Associate Director, Paid Media

The Media Planning & Buying Team at ESPN develops innovative media plans that drive awareness, consumption, subscriptions, and brand affinity across all properties and platforms to affect the ESPN business. 

The Performance Marketing team is responsible for driving new subscriber growth for ESPN’s Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) products. We develop data-driven strategies using high-impact creative assets that drive awareness, subscriptions, and engagement across digital platforms.

We are seeking an Associate Director, Paid Media to collaborate with agencies, internal marketing teams, and cross-functional stakeholders to develop compelling media strategies, including creative testing, that resonate with sports fans and convert audiences at scale. The ideal candidate will bring a highly analytical, creative, and flexible growth mindset to the role, which will be critical to delivering breakthrough thinking. This position will report to the Director Paid Media. This role is based in New York, NY.

Responsibilities:

• Develop data-driven strategies for paid media campaigns across digital platforms, including affiliates, social, display, programmatic, and/or CTV.
• Optimize creative assets based on audience insights, A/B testing, and performance data to maximize conversion and efficiency.
• Analyze campaign data and partner with Marketing Analytics teams to improve the effectiveness of paid acquisition and retention media.
• Partner with agencies and internal marketing teams on creative assets that drive DTC subscriber acquisition.
• Stay ahead of trends and platform best practices, bringing innovative approaches to ESPN’s DTC marketing campaigns.
• Present results and performance insights to cross-functional stakeholders to inform future strategies.
• Partner with the Ad Ops team to enhance media tracking capabilities and future-proof campaigns against industry changes.
• Manage and develop a high-performing team, providing mentorship, guidance, and performance feedback to ensure continuous growth and success.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in digital marketing or media buying.
• Strong understanding of performance marketing principles, including direct response creative and digital advertising best practices.
• Understanding of creative and media best practices across CTV, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and/or programmatic platforms.
• Ability to analyze performance metrics and apply data-driven insights to optimize campaigns.
• Strong organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Highly skilled in all Microsoft Office Products, especially Excel.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong enthusiasm for all things sports and sports fans.
• Ability to work with cross-functional teams, external partners, and multiple stakeholders.
• Experience with A/B testing, audience segmentation, and conversion optimization.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced and dynamic environment, supporting new products/businesses backed by a proven large-scale media property or DTC brand.
• Familiarity with creative performance analytics and testing methodologies.
• Knowledge of mobile app tracking solutions (e.g., Kochava, Appsflyer, Adjust) is a plus.

Required Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, or a related field.

#ESPNMedia

The hiring range for this position in New York, NY is $108,404 to $145,420 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.