Head of OOH; Outdoor Media – Publicis Media

Overview

The Head of OOH will lead Publicis Media Africa’s end-to-end Out-of-Home practice — combining strategic leadership, market expertise, and commercial acumen to modernize and scale the agency’s outdoor offering.

The role demands a leader who can balance legacy OOH scale with digital innovation, bringing deep local knowledge of the South African OOH landscape — from townships to airports, CBDs, malls, and key arterial routes — and extending this expertise across Africa.

They will bridge creative communication planning, consumer journey mapping, and commercial negotiation to deliver measurable business outcomes for clients.

This is both a relationship and results-driven role, requiring a strategic thinker, trusted negotiator, and strong operator who can lead a centralized delivery team and represent Publicis Media credibly with CMOs, procurement heads, and OOH holding companies.

• Define and implement Publicis Africa’s OOH growth strategy, ensuring it combines traditional scale with digital transformation (DOOH, data, measurement).
• Oversee the planning and execution of out-of-home strategies, ensuring alignment with brand goals and market trends
• Map the consumer journey and align OOH touchpoints with broader brand and media strategies — from awareness to conversion.
• Identify new growth zones — including township economies, commuter corridors, and retail precincts — and integrate them into client communication plans.
• Translate complex OOH possibilities into simple, strategic narratives that resonate with CMOs and client boards.

• Leverage deep understanding of South Africa’s OOH ecosystem — key landlords, site clusters, and ownership structures.
• Analyse market data to optimize placements, and drive innovation in our OOH solutions.
• Maintain trusted relationships with major OOH media holding groups, landlords, and concessionaires across:
• Airports
• Roadside
• Malls & business districts
• Township
• Negotiate strategic site access, long‑term value commitments, and preferential rates.
• Proactively identify location gaps or redundancies across client campaigns and fix them through tactical site swaps or deal leverage.

• Lead all OOH commercial negotiations at a senior level — ensuring transparency, value creation, and profitability.
• Develop strategic supply‑side partnerships to secure premium inventory and ensure first‑mover advantage for clients.
• Build volume‑based or multi‑client deals with OOH media owners that unlock better pricing and stronger data access.
• Design framework agreements and trading principles aligned to Groupe compliance and procurement governance.
• Work with finance and procurement to ensure OOH maintains strong margins and operational sustainability.

• Collaborate with planning, strategy, and data teams to ensure OOH aligns with audience intent, path‑to‑purchase, and brand funnel goals.
• Translate brand strategy into actionable outdoor blueprints that map where, when, and how OOH drives consumer action.
• Support planners with OOH data, audience insights, and contextual recommendations during campaign ideation.
• Champion OOH as a storytelling medium that drives both emotional impact and measurable business outcomes.

• Lead a centralized OOH operations and delivery hub based in South Africa servicing all agencies and clients (in South Africa but also including Pan‑Africa)
• Ensure flawless campaign execution — accurate site bookings, creative placement, posting verification, and post‑campaign reporting.
• Drive operational efficiency through standardized templates, vendor SLAs, and automation tools.
• Mentor and develop a team of OOH planners, buyers, and coordinators to elevate delivery quality and market credibility.

• Integrate data‑enabled OOH and P/DOOH solutions (e.g., location intelligence, programmatic trading, mobile retargeting).
• Pilot measurement frameworks linking OOH exposure to store visits, sales lift, and online conversions.
• Build case studies to demonstrate the commercial impact of integrated outdoor campaigns.
• Collaborat…