Director, Connections & Media

The Director, Connections & Media role is responsible, (in partnership with Brand, Integrated Marketing Experiences IMX, and Front Line Marketing/Commercial teams and Content Partners) for building and orchestrating best-in-class holistic connection plans across all relevant media channels (paid, earned, owned, and retail/commerce). This candidate will do this by understanding and interpreting consumer insights and trends, linking those insights to business strategy and translating communication strategies into optimal connections plans.

The ideal candidate must have strong understanding of marketing mix learnings, robust capability in measurement and data analytics to ensure optimized performance that clearly demonstrates media’s impact on revenue growth, brand equity, and consumer engagement. This person will oversee data informed audience planning, investment and Go-To-Market activation as well as manage external agency partners to achieve excellence in execution and innovation in areas like shoppable/retail media, AI-powered targeting and biddable media.

Core Functional Competencies:

• Media planning expertise in all channels from affinity building to transactions/ loyalty. Familiarity with Sports Media and Retail Media Networks is a plus.

• Digital marketing transformation including hands on experience/familiarity with digital trading UIs, audience building and the programmatic ecosystem (TTD, DV360, Amazon, Social Platforms, etc).  Hands on keyboards programmatic experience is a plus

• Audience segmentation Advanced Media Expertise to advise and influence investments to drive ROI. 

• Comfortable leveraging audience data tools, such as Epsilon Clean Room, CDPs, and other data platforms, to inform media planning and execution across multiple channels, including digital, video, social, mobile, and offline media

• Proficiency with 1/2/3 party data usage and governance

• Strong Operations knowledge including measurement & analytics, data enablement via technology

• Agency leadership & management

• Growth mindset: ability to see the opportunity in the ever-changing media landscape to future proof our business

What You’ll Do for Us

• Holistic Media Investment, Strategy & Planning: Lead the development of holistic omni-channel media strategies that align with brand marketing objectives and commercial goals. Be the internal team’s “go-to” for all connection and media planning questions and deliverables. Ensure each plan is audience-centric and platform-specific, building best-in-class connection plans across paid, earned, owned and shared channels. Work with connections team to balance upper-funnel brand-building tactics with lower-funnel commerce and conversion-driving tactics in a cohesive plan.  Develop and execute the strategic approach of media budget allocation and channel mix recommendations, guided by data and past performance. Direct negotiations, including emerging areas like shoppable media working closely with media agencies and new vendors to secure optimal deals and value-added opportunities.

• Data-Driven Audience Planning & Insights: Leverage business and consumer data to inform smarter media planning and audience targeting. Work with Analytics and Data Science teams to interpret customer insights, purchase behavior, and segmentation studies, shaping audience strategies that pinpoint who we should engage, when, and on which platforms. Apply advanced analytics (such as look-alike modeling, propensity scoring, or using our first-party data and unified data platform) to refine targeting and personalize messaging across media channels. Ensure media plans are built on clear data-driven insights and use these insights to brief agencies on targeting parameters.

• Measurement & Analytics Integration: Embed measurement and analytics into every media initiative to track performance and inform optimization. Partner with the Marketing Analytics/Insights team to utilize tools like marketing mix modeling (MMM), multi-touch attribution, brand lift studies, and competitive spend analysis, in order to gauge program impact across revenue, brand equity, and shopper engagement.

• Set clear KPIs and success metrics for each campaign upfront (e.g., ROAS, incremental sales lift, brand health metrics) and ensure the appropriate tracking is in place. Continuously monitor in-flight media performance and adjust tactics or spend as needed to maximize ROI and yield. 

• Post-campaign, lead rigorous analyses and post-mortems – assessing results versus targets, understanding drivers o