GroupM Nexus | Manager - Reservation Buying

Overview of job

If you live and breathe digital marketing, we want to talk to you. We are looking for a Manager - Reservation Buying to develop, track and optimize digital marketing campaigns.

You should have a strong grasp of current digital ecosystem, platform and strategies and be able to lead targeted digital marketing campaigns from concept to execution. Digital marketing managers will work with the agency/brand & marketing team, supporting, and vendors to launch campaigns on time and on budget. You’ll also be managing the KPI and performance trackers.

The GMS Activation Specialist team creates an effective link between Campaign delivery team and GM Activation specialist, GMS Buying, GMS mPlan, GMS Digital AdOps and other GMS Activation Specialist Teams. The GMS Activation Specialist team ensures that briefs are reviewed with Campaign Delivery team and set expectations. Ensure creation and delivery of integrated media solution for every implementation campaigns. Also ensures that GMS Activation specialists meet clients’ expectations by achieving campaign KPI’s timely and through embedding operational excellence.

Reporting of the role

This role reports to the Business Group Head/Team Lead 

best things about the job:

1. You will be a part of a Non-Biddable Digital Media specialist unit servicing some of the biggest brands in India
2. You are a part of proven, high performance team with an excellent supporting network with development opportunities within GroupM India
3. Opportunity to work as Activation Specialist on some of the big categories and top advertisers in the region and extend your learning opportunities

In three months:

• Understanding of GMS cross functioning teams, & their roles and responsibilities
• You would have complete knowledge of relevant categories
• Involve in creation and execution of plans for aligned business and clients’ day to day requirements
• Updates/ revisions/ reviews as per aligned frequency with your team before the delivery
• Creating integrated media plans
• Learn the Digital Reservation Buys planning & execution process
• Start building relationships with the key decision makers within the current pipeline

In six months:

You should be able to contribute to the annual planning and strategy process for all brands that you manage and help present the Non Biddable section to the internal strategy team and potentially to the client.

Have regular conversations with the publisher teams to improve account performance for your set of brands and leverage their support for strengthening campaign strategies. You will also manage a few corporate projects/tests & learns that you will roll out.

• Handle tactical and implementation planning independently with the team, ensure delivery of KPI as aligned
• Provide integrated media planning solution for new campaigns
• Ensure timely reporting of media deliverables and reports
• Responsible for GMS compliance adherence on the aligned GMS process
• Master the art of optimization and prioritization of workflow in case of activity load being higher than team bandwidth to manage the activity volume
• Demonstrate good understanding of clients’ business and challenges and ability to apply the knowledge in the formulation of campaign and recommend solutions in collaboration with the publishers
• Build a good relationship with internal and external stakeholders, and partners
• Ability to start leading long term & short-term media planning for the client

In 12 months:

You will help evolve the non-biddable planning principles and think with beyond campaign approach for your set of brands on Non-biddable media. Work closely with the strategy team to build brand-specific strategies. 

• Ensure Plan QC & process optimization right through the year with a tracker
• Become a Multi-channel / integrated plan champion within your team
• Ensure 100% Reviews are done with Activation Specialist lead as per aligned SOP
• Achieve 100% GMS process compliance adherence across aligned business
• Ensure your contribution to GMS tool creation/ enhancement to achieve further efficiency compared to the previous annual efficiency benchmark
• Lead a team of planners by supervising and mentoring them to raise the quality of deliverables
• Been the source of what’s new and emerging in media & technology to deliver new and innovative Client solutions
• Challenge briefs and constantly evolve our strategies to ensure we hit client KPIs and constantly take campaigns to the next level

What your day job looks like

• Following are the responsibilities of the GMS Activation Specialists and the varying degree of complexity is subject to individual job level:
• Plan and manage execution, Optimization and reporting all display advertising campaigns
• Co-ordinate with internal and external stakeholders
• Interact with client/Agency for briefs, approvals and feedbacks
• Strong grasp on numbers and excel. Should be able to work quickly to measure and report performance of all digital marketing campaigns, and assess against goals (ROI and KPIs)
• Identify trends and insights, and optimize spend and performance based on the insights
• Brainstorm new and creative KPI growth strategies
• Utilize the strong analytical ability to evaluate digital across multiple channels and customer touchpoints
• Instrument conversion points and optimizes user funnels
• Collaborate with brand, internal team and other vendor partners
• Excellent vendor relationship management
• Evaluate emerging technologies. Provide perspective for adoption where appropriate

What you will need:

• BS/MS degree in marketing or a related field
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines
• Proven working experience in 3-5 years in digital marketing (media strategy / planning / execution / account planning ) – preferably with agency experience.
• Experienced in identifying target audiences and devising digital campaigns that engage, inform and motivate
• Demonstrable experience leading display advertising campaigns (campaign creation, execution and tracking with meticulous process)
• Applied knowledge of 3rd party ad serving, website and tracking and associated technologies
• Understanding of Brand safety and  Viewability  measures  to deliver Quality Inventory to Our clients
• Up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in online marketing and measurement

• Go getter attitude, data analytics, communication skills, good logical reasoning, attention to detail, integrity, empathy, aptitude & dare for innovation.
•  Working knowledge of Knowledge of digital tools (COMSCORE, Similarweb, Google trends, etc) would be a plus.
•  Experience working with multiple stakeholders
• Demonstrate capabilities to demonstrated by self-confidence, good judgement, sound decision-making, empathic listening, flexibility, self-motivation and ability to challenge the status quo.
• Good in communication & stakeholder relationship management skills
• Proactiveness in address and escalate when needed, on any issue that compromises the quality and timeliness of deliverable.

More about GroupM

GroupM Nexus is the industry’s largest community of performance marketing experts designed to drive performance and innovation at scale for GroupM’s agencies and clients. With the most platform accreditations in the industry combined with proprietary technology, media, and solutions, culture of continuous innovation and scaled partnerships, GroupM Nexus consistently sets new benchmarks for effectiveness and efficiency across all forms of media to drive growth for the world’s leading advertisers.

GroupM is WPP’s media investment group and the world’s leading media investment company with a mission to shape the next era of media where advertising works better for people. The company is responsible for more than $60 billion in annual media investment, as measured by the independent research bureau COMvergence. Through its global agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker, EssenceMediacom, and mSix&Partners, and cross-channel performance (GroupM Nexus), data (Choreograph), entertainment (GroupM Motion Entertainment) and investment solutions, GroupM leverages a unique combination of global scale, expertise, and innovation to generate sustained value for clients wherever they do business. Discover more at www.groupm.com.

 About India

2020 brought opportunities for brands to innovate because of which we saw an evolving media stack. The growth of digital is set to soar high because of changing consumer habits. With approximately 500 million smartphone users, low-priced data plans, 45 to 50 million e-commerce shoppers, approximately 60 OTT offerings and a young population, India is a mobile-first internet market. It is also one of the top 10 ad spend markets in the world and is set to climb the ranks. Global big tech corporations have made considerable investments in top e-commerce/retail ventures and Indian start-ups, blurring the lines between social media, e-commerce and mobile payments, resulting in disruption on an unimaginable scale.

At GroupM India, there’s never a dull moment between juggling client requests, managing vendor partners and having fun with your team. We believe in tackling challenges head-on and getting things done.

GroupM is an equal opportunity employer. We view everyone as an individual and we understand that inclusion is more than just diversity – it’s about belonging. We celebrate the fact that everyone is unique and that’s what makes us so good at what we do. We pride ourselves on being a company that embraces difference and truly represents the global clients we work with.