Media Strategy Director

Lead Performance Strategy for New Balance. Own the vision and execution of EMEA and regional performance media strategy across Paid Search, Paid Social, Display, and emerging channels. 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 betas. Champion AI adoption across the department - identifying where automation, predictive tooling, and AI-enabled optimisation can meaningfully improve performance and efficiency.

Provide senior technical leadership across Google Ads, SA360, Microsoft, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, DV360, and other key platforms. Ensure world-class campaign architecture, optimisation routines, automation strategies, and measurement frameworks. 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 leadership. 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 - with a particular emphasis on 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. 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 - modelling resilience, encouraging proactive development, and holding yourself and others accountable for continuous improvement. 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. Contribute to Brave Bison's paid media new business strategy - supporting pitches, crafting compelling narratives, and coordinating cross-functional input to help win work. Represent the agency externally through thought leadership, industry events, and marketing activity that reinforces Brave Bison's performance credentials.

Requirements:

• 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 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 DSPs, GA4, tracking infrastructure, attribution models.

Hard Skills: performance media, Paid Search, Paid Social, Programmatic Display, data-driven media plans, audience segmentation, predictive modelling, campaign architecture, automation strategies, measurement frameworks.

Soft Skills: analytical capability, communication skills, storytelling skills, problem-solving, team leadership, assertiveness, diplomacy, curiosity, innovation, growth mindset.