Mid-Senior ATL Media Planner

Publicis Groupe · Johannesburg

Company description

Studio One Toyota, which forms part of Publicis South Africa, is a bespoke agency tailored to Toyota South Africa. We handle all of Toyota’s advertising including: above-the-line, below-the-line, strategy, digital, social media, media placement, and community management. We are a tight-knit team passionate about the automotive industry and breakthrough work. We work in-office 5 days a week from our studio in Bryanston. We are a people-first agency, with a keen interest in AI and other new technologies. Our goal is to create locally relevant work stemming from culturally authentic South African insights.

Studio One moves quickly and manages one of South Africa’s largest automotive portfolios. We expect people at Mid-Senior level to own their flowplans, budgets, implementation and reporting, communicate proactively and take responsibility for delivering accurate, well-considered work from brief through to final learning.

How We Work at Studio One

Studio One is an integrated agency environment. Strategy, planning, creative, implementation, buying, production, approvals and reporting are connected. We expect every team member to understand the wider campaign, own their part and help move the work forward.
Own your work: If a campaign or deliverable sits with you, you remain accountable for it until it is complete. Sending an email or handing over a task does not remove your responsibility to follow through.
Communicate early: Raise risks, delays, missing information, under-delivery, overspends or approval issues as soon as they become clear. There should be no surprises.
QA everything: Check budgets, dates, formats, targeting, schedules, assets, links, tracking, naming conventions and final outputs before they move to the next person or the client.
Know the strategy: Understand the business objective, audience and role of each channel. Do not execute activity you cannot explain or defend.
Work as one team: Collaborate across strategy, planning, performance, buying, creative, Client Service and Ad Ops. Share information openly and do not work in silos.
Be solution-led: When raising a problem, bring a clear view of the impact and a recommended next step.
Respect the process: Use the agreed Studio One workflows, platforms and approval stages. Keep documentation current and make sure every decision can be traced.
Take accountability: At mid-senior level, the expectation is not task completion alone. It is ownership, judgement, follow-through and consistently high-quality delivery.

Overview

We are looking for an experienced Mid-Senior ATL Media Planner who is exceptionally organised, commercially aware and detail-focused, while still able to think strategically about media and defend every recommendation.

In Partnership With
Business Unit Director Hybrid Media Strategist
Digital Media Planner Performance Lead
Media Buying Team Social and Programmatic Specialists
Client Service and Creative Teams Media Owners and Partners

Role Purpose
The Mid-Senior ATL Media Planner is responsible for the planning, implementation, day-to-day management and reporting of Toyota ATL media campaigns. The Planner owns the translation of approved strategy into clear, accurate and executable media plans and flowplans, and remains accountable for the campaign through implementation, delivery and post-campaign learning.

This is not a role for someone who simply populates a flowplan or forwards media-owner proposals. The Planner must interrogate the brief, evaluate opportunities, build and defend recommendations, manage the detail and take responsibility for getting the work delivered correctly.

Responsibilities

Media Planning

Translate approved strategy into detailed ATL channel, media owner and placement recommendations.
Develop accurate and up-to-date media plans, schedules and flowplans.
Evaluate reach, frequency, audience delivery, geography, timing, format, cost efficiency and the role of each channel.
Interrogate proposals objectively rather than forwarding media-owner recommendations without a clear point of view.
Write clear rationales explaining why each recommendation deserves investment and how it answers the brief.
Ensure plans reflect the latest approved strategy, budget and campaign timing.
Contribute practical market and channel knowledge to strategy development.

Flowplan Ownership

Own the flowplan as the definitive working record of the campaign investment and approved media activity.
Know what is approved, booked, pending, changed, at risk and still required at any point in the campaign.
Update changes accurately and promptly so the flowplan always reflects the current position.
Make sure budgets, dates, channels, media owners, formats, added value and status notes are correct.
Keep supporting approvals and documentation organised and traceable.
Follow outstanding actions through to completion rather than waiting to be chased.

Campaign Implementation

Translate approved plans into executable media schedules and clear implementation instructions.
Coordinate CEs, bookings, material requirements, chase lists and deadlines with the relevant teams.
Work closely with Buying to confirm availability, cost, value, booking status and final placement details.
Manage media-owner requirements and ensure all information needed for implementation is supplied on time.
Monitor campaign implementation and resolve discrepancies between the approved plan, booking and live activity.
Make sure the plan presented and approved is the plan that ultimately goes live, unless changes have been clearly approved and documented.

Media Owner Management

Build strong, professional relationships with media owners while maintaining an objective planning perspective.
Interrogate every proposal for audience fit, strategic role, cost, delivery, added value and campaign relevance.
Negotiate and challenge where the recommendation can be improved.
Request the information needed to make evidence-based recommendations and reporting assessments.
Hold media owners accountable for confirmed deliverables, campaign data, proof of performance and post-campaign information.

Budget and Commercial Management

Take responsibility for the accuracy of campaign budgets and the latest financial position.
Track approved investment, changes, actual costs, added value and any potential under or overspends.
Work closely with Buying and finance-related processes to prevent avoidable financial losses or unresolved discrepancies.
Ensure CEs, schedules, bookings, flowplans and reporting reflect the same approved position.
Escalate budget or delivery risks early, with a clear recommendation for resolution.
Maintain accurate forecasting and campaign documentation.

Campaign Management and Optimisation

Monitor live campaign delivery against the approved plan and agreed objectives.
Identify delivery issues, missed placements, value shortfalls or scheduling risks early.
Work with media owners and Buying to protect campaign delivery and resolve issues.
Recommend changes where activity is not delivering the intended audience, weight, timing or value.
Document approved changes and their impact on the wider plan.

Reporting and Post-Campaign Analysis

Own the accuracy, completeness and timely delivery of reporting for the ATL campaigns and channels under your management.
Collect, verify and reconcile proof of performance, final schedules, audience delivery, media-owner results and spend information.
Assess delivery against the approved plan, objectives, KPIs and agreed media-owner commitments.
Write clear insights that explain what happened, why it happened and what Toyota should do differently next time.
Identify campaign learnings across channel, placement, timing, geography, audience delivery and value.
Resolve or clearly disclose data gaps and reporting limitations before work is shared.
Present campaign performance and recommendations confidently in internal and client sessions when required.
Maintain a clear record of final learnings so they are carried into future planning.

Qualifications

Experience

Approximately 4 to 7+ years of ATL or integrated media planning experience.
Strong traditional media planning and implementation experience.
Experience managing significant campaign budgets, multiple deadlines and media-owner relationships.

Hard Skills

Strong flowplan, schedule and implementation skills.
Excellent Excel and strong PowerPoint capability.
Numerically strong, with excellent attention to detail.
Strong understanding of reach, frequency, audience delivery, cost efficiency and media value.
Confident negotiation and media-owner management.
Strong reporting, insight writing and presentation ability.
Able to evaluate and defend media recommendations clearly.

Soft Skills

Proactive and highly accountable.
Organised and disciplined about follow-through.
Comfortable challenging proposals constructively.
Calm under pressure and able to manage competing priorities.
Collaborative across disciplines and agency partners.
Solution-led and willing to raise risks early.

Advantageous Experience

Automotive category experience.
Experience across television, radio, out-of-home, print, and cinema.
Experience working on large-scale brand launches, always-on activity and integrated campaigns.

Additional information

Publicis Groupe Africa is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits any forms of Discrimination or Harassment. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all our employees in line with our Employment Equity Plan.

All appointments will be based on qualifications, experience and best fit but preference will be given to candidates from designated groups. Interested candidates must please submit a concise CV including a link to your portfolio if necessary. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not hear from us within 2 weeks after submitting your application, please consider your application as unsuccessful.