Associate Director, Media Planning & Buying (Evergreen)

Interested in joining Blue State's Media team? Submit your application here to ensure you're first in line for future opportunities. Please note: this is an "evergreen" job post (i.e. not an active job post), but your expression of interest matters to us. While interviews aren't ongoing, we're excited to connect with talented individuals who share our commitment to Blue State's mission.

Execute innovative marketing strategy through a diverse channel mix, for leading NGOs, charities and brands. As an Associate Director in the Paid Media Team, you'll oversee the execution of digital advertising campaigns across clients ranging from leading UK and global charities and UN bodies, to global brands and their CSR programmes.

You will know how to drive strong performance metrics for clients, whilst thinking holistically about the brand and how these metrics contribute to wider conversation about marketing budgets and long-term growth objectives. You will be a senior member of our media practice in London, supporting the Media Director in shaping processes and innovating our client channel mix to drive results.

This may be the right role for you if you're someone who is equally strategic, creative, and analytical. Switching seamlessly from a client presentation to writing an insightful analysis of campaign performance, and rolling up your sleeves to launch advertising campaigns in new platforms are no big deal for you. You're used to spending most of your day speaking in acronyms - terms like CPA, DSP, VTR, and ROAS are a natural part of your vocabulary - and you know how to explain them to clients and colleagues.

You will use your depth of experience to inform your work but also use your curiosity to keep ahead of the changing sector in order to ensure we're innovating for our clients wherever possible.

• Translate clients' strategic visions into media objectives and KPIs to accomplish a wide range of client objectives including direct response (lead gen and fundraising), awareness, persuasion, and advocacy.
• Analyse ongoing and historical performance data to identify opportunities for improvement, make strategic recommendations, and generate reporting and insights to drive optimisation.
• Have a strong POV on measurement, attribution, and conversion tracking, and apply that knowledge to strategic recommendations and ongoing campaign management.
• Participate in (and frequently lead) client-facing interactions - you'll be the subject-matter expert for the platforms you manage.
• Plan, build, manage, and optimise media campaigns across multiple platforms, and oversee others in the team across multiple accounts to ensure media buying is efficient, effective and compliant.
• Work collaboratively with other internal or external teams, including media planners, strategists, account directors, designers, and analysts, to produce campaigns, creative ideas, audience and target recommendations, and experimental designs.
• Be an internal and external thought leader and help keep us up to date with the latest digital media trends by maintaining relationships with media partners, and engaging in media R&D projects, writing blog posts, and participating on panels.

• 6-8 years experience in a hands-on paid media planning and buying role using a mix of digital channels (Social, Search, Display, Video, Audio, etc)
• Demonstrated experience translating client business goals into cohesive media strategies and specific KPIs, and a record executing campaigns that delivered on those goals.
• Ability to effectively manage multiple clients and projects on time, within budget, and meet performance goals.
• High proficiency with digital advertising platforms - you've demonstrated a level of mastery of paid social, paid search, and/or programmatic trading - as well as Google Analytics and other measurement platforms
• Exceptional attention to detail, especially with regards to campaign setup and trafficking, QA, and reporting.
• Ability to adapt to new situations, solve problems on the fly, and communicate with those around you.
• A shared passion and curiosity for delivering change. This includes comfort with ambiguity, a restlessness that resists the status quo, and a commitment to quality that ensures we're always making progress.

At Blue State, diversity is a necessity, not a nice-to-have. We encourage those from underrepresented communities - women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, those with disabilities and people at all the intersections in between - to apply. Even if you don't think your current skill set checks every box, but this role seems to align with your strengths, we want to hear from you.

Blue State is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible application and interview process. If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation for a disability, including the use of AI tools throughout the hiring process, please contact us at with the subject line: Accommodation Request to get started.