localized for the South African market. Our clients include Mondelez, Haleon (GSK), Samsung, Stellantis, Sandoz, Kellogg’s to name a few. We are part of the Publicis network – the fastest growing global network. **Overview** Planners are the backbone of our operations and the glue between strategy, reporting and Ad Operations. + Our clients relay on us to provide well thought-out media schedules that bring the strategic direction to life and work closely with the strategic team + Our planners know how to calculate reach, set costs, volume-metrics and KPI targets. + Planners track budgets, raise CE’s, produce and update media schedules. + Planners need to be able to run reach curves and calculate CPM rates across the relevant platforms. + Our planners work closely with the Ad Operations and campaign management teams, ensuring that the plans they build are correctly set-up, executed and optimized by the campaign manages. For this reason, planning needs to work hand-in-hand with the campaign managers. + Our planners will brief campaigns into the Ad Operations workflow management tool, ensuring our campaigns are tracked and managed from briefing to reporting. + Planners need to have a solid relationship with media owners and manage direct campaigns with care and precision. + Campaign managers need to ensure that their Google, Facebook and Twitter certifications are kept up to date - in line with Publicis training requirements. + Our clients and teams need to be kept up to date with the progress of all campaigns, so our planners need to be 100% on top of their portfolios and ensure that status sheets and progress reports to kept up to date and verbally reported back on in regular status meetings. + Planners at Starcom need to work closely with our digital analytics and strategy teams to deliver reports on time, every time. + Our clients expect value at every corner, so our planners need to remain hungry to negotiate value for every client in every opportunity. + Our Media Investment team rely on our planners to keep an accurate record of media investments and forecasts through our media planning and budget management tools – MEPlan and Powerhub. + Our Power of One teams and creative agency partners need our planners to deliver chase lists on time, every time and engage with our traffic managers to ensure creative delivered on time. + Our planners are required to meticulously follow our internal Buying, Ad Operations and Power of One account processes. + We actively seek strategic talent with the personality, ‘smarts’ and attitude to manage multiple work streams and multiple stakeholders. + Starcom wants you to grow and thrive in an environment that demands strategic excellence. + In return, we provide a culture where everyone’s opinions count, where your ideas and inputs are valued and where you are given the autonomy to push yourself as far as your ambition leads you. + Every person on our team is asked to chip in on birthday reminders, organizing social events and keeping an eye out on content opportunities for our social media pages. **Responsibilities** The Digital Media Planner is expected to be data driven, insights lead and a creative thinker, who strives to make meaningful impact on the business. This role demands confidence, presence and the skills to make a meaningful impact. Never just taking and executing orders, Starcom Planners are expected to direct, inspire and add value at every turn. A high level of collaboration, a willingness to teach others and a real desire to push the boundaries is what will be expected. In addition, this role requires a high degree of accountability and responsibility over the digital media investments we are entrusted to manage. Some working outside the standard working hours may be necessary. **Daily Activities:** + Creating CE’s + Sending CE’s to clients + Managing CE’s + Sending CE’s to buyers for PO tracking purposes + Drawing up media schedules + Delivering Media schedules + Obtaining Media Schedule approvals from clients + Creating Chase Lists, delivering chase lists to creative partners and Power of One partners + Chase outstanding creative + Briefing campaigns into Ad Operationscompiling and delivering Proof of Life documents. + Attend internal meetings with strategists, Ad Operations and Traffic management + Following up on the status of campaigns in Ad Operations + Maintain a good relationship and understanding of Medi Owner platforms + Maintain good relationships with the campaign management and Ad Operations teams **Qualifications** + Google Fundamentals of Digital Marketing + Google Analytics + Google Ads Video + Google Shopping Ads + Google Display Ads + Google Ads Search + Facebook Blueprint Planning **Experience:** + At least 3 years of digital media planning experience **Hard Skills:** + Able to effectively project manage + Numerically strong and analytically able + Strong communicator with effective interpersonal relationships across team and clients + Advanced IT skills including Microsoft Word, best-in-class Power Point, Excel, Outlook and web-based applications. + The ability to synthesize and reduce different inputs to create a well-considered and accurate representative view. + English fluency and language skills for effective business writing + Strong presentation skills + Solid data interpretation and analytics skills + Be able to exercise strategic principles and structured thinking to tackle business development projects assigned by client + Be able to select appropriate frameworks, tools and approaches to use in solving client problems + Develop strategies that interpret cultural and social trends as well as data relevant to client business **Soft Skills** + Is open to constructive feedback and challenges accordingly. + Is effective at building relationships and working as a team + Shows leadership and decision-making ability + Manages change well – adapts and remains flexible to business priorities + Ability to collaborate without ego as well as work effectively independently + Is willing to transfer skills and share knowledge openly + Ability to self-start and self-manage