Senior Manager, Marketing Planning

Job Description

The Role
Overview

The Senior Manager, Marketing Planning - Japan is a key partner to the country's leadership, providing a strategic point of view of the business, global insights, and input on prioritization decision-making. The Senior Manager, Marketing Planning - Japan will support the socialization and export of both acquired and commissioned titles/ campaigns, working upstream with local MarComms leads to serve as the connector with the rest of the world.

Key Responsibilities

COUNTRY LEADERSHIP TEAM KEY PARTNER & BUSINESS THOUGHT PARTNER
• Build trust with the country leaders as a key partner beyond the functional impact. Develop influence as a partner that can provide feedback and insights into key aspects of the country's Marketing organization: ways of working, team dynamics, org design, etc.
• Develop relationships with key leaders from the country, within and beyond Marketing. PR, Social, MP, and Product are key cross-functional partners with whom to connect to develop and expand the role's influence.
• Work with Marketing Planning Managers to produce and elevate data and insights as needed that can influence title support decisions, country strategies, and resource allocation.

EXPORT STRATEGIC PARTNER
• Have a key role in the export of campaigns by providing strategic insights upstream from the markets outside of the home territory.
• Be the connective tissue between the home territory and all supporting markets throughout campaign development.
• Optimize the ways we work with exporting campaigns and identify areas that can bring scale and agility.

LOCAL SLATE EXPERT
• Using full knowledge of the local slate (encompassing acquired and commissioned titles), lead with a holistic, strategic perspective to identify opportunities for export and reactive opportunities.
• Develop relationships with studio and Content partners to solicit updates, guidance, and restrictions on acquired titles.
• Key point of contact to global and/or regional cross-functional partners such as Consumer Products and Experiences.

CONNECTORS TO THE REST OF THE ORGANIZATION
• Provide insights into marketing infrastructure initiatives, including new metrics, tools, and dashboards.
• As relevant outside of title-specific initiatives, scale what's happening in the country to relevant markets within the region.
• Key partner to help the local teams navigate different areas of the organization and connect them with key partners outside of their area of impact and knowledge.
• Trusted cross-functional thought partner to APAC leaders, and Planning leaders in the US, LATAM, and EMEA.

Core Responsibilities
• Long Lead Marketing Planning & Prioritization: Partner with Country Marketing teams in the internal title prioritization workflow - helping identify local titles for export and socialize title-specific detail to best equip teams for decision-making and budget allocation. Collaborate with local Japan Marketing teams, and x-functional teams around the world, in upstream campaign planning for titles emanating from local slates.
• Data & Insights: Track and analyze title performance with a data-led approach, working in both a proactive and reactive capacity to fuel global buzz around Japan titles. On top of individual title analysis, you will monitor broader business metrics in order to support country functions in delivering their marketing strategies.
• Internal Marketing Connectivity: Be the connective tissue between Japan title campaigns and Marketing efforts around the world. Proactively seek to understand local market strategies, nuances and ambitions and work with international markets to develop industry-leading campaigns.
• Workflow Optimization: Seek innovation opportunities in the way that we work cross-functionally by identifying new workflows and needs for tools to bring optimizations and efficiencies.
• Strategic Campaign Development: Partner with local Japan teams to help them identify export campaigns and then work closely with them on these export opportunities - consulting on strategy and positioning, bringing a global POV to the conversation, and subsequently working with supporting teams all over the world on their local campaigns.
• Operational Project Management: As relevant, support the operational work of the APAC Marketing team on export campaigns and in a reactive capacity, including setting regional timelines, managing project deliverables and campaign resources, serving as the go-to person for downstream asset sourcing, and partnering with cross-functional teams to fuel campaign execution.

Requirements
• Has a minimum of 10 years of experience in a creative strategy, strategic planning or project management role at an advertising agency, brand, or network/studio marketing team.
• Fluent in Japanese and English.
• Is an excellent creative and strategic thinker who can build strategic foundations, conceptualize campaign approaches, and drive long-lead decisions on campaigns in partnership with Content, Marketing, and other functions (as relevant), including Publicity, Consumer Products, Marketing Partnerships, and Product.
• Is a natural team leader who is able to engage, listen and collaborate with internal teams and to see this cross-functional collaboration through title launch.
• Can confidently captain presentations/ discussion forums and effectively communicate campaign specifics to teams around the globe.
• Has a strong POV, and can expertly influence key stakeholders and foster deep relationships across the business.
• Aptitude for numbers and analysis, with high proficiency in Excel/Sheets with a knack for crafting a story through data.
• Has had exposure to working on high-profile global Marketing campaigns with reach domestically and internationally. Ideally, this person will have a global IQ and/or be familiar with working with teams from different regional markets and be comfortable collaborating with diverse, geographically dispersed teams.
• Is so highly organized.
• Can support workflow optimization, identifying gaps and opportunities we need to solve, and push for innovative solutions at scale.
• Has a working understanding of digital advertising (paid social, display, VOD) with a strong grasp of traditional (OOH, TV, Cinema, Radio, Print) and social media platforms.
• Thrives in a fast-paced and collaborative environment, comfortable in managing deep campaign work and long lead title planning concurrently.
• Is a creative problem-solver who can work and navigate comfortably in ambiguity.

We are an equal opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity of thought and background builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, color, place of birth, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, military service status or disability status.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gqw03m-3-139-85-170-42 in your application.