W

WPP

Integrated global marketing and communications services

Senior Media Activation Manager

Full-TimeUpdated on 10/14/2026
No salary listed
Senior
Tokyo, Japan
HybridTeams are in the office around four days a week.
Growth & MarketingPerformance & Paid Marketing

About the job

Requirements
  • Approximately 4–8 years of experience in a digital media agency, including at least 3 years of media buying experience and at least 2 years of people management experience.
  • Specialization in performance-driven campaigns.
  • Experience planning and running larger-scale campaigns across multiple markets while adhering to cost-per-acquisition targets.
  • Experience with campaign management tools such as AdWords, DoubleClick Search, Marin, and Kenshoo.
  • Proficiency in Excel, including PivotTables and VLOOKUPs.
  • An active interest in and understanding of online advertising industry trends.
  • Strong understanding of optimization levers and testing approaches.
  • Communication skills, both verbal and written.
  • Analysis skills, including quantitative analysis, and proven critical-thinking capability.
  • Proven experience managing people or teams, including responsibility for career development.
  • Experience developing performance best practices; experience working in a global context to drive localization and adoption is desirable.
  • Ability to proactively influence clients to evolve best practices and drive innovation.
  • Experience managing internal and external stakeholder relationships.
Responsibilities
  • Manage team members to deliver consistently across multiple campaigns.
  • Own performance strategy and integrate it into overall campaign strategy.
  • Take full responsibility for campaign performance from start to finish.
  • Ensure adherence to controls and best practices across multiple channels.
  • Build an annual learning agenda and test plan for assigned portfolios.
  • Give final approval to performance forecasts and reforecasts.
  • Develop multiple case studies throughout the year.
  • Drive spend recommendations for all biddable campaigns.
  • Be accountable for quarterly business reviews of assigned products.
  • Coach and train junior team members in channel and client-service skills.
  • Identify issues, troubleshoot, and manage communications with internal and external clients.
  • Manage all aspects of 2–3 direct reports and a team of 4–6, including staff reviews, career planning, and coaching.
  • Provide recommendations for Search, Social, Display, and Video; manage supplier relationships and execute recommendations to maximize in-channel performance and data integrity.
Desired Qualifications
  • AdWords certification; Facebook Blueprint or DoubleClick certification is a plus.
  • Experience working in a global context to drive localization and adoption.

About the company

W

WPP

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WPP provides integrated marketing and communications services worldwide, combining creativity with data and technology. It offers branding, digital marketing, media planning, market research, public relations, and business transformation, delivering campaigns and programs that help clients build brands, engage audiences, and achieve business goals. The company operates at scale through a network of specialist agencies and partners, enabling cross-disciplinary work and global execution. It differentiates itself by offering end-to-end, integrated solutions, a strong focus on sustainability and responsible business practices, and thought leadership such as publications like the Atticus Journal. WPP’s goal is to be a strategic partner that drives client growth and positive social impact by blending creativity, technology, and data to navigate a rapidly changing market.

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Founded

2015

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Nestlé awarded WPP a 35,000-asset annual mandate on September 22, 2026.
  • Reuters reported WPP's September 23 London hub launch first in a global rollout.
  • August 2026 results beat expectations, and management reaffirmed guidance, lifting shares 29%.

What critics are saying

  • Reuters reported WPP is cutting up to 1,000 more jobs by year-end.
  • Jon Cook exits VML in March 2027, threatening execution across WPP's largest creative unit.
  • If clients buy AI content directly from platforms, WPP's holding-company margin stack collapses.

What makes WPP unique

  • WPP Open and WPP Open | China unify creative, media, data, and AI workflows.
  • Devon's Point and Wuxi hubs turn content production into industrial-scale operating infrastructure.
  • Nestlé chose WPP after a multi-agency pitch for end-to-end Greater China operations.

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Benefits

  • Professional Development Budget

Company News

The Desk
Oct 15th, 2026
Fox expands AI-powered linear TV ad buying with agencies.

Fox expands AI-powered linear TV ad buying with agencies. Fox says the platform has progressed from technical demonstrations to executing transactions for live advertising campaigns. [email protected] October 15, 2026 Fox Corporation's television advertising business Fox Advertising has started executing linear TV ads transactions through its artificial intelligence-powered Fox AdStudio platform, working with several major advertising agencies and technology companies to automate portions of the traditional television media buying process. On Thursday, Fox Advertising said WPP, Omnicom, Horizon Media, Stagwell and Simulmedia are using its agent-to-agent technology for live advertising campaigns. The development follows Fox's introduction of the platform in June, when the company demonstrated how AI agents could support audience planning, media transactions and campaign activation. Fox first introduced the technology in June, demonstrating how AI could be used throughout the advertising process. The latest development puts those capabilities to work on actual campaigns rather than technical demonstrations. Under the new system, an advertising agency can use its own AI software to communicate with Fox's advertising platform. The two systems can exchange campaign information, identify available commercial spots and complete certain transactions without requiring employees to manually coordinate every step. The technology can also recommend alternatives when a requested commercial spot is unavailable: Rather than simply removing that placement from an ad order, Fox's system can suggest another spot that reaches a similar audience. The platform includes security controls and a monitoring system designed to ensure transactions follow established rules, the company affirmed. Fox employees and workers at agency partners will continue making important decisions about campaigns, with AI handling some of the work involved in carrying them out. "Now, together with our partners, we're putting those capabilities to work on live campaigns - moving agentic advertising from capability to real-world execution while maintaining the governance and human oversight essential to doing it responsibly," Jeff Collins, the President of Fox Advertising, Marketing and Brand Partnerships, said in a statement on Thursday. The participating agencies are connecting their existing advertising systems to Fox AdStudio. Omnicom is using its Omni platform to help advertisers select audiences and purchase individual television spots, while Horizon Media is working with technology company Databricks to connect its advertising systems with Fox. Stagwell is using its Media Machine platform to help turn advertiser requests into media plans, and WPP is testing live transactions as part of its broader work to develop standards for AI-powered advertising. (WPP in June announced a partnership with Fox and others to standardize the use of artificial intelligence for TV and video advertising.) Simulmedia is also participating, with a focus on using campaign results to make changes to television advertising schedules. Those results could include website visits, app downloads and purchases attributed to commercials. The technology could make traditional TV ad inventory easier to purchase and adjust, bringing some of the automation already common in digital advertising to broadcast and cable TV, Fox said. Fox did not disclose how many advertising transactions have been completed through the platform, how much money those transactions represent or whether the system has reduced costs for advertisers. Fox Corporation is expected to publish its next financial earnings report in early November.

AdExchanger
Oct 13th, 2026
AdExchanger names Lauren Wetzel of WPP and Kristi Argyilan of The Trade Desk as 2026 Top Women Special Recognition Award recipients.

AdExchanger names Lauren Wetzel of WPP and Kristi Argyilan of The Trade Desk as 2026 Top Women Special Recognition Award recipients. Tuesday, October 13th, 2026 - 12:04 pm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Two of the industry's most consequential leaders receive the program's highest individual honors. New York, NY - October 12, 2026 - AdExchanger today named Kristi Argyilan, Chief Commercial Officer at The Trade Desk, and Lauren Wetzel, Global President, Data and Technology Solutions at WPP, as recipients of the 2026 Top Women in Media & Ad Tech Special Recognition Awards, the program's highest individual honors, reserved for leaders whose impact reaches far beyond their organizations. Argyilan receives the Industry Impact Award, the highest honor of the evening, for a career that has set the standard for creativity, innovation and sustained influence. She helped launch Target's retail media business, now Roundel, built Albertsons Media Collective in-house and pushed the industry toward shared measurement standards. At Uber, she accelerated an ad business that passed $2 billion in annualized revenue in 2025, according to ADWEEK. Today she leads data partnerships at The Trade Desk. AdExchanger has called her the "godmother of retail media." Wetzel receives the Catalyst Award, recognizing a leader who has driven extraordinary growth and transformation for her business, her team and the industry around her. She rose through strategy and operations at Xandr and InfoSum, became InfoSum's CEO in 2024 and led it through its acquisition by WPP in 2025. She has challenged the industry's "privacy-washing" and argued that privacy and performance are not at odds. "Kristi and Lauren did not wait for a seat at the table. They built it," said Lynne d Johnson, Director of Content and Community, AdExchanger. "As women on this team who champion other women, we want every woman in this industry to see what that leadership looks like." "Commerce becoming a media channel and privacy-safe data becoming the way brands collaborate are two of the biggest stories we cover," said Sarah Sluis, Editorial Director, Ad Tech/Convergent Media. "Kristi and Lauren sit at the center of both, and they got there by running the business and setting the standards." Argyilan and Wetzel join a remarkable 2026 class of AdExchanger Top Women in Media & Ad Tech honorees - trailblazers from The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, Roku, The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft AI, Magnite, PayPal Ads and more than 150 organizations across every corner of media and ad tech. Honorees will be celebrated at the AdExchanger Top Women in Media & Ad Tech Awards Gala on November 3, 2026 at The Lighthouse in New York City, an evening of recognition, celebration and connection with leaders from across the media and ad tech ecosystem. Learn more and secure your tickets and tables here. For questions about attending the Awards Gala, contact Karis Kim at [email protected]. To become an event sponsor or for information about congratulatory ads, contact Kelly Mahoney at [email protected]. About AdExchanger: AdExchanger is the leading trade publication and event platform for data-driven advertising and marketing technology. Through authoritative journalism, industry analysis and premier events, AdExchanger informs and connects the executives and innovators driving the future of digital media and advertising. About Chief Marketer Network: The Chief Marketer Network (CMN) is a leading marketing intelligence hub connecting a global portfolio of nine specialized media brands that span the primary channels of media and marketing - from advertising technology to PR and communications. With an aggregate audience of over 1 million marketing professionals, CMN delivers curated insights, trend forecasting, and cross-disciplinary coverage that empower marketers to stay ahead of what's next. Trusted by industry leaders, the Chief Marketer Network is the go-to resource for actionable intelligence across the evolving marketing landscape. CMN brands include AdExchanger, Event Marketer, Chief Marketer, PRNEWS, LeadsCon, AdMonsters, Cynopsis, and CFX. About Top Women Network: The Top Women Network is a cross-industry community connecting women leaders across media, marketing, technology and communications. Powered by the Chief Marketer Network, it brings together a portfolio of industry-leading brands - including Chief Marketer, AdExchanger, PRNEWS, Cynopsis, CFX, Folio:, LeadsCon and Event Marketer - to create a platform for recognition, connection and ongoing engagement. Through awards programs, events and content, the network is designed to elevate women leaders, amplify their impact and foster meaningful relationships across the industry. MEDIA CONTACT: Marketing Manager, AdExchanger Tagged in:

Yahoo Finance
Oct 13th, 2026
WPP shares up 38% in 90 days as McCann chief Turnbull to lead creative unit

WPP is reported to be naming Tyler Turnbull, currently global chief executive officer of McCann, as global chief executive officer of WPP Creative. The move is part of its Elevate28 program. WPP shares have risen 37.97% over 90 days and 12.18% this year. Even so, total shareholder return is down 38.58% over three years and 50.52% over five. The most followed analyst narrative puts fair value at about £3.87 per share, against a recent close of £3.79. A Simply Wall St discounted cash flow estimate is lower, at £3.67. Backers point to AI-powered platforms such as WPP Open as a route to higher margins. Risks include falling organic revenue and fierce competition from consulting firms.

exchange4media
Oct 12th, 2026
Kristen Mascarenhas joins Starcom as Group Head.

Kristen Mascarenhas joins Starcom as Group Head. Mascarenhas joins Starcom after her term at WPP as Associate Vice President - Client Services. Kristen Mascarenhas has joined Starcom, part of Publicis Groupe, as Group Head, marking her latest move in the media and advertising industry. Mascarenhas joins Starcom after working at WPP as Associate Vice President - Client Services, a role she took up in August 2026, according to her professional profile. Before that, she spent over three years at Mindshare. She also worked at Merkle Sokrati as Manager - Business Strategy from January to August 2023. Mascarenhas announced the move on LinkedIn, describing it as a new chapter in her career.

Reflect.ee
Oct 12th, 2026
The advance of artificial intelligence in London's advertising industry threatens the growth of new film talent.

The advance of artificial intelligence in London's advertising industry threatens the growth of new film talent. One of the world's largest advertising groups, WPP, is investing £600 million in AI-driven production to cut costs and increase speed. Film industry veterans warn that this could destroy the traditional "film school" that has served as a launchpad for many well-known directors. WPP is investing £600 million in AI production AI could reduce advertising production costs by up to 60% The new production hub is located in London London-based advertising giant WPP has opened a new state-of-the-art production hub, marking the group's broader £600 million commitment to adopting artificial intelligence (AI). The company's goal is to bring world-class creativity and automated technology under one roof, enabling the production of advertising content faster and significantly cheaper than before. A new "golden age" or the erosion of creativity? WPP CEO Cindy Rose has announced that artificial intelligence will usher in a new golden age of marketing. The group's strategy involves transitioning from costly location shoots to studio-based production, where backgrounds and environments are created virtually. According to Rose, this allows the company to deliver content at the "speed of culture," which is critical in today's fast-paced digital world. Sector analysts and industry insiders note that for certain types of advertising, costs can be reduced by up to 60 percent. This has made AI solutions attractive to clients looking for ways to improve financial performance. However, critics have pointed out that such an approach leads to a decline in creativity and turns output into something uniform. A training ground for directors at risk The advertising industry has functioned for decades as a natural incubator for film talent. Ridley Scott, Guy Ritchie, and many others began their journey by directing television commercials and music videos, learning "on the job." Luke Scott, who leads the Ridley Scott Associates group, fears that automation could deprive the next generation of the opportunity to acquire practical skills. "The creative business is something you learn by doing. The value lies in that activity," said Luke Scott. In his view, AI-based production could lead to monoculture, where authenticity and human touch are lost. WPP Production CEO Richard Glasson, however, dismisses the claims, arguing that artificial intelligence is simply a tool. According to him, clients currently demand significantly higher volumes of content to remain competitive on various digital platforms. "This is the future of content," Glasson asserted, emphasizing that the technology allows advertisers to adapt to the need to produce new material constantly, rather than reusing one campaign for months on end. No comments yet.