Senior Media Strategist

To lead the development of robust, client-ready media strategies for the Absa Personal & Private Banking portfolio, with a strong weighting toward digital media, omnichannel planning, audience insight, channel roles, measurement frameworks and strategic media recommendations.

The role exists to ensure that every brief is translated into a clear strategic response: what we are trying to solve, who we need to reach, what action we need from them, which channels should play which role, how budgets should be weighted, how success will be measured, and how the work should be optimised once live.

1. Brief interrogation and strategic problem definition

• Receive, unpack and interrogate client briefs to identify the true business, brand, product, audience and media challenge.
• Construct smart, necessary questions for the client that clarify objectives, success metrics, audience priorities, product focus, constraints, timings, budgets, mandatories and approvals.
• Distinguish between what the client has asked for and what the business actually needs from media.
• Convert unclear or broad requests into a clear strategic problem statement, working hypothesis and recommended direction.
• Identify gaps in brief quality and escalate missing information early, while maintaining a professional and solutions-led client tone.

2 . Define & Validate Growth Opportunities

• Translate client briefs into clear, measurable growth objectives
• Assess whether client growth targets are achievable and recommend adjustments where required
• Identify growth levers across: Existing customers (Grow), Competitor customers (Switch), New category entrants (Recruit)
• Determine the required media contribution and investment levels to deliver against growth targets
• Use available data, proxies, and modelling to build a realistic growth forecast

3. Audience, category and insight development

• Use relevant research tools and data sources such as BrandMapp, GWI, Telmar, internal reporting, competitive intelligence, social/platform data and media partner inputs to build a defensible audience viewpoint.
• Develop audience profiles that go beyond demographics and include behaviours, motivations, barriers, media consumption, digital behaviours, financial needs, category attitudes and job-to-be-done.
• Identify audience size, addressability, attention behaviour and reach potential to inform channel selection and budget weighting.
• Connect South African consumer, financial services and media behaviour to practical implications for Absa Personal & Private Banking briefs.
• Turn data into a simple strategic story that helps clients understand why the recommendation is right.

4. Media strategy and channel architecture

• Demonstrate how media drives business outcomes, not just channel performance
• Lead discussions on: Growth feasibility, Marketing contribution vs broader business levers, Trade-offs across investment scenarios
• Build channel strategies that are grounded in media principles, not channel preference or supplier pressure.
• Define the role of each channel across the funnel and journey: awareness, salience, education, consideration, lead generation, conversion, retargeting, retention or reassurance.
• Create clear media ecosystems showing how channels work together rather than as disconnected line items.
• Develop channel role frameworks, phasing plans, audience journeys, content/format logic and execution principles for ATL and digital channels.
• Ensure strategies account for reach build, frequency, sequencing, duplication, creative context, audience intent and platform behaviour.
• Build Data-Led Growth Narratives

5. Digital-first and omnichannel planning direction

• Lead digital-heavy strategic thinking across paid social, search, programmatic, online video, YouTube, display, CTV/OTT where relevant, digital audio, content partnerships, publisher ecosystems and performance channels.
• Integrate ATL channels such as TV, radio, print, OOH/DOOH and sponsorship environments where they help solve reach, fame, credibility, contextual relevance or business impact objectives.
• Guide how digital and ATL activity should work in unison, including the role of broadcast reach, digital amplification, retargeting, search capture, social engagement, content depth and conversion pathways.
• Understand how to manipulate media execution across targeting, formats, frequency, phasing, flighting, geography, creative sequencing, platform mechanics and audience exclusions.
• Work with planners, buyers and platform specialists to ensure the executional plan remains faithful to the strategic idea.

6. Budget weighting, phasing and investment logic

• Develop budget weighting recommendations based on objective, audience size, funnel stage, channel role, expected reach, cost efficiency, market priority, job-to-be-done and success metrics.
• Provide strategic rationale for investment splits across channels, markets, products, campaign phases and audience segments.
• Use planning runs, audience sizing, reach/frequency thinking, historic performance and benchmark inputs to pressure-test whether budgets are sufficient for the task.
• Identify when a budget is too thinly spread, when a channel mix is overcomplicated, or when investment should be focused for greater impact.
• Guide campaign phasing across launch, sustain, conversion, burst, always-on and optimisation periods.

7. Measurement frameworks and learning agendas

• Build measurement frameworks that connect business objective, media objective, channel role, KPI, reporting view and optimisation action.
• Define what success looks like across awareness, engagement, traffic, lead generation, conversion, quality of lead, cost efficiency, incremental reach and learning objectives.
• Work with AdOps, reporting and performance teams to ensure campaigns have the right tracking, taxonomy, UTM logic, dashboards, tagging requirements and reporting expectations.
• Develop test-and-learn agendas that help the client improve future performance, not simply report historic delivery.
• Ensure measurement recommendations are realistic, aligned to available data and clear enough for the team to execute.

8. Strategic tools, research and evidence base

• Demonstrate strong working knowledge of strategic and media planning tools including Scenario Planner, Digital Optimizor, Outcome modeller
• Use tools to develop audience sizing, market context, category behaviour, media consumption, channel reach, competitive activity and strategic implications.
• Know when tool outputs are useful, when they need interpretation, and when they should be challenged because they do not fully explain the client problem.
• Maintain a structured evidence base for key strategic recommendations, including source, implication and recommended action.
• Coach junior strategists and planners on how to turn research outputs into usable strategy rather than data dumps.

9. Client-facing strategic leadership

• Act as a professional, credible and confident strategic partner to client stakeholders, with strong meeting etiquette, preparation and decorum.
• Lead or support strategic conversations, brief interrogation sessions, recommendation presentations and strategic responses to business queries.
• Present with clarity, confidence and commercial awareness, adapting the level of detail to the audience in the room.
• Protect strategic quality while staying collaborative and responsive to client realities.
• Provide strategic recommendations on best practice when clients ask about channel choices, budget sufficiency, media partner opportunities, measurement approaches or execution trade-offs.

10. Strategic deck writing and presentation craft

• Compile visually attractive, logically structured and persuasive PowerPoint presentations that are easy for clients and internal teams to follow.
• Build decks that move fr