Director, Media Strategy And Execution

The Director of Media Strategy & Execution is a senior level leader who sets the strategic path to grow brand sales, awareness, and traffic by leading the creation, facilitation, and execution of best-in-class omnichannel media plans across the Bloomin' Brands portfolio. Harnessing the broadest meaning of "media" this role will lead a full suite of marketing communications solutions including traditional and digital media, tentpole integrations, cultural activations, content, tech innovation, influencer marketing, digital partnerships, and Real Time Marketing.

This role is a key strategic partner to brand leadership who will leverage all tools at their disposal including research, analysis of media consumption habits, industry trends, and competitive insights to ensure that our paid media campaigns reach the right audience at the right time with the right message to deliver on our business objectives.

We are looking for a naturally curious, digital-first, data-led marketer with a deep understanding of category media consumption, behaviors, platform evolution and multi-touch measurements.

Someone who can harness a blend of creativity, science, psychology, tech-savvy, and innovation. This role will allow you to flex your media prowess in service of solving big brand and business challenges.

This role reports directly to the VP of Digital Marketing & Media, with a team of (3) direct reports and will own the day-to-day relationship with our Media AOR.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

• Provide strategic direction to media agency by distilling brand objectives into media strategies

• Oversee a team of integrated media professionals and foster a culture of positivity, enthusiasm, inclusion, and relentless excellence

• Challenges the limits of conventional ways of defining what media's role is in the marketing ecosystem and crafts narratives, channel approaches and strategies that are progressive and innovative

• Collaborate with media agency to develop quarterly media plans, determine appropriate media mix and role of channel, and present recommendations to the brand marketing leads

• Partner with Media Agency, Digital Analytics. Modeling, and Consumer Insights teams

• Synthesize industry trends, performance data, and other resources to inform strategies, audience development, test & learn opportunities, optimizations, and measurement frameworks

• Work across brand and agency teams, fostering communication and cross channel strategy, fluidity, and transparency

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders and initiative leaders across the organization

• Act as a liaison between media auditor, media agency, and Bloomin' Brands, and incorporate audit findings into future recommendations and buy stewardship

• Manage monthly media budget by ensuring media plans are aligned to brand budgets

• Brings powerful thought leadership to consult on complex issues and applies new media and technology in to ensure final product is best-in-class

• Develop a tight partnership with all departments, buying groups and creative agency to ensure a strong, positive, collaborative environment driving brand and business success

• Oversee the mapping of cultural and market trends, leverage these in service of reaching business and brand goals, and advocate for solutions across all touchpoints

• Take high-level communications tasks and identify how the brands should innovate and behave in different media and cultural spaces

• Drive big brand ideation across teams and partner agencies

• Develop and brief partnership strategy, content strategy, influencer strategy and sponsorship strategy in service of brand building (brand partnerships, media partnerships, event sponsorships, content)

• Show off your storytelling prowess with presentations that bring your media plan to life

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with media vendors for smooth planning, execution, and implementation

REQUIREMENTS

• Deep knowledge and experience with multi-channel channel marketing, with an emphasis on Paid Social, Video (Linear/FEP/CTV), Programmatic, and Paid Search

• Detail oriented, strong business acumen, financial analysis skills, and strategic skills

• Ideally, managing media budgets +$5MM

• Deep knowledge and experience with multi-channel marketing and channel roles in brand marketing

• Understands the modern traditional and digital media and marketing channel ecosystem and knows how to optimize POE plans to build brands and improve outcomes

• Strong experience with brand building & demand generation media approaches and measurement solutions

• Ability to deliver strong points of view and counsel to senior stakeholders listen

• Proven leadership ability - managed a team of planners, strategics and analytics

• Proven ability to interact with people at all levels of an organization, fostering strong cross-functional teamwork and results

• Strategic thinking ability with balanced analytical and creative approach to tactical planning

• Experience successfully bringing together people from different disciplines, internal and external to achieve desired outcomes

• Research experience: working with data and information to draw conclusions

• Commitment to delivering creative and innovative solutions and building advocacy for ideas

• Excellent communication and presentation skills (both written and verbal)

Qualifications

• 9+ years' experience in media strategy, planning and buying (agency or client side) required

• Experience with restaurant/hospitality or retail verticals preferred, but other verticals will certainly be considered

• Passionate about data, analytics and digital combined with a good solid knowledge of traditional media (television, OOH, radio, etc.) as well

• Excellent verbal and written skills. Highly articulate and persuasive in communications (i.e., clear, concise, and understandable)

• Comfortable leading and galvanizing a team toward common goal

• Experience with advanced analytics and media performance with ability to analyze and understand results and make strong insights

• Ability to think strategically and critically, anticipating the output and goals of all projects

• Insatiably curious and capable of devising and recommending media experiments and tests

• Not intimidated by ambiguity or problems without established best practice solutions

• Experience leading a full spectrum media solution - partnerships, content, tentpoles, influencer campaigns.

• You're a dynamic, creative thinker who can flex both their right-and-left hand sides of their brain, depending on the day and how much coffee you've had

EDUCATION

• Bachelor's degree, preferably in Marketing, Communications, Social Sciences, or Business administration

Bloomin' Brands offers benefits such as medical, dental, vision, and 401k. Further details around eligibility and additional benefit offerings can be found at BloominBrandsBenefits.com.