Mid-Senior Media Specialist - Social Focus

Company description

Studio One Toyota, which forms part of Publicis South Africa, is a bespoke agency tailored to Toyota South Africa. We handle all of Toyota’s advertising including: above-the-line, below-the-line, strategy, digital, social media, media placement, and community management. We are a tight-knit team of award-winning creatives passionate about the automotive industry and breakthrough work.

We work in-office 5 days a week from our studio in Bryanston. We are a people-first agency, with a keen interest in AI and other new technologies. Our goal is to create locally relevant work stemming from culturally authentic South African insights. 

Overview

We are looking for a talented and passionate Mid-Senior Hybrid Media Specialist with strong paid social expertise and the ability to work confidently across broader digital media. Social will be the specialist strength of the role, supported by cross-channel digital planning, implementation and optimisation capability.

In Partnership With
Business Unit Director Performance Lead
Hybrid Media Strategist Digital Media Planner
Performance Media Team Media Buying Team
Client Service and Creative Teams Publicis Media Advertising Operations Team

Role Purpose

The Mid-Senior Hybrid Media Specialist is responsible for the implementation, management, optimisation and reporting of Toyota paid social campaigns across the Studio One portfolio. The role owns campaigns from implementation through to final reporting, ensuring that approved strategy and media plans are translated accurately into platform execution and that clear performance insights are delivered back to the wider team and client.

This is not just a campaign-loading role. The Hybrid Specialist is expected to bring deep paid social knowledge while thinking across the wider digital ecosystem. They should challenge targeting, placements, formats, channel roles and platform choices, identify opportunities, flag risks early and make recommendations based on audience behaviour, campaign performance and the role each channel plays.

Responsibilities

Campaign Management: Social First, Cross-Channel Capable
• Set up, manage, optimise and report on Toyota paid social campaigns as the core specialist responsibility, while supporting broader digital campaign implementation where required.
• Translate approved strategies, media schedules and flowplans accurately into platform and cross-channel digital execution.
• Manage targeting, placements, formats, budgets, bidding and optimisation settings, with particular depth across paid social.
• Ensure social and broader digital campaigns launch correctly, on time and in line with approved plans.
• Monitor pacing, delivery and performance throughout the campaign lifecycle.
• Identify under-delivery, over-pacing, learning limitations or performance issues early and communicate them immediately.
• Maintain strong quality assurance across every campaign before and after launch, regardless of platform.

Budget Ownership
• Know the approved budget, actual spend, remaining investment and latest forecast for every campaign under your management.
• Monitor pacing and prevent avoidable under or overspends.
• Document all approved budget changes, optimisations and platform movements clearly.
• Escalate financial or delivery risks early, with a recommended solution.
• Ensure final platform spend reconciles with the approved media plan and reporting.

Paid Social Leadership and Digital Platform Expertise
• Operate with a T-shaped skill set: deep paid social expertise, supported by practical working knowledge across programmatic, display, online video, publisher partnerships and other relevant digital channels.
• Lead the team’s paid social thinking and understand how social works alongside programmatic, video, display and other digital channels within the wider communications and media strategy.
• Translate audience strategy into practical social targeting and, where relevant, cross-channel digital campaign structures.
• Recommend suitable platforms, formats, placements, objectives and buying or bidding approaches for each brief.
• Challenge targeting, channel investment or platform recommendations that do not make strategic sense.
• Identify relevant social, digital platform, creative and audience opportunities for Toyota.
• Be the go-to paid social specialist in the team, while keeping sufficiently broad digital knowledge to guide the wider team on platform changes that materially affect planning, creative or performance.
• Understand how creative should be adapted by social platform, digital channel, audience and campaign objective.

Creative and Implementation QA
• Work closely with planning, creative, Client Service and Ad Ops to confirm that campaigns are ready before setup begins.
• Review assets, copy, character limits, URLs, landing pages, audiences, budgets, dates, tracking requirements and naming conventions.
• Reject or escalate incomplete and incorrect briefs rather than knowingly pushing flawed work through the system.
• Confirm that preview links and proofs accurately reflect the approved campaign before client sign-off or launch.
• Keep campaign records, approvals and platform documentation current and easy to trace.

Optimisation
• Optimise campaigns against the agreed objective and KPI, not isolated platform metrics.
• Explain what changed, why it changed and what action was taken.
• Identify which audiences, formats, placements, messages and creative versions are driving performance.
• Use campaign learnings to recommend audience, budget, format, frequency and creative changes.
• Balance short-term performance improvements with the broader role of the campaign and Toyota brand objectives.

Reporting and Insights
• Own the accuracy, completeness and timely delivery of reporting for every social and digital campaign under your management.
• Pull, verify and reconcile platform and campaign data before it is used in monthly reports, campaign updates or post-campaign analyses.
• Build clear performance narratives that explain results rather than simply repeating platform metrics.
• Provide campaign insights, learnings and practical recommendations for Toyota and the wider Studio One team.
• Identify anomalies or data gaps, investigate them and resolve or clearly disclose them before reporting.
• Present reporting and recommendations confidently in internal and client sessions when required.
• Maintain a clear record of final results so learnings can inform future planning and implementation.

Platform, Publisher and Media Partner Management
• Build productive relationships with social platforms, digital publishers and relevant technology partners.
• Interrogate proposals for strategic fit, audience relevance, cost efficiency and campaign objective alignment.
• Use partner data, platform insight and campaign evidence to support cross-channel planning and optimisation recommendations.
• Hold partners accountable for agreed support, deliverables and post-campaign information.

Qualifications

Experience
• Approximately 4 to 6+ years of digital media experience, with strong depth in paid social.
• Strong hands-on experience managing paid social campaigns and meaningful media budgets, plus working knowledge of broader digital channels.
• Experience working across multiple brands, campaigns, objectives and stakeholders.

Hard Skills
• Strong paid social platform setup, optimisation and reporting capability, with the ability to work across broader digital campaign environments.
• Excellent attention to detail and campaign QA.
• Strong numerical, analytical and data interpretation skills.
• Advanced Excel and strong PowerPoint skills.
• Confident presentation and business writing ability.
• Ability to manage simultaneous deadlines and campaign dependencies.

Soft Skills
• Proactive and accountable.
• Comfortable challenging work constructively.
• Collaborative, without relying on others to carry your responsibilities.
• Calm under pressure and able to prioritise effectively.
• Curious about platforms, audiences, creative, digital channels and performance.
• Willing to share knowledge and help strengthen the wider team.

Advantageous Experience
• Automotive category experience.
• Experience across brand, launch, sponsorship, always-on and performance campaigns.
• Relevant social and digital platform certifications and training.

Additional information

How We Work at Studio One
Studio One is an integrated agency environment. Strategy, planning, creative, implementation, buying, production, approvals and reporting are connected. We expect every team member to understand the wider campaign, own their part and help move the work forward.
Own your work: If a campaign or deliverable sits with you, you remain accountable for it until it is complete. Sending an email or handing over a task does not remove your responsibility to follow through.
Communicate early: Raise risks, delays, missing information, under-delivery, overspends or approval issues as soon as they become clear. There should be no surprises.
QA everything: Check budgets, dates, formats, targeting, schedules, assets, links, tracking, naming conventions and final outputs before they move to the next person or the client.
Know the strategy: Understand the business objective, audience and role of each channel. Do not execute activity you cannot explain or defend.
Work as one team: Collaborate across strategy, planning, performance, buying, creative, Client Service and Ad Ops. Share information openly and do not work in silos.
Be solution-led: When raising a problem, bring a clear view of the impact and a recommended next step.
Respect the process: Use the agreed Studio One workflows, platforms and approval stages. Keep documentation current and make sure every decision can be traced.
Take accountability: At mid-senior level, the expectation is not task completion alone. It is ownership, judgement, follow-through and consistently high-quality delivery.

The Studio One Standard

Studio One moves quickly and manages one of South Africa’s largest automotive portfolios. We expect this role to be our strong paid social specialist while still being confident working across broader digital media. At Mid-Senior level, that means owning the work, communicating proactively, understanding the strategy behind every channel, reporting accurately and taking responsibility for getting campaigns over the line.

Publicis Groupe Africa is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits any forms of Discrimination or Harassment. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all our employees in line with our Employment Equity Plan.

All appointments will be based on qualifications, experience and best fit but preference will be given to candidates from designated groups. Interested candidates must please submit a concise CV including a link to your portfolio if necessary. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not hear from us within 2 weeks after submitting your application, please consider your application as unsuccessful.