Junior Integrated Media Strategist (Johannesburg)

Job description

The Big Picture: Vision, the Game Plan, and Where You Fit at Base Five
The vision

• Base Five is an integrated media agency strong traditional (ATL) capability and advanced digital and performance excellence, delivered as one system with deep sector expertise in financial services and insurance, gaming, education, and automotive.
• Our positioning has shifted from continuous new-client acquisition to retention, long-term relationships and client satisfaction as the engines of growth: clients must experience us as a strategic media partner that drives tangible business impact, not a supplier of reach and impressions.
• Our differentiator is media storytelling matched by execution the most beautifully reasoned, beautifully told strategies in the industry, proven true in market by disciplined implementation and honest PCAs. The strategy department carries this flag, and you are learning to carry it.

The game plan (the shape of it)

• Years 1–2 systems and signature, the agency completes its move onto EOS while the, strategy department develops the Base Five storytelling signature a recognisable way our strategies look, sound and prove themselves. Your foundation is built inside this phase.
• Years 2–3 recognition the work starts winning publicly pitches converted at a higher rate, award entries built from real case studies, and Base Five voices established in the industry conversation.
• Years 3–5 scale and leadership a fully built strategy department serving a larger retained client base, with a leadership structure (and in time a chief strategy officer) grown from within. Your growth to strategist, and beyond, is part of that build.

Where you fit – the strategy department build-out

The department is being built deliberately, and your role is part of the plan, not an afterthought

• A seasoned senior integrated media strategist will lead the department your craft master and the person who, with your mentor, seasons your skills.
• Junior strategists you will join as the workload grows you are at the front of that intake, with a documented path ahead of you.
• Strategy interns join each cycle and as you grow, helping teach them becomes one of the fastest ways you master the craft yourself. The destination is written here on purpose the agency is thinking about you in the long term, and we want you to plan your career the same way. Junior is the starting line of a real path, strategist at 24 months, then onward toward Senior and the leadership track that the department is growing into.

Requirements

• Every piece of work you hand up is rigorous and reliable research cited, numbers checked, sources clear a strategist should be able to build on your input with confidence.
• You learn the Base Five method deliberately the strategy process and the 5 Base Framework show up in how you structure everything, early.
• Your digital instinct deepens and your ATL knowledge begins you start building fluency in TV, radio, OOH and DOOH through the development plan in Section 6, so your thinking becomes genuinely integrated over time.
• You support stewardship, not just strategy: you help the team protect the thinking through planning, implementation and reporting – strategy at Base Five does not hand over and move on.
• You absorb client advisory by observation you watch how strategists turn thinking into senior confidence, and you grow toward it.
• You contribute to pitches and recognition research, audience work and proof-gathering that feed the storytelling and the case studies.
• You honour the EOS rhythm without fail weekly numbers, Rocks progressed, issues raised early even in busy periods.
• You protect your own growth coaching, training, certifications and reading are commitments, not luxuries the agency is investing in them and expects you to claim them fully.
• You are coachable, you seek feedback, act on it, and treat every review as fuel the fastest-growing junior is the one who is easiest to coach.

Research, data and insight – the foundation of every strategy

• Own the research that underpins strategies: audience, category, competitor, cultural and data research, gathered rigorously and cited clearly.
• Turn raw research into usable insight – not a data dump, but the two or three things that actually matter to the brief.
• Build audience understanding with depth and respect – real South Africans, real tensions, real media behaviour – using our data and insight tools (e.g. BrandMapp, GWI, Brandwatch, Semrush).
• Deliver research inputs on time and in a form the strategists can build on directly.

Supporting strategy development and the Base Five method

• Support the strategists in building integrated and digital media strategies – from first drafts of sections to channel research to measurement frameworks.
• Apply the Base Five strategy process (Research → Insights → Strategy → Approach → Implementation) and the 5 Base framework on every brief, so the method becomes instinct.
• Take on more of the thinking over time – progressing from supporting sections to drafting whole strategies for review as your judgement grows.

Learning the storytelling craft

• Study the Base Five storytelling signature – how a strategy is built as a narrative from business problem to insight to idea to channel architecture to measurement.
• Practise telling the story, not just assembling the facts: tight writing, clean design, a clear thread – the document should sell the thinking.
• Bring your work to craft sessions and act on the feedback – this is where a junior becomes a strategist.

6.4 Digital depth and the start of ATL fluency

Integrated thinking needs both halves. You deepen your digital strength and begin building ATL fluency deliberately – a structured track, not an aspiration:

• Digital depth: sharpen your grasp of paid social, search, programmatic, lead generation and full-funnel thinking, and how each is measured.
• Broadcast basics: begin learning how TV and radio are bought and proven – ratings, GRPs, cost per point, dayparts – by sitting with the media planner and buyer.
• OOH and DOOH basics: begin learning site-based and digital out-of-home buying logic, with at least one site visit as you grow.
• Strategic application: start giving ATL channels real, reasoned roles in the strategies you support – the terminology in section 8 and the Channel framework in section 9 are your reference reading and fluency benchmark.

6.5 Supporting strategy stewardship

At Base Five the thinking is protected all the way to the Post-Campaign Analysis. You support that stewardship and learn the discipline:

• Help brief planners and campaign managers on approved strategies, so execution serves the intent.
• Help review flow plans and schedules against the strategy before client release – does it still tell the story the client bought?
• Help review live performance through a strategic lens at interim and post-campaign stages, and help co-author the strategic narrative of the PCA.

Learning client advisory by observation

• Sit in on client meetings, QBRs and reviews where appropriate, and study how strategiststurn thinking into senior confidence.
• Prepare strong materials behind the scenes – recaps, insight pieces, supporting data – sothe client-facing strategist is always well armed.
• Grow toward presenting your own sections, with coaching and rehearsal, as yourconfidence builds.

6.7 Pitch and recognition support

• Contribute research, audience work and proof-gathering to pitches, inside the pitch-as-project discipline – organised, on time, never improvised at midnight.
• Help build the case-study pipeline: gather and verify the results and proof that turn campaigns into award entries and pitch-winners.
• Grow toward owning pitch sections and co-authoring entries as you progress.

 6.8 Weekly EOS reporting

Every week, in the EOS rhythm, you report covering:

• Your scorecard numbers: research/insight tasks delivered on time, strategy sections supported, stewardship inputs completed, development actions done.
• Your task pipeline (red/amber/green) with movement since last week.
• Any blockers or risks – with your proposed plan attached.
• Rock progress: on track / off track.
• Growth-plan progress: development actions completed, support needed, capacity honestly stated. The standing rule applies to you too: leadership and your mentor are never surprised – they hear it from you first, early, with a plan

Posted on 19 Aug 20:30, Closing date 18 Oct