Associate Director, Paid Media

About the Office of Marketing Communications

Under the newly minted division of University Marketing & Communications, the Office of Marketing Communications creates proactive, innovative, and comprehensive marketing, communications and branding strategies that highlight Drexel’s academic strengths and research, while emphasizing the value and potential of the experiential education model. The Office of Marketing Communications works closely with colleges, schools, academic and administrative staff throughout the University to create comprehensive marketing and communications strategies that serve the University’s overarching branding, recruitment and retention goals to meet or exceed the enrollment and revenue objectives. The Office of Marketing Communications defines, protects, and disseminates the Drexel University brand while clearly illustrating its unique value proposition.

Job Summary

The Associate Director, Paid Media will play a key role in executing the paid marketing strategy for both recruitment and brand marketing efforts initiated on behalf of the Division of University Marketing and Communications, as well as for colleges, schools, and other administrative units. Working in tandem with a dedicated Marketing Project Manager, this key leadership position will be responsible for managing relationships with the University’s agencies-of-record (and spearheading new and disparate strategic partner RFP processes).

The Associate Director will work both independently and cross-functionally with the graduate strategy, market research/analytics, marketing technology, digital strategy, brand/governance, creative, university engagement, invoicing/accounting, and undergraduate strategy sub-functions within the Office of Marketing Communications.

The Associate Director is responsible for all aspects of all in-house media buying, including media research, contract negotiation, creative deadlines, ad trafficking, proof of performance and invoicing. In addition, the Associate Director will act as primary liaison with agencies of record to “own” the full gamut of paid media efforts on behalf of the University. They will also assist with the management of finance and accounting needs for the department. This includes responsibility for accounting, monthly reports, month-end reconciliation, forecasting, budgeting, and ROI reporting.

This is an excellent opportunity for a creative and analytical marketer to work on the University’s Ambition Can’t Wait brand awareness campaign and other paid branding efforts, while also spearheading lead generation initiatives with the support of a robust, data-driven, central marketing and communications team.

Essential Functions

• Develop media research strategy for each paid marketing campaign for both face-to-face and online LeadGen campaigns, using key target market demographics and psychographics as provided by Strategy teams. Tactics will include digital (social, display, etc.) as well as traditional (radio, TV, print) media.
• Research general and targeted media outlets to support each school/portfolio.
• Media planning and buying: placement of conversion-driven direct-to-consumer marketing with an emphasis on online marketing (solo emails, banners, eNewsletters, etc.) as well as traditional direct response media, such as print, direct mail, etc. Work with external vendors to negotiate and purchase media in the agreed-upon media plan by portfolio.
• Traffic and evaluate online media buys through Drexel’s ad tracking software and assist with campaign testing and analysis. Assess ROI and other key success metrics on marketing spends.
• Work closely with finance and marketing teams to develop monthly and annual budgets and forecasts.
• Manage relationships (including weekly status meetings and additional meeting cadences) with Drexel’s agencies of record for all digital and traditional media. Liaises with strategy team, as well as colleges/schools to handle agency-led reporting calls and campaign post-mortems.
• Liaise with finance and budget personnel to help manage the marketing budgets within accounting systems and monitor against actuals within marketing campaign management systems.
• Working in tandem with Marketing Project Manager, serve as essential Ambition Can’t Wait team lead in liaising with AOR to execute on 7+-month media flight in all target markets, making optimizations to media to maximize metrics along the way.
• Spearhead RFP processes on behalf of the Office, working with Office of Procurement and other divisions as needed.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in business, marketing, accounting or related field of study.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in media buying, specifically digital media.
• Experience with marketing performance reporting and data analytics.
• Ability to perform in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Strong written and communication skills.
• Excellent capabilities with Excel.

Preferred Qualifications

• Must be deadline-focused.
• Must be motivated and proactive problem-solver.
• Strong teamwork and collaboration skills.

Location

University City, Philadelphia PA

Additional Information

This position is classified as Exempt with a salary grade of L. For more information regarding Drexel’s Professional Staff salary structure, https://drexel.edu/hr/career/ducomp/salstructure/

Special Instructions to the Applicant

Please make sure you upload your CV/resume and cover letter when submitting your application.

Review of applicants will begin once a suitable candidate pool is identified.

#CB

Advertised:Dec 1 2022 Eastern Standard Time
Applications close:Jan 1 2023 Eastern Standard Time