Associate Director, Audience Strategy

Company description

Spark Foundry is a global media agency that exists to bring HEAT – Higher Engagement, Affinity, and Transactions – to brands. By combining flawless media fundamentals with aggressive innovation, Spark inspires consumers to pay more attention, to care more about our clients’ brands, and to buy more products and services from them.

Balancing the nimble spirit of a startup with the powerhouse soul of Publicis Media, Spark Foundry delivers the best of both worlds to a client roster that spans some of the world’s best and most beloved brands and companies. We combine boutique‑caliber insights and service with the buying clout and first‑look access of a global leader, bringing the heat to challenger brands that want to act like giants, and to giant brands that want to act like challengers.

With a bottom‑up culture that celebrates diversity and aims for all voices to be heard, Spark has become a magnet for the industry’s best talent, with one of the best retention rates in the industry. And by applying a whole‑person approach to professional and personal development, Spark develops a workforce that is well prepared for today’s challenges, and also poised to create meaningful careers in the years to come.

Because we know that heat arises at the intersection of complementary forces, our professionals come from myriad disciplines and backgrounds: data, analytics, and insights, content and creative production, communications and strategy, finance and marketing, and sociology, psychology, and other liberal arts disciplines.

Media always starts with an audience. Audience Design is the intersection of Strategy, Data & Tech applied to drive growth on behalf of our clients and their brands. With the power of Epsilon Identity at the center, we can unleash these capabilities at massive scale at Publicis Groupe. Our team is a mix of researchers, strategists and technology experts and consultants.

The Audience Strategy Associate Director will support internal agencies and clients by leveraging data and analytics to drive audience strategy, deliver actionable insights, and enhance targeting efforts. This role will require strong analytical skills, data fluency, and collaboration with cross‑functional teams. The ideal candidate will have experience in media, creative, content, and/or analytics disciplines. Knowledge of research techniques and segmentation techniques are critical.

Candidates should also have applied knowledge of commonly used advertising technology.

Client Responsibilities:

• Guide & drive use of audience data to impact media strategies for client account(s) based on overall objectives
• Thoroughly understands the use cases of each audience tool and when to use which based on needs
• Collaboration with Data Science:
  Work closely with data science teams to mine and analyze data, uncover key insights, and translate findings into actionable recommendations that support audience growth strategies
• Audience Profiling and Customer Journey Mapping:
  Analyze first party and third‑party data to create detailed audience profiles, uncover behavioral insights, and map customer journeys that inform strategic planning and marketing activation.
• Strong foundation in strategic and critical thinking, finding ways to innovate and collaborate with teams to improve outputs
• Cross‑Team
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Partner with agency teams across various disciplines to ensure alignment of audience strategies with broader marketing initiatives. Serve as a bridge between the Audience Insights team and partner agencies, providing data‑driven guidance and solutions.
• Successful at building strong, collaborative client relationships, instilling trust and authority on behalf of the agency
• Identify opportunities and industry learning. Meet with vendors and provide a POV with a client lens and in desired format. Educate/evangelize the findings
• Confidence, composure, and polished presentation skills to effectively attend and lead in‑person meetings with key clients

Role Objectives:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, especially the ability to communicate technical concepts to a non‑technical audience
• Ability to…