Overview
Head of OOH (Outdoor Media) – Publicis Media Africa Jobs in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa at Publicis Groupe Africa
Title: Head of OOH (Outdoor Media) – Publicis Media Africa
Company: Publicis Groupe Africa
Location: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Overview
Role Overview
The Head of OOH will lead Publicis Media Africa’s end-to-end Out-of-Home practice — combining strategic leadership, market expertise, and commercial acumen to modernize and scale the agency’s outdoor offering.
The role demands a leader who can balance legacy OOH scale with digital innovation, bringing deep local knowledge of the South African OOH landscape — from townships to airports, CBDs, malls, and key arterial routes — and extending this expertise across Africa.
They will bridge creative communication planning, consumer journey mapping, and commercial negotiation to deliver measurable business outcomes for clients.
This is both a relationship and results-driven role, requiring a strategic thinker, trusted negotiator, and strong operator who can lead a centralized delivery team and represent Publicis Media credibly with CMOs, procurement heads, and OOH holding companies.
Responsibilities
Key Responsibilities
- Market Strategy & Vision
- Define and implement Publicis Africa’s OOH growth strategy, ensuring it combines traditional scale with digital transformation (DOOH, data, measurement).
- Overseethe planning and execution of out-of-home strategies, ensuring alignment with brand goals and market trends
- Map the consumer journey and align OOH touchpoints with broader brand and media strategies — from awareness to conversion.
- Identify new growth zones — including township economies, commuter corridors, and retail precincts — and integrate them into client communication plans.
- Translate complex OOH possibilities into simple, strategic narratives that resonate with CMOs and client boards.
- Local Market Expertise & Influence
- Leverage deep understanding of South Africa’s OOH ecosystem — key landlords, site clusters, and ownership structures.
- Analyse market data to optimize placements, and drive innovation in our OOH solutions.
- Maintain trusted relationships with major OOH media holding groups, landlords, and concessionaires across:
- Airports
- Roadside
- Malls & business districts
- Township
- Negotiate strategic site access, long-term value commitments, and preferential rates.
- Proactively identify location gaps or redundancies across client campaigns and fix them through tactical site swaps or deal leverage.
- Commercial & Negotiation Leadership
- Lead all OOH commercial negotiations at a senior level — ensuring transparency, value creation, and profitability.
- Develop strategic supply-side partnerships to secure premium inventory and ensure first-mover advantage for clients.
- Build volume-based or multi-client deals with OOH media owners that unlock better pricing and stronger data access.
- Design framework agreements and trading principles aligned to Groupe compliance and procurement governance.
- Work with finance and procurement to ensure OOH maintains strong margins and operational sustainability.
- Integrated Consumer Planning
- Collaborate with planning, strategy, and data teams to ensure OOH aligns with audience intent, path-to-purchase, and brand funnel goals.
- Translate brand strategy into actionable outdoor blueprints that map where, when, and how OOH drives consumer action.
- Support planners with OOH data, audience insights, and contextual recommendations during campaign ideation.
- Champion OOH as a storytelling medium that drives both emotional impact and measurable business outcomes.
- Team Leadership & Execution Excellence
- Lead a centralized OOH operations and delivery hub based in South Africa servicing all agencies and clients (in South Africa but also including Pan-Africa)
- Ensure flawless campaign execution — accurate site bookings, creative placement, posting verification, and post-campaign reporting.
- Drive operational efficiency through standardized templates, vendor SLAs, and automation tools.
- Mentor and develop a team of OOH planners, buyers, and coordinators to elevate delivery quality and market credibility.
- Innovation & Future Readiness
- Integrate data-enabled OOH and P/DOOH solutions (e.g., location intelligence, programmatic trading, mobile retargeting).
- Pilot measurement frameworks linking OOH exposure to store visits, sales lift, and online conversions.
- Build case studies to demonstrate the commercial impact of integrated outdoor campaigns.
- Collaborate with Epsilon and Data teams to connect OOH exposure with identity-based audiences and retargeting opportunities.
Qualifications
Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing or Media Management.
- 10+ years’ experience in Out-of-Home media, including planning, buying, and strategic account leadership.
- Proven network and influence within South Africa’s OOH ecosystem, from large to small vendors
- Strong understanding of OOH site economics, municipality regulations, concession models, and rate structures.
- Experience in negotiating national and regional deals and managing multi-stakeholder relationships.
- Familiarity with OOH data, mapping, and verification tools (OMC IDS Software, Outdoor Auditors, SEEDOH, ROAD etc.).
- Excellent understanding of brand communication planning and the role of OOH in the consumer journey.
- Skilled communicator capable of engaging CMOs and client boards at strategic level.
- Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional or centralized teams.
- Added experience within the Pan-African OOH ecosystem would be ideal
Additional Information
Success Metrics
- Increased share of spend and profitability in OOH across the Groupe.
- Strong internal OOH team structure with fit for purpose and value adding team members
- Establishment of strategic site and value partnerships with top OOH vendors.
- Delivery of integrated consumer journey maps linking OOH to media and brand objectives.
- Growth in data-driven OOH planning and DOOH/PDOOH adoption.
- Improvement in campaign delivery accuracy and verification.
- Recognition through case studies, client testimonials, and industry awards.
Cultural Fit
- Entrepreneurial, street-smart, and commercially savvy.
- Strong negotiator with equal comfort in boardrooms and the streets.
- Passionate about modernizing OOH without losing sight of local realities.
- Operates with integrity, clarity, and measurable impact — embodying Publicis’ Power of One philosophy.