Publisher Direct Strategist

The Publisher Direct Strategist is responsible for developing and executing effective media strategies rooted in endemic environments that align closely to client audiences and goals. They bring expertise across a variety of digital, offline, and emerging formats, collaborating with partners to deliver high-quality, brand-safe, and innovation-driven media solutions.

The Publisher Direct Strategist supports enterprise-level efforts by contributing to the development of best practices, knowledge-sharing, and advancing strategies that align with the agency’s core values and priorities. They support junior team members through mentorship and best practice sharing and collaborate with senior team members to navigate complex issues.

Key Outcome:
Develops comprehensive media recommendations rooted in endemic environments, aligned to client objectives and strategic priorities.

• Support holistic media consideration across endemic partners and channels, utilizing both direct and programmatic buying methods.
• Collaborate with Integrated Planning, Account Management, and Programmatic teams to develop cohesive, synergistic cross-channel media recommendations.
• Demonstrate understanding of media partner capabilities and integrations; delineation between direct IO and programmatic activation opportunities where applicable.
• Lead the end-to-end RFP process with oversight from senior team members, including vendor outreach, proposal evaluation, negotiations, and securing added value.
• Apply a growing knowledge of targeting strategies, inventory offerings, placement options, buying methodologies, and historical performance to build well-informed, high-quality recommendations.
• Research, propose, and champion test & learn opportunities; collaborate with cross-functional teams on viability for execution and measurement.
• Clearly articulate asset and tagging requirements, and provide creative best practices for campaign success.

Key Outcome:
Lead the successful activation and ongoing stewardship of media campaigns, ensuring seamless execution from planning to implementation.

• Lead timely launch and stewardship of multiple client campaigns, each with its unique set of channels and targeting strategies, with oversight from senior team members.
• Facilitate contract review processes, acting as a liaison between internal stakeholders and media vendors.
• Facilitate partner development of custom creative assets, acting as a conduit between internal and external stakeholders, managing timelines and expectations, with support from senior team members.
• Send tracking tags, manage trafficking deliverables, and troubleshoot any launch or performance issues across partners.
• Lead recurring pacing, invoicing, and reconciliation tasks across all applicable channels.

Key Outcome:
Manage campaign performance and reporting with informed decision-making and optimization.

• Collaborate with Analytics team on recommended KPIs for channel activation strategies and ensure accurate data tracking for all channels in dashboards.
• Ensure partner reporting and data transfers are timely, accurate, and actionable.
• Lead QA of campaign dashboards and reporting deliverables; strengthen data analysis skills to surface meaningful insights that drive optimizations.
• Analyze and report on campaign effectiveness to maximize results across endemic environments.
• Apply understanding of available optimization levers and collaborate with Activation team and partners on in-flight optimizations to enhance results.
• Negotiate makegoods for under performance or mismanagement of client investments.
• Support troubleshooting of reporting issues, trafficking mapping, and site tagging to assist with campaign measurement.
• Collaborate with senior team members to share campaign learnings with direct and cross-functional peers, informing broader strategies and future planning efforts.

Key Outcome:
Partner engagement and management maximize strategic and business impact.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with partners; actively sharing information with cross functional teams and supporting development of innovative client opportunities.
• Act as the primary day-to-day liaison between media partners and internal teams, ensuring seamless communication and information sharing.
• Support the development and optimization of endemic supply strategies, identifying and curating high-value inventory sources that maximize audience quality, drive measurable outcomes, and push the boundaries of available opportunities.
• Work with senior team members to evaluate new partners, tools, or technologies and integrate them into tactical planning when appropriate.
• Demonstrate growing understanding of direct and programmatic buying nuances, including supply accessibility, rates, inventory quality, and targeting strategies within DSP environments.

Key Outcome:
Support of enterprise-level initiatives and thought leadership advance our endemic offering.