Director, Audience Activation (Agencies)

About this job

The Director, Audience Activation will be a key player in leading the sales initiatives for MRI-Simmons to grow our Advanced Advertising business, with solutions including data enrichment and audience activation.  The ideal candidate will work collaboratively with the Media, Brand and Agency verticals to develop new sales opportunities, lead or participate in Advanced Advertising presentations, assist in developing new Advanced Advertising product initiatives, and finalize negotiations and contracts in relation to closing new business. This position will lead our engagement and penetration of Agency holding companies, specifically with Investment, Programmatic, Video and Activation teams, while supporting our relationships with their Client teams. 

Responsibilities:

Revenue Growth & Deal Leadership

• Identify, develop, drive new business and upsell existing opportunities focused on audience activation, enrichment and data enablement.
• Manage end‑to‑end customer engagement, including strategy, discussions, proposal and presentations development, negotiation, and contracts where necessary 
• Own commercial discussions and manage deal terms and conditions in partnership with internal stakeholders to ensure audiences meet customer needs to drive utilizations

Client & Partner Engagement

• Leverage strong, preferably existing, industry relationships across advertising and media agencies, and at times brands, and ad tech partners, with a strong focus on stakeholders in programmatic, digital, video, investment, and account teams
• Lead advanced advertising, audience activation, and other data‑driven proposals and presentations that clearly articulate the value of MRI‑Simmons audience intelligence
• Act as a trusted advisor to customers by aligning MRI‑Simmons audience solutions to customer business, media, and campaign activation objectives
• Requires approximately 25% travel; in-agency presence expected.

Product & Go‑to‑Market Collaboration

• Partner closely with Commercial, Marketing, Operations and Product teams to provide client feedback and input that informs audience development and utilization prioritization
• Support the development of new data enablement and activation initiatives, partnerships, and go‑to‑market strategies
• Serve as a subject matter expert for advanced advertising and audience‑based activation, use cases, both external with customers and internal guiding sales colleagues on cross-team opportunities
• Coordinate outreach and engagement where needed with internal sales colleagues across all verticals

Operational Excellence

• Manage internal sales and audience revenue tracking processes; ensure tracking sheets, audience taxonomies, and CRM accuracy
• Support revenue collection team where necessary, aligning communication with all stakeholders
• Collaborate with Operations and Account Management teams when needed define data, technical, and delivery requirements
• Ensure client reporting requirements contractual obligations are met.