Paid Social Associate Director in London

Company description Publicis Groupe, known for its world-renowned creativity, best in class technology, digital and consulting expertise, is the world’s largest communications group. With more than 108,000 people in over 100 countries, the Groupe has four Solution hubs: Creative with Publicis Communications, Media with Publicis Media, Digital business transformation with Publicis Sapient, and Health & Wellbeing with Publicis Health. Since 2014 and the acquisition of Sapient, Publicis Groupe has undergone a profound transformation by scaling a new model connecting data, creativity and technology. We continued on that journey with the 2019 acquisition of Epsilon and most recently the announcement of our market-leading investment in AI. We are driving towards a future where being smart, at scale, with the best Identity product in the market, will help deliver better outcomes for our clients.

Publicis Media is one of the four solutions hubs of Publicis Groupe present in more than 100 countries with over 23,000 employees worldwide. Alongside our global agency brands (Zenith, Starcom, Spark), the “Power of One” model gathers all the capabilities of the Groupe under one roof, putting clients at the core of the organisation.

About the client... “If you can dream it, you can do it” - Walt Disney Publicis Imagine is our “Power of One” solution for Disney, a custom-built team created with one purpose in mind – to be Disney’s most valuable partner in creating the next era of entertainment. Like Disney, we are organised under two pillars: Disney Entertainment (Disney+, Theatrical, Networks) and Disney Experiences (Parks and Cruises, Consumer Products and Games). Our London-based EMEA & UK team comprises c. 100 people, who are dedicated to Disney’s business, and supported by local teams in 27 markets across the EMEA region, who are a true extension of our team. This is an opportunity to work on one of the world’s most iconic and loved brands, and one of our biggest and most exciting clients, and be a part of their success across the EMEA region.

Overview This vacancy is an opportunity to join the Disney Paid Social Investment team, which is responsible for planning and buying all Digital Paid Social campaigns. The overall Social team is comprised of 32 individuals with diverse skills and expertise across the media and technology landscape. Paid Social Investment works in close collaboration with Media Planners, and the Digital Investment team to help design integrated solutions to Disney’s communication challenges. The Paid Social Associate Director will be a primary lead on Disney’s Social strategy alongside the Digital Director and Digital Business Director, overseeing long-term planning, media execution, and the Social Investment team’s overall planning and buying output. Reporting to the Digital Director at Publicis Imagine, this role requires a strategic mindset, strong leadership skills, and a thorough understanding of the evolving Social landscape.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Refining Paid Social strategic approach by designing a measurement roadmap, executing test & learns, pitching activity on new platforms, running alpha/betas and securing agency or category firsts. Leads on client education of all channel/market developments.
• Client Engagement: Build and maintain strong, trusted relationships with Disney clients, acting as a key point of contact for Social strategy and execution.
• Partner Relationships: Leverage strong relationships with social platforms to develop Disney roadmaps and maximise investment efficiency for Disney from existing partnerships.
• Team Leadership & Development: Responsible for the team’s delivery of the client’s paid social campaigns ensuring best-in-class planning and activation. Managing and supporting the growth of the Paid Social team, ensuring the timely delivery of high-performance campaigns to market-leading standards.
• Drive Performance: Collaborate with the team to meet all campaign KPI targets, all reporting delivered to clients correct and insightful commentary, ensures a unified view across all Paid Social campaigns, reporting and budget tracking. Prioritises, streamlines and distributes workload across the team. Accountable for the learning and development of all direct and indirect reports and continually coaches team on performance.
• Client Briefs & Presentations: Responding to and presenting client briefs with compelling strategies and insights.
• Operational Excellence: Leads and advances Paid Social operational excellence to deliver the highest levels of accurate buying, in-platform QA, optimisation and reporting. Drives accountability within the team to enable faultless client service, ensuring deadlines are met and quality is of a satisfactory standard. Acts as point of escalation for managers in the team.

Qualifications

• Expertise in Paid Social activation
• Client management skills
• Strong Social Platform Relationships and have commercially minded negotiating skills

Additional information Publicis Imagine offers a wide range of benefits to support our employees. Full details are shared when you join, but highlights include core benefits such as Pension, Life Assurance, and Private Medical cover, alongside enhanced policies like Reflection Days and Shared Parental Leave. You’ll also have access to a range of additional initiatives.

Publicis Groupe works primarily from the office or our clients' office four days per week. At Publicis Imagine, we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, disability, age, citizenship, relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic. We are committed to providing a fair, accessible, and inclusive recruitment process. If you have any access needs - for example, related to disability, neurodivergence, or a health condition - please let us know. We’ll work with you to ensure the process works for you. Sharing this information will never impact your application. Guided by our values, we listen with empathy, uplift each other, take responsibility, and embrace change - building a culture where everyone feels seen, respected, and genuinely included.