Director, Connections & Media

The Director, Connections & Media role is responsible, (in partnership with Brand, Integrated Marketing Experiences IMX, and Front Line Marketing/Commercial teams and Content Partners) for building and orchestrating best-in-class holistic connection plans across all relevant media channels (paid, earned, owned, and retail/commerce). This candidate will do this by understanding and interpreting consumer insights and trends, linking those insights to business strategy and translating communication strategies into optimal connections plans.

The ideal candidate must have strong understanding of marketing mix learnings, robust capability in measurement and data analytics to ensure optimized performance that clearly demonstrates media’s impact on revenue growth, brand equity, and consumer engagement. This person will oversee data informed audience planning, investment and Go-To-Market activation as well as manage external agency partners to achieve excellence in execution and innovation in areas like shoppable/retail media, AI-powered targeting and biddable media.

Core Functional Competencies:

• Media planning expertise in all channels from affinity building to transactions/ loyalty. Familiarity with Sports Media and Retail Media Networks is a plus.

• Digital marketing transformation including hands on experience/familiarity with digital trading UIs, audience building and the programmatic ecosystem (TTD, DV360, Amazon, Social Platforms, etc).  Hands on keyboards programmatic experience is a plus

• Audience segmentation Advanced Media Expertise to advise and influence investments to drive ROI. 

• Comfortable leveraging audience data tools, such as Epsilon Clean Room, CDPs, and other data platforms, to inform media planning and execution across multiple channels, including digital, video, social, mobile, and offline media

• Proficiency with 1/2/3 party data usage and governance

• Strong Operations knowledge including measurement & analytics, data enablement via technology

• Agency leadership & management

• Growth mindset: ability to see the opportunity in the ever-changing media landscape to future proof our business

What You’ll Do for Us

• Holistic Media Investment, Strategy & Planning: Lead the development of holistic omni-channel media strategies that align with brand marketing objectives and commercial goals. Be the internal team’s “go-to” for all connection and media planning questions and deliverables. Ensure each plan is audience-centric and platform-specific, building best-in-class connection plans across paid, earned, owned and shared channels. Work with connections team to balance upper-funnel brand-building tactics with lower-funnel commerce and conversion-driving tactics in a cohesive plan.  Develop and execute the strategic approach of media budget allocation and channel mix recommendations, guided by data and past performance. Direct negotiations, including emerging areas like shoppable media working closely with media agencies and new vendors to secure optimal deals and value-added opportunities.

• Data-Driven Audience Planning & Insights: Leverage business and consumer data to inform smarter media planning and audience targeting. Work with Analytics and Data Science teams to interpret customer insights, purchase behavior, and segmentation studies, shaping audience strategies that pinpoint who we should engage, when, and on which platforms. Apply advanced analytics (such as look-alike modeling, propensity scoring, or using our first-party data and unified data platform) to refine targeting and personalize messaging across media channels. Ensure media plans are built on clear data-driven insights and use these insights to brief agencies on targeting parameters.

• Measurement & Analytics Integration: Embed measurement and analytics into every media initiative to track performance and inform optimization. Partner with the Marketing Analytics/Insights team to utilize tools like marketing mix modeling (MMM), multi-touch attribution, brand lift studies, and competitive spend analysis, in order to gauge program impact across revenue, brand equity, and shopper engagement.

• Set clear KPIs and success metrics for each campaign upfront (e.g., ROAS, incremental sales lift, brand health metrics) and ensure the appropriate tracking is in place. Continuously monitor in-flight media performance and adjust tactics or spend as needed to maximize ROI and yield. 

• Post-campaign, lead rigorous analyses and post-mortems – assessing results versus targets, understanding drivers of success or shortfall, and extracting learnings. Incorporate learnings into future planning cycles, creating a continuous improvement loop. If a campaign under-delivers, pinpoint whether it was strategy, creative, or execution, and recommend data-backed adjustments moving forward. 

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Serve as the primary bridge between the media function and other teams (Brand Marketing, Creative, Social/Digital,  Commercial/Shopper Marketing, etc.) to ensure media strategies are fully integrated into broader marketing plans. Participate in brand and campaign planning meetings to represent media opportunities and constraints, helping shape briefs and creative ideas that will work across different channels. Translate business objectives and marketing priorities into actionable media briefs for the team and agencies .  Communicate complex media concepts and consumer behavior trends in simple, actionable terms for non-media stakeholders, so everyone understands the “why” behind the media plan. Maintain a tight feedback loop during campaign execution: update cross-functional partners on media performance and optimizations and ensure any changes in business context are quickly reflected in media activities. 

• Agency & Partner Management: Manage day-to-day execution through agency partners, ensuring campaigns launch on time and deliver against KPIs.

• Oversee relationships with external media agencies and media platform partners to ensure executional excellence and accountability. Provide clear direction to agency teams (e.g., briefing them on strategy, target outcomes, and guidelines), and maintain regular check-ins to monitor progress and address issues. Hold agencies to high standards in media planning rigor, creativity in approach, and operational efficiency. Facilitate collaboration between the agency and internal creative/content teams so that media and creative work in tandem (e.g., ensuring ad formats and content are optimized for each platform).  

• Innovation in Media Activation:  Bring a culture of innovation in how we plan and execute media. Constantly scout and evaluate emerging media platforms, technologies, and partnership opportunities that could give our brands a competitive edge (for example, new social media formats, advanced programmatic solutions, or interactive commerce integrations, agentic/autonomous buying). Champion the testing and adoption of AI-powered tools for media targeting and optimization. Push boundaries and ensure that Coca-Cola NAOU remains a leader in omni-channel media and doesn’t just follow industry best practices but helps define them. 

• Team Engagement: Encourage a culture of collaboration, agility, and continuous learning across the team and with IAT partners. Consistently enable knowledge-sharing sessions on new media trends or post-campaign learnings. Lead by example in embodying the company’s leadership behaviors and values, and recognize and celebrate team successes to maintain high engagement and morale. 

Education: Bachelor's degree in, Communications, marketing or a related field required.  

Technical Functional Experience:

• Media: 10+ years of deep expertise in omni-channel media planning and activation, including traditional advertising (TV, radio, OOH, print), digital and social media, and retail/commerce media. Proven track record of translating marketing objectives into effective media strategies and delivering measurable results at scale.

• Audience Planning: Skilled in audience strategy and media targeting techniques (e.g., programmatic buying, look-alike targeting, contextual targeting) to reach the right consumers. Up-to-date on current media landscape trends and able to quickly assess their relevance to our business. 

• Data & Analytics Savvy: Solid understanding of marketing analytics, measurement techniques, and the use of data to drive decisions. Experience leveraging consumer data and MarTech/AdTech (DMPs, DSPs, CDPs) to inform media planning and personalization.

• Innovation: Prior experience driving or contributing to a transformation in media approach (e.g., integrating new channels, building a data-driven planning process, or leading a major agency transition) is highly valuable. 

• Communication and Storytelling: Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. Capable of articulating media strategies and results in a clear, compelling manner to senior leadership and non-media audiences simplifying technical concepts without losing meaning. Strong storyteller when it comes to showcasing how media efforts tie to business outcomes, instilling confidence and understanding in stakeholders.

• Project Management: Outstanding project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple campaigns and deadlines concurrently. Comfortable in a fast-paced environment, with a hands-on, solution-oriented approach to addressing challenges and opportunities. 

• Agency management: Experience leading and managing agency partners. Push and Ensure effective and efficient go-to-market approach and drive agency ways of working to drive seamless and integrated planning.

Preferred Qualifications: Executive Presence, Strategic thinking, strategy development, marketing expertise, knowledge of current brand and consumer marketing trends, experience in media core function and knowledge of  all forms of media buying.