Media Planner

McGarrah Jessee is looking for a Media Planner who builds plans that drive impact, not just impressions, and who uses data to decide where investment goes and to show what it delivered, for brands people are irrationally fanatic about.

About the Role

McJ's media department runs as three buying units. Reach buys national and local TV, radio and sponsorships. Signal plans OOH, digital video, digital audio, social and creators, and buys social, creator and direct publisher deals. Response activates everything bought in a DSP, Google Ads or a commerce platform (search, programmatic and commerce media) and runs the ad operations that make all of it measurable.

The Media Planner sits in Signal and reports to an Associate Media Director. You take day-to-day direction from the Media Supervisor on your client set, plan across OOH, digital video, digital audio, social and creators, and partner with Reach's buyers and Response's specialists so every plan works as one system.

Signal buys its social, creator and direct publisher deals; the biddable portion of video, audio and OOH is activated in Response by the Programmatic Specialist in the DSP and the Associate Director of Performance on YouTube. Ad Operations in Response traffics tags and creative; you supply the specs, buy details and approvals it needs, and you QA your own plan and buy documents.

Responsibilities

• Build integrated media plans across OOH, digital video, digital audio, social and creators, grounded in audience data and tied to clear business goals.
• Define the role each channel plays in the plan, and be able to explain why it earns its place.
• Research audiences, markets and media landscapes using syndicated, platform and first-party data to inform every plan.
• Partner with Reach's buyers and Response's specialists so TV, radio, sponsorships, search, programmatic and commerce media connect to your plan as one system.
• Hand the biddable portion of video, audio and OOH to Response with clear goals, budgets, flighting and KPIs, sending DSP buys to the Programmatic Specialist and YouTube to the Associate Director of Performance, and review delivery against the plan.
• Work with strategy and creative early, so assets are designed for the environments they will run in, properly sized, and tailored by channel and market.
• Gather and evaluate vendor proposals, negotiate value, and bring forward non-traditional opportunities worth testing.
• Support creator programs from discovery through activation, working with Signal's paid social team on selection, briefing and paid amplification.
• Enter and maintain Signal's direct buys in Mediaocean Prisma, supply Ad Operations with the specs, buy details and approvals it needs for trafficking, and agree on tracking requirements with analytics and Ad Operations.
• Own the details: accurate flowcharts, budget trackers, media authorizations, actualization and billing across multiple clients and campaigns running at once.
• Measure what matters: track performance against business outcomes such as store traffic, leads and sales, and recommend optimizations based on what the data shows.
• Stay current on vendor offerings and emerging platforms, and share what you learn with the broader team.

Requirements

• 2+ years of media planning experience across multi-channel plans.
• Hands-on experience with at least two Signal channels (OOH, digital video and CTV, digital audio and podcast, social, or creators), plus working knowledge of the rest.
• Familiarity with broadcast, search and programmatic, enough to plan alongside Reach and Response with confidence.
• Experience managing budgets across several concurrent campaigns, with spend that is both efficient and effective.
• Strong organizational instincts and the ability to run parallel timelines across clients and categories.
• Comfort with data: media math, reporting, and turning results into a clear recommendation.
• Clear written and verbal communication across disciplines and vendor partners, and the habit of over-communicating when it matters.
• Curiosity about audiences, and the habit of testing assumptions with data.
• The ability to learn new tools quickly.

Pluses

• Experience with Mediaocean Prisma, CM360 and audience tools such as MRI-Simmons or Nielsen.
• Creator program experience, from sourcing through paid amplification.
• Retail, energy, DTC, eCommerce, or multi-location marketing experience.

Important Qualifications

• Motivated, proactive self-starter with meticulous attention to detail.
• Experience working autonomously and proactively pulling in teammates when support is needed.
• A successful track record of managing multiple campaigns across a variety of clients.
• Strong analytical and math skills.
• Exceptional oral, written, and presentation skills.

This is a remote position.