Associate Director, Integrated Media Planning

POPPIN JAY DBA BLUE CHIP•Northbrook, IL

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director, Integrated Media Planning provides strategic and operational leadership across assigned accounts and media planning teams. The role oversees the development and delivery of integrated, channel-agnostic media strategies, ensuring planning quality, financial stewardship, and cross-functional alignment, while serving as a senior day-to-day advisor to clients and agency partners. The Associate Director leads multiple or complex planning assignments, provides direction and escalation support to Managers and planners, and translates department standards into consistent account-level practices. The position also contributes to talent development, staffing and workload planning, new business, process improvement, and broader department priorities in partnership with senior media leadership.

Requirements

8+ years of progressive media planning experience, including experience leading complex integrated planning assignments.
Broad knowledge of offline and online media channels, audience insights, and performance analytics.
Demonstrated experience with shopper marketing and the development of integrated media solutions.
Strong knowledge of digital disciplines, including display, online video, CTV, programmatic, social media, influencer media, SEM, digital coupons, and ad operations.
Advanced understanding of media strategy, planning, negotiation, implementation, budget stewardship, measurement, and performance analysis.
Demonstrated experience developing and presenting integrated media proposals, plans, and recommendations to clients.
Demonstrated experience leading teams, developing talent, reviewing work, and coordinating resources across multiple assignments.
Experience contributing to new business strategy, proposals, or presentations.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead integrated media planning across multiple, significant, or complex accounts, connecting audience insights, client objectives, channel roles, investment strategy, measurement, and optimization.
Provide strategic direction and quality oversight throughout planning, including brief development, audience and consumer target definition, objectives, strategies, channel architecture, recommendations, and presentations.
Oversee account planning workflows and deliverables; establish priorities, monitor progress, resolve barriers, and ensure work is strategically sound, accurate, timely, and client-ready.
Serve as a senior planning advisor to assigned clients and internal partners, anticipating business needs, facilitating strategic decisions, and taking ownership of complex media issues, growth opportunities, and test-and-learn initiatives.
Lead development and presentation of integrated media recommendations and points of view, making the strategic rationale, investment choices, tradeoffs, and measurement approach clear and defensible.
Partner with SPARQ, Client Leadership, Creative, MAA, and other agency teams to ensure planning, activation, measurement, and optimization are cohesive and accountable.
Maintain oversight of campaign performance, budgets, media spend, pacing, billing, deliverables, and strategic optimization; communicate and resolve or escalate significant variances and risks.
Guide planning across digital and offline media channels and ensure channel recommendations work together within an integrated campaign strategy.
Use syndicated research, audience data, market intelligence, and planning tools to shape insights, strategies, and recommendations.
Evaluate vendor, partner, and publisher capabilities and proposals; lead or guide negotiations; and ensure recommendations reflect client needs, investment considerations, and sound strategic rationale.
Build productive relationships with media partners and vendors and maintain knowledge of emerging capabilities, marketplace developments, and planning best practices.
When assigned direct reports, manage, coach, and develop team members by setting clear expectations, providing ongoing feedback, supporting career development, and reinforcing accountability.
Provide direction and escalation support to junior team members; review work, strengthen planning skills, and promote consistent application of department standards and processes.
Partner with senior media leadership on staffing, workload planning, resource allocation, scopes, and account team structure for assigned business.
Contribute to new business development, including discovery, research, strategy, proposal development, scoping, and presentations.
Develop and share media points of view, thought leadership, and planning best practices for internal and client-facing use.
Identify opportunities to improve planning tools, processes, collaboration, quality, and team performance; support implementation of approved changes.
Promote positive working relationships and collaboration across the department, agency, clients, and vendor partners.