IPG Mediabrands

Position Summary

As a Partnerships Manager you are responsible for the final execution of the Connections Plan, everything from negotiating the paid media to orchestrating shared assets between two stakeholders, editorial briefings to the placement of a TVC into a high rating television program.

The Partnerships Division is where the rubber hits the road and as the Partnerships Manager you are behind the wheel ensuring that the car wins the race.

You work together with many different disciplines such as Client, Strategy, Media and SBU's however it is the seamless collaboration with the Designers that encourages the pursuit for perfection in connections solution delivery.

You have Li+ years' experience within the industry and you have a fundamental and robust knowledge of the Australian media landscape across multiple categories.

You manage the Partnerships Traders and Executives to ensure delivery of effective campaigns, with media results that meet (or exceed) the UM set benchmarks/KPI's.

As the Partnerships Manager you need to be able to identify partnership opportunities that can exist outside the standard paid media environments. You are expected to be able to build strong relationships with agency partners to create new connections opportunities.

You are excellent at building new relationships however you know how to drive a hard bargain to deliver outstanding returns for our clients.

You have raw talent bringing together shrewd negotiations skills, outstanding interpersonal skills and a passion for your clients business that infects the entire team that work with you on campaigns.

You have strong media relationship and are developing the ability to negotiate when there is zero dollars exchanged; you are looked up to by all Partnerships Traders in your team and are the go-to person for all paid partnership enquires.

You demonstrate UM behaviours through your personal actions and serve as a good role model.

Job Responsibilities

• Supporting Partnerships leads in educating & presenting to clients on all marketplace trends, developing ability to translate into actionable insights relevant to client/category.
• To be proactive in learning about your clients business and understand ways to add value.
• Accurate execution of all client fees/charges (including ad-serving, buying/planning fees, spot monitoring & OOH printing) to ensure revenue opportunities are realised on plan & in system.
• Solid understanding and delivery of media objectives to maximise incentive goals and value gains.
• On request contribute to new business activities of the agency (pitch).

Connections Design

• Contribute to the ideation team session in conjunction with Connections Design team and relevant SBU's to generate the connections ideas across the selected connections points.
• Participate in the Connections briefing process with external stakeholders, while working with Connections Design on internal connections briefing (SBU's).
• Support Connection Designs to identify media and advertising and consumer trends across various connections points.

Partnerships

• Negotiations:
• Developing negotiation skills, with ability to evaluate accurately paid media & drive incremental value.
• Drives day-to-day negotiations across paid and non-paid channels to ensure required deliverables are achieved.
• Developing an understanding of the UM / Mediabrands deal requirements.
• Assistance in providing detail required for Partnership Leads to benchmark achieved costs internally.
• Support the Partnerships Leads in identifying non-traditional and non-paid partnership opportunities that can be explored as part of the connections solution.
• Support Partnerships Leads & contribute into all major negotiations.
• Connections Planning:
• Produce creative and effective Connections Plans & Recommendations in collaboration with Connections Designers focusing on Partnerships responsibilities.
• Responsible for providing the Partnerships inputs for the paid components of the connection plan as per the CDP process.
• Own in-conjunction with CD's the quality and accuracy of all Connections Plans and recommendations.
• Produce accurate and detailed Partnerships Rationales where Connections Recommendations are not required.
• Media Partnerships:
• Fostering strong media partnerships relationships within client team.
• Participating in key partnerships initiatives to ensure UM is the preferred media agency for all our media partners.

Workflow

• Accurately manages the workflow across campaign.
• Ensures no deadlines involving the client and required updates are missed.
• Campaign communications across team (including participating in internal WIP meetings, updating status).
• Debrief when things change or don't go to plan: learn and determine actions for next campaign.
• Supports Partnerships Director/ Senior Partnerships Director via workload, in negotiation, reporting & analysis, knows how to manage up.
• Ensure Workback Schedule is adopted in conjunction with Connections Design to manage workflow and timely deliver.

Analyse

• Deliver all campaign learnings & actionable insights and reports to clients in a timely manner.

Optimise

• Responsible for tracking, optimisation and deliver to client and/or agency KPI's.

Media Stewardship

• Process:
• Works in-conjunction with Connections Design to ensure all campaigns are developed using the Partnerships step by step process.
• Foster a collaborative & efficient workflow across multiple stakeholders (CD's, SBU's & External).
• Quality Control:
• Actively adheres to the UM Quality Assurance & Reporting Standards.
• Training and Development:
• Ability to manage a team of up to 3 traders and executives effectively.
• Assists in on the job, group and agency level training & identify needs of the junior or new Partnerships team members.
• Leadership:
• Contributes to a positive and motivating work environment of ideation and collaboration.

Desired Skills & Experience

Client

• Support and assist tracking of all client media contracts and ensure accuracy and timely in deliver.
• To support the Partnerships leads in updating client on market trends and implications. Expert and persuasive presentation skills for client recommendations.
• Developing solid presentation skills for client recommendations.

Knowledge & Insights

• Display knowledge of Owned, Earned, Shared and Paid connections solutions.
• Have a detailed level of awareness of the breadth of services delivered by the SBU 's.

Connections Design

• Produce creative and effective Connections Plans & Recommendations in collaboration with Connections Designers focusing on Partnerships responsibilities.

Partnerships

Negotiations:

• Displays competent negotiation skills, with an understanding on how to evaluate and identify incremental value that meets & exceeds clients KPI's.
• Work closely with the Partnerships Traders and Managers to deliver to trading/client KPI's/targets.
• Strong numerical and analytical and problem solving skills.
• Supports Partnerships Director/ Senior Partnerships Director on analysing and providing accurate media costs for planning purposes.

Connections Planning:

• Developing knowledge of the non-paid component of partnerships and an understanding on when they can be utilised as part of a client's campaign.
• Provide accurate and thorough media optimisations using proprietary and industry planning tools for all Connections Plans & Recommendations.

Tools:

• Become the expert or 'Go To' person across all core trading systems & tools and share your knowledge back across Partnerships team.
• Sound ability to use a combination of planning and trading tools to develop sound rationale and insights to feedback into Connections Plan and Recommendations.

Media Partnerships:

• Strong communication skills and a drive for strong and reliable media relationships (Executive level).

Workflow

• Delivers all external and internal Partnerships reporting and requests in a timely manner.
• Strong time, prioritisation and task management skills and developing management skills across direct reports.

Analyse

• Ability to use appropriate optimisation tools, analyse data, predict performance and make amendments for continuous improvement of deliverables (in real time where appropriate).

Optimise

• Ability to use appropriate optimisation tools, analyse data, predict performance and make amendments for continuous improvement of deliverables (in real time where applicable).

Media Stewardship

• Processes: Active ongoing demonstration of the UM Partnerships best practises to deliver a high standard in product.
• Quality Control: Supervision of Partnerships Traders & Managers to ensure timeliness and accuracy on all client/ UM financial processes.
• Training & Development: Attends and supports the Senior Partnerships Manager in the fortnightly team Partnerships meetings.

A full-service media agency, UM strives to Futureproof our clients’ businesses through our relentless pursuit of better science, art and outcomes. Founded in 1999, UM is made up of entrepreneurially-minded strategists, planners, researchers, investment experts, decision scientists, account executives, and content and activation specialists—over 4,800 employees across 130 offices in over 100 countries around the world. A part of IPG Mediabrands, UM’s global headquarters are in New York, with six additional US offices in Birmingham, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. UM's vision to Futureproof our clients for today, tomorrow, and beyond wouldn’t be possible without our Better People.

UM’s culture is an inclusive one, where people belong and are encouraged to bring their full selves to the office, and where personal and professional growth are a priority of every member of the team. UM’s Executive Leadership Team is dedicated to building a culture that permeates every element of the company, from work flexibility, to career planning and regular talent reviews, to an active culture club. They proudly uphold the following values:

Courage: Our courage to take risks drives our ability to set new industry standards.

Curiosity: Our relentless curiosity drives relentless innovation.

Commitment: Our commitment to uncovering better opportunities for our clients and our community is at the heart of everything we do.

Community: We pride ourselves on fostering a community where everyone can belong while actively giving back to the communities in which we live.

Caring: We care about being a diverse agency where everyone feels motivated and supported.

Candor: Our candor through open and constructive dialogue ensures better outcomes for our people and our clients.

As a company, UM is constantly pushing to improve, under their Better Science, Better Art, Better Outcomes banner, striving to set the bar in the ever-evolving media landscape. Their efforts have yielded a number of new business wins recently including Aetna, American Express, Columbia Sportswear, Gallo Wine, Henkel, and Quicken Loans.