VP-Director of Media Strategy and Planning

About Avalere Health

Established in 2001, Avalere Health is a purposefully built commercialization partner for the biopharmaceutical, medical technology, and wellness industries. Our 1,500+ experts combine their knowledge and expertise across our core disciplines — Consulting; Medical; Policy; Value, Evidence, and Access; Marketing; and Digital Experience Technology — to create the connections that make better health happen.

Avalere Health partners with its clients to navigate the complex and rapidly changing healthcare ecosystem. Together, our experts help clients connect patients with life-changing therapies, realizing the potential of strategies and solutions to accelerate innovation that improves lives.

We live and breathe our five values in everything we do: We are authentic. We act with integrity. We value difference. We play for the team. We enjoy the journey. At Avalere Health, we imagine a healthier world and create the connections to make it happen.

We take pride in being part of the Disability Confident Scheme. This helps make sure you can be interviewed fairly if you have a disability, long term health condition, or are neurodiverse. If you'd like to apply and need adjustments made, you can let us know in your application.

Position Overview

The VP, Director of Media Strategy and Planning is responsible for developing the strategic approach and leading all things media, including accurate budget control and the flow of media activity. Working across functional teams, the VP, Director role will lead all planning and delivery of integrated cross-channel media plans including both digital (programmatic, endemic, social, search) and traditional (TV, print, OOH) media. This role is responsible for the full planning cycle from determining goals and objectives for media programs, developing budget recommendations, and modeling outcomes in order to reach those goals. The Director will lead a team of supervisors and planners in developing the subsequent plans, work with the analytics team to align on a measurement plan, and ensure the team is delivering, optimizing, and achieving client goals accordingly. A successful candidate will lead via education and example, pitching in and working with junior team members as both a mentor and a colleague.

What You'll Do

• Provide strategic thinking for the development, planning and implementation of client media plans, as well as the ongoing management of the campaigns. Work with key stakeholders to determine appropriate measurement techniques for properly evaluating success and criteria for optimization.
• Work with the client and senior leadership to establish annual budget and staffing plans.
• Manage accounts to ensure that client staffing plans are established to be fiscally profitable.
• Identify ways to grow accounts via new partnerships and additional opportunities for growth in media spend and/or fee generating activities.
• Lead team in developing RFPs, lists of media partners for consideration, and criteria against which partners will be evaluated.
• Oversee and assist junior team members in the planning process, execution, and day-to-day management of campaigns.
• Develop the staff through performance management and consistent feedback.
• As the team lead, build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders, account, creative, ad ops, strategy, and analytics teams across the internal organization, in order to facilitate the implementation and measurement of campaigns.
• Build and maintain relationships with key vendors, platforms, and technology partners, including identifying opportunities for new ideas and emerging technologies. Ensure junior team members are aware of and learning to take advantage of these opportunities.
• Monitor the latest trends in advertising and healthcare and work with appropriate internal stakeholders to develop client-facing POVs, test and learn scenarios, and resulting case studies, as appropriate.
• Participate in new business pitches and proposals as needed.
• Supervise a team of three to six team members, helping to develop their skill sets and assigning relevant tasks for career growth and appropriate account management.

About You

• 8+ years of relevant agency experience in planning and buying media across both online and offline channels.
• Demonstrated ability to multi-task, prioritize, and manage to deadlines.
• Demonstrated account leadership, initiative, and willingness to assume greater responsibility.
• Understand the elements of a strategic marketing communications plan and be able to actively participate in its generation.
• Understand all the steps necessary to complete each stage of a job.
• Understand how to produce a comprehensive estimate.
• Know how to present agency concepts to the client and guide client to well-considered responses and requests.
• Ability to provide clear and logical direction on all work orders.
• Direct experience with pharmaceutical (preferred) and/or healthcare advertising for both patients and physicians.
• Knowledge of media planning and buying, third party tracking and ad serving technology, and audience and competitive research tools.
• Experience with paid social and search strategy, a plus.
• Understanding of and ability to explain full-funnel media campaigns.
• Experience working within a full-service agency and/or client side preferred.
• 3+ years of supervisory experience or related account management experience.
• Bachelor's degree required, preferably in a related field.

What we can offer

Avalere Health aims to empower every employee to develop and thrive. We empower our team with the tools, skills, and support needed to think differently and to solve healthcare’s most complex challenges.

At the center of our people-led culture is our Career Experience team, whose mission is to provide every employee with a purpose-driven career. We also pride ourselves on our personalized learning approach to ensure you receive the training you need to help you grow within the company and take advantage of our global scale and scope.

We are committed to embedding diversity and inclusion in every aspect of our organization. We encourage diversity of thought, inclusive behavior, and break down barriers to ensure every individual feels valued and encouraged to contribute their unique abilities and potential. As part of our commitment to building a healthier world, every employee is also encouraged to participate in our community engagement efforts, which support a wide range of healthcare programs and wellbeing causes worldwide.

We have city hubs across North America, Europe, and Asia, geared toward collaborating, training, socializing, and coming together as a global organization while maintaining and fully supporting flexible working practices. Our compensation and benefits package is benchmarked across the industry. We offer a generous company pension/retirement plan, private medical insurance, comprehensive employee wellbeing initiatives, compelling time-off policy, plus many other excellent employee benefits.

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