Director Media Planning

New York City, NY (On-site)

$133K/yr – $178K/yrDirector/Executive8+ years expFull time

Posted 4 weeks ago

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Job Summary

Own the ESPN media strategy and partner ecosystem while aligning with business goals and alpha testing opportunities.

  • Media Strategy & Partnerships: Own the media plan and partner relationships to maximize spend and testing across ESPN O&O and paid channels.
  • Data & Evidence: Collaborate with Research & Analytics to turn performance data into actionable guidance for future campaigns.
  • Leadership & Collaboration: Lead and mentor teams, align ESPN marketing with Sports Marketing for broader audience reach.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Analyzes market trends, fan insights, and competitive landscape to identify opportunities and develop innovative media approaches.
  • Develop strong partnerships with external media buying agencies and key media partners to maximize spend & alpha testing opportunities.
  • Develops a comprehensive media strategy that aligns with business objectives.
  • Stewards effective communication and understanding needs of marketing teams, internal stakeholders, and external league partners ensuring team is set up to effectively execute campaigns across ESPN O&O and paid media channels.
  • Partners with Research & Analytics teams to evaluate performance and make data-driven decisions to influence future strategies.
  • Encourages a culture based on teamwork, collaboration, and intellectual ownership to drive results as well as manages, coaches, and mentors managers and employees to inspire career growth.
  • Provides digital marketing & creative thought leadership based on media results across ESPN Marketing.
  • Collaborate with Sports Marketing teams to drive audience expansion and reach across various properties.

Requirements

  • Minimum 8 years of experience in strategy and planning of large media campaigns.
  • Minimum 3 years of experience in leadership and development, directly leading, managing, and growing teams.
  • Experience in engaging, managing, and building relationships with senior and executive level leaders.
  • A progressive mindset with proven success driving a business forward with innovative ideas.
  • Excellent verbal and presenting skills to be an effective and persuasive communicator.
  • Experience with audience targeting, data and tagging needs; implementation, reporting, and measurement.
  • An eye for emerging industry trends and topics, with an ability to shape business-building opportunities.
  • Fluency in managing cross-functional collaborators to deliver unified work.
  • A data-driven mentality, with a hunger to continuously refine strategy, performance, and opportunity through insights.
  • Deep understanding of the media landscape, consumer behavior, media consumption, and how to connect strategic thought leadership with activation across both digital and traditional channels.
  • Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, or a related field

Preferred

  • Creative thinker who enjoys finding creative solutions by bringing brands together in unique and unexpected ways.
  • The ideal candidate should be passionate, take initiative, have superior relationship skills, effectively multi-tasks, and is detail oriented.
  • Sports/entertainment experience preferred.
  • Demonstrates strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills with an ability to translate complex data into actionable insights in a clear and concise manner.
  • Driven self-starter who is comfortable working both independently and collaboratively across multiple departments and disciplines in a fast-paced environment.
ESPN logo

ESPN

ESPN is the leading multiplatform sports entertainment brand that features seven U.S. television networks, the leading sports app, direct-to-consumer ESPN+, leading social and digital platforms, ESPN.com, ESPN Audio, endeavors on every continent around the world, and more. ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc. (an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company) and 20 percent by Hearst. Based in Bristol, Conn., ESPN has approximately 3,800 employees (4,600 worldwide).

Founded in 1979
Bristol, Connecticut, USA
11K employees (5,821 in marketing)

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
2.2M
Monthly Google Ads Budget
$30.9K
Traffic Source Mix
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31.2%
Direct
46%
Referral
13.5%
Social
8.3%
Paid
0.9%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~11.4K

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
4,035 (35% of company)
Median Career Experience
14 years
Median Tenure
15.5 years
Marketing Roles Posted (Last 30 Days)
8

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