About EssenceMediacom

We are a global communications agency leading with breakthrough thinking, building explosive growth for brands, and helping our clients see the bigger picture. Our daring global network of 10,000 influencers helps our clients breach traditional boundaries in media, uncover novel ideas, and unleash exponential growth. EssenceMediacom challenges conventional thinking to build, propel, and supercharge our clients’ businesses at scale and lead our industry in critical areas such as diversity, equity, inclusion, and sustainability.  

EssenceMediacom understands that our people are tasked with big goals: building breakthrough growth for brands and leading with breakthrough thinking in our industry. Our people are at the heart of this work because their ideas will enable us to decode the intersections of people, content, and technology to bring our aspirations to life. Our success is down to our eclectic, diverse, and talented people. EssenceMediacom is a place for us to grow our careers and expand our horizons. EssenceMediacom is committed to building an agency culture that supports our people, puts diversity at the forefront of our operations, and creates an opportunity for all. This collective culture will be our “new power” where ideas are freely exchanged, and collaboration is actively encouraged in a place where you can innovate in our hyperconnected world.

*Although we cannot make guarantees, we welcome conversations about flexible working for all roles at EssenceMediacom London*

Role: Global Performance Director

The Role

Mars Wrigley has globally recognized brands through the combination of products, communications, and connections to audiences, moments & culture that help drive relevance.  They are a company built on a legacy of scientifically proven principles for how brands grow that is facing a dynamic, fast-paced digital world putting pressure on the speed of action, trial, and change that massive CPGs tend to struggle with.  Together we are on a journey of transformation to implement changes to how we use data, how we plan for audiences, media & content, and how we drive faster measurement & optimization to move the organisation forward in an environment of changing media consumption habits and digital disruption.

The Global team at EssenceMediaCom supports Mars Wrigley across their portfolio of brands in understanding how to drive growth and relevance in markets where there are varying challenges around changing consumption behaviour, increased competition, and sustainability.  The biggest transformation areas we focus on are driving investment & optimization in biddable channels, creating advantages with addressable media & content, and building integrated brand experiences that bring together marketing and sales within media & content to connect with consumers wherever they are in the non-linear journey.

The Global Performance Director will work directly with the internal and external global/regional account and digital leadership teams and EssenceMediacom local markets and will be expected to provide support, counsel, and inspiration to the wider team.

Objectives of the Role:

Lead

• Serve as Performance Media Leadership across regions and with global & regional clients by providing thought leadership and partnering on capability building internally and externally in the areas of biddable, addressable, and full-funnel media experiences.
• Train teams on both EssenceMediacom and Mars Wrigley sides for ‘how to drive performance improvement through the planning and activation process including roles, ways of working, tools, and decision making.
• Collaborate with client and internal teams on defining the role of media within agile processes and the use of marketing and ad tech to support.
• Drive agenda and action with biddable hubs and leads in regions & markets to build out test & learn plans and increase the speed and sharing of best cases and best practices to scale.
• Partner with Global Account, Strategy & Analytics leaders on measurement and optimization practices including defining metrics, faster measurement solutions or proxies, and developing & deploying frameworks for how we drive performance using the right metrics and measurement solutions.
• Thought leadership and collaboration with client and creative agencies plus regions & markets on addressable content creation, tech pilots, and the overall agenda, orchestration, and learnings around the activation of addressable content including DCO.
• Develop and deploy a 1PD activation and acquisition program in partnership with Mars Wrigley data clients, internal data experts, and relevant markets & regions to ultimately inform longer-term data strategies.
• Develop and maintain relationships with client leaders including Global Media Director, Global Performance Media Director, and Human Intelligence (HI) leaders.
• Create and maintain regular relationships and connections with EM global and regional leaders including Global Account Director, Global Strategy Director, Engagement Team, Regional Account Leads & Regional Biddable Leaders

Support

• Serve as a team member and connector to Mars Inc. JBP leaders for MW-specific JBP requirements, strategic value adds and collaboration with global, regional and local teams to ensure EM and MW can maximize the partnerships and value across the planning and activation process
• Collaborate with markets on adoption, usage and scale of global programs such as naming conventions, dashboard development and deployment, search playbooks, fit for platform content, digital governance, etc.
• Contribute to key workstreams that impact biddable and addressable progress such integrated brand experience processes & playbooks, biddable structure & scope, transformation progress deep dives with markets
• Participate and bring expertise to media data strategy development, deployment and scaling

Requirements:

• Have in-depth experience within the media industry and been in a dedicated digital/biddable planning and/or activation role with performance as a priority where you had responsibility for key senior client relationships.
• Have a depth of knowledge of planning and buying across programmatic, social, search, and retail media networks.
• Be highly confident and skilled at using and applying relevant tools and resources (e.g. Audience Planning Tools, PowerBI, Tableau, Google Analytics, comScore, LookerStudio) that impact biddable/digital and addressable plans & optimization, including partner-level activation platforms (Meta, Google Ads & Campaign Manager, DV360, Amazon, TradeDesk, etc.)
• Have previous experience working on major global/multi-market accounts, working with multi-disciplinary agencies (i.e., creative, digital, PR, shopper) and with local market teams. CPG experience is desirable but not required.
• Be confident in leading and working on thought leadership responses and POVs to clearly articulate an engaging response.
• Have strong experience working closely with digital & analytics tools, audience tools, and client data to identify buyable audiences, performance results, and communications opportunities that can be leveraged to plan or optimize to deliver client growth.
• Have excellent written & verbal English language skills; a great storyteller.
• Be organised and structured, with strong attention to detail; an effective, efficient working style.
• Have a high level of competence with Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Demonstrable record of digital performance accomplishment – new business success, positive client feedback, award recognition

About You:

• Be comfortable, confident, and assertive working with senior global clients and agency partners; communicate with authority and gravitas in writing, in speech, and in person.
• Be genuinely curious and interested; ask the right questions, show a passion for understanding our clients’ ambitions, audiences, businesses, and brands.
• Be highly collaborative with internal teams, external partners, and clients across multiple disciplines including (but not limited to) communication planning, digital and biddable, addressable content & DCO, measurement & analytics, performance marketing and optimization, media strategy, and audience planning, data strategy and 1PD; a welcome, valued presence on every call/in every meeting.
• Be calm, measured, and resolute under pressure.
• Be ambitious & motivated, willing to take proactive ownership of high-profile projects and tackle significant client challenges.
• Have the ability and desire to ‘own the room’ – a confident, authoritative, and engaging presenter.
• Have a clear understanding of performance media requirements across the Mars Wrigley business.
• Identify relevant specialist resource requirements throughout MediaCom, to enable the delivery of brilliant performance media plans.
• Provide internal thought leadership and seek out inspiration from the outside world, to enhance the capabilities of the wider account team.

Key Performance Indicators:

• achieve consistently high client evaluation scores.
• receive positive feedback from your internal stakeholders including regional hub and global colleagues.
• produce award-winning work that is recognised across the business and wider industry.
• deliver key initiatives and workstreams to clients and markets balancing strategic and tactical direction. 
• engage with channel experts regularly to influence activation and have a depth of knowledge of biddable & addressable tactical plans across markets to readily share and scale.
• Build a network and community of high-performing biddable & addressable leaders across local markets and regional hubs, sharing and reapplying best practices.

The Team

EssenceMediacom has worked with Mars for many years, and we have continued to grow and evolve our relationship to encompass all global markets planning & buying as well as shopper media, identity, data, and analytics.  Mars Wrigley is the largest segment within Mars with major brands such as M&Ms, Snickers, Orbit/Extra, and Skittles.  We currently have global leaders, regional teams, and local media planning and buying in more than 30 markets globally including large markets such as the US, China, UK, Germany, France, Australia, and Mexico, and developing markets in Central Eastern Europe, Africa, LATAM and APAC.

Due to the nature of the EssenceMediacom assignment for Mars, the Global team is split across London and Chicago and operates at a senior level working with both Global and regional client leads as well as our local market teams across the network.

Mars is a top 10 client for EssenceMediacom and a high-profile account in terms of what it means to the agency.

What we can offer you.

-          Company pension scheme

-          Private medical insurance

-          25 days holiday (increases with length of service)

-          Life insurance

-          Permanent health insurance

-          WPP share options scheme.

-          Discretionary bonus scheme

-          Free eyecare vouchers and money off glasses

-          Extensive training and development

-          Corporate gym memberships

-          Cycle-to-work scheme

-          Interest-free travel loan

-          Free breakfast (cereal and fruit)

-          Smart shopper (online discount on a variety of products)

Sounds good? We’d love to hear from you!