About the job

Hey, we’re GYK — an independent, integrated creative agency. Our Creative Growth Engine is made up of 65 creative entrepreneurs, modern storytellers, Emmy-award-winning makers, and data-driven problem solvers who believe creativity is a strategic lever for growth. To us, autopilot is the enemy — the enemy of growth, the enemy of standing out, the enemy of winning in the marketplace. Clients don’t come to GYK to maintain the status quo; they come to us because we embrace curiosity, question assumptions, and deliver creative solutions that work harder, drive business impact, and help brands punch above their weight class. Because at the end of the day, impact is our end game.

Named #6 in Indie Agency News’ “Top 40” Competition in 2025 and “Best of Show” by The Ad Club of New England in 2024, GYK is proud to partner with brands like Milo’s Tea Company, New Hampshire Travel & Tourism, Ken’s Foods, Citizen’s Bank, NH Lottery, Sweet Baby Ray's, Harpoon Brewery, Culture Pop Soda, Keolis Commuter Services, Hometown Financial Group, and the Boston Bruins. GYK is headquartered in Manchester, NH, with an office in downtown Boston.

Must have experience with CPG clients, both established and emerging

The Associate Media Director leads key accounts across all stages of research, planning, buying and reporting, developing and refining best practices to ensure success and client satisfaction. They must be able to develop elegant solutions to problems both simple and complex in order to exceed goals and build business. In addition to driving business goals, the AMD is responsible for leading Planners and Coordinators assigned to their accounts and helping in the development of their careers. The Associate Media Director works closely with our Head of Media to develop comprehensive training, efficient processes and industry-relevant POVs where needed. A complete list of responsibilities is listed below.

Core Responsibilities

• Develop and execute holistic media strategies; lead team in paid media development, execution, and innovation
• Evaluates composition of a wide range of media vehicles to determine which would most effectively reach the target audience.
• Directly manage effective, measurable, and successful ad campaigns.
• Ensure consistency and quality of campaigns.
• Communicate ad performance to clients and account teams effectively, translating the advertising alphabet soup into actionable insights.
• Identify incremental opportunities that align with client objectives and drive organic agency growth
• Supervise, train, and develop skills of junior staff by managing workload, delegating responsibilities, and checking work for accuracy
• Works with media director to ensure Media offering is cutting-edge and leading in the mid-size agency category (media tool certifications, build case studies, contribute to industry articles)

Leadership

• Advances best practices of agency process, values, and principles
• Partners with internal departments to collaborate, build relationships, share learnings for improved output and workflow
• Provides job performance feedback to direct reports and makes recommendations to management for promotion or performance improvement
• Supports the Head of Media in providing staffing recommendations and daily supervision to all accounts
• Work with account teams to ensure new media team members are properly onboarded to new accounts
• Responsible for monitoring team utilization of hours spent on accounts; educate team members on hours allocated for various job functions and projects
• Is a resource for others in resolution of complex problems/issues
• Is a thought leader on emerging channels and technologies and strives to test new media
• Sets an example for effective team management and morale building
• Maintains process for auditing planning, buying, reporting and billing across team

Business

• Identifies business KPIs at the onset of a campaign and uses those business and media metrics as a tool to help upsell and cross-sell services to clients
• Focuses on performance for media recommendations throughout the life of a campaign, ensuring clients goals are being met (ROI impact) with aggressive optimizations
• Manages the process and procedure for client set up, billing and overseeing related administrative client on-boarding functions

Creativity

• Proactive in bringing new ideas and innovative media solutions to both our internal team and our clients
• Actively participate in creative brainstorms and provide Media expertise in creative reviews when required
• Apply creative solutions to problems big and small

Operations

• Leads resource management for direct reports to ensure optimal employee utilization
• Ensures billings forecasts and commission actuals are updated monthly, as needed
• Continuously striving to improve workflow process within media department and cross-functional teams

Qualifications

• 9+ years of media planning/buying experience
• Experience with CPG clients, both established and emerging
• Strong attention to detail
• Strong analytical skills, expertise in reading analyzing and interpreting data
• Deep knowledge of essential platforms, including: Campaign Manager 360, MRI, Google Analytics. Ability to understand measurement & reporting platform nuances
• Working knowledge across key media platforms channels (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, Snap, Pinterest, YouTube/Google suite) as well as new and emerging platforms
• Possess the ability to see the big picture and long-term benefits in addition to short-term results
• Reliably maintain and meet client deadlines
• Work as a team player with employees at all level
• Proven ability to lead people (mentoring and developing) and projects
• Displays and fosters curiosity and an entrepreneurial mindset

Salary range - $90,000 - $120,000