Travel Trade Media Specialist- 1 Year Contract

Overview

Job title

Travel Trade Media Specialist

Reporting relationships

Reports to

Supervises

Head of Media

N/A

Internal/ external

Role requires engaging with internal and external stakeholders

Role purpose

The Trade Media Specialist will ensure the effective utilization of Travel Trade and OTA websites and channels through campaigns and always on activity. The Travel Trade Media Specialist will support the development of the team’s strategy and target setting exercises, develop media plans that deliver against set objectives and target identified audiences via travel trade and OTA sites and channels, manage those campaigns with partners from end to end, monitor the performance of activities against established KPIs and targets, provide ongoing optimization recommendations, and support the team deliver timely performance reports to relevant stakeholders.

Key accountabilities and activities

Key accountabilities

Activities

Paid Trade Media Activities

Ongoing Strategy Development
- Collaborate in the development of objective and target-driven paid media strategies to achieve organizational objectives,
- Collaborate in identifying and sizing audiences across markets, and the right travel trade and OTA channels to reach them,
- Review and integrate market research, projections and partner insights and best practices,
- Collaborate in planning the roll out of activities (campaigns, or always on) within each market,
- Establish tracking mechanisms to monitor performance against agreed upon targets and KPIs,
- Provide creative ideas to continuously evolve strategy, enhancing performance and minimizing costs.

Activity Planning
- Brief travel trade and OTA partners regarding upcoming activities,
- Collaborate in developing paid media plans and budget allocations across platforms and markets,
- Advise content producing partners on required specifications to ensure the timely development of suitable assets for each channel and platform.

Activity Setup & Launch
- Ensure that the appropriate audience lists are defined and created as necessary across travel trade and OTA platforms,
- Oversee and review the setup of campaign structures, measurement tracking mechanisms and webpage tags,
- Facilitate sharing of ad copies, translations, and adaptations, and ensure the accurate trafficking of campaigns across markets and languages according to best practices,
- Monitor ad approval processes and proactively lead troubleshooting to ensure timely deployment,
- Implement identified campaign optimizations in a timely manner.

Reporting
- Support the development of a holistic paid media reporting mechanism for all paid media activities against identified objectives and targets,
- Monitor all active assets and identify opportunities to improve performance (at an asset or campaign level), providing budget reallocation recommendations accordingly,
- Collaborate in developing strategic insights and identify opportunities for improving ROI of subsequent activities,
- Collaborate with the Digital team and Sales teams to analyze traffic and revenue sources and optimize spend accordingly,
- Utilize monitoring and reporting tools to identify new trends and behaviours.

Relationship Management
- Manage day to day relationship with Travel Trade and OTA Platforms,
- Leverage relationships to provide the team with latest insights, trends informing the overarching Paid Media Strategy and market-specific plans,
- Collaborate with travel trade and OTA platforms to identify target audiences, studying their behaviours, building bespoke user journeys, and identifying any evolutions in their interactions with platforms.
- Manage and track the utilization of value-added services.

General Activities
- Lead the day-to-day management of travel trade and OTA relationships,
- Collaborate with other media team members (Performance Specialist, Social Specialist) to ensure a holistic approach across paid media activities,
- Collaborate with internal teams to optimize the overall digital experience across media channels.
- Promote a safe, secure, healthy working place and fostering a motivating environment.

**Requirements**:
Education
- The applicant should have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Experience and Communication Skills
- At least 5 years in a related field is required.
- At a global media agency servicing multinational clients, or
- In-house trade media specialists from global brands (aviation, destination marketing), or
- Experience with Destination Marketing is required.
- Experience managing a team, or an agency team is required.
- Strong English verbal and written communication skills are essential. A command of Arabic verbal and written communication skills is a plus.
- Demonstrated cross cultural communication skills required, with a track record of working across geographies, or other international experience.

Technical Experience Requirements
- An understanding of the digital advertising landscape, programmatic ad b