Associate Director, Campaign Management

If you are a seasoned planner with a flair for developing compelling communication campaigns, read on. You may have just found your next move. The American Student Assistance (ASA.org), a non-profit organization on a mission to change the way kids learn about careers and plan for the future, has an immediate opening on our growing Marketing & Communications team. The Associate Director (AD), Campaign Management, will report directly to the SVP of Marketing & Communications and be responsible for developing and executing the strategy for ASA’s thought leadership and communication campaigns with an eye towards building a national brand presence, extending our authority, building a thought leadership following, and increasing favorability and the perception of ASA as a trusted agent.

Reporting:

• Direct – none

• Indirect – cross functional teams, external partners, agencies, and freelancers

Responsibilities:

The AD, Campaign Management will be responsible for developing the strategy and supervising the planning of integrated communications campaigns that promote a particular project or body of work. The AD will also guide the execution of highly innovative, integrated communication campaigns that break new ground for ASA by expanding our thought leadership audience, build momentum on existing and new communication channels, and meet mission/strategy objectives. Duties include developing strategic plans for communicating a brand message or objective, identifying and tracking KPIs, collaboratively working internal teams, as well as external agencies, freelancers and partners, creating engaging messaging platforms, and setting campaign strategies for ASA’s channels.

Develop Integrated Marketing and Communication Campaigns

• That leverage multiple channels (PR, social, digital marketing, email, digital advertising, media buys, sponsored content) for proprietary and third party commissioned research, new audience markets, and key initiatives that increases engagement with existing audiences and open new channels and influences new customer segments (such as parents, employers, educators/guidance, etc.).
• Create a consistent approach, process, plan templates and impact reporting dashboards.
• Develop the overall editorial calendar for the campaign as well as campaign messaging and channel plans. (Channel plan may include events (industry conferences and webinars), PR, social media, web & email marketing, digital advertising, sponsored content like webinars, articles and infographics, etc.) Liaise with colleagues in Marketing, Advocacy, CSR, Research, PR, and Communications on planning and execution.
• Execute integrated marketing and communications campaign plans with fidelity ensuring that campaigns meet performance goals and align with corporate initiatives.
• Set and manage campaign budgets.
• Including develop a budget, draft and manage RFPs, write messaging, secure media buys, supervise creative and reporting. Manage RFP process for and execution of national PSAs and comprehensive rebranding efforts. Coordinate PSA creative development and spearhead new brand initiative project with internal stakeholders and external agencies/partners.
• Identify opportunities, negotiate contracts, provide strategic guidance and execute on deliverables, measure success.

Supervising Teams and Workstreams

• Spearhead the execution, monitoring and measurement of marketing campaigns and their success.
• Managing a comprehensive project plan and coordinating workstream and teams to complete milestones on deadline and within budget.
• Serve as liaison between internal working groups to build consensus for action and deliver on plan.

Reporting Status & ROI

• Set key performance indicators (KPIs) for a campaign including engagement metrics, reach and social media impressions, conversion rates, website traffic or downloads, media impressions & sentiment, etc.
• Report and track ROI of campaigns: Calculate the ROI to determine the financial effectiveness of the campaign by comparing the campaign's costs to the KPIs generated as a result and report success at the end of every project. Provide a weekly status readout for executives on progress.

A successful candidate will:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent work experience with 7-10 years of strategic educational marketing and integrated communications campaign development experience. Should be well versed in multi-channel communications including web, email, public/media relations, events, social media, advertising/media buys/sponsored content, channel management, and content marketing. Experience in the K-12 education and/or Edtech sector a must.

• Demonstrated ability to develop large-scale, 360 degree thought leadership campaigns and experience making data-informed marketing decisions including reviewing and analyzing campaign performance data, creating performance reports, and optimizing campaigns accordingly.
• Possess a strong background in strategic planning, content marketing vision, development of comprehensive campaign plans, and with proven ability to execute plan with fidelity. Have a propensity for planning with a keen eye to delivering on a stakeholder experience that surpasses expectations and a propensity for action.

• Be analytical in approach, with experience making data-informed marketing decisions including reviewing and analyzing campaign performance data, creating performance reports, and optimizing campaigns accordingly. Have a proven ability to understand when/how audiences consume content. Be able to demonstrate experience and knowledge of reporting and KPI setting.
• Proven emerging leadership skills with the ability to lead and grow highly effective teams

Skills:

• Must be detail-oriented, process-driven, able to prioritize own work, set and meet deadlines, and manage multiple projects simultaneously. Must have the ability to handle a high volume of work in a short period of time and be able to organize and assimilate information across multiple business units in a succinct manner. Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment is crucial. History of successfully developing/delivering programs that support company vision and build thought leadership brand awareness/sentiment. Outstanding track record of managing large scale projects as evidenced by working with large cross-functional groups/managing multiple vendors and completing projects on time/on budget. Must be able to create and present project briefs, proposals & playbooks and develop detailed project plans for execution.
• Must possess a strong business acumen with the ability to quickly understand the company’s diverse landscape of people, systems, and processes. Must have demonstrated business savviness, business sense and business understanding with a keenness and quickness in understanding and dealing with a business situation (risks and opportunities) in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome. Much be self-sufficient and possess the ability to select between two or more alternatives to reach the best outcome in the shortest time. Must be able to evaluate risks and opportunities and make the best decisions to achieve the company's goals. Must demonstrate a strong ability to analyze problems, showing logical reasoning skills, and an ability to communicate solutions. Also, must display a high level of emotional intelligence.
• Superior communication skills are mandatory. Must be able to communicate both verbally and in writing with all levels of management including senior leaders. Outstanding presentation and negotiation skills: superior success influencing up, down and across an organization; influencing without authority. Superior writing skills; including synthesizing multiple business priorities into coherent, relevant and impactful communications/presentations. Must be able to distill large amounts of information into easily digestible pieces for consumption and have a keen ability to adapt messages for audience relevance.
• Ability to quickly establish a good rapport with all contacts. Ability to motivate others to accomplish objectives and build consensus. Must be able to work with all levels of the organization as well as with content contributors and organizational partners. Must be able to fluently and confidently converse with all levels of the business. Having great facilitation skills and experience leading teams is a must.
• Must have demonstrated experience with and proven ability with project planning software. Also, must have a high degree of proficiency with Microsoft Office (e.g., Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) as well as be well versed in use of analytic tools to influence data-driven decisions.