Social Planning, Insights & Data Lead

Role:  Planning, Insights & Data Lead

Location: Durban, South Africa, Hybrid

About the role: 

The Planning, Insights & Data Lead is a senior individual contributor role at the heart of OLIVER's Strategy & Social function. You'll own the full insights and measurement cycle — from audience research and cultural forecasting to measurement architecture, experimentation and performance reporting — across multiple markets.

Working closely with Strategy Directors, brand leads, paid media, CRM and data engineering teams, you'll act as the primary analytics partner to senior client and internal stakeholders, ensuring data shapes strategy rather than follows it. This role requires the ability to synthesise complex, multi-source data into clear, actionable recommendations — and to communicate those recommendations with confidence to senior audiences.

What you will be doing: 

• Lead the insights and planning agenda across social and the wider strategy function: audience research, cultural and trend forecasting, competitive benchmarking, shopper and commerce insight, and cross-channel performance analysis.
• Translate multi-source data — platform analytics, first-party data, shopper data, market research and paid measurement — into strategic recommendations that inform brand strategy, content pillars, channel strategy, localisation and creative briefs.
• Design and maintain executive dashboards and performance packs (real-time, weekly, monthly, quarterly) that connect content and activation metrics to business outcomes — including brand metrics, consideration, penetration and sales uplift where available.
• Own measurement architecture and governance: taxonomy, tagging, UTM standards, metadata and data pipelines that enable comparable, reliable cross-market insight.
• Lead the design and evaluation of experiments and pilots — format tests, distribution experiments, paid and content mix tests, incrementality studies — setting hypotheses, selecting metrics, running analysis and defining scaling or sunset decisions.
• Surface early trend signals and opportunity frameworks to editorial, creative and strategy teams, enabling timely briefs and informed market bets.
• Act as the primary analytics partner to senior client and agency stakeholders, presenting insight and recommendations with clarity and rigour.
• Partner with Strategy Directors, brand leads, paid media, CRM, shopper teams and data engineering to embed insight into planning and decision-making cycles.
• Build and maintain a documented testing portfolio — including learnings, playbooks and handover materials — for local markets and in-house teams.

What you need to be great in this role: 

• Deep expertise in social and digital analytics platforms — such as Brandwatch, Sprinklr, GWI, Mintel, Nielsen, Meta Ads Manager, GA4, PowerBI, Tableau, Looker or equivalent.
• Proven ability to synthesise multi-source data into strategic narratives for senior audiences — shaping decisions, not just reporting numbers.
• Strong experience in measurement architecture: tagging frameworks, UTM governance, data taxonomy and pipeline management across markets.
• Experience designing and evaluating test-and-learn programmes, including A/B, multivariate and incrementality studies.
• Proficiency in audience research and cultural and trend intelligence methodologies.
• Strong data visualisation skills with experience building executive-level dashboards and periodic performance packs.
• Experience working across multiple markets, with an understanding of localisation considerations in insights and planning.
• Background in a strategy, planning, insights or analytics role within a creative agency, media agency, in-house brand team or consultancy.
• Experience working on large, complex accounts — ideally global FMCG, retail or consumer brands.
• Familiarity with shopper and commerce data (e.g. retail media, e-commerce analytics) is an advantage.
• Professional proficiency in English is required. Additional languages relevant to EMEA markets are an advantage.

Req Id: 18067

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