Media Strategist

The** Digital Media Strategist & Planner** will be responsible for ensuring the success of the digital media planning & buying within Incubeta. The ultimate goal of this role is building the clients' brands and generating leads across the most effective platforms/channels by developing in-depth and well-formulated media strategies, and media plans based on clients business objectives.

This role will require an omnichannel strategic approach with a mix of innovative, creative and tech-savvy approaches, as well as direct in-market niche publisher relationships, to develop and oversee the implementation of robust digital media strategies and associated media plans whilst supporting others within the Media Planning & Buying team.

**Working hours**:

- Extended hours or work week to align with the MENA market operating hours i.e. MENA work week is Sunday - Thursday.

**Place Within Organisation**:

- Direct Report to Media Strategy Lead in the Global Operations Team.
- Works closely with the Global, Operational & Functional heads within the Incubeta Group
- Incubeta Media Strategy and Planning Representative for the MENA clients, partners and publishers
- Drives Media Strategy and Planning collaboration (often across multi-project workstreams) between the MENA Business Unit (Account Management, Consultants, Project Managers) and the Operational Hub team ( Delivery Managers, Media Traders, Creative team, and SEO analysts.)

**Tasks & Responsibilities**
- Drive best practice media planning and buying guidelines, KPI's and standardised reporting within the MENA market
- Provide strategic research including market insights and/or media landscape insights, market and channel mix recommendations.
- Develop and present digital media strategies that maximize ROI on the media investments for Incubeta clients.
- Ensure the working media budget is efficiently and effectively optimised ensuring timely delivery of campaigns against budget.
- Foster relationships with Publishers (media owners)
- Manage negotiations and agreements of the media planning and buying between local Publishers (media owners) and Incubeta maximising the media investments for Incubeta clients.
- Sourcing Publisher products and deals that are relevant and pertinent to the time of year and/or deal specifications.
- Work closely with the In-Market Lead Consultant, to effectively deliver on client proposals, solutions and roadmaps to achieve the objectives.
- Collaborate with the Operational teams to promote organisational collaboration between all Incubeta business functions & bring service delivery to the forefront of Incubeta's offering
- Financial management of media bookings and performance on behalf of Incubeta clients. Ownership to deliver on booking vs. targets/forecast for the clients' media plans.
- Drive the creation and delivery of solutions that build on the business's current offerings through the adoption of innovative and collaborative thinking
- Drive compliance and proactively makes improvements to Incubeta's Digital Media Strategy and planning processes, policies and procedures within the MENA Business Unit.
- Implementation of best-practice and showcasing Digital Media Strategy trends to the MENA team.
- Keep abreast of competitor activity/new market communication.
- Foster relationships within Incubeta to strengthen relationships with other departments

**Qualification and experience**
- Minimum of four years of digital marketing experience in a media planning and strategy role within, digital media, digital technology, client service and solutions consulting, or a similar environment
- Knowledge of Digital Marketing/CRM/general digital business challenges affecting an organisation within the Middle East and Africa markets
- Expert understanding of the digital agency, performance marketing landscape, it's challenges and opportunities
- Strong understanding of all digital marketing channels, ad technologies, cross-media solutions and are passionate about (ad) technology and how technology can shape the online advertising industry and ecosystem for the benefit of our customers
- Strong knowledge of and practical experience in Facebook Ads Manager, Twitter Ads Manager and premium publishers/other media networks.
- A functional understanding of using and implementing one of the leading digital marketing solutions/tools - Google Marketing Platform including Campaign Manager, DV360, SA360, Google Analytics
- Significant experience with trends, issues and solutions in the area of Digital Marketing, Digital Advertising, Programmatic, DMP, DSP, SSP, Sales, Service and Customer Management
- Experience in Media or Digital agencies/advertisers Media Management department or Media Company / Media Research Agencies
- An in-depth understanding of the Middle East and Africa media market, with a key focus on the travel/airline industry (ie, media cost dynamics, landscape, media usage trends, etc.).
- Experience in both media planning and buying alon