Media Strategy Director, New Balance

Brave Bison Performance & Commerce is looking for a Media Strategy Director to lead the strategy, planning, and activation for one of our flagship global accounts: New Balance. This is a high‑visibility, high‑impact role for someone who lives and breathes performance media, understands modern consumer behaviour, and can translate that into cross‑channel strategies that punch above weight. Bring depth in Paid Search, Paid Social, and Programmatic Display, paired with a test‑and‑learn mindset and a passion for building future‑fit performance ecosystems. You’ll sit at the heart of one of the fastest‑growing agency groups in the UK, partnering directly with senior New Balance stakeholders and leading a team of specialists across channels and markets. You’ll also play an active role in shaping Brave Bison’s paid media proposition—contributing to new business, thought leadership, and the agency’s wider growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the vision and execution of EMEA and regional performance media strategy across Paid Search, Paid Social, Display, and emerging channel strategies.
• Partner closely with New Balance stakeholders to shape seasonal plans, commercial responses, product‑launch frameworks, and full‑funnel thinking.
• Translate brand moments, athlete partnerships, and product priorities into data‑driven, audience‑first media plans that drive measurable outcomes.
• Build performance frameworks that link new audiences through traffic‑focused campaigns with lower‑funnel conversion and retention.
• Create integrated planning approaches that combine media, creative, retail, and commerce signals.
• Stay ahead of platform innovation and bring Brave Bison‑level energy to identifying new opportunities, formats, partnerships, and beta programs.
• Champion AI adoption across the department—identifying where automation, predictive tooling, and AI‑enabled optimisation can meaningfully improve performance and efficiency.

Paid Search, Social & Display Excellence

• Provide senior technical leadership across Google Ads, SA360, Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, DV360, and other key platforms.
• Ensure world‑class campaign architecture, optimisation routines, automation strategies, and measurement frameworks work effectively.
• Partner with analytics and creative teams to continually improve performance through audience segmentation, dynamic creative, and predictive modelling.
• Act as the primary performance partner for New Balance across EMEA and key regional teams—seen as a genuine extension of their senior marketing lead.
• Lead strategic presentations, quarterly business reviews, performance deep dives, and annual planning cycles.
• Deliver clear, story‑driven insights that cut through complexity and focus on commercial impact—emphasising ROI storytelling that connects media activity to business outcomes.
• Proactively unlock new opportunities to strengthen New Balance’s performance engines across EMEA.
• Balance assertiveness and diplomacy to constructively challenge client thinking where needed, driving better outcomes through structured problem‑solving and well‑evidenced recommendations.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, inspire, and challenge a multidisciplinary team of search, social, and programmatic experts.
• Foster a culture built on curiosity, innovation, experimentation, and operational excellence.
• Support learning pathways, certifications, platform training, and ongoing career development.
• Drive a growth mindset across the team—modeling resilience, encouraging proactive development, and holding yourself and others accountable for continuous improvement.

Measurement, Insight & Performance Growth

• Elevate measurement frameworks that integrate platform data, attribution, incrementality testing, and business outcomes.
• Work closely with analytics to build dashboards, reporting suites, and predictive tools.
• Champion test‑and‑learn programmes across markets, continually raising the performance bar.
• Own portfolio‑level forecasting and oversee QA frameworks to ensure budgets, pacing, and quality standards are consistently airtight across all markets.

Business Development & Thought Leadership

• Contribute to Brave Bison’s paid media new‑business strategy—supporting pitches, crafting compelling narratives, and coordinating cross‑functional input to win work.
• Represent the agency externally through thought leadership, industry events, and marketing activity that reinforces Brave Bison’s performance culture.

Skills & Experience

• 7–10+ years’ experience in performance media with deep specialism in Paid Search, Paid Social, and Programmatic Display.
• Proven track record leading large or global e‑commerce or retail accounts (sporting goods experience a plus).
• Highly confident working with senior marketing stakeholders.
• Strong analytical capability and ability to convert data into commercially relevant insights.
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills with a bias for clarity and impact.
• Experience managing and growing high‑performing teams.
• Confident in constructively challenging senior stakeholders and driving structured problem‑solving across client and agency teams.
• Demonstrable experience championing AI adoption and automation within performance media.

Expert Understanding of

• Google Ads, SA360, Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, DV360, or similar platforms.

Desirable Experience

• Experience in global or multi‑market media structures.
• Familiarity with retail media, product feed optimisation, and commerce platforms.
• Exposure to predictive modelling or advanced automation frameworks.
• Involvement in new‑business pitches or agency thought‑leadership events.

What Makes This Role Special

• You’ll lead performance strategy for one of the world’s most iconic sport and lifestyle brands.
• You’ll shape the future of New Balance’s EMEA performance marketing, partnering at the highest levels.
• You’ll be part of a brave, independent, fast‑moving agency group that empowers people to experiment, challenge norms, and create innovative performance solutions.

Benefits

• Dynamic working: flexible on where and when you work.
• Private medical insurance: support you and your family’s health.
• Income protection.
• Calm Subscription.
• 25 days annual leave (increases to 27 days after three years, and further each subsequent year up to a maximum of 30 days).
• Christmas closure: no need to save holiday days.
• Birthdays off.
• Summer hours: between June and August we finish at 3 pm.
• Online coaching and mental‑health support.
• Remote working: work abroad for up to one month a year.
• Performance & salary: reviewed twice a year.

We’re proud and committed to being an equal‑opportunity workplace, providing equal opportunities for all and treating all existing employees and all job applicants in the same way, regardless of their age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity status, and marital & civil partnership status.